The Digital Rights Managment Battle

The battle over digital rights becomes more exciting as each day passes. Personally, I try and keep a close eye on the whole ordeal. This is very hard to do because it is so large and complex. The battle is all over the country; it is in many states rather than confined to any one specific state. The RIAA is trying to hang on to their overbearing, intrusive copyright monopoly on music, which they should not be profiting from in the first place. Supposedly, the RIAA is protecting artists and the music industry as a whole, but, in reality, they are just out to make a few dollars. Hopefully, artists and consumers alike will prevail in the end. Here are two articles that I feel are important regarding this topic from within this past month:

Harvard Professor Charles Nesson takes a stance against the RIAA.

Professor Johan Pouwelse agrees to testify against the RIAA in court.

Both of these men are very experienced in their respective fields. They, along with millions of other people, are against the RIAA. I think it is saying something when experts like this are against the RIAA. Additionally, many artists have voiced their opinion as being against the RIAA, too. A recent example of this is with the band Nine Inch Nails (a little background on this here).

All I have to say on this is:

Down with the RIAA!

Technology Roundup Number Two

Check out these 15 tips for Firefox. Honestly, one of the most useful articles I have stumbled upon in a long time. A must read for Firefox users.

Great news from Apple. They upgraded the specs on their Macbook laptops and are going to upgrade the specs of the Macbook Pro, too. The catch? Their prices aren't changing. More technology for less money! Check out the full story here.

For predictions on how all the major technology companies will fare in 2007, read this article. Here is an excerpt from the article:

This will probably be the most interesting dynamic because, in the second half, if they can finish Leopard, Apple is expected to have the strongest line they have fielded in decades. But so are most of the PC vendors and HP, in particular, is chasing Apple (and using a lot of ex-Apple employees to do it).

MOG is a new, fast growing web 2.0 website that aims at creating a community focused on bringing people with similar musical interests together. Users can create profiles, recommend music to others, watch MOG TV, and much more. Notable users include Ben Gibbard, of Death Cab for Cutie, and Jon Fratelli, of The Fratellis.

Look at this cool concept redesign for the YouTube Player.

More Views of New York City

[Photos: LeonIngul, absolutwade, midweekpost]

Views of New York City's Skyline

Never forget September 11, 2001.

[Photos: Sister72, midweekpost, hyunlab]

Quote for the Day

"Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fail."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Technology Roundup

The Next Web Conference will be occurring within the next few days. It will take place in Amsterdam, The Netherlands on June 1st. Find out more here. Also, watch this documentary for a preview of what is to come at the conference.

An interesting tech oriented blog, with the subtitle: "Just a lowly edtech geek, blogging from the University of Calgary"

Adam Kalsey explains why IP banning is useless.

If you're in the market for a fast, high capacity portable USB 2.0 flash drive, I may have found the solution for you. That is what I want to get, anyways. 8GB is plenty of storage for me and it's acclaimed as very fast when compared with its predecessors.

This one is for people newer to the internet and/or possessing little knowledge. Check out this website for all your information needs regarding how to build web pages, programming languages, and various other basic topics dealing with the internet. And, if you really want to learn about the internet, I would suggest reading this book (because it was written by the original sole creator of the internet, Tim Berners-Lee).

Links for the Day

I found this four page article on childbearing to be very interesting and informative. The article focuses on the importance of women having children at a younger age, rather than later, because doing so improves fertility rates and decreases various problems. The article says birth is optimal for women between the ages of 18 and 30, with fertility difficulties slightly increasing from 30 to 35, and a significant increase in difficulty after 35 years of age. The article touches on countless topics related to obstetrics, including egg cryopreservation, the process of freezing eggs for use at a later date, and "trisomic" anomalies, the cause of Down syndrome. An excerpt from the article:

The natural reduction in reproductive capacity can be considered an unavoidable part of being human. But in weighing the potential liabilities of delayed childbearing, the slings and arrows of personal fortune must also be considered. Every woman is an individual, and as all college students learn, statistics apply to populations, not people. Whether any particular woman will have difficulty conceiving if she delays childbearing depends in part upon her history and family heritage.

My favorite presidential candidate, Barack Obama, came out with a new health care plan, which the New York Times described in a short article. The plan is "aimed at covering the nearly 45 million uninsured Americans". Personally, I liked how his plan omits small business', which may be defined as 15 employees or less (still undetermined), from the potential health care rule.

Here is a list of tips for the shy and anti-social. This article gives readers suggestions on how to become more confident in social situations. It is basically a good outline on improving social skills and is full of many useful tips. As the articles says, which I strongly agree with, practice makes perfect. So, if you want to improve your sociability, get out there and mingle with people!

And, in technology news, Dell plans on entering the retail market by selling their desktops at Wal-Mart stores, beginning June 10th.

[Photos: operalynn, roxannejomitchell]

Home

Well, I came home from the soccer tournament yesterday. We won our division and we all got medals. However, it was a mess. We were placed in a division with teams considerably younger than us. They did this because, currently, we are in a rec league instead of a select league. The problem is that we told them we are normally select, but, because we didn't have the commitment to travel, we chose a rec league so the games would be more local. Apparently, they didn't listen so the tournament was rather non-competitive for us, except for the last game (the championship), which was a good game.

Oh well, we won and got medals.

Another "revival"...

I've decided to revive this blog again. Using my logic, I decided it was better to continue using this blog rather than start a new one. One example: I'm already indexed in some search engines and submitted in some blog indexes. Overall, I just thought it was better to stay with this blog because it is already established. I can't really find the right words to describe the thoughts and reasoning behind my decision.

Yesterday, (Friday, May 25th, 2007), was my last being a pupil in the public K-12 school system. It was my last official day of "school", ever. (Although, I will be going to college in the fall, but I don't consider that "school". Yes, by technical definition it is "school", but I mean the public institution that one attends until approximately 18 years old. In my opinion, university would be the appropriate term.) I just had to go in for the afternoon and take my pre-calculus exam. But, that is in the past now. I'm done!

As for now, I am going to be playing in a soccer tournament this weekend. That is why I am ending my blogging for the day. I need to go catch some Zzzz's so I can be somewhat rested for my game tomorrow.

Insanity

At the moment, my life is insane. It will continue as so until a week from today when I will be arriving home from my trip. Yesterday, I finished the last of my exams. I got 100% on my German orals, I'm sure I got an A on my Pre-Calc exam, and I hope I got an A on my English paper. If all goes well, I will have four A's weighing in this Trimester, which should put me in the top 10 (class rank).

Well, I need to go to bed. I have to work at 9 a.m. Plus, we are leaving in 24 hours and 45 minutes from the high school. Hopefully, we'll get the whole cell phone fiasco figured out, and, then, I'll be ready to rock and roll. Washington D.C. here I come!

I probably won't be able to post for another week, but upon my return everything should be back to normal. But, oh well, it's not like I have anyone reading this regularly, yet.