Keeping politicians' hands off the Net & everything else related to technology
One of the more puzzling changes in Apple’s newly released Mac OS X Snow Leopard operating system is that it now reports file sizes and storage capacity in base 10 units instead of base 2 units. Until now, operating systems have always displayed file sizes in base 2 units. When measured this way, a gigabyte [...]
Yesterday this list of 11 undocumented features of Google Chrome OS was posted on Woot!. It’s too funny not to share: Your family photos are accompanied by text ads for skin care and diet plans. Removes all Falun Gong references from your files. Every month, the hard drive is automatically defragged and investigated for anti-trust [...]
It seems that Amazon has made good on their threat and terminated all Amazon Associates affiliate accounts belonging to individuals and companies located within the state of North Carolina. Now we get to see if the state legislature will formally back off the proposal so Amazon can reinstate the affiliate accounts. This will definitely be [...]
I don’t even know where to start with this AFP wire story. The writer obviously doesn’t understand that the IPv4 address shortage has nothing to do with top-level domain expansion: With the stock of available web addresses under the current IPv4 protocol set to run out by 2011, ICANN has been under pressure to find [...]
I subscribe to Stereophile magazine. Every month I take great pleasure in reading the latest product reviews, particularly those involving either of the following: Unobtainium plated interconnects sheathed in endangered panda skin for optimum voodoo-shielding Any devices employing any form of magnetic levitation technology While thumbing through the June issue which arrived yesterday, I came [...]
We are here at the Internet, where we’ve secretly replaced the US patent database they usually serve with Google. Let’s see if anyone can tell the difference!
I believe there are two kinds of evil in this world. The first and most common type was well described by Hannah Arendt in Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. This is the evil of the functionary or civil servant who abdicated moral responsibility for his actions and was “just following [...]
I really don’t care very much about the particulars of the patent battle between RIM and NTP. But when I read yesterday that a US District Judge invalidated the $450 million settlement reached earlier this year, I was elated at the possibility, however unlikely, that an injunction might shutdown the Crackberry of every jackass lawyer [...]
Take a look at Frank Zappa’s “Proposal for a System to Replace Ordinary Record Merchandising” from 1983. Then read the transcript of his congressional testimony from 1985, in which he attacks a proposed “Blank Tape Tax.” Either Zappa was 20 years ahead of the curve, or we’ve spent the last two decades running in circles.
February 14, 2012
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.
