DRM for chargers

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The news that Apple has filed a patent application on a technology for tethering rechargeable devices (like iPods) to particular chargers caused a perceptible rise in this blogger’s blood pressure. The idea is that the device will only allow its batteries to be recharged if it is connected to an authorized charger. But Ed Felten has some characteristically measured thoughts about the idea — for example it’s utility as an anti-theft measure — so I’ve calmed down.

Trompe l’oeil

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Spotted on the gable of a Cotignac house the other day. A nice touch in a village where people really do look out of their windows to see what’s happening on the Cours in the evening.

The inadequacy of photography

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Yesterday, we went on a spectacular drive round the Gorges du Verdon, Europe’s answer to the Grand Canyon. Impossible to photograph, really. It’s the kind of countryside that calls out for Ansel Adams’s skill, technique and infinite capacity for taking pains. The rest of us are reduced to snapshots like this. What made it worse was that, because of RyanAir’s draconian campaign on baggage weight, we had travelled light — and left my Nikon DSLR at home.

I’d like to come back here sometime with a Hasselblad when the light is less fierce. This part of Haute Provence is quite, quite beautiful.

The Web’s Weakest Link

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From Om Malik’s blog…

Yesterday afternoon, I left my apartment, which also doubles as my part time office, in a mad rush, late for a meeting. As the elevator descended, the lights suddenly went out, and for a minute or two (it seemed like an eternity) I was suspended in a dark metal box. And then survival skills took over, as I pressed the emergency button.

And while on the phone, the lights came back on, and the elevator descended, and I rushed to my meeting, silently cursing the building owners for having shoddy infrastructure. It was only later in the day, I learned of massive power outages caused by snafus with at PG&E, our local power company. This resulted in a transformer blowing up, and causing even more disruptions, especially at 365 Main, one of the large co-lo/data center facilities situated in the SOMA area of San Francisco.

This resulted in massive outages at some of Web 2.0’s brand name companies – Six Apart, Facebook, Technorati and Yelp – knocking out their systems and web services out flat. Whatever the reasons behind the failure might be, yesterday was a rude reminder of how fragile our digital lives are.

The seemingly invincible web services (not to mention the notional wealth they signify) vanish within a blink of the eye. It was also a reminder, that all the hoopla around web services is just noise – for in the end the hardware, the plumbing, the pipes and more importantly, the power grid is the real show…

Brown government turns down copyright extension

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Hooray! Here’e how Techcrunch puts it…

The British government turned down a request by the UK music industry to extend copyright for sound recordings beyond 50 years to 70. Artists are now particularly concerned with copyright as demand for their back catalog and accompanying royalties grow.

Such an extension would retain the ownership rights and royalties for artists like Cliff Richard, Paul McCartney, and their publishers. Cliff Richard, whose 1958 hit “Move It!” is nearing the cut off, would be one of the first to lose his ownership.

The government decided against the extension because it would require pushing the European Commission for changes and may increase costs while not benefiting the majority of performers. Predictably, artists and the industry fired back saying the government was simply refusing to support artists…

Reuters report here.

Queue here to put some money in Cliff Richard’s hat.