Geeks Are Not That Stupid

from the no,-really dept

Salon takes on two very stupid ideas. First, they absolutely trash the idea of the magazine scanner to help you better "click through" on magazine ads. I've already trashed the idea a few times so it's good to see I wasn't crazy (well, that's still an open question). I absolutely cannot believe that the company that makes those devices has said it's the "the biggest computer innovation since the mouse". That's scary. Salon also has an article on the stupid idea of asking hackers to crack the SDMI. If you don't know, SDMI is the Secure Digital Music Initiative which is designed to stop people from making more than one copy of a song. In trying to gain the support of hackers they created a contest (for only $10,000) to try and crack it. Most hackers are completely ignoring it for a number of very good reasons. Read the article for more details.
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