Save your fingers

How SawStop Works
Thanks to Alex for the link:
The SawStop system works by recognizing the difference in the electrical properties of wood and a user. The system induces a high-frequency electrical signal on the blade of a table saw and monitors this signal for changes caused by contact between the blade and a user’s body. The signal remains unchanged when the blade cuts wood because of the relatively small inherent electrical capacitance and conductivity of wood. However, when a user contacts the blade while the saw is operating, the electrical signal changes because of the relatively large inherent capacitance of the user’s body.

Lessig’s new book, Free Culture

== Free Culture ==
From the site:
All creative works – books, movies, records, software, and so on – are a compromise between what can be imagined and what is possible – technologically and legally. For more than two hundred years, laws in America have sought a balance between rewarding creativity and allowing the borrowing from which new creativity springs. The original term of copyright set by the Constitution in 1787 was seventeen years. Now it is closer to two hundred. Thomas Jefferson considered protecting the public against overly long monopolies on creative works an essential government role. What did he know that we’ve forgotten?

I have uploaded a PDF copy of Lessig’s book, Free Culture, download it.

Getting out of your employees way

InfoWorld: Fired up IT: March 19, 2004: By Chad Dickerson : APPLICATION_DEVELOPMENT : APPLICATIONS
About the book: Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams by Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister
From the book review/article (culled from the book):
Protecting the productivity of your top performers is essential to managing successful projects. According to studies cited in the book, the best people will outperform the worst by about 10-to-1. The best performer will outperform a median performer by 2.5 times. Finally, on average, the one-half of performers who are better-than-median will typically outdo the other half by 2-to-1.

The powerbooks are taking over

Streaming Media, Inc.
From the release:
The key features of the Streambox ACT-L3 Portable Video Transport System are:
-Real-time compression of 1/2 D1 (352x480i) interlaced video 30 fps on a PowerBook G4 with a 1.25 Ghz CPU or higher. The system supports full D1 resolution at 15 fps and higher.
-The ACT-L3 Codec produces high quality video transmissions at data rates as low as 64 kbps and higher over IP, sat-phones, 802.11 and 3G wireless networks. Optimal full resolution broadcast quality is available with IP satellite systems or land-based DSL lines.
-Live DV Video capture from camera via Firewire input.
-Works seamlessly with existing NLE editing software such as Apple’s Final Cut Pro.™
-Advanced Forward Error Correction technology recovers and cancels packet loss and overcomes jitter and buffering.
-Bandwidth shaping technology controls and prevents video overflow at satellites, routers and network switches for smooth video delivery.

Indie record stores tell us the the RIAA is full of it..

Wired News: Record Stores: We’re Fine, Thanks
Interesting, from the article:
High prices, rather than file sharing, are what usually stop a kid from buying a CD, Wiley said.
Typically, the music industry wants stores to sell CDs for $18 when they should be going for $15, he said. That $3 can make the difference in terms of whether or not a CD is going to sell.

Unless I am completely nuts, Rob Glaser doesn’t have a clue

Real’s Glaser exhorts Apple to open iPod | CNET News.com
From the article:
Because Apple’s iPod music player does not support other proprietary music formats and does not license its own format to rivals, Real’s Rhapsody and other song sites are blocked from easily reaching iPod users.
“Apple’s (market) share will go down if they continue to do this. The only way to presently put songs on an iPod is to (buy) them from iTunes,” Glaser said, referring to downloads purchased from online music stores. In addition to iTunes songs, the iPod can play files encoded in the MP3 format, including tracks ripped from CDs.

Hey Rob, the iPod supports MP3, duh!!! If you would open up, then you would be fine, but no, Real/Rhapsody does do MP3, does it..!? Wait, Rhapsody does support Mac users either, hows that for open.. He he he, Glaser is full of it..