Archive for November 21, 2009
Britain’s new Internet law — as bad as everyone’s been saying, and worse. Much, much worse.
Nov 21st
The British government has brought down its long-awaited Digital Economy Bill, and it’s perfectly useless and terrible. It consists almost entirely of penalties for people who do things that upset the entertainment industry (including the “three-strikes” rule that allows your entire family to be cut off from the net if anyone who lives in your house is accused of copyright infringement, without proof or evidence or trial), as well as a plan to beat the hell out of the video-game industry with a new, even dumber rating system (why is it acceptable for the government to declare that some forms of artwork have to be mandatorily labelled as to their suitability for kids? And why is it only some media? Why not paintings? Why not novels? Why not modern dance or ballet or opera?).
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/11/20/britains-new-interne.html
Is the Android OS Growing Too Quickly?
Nov 21st
After getting off to a slow start, Android phones have gone gangbusters. As of last July, there was only one Android-powered device available in the U.S., but that number has since exploded. Now, there are eight Android phones available stateside, with more expected to debut in the coming months. So things must be looking pretty great for the mobile OS from Google, right?
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2009/11/20/foobar2000-v1-0-beta-holy-crap-its-finally-here/
Internet Explorer 9 to sport GPU acceleration and HTML5
Nov 21st
Even if you don’t have a favored fighter in the browser wars, you have to admit Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has been looking mighty unfit over the last few years. Younger and fitter contenders like Mozilla’s Firefox and Google’s Chrome have arguably overtaken the old stalwart, and now Microsoft is making some much-needed noise about fighting back.
http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/20/internet-explorer-9-to-sport-gpu-acceleration-and-html5-support/
