Pixelated Semantics

Snarfing your monoculture

Bluetooth-enabled phones have a vulnerability that is currently described as "bluesnarfing," which means that an attacker could read, modify and copy the address book and calendar, leaving no traces of intrusion. Meanwhile the Microsoft Patent onslaught is finding some strangely non-IT-related corners to monopolise, the latest being "methods and apparatus for encouraging viewers to pay attention to television programs, commercials in particular, by offering viewers some incentive to watch". How this can be regarded as innovative and unprecedented is as mysterious as the motivation for seeking such a patent - although one could speculate that this is consistent with attempts to create a new TV technology monoculture - or perhaps recent research into media-related behaviour may shed light: "If you want to learn about someone's personality, look at their video collection."

Item posted by AutoEditor at 11:56 am ::