mediageek

Author: Paul

  • news headlines from 11-08-02 mediageek radio show

    These are the news headlines as read on the Nov. 8 edition of the mediageek radio show. Stories include: FCC Extends Ownership Rule Comment Deadline; Digital TV Causing Analog TV Interference; Aussies To Block “Protest Websites”; Freak Radio Reporter Arrested by City Council Member; The Microsoft/ DOJ settlement

  • TelCos Lie

    MediaSavvy notes a new report that enumerates the many ways that our local telephone companies (or “Regional Bell Operating Companies” aka RBOCs) are lying to us and picking our pockets. And my local telco, SBC/Ameritech, has got to be one of the worst. I’m still reeling from the fact that the Illinois regulators approved the…

  • How the FCC Might Affect Newspapers

    Although the FCC has no direct regulatory power over newspapers, if the bureau goes ahead with loosening or tossing out the cross-ownership ban, this would like have effects on the nation’s newspapers, nonetheless. In the American Journalism Review John Morton analyzes some of the ways in which newspapers might be impacted.

  • New Sound Blaster To Drool Over

    Creative keeps upping the ante on their sound cards, offering continually better audio quality for very reasonable prices. They just released their Sound Blaster Audigy 2. Tom’s Hardware gives the card their usual thorough run-through and gives it high grades. I cover sound cards here and there because the integrated audio in most PCs sucks…

  • Aussies To Block “Protest Websites”

    In the name of fighting “cybercrime,” the Courier-Mail reports that Australian Justice Minister Chris Ellison will look at upgrading federal powers to block certain websites. He’s apparently acting at the behest of police ministers who agreed it was “unacceptable [that] websites advocating or facilitating violent protest action be accessible from Australia.”

  • Predicting What the Election Means for Tech and Media

    CNet’s Declan McCullagh gives a rundown of what the election results might mean for Tech in the US. Obviously, the biggest difference will be Republican leadership of all committees, which is a mixed bag, since some tech issues don’t break cleanly along party lines. For instance, Democratic Sen. Fritz Hollings of S.C. has been a…

  • Disgusted with Democrats

    Nationwide, the Democrats blew it in yesterday’s election. That’s clear to anyone who gives a shit, and is quickly being parroted across the mainstream press this morning. Unfortunately, there’s no evidence to challenge it. Only here in Illinois, after one of the most corrupt state governments in recent memory, were Democrats able to take a…

  • Today on mediageeklife:

    Today on mediageeklife: “Holding My Nose To Vote / Fear of a Ryan Planet.”

  • FCC Chair in the Back Room with Comcast

    Regarding pending FCC approval for a cable TV merger between Comcast and AT&T, atnewyork.com reports that The Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) and the Media Access Project (MAP), two Washington-based advocacy groups, said the contact between Roberts and the FCC “typifies the behind the scene insider lobbying of special interest national politics.” Everyone knows that…

  • DVD & CD vs. VHS & 8-Track

    Russ Forster fires off a “useless angry raving” on “the DVD Craze”: “They are trumpeting that DVDs deliver better picture and sound more reliably than any analog formats. It all sounds so alluring, but after having to suffer through a rented DVD that had scratches rendering sections of GOSFORD PARK unwatchable, I have a greater…