News: Offline Smut Goes Way Of All Flesh

By | November 24, 2011
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 Seems there’s only room for so much porn. Offline, hardcopy pornography — porn mags, to you and me — is going the way of all flesh. AP quotes veteran pornographer Al Goldstein as saying he has “stopped publishing Screw magazine and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, giving him a chance to cut costs, relaunch the magazine and refocus attention on his Web site.”
 
 
Founded in 1968, Screw was a hit for a while, but now, Goldstein says,  ”we are an anachronism; we are dinosaurs; we are elephants going to the bone cemetery to die. … The delivery system has changed, and we have to change with it if we want to survive.”
 

Update: Nokia Not In The Clear Over Exploding Phones

By | November 24, 2011
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 A Belgian consumer watchdog reckons Nokia’s claims that exploding batteries in their phones — more than 20 cases this year, according to Nokia — are non-original replacements is not necessarily true. Test-Aankoop, The Register says, claims that some Nokia batteries are also unprotected against short-circuiting.
 
Rubbish, says Nokia. But then it would.

News: The MP3 Party Is Over?

By | November 24, 2011
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 CNN reports that more than a million households deleted all the digital music files they had saved on their PCs in August, a sign that the record industry’s anti-piracy tactics are hitting home. It quoted research company NPD Group as crediting the ongoing anti-piracy campaign by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and said publicity about the move led more consumers to delete musical files. In August, 1.4 million households deleted all music files, whereas prior to August, deletions were at much lower levels, according to Port Washington.

Software: Spam Blocker Or Spammer?

By | November 24, 2011
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 It sounds good in theory, but I have my qualms. Smartalec Internet Security Suite 2004 combines a firewall, and anti-worm block, and a spam blocker, all for $20. But when I click on the main link to buy it from their online website, Live Wire Media, I’m diverted to a website inviting me to get paid for doing surveys. Is this a mix-up, an elaborate scam, or is the company that makes Smartalec also on the other side of the spam business? I like to use software which isn’t from the big boys, but nowadays it pays to check the provenance of even the most kosher-sounding programs.
 
(This, in case you’re interested, is the page advertising the product, and this is the link inviting you to go for more information, which then seems to default to the PayForSurveys.com website.)