Look at Technology (monthly column)
by Richard Leader

February 15, 2000

BMG Protects Music Discs

Now that prices for low-end CD-ROM copiers have fallen to the magic $100 mark and are one of the hottest selling items in electronic stores, the distributors of entertainment media are hard pressed to protect their inflated profit margins. The manufacturers of computer games have always been forced to deal with issues of piracy, and have been guarding their CD's from would be copiers for over a year. Using such tricks as scattering "dummy" or "Spam" files across their discs so that they will falsely register as too large to copy, or by using an encryption system, such as Safe Disc which is used by mega-publisher Electronic Arts, which embeds a unique digital signature into the physical CD before it is pressed. Each time the software is used, the encryption gate must be opened in order for the computer to read the disc by having the original CD in the drive. Unfortunately, Safe Disc is also incompatible with many models of CD-ROM drives, which are unable to recognize a disc using it at all.

BMG, one of the largest publishers of music, is now interested in employing a similar encryption device to protect its own wares. "Cactus Data Shield," developed by Midbar and Sonopress, was created to stop the ripping of audio CD's into MP3 files, but can also prevent the outright copying of discs. By placing the music in an encrypted format that differs somewhat from the Redbook Audio standard to which music discs are supposed to adhere. This means, that not only will this create a headache for people making illegal copies, it will create a headache for people who only try to play their music on a computer or on some regular CD players as well.

The first CD's slated for the Cactus treatment are Him's Razorblade Romanceand Philip Boa & The Voodoo Club's My Private War. The only warning that the discs won't work on all CD players is a brief disclaimer of "Copy-protected CD - Not at the PC playable!"

The German Division of BMG recently dumped about 100,000 protected CD's into the marketplace and about four percent of them were immediately returned after they were purchased. It seems that not only was their use in regular players suspect, their use in car audio equipment was even more problematic. BMG reissued the offending disc in a non-protected format, but is still interested in pursuing the Cactus Data Shield technology. Consumers will just have to deal with it.

Playstation 2 Update

Sony is in a great position to be in, with Sega's Dreamcast already out and less than a compelling upgrade for most Playstation gamers and Nintendo's next mythical system the Dolphin a light-year away, Sony will be able to continue their market saturation while having the time to perfect their "Next Big Thing."

The Playstation 2, which has suffered from no lack of hype, will be released this sometime this summer in Japan, and will be making its US debut somewhat later, perhaps well into September. While the technology is complete, Sony is making every possible attempt to keep its price down, as the DVD capable system is slated to retail for nearly $400. The Playstation 2 uses a kind of memory that is similar to a new kind used in home computers, known as Rambus or RDRAM, which is very expensive, selling at over $9 a megabyte. The 32 Megabytes of memory that Sony expects to include in the system contributes to over half of its final purchase price. Toshiba, the company that is co-developing the main computer processor for the new system and who is supplying the memory, has just discovered a new technique to cut costs by shrinking the die-size of the silicon used in the chips by 8%. By this Fall, even further refinements may be made. Sony has already claimed that they will be leveraging the price of their new system by lowering profit margins on hardware, as the bulk of their profits ride on the purchase of software. A $200 Playstation 2 just might be a reality. Then again, maybe not.

While the new system was supposedly backwardly compatible with older Playstation games, this is not guaranteed as many game developers in the past have not followed Sony's instructions to conform to a rigid programming standard. In English: like the computer software Bleem!, which lets you run Playstation games on the PC, only about 300 titles will be likely to work properly.

The game line-up for the Playstation 2 is impressive, with titles such as Tekken Tag Tournament and Street Fighter Ex3 to be fighting it out for the head-to-head crown, as well as some very unexpected sequels to some old favorites, such as a new Ninja Gaiden and a very impressive Gradius.

Web Page of the Week

http://www.mulletsgalore.com/

Remember the late 1980's? Well, believe it or not, some people have either been living in a closet or under a rock and are still showing off the awesome 80's hairstyle known as the mullet. If you don't know what a mullet is, I will take this opportunity to tell you. The mullet is a hairstyle usually short in the front and long in the back. It can take on many different names like Shlong, hockey hair, etc. It' you are in search of the elusive mullet, I highly recommend that you check this page out, and get in touch with the Camaro driving, Wal Mart shipping, white trash person inside us all.

February 22, 2000

New Game Boy

This August, in Japan, Nintendo will be releasing their next generation hand held--the Game Boy Advance. Unlike the Game Boy Color which recently put a new face on ten year old technology, the Advance might just live up to its name. Packing so many features, it sounds too good to be true (and very well could turn out to not be)--it is said that it will also double as a cell phone/pager unit and feature internet access for news, email, and games. A built in digital camera is also slated to be included in the basic design. Expected to retail for $99, the Advance should make its US appearance this Christmas.

Windows 2000

Last week, Microsoft premiered their Windows 2000, the computer Operating System (OS) intended to bridge the gap between the Windows 98 that is used on the bulk of home computers and the business OS of choice, Windows NT, which offers Fort Knox like security and severe headaches- for most casual users. While not entirely successful in this regard as Microsoft is releasing a Windows 98 update this May called Windows Millennium Edition, it is still seen as a welcome addition to the Microsoft family. New OSs are notorious for upping the demands made on hardware, especially the power of the computer's CPU and the amount of memory required to run them smoothly. Sales of these components are likely to go through the roof, even at this time when there are shortages and inflated prices for both. In the next few months, buy stock in tech not a new computer.

While the $200 Windows 2000 might be crash proof compared to Windows 98, a recent memo that was obtained by ZDNet describes over 60,000 defects in it programming code which might well result in the production of over 28,000 real bugs.

Web Page of the Week

The Gary Coleman Web a Thon

http://webathon.ugo.com/

A veteran of Different Strokes, Howard Stern, and pimp slapping lawsuits, our favorite little guy--Gary Coleman--now has a cyber shrine built in his honor. Under Ground Online brings us this side show, with Gary in all his glory, as well as some of the highest production values ever seen on the Internet. Check out groovin' tunes waxing poetic about his tribulations, listen in on "reconstructions" of 976 number calls that he made--or even make a bid on some of his old clothes.