LATEST ADDITIONS

How long do CD-Rs last? Not long, says IBM's Kurt Gerecke. Two years on average&mdash;five, if you keep it in a cool dark place. <I>Phew</I> that's where I keep mine . . . wait a minute, I just remembered I don't.

"More common than you'd think," says <I>National Geographic</I>. Makes sense&mdash;they can run 60mph over broken ground and, if Huckleberry is anything to judge by, a cat in full jetpack mode pays scant heed to obstructions&mdash;even walls.

<I>Digital Music For the Future</I> says so, asking, "is the record industry ready to face the music?" Interesting essay&mdash;and one that says , "the record industry is stuck in a time warp, always several years behind. That would mean 2006 is the new 1999. The Internet boom and music sales have reached their climax, anything is possible, and the digital entertainment world was ready for something to pop."

Neither, a new article at <I>EE Times</I> suggests: There might be an engineering gene&mdash;and the University of Minnesota has the MRIs to prove it.

Japanese physicists have built a bi-directional single-electron ammeter that can detect individual electrons flowing either forwards or backwards. Practical applications might include nanoelectronics, calibration devices, quantum computation, and biology. That banging noise you hear is John Atkinson in Sioux Falls pounding his head against the desk, muttering "Want one!"

<I>The Wall Street Journal</I> ran a DRM debate between the MPAA's Fred Attaway and Brooklyn Law School's Wendy Seltzer that is a thing of beauty. Attaway calls DRM "the key to consumer choice."

The EFF's Fred von Lohmann posts about the Consumer Electronics Association's (CEA) new ad reminding Congress that the RIAA;s (and MPAA's) high dudgeon over copying is nothing new&mdash;and that such hysteria has been historically short sighted.