Archive for January, 2007

M$ Vista

Tuesday, January 30th, 2007

launches today. There are plenty of reasons not to upgrade, but if you’re worried about the ability of M$ to stop you watching things you’ve paid for at their whim, fret no more, the DRM controls of Vista have just been successfully (and as far as I can determine, permanently) bypassed: which just goes to show that there’s no point spending money on digital protection when you should be spending it on better marketing strategies. From another direction though, there’s a lot of hidden legalese in the EULA (End-User License Agreement) that is making some lawyers rather concerned.

Some wonderful modern culture

Wednesday, January 24th, 2007

Just a few links today, but they’re to things I’d be pleased to own in that they stimulate the observer. First some T-shirts:

In the non-wearable corner, there’s this exquisite paper-cut art by Peter Callesen. I love the large-scale papercuts, but they’re all so beautifully imaginative!

Just a little bit more free than we might have been

Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007

There have been a few new items about DRM and ID cards out on the electron sea since Christmas. I’m happy to report that the Government have said that they’ll be storing less information on their ID cards; ‘format shifting’ (copying CDs) should be legal; the term of Copyright won’t be being extended to 95 years (thus upsetting Sir Cliff); and there’s a detectable undercurrent in the music industry that is beginning to realise that customers don’t like DRM. All good news for the New Year.