My eyes are playing tricks

Weird minute of the day #29: Check out this optical illusion - and you'll start to question the meaning of colour...

Pidgeon!

--Thanks Simon

Landmark

UK music fans can copy own tracks is the message from Peter Jamieson, of the Britsih Phonographic Industry.

We believe that we now need to make a clear and public distinction between copying for your own use and copying for dissemination to third parties

This is great news, for a couple of reasons:

• I can now backup my music collection digitally without fear of prosecution. This is especially important as my collection numbers a few thousand vinyl, CD and digital tracks. Which would have previously been grounds for prosecution.


• I can take CD copies of digital/vinyl out to DJ with, which means burning custom compilations for that purpose is n longer illegal.

Actually, the last statement brings up an important point. A while ago I was ranting about the BPI and the DJ lisense, well, doesn't this announcement allow DJs to keep their collections safe? I bet the BPI will probably argue that "for personal use" excludes DJs, but as more and more people are playing with music on their computers, their phones and online I think their money grab will have to cease and they'll be forced to issue another statement allowing DJs the right to move the music they own between formats to enable them to DJ and also maintain their collection safely.

Animator vs Animation

This flash cartoon is genius, and must have taken a long long time to do!

Please go and enjoy it!

Marvel-ous. (Sorry)

Someone spent a long time making a Thing costume from real rocks. He deserves your respect!

Enjoy it while it lasts

Why Web 2.0 will end your privacy is an article by Wil Harris. And the man has a point.

I really agree with everything he is saying here and its pleasing to see that the informed media are lettign everyone else know what exactly "free" means in the digital age. No such thing as a free lunch - still as true to day as whenever it was coined.

I think as long as we understand what we are letting ourselves in for and that we go about maintaining our identity properly (online identity fraud is only going to grow in its commonality) then we can enjoy the benefits that Web 2.0 brings, but with the understanding that we are going to get more and more shoved down our throats.

And why shuld we expect more companies, services, products and ideas shoved throatwards? Because the only way to make money is to buy and sell data to further the marketting machine...

a more extreme example is YouTube. It is reportedly burning $1m a day in bandwidth costs to serve the amount of video being put up there. How on earth are they going to find cash to cover that?

Programmable Tattoos

Bonkers report on the posibilities of a subdermal display. Basically, you get a thin membrane implanted under your skin, which on certain areas of the body (hands, face) is translucent. The membrane is controlled by an implanted chip, which can receive WiFi and hence can programatically change the image displayed.

Imagine using it to monitor your vital signs, or to have a permament post-it note on the back of your hand. It could aslo be useful for those with impaired function to get messages across, such as mood, by displaying emoticons or text messges.

I think it would be interesting if it could display a translation of what you were saying to help in foreighn countries.

As I was saying

BBC News has this story as a lead in its technology section. It's an in interesting report, talking about the progress in informing customers of the rights they have when swapping cash for digital media - ie. just exactly what they are paying for, and what they can do with the data they have paid for.

The article ends with a quote that echoes what I've been saying for a while:

She said that DRM was less about protecting copyright and more about creating a system in which people rent rather than own the media they spend money on.