The Fruits of Illegal File Sharing

Needless to say, P2P has taken a beating in recent years from the music industry, but some good as actually come out of it. A company called BigChampagne has started a service that analyzes data from the various networks to tell record companies about trends in their artists. This will give them more insight into what's a one-hit wonder or what songs should be made singles and such. It's a pretty smart idea and they're even starting to ally with sites like Yahoo! Music. Meanwhile, a company called Mashboxxx is trying to establish a service that allows you to sample music before you download it, and they're looking for fallen illegal download services as partners. The only problem that has come up more recently is copy protection on CDs that prevent the songs to be ripped to even an mp3 player. Some bands, like Switchfoot, are actually advocating techniques to circumvent the technology so that fans can rip the music. I admire them more for doing that because it shows faith in their fanbase.

I think the neatest bit of technology news today is a camera phone being developed by NEC that would allow you to scan documents right into your cell phone with a 1MP camera and some OCR software on board. It'll be a while yet before it's sold in stores because they have to deal with copyright protection issues, but if they actually figure out a way to protect the scanned text I think it would be really cool and I could've even used it today when my mom wanted a recipe that I had in my recipe book (weird, huh?). An even bigger issue to me is that Georgia Tech has developed a device that can detect cameras in front of it and block any pictures that it takes. It'll be great for secret products, but couldn't it lead to more privacy violations? Symantec seems to believe that Firefox and Mac OS X are becoming less and less secure than people previously thought as their popularity rises, and though there's no concrete evidence for the latter there have been more cross-site scripting attacks that hurt Mozilla based browsers. So much for the honeymoon! Lastly, if you're looking to waste time check out Millions of Games.

There's very little movie news today, so this will go quick. If you were hoping that Hugh Jackman would be the next Bond then I'm sorry to say that he has personally confirmed that it's not true. However, if you were afraid that Uwe Boll would direct the Halo movie, then you'll be glad to know that it's false. If you want so a few neat international posters for Doom, Corpse Bride, and Serenity then click here. Lastly, JoBlo dug up a pretty good clip from Saw II along with this creepy poster:



Now for some Monday Madness:

1. When you're stressed out, what do you do to relieve your stress?
Play video games. It doesn't have to be violent, just fun.
2. Are you normally a patient person, or is patience NOT one of your virtues?
I can be, but it really depends. I'm usually not with people who have no business using computers and computers, but in a lot of things I can be quite patient.
3. How many times a week do you blog?
Six days a week for your viewing please (or displeasure, I suppose).
4. How many memes a week do you participate in?
I try to do one every day, so six.
5. Describe the perfect day, weather-wise.
Sunny with a high of 75, a low of 65, and windy all day long.
6. Would you rather be too hot, or too cold?
I prefer the cold because then I don't sweat. I have more summer clothes than winter clothes, but it's easier to bundle up than to dress down.
7. Do you eat out often, and if so, what type of restaurants do you frequent?
Not really. I hate fast food though so it's often Chinese food or breakfast food unless someone else is picking up the tab.
8. If you could run your own business, what type of business would it be?
Probably a software company.