Techdirt has a great post on this, as well as Dr. Michael Geist. Apparently Canadian musicians like the Barenaked Ladies, Avril Lavigne and Sarah McLachlan have stood up and said they do not agree with the record industry, and that they don’t want to sue their fans, nor impose DRM schemes on them. This is wonderful, and I applaud them! I think more artists ought to stand up and say what the RIAA is doing is unethical and just plain wrong.
Category Archives: Thoughts
The 9th Come Across podcast is up!
I worked on the 9th Come Across Podcast last night and posted it. In it, I talk about some big changes that may be coming soon for my websites, and I also picked the “best of” entries from my blog. Plus, if you’ve wondered what my voice sounds like, now you can find out… Here is the link.
ComeAcross Podcast 9
➡ Download ComeAcross Podcast 9
Summary: First, a heads up – I might combine some of my sites very soon to deliver extra content efficiently. For this podcast, a “best of” approach where I pick the best blog entries from my blog (raoulpop.blogspot.com). The news: super-efficient cars, Turbotax, SimplyHired, Chernobyl, silly passwords, BYOL (bring your own laptop) to work, World Bank reports on corruption, and other things.
A big thank you to the new subscribers!
Why didn't the United States ever switch to the metric system?
Ask Yahoo! answers that question in this week’s entry. Truth is, the US did adopt the metric system, quite a while back, but not as a replacement for the British measurements. A few decades ago, the government even tried to put metric units on traffic signs, but gave up after receiving numerous complaints. So, we’re still what’s called a “soft metric” country. Here’s the link to the full explanation.
From gas guzzler to green extreme
Professor Andrew Frank from the University of California at Davis developed a hybrid SUV that can get about 100 miles per gallon – or so the article says. It does this because it’s a plug-in hybrid. It recharges its batteries from an outlet at night. This is indeed really cool, but what I’d like to know is how much electricity it consumes. I’m not sure that the fuel savings offset the cost in electricity, so if we’re robbing Peter to pay Paul, is it worth it? Here’s the link to the article.
Addition: just stumbled onto this related article, also at CNET News, which talks about the upcoming “100 miles per gallon” cars. Problem is, there’s a cost of $10-12K to convert a hybrid car to a plug-in hybrid, and again, the cost of electricity used to charge it up seems to be sidestepped.
Yet another addition: just came across this video from the Maker Faire, also at CNET News, where the fellow who gets interviewed mentioned you can take an ’04-’06 Prius and convert it for under $3K. One caveat: you’ll need the help of an engineer or electrician who’s comfortable working with high voltages. Cool!
Raoul Pop 