‘A blog devoted to the RIAA’s lawsuits of intimidation brought against ordinary working people.’

It’s not often that I find lawyers (that I’m not paying) with whom I agree.  These guys are the exception.

Recording Industry vs The People

It seems that ATI and nVidia have been using ‘marketing speak’ (read: lying) about HDCP support in their current line of cards/chipsets.  It seems that none of the shipping cards support HDCP despite indications on the manuf. web sites, and on the retail boxes that they do. <sigh>

What is HDCP you ask?  HDPC, or High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection, is a specificiation to control digital audio and video content as it is sent accross DVI or HDMI connections.  Basically, it’s DRM at the physical layer.  You will need an HDCP complaint video card to view HD, Blu-Ray or HD-DVD content on your shiny new Vista PC.  Oh, and your display device (monitor, Plasma TV, LCD TV, projector) will need to be HDCP compliant as well.

When will it end?  Will I have to provide a retina scan to view my time-shifted recordings of Battlestar Galactica?  DNA samples to prove that I am ‘worthy’ to watch Sopranos?  Hollywood truely does hate me.

Oh, and don’t think the folks in the music industry like me either.  The RIAA has recently stated that I can not resell legally purchased digital tracks, nor can I rip my legally purchased CDs to a portable player.  Let’s just watch them try to stop me.

Thomas Hawk’s Digital Connection: Hollywood Hates You

Fractals of Change: VC Primer from an Entrepreneur.s POV . Source of Funds

This site has a ton of great hints/tips/projects utilziing the Asterisk open-source VoIP PBX project.

I found the series on using your bluetooth headset/handset as a ‘presence’ detector especially intersting.  It explains how to use this detector to route your calls automatically based on your presence or absence.  Trécool.

Nerd Vittles » 50 Great Halftime Projects Using Your Free Asterisk@Home PBX