Slashback: Grammy, Sirius, Levies

Slashback this evening with another round of clarifications and additional links regarding recent Slashdot stories. Steve Job's Grammy acceptance speech, details on the proposed higher levy on CD-Rs in Canada, more on the claimed clash between satellite radio and 802.11 devices, and more.

After the bowling ball, the mouse. jonny writes: "Most people here know the story of the Mac and the growth of the GUI. Most of you probably don't know the whole story though, namely you probably don't know the story of the mouse, important as it is... Interesting too."

Additional reading material for the math-inclined. Bruce Schneier dropped a note with some good reading material for anyone interested in the recent Slashdot posts on factoring and SNMP. "I've written essays on the Bernstein factoring paper and SNMP SNMP vulnerability."

Americans shouldn't be too smug about this stuff. An Anonymous Coward writes, in response to the proposed increase in levies on various recordable media in Canada: "An excellent FAQ including information on how manufacturers, importers, and consumers can avoid the levies on CDRs and CDRWs"

It's not all sweetness and light. Lord Omlette writes: "Ok, I know ya'll ran the story on Apple winning a grammy. But! The acceptance speech got cut for time reasons & stuff, so Dr. Dobb's Journal put a transcript of the speech online for posterity & stuff. I didn't see it in the previous Slashdot story or the Apple press release, so I thought you might be interested."

Uncle, uncle, make him give me his toy! Sabalon writes "NetStumbler is running an article about Intersil and Motorola's response to Sirius and XM's appeal to the FCC to restrict the 2.4Ghz band. Intersil points out some interesting points, such as why the frequencies directly surrounding those that Sirius uses is not an issue, and Motorola believes the source of the interference is not 2.4Ghz, but probably engine and ignition noise."

How to save some very expensive seconds. In case a 23-second kernel compile is too long to bear, perhaps you just need to upgrade a bit. An Anonymous Coward writes: "Linux Weekly News reports that a kernel was compiled in 7.5 seconds on a Power4 with 6 GB of RAM."

Finally, it has come to this. Another reader points out: "Be, Inc., the company that developed and marketed the loved Be operating system, has announced sale of the be.com domain.

This would be a great time for someone to sweep it up. ;) *cough*OpenBeOS*cough*"

Comments

First Mouse?

[webword]

I can't believe that the story about the mouse doesn't include pictures and a description of Engelbart's first mouse. Outrageous!

Be Trademark?

[RN]

What's going to happen to Be's trademarks and other IP?

I wonder if others can use names like OpenBe without fear of getting sued now.

Re:Canadians should be smug!

[wide_awake]

Canadians really *should* be smug. There are some pretty simple ways to get around this levy:

- If you buy any blank recording media outside Canada and use it yourself they will not be subject to the levy.

- If you are a manufacturer or importer, you can avoid the levy entirely on your products as long as you record some sound on the media before you sell it. The sound recorded on the media can even be erased. Clearly this is not an option for CD-Rs, but for devices that include a hard drive, simply recording a sound on the drive and then erasing it exempts the drive from the levy. This is because (as the legislation states) "blank audio recording medium means a recording medium, regardless of its material form, onto which a sound recording may be reproduced, that is of a kind ordinarily used by individual consumers for that purpose and on which no sounds have ever been fixed..."

Also, if you're Canadian you should check out this link and tell them that iPods and such are not recording devices. Alternatively, tell Apple and friends to record a lame greeting message to avoid the stupid levy.

The last cool thing is this: "It does not matter whether you own the original sound recording (on any medium), you can legally make a copy for your own private use."

Rock on, Canadians.