"[C]omputer design is being dictated not by electronic design rules, physical layout requirements, and thermal issues, but by the wishes of the content industry." By deliberately breaking audio and video functionality, opening up new avenues for debilitating malware, and reversing performance gains in desktop PCs and third-party components, Peter Gutmann argues
"the Vista Content Protection specification could very well constitute the longest suicide note in history."
posted by Blazecock Pileon
on Dec 23, 2006 -
132 comments
NASA to consolidate all their sites into the nasa.gov portal The argument for change is that users will be served better by a single website because the agency's various sites vary in quality and content.
But
scientists and fans at NASAWatch say consolidation into a single NASA portal - which is more suited as collection press releases rather than in-depth information - will greatly reduce the amount of public information available from NASA. Is consolidation a good idea or is it just a power grab/manipulation by NASA administrators?
posted by stevis
on Aug 9, 2004 -
11 comments
Conservative acts like conservative Columnist William Safire (in the NYT, though mirrored in the link for your convenience) takes on corporate consolidation of media and culture:
The overwhelming amount of news and entertainment comes via broadcast and print. Putting those outlets in fewer and bigger hands profits the few at the cost of the many. Does that sound unconservative? Not to me. The concentration of power - political, corporate, media, cultural - should be anathema to conservatives. The diffusion of power through local control, thereby encouraging individual participation, is the essence of federalism and the greatest expression of democracy. (
search for info. about your
hometown media). Safire, in fighting against deregulation alongside "the left", has some
strange bedfellows. Obviously, terms like "left" and "right" are less than perfectly useful, but is this the beginning a larger shift? 20 years from now, will libertarians and gun-owners still be de facto Republicans, and if not, will they simply cease to be a block, or find comfort elsewhere on the political spectrum?
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly
on May 24, 2003 -
26 comments
