Author: Paul

Scientific American has a nice short, but balanced article on the technical side of low-power FM: “DOES LOW-POWER FM RADIO CAUSE UNACCEPTABLE INTERFERENCE?” Rather than lingering on the interference hysteria sold to Congress by the NAB, the article actually worries about reality, noting that “Congress may be reacting more to political pressure than technical data,…

A follow up to an earlier entry about legislation that would require copy protection in all digital hardware — ZDNews says that the big tech players, like Microsoft, Intel and IBM, are staging a full-frontal assault on that legislation. greed vs. greed in a fight to the finish.

Midwest IMCistas Meeting in Urbana this Weekend Just a quick note that it’s still not too late to join in the Regional IMC Gathering and Workshop this weekend at the Urbana-Champaign IMC. Anyone interested in independent media is invited and welcome, just as long as you can get to Urbana. Go to the webpage for…

More Record Industry Nonsense ZDNet’s David Coursey says that “the RIAA owes us all an apology” for their half-witted attempt to get immunity for hacking into our computers, while the consumer electronics industry is backing legislation aimed at forcing the industry to license independent vendors to sell digital music (my favorite quote: “There is a…

The Record Industry Wants to Take Over Your Computer in a very direct way, in fact. ZDNews reports that the RIAA is exploring methods for jamming up computers running peer-to-peer file sharing software. The tactic involves requesting downloads of files they want to render unavailable, but making sure the connection and download is excrutiatingly slow,…

New Mediageek Section: DIY Files In an effort to try an make it easier to find what you”re looking for, I’ve started a new section called the DIY Files, which focuses on the technology and geekier aspects of this site. This where you’ll find equipment reviews, hints for using equipment and similar stuff. The front…

War Fever: What the Mainstream Media isn’t Telling You The Springfield, IL IndyMedia Center will be rebroadcasting this talk and roundtable discussion hosted by the Anarchism and Social Change Public Affairs Colloquia on FM, satellite audio, shortwave and Internet audio. The two hour program will air Saturday evening Oct.13 at 11pm CDT (which is Sunday…

Ads on Public TV? USA Today reports that the FCC is considering allowing public TV stations to run advertising and subscription based services on their digital HDTV channels. Supposedly, the ad and suscription revenue is needed to finance the transition to digital. But, then, doesn’t that really make these stations commercial? Where’s the public —…

A couple more notes on copy protection: Dan Bricklin argues that Copy Protection Robs the Future. In my copyright essay/rant earlier today I referred to SCMS, which is the copy protection built into DAT recorders and other consumer digital recorders, including minidisc and home CD recorders. After writing that piece I wanted to explain SCMS…

No New Cable Modems? CNet reports that @Home, the largest cable modem ISP, is no longer accepting new customers, apparently in an effort save cash after filing for bankruptcy two weeks ago. Despite the promises made by the telecomm industry which claimed that deregulation would bring cheap, accessible hi-speed Internet into peoples’ homes, it seems…