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Links for May 6th 2008

Interesting links for May 5th 2008 through May 6th 2008:

Little Brother » Download for Free – Cory Doctorow’s new young adult novel “Little Brother” is out and is also available, in its entirety, as a free download. The novel explores issues of privacy and surveillance (among others) as they related to young people (with culture jamming ideas to boot).
Apple iTunes To Sell Films On Day Of DVD Release [InformationWeek] – Apple’s iTunes store is to start selling feature film downloads on the same day that they are released on DVD.
Internet serves up 30 years of spam [ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)] – “Today marks the 30th anniversary of the computer phenomenon – spam email. Now a nuisance for tens of millions of computer users worldwide, three decades ago someone sent what is considered to be the very first spam email.”

Interesting links for May 1st 2008:

Free game hopes to save gorillas [BBC NEWS | Technology] – “Campaigners hoping to preserve Rwanda’s endangered mountain gorilla are attempting to raise awareness of its plight by making a game simulating the lives of the animals free to mobile phone users.”
Sweet Hollywood hoax with Aussie actors [TV Tonight] – All of the hype built for a supposed new TV show called Scarlet, complete with an over-the-top trailer starring Gary Sweet and Sharni Vinson, turns out to be a viral effort by LG to launch their new Scarlet line of TVs!
Radiohead says no more music freebies [ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)] – “It was a pivotal moment for the music industry which many thought sounded the death knell for recorded music sales, but Radiohead will not be repeating its initiative to let fans pay what they want for their downloads.”

Interesting links for April 17th 2008:

TV takes the online challenge [The Age] – ‘”The reason people are illegally using P2P [peer-to-peer] networks is simply because content isn’t available elsewhere,” says Ten’s general manager, Digital Media, Damian Smith.’ (So give me a legal way to download Battlestar Galactica today and I will!)
Exploring Fantasy Life and Finding a $4 Billion Franchise [New York Times] – “… Electronic Arts, the Sims?s publisher, plans to announce that the series has sold more than 100 million copies (including expansion packs) in 22 languages and 60 countries since its introduction in 2000. All told, the franchise has generated about
Australia’s YouTube stars to get paid [Australian IT] – The YouTube Partner Program provides money to YouTube content creators in exchange for displaying banner ads on their videos, has been launched in Australia today.
Parents angry at violent school bully game [The Age] – From Rockstar Games, the people behind Grand Theft Auto, comes the hugely provocative Bully: Scholarship Edition in which you play a rebellious school kid, and runs the risk of (purposefully?) provoking cyberbulllying to normalising school-yard shootings.
ABC’s digital push for channels, radio [The Age] – “The ABC wants to triple its number of television channels and radio services over the next 12 years as it seeks to increase Australian content levels and cement its place in the digital media age, its managing director, Mark Scott, has flagged”

Interesting links for April 6th 2008:

Study: Violent Games Relax Players [Next Generation – Interactive Entertainment Today, Video Game and Industry News – Home of Edge Online] – “People who play violent videogames online generally feel more relaxed and less angry after they have played, according to a new study by psychologists at Middlesex University” (Lets see if this one gets mainstream news coverage!)
Battlestar Galactica: Join the Fight | Battlestar Galactica Social Network [SCIFI.COM] – The SciFi network have launched the “Battlestar Galactica social gaming experience” … you can be either human or Cylon (oddly enough). The “game” seems a little clunky in the layout and interface, but I’ll have to give it a try…
The art of the teleprompter [Presentation Zen] – Some interesting thinking about the art of using teleprompters (esp looking at US politicians). John McCain doesn’t fare very well!
How does the new, free online Photoshop match up with its free competition? [OJR] – “In summary, I didn’t find any functionality in Photoshop Express that Web users didn’t already have available to them in Picasa, Picnik and Splashup.”

Interesting links for April 2nd 2008:

Bringing the cloud with you [Official Google Docs Blog] – Google edges even further in Microsoft’s heartland as Google Docs becomes available offline!
Google April Fool’s Jokes Galore [Google Blogscoped} – A round-up of Google’s extensive April Foos offerings. The best one, of course, was the Australian based: “gDay with MATE technology to ?search content on the internet before it?s created,?.”
YouTube’s Video Identification in Action [Google Operating System] – What options go content owners now get if YouTube detects others using their copyrighted material? They can either “block (no exposure and no money) or track (exposure, but no money) or monetize (exposure and money).”

Interesting links for March 31st 2008 through April 1st 2008:

Police take a tip from YouTube [Australian IT] – “Call it BlueTube. Citizen-supplied video evidence of crimes appears set to take off with police forces around Australia.”
Embracing the torrent of online video [BBC NEWS | Technology] – Very positive piece from Michael Geist on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s decision to make one of their shows available for free, without DRM, via peer to peer Bittorrent networks.
Decline Of US Newspapers Accelerating [Tech Crunch] – “Figures released by the Newspaper Association of America show that the decline of newspapers is more rapid than previously thought, with total print advertising revenue in 2007 plunging 9.4% to $42 billion compared to 2006…”