Thoughts on People, Politics, Science, Technology, Movies, Music, and More.
Yesterday, the Supreme Court issued a ruling which toughens the standards to grant a patent for inventions which combine two existing technologies (nytimes coverage here). All I can say is: “it’s about time”; this change is long overdue.
It will be interesting to see what effect this will have on Verizon v. Vonage (Verizon’s patent has ridiculously broad scope, imo).
It concerns me every time my computer starts making an alarm sound, alerting me that my processor is overheating. This happens particularly frequently when I am playing Half-Life 2. Now, I don’t exactly know what typical operating temperatures are for an Athlon 64 3500+, but mine tends to run up into the low 70s C when I am playing computer games. I think these things are supposed to run more in the 50s and 60s. So, after worrying about it for many months, I have finally taken action.
Behold the Thermaltake Blue Orb II:
I am not sure that the picture properly conveys the sense of scale, but this thing is huge! (the copper piece that you can see in the reflection is roughly the size of the processor) It was also a major pain in the ass to install because I had to replace a plate on the backside of my motherboard, requiring me to basically take most of my computer apart.
The good news is that this thing appears to be working. Even putting the processor under full load for several hours hasn’t pushed the CPU temperature above 65 C. Not bad for $35.
Spot on commentary about digital rights management (DRM) on Ars Technica today.
Just read this article on the New York Times. The way these music executives talk about mp3 players really pisses me off. Check out this quote:
“It’s a major change for the industry,” said David Geffen, the entertainment mogul who more than a decade ago sold the record label that bears his name to Universal. “Each of these devices is used to store unpaid-for material. This way, on top of the material people do pay for, the record companies are getting paid on the devices storing the copied music.”
I also have only 100 songs purchased from the iTunes Music Store on my iPod, but the majority of the rest of the music is ripped from my personal CD collection. Just because I didn’t download it from iTMS doesn’t mean I didn’t pay for it, but it seems like that is the mentality of the music industry.
