Month: October 2002

The RIAA claims to do what it does in the name of artists. Well, artists are getting and less and less shy about calling them on that. Today, an article by accidental activist Janis Ian — an artist with 17 major-label albums, nine Grammy nominations and 37 years of experience in the music industry —…

Microsoft and Panasonic have announced HighMAT — “High-Performance Media Access Technology”. HighMAT just specifies that music should go in one directory, pictures in another, and video in another. Plus, there’s an index file with some metadata so that the player doesn’t have to seek to and read from every file when you insert the CD.…

“Why, when I was young, I needed a $100,000 workstation with a $15,000 RAID system and $20,000 in software to do a Ken Burns-style documentary! Now, you kids today — you kids don’t know how good you have it with your iMovies and your $10 plug-ins. And I had to power it with my feet,…

Ever since Apple announced intentions to support two different DRM systems (AT&T’s a2b for QuickTime 4, SealedMedia’s DRM for QuickTime 5) but then didn’t execute on either one, it has declined to discuss its stance on DRM. It’s not surprising that Apple would be gun-shy, but the problem is that digital media developer and distributors…

“The fastest growing show solely dedicated to wireless Internet, mobile data and handheld computing” was apparently so incredibly dull that most attendees decided to switch to more exciting careers — such as selling pottery by the side of the road — during it’s three-day run. Link

The W3C is (probably) launching a new working group to develop a “Timed Text” specification. Although membership in the working group itself is limited to W3C members and invited experts, they’ve submitted a draft charter to the Timed Text mailing list, and they’re looking for your feedback. (For example, is two years a realistic schedule…