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January 25, 2007
Norway sticks it to iTunes
The consumer ombudsman in Norway has ruled that iTunes does not conform to Norwegian consumer protection laws, and that Apple must either make its code available to competitors by Oct 1st, or it will face court charges. The ruling is based on the fact that songs purchased through iTunes cannot be played on any competitor's devices.
The full article Norway declares Apple's iTunes illegal at Financial Times.
Goooo Norway : )
Posted by lara at 02:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 17, 2007
ant navigation
A frightening flashback to a certain CogSci course at my dear alma mater, but still kinda interesting. World's Smallest GPS system.
Not to toot my own horn, but as far as I can tell, this is pretty close to my hypothesis as to how ants navigate. I could be wrong though, as I haven't touched the paper I wrote since I got it back, and have no plans to do so in the future.
OK, fine perhaps it's only interesting to people who took the same CogSci course, and wrote the same horrifying death-by-paper midterm, and to people who have some other devotion to the little critters. whatever.
Posted by lara at 12:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 16, 2007
Interesting. No, really.
I almost didn't click on the link from Reddit. But then I saw that the article was on Wired.com and changed my mind. And I was surprised, and intrigued. At first by the fact alone that the article is a well thought-through piece that actually reviews that notorious game Super Columbine Massacre RPG!, and second, by the realization that the game isn't quite as horrible as I (and apparently many others) would assume.
While that is said, I do find the idea of making this horrific event into a game a bit distasteful... however, reading the author's careful analysis of the entirety of the game - no detail from creator Danny Ledonne is missed here - made me think of whether or not this game might actually be able to impart a thing or two on the young minds of its players. For instance, the observation that <span class="quote">for all their bombast about being objectified by their tormentors, did
precisely the same thing to their victims. They didn't see them as
individuals: They were just metaphoric targets for their hatred</span>. And my thoughts continued to spin on from there... i have no idea if whoever is playing this game is taking as much notice of the details of this game, nor whether they are considering the motivation behind the details. but at least this isn't quite as inconsiderate and mind-numbingly senseless as i originally thought.
Posted by lara at 03:16 PM | Comments (0)
