The Null Device

2001/2/24

Lev's Public Transport Library Project seems like a pretty doovy idea.

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In the not-too-distant futures, electronic devices may self-destruct if exported outside of their target market. Motorola have developed a device, based on a miniaturised GPS receiver, which determines where an appliance is being used and disables it if it has been illicitly exported. I'm sure the MPAA would love to put these devices in all DVD players, right next to the Macrovision chip, though one could imagine other greedy bastards putting them into everything from wristwatches to toasters and charging extra for portability, much in the way that Microsoft charge for per-head software licences. Funny how these people only favour free trade if it empowers multinational corporations and not the sheeplike consumers waiting to be fleeced.

architectures of control tech 0

The Mahir of 2001: Another update about the All Your Base meme: there's this Zero Wing FAQ, which speculates that the amusing translation is a result of Toaplan being too underfunded to properly localise it for Europe. and the job falling on some staffer who was studying English at night school, or somesuch.

Toaplan themselves went out of business in the mid-90s, but someone must own the copyrights/trademarks of Zero Wing; perhaps we will be faced with the prospect of them jumping on the bandwagon and commissioning an official All Your Base Belong To Us pop single, following on from the Ham(p)ster Dance and Mahir's dance-pop effort.

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