The Null Device
2000/12/25
RMS weighs in on the proposed hard disk copy control system. As you can imagine, he does not have many kind words to say about it. Meanwhile, IBM's spin doctors try to dispel concerns about the draconian new technology, and come off quite unconvincing.
In Australia, Overwork is overtaking unemployment as the number one labour-market problem. The working week has been growing longer each year over the past 17 years; thanks to deregulation and job insecurity, workers are competing to put in more time to avoid being turfed out into the dole queues; after all, there's someone waiting in line right behind you who would be more than happy to put in a 50-hour week if you're not.
"Christmas celebrations will be dampened by exhaustion as millions of workers try to recover from a year of laboring harder and longer than ever,"
The author of the Australian Bureau of Statistics report said that the Federal Government should introduce schemes to encourage people to work less. What, and reduce productivity, the one absolute, quantifiable good that exists in the economic-rationalist world-view? Somehow I don't see it happening with the current government in place (especially now that with the mythical "level playing field" we have to compete with countries where they don't have weekends or holiday leave).
A piece on Sarah Kane, who was sort of the Ian Curtis of contemporary British theatre. Apparently a collected edition of her plays is coming out soon too.
In Japan, which doesn't have the Christian/Pagan traditions underlying the annual orgy of consumerism, Christmas is all about bootywhang.