Technology News

Sat Eye Candy: The Pogues

Source: JamBase
December 14, 2008

BAD TEETH BUT GRAND TUNES AS WE GET OUR IRISH UP

Spider Stacy, the man who introduced MTV to the tin whistle, turns 50-years-old tomorrow. Always the calmer counterpart to Shane MacGowan's belligerent, slurry, slightly daft wise man, Spider is an untutored, often unacknowledged part of Ireland's great punk-folk institution. One of the only members to take The Pogues' entire wild ride, Stacy has been alternately a foil for MacGowan (and early on Cait O'Riordan, too) or the lead vocalist ...

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Why a Music Tax is a Mistake

Source: All About Jazz
December 13, 2008

Techdirt's Mike Masnick On Why a Music Tax Is a Mistake

Techdirt founder Mike Masnick has followed the twists and turns of the digital music debate for more than a decade, offering some of the most prescient and lucid information and arguments on the topic anywhere. Today he tackles growing calls for a voluntary music-licensing scheme, pushed most recently by Warner Music Group to universities, that would basically allow file sharing by having ISPs impose a surcharge on all users ...

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Online Rebel Publishes Millions of Dollars in U.S. Court Records for Free

Source: All About Jazz
December 13, 2008

Carl Malamud wants access to all public legal documents in the U.S. to be free to the public. If you want to search federal court documents, it's not a problem. Just apply online for an account, and the government will issue you a user name and password. Did I say it's FREE!

And once you log in, the government's courthouse search engine known as Public Access to Court Electronic Records or PACER, will charge you 8 cents a page to ...

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jakartajazz.com is Online

Source: All About Jazz
December 13, 2008

There is a brandnew website online about Jazz in Jakarta ! www.jakartajazz.com gives you reliable information about Jazz in Jakarta and more. The latest news, a daily Jazzagenda as well as international Jazznews keeps you always up to date about Jazz in and outside Jakarta. A database for Jazzmusicians and Venues with live Jazz provides information about who to see and where to go. Expose yourself at the WWW by submitting your profile and your concerts. Be a whole week ...

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Final Chrome Version Boosts Speed, Compatibility

Source: PC Magazine
December 13, 2008

PC Magazine has performed follow-up tests of Google Chrome to see how much progress the browser has made since coming out of beta. The results show that its already fast JavaScript performance on the respected Sunspider benchmark has gotten even faster and compatibility with popular sites such as Facebook has improved. The retest shows a 24 percent speed improvement, bringing this released browser to the same level of performance as Firefox's second beta 3.1 version. The new numbers far outstrip ...

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Sony Music Illegally Collected Data on Children

Source: Michael Ricci
December 12, 2008

The FTC says the operator of more than 1,100 music-related websites accumulated personal information on more than 30,000 users under age 13 without informing their parents. Sony BMG Music Entertainment was sued by the U.S. on Wednesday for collecting and disclosing personal data about 30,000 children without informing their parents. The Federal Trade Commission filed the civil lawsuit in federal court. The suit, which alleges violations of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, seeks unspecified damages and an injunction. “Sony ...

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Bush Opposes Free Wireless Broadband

Source: PC Magazine
December 12, 2008

In a letter to the FCC, the Bush Administration has said that it opposes the agency's plan to create free nationwide wireless broadband using unused DTV spectrum. In a Dec. 10 letter to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez urged Martin to reconsider the proposal in light of the Bush administration's position that spectrum should be allocated by a market-driven policy, rather than by governments. “The history of FCC spectrum auctions has shown that the potential for ...

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Google Releases Top Searches of 2008

Source: PC Magazine
December 11, 2008

In the wake of similar lists from Yahoo and Ask.com, Google has released its Zeitgeist 2008, a comprehensive look at the top searches of 2008. Unlike the other lists, Zeitgest doesn't focus on the most popular searches, at least not in the United States. Instead the results are listed as “Fastest Rising," meaning that the popularity of top terms is contrasted against that of the previous year. Google said the reasoning behind this was that simply distilling the top search ...

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