 Tuesday, August 05, 2003
I have spent far too much time tonight browsing through Nobody Here. Fascinating stuff. Its pages are like potato chips... I can't stop at just one! [via tangents]
arcadia is crack for classic gaming nerds
"Those of you with crazy multi-tasking skills might want to check out Arcadia, where you play four different super simple games at the same time. Extra points for the stylishly retro chunky pixels look, which brings me right back to happy afternoons spent with my 2600!" [MetaFilter]
Christina Stoll at the North Suburban Library System (our counterpart in Chicago's northern suburbs) has a question for all of you:
"I'm trying to find information on what US libraries are doing with KM, if anything. I've found information showing the value of KM to libraries and that they should be invested in it, but I have yet to find anyone really doing anything with it, besides library schools starting classes or programs on the topic."
If you have any suggestions, pointers, thoughts, etc., please leave a comment on this post. Thanks!
Wi-Fi to be Embedded in 95% of Notebooks by 2005
"According to In-Stat/MDR's latest report, The Wi-Fi Field of Dreams: If You Embed Wi-Fi, Infrastructure will Come, the company reckons that some 16 million Wi-Fi-enabled notebooks will be sold to businesses this year. By 2005, it says, 95 per cent of notebooks will feature WLAN support as standard....
As we've noted before, Wi-Fi will be as commonplace - and as valuable as a differentiator - as USB 2.0, PC Card support and external monitor ports. Even In-Stat/MDR admits that 'the extra cost of a Wi-Fi client will be essentially transparent to the end user'.
In-Stat/MDR is more bullish on Wi-Fi integration than some of its fellow market watchers. Strategy Analytics puts the figure at 90 per cent by 2008. Forrester's figure is 80 per cent, also by 2008. SA reckons only eight million Wi-Fi enabled notebooks will ship worldwide this year, half In-Stat/MDR's forecast....
Of course, there's no sign that there is a 'growing number of Wi-Fi end users', only that more people are buying WLAN-enabled notebooks, which is not the same thing. It's like saying there's massive demand for USB 2.0 peripherals just because PC vendors sell an awful lot of computers with built-in USB 2.0 ports. Of course they do, because USB 2.0 has become part of the standard spec. you have to meet if, as a PC vendor, you're to remain competitive....
Two years on puts us in 2005, and a world where WLAN support comes as standard in the client and enterprises have sufficient inventory of WLAN-enabled notebooks - thanks to post-downturn budget increases - to justify providing their users with wireless network access. And that, at long last, will drive WLAN usage." [The Register]
I disagree that there is "no sign that there is a growing number of Wi-Fi end users, especially in the residential market, but even if you take the skepticism in the article with a grain of salt, pervasive wireless access is a'coming, folks. You'd best be preparing for it.
The Copyright Cage
"Bars can't have TVs bigger than 55 inches. Teddy bears can't include tape decks. Girl Scouts who sing Puff, the Magic Dragon owe royalties....
YES, I HATE THE EFFECTS OF COPYRIGHT ON A DIGITAL REVOLUTION that heralds so much more than the banal ripping off of CD tracks. I hate that creativity is metered and parceled to its last ounce of profit. I hate that our technology is hobbled beyond its paper and other analog counterparts so that it permits us to view but not print, listen but not share, read once but not lend, consume but not create. But I can hate this situation without believing that the idea of copyright is fundamentally flawed. The framers' vision of intellectual property (then known as "monopolies") called for built-in limits to a creator's exclusive rights. A copyright term, for example, would expire even if a work still held commercial value....
It's time for us to wise up and to redraw copyright's boundaries so that the law and reasonable public expectations fall into better alignment with one another. To be sure, this may require more, rather than less, subtlety. We should treat protections for computer software in a different way than music, for example, and lengthy copyright terms should be available only to those who bother to check in with the Copyright Office every few years. But we do ourselves a disservice by fixating on current income structures and not thinking about future possibilities premised on amazing technological advances, especially when the rights at issue concern the flows of ideas, something fundamental to free societies....
I pay my taxes. I have no idea how to calculate them, but I do what Turbotax tells me to. I'll pay a copyright tax, too, and willingly support artists whose work I appreciate, because it's the right thing to do and because it guarantees that more work will be made available to me. I'm not alone. So: Let's imagine a world in which Teddy Ruxpin can say whatever he wants, where kids can play with computers that are not digitally locked down, where bars and restaurants can stop measuring their TVs and their parking lots, and where amateur webcasters can create thousands of radio stations featuring songs we like, perhaps ones that sound familiar but that have new elements to them. We'll still buy concert tickets, books, and CDs and their digital descendants. They'll be competing with a lot more, though—created for fun, even if it happens to turn a profit. " [Legal Affairs, via Scripting News]
Tonight we took the kids to Best Buy and GameStop (the physical stores, not the virtual ones). We got some educational computer games at BB, but Brent wanted to go to GameStop for a Playstation game. We always have fun at Best Buy, but I had to pick my jaw up off the floor at GameStop.
While waiting in line to pay for two games, I noticed the display next to the cash register on the counter - there were brochures for the Nokia N-Gage along with several empty boxes designed to show off the selection of games that will be available for the device (which is a cross between a Game Boy and a Sidekick)! Mind you, this thing isn't even available for purchase yet, but a store devoted to video games already has a point-of-purchase display hyping them!
And the games look goooood. I grabbed a brochure and when I reached the register, I asked the guy if they were going to be selling just the games or the N-Gage, too. He says both, which I find pretty amazing since it means GameStop will essentially be getting into the business of selling mobile phones. I tried to talk more about it with him, but they were swamped and it just wasn't going to happen.
Most interesting, though, was Brent's reaction. He overheard me talking to the guy, and he looked at the brochure, too. He didn't understand what most of it meant, so he asked me to explain it to him. I told him the N-Gage plays video games, plays music (MP3s and the radio), and is a mobile phone. He was totally blown away by this concept. His mouth literally formed an "O" and his eyes got real wide, and I didn't even mention that it surfs the web and does email. (It would be pointless to tell him it does the web and email at a "high speed" since he's never known anything else.) When Sheree came home, he showed her the brochure and recited to her everything it does with the same reverence. Keep in mind that Brent is seven years old.
It's a very slick brochure that definitely intrigues me. Some other features it touts:
- Wireless multiplayer gameplay
- Supports 3D graphics
- Bluetooth
- Tri-band mobile phone
- Listen to radio while playing games
- Record and send game clips
- Download tips, tricks, and cheats
- Surf the mobile Internet with a high-speed connection
- Built-in speakerphone
I know a lot of folks think this thing is going to flop, especially since it's going to be priced somewhat high ($299), but I think it's got a shot. If seven year olds had any say in the matter, it would be an immediate hit. We'll see when the N-Gage hits stores in the U.S. in October.
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