The Washington Post reports :America Online has begun offering a new version of AOL Instant Messenger to companies that will enable employers to read instant messages sent by their employees. The new
version will also enable employees to send encrypted instant
messages that can only be read by designated, registered
recipients.
[Via BNA Internet Law News]
it’s the consumers, stupid
I don’t always like reports from Gartner, but this look fairly acurate to me.
« The vast majority of consumers don’t know what their phones are capable of today, let alone what 3G is and why they should have it. It does not matter how good 3G is if nobody knows or understands what they can do with it
[via The Register]
Do you want your 15MB of fame?
-Pseudo
It’s a relief to know the truth after all those conflicting medical studies:
The Japanese eat relatively little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.
The French eat a lot of fat and also suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.
The Japanese drink relatively little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.
The Italians drink generous amounts of red wine and also suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.
The Germans drink a lot of beer and eat lots of sausages and other fatty foods and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.
CONCLUSION: Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what kills you.
(thanks Max)
The official version.
[via Aaron Swartz]
Etan on privacy.
Il y a eu cette étude qui a fait remuer pas mal d’électrons a propos de la crédibilité des informations sur le Web.
Je fréquente personnellement pas mal les sites de « comparison-shopping » mais peu ceux offrant des informations médicales ou financières. J’ai le réflexe de toujours chercher un second quand ce n’est pas un troisième avis. En somme, l’Internet n’est pas vraiment différent de la presse écrite dans le fond…
Mais moi, suis-je crédible? Aie-je besoin de l’être dans la mesure où je ne fais le plus souvent que renvoyer vers d’autres ressources (et hormis le fait que je n’aie rien à vendre)? Dois-je faire une déclaration de mes intérêts personnels qui teintent mon objectivité? Dois-je tendre à l’objectivité? (viam objectivitis elegi?).
Je crois que non. Ce serait nettement moins drôle pour tout le monde. Mes intérêts sont assez inoffensifs et transparaissent de manière assez claire pour que je me sente à l’aise avec ça.
Bon.. je pense que j’ai besoin d’une tasse de thé. Lapsang Souchong ou thé vert?
Cla me demande si j’ai des sites sur la vie privée. Ma spécialiste en résidence sur la question me réponds:
http://www.privacy.org/
http://www.qlinks.net/quicklinks/dataprot.htm
http://www.eff.org/Privacy/
http://www.eff.org/privnow/
http://www.gigalaw.com/articles/privacy.html
http://europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/fr/dataprot/index.htm
Je vais créer une catégorie « For the record »
Moi ca m’énerve un peu de voir Disney essayer d’étendre la couverte sur Mickey tout en faisait la piastre avec des oeuvres dont le droit d’auteur a expiré et en essayant de gruger sur les redevances lorsqu’il y en a. (oui oui, ce billet était pour publier ce dernier lien, les autres sont accessoires.)
[via LawMeme]
The Register has a story on BMG announcing that Europe will be it’s new testbed for a copy-protected discs only catalog. (we should not call them CDs anymore).
Slashdot has picked up the story. Oh, BoingBoing too.
For now, us Region 1 people will still find mostly « normal » CDs on the shelves.
So much has been written on this topic, yet not that much has filtered through into the mass media. Well here’s Kofi Annan on CNET.
[via /.]
If Panama may have it’s issues with an unrestricted IP network, China is well known for it efforts in building yet another great wall.
I wonder if old routers and proxy servers will make such a good tourist attraction in 1000 years. Not to mention being visible from space. Oh well, the 3 gorges dam reservoir certainly will be, so this generation can check that legacy off the do-to list.
Add that to special ID cards required to use internet cafés, and you have a reasonably tight grip on the media.
(Thanks again Cla!)
On par with the DRM-enabled shower head!
BBspot is reporting that the RIAA wants a mandated background check on anyone who wants to purchase a CD-RW drive, including a three day waiting period to verify that the consumer has no copyrighted material on their hard drive…
(thanks Cla)
[via LawMeme]
Ontario’s Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner has put together this long, comprehensive review of changes to access-to-information and privacy across Canada between September 2001 and August 2002.
Continuer la lecture