Touch This
We’ve all seen those awesome scenes in movies like The Matrix: Reloaded or Minority Report where people are just tapping away at massive touch screens. Apparently that type of technology isn’t as far away as I used to think. Even though I saw something similar to this from Microsoft nearly a year ago, Mr. Jeff Han appears to be a bit more anxious to actually produce a finished product within the new few years. I also give Han more credit for actually working fluidly with his product the entire time he is describing it.
As I’ve complained about in the past, the RIAA is just a bunch of goofs who want to scrounge up more money rather than produce quality music for the consumer. I have to give credit to The Overdub Tampering Committee. Instead of being a huge whiny ass like Lars Ulrich of Metallica (and his posse) was when Napster was in its hey-day, this group of annoyed musicians have been recording alternate versions of various songs and uploading them for others to download without anyone being the wiser. This is the type of hilarious tom-foolery that our world needs more of. No one is hurt, and it teaches a lesson to those obtaining music through sketchy means.
If any of you have been on a college campus, you’ll be the first to attest that it only takes a few tech-heads to bog down a computer network that is used by thousands. According to research, sometimes only 5% of the users on a network can be responsible for upwards of 50% of the total bandwidth! Time-Warner is “banking” on that information to test out a new pricing structure. Although, as one of those that can use more than their fair share of bandwidth from time to time I’m a bit sad to see this, it makes complete sense, and hopefully it drives down the cost for those that barely use any bandwidth at all.
Like the idea of a hybrid vehicle, but still not happy with using gasoline? No problem, just use some compressed air instead! I doubt this will make it to market in the US anytime soon (The highly compressed air means you need expensive pressure vessels, and have the potential for nasty explosions), but at least it is another novel idea on the way towards green vehicles.
Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net
As for the fun portion of my post, I wanted to point everyone in the direction of one of the best sources of dark humor I’ve seen in a long time: Cyanide & Happiness. I’ve never been one to sit down and read comics, but I just can’t stop laughing when I see these. For those that are more into video games, I suggest Penny Arcade.
Comment by tet on 22 January 2008 at 9:39 pm:
Saw the touch screen and said, “oh, tabletop gamers….”
According to my networker Spice, the 5% of the population who are using up 50% of the bandwidth are actually doing so because they have been hacked and some guys in Russia are using their machines to sell kiddie porn. I am, however, fine with TW’s two-tier pricing structure because like the lottery it’s a dumb-ass tax.
Other web comics people might like include Girl Genius, Questionable Content and Order of the Stick. Don’t have time right now to link, getting ready for bed. Quick Google should suffice to find them.
Tom Trumpinski
Comment by JayBandit on 23 January 2008 at 6:13 am:
I’d say that 5% is made up mostly of the 16-24 year-old crowd that feverishly downloads vast amounts of information. Let me put it this way: Hendrick House, the dorm at UIUC with the most “nerds” per capita, instituted bandwidth limits before I even made it to college in ‘02, which was years before the other dorms.
This wasn’t some lame tiny limit either. We were allowed a gigabyte per day, and most of us hit that limit on a frequent basis.
Comment by thetodd on 24 January 2008 at 12:40 am:
IIRC the dorm bandwith limits came in ‘99, and they were only 500 MB/day at first.
I lived in PAR before they started limiting, and I probably averaged a couple of GB/day.
I still download a lot of stuff, and I’d be disappointed if my usage started to cost more, but it’s probably fair.