" Brewster Kahle wants the world to know that old software is an important part of our cultural history and -- like books, films and other media -- should be preserved.
The problem is, most software is stored on media that is rapidly degrading. Before long, the data on those original WordStar or Lotus 1-2-3 floppies will be about as useful as a piece of cardboard.

One of the titles the Internet Archive would like to save for posterity is an original copy of Sim City.If the Copyright Office turns down the Internet Archive's request, old titles like WordStar may disappear from the historical record.Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle is hoping to archive thousands of old software titles so that future generations can experience them.

That's why Kahle and his nonprofit Internet Archive have petitioned the U.S. Copyright Office about the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA, which governs the circumvention of anti-piracy measures. Kahle's organization is seeking exemptions from DMCA provisions that prohibit the archiving of software titles. If the Copyright Office says no, Kahle fears millions of programs eventually will be lost forever.
"

Fighting to Preserve Old Programs

" EDMONTON - Researchers in Alberta have discovered a new way to produce electricity. They believe the finding may lead to a new kind of battery for small appliances such as cell phones.

The technology involves no chemical reactions, relying instead on pumping water through tiny holes. "

Edmonton team devises new way to generate electricity

Bucy Wrote
] VeriSign is to relaunch Site Finder, its highly
] controversial domain typo redirection service.
]
] VeriSign suspended Site Finder earlier this month,
] following an order from ICANN, the Net governing body,
] which claimed the company was in breach of its terms of
] operation.

] Sigh...

There should be a class action suit against Verisign for what the system changes will cost.

The Register -- V$ to relaunch sitefinder

] You also have an incredibly overzealous vocal minority
] that thinks it still owns the Internet, and the
] anarchists that think everything should be free. And then
] you have everybody else that uses the Internet every day
] and doesn't know what ICANN is. I think this is a broken
] model that we have talked to ICANN and the Department of
] Commerce about.

Verisign is opposed to Internet Governance.

I have yet to hear one good thing site-finder supposedly does. "It's good for verisign customers" is pretty damn vague. In fact, how is it that they seem to think they are the "Vocal Majority" even though they are the only ones who seem to see any benifit at all to site-finder? The "Vocal Minority" who encompases basically everyone who understands whats going on sees it as verisign trying to compromise and control the internet. Who are they trying to convince i wonder?

CRN Interview: Stratton Sclavos, VeriSign

] The "denial of service" bug meant the port's web service
] was not accessible to provide crucial data for shipping
] pilots, mooring companies and support firms responsible
] for helping ships to navigate in and out of the harbour,
] placing shipping at risk.

]So, let me get this straight. Houston has computers associated with ]the navigation of ships in their harbor connected to the internet?

Even stupider is that i think that's what the "virus" in the movie Hacker's did.

Guardian Unlimited | Online | Hacker attack left port in chaos

This is a very interesting article on using editing techniques to speed up the WPM of audio recordings without loosing tonality. Its like speed reading a lecture. I wish NPR preprocessed all their audio programming this way.

If PVR's like MythTV had this capability, it could make channels like c-span a little less mind-numbing.

Now Hear This, Quickly

(U: BTW, the section of this article that deals with prisons is worth the price of admission, but I'll focus on something else...)

] 4. Incandescent Light Bulbs
]
] In reality, these sad devices are heat bulbs.
] Supposedly a lighting technology, they produce nine times
] more raw heat than they do illumination. The light they
] do give, admittedly, is still prettier than the eerie
] glow of compact fluorescents and light-emitting diodes.
] But it's still a far cry from the glories of natural
] daylight.
]
] Plus there's the cost of light bulbs, their
] fragility, the replacement overhead, the vast waste of
] energy, glass, and tungsten, the goofy hassle of running
] air conditioners to do battle with the blazing heat of
] all these round little glass stoves let's face
] it, these gizmos deserve to vanish.
]
] They will be replaced by a superior technology, something
] cheap, cool, and precisely engineered, that emits visible
] wavelengths genuinely suited to a consumer's human
] eyeball. Our descendants will stare at those
] vacuum-shrouded wires as if they were whale-oil lanterns.

So, they are slowly replacing traffic lights with LED lights in atlanta. If LEDs are bright enough for this purpose, one must imagine that you could create a suitable light bulb replacement that:

A. Screws into a socket.
B. Essentially consists of a stick covered in white leds.
C. Has a translucent plastic filter covering it which only emits "lightbulb" wavelengths.

Why is this hard?

(U: Maybe the power transformer you'll need to convert your whopping 120 volts of AC power into 5VDC will create just as much waste heat as your lights did. As almost every device in your house now has an AC to DC power converter, maybe it makes sense to start talking about putting a centralized AC to DC converter in your house and running two circuits, an AC cicuit for major appliances, and a DC circuit for basically everything else. It would reduce a lot of costs, and improve the safety of most home wiring. Of course, cutting over to something like this would be a huge effort that would require widespread coordination from several industries. (For those of you who aren't electronics savvy, basically what I'm saying is that your house ought to have the "power supply" rather then your computer.)

Ten Technologies That Deserve to Die

" Riddle me this: What would you get if you crossed a BlackBerry with an iPod? The answer: The future of the music business. Let me explain. Imagine, if you will, an iPod as a wireless digital ladle. It would dip into a nearly bottomless stream of continual music, scooping up any song you wanted, when you wanted, where you wanted. There would be no need for CDs, hard drives, or any other storage device. And trying to capture such music would be about as easy as trapping mist in a jar. Every song would contain a digital expiration date, so, over time, they would evaporate."

A Wireless iPod Can Torpedo the Pirates

" A computer program designed to talk like a human is preparing for its biggest test in its bid to be truly "intelligent".

Loebner Prize finalist Rollo Carpenter with his bot Jabberwacky
Rollo Carpenter has high hopes for Jabberwacky

Jabberwacky lives on a computer hard drive, tells jokes, uses slang, sometimes swears and can be quite a confrontational conversationalist. "

Chat rooms in the future will just be filled with these things selling porn to one another.

Chatbot bids to fool humans

"If two companies get their way, pretty soon you'll walk through virtual advertisements in the mall or view television programs the same way Luke Skywalker watched R2D2's playback of Princess Leia's distress message in the first Star Wars movie.

The images would float off your TV screen and into thin air, allowing you to interact with virtual characters right in the middle of your living room. "

Look Ma, No Projection Screen