Daily Archives: August 16, 2005

MP3 as a liberator

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Interesting (and perceptive) CNET post on the impact of MP3.

MP3 made it possible to put ALL of your music in one place and thus made it easier to access. You no longer need to dig through tens, hundreds or even thousands of CDs, tapes or records to listen to that one tune that decided to run through your head at any given moment. Just find it in the jukebox player of your choice and let the music play! You’re also spared the expense of CD jukebox players that, even in the 100 disc capacities, you’d still need to change out discs to hear all of your collection. Now you just click shuffle and play and you’re good to go.Finally, and most obviously, you can bring that huge collection of tunes with you wherever you go via an MP3 player. Again, no digging through and changing out CDs or tapes, just whatever you want, whenever you want and wherever you want. Liberation in the truest sense of the word!

.xxx domain hits roadblock

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Plans for a .xxx top-level domain (effectively a virtually red-light district) were supposed to be finalised by ICANN this week. But according to Good Morning Silicon Valley, they’ve hit a snag.

In a letter to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), Michael Gallagher, assistant secretary at the Commerce Department, asked that approval of the planned domain be postponed pending further study. “The Department of Commerce has received nearly 6,000 letters and e-mails from individuals expressing concern about the impact of pornography on families and children,” Gallagher wrote. “The volume of correspondence opposed to creation of a .xxx (domain) is unprecedented. Given the extent of the negative reaction, I request that the board (provide) adequate additional time for these concerns to be voiced and addressed before any additional action takes place.” The Department of Commerce isn’t the only agency suggesting ICANN put the brakes on .xxx. ICANN’s Government Advisory Committee recommended a similar course recently as well, noting a “strong sense of discomfort” over the domain in a number of its member countries. All of this leaves ICANN in a difficult position and one for which the agency has no one to blame but itself.