"We have a lot of things posted around the bar saying you're being recorded," he says. "So if you don't want to come into the bar, don't come in."

Posted by GeeTee at January 26, 2003 09:50 AM | TrackBack 0

Later I found out that Betamax had owned the market, but lost it because Sony got one simple decision wrong. It chose to make smaller, neater tapes that lasted for an hour, whereas the VHS manufacturers used basically the same technology with a bulkier tape that lasted two hours. Instead of poring over the sound and picture quality, reviewers could simply have taken the systems home. Their spouses/children/grandparents and everybody else would quickly have told them the truth. "We're going out tonight and I want to record a movie. That Betamax tape is useless: it isn't long enough. Get rid of it."

Posted by GeeTee at January 26, 2003 09:40 AM | TrackBack 0

Although it may be highly unlikely that the Bush administration would authorize the use of such weapons in Iraq -- Arkin describes that as a worst-case scenario -- the mere disclosure of its planning contingencies could stiffen the opposition of France, Germany and Middle East nations to an invasion of Iraq.

Posted by GeeTee at January 26, 2003 09:37 AM | TrackBack 0

The debate is being complicated by the distinction between the collection of information by governments and by the private sector. For understandable reasons, governments remain the larger worry for most people. In the 20th century it was Big Brother governments, not marketing firms, that became nightmares. And yet in the networked society of the future it could well prove easier to tame an overly intrusive government than a private sector hungry for more and more information. An entrepreneurial private sector, driven by competition to seize on every new technological possibility, is likely to find ways round most obstacles placed in its way. And whatever information the private sector collects will be accessible to the government too, through subpoenas and search warrants. E-mails have already become a staple of court cases.

Posted by GeeTee at January 26, 2003 09:34 AM | TrackBack 0

So what are the environmental impacts of producing and using a 32-megabyte DRAM computer chip that weighs a mere 2 grams? The UNU team found that to make every one of the millions manufactured each year requires 32 kg of water, 1.6 kg of fossil fuels, 700 grams of elemental gases (mainly nitrogen), and 72 grams of chemicals (hundreds are used, including lethal arsine gas and corrosive hydrogen fluoride).

Posted by GeeTee at January 26, 2003 09:31 AM | TrackBack 0