May 18, 2007
A field trip to Second Life
Tech Web
Mitch Wagner writes about the highly popular Second Life.
“InformationWeek and Doctor Dobb’s Journal are leading an intrepid band of explorers on a Second Life field trip Friday — to the beta grid, where we’ll be playing with voice in Second Life. Everybody’s welcome, so if you’re reading this, join us at noon Second Life Time (which is the same thing as Pacific time in the U.S.).”
Red Herring
RTaylor posted about Bill Hewlett and David Packard’s famous garage in Palo Alto, Calif.
“Silicon Valley folk seem to shine in the strangest of places – in garages, for example.”
Thomas Ricker conducts some futuristic robotic testing.
“Forget all those cute and cuddly robots. We like our robotic overlords menacing and if at all possible, dressed in a skirt. We’re not exactly sure what “Vinegar’s” purpose will be here on Earth. After all, the wee QRIO has been available to conduct orchestras for years. One thing’s for sure, when that stick points in your direction, you’d best get your meat sack a-dancin’.”
May 17, 2007
Intel’s price cuts
Daily Tech
Kristopher Kubicki blogs is about price cuts that will really hammer AMD surely.
“While I don’t doubt Intel’s cuts will have some effect on AMD’s Agena and Barcelona launch, I think the more pragmatic reason for these cuts is instead to clear inventory for Intel’s next CPU, Penryn.”
Bitplayer
Jon Healey on Hollywood’s love hate relationship with technology.
“The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling today in Perfect 10 vs. Google and Amazon is a clear victory for search engines and tech companies — and a clear defeat for copyright holders — on a couple of fronts. But it also includes some language that could conceivably spell trouble for YouTube, MySpace and other user-generated content sites in their legal battles with the entertainment industry.”
Tech Dirt
This blog reveals latest in a long string of copyright suits against Google came yesterday when Grateful Dead mandolin player David Grisman claimed damages from certain clips of him performing that appeared on YouTube.
“Apart from the irony of a Grateful Dead member complaining about fans sharing his clips, it seems that the language in the initial complaint was lifted word for word from another suit against Google on a similar subject. The firm that wrote the initial complaint is not amused, although these things aren’t copyrighted, so there doesn’t appear to be any legal problem here. As law professor Stephen Bainbridge points out, the real issue here is ethics.”