If you think that sounds a lot like the way things are now, you're right. This is the way it should be. Let human innovation take its course. The technology to catch the bad guys will improve, as will the technology that lets us experience the best art that humanity has to offer. The entertainment industry might look a whole lot different as a result, but as I've said before, artists will continue to create and impresarios will continue to get rich off them. That's the real future of music.
The Real Definition of Music Piracy
New York City subway riders had better hang on to their iPods with their free hand. Robberies on the subway are up 20 percent with criminals' desire for iPod digital music players and other wireless devices partly responsible for the rise in overall crime in the Metropolitan Transit Authority system, the New York Daily News reported today. More from the Daily News: "'The robbery increase is linked to a rash of forced taking of cell phones and iPods by juveniles from other juveniles,' NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said."
| ___About Random Access___ Random Access is a daily column by Robert MacMillan that explores the latest trends in technology and how they are changing daily life. Random Access won't tell you why a new gizmo will revolutionize your ad server. It will tell you about episodes from daily life -- exasperated waiters who use blogs to vent about their customers, whole runs of salmon injected with nanoparticles for individual tracking in Norwegian fjords and the growing number of DJs who are sick of being sidelined in favor of iPods. (Only one of these stories is fake.) Most of what you see will be culled from news sources and blogs from around the world, though we will supplement Random Access with original files on the novel, unusual, bizarre and reactionary happenings in the world of technology and society. E-mail: Send links and comments. | | |
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Another police source said this to the Daily News: "Kids are shaking down other kids for iPods, but adult crooks like them, too ... Word is out that teachers wear iPods, so snatch-and-grabs are big around schools." The iPod: it's not just for young offenders anymore. There's an advertising campaign for you.
Wanted in the Wolverine State?
Before you use the Internet to get mushy in Michigan, beware that the state soon could require online dating services to either require members to submit to felony background checks or say in bold, large type that they don't. That's thanks to a bill up for a debate in the state Senate, according to the Associated Press. "Backers say just posting the background-check disclosure would go a long way toward boosting awareness of the possible dangers of meeting people online. Learning that other users are not known criminals would provide a sense of security. They say knowing that checks have not been done would arm users with valuable information," the AP reported. "But critics -- including most online sites -- say any feeling of security would be deceptive because there is no way to ensure people give their real names."
As yours truly reported earlier this year, a similar bill failed to gain any traction in Virginia. I also noted that the bills are supported by Herb Vest, chief executive of True.com. The service maintains an exclusive relationship with rapsheets.com, a subsidiary of ChoicePoint Inc., which collects criminal background information on more than 170 million people. No other background services, coincidentally, have that many files on tap. The Michigan bill says that dating services must use companies that feature more than 170 million files. Funny coincidence, isn't it?
Don't Surf in Bed
The Internet is doing its part to create a nation of vampires, according to the co-chairman of a taskforce that found that Americans aren't sleeping enough. That, in turn, results in poorer health, lower work productivity and less sex. The National Sleep Foundation reported that most Americans get less than seven hours of sleep a night, compared to the eight or nine they should be getting, the Associated Press reported. "Some of the nation's sleep habits can be attributed to an always-on-the-go society, said Chris Drake, senior scientist at the Henry Ford Hospital Sleep Center in Detroit and co-chairman of the 2005 poll task force," the AP wrote. "'In an increasing 24-hour society, people are staying up much later,' he said. 'They can go to a 24-hour pharmacy or supermarket. They can do anything at any time of the night and day. That can impact on people's decisions to stay up later watching TV, doing work, being on the Internet.'"
The Boston Globe yesterday ran an article about new technology that makes waking up a more pleasant process: "Axon Sleep Research Laboratories is developing a headband called SleepSmart that you'd wear overnight. Rather than waking you up at a precise time -- say, 6:30 a.m. -- the headband would monitor your brain waves using special sensors, and wake you up sometime in the half-hour leading up to 6:30 when you were in a light phase of sleep, which is preferable to being jolted out of deep sleep." Here's a little more on how it works: "The headband would work like a mini EEG monitor, using three built-in electrodes to tune in to your brain waves and wake you up toward the end of a light sleep stage. It would communicate wirelessly with a 'base station' on your bedside table, which you'd program with your latest desired wake-up time." The company, perhaps unsurprisingly, is run by college students and recent graduates.
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