Boing Boing

Looking back at Wired 1.1

February 13, 2008 by Michael Boyle

In his blog Fimoculous, Rex Sorgatz takes a look back at Wired 1.1, which came out 15 years ago this month.

I caught up with Wired at # 1.2, the Crypto Rebels issue, which I bought at a newsstand on Rideau Street in Ottawa. I was already familiar with both Mondo 2000 and the original bOING bOING zine, but that’s not to say that seeing the same kind of material in a clearly more mainstream magazine wasn’t pretty cool.

I wouldn’t say that Wired changed my life – as far back as 1.2 people who were involved in the culture Wired covered were (often rightly) critical of the magazine. But within a year I was in the world that Wired was all about – I had moved to Montreal and was working at CTHEORY, immersed in some of the earliest online publishing and (elsewhere) web community activity.

It’s kind of hard to believe it has been 15 years.

In Boing Boing today,

October 25, 2006 by Michael Boyle

In Boing Boing today,

Xeni Jardin linked to an article in the IHT: Laptops, please: US law permits search, seizure at the border. On my way home from a recent trip from the US, I had this experience at Canadian customs. I was flagged by the guy and later he made a cursory look-see in my bag, he was most interested in the contents of my laptop. He was pretty chatty and said that one of their main missions at Canadian customs now was porn (along with guns and large sums of cash), which presumably was what he was checking on my machine.

Via Boing Boing today

January 26, 2006 by Michael Boyle

Via Boing Boing today

I have learned that a court in Nevada has ruled that Google ‘s cache is legal, or more specifically, that it constitutes Fair Use. This is an important issue because as we move forward into ever-more-complex relationships between writers, publishers, aggregators, and re-publishers, it’s important that there be a clear legal edifice for all of that activity to stand on – and with which people can assess the appropriateness and legality of new combinations as they are launched. You can also read the EFF’s Fred von Lohmann’s summary of the ruling.

The nice folks at Boing Boing

November 15, 2005 by Michael Boyle

The nice folks at Boing Boing

have posted a handy roundup and time-line of the news related to the Sony DRM fiasco. Word is that Sony has started a limited recall.

Cory Doctorow is so

November 9, 2005 by Michael Boyle

Cory Doctorow is so

outraged by the Sony/BMG EULA that it even prompts him to say good things about Apple’s iTMS! He’s right though – “Does a company that makes you agree to terms like these, a company that infects your computer with malicious software, seem competent to offer a service directly to the public?”