Napster Takes On iPod With New, Portable Service

mtv.com

The music-subscription service Napster unveiled a portable version on Wednesday that will allow it to tackle Apple’s popular iPod head-on.

Napster SUCKS! I want to strongly discourage anyone from visiting this site or testing their service. Myself and several others that I have spoken with have experienced the same intentionally misleading pricing model in which they tricked us during the trial period into paying a subscription fee if you did not explicitly cancel the trial within a certain period. I contacted them several times about this via email, which finding the correct dept was quite an undertaking, and we treated with a great deal of disrespect. In the end I was tricked into making a $15 (or something) payment and then wasted several hours of my time just figuring out how to cancel the subscription. Mind you I did not download a single song yet they managed to milk me for about the price of a CD as well as several hours of my time. NAPSTER SUCKS. They are intentionally misleading people and making it difficult to cancel subscriptions.

So-called U.S. hostage appears to be toy

CNN

CNN) — A photograph posted on an Islamist Web site appears to be that of an action figure and not a U.S. soldier being held hostage.

Liam Cusack, the marketing coordinator for Dragon Models USA, said the figure pictured on the Web site is believed to be “Special Ops Cody,” a military action figure the company manufactured in late 2003.

Go Joe!

Freedom of what?

CNN

WASHINGTON (AP) — The way many high school students see it, government censorship of newspapers may not be a bad thing, and flag burning is hardly protected free speech.

It turns out the First Amendment is a second-rate issue to many of those nearing their own adult independence, according to a study of high school attitudes released Monday.

The original amendment to the Constitution is the cornerstone of the way of life in the United States, promising citizens the freedoms of religion, speech, press and assembly.

Yet, when told of the exact text of the First Amendment, more than one in three high school students said it goes “too far” in the rights it guarantees. Only half of the students said newspapers should be allowed to publish freely without government approval of stories.

“These results are not only disturbing; they are dangerous,” said Hodding Carter III, president of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which sponsored the $1 million study. “Ignorance about the basics of this free society is a danger to our nation’s future.”

The students are even more restrictive in their views than their elders, the study says.

When asked whether people should be allowed to express unpopular views, 97 percent of teachers and 99 percent of school principals said yes. Only 83 percent of students did.

The results reflected indifference, with almost three in four students saying they took the First Amendment for granted or didn’t know how they felt about it. It was also clear that many students do not understand what is protected by the bedrock of the Bill of Rights.

Three in four students said flag burning is illegal. It’s not. About half the students said the government can restrict any indecent material on the Internet. It can’t.

Sad.

Science Fiction Becomes Reality With New Holograph Machine

Korea Times

The idea of a real holograph, a free-floating video image suspended in mid-air, has always been the stuff of science fiction. Usually not the near future kind, either. Movies that depict the use of holographs tend to be set centuries into the future.

Scientific breakthroughs have a way of sneaking up on us though _ and pouncing when we least expect it.

That may describe the way you feel should you visit IO2’s Web site (io2technology.com) and take a look at the videos showcasing their “Heliodisplay.’’

Developed by Chad Dyner at IO2, the surprisingly compact Heliodisplay, which is about the size of an average PC case laid on its side (and only a bit noisier), is said to intake air, “alter’’ it, then expel it and use lasers to project the image onto the “still invisible’’ conditioned air.

Rock on. Sign me up!