Stupid is as Stupid does
Man using GPS drives in front of train - Yahoo! News
BEDFORD HILLS, N.Y. - A Global Positioning System can tell a driver a lot of things — but apparently not when a train is coming. A computer consultant driving a rental car drove onto train tracks Wednesday using the instructions his GPS unit gave him. A train was barreling toward him, but he escaped in time and no one was injured.
The driver had turned right, as the system advised, and the car somehow got stuck on the tracks at the crossing. He jumped out and tried to warn the engineer by waving. He got out of the way just before the train slammed into the car at 60 mph, Metro-North railroad spokesman Dan Brucker said Thursday.
The car was pushed more than 100 feet during the fiery crash.
Some 500 train passengers were stranded for more than two hours during the Wednesday evening rush hour. The accident also heavily damaged 250 feet of rail, Brucker said.
The railroad said that the driver was issued a minor summons for obstructing a railroad crossing and that he and his rental company would be liable for the damage, estimated in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Friday, January 4, 2008
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Netflix To Stream Internet Video, Movies Directly To TVs -- Netflix -- InformationWeek
Netflix To Stream Internet Video, Movies Directly To TVs -- Netflix -- InformationWeek
InformationWeek
January 3, 2008 11:44 AM
Netflix To Stream Internet Video, Movies Directly To TVs
Netflix and LG Electronics will develop a set-top box to let users to stream movies and other content from the Internet to HDTV sets.
By K.C. JonesInformationWeek
The companies announced Thursday that they will develop a set-top box that will allow users to stream movies and other content from the Internet to HDTV sets. Netflix, which began to allow users to stream content to their PCs via the Internet last year, said the new system would bypass PCs. The companies said a networked LG player will be released to market by the second half of this year. "Internet to the TV is a huge opportunity," said Reed Hastings, Netflix's founder, chairman, and CEO, in the announcement. "Netflix explored also offering its own Netflix-branded set-top boxes, but we concluded that familiar consumer Netflix said the move reflects its larger strategy to offer customers a variety of ways to rent and view movies and television programs. Those who buy the hardware will be able to rent titles cataloged on the Internet. Netflix already offers more than 6,000 titles via the Internet, and the company said it plans to expand its "Consumers crave compelling and immediate content, and the Netflix online streaming movie feature can provide instant gratification," Ki Kwon, president of the consumer electronics division of LG Electronics USA, said in the announcement. LG Electronics said the partnership will improve its position in the U.S. digital television marketplace. Netflix and LG Electronics will deliver rental movies and TV series directly to TV sets, sidestepping the well-known red envelopes used by the DVD rental company.
1 message(s). Last at: Jan 3, 2008 12:14:25 PM
- commented on Jan 3, 2008 12:14:25 PMWhy wasn't the resolution of content mentioned in this stream of immediate video to the consumer. Streaming video via the internet even with a great deal of compression could be an adventure for the consumer if the pipe isn't large enough. Concept sounds good but......I wonder.
Washington Post sticks by RIAA story despite evidence it goofed | Tech news blog - CNET News.com
Washington Post sticks by RIAA story despite evidence it goofed | Tech news blog - CNET News.com
January 3, 2008 4:00 AM PST
January 3, 2008 4:00 AM PST
Washington Post sticks by RIAA story despite evidence it goofed
It's late on Wednesday evening and the Washington Post has yet to correct a story that accused the recording industry of trying to paint law-abiding music fans as criminals.
But the paper should make things right and soon.
"Rather than suing its customers and slamming reporters, the RIAA might better spend its energies focusing on winning back the trust of an alienated consumer base."
--Marc Fisher, columnist
Marc Fisher, a Post columnist, wrote on Sunday that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) asserted in a legal brief that anyone who copies music from a CD onto their computer is a thief. The document, filed last month, was part of the RIAA's copyright suit against Jeffrey Howell, an Arizona resident accused of illegal file sharing.
Quoting from the brief, Fisher wrote that the RIAA had argued that MP3 files created from legally bought CDs are "unauthorized copies" and violate the law. If it were true, the move would represent a major shift in strategy by the RIAA, which typically hasn't challenged an individual's right to copy CDs for personal use.
The problem with Fisher's story is that nowhere in the RIAA's brief does the group call someone a criminal for simply copying music to a computer. Throughout the 21-page brief, the recording industry defines what it considers to be illegal behavior and it boils down to this: creating digital recordings from CDs and then uploading them to file-sharing networks.
A sentence on page 15 of the brief clearly spells out the RIAA's position: "Once (Howell) converted plaintiff's recording into the compressed MP3 format and they are in his shared folder, they are no longer the authorized copies distributed by Plaintiff."
The key words there are "shared folder" and it's an important distinction. It means that before the RIAA considers someone a criminal, a person has to at least appear to be distributing music.
The Post story, which followed similar pieces in Ars Technica and Wired.com, has spurred scores of other media outlets to repeat the paper's erroneous assertion. Ironically, even typically anti-RIAA blogs, such as Engadget, Gizmodo and TechDirt have jumped in on the side of the RIAA.
"The Washington Post story is wrong," said Jonathan Lamy, an RIAA spokesman. "As numerous commentators have since discovered after taking the time to read our brief, the record companies did not allege that ripping a lawfully acquired CD to a computer or transferring a copy to an MP3 player is infringement. This case is about the illegal distribution of copyrighted songs on a peer-to-peer network, not making copies of legally acquired music for personal use."
After reading Lamy's statement, Fisher didn't back down.
He responded in an e-mail to CNET News.com: "The bottom line is that there is a disconnect between RIAA's publicly stated policy that making a personal copy of a CD is ok and the theory advanced by its lawyers that in fact, transferring music to your computer is an unauthorized act."
He took one more shot before signing off: "Rather than suing its customers and slamming reporters, the RIAA might better spend its energies focusing on winning back the trust of an alienated consumer base."
Still, Fisher received little support from respected and independent copyright experts. William Patry, the copyright guru at Google--not exactly known as a lackey for copyright holders--wrote on his blog that the RIAA is being "unfairly maligned" in the Post story.
Patry does, however, caution that recent statements made by the RIAA and included in Fisher's story reflect the group's growing tendency to use language as a means of control.
Fisher quoted Sony BMG's chief of litigation, Jennifer Pariser, who testified recently in court that "when an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song."
Patry disagreed.
"This new rhetoric of 'everything anyone does without (RIAA) permission is stealing' is well worth noting and well worth challenging at every occasion," Patry wrote. "It is the rhetoric of copyright as an ancient property right, permitting copyright owners to control all uses as a natural right; the converse is that everyone else is an immoral thief."
Greg Sandoval is a former Washington Post staff writer.
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