The Null Device
2001/4/18
The net is closing around luddites and those not fond of those dreadful new-fangled computers everybody's using these days. Now, it seems that not even the traditional refuge of the pub is safe; a survey has found that almost half of pub conversations are about computers. Moreover, a quarter of women would rather discuss computers than their family life, and a third of dinner party conversations are about computers. Mind you, this is in the UK, where computers were traditionally a status symbol for the upper strata of the eviscerated neo-Thatcherite middle classes.
Chocolate giant Cadbury has condemned child slavery in the African cocoa industry. Meanwhile, Nestlé, no stranger to the sacrificing of disposable African children for profits, has made no statement.
And now to the Miss Universe pageant, and in particular, to Israel's contestant, appearing in a bulletproof dress. (via Plastic)
Entertainment Network, the company which brought you Voyeur Dorm (sort of like a more sleazy JenniCam that took credit cards), is at it again; this time they are petitioning to be allowed to webcast the McVeigh execution, arguing that the public are currently being denied their Constitutional right to hoot and jeer.
Taiwan MP3 raid update: Taiwanese government sides with raided students, meanwhile, the IFPI have been forced to distance themselves from the raid, and swallow some of their break-the-law-and-we'll-break-you rhetoric. AFAIK, the students still haven't gotten their computers back, though.
Remember the CueCat? The little freebie scanner which was meant to shepherd customers to promotional websites and e-commerce sites? Remember the uproar when the penguinheads found a way of getting a free general-purpose bar code scanner, paid for by the CueCat marketing budget? Well, anti-corporate culture-jamming outfit RTMark, better known for subverting ads, has topped that with CueHack. Scan a product and it gives you not the promotional website for it, but the dirt on the product manufacturer's dirty tricks and reasons for boycotting them. Impress your dreadlocked vegan bicyclist friends! (Assuming they run Windows, that is.)