idallassleeping less and reading more

French car maker Venturi has released the first production electric sports car. It’s called ‘Fetish’ and has 300 horsepower. More on Autotopia.

The upcoming November launch of Microsoft’s new Xbox 360 game console is including a faked limited launch so prospective buyers all over will arrive to the stores to find the console sold out. Stores have been notified in advance that they are getting very few units and they will sell out. They are preparing ‘SOLD OUT’ signs in advance to display. This is a move to generate a media buzz for the unit and make it appear to be more popular than it really is. Deceiving consumers this way is pretty sad, in my opinion. Maybe we should all just not buy any of their Xboxes so they learn their lesson. Who’s with me?

If a bill that’s been proposed becomes law, it would become legal for law enforcement officials to forcibly extract DNA samples from anyone arrested for anything, like they do with fingerprints already. Currently, DNA samples can be taken from anyone convicted of a crime but not until after the conviction. DNA contains a lot more information about a person than their fingerprints and I know I wouldn’t personally want that information in the hands of the government. Privacy and civil liberties groups are fighting the bill. (via arstechnica.com)

It’s really fun to watch this Bush ragdoll bounce around on the balls. Grabbing him and flinging him around adds a whole other level of fun, too.

Grandaddy is one of my favorite bands, and some random geek has made a sort of video for one of their songs on an old Apple ][+ (pre-Macintosh!). It’s fun to watch once or twice. Check it out.

As seen on ARS Technica… The next generation of High-Definition (HD) content will be significantly harder to crack and may require a commercial license to be playable on a device or computer. A technology called High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) will encrypt the signal at the last point of transmission to the television or computer screen. Hardware will have to support HDCP to be able to play the content, and any cracked keys can be revoked so no future content will play. Unless some company decides to try selling a commercial video player to Linux users, the next generation of High Definition DVD content may not play at all on operating systems other than Windows and Mac OS X. Likewise, most of us would have to purchase a brand-new television or computer display to be able to see the content at its native resolution. Additionally the encryption system in the next generation of DVD technology is being designed to be very difficult to crack. All of this doesn’t bode well for our rights to fair use as consumers. Maybe these developments will provide an opportunity for independent content developers to gain a foothold in the industry, but most people will still just want their Will Smith and Jennifer Lopez.

The organization that controls the video game rating system, the ESRB, has decided to revoke the ‘M for Mature’ rating from the GTA: San Andreas. The game cannot be sold in stores until some sort of resolution is found. This all stems from some mods that were released for the game that exposed some graphic sexual content in the form of a mini-game.

Broadband over Power Lines (BPL) is already available in some markets today. Power lines reach deep into rural areas that cable companies have not ventured into and where DSL is not available so there is a lot of excitement about the potential for expanding broadband access. So far BPL has not gained as much traction as cable and DSL Internet and they are still ironing out some kinks, but this infusion of cash should help that situation. It would be very nice to have another way to get the high-speed hookup so I’m hoping it all works out.

Google’s reason for the interest is not totally clear. They say they want to “help promote better access to the Internet” and I think that is a true statement. I’m sure they would also like to have their fingers deep into this new broadband pie when it becomes more universally available so there is an additional financial incentive. I’m all for a company like Google giving the telcos and the cable companies some good competition!

Experiments for NASA have shown that meat tissue can be grown from existing meat cells, and now a new paper proposes two new techniques for large-scale production of lab-grown meat for human consumption. They still have to figure out how to make the cultured meat more meat-like by combining all the different kinds of tissue naturally found in meat and ‘exercising’ it for the proper texture, but they seem confident.

The article is very optimistic about the potential health and environmental benefits, but I’m wondering about the possible cultural ramifications. There is already a divide between the people who eat organic food and those who eat standard chemically treated food. Organic food still mostly costs quite a bit more than standard food so there is a resulting economic (and social) gap. Some people just can’t afford organic food no matter how good it is for you. With cultured meat, a similar thing may happen.

If cultured meat techniques develop to a point where it is cheaper overall than raising and slaughtering livestock, the number of people producing traditional meat may go down and the prices may go up. If that trend continues then, at some point, only the well to do of the world will even be able to afford real meat and most people will only ever eat food grown in labs or genetically engineered to be easier/cheaper to produce. Organic, natural food may become even more of a luxury item than it already is today.

The Broadcast Flag that was recently struck down by a Court of Appeals as not within the FCC’s jurisdiction may become law this week after it was tacked onto an appropriations bill. This has very serious implications on the future of all media content. The flag would allow content creators to specify how you are allowed to use their content that you acquired legally. They could specify that you can only view it once after you record it, for instance… presumably unless you pay them to watch it a second time. All devices sold in this country would have to abide by the flag. If you care about your right to do what you want with something you buy, contact your local important people now.