Nifty Corners Cube is an image-free way of building rounded corners!
The DMCA and You
As noted on Copyfight, the Cato Institute has released Circumventing Competition: The Perverse Consequences of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which takes the law to task for being anti-competitive and derides “Congressional interference in the market for digital rights management technologies.” As noted in the report:
Why won’t iTunes play on Rio MP3 players? Why are viewers forced to sit through previews on some DVDs when they could have fast-forwarded through them on video? Why is it impossible to cut and paste text on Adobe eBook? In a just released study for the Cato Institute, Tim Lee, a policy analyst at the Show-Me Institute, answers these questions and more.
The new legislation’s most profound effects will be on the evolution of digital media technologies. We have grown accustomed to, and benefit from, a high-tech world that is freewheeling, open-ended, and fiercely competitive. Silicon Valley is a place where upstarts like Apple, Netscape, and Google have gone from two-man operations to billion-dollar trendsetters seemingly overnight. The DMCA threatens to undermine that competitive spirit by giving industry incumbents a powerful legal weapon against new entrants.
This is yet another clear sign that the DMCA affects every single one of us, no matter what our political leanings may be.
Docking boxes
Docking boxes (dbx) “adds animated drag ‘n’ drop, snap-to-grid, and show/hide-contents functionality to any group of elements. And … in what might be another world-first for brothercake – dbx is fully accessible to the keyboard as well as the mouse, an action I’ve dubbed “press ‘n’ move”.” This looks interesting, and may well join my tool box for future sites. Though I need to compare its functionality with some of the other JS tool sets that are AJAXified, I’m very excited about the fact that it is keyboard accessible, and hope that it degrades nicely for screen readers.
XP on MacTel is official
The fine folks at Engadget bring word that the installation of Windows XP on an Intel-powered Mac has been verified, generating $13,000 of prize money for the winner, narf2006. It sounds like extensive hacking was involved, so it is by no means ready for the public, but it should provide a starting point from which developers can build an open source project to spread the love. More info to be posted on the official site.
Selenium IDE Extension
Selenium IDE is a Firefox extension that is a “very easy to use and powerful tool for controlling, automating or testing web sites. If there is any repetitive or predictable task that you are always doing in your browser why not let the Selenium IDE handle it for you.”
SXSW: The Land of Two Beers
Cindy, one of the cool folks I met at SXSW Interactive this year, posted this great shot of Guy and me drinking at the opening party held by Frog. Guy and I had each snagged a beer for the other without knowing it – so, two beers for each of us! Note the intricately placed happy face sticker on my head – I’m approchable!