Sesame Street DVD Deemed Adult-Only Entertainment

Paul

theodp writes
“The earliest episodes of Sesame Street are being made available on DVD, but the NYT notes Volumes 1 and 2 carry a rather strange warning: ‘These early ‘Sesame Street’ episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today’s preschool child.’ So why are they unsuitable for toddlers in 2007? Well, in the parody ‘Monsterpiece Theater,’ Alistair Cookie — played by Cookie Monster — used to appear with a pipe, which he later gobbled. ‘That modeled the wrong behavior,’ explained a Sesame Street executive producer, adding that ‘we might not be able to create a character like Oscar [the Grouch] now.'”

Oh Brother what is going on here, they should know better than that. I bet when they release 2007 in about 20 years it will be the same. Get over it and understand that KIDS will probably see this without a shrug from parents.

AMD launches quad-core Phenom — Intel shrugs

Paul

Just like we heard, AMD has gone live with Phenom. With it, we’ve got an entire new platform, codenamed “Spider.” The Spider PC platform combines AMD Phenom quad-core processors, ATI Radeon HD 3800 series graphics, and AMD 7-series chipsets with CrossFireX and AMD OverDrive software for what AMD calls the “Ultimate visual Experience.” That’s the hype. Early reviews, however, are pretty much “underwhelmed” by the launch. Oh, the HD 3800 cards are ok (for mid-range graphics) and the 7-series chipset “is in good shape,” but AMD needs to roll-on those clock speeds beyond the 2.2GHz Phenom 9500 ($251), 2.3GHz Phenom 9600 ($283) and 2.4GHz and 2.6GHz Phenon 9700 and 9900 (available in Q1 2008 for $300 and $350, respectively), and do it quick, if they hope to pull ahead of Intel’s quad-core offerings. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem likely.

Read — AMD Spider press release

Read — PC Perspective benchmark
Read — HotHardware benchmark

Nice I would love to have one of those Quad cores. Maybe later.

Comcast Targets Unlicensed Anime Torrenters

Paul

SailorSpork writes
“According to a thread on the forums of AnimeSuki, a popular anime bittorent index site, Comcast has begun sending DCMA letters to customers downloading unlicensed fan-subtitled anime shows via bittorrent. By ‘unlicensed’, they mean that no english language company has the rights to it. The letters are claiming that the copyright holder or an authorized agent are making the infringement claims, though usually these requests are also sent to the site itself rather that individual downloaders. My question is have they really been in contact with Japanese anime companies, or is this another scare tactic by Comcast to try and reduce the bandwidth use of their heavier customers now that their previous tactics have come under legal fire?“

Can comcast do this if they get these from outside of the US. He ask the same question as do I, Have they been in contact with the Anime Companies because wouldn’t it be better for them to do it then Comcast?

PayPal To Offer Virtual Credit Card Payment Product

Paul1 Reply

Paypal will launch a new virtual credit card payment product Tuesday.

The new service “PayPal Secure Card” generates a one use unique Mastercard number that Paypal users can utilize to make payments on sites that don’t take Paypal. According to Reuters, the software package with PayPal Secure Card automatically recognizes an e-commerce checkout page and fills out the payment information for the user.

The move is said to be in response to Google’s Checkout service (launched June 06) that also stores financial details for secure online payments.

It’s a great idea; not only does this open up Paypal accounts to shopping on sites that don’t take Paypal, it also provides credit card access to folks who don’t have a credit card (or similar credit style debit card), either by choice or because they are unable to obtain one. On the security front it also provides an alternative to using your actual credit card online, a secure way of using your credit card (if linked to your Paypal account) without the risk of your real details being disclosed.

RIAA told to show cause why .edu subpoenas shouldn’t be quashed

Paul

A federal judge in Washington, DC, has handed the RIAA another setback in its campaign against on-campus file-sharing. In Arista v. Does 1-19, a case brought against 19 George Washington University students by the Big Four record labels, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has ordered the RIAA to show cause why the ex parte subpoenas issued to GWU shouldn’t be quashed.

Judge Kollar-Kotelly’s order comes in response to a motion filed by Doe number three last week. In that motion, the unnamed student asked the judge to quash the subpoena, arguing that the RIAA was relying on the wrong law to obtain the subpoena, and furthermore, that there was no applicable law that authorized the issue of ex parte subpoenas to colleges and universities.

Oh brother is the RIAA really getting into trouble now. Since they seem to think they have to do it for everyone. I hope the judge does quash this right now. It would be a real victory to defeat the RIAA!