And so, at last, there are two piles of paper: a short one of stuff to read, and a tall one of stuff to throw away. Unfortunately, many people are taking the logic of this process one step further. Instead of buying a paper in order to throw most of it away, they are not buying it in the first place.
No one knows how all this will play out. But it is hard to believe that there will be room in the economy for delivering news by the Rube Goldberg process described above. That doesn’t mean newspapers are toast. After all, they’ve got the brand names. You gotta trust something called the “Post-Intelligencer” more than something called “Yahoo” or “Google,” don’t you? No, seriously, don’t you? Okay, how old did you say you are?
Daily Archives: January 8, 2006
Video DRM Morass (Digital Restrictions Management)
Tristan Louis nicely summarizes the morass that is proprietary video distribution online.
Genetic Testing for the Rest of Us – over the Internet
DNA Direct offers genetics tests that can reveal a predisposition to a half dozen diseases or conditions, among them breast and ovarian cancer, cystic fibrosis, clotting disorders and infertility. Phelan obtained her chromosomal analysis the same way any client could. She spoke with the company’s genetic counselor and then went for a blood test. The counselor reviewed the findings to help her interpret what they meant. In Phelan’s case, the results provided a surprise — what looked like partial Turner’s syndrome. It was a possible clue to her past struggle with infertility, although she’s never had any other symptoms.
“When I realized this I was thrilled,” she said. “There may have been an underlying genetic factor. … I thought, wow, women could go through this and have this help. It can work backward and help diagnose the past.”