Computer games

A couple of interesting stories 1) about a new study into violent computer games:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_7030000/newsid_7035100/7035153.stm?bw=bb&mp=rm&asb=1&news=1

2) A study which suggests that computer driving games influence how users drive: http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2196345,00.html

new forms of surveillance and the war on terror

An interesting video story on the BBC website today. It explains how scientists are using advanced surveillance methods, including combining analyses of how someone walks with face-recognition software to create complex metadata for analysis and identification.

I can't paste a link unfortunately but if you got the website, you should be able to find it.

illegally downloading music

An interesting case today of the law bringing an illegal music sharing service to justice. It goes to show how such activities are monitored and regulated. The question often put forward is the extent to which such laws (e.g. copyright) impinge upon creativity in the context of digitisation (e.g. Lessig) and work poorly. The counter argument is that without copyright laws the music industry would break down and that this would itself harm creativity.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tees/7057812.stm

scott

identity theft

Identity theft is a growing problem - on and off line. How much personal information do you "give away" on Facebook, MySpace etc? How often do you change your behaviour? Check your computer for viruses? Do you use multiple passwords (e.g. do you use the same password for email as you do when using it to log in for other accounts)?

It's costing the British economy £1.7Bn and 170,000 people are affected each year. Will an identity fraud Tsar help though, as is being suggested by MPs?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7031137.stm

"the mother of all demos"

Here are a couple of different versions of the Mother of All Demos (the main Stanford site seems to be down):

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8734787622017763097

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNXLK78ZaFo

And here is an interview discussing some of the developments.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.01/mouse_pr.html

Scott

Web 2.0: a revolution?

An interesting commentary piece in the Guardian today, discussing whether Web 2 constitutes anything new. The author, Anthony Lilley, describes how internet technologies have evolved into a social network - and believes that this has greatly increased their power. Others have characterised Web 2.0 as a re-birth of the internet along the "values" of the original inventors. We'll be debating this in in several lectures/seminars.

http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,,2180599,00.html

Scott