The chances of the big four letting apple do that are about zero.

Remember these people believe that DRM is a good thing for their business model. They also understand that if you buy a cd you are legally allowed to put it on your iPod and that these files will have no DRM. So by allowing people to transfer non-DRM files they know people can transfer there cds to each other.

The fact that you can obtain any music track they sell on pretty much any p2p network without any DRM and probably in a higher quality file, with ease is something that still seems to not register with them.

#6 posted by Doomstalk

Yes, more than viable if you're already in the industry. However there was a reason that Mac didn't release a mobile that looked and worked like any other phone. It's called competition.

Microsoft and Sony already control the market of the 'old' console way.

Nintendo decided to innovate and try something drastically different (yet hardly different at all as far as basic hardware, the Wii is basically a GameCube with Bluetooth and a nifty controller).

Who's making more money from the games market? Nintendo. 2 products that are much cheaper to produce, much less 'capable' than their closest competitors and yet selling much higher.

I'd bet that the iPhone is probably making more money for Mac than any single phone for any other company in the world. Why? Because it's not like it’s competitors.

@4. Jackasimov.

Haha. Good one.

------
What really infuriates me about England is their inability to see one simple fact about human behaivor.

If you treat people in a certain way, they will act that way.

Treat a man like a child he will begin to act like a child.
Treat him like a criminal and he'll act like one.

I'm not saying this is true 100% of the time, but I think it's fair to say it's true at least 90% of the time.

If England keeps treating it's citizens like thugs and criminals it will only escalate the problems. That is of course until you scare them completely into submission and then you have a population looking for revolution.

Is just me or is bouncing off the walls?

Also @Jake0748.
Most Aboriginal boomerangs where a simple piece of wood in a kind of L shape. (Although not usually with a 90 degree angle usually a bit straighter than that). However ancient Boomerangs have also been discovered in a number of other countries (in fact according to wikipedia the oldest one ever discovered was found in Poland, 20,000 years old).

And also for referrence, I'd guess that maybe 1% of the Australian population has any idea of how to throw a boomerang so that it comes back. I tried it once, it flew out of my hand much like any normal stick then dropped to ground without even starting to turn.

#38: If what you've got to say today isn't worth posting, skip a day.

If you don't find something worth reading, skip a post.
Considering you read the post and at least one of the comments (but I'm guessing you didn't just randomly decide to start at Post #30) then you have nothing to complain about.

I found his rant entirely funny. Well worth the read. To be honest I also found people's angry/upset rants about how offensive the post was to be funny. Maybe I'm an asshole.

Does your new manly dog tend to stay quiet when it should be barking like mad?
Have those annoying stuck up neighbours had too many nights of comfortable sleep in a row?
Here's the solution to these problems and more!
This bubble will let your dog see all the happenings of the street you're too lazy to take it out to!
This will guarantee any small child passing will get a scare that's bound to make everyone think you're tough and macho!
Screw the neighbours, if they can afford a Porche they can afford sound proof windows.

Awesome! Some of the coolest original street art I've seen in some time.
I think I'd be annoyed about the tagging over the top though.

Comment Number #446.

Ahh, boxed wine. Australia's finest invention.

I'm simply wondering how (if?) these tetra packages are more recyclable than an ordinary Cask wine or "goon" as known in the native Australian tongue?

And to Pineiro. I'm sure that it is the same in most countries that it's the cheaper wine that comes in boxes. However it is certainly not always the case here, you can buy good wines in boxes at reasonable prices or you can buy terrible wine in boxes at about $2.50 a litre.

My personal favorite is the catering cask of Morris Dry Red. 15 litres of reasonable wine at $40. The only drawback is you need to sacrifice quite a bit of bench space to place the thing.

I for one found this entire rant hilarious! It made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me force my cat to eat it's babies just so I could photograph the entire experience and produce a line of t-shirts.

JOFLOW - I think the simple solution to your problem is to be selective about which posts you read and how many of the sometimes excessive amounts of comments you read through. A nice comfortable mouse with scroll wheel may assist this process.

I can't think of a better example of Sci-Fi Westerns than Firefly.

Man that show was great. Wish they'd make a second season. Sadly my guess is that will never happen.

This story reminds me a lot of the story (posted on boingboing) last year(?) of the woman that walked into the phone company and smashed their phone.

I tell you if more people behaived like this the world would be a far better place.

Especially if (like Ed's case) the companies were the ones that lost out instead of the other way around (like that woman who was charged)

Awesome. The $90 US price tag gives me hope that when released in Australia I'm not going to be $200 broker [sic].

Has anyone tried the snowboarding game for this thing? It looks rad on the youtube clips however I'm yet to hear what it's like from anyone.

Also to the lovely tech people behind boingboing.
Still getting the 'text entered was wrong' error.

Sony only issued an apology for the root kit after a massive libel case.

I imagine that the same is not applicable here.

@ Ashely927.

I'm sure some elderly people would be insulted by this but I think vastly more would find it useful.

Think how many elderly already carry around some kind of emergency buzzer in case they fall over or something.

If you're arthritic small buttons are very hard to use. If you've got poor eyesight small screens have the same problem. Chances are if you're arthritic and partly blind you are going to fall over. So it all just makes perfect sense to me.

This thing is amazingly rad.

I think every dad needs one of these. That way at the end of every terribly lame 'dad' joke he can finish with a nice da-dom-dom-tsshhh to really give the whole experiance a bit of extra cheese.

I've ordered one. Next time I go to my folks house I'll install it, it will drive them mental. Then they'll call me insist the computer has gone crazy and get me to provide them with tech support for hours.

Oh wait. That's a terrible idea.
I might get one to play pranks on my housemate though. She deserves it on account of being a terrible person.

Is it just me or does every day seem that little bit closer to 1984?

Hell I wouldn't be surprised if the only thing he got wrong was the year. 2084? 2064? 2024?

Just wait till they start putting similar posters in schools encouraging kids to dob in their parents and family friends for suspicious behavior! Convert them young! Believe in the party!

War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength

I like this.
Nice spin on the classic 'Egg and Soldiers'. Mmm might have to get up early enough to cook & eat breakfast tomorrow.

@ #32 posted by xrm0

"1) train crows to bring coins
2) ????
3) profit!!!"

HA! You made me cough noodles I was halfway through swallowing.

@ #49 posted by rochrobb

"Could the crows be trained to peck litterers on the head? Or (if not bald), tug on their hair?"

Could the crows be trained to keep Ginger Kids away from my house? (nah just kiddings, gingers are alright)

@ #57 posted by ill lich

"
So. . . crows will literally "work for peanuts"?

If this backfires (for example if crows start shredding garbage bags to find trash to trade for peanuts, or stealing money from blind beggars cups), I guess Josh Klein is going to have to , uhhh . . . "eat crow."
"

In 10 years time perhaps all buskers and beggers will just have to carry a scarecrow wherever they're operating?

@ 11 - Pyros

I agree with everything you said except one small fact.

"I would expect in Kenya, some Balkan states, maybe South America, but not in America."

I would expect this in America. Infact I'd be suprised NOT to hear this sort of story during a US election and I live on the other side of the world. (Australia).

When I was in the states I heard a lot of people talk about it being 'a free Country' and 'freedom' hell everything was about 'freedom'.

Yet you don't have as much freedom as you think. Oh yes you might be legally allowed a gun, but compare your rights in the US to half of europe and you're looking pretty controlled.

Rigged elections, being arrested for photographing buildings from the street, some absurdly tight drug laws... the list could go on.

@ #3 Futwick

Right on.

More musicians signed to major labels come out with a debt rather than anything worth showing. So major labels might help a small percentage of artists. So what, half of these artists could make it on their own with today’s opportunities. The internet is not destroying the music industry, it's saving it.

I wonder how many excellent artists have had their music locked to a record label only to lose a lot of money and never be able to see any return from music they have written because at the time some douchebag signed them up to a crappy contract promising them fame and fortune?

Haha. I haven't had a chance to fiddle with this yet (at work) but the title is funny.
Especially if you've ever seen the Australian show 'We can be heroes'.

Brilliant Show.

"Hey, you're in the Wong Lab!"

"Hey everybody, how do you spell Fun. P-H-U-N, heh heh, Physics, Phun."

@ #24 posted by Papermache , February 20, 2008 8:22 AM

"US flights headed over to Alaska from the mainland."

Last time I checked, Alaska was the mainland. Perhaps you were thinking of Hawaii, the 50th state, not the 49th.

Ah yeah, I'm pretty sure there's a little thing called Canada between your mainland and Alaska.
So no, Alaska is not part of the US mainland.

Hmm my links didn't work.

Here they are in plain URL form.

Ned's Armour
http://www.webwombat.com.au/travel/articles/images/ned_armour.jpg

Ned's Wikipedia Article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_Kelly

The Bulletproof suit you mention looks quite similar to the famous Australian icon Ned Kelly.

Link to a picture of Ned's armour

Link to Wikipedia article about Ned

So you're telling me that if I sneak in some chloroform soaked cotton wool balls into my housemates rat cages they'll eat their own limbs and possibly bleed to death? Then all I have to do is remove the cotton wool and therefore all the evidence and it will just look like they all went crazy because of some weird rat virus?

Awesome.

Just to make sure.
Cory will still be posting his long awaited review of Ubuntu?

I'm happy that Terminal 6 is standing up to the insanity and making people take out all their electronics.

If we don't scan electrical cords properly how are we to know that they're not garot wire encased in plastic?

Oh no, I shouldn't have said that. I'll give the TSA ideas!

From now on all cords, electronics and clothing has to be stored in your stow away luggage. Which for safety reasons will not be flown on the same plane as you. In fact it will be shipped. That's right, ocean freight.

I recently went on a big holiday, spent some time in New York some time in Europe.
I can't really comment on who has the best Beer culture because I only spent time in capital cities but I'm a big beer fan. I enjoy tasting as many different beers as possible and especially love trying microbreweries out whenever possible.

Whilst in New York I found the bottled beer surprisingly good. Mainly because I'd been told by so many people that it was crap. True I avoided the Top 5. List (that crap is available in Australia and it's no good). I found the 'Pub' culture in New York quite lacking. I mean we came across a few good bars, etc. But none of them bars that seemed to pride themselves on good beer.

When I got to Europe I found all beer in Croatia crappy. Just the standard 'crisp, clean' typical of a lot of Europe. Although same thing, didn’t come across any brewed on site places, etc.
Spain was a bit better but still a bit the same. Although I do like the fact that they serve beers in tiny glasses, so that when you finish it it's still crisp cold and not flat.

Germany was disappointing. I'd heard so much good stuff about German beer, then I got to Berlin and I seemed to only find Pilsners and I didn't really come across much variation in flavour or quality. I'm told that to really experience German beer you have to get out of Berlin. So who knows.

By the end of my holiday I must say I didn't find much that truly captivated me and I was longing to get home and drink a nice cold refreshing Coopers Sparkling Ale.

This is the best mass manufactured beer for a decent price anywhere in the world. (It’s only about $1 more a six pack then the Australian equivalent of Bud)

http://www.coopers.com.au/beer.php?id=127&pid=1

Also Australia has a great Microbrewery culture. If anyone is ever in Western Australia make sure you check out the Little Creatures Brewery in Fremantle (just outside of Perth).