End of Life for the Cell Processor, Debunking the Cat Brain Simulation, and More

• When piracy isn’t theft
  Glyn Moody linked to this excellent consideration of some of the rhetoric around the tabled Digital Economy Bill. The Guardian article pulls together much of the objections, dismissing most as irrelevant as it suggests that there is a positive aspect we need to be emphasizing: free access to knowledge as its own normative right.
• EC warns Spain over three strikes plan
  According to The Register, Viviane Reding is once again surprisingly speaking in defense of consumers, not only advocating for judicial oversight of any disconnection policy but also a presumption of innocence. The article also points out that it may be likely that any such disconnection plan would be for commercial piracy. This is certainly more consistent with Spain’s declaration for access to broadband as a right and its existing levy on blank media.
• IBM bringing the Cell processor to an end
  I was a fan of this processor at the time it came out. Jon Stokes at Ars paints this as perhaps a consequence of the processor being a bit ahead of its time. He also clearly calls out the few but critical differences between the Cell and later, similar designs that no doubt make chips like Larrabee more approachable to program and ultimately better performing.
• Rebutting a public option for media
  I don’t often agree very strong with Adam Thierer or the usual suspects at TLF as I am just too darn skeptical of an unregulated free market. However, I think he’s done a fine job taking apart what appears to me to be a very bad idea, Free Press’ suggestion of essentially government run media. I can understand why they proposed such a plan, there simply is no clear resolution for the current situation big media is foundering in but here I have to side with the TLF’s usual view, that innovation will be better served by the market. More than that, the critical role of journalism is a check on the government could be seriously compromised by this public option-like idea.
• Criticism of IBM’s announced cat-brain simulation
  Judging from the IEEE Spectrum post, there appears to be a history with this critic. That doesn’t make his objections wrong and in the letter quoted, he cites what seem to me to be some pretty compelling details to rein in the announcement back to some version of reality. I’m going to have to go back and see if there was any peer review of the original work or just press releases.
• Is Chrome OS about free, ad supported netbooks?
  I hadn’t really though about the privacy concerns of Chrome OS until Glyn Moody pointed them out alongside suggesting this theory. I think it is plausible but I’d still pay a premium to be able to control my own software and data as well as to be able to perform tasks that the cloud just isn’t up to yet, like serious multimedia heavy lifting.

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