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Where is Beatles band?
This week’s NME features a supplement called The Ultimate Playlist: “75 songs that made rock’n’roll”. I’m reliably informed that one band is conspicuously absent: an obscure Liverpudlian beat combo by the name of The Beatles. It’s hard to imagine any list of songs that made rock’n’roll not including the Beatles, but the NME supplement manages…
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Sony rootkit woes continue: here come the trojans
It’s hardly a surprise, but anti-virus firms are reporting the existence of trojan horse malware that takes advantage of Sony’s infamous DRM system. I’m trying to imagine how this sorry saga could become any more of a PR disaster… perhaps a Sony exec will attempt to bum the Queen on live television. Update, 11 Nov…
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Responsible spam
This made me laugh [via Kottke.org]: From: Maybelline Kane Subject: What time is it? Hey, you, I’m blond, gorgeous, and I just turned 18! I set up a webcam in my bedroom so people could watch me 24/7! However, the more I thought about it, the more the whole thing seemed kind of creepy and…
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Edge: why games are rubbish
There’s a good feature in this month’s Edge where four comedy writers who also play game  talk about how games are often rubbish. Among other things they point out the woeful voice acting – with Max Payne getting a deserved verbal kicking – and the way some games manage to irritate you so much that…
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I didn’t just say that, did I?
Oh dear. I’ve just been on BBC Radio Scotland’s Macaulay & Co talking about sat-nav, and recounted the (true) story of the chap who drove his BMW into the Havel river in Eastern Germany because his sat-nav didn’t tell him he needed a ferry. Apparently the chap just assumed the sat-nav knew best, and followed…
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Banks: bastards (again)
In its wisdom, the Royal Bank of Scotland has employed a browser sniffing script that’s one of the most restrictive I’ve ever encountered. Its online banking supports Firefox and Safari, but when you try and use either you get locked out. In the case of Firefox that’s because the bank supports Firefox 1.0 only (I’m…
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Sony: no more second-hand games
It’s pure speculation so far, but it seems that Sony might be planning to prevent gamers from running pre-owned games. Yep, it’s a DRM story again, albeit one based on interpreting a patent that may or may not refer to games (it might refer to movies on Blu-Ray). However, if it does refer to games,…
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Perverts rejoice: the camera that can see through clothes
If this is a hoax, it’s a convincing one: a camera that can see through obstacles such as spilt ink or clothing. Here’s the model: And here’s what the camera sees: There’s something vaguely disturbing about that first image.
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Microsoft: turn, baby, turn
Some interesting stuff from Microsoft via Dave Winer: some heavyweight memos sent to MS staffers by Bill Gates and Ray Ozzie. They’re long – particularly Ozzie’s memo – but worth reading if you’re interested in Microsoft’s future and its current way of thinking. Winer also links to early reactions to the documents, including some typically…
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Sony’s copy protection just gets worse
More on the Sony dodgy DRM story: The EULA also makes no reference to any “phone home†behavior, and Sony executives are claiming that the software never contacts Sony and that no information is communicated that could track user behavior. However, a user asserted in a comment on the previous post that they monitored the…