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What does it actually mean for a country to comply with the Kyoto emissions targets? Will it really have a bad effect on the economy of a country that tries to implement it? An interesting perspective on how it might affect Canada. The key point is probably really not that a country meets the goals exactly, it's that it makes a good effort to control and reverse greenhouse gas emissions, and that it can be done in a way that is economically friendly.
Looks like Polymer Vision will soon actually be selling an ebook device with a roll-out flexi-display. Hopefully soon we'll start seeing full-color displays like thing, and all sorts of products with this type of display. No more squinting for no good reason!
A great use of the visualizer plug-in function of iTunes - iConcertCal. Now you don't have to search specifically for shows by the bands you like, this plug-in looks for shows of all the groups in your music database and lists them in a calendar with links. Super-handy.
I mentioned Steve Jobs' open letter about DRM a week or so ago. Of course it's not quite that clear. Bruce Schneier with some thoughts on why software companies such as Apple or Microsoft might really want to use a proprietary DRM system:
This isn't even about Microsoft satisfying its Hollywood customers at the expense of those of us paying for the privilege of using Vista. This is about the overwhelming majority of honest users and who owns the distribution channels to them. And while it may have started as a partnership, in the end Microsoft is going to end up locking the movie companies into selling content in its proprietary formats.
We saw this trick before; Apple pulled it on the recording industry. First iTunes worked in partnership with the major record labels to distribute content, but soon Warner Music's CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. found that he wasn't able to dictate a pricing model to Steve Jobs. The same thing will happen here; after Vista is firmly entrenched in the marketplace, Sony's Howard Stringer won't be able to dictate pricing or terms to Bill Gates. This is a war for 21st-century movie distribution and, when the dust settles, Hollywood won't know what hit them.
