Taking the Measure

In weekend tech news from around the Web, a Massachusetts congressman touts energy legislation, Slate listens to the oldest oldie and compares Android with Windows 7, and the Guardian questions losses attributed to net pirates. Today, the Wall Street Journal says China will require all PCs shipped in the country to include software that blocks some Websites.

US Representative Edward J. Markey (D-Malden, MA) in the Boston Globe touts the Waxman-Markey bill, calling it “…the most sweeping energy legislation Congress has considered in a generation. The plan would end America's dangerous dependence on foreign oil, increase the amount of clean energy we produce, make our buildings, homes, cars, and trucks more efficient, and cut the harmful carbon pollution causing global warming.” He describes a race between companies in his state—including 1366 Technologies, American Superconductor, and Evergreen Solar—and companies offshore, noting that “…if we win the race, it could bring 150,000 new jobs and billions of dollars to Massachusetts.”

The New York Times is not too hopeful about jobs in the energy sector, saying, “One thing is clear: Some of the jobs lost in this recession are never coming back. And the promises of replacement jobs, in green technology, for instance, remain more a promise than a reality.

Jody Rosen in Slate revisits “The Oldest Oldie,” noting that “On March 28, 2008, American audio historians David Giovannoni and Patrick Feaster announced that they had unearthed a recording of the human voice made in April 1860, predating Thomas Edison's invention of the phonograph by nearly two decades”—a recording, apparently, of a woman singing "Au Clair de la Lune."

Rosen says that at the recent annual meeting of the Association for Recorded Sound Collections, the historians “unveiled some more astonishing finds, including a poetic recitation in Italian, the earliest audible record of recognizable human speech, dating from sometime in April or May 1860. They also announced a revision to their "Au Clair de la Lune" discovery. Because of a miscalculation in playback speed, the phonautogram released in 2008 was a kind of Chipmunks version of the original. In fact, the performer captured by Scott's machine on April 9, 1860, was not a young woman after all but a man, singing deliberately, a bit haltingly.” You can listen on Giovanonni and Feaster's Web site.

Also in Slate, Farhad Manjoo comments on Android. He describes Android as “…an OS that Google originally designed for mobile phones. But phones were just the beginning. More and more, Android is looking like Google's plan for going after Microsoft's cash cow.

“Don't get me wrong: Microsoft isn't in danger of losing its grip on PCs. When Windows 7, its well-designed new OS, goes on sale in October, it'll almost certainly become an instant blockbuster.”

It’s not clear why he thinks Windows 7 will be a blockbuster, however, as he goes on to explain that “…the PC business isn't what it used to be. In the past, the market was fueled by Moore's law—you bought a new laptop or desktop every couple of years because you needed more power to do more stuff…But lately lots of customers have been shunning the model…We're happy to trade in power for portability, battery life, Internet access, or a low price.”

In the Guardian, Ben Goldacre take issue with the claim that “Around seven million people in the UK are involved in illegal downloads, costing the economy tens of billions of pounds.” He cites a report in the Sun, saying, “MORE than 7 million Brits use illegal downloading sites that cost the economy billions of pounds, government advisers said today. Researchers found more than a million people using a download site in ONE day and estimated that in a year they would use £120bn worth of material." He writes, “This means each downloaded item, software, movie, mp3, ebook, is worth about £25. This already seems rather high. I am not an economist, but to me, for example, an appropriate comparator for someone who downloads a film to watch it once might be the rental value, not the sale value.” He also doubts that “…each downloaded item, software, movie, mp3, ebook, is worth about £25…I am not an economist, but to me, for example, an appropriate comparator for someone who downloads a film to watch it once might be the rental value, not the sale value.”

The Wall Street Journal reports that “China plans to require that all personal computers sold in the country as of July 1 be shipped with software that blocks access to certain Web sites, a move that could give government censors unprecedented control over how Chinese users access the Internet.” The Journal reports that the main target is pornography. The article quotes Susan Stevenson, spokeswoman for the US Embassy in Beijing, as saying, "We would view any attempt to restrict the free flow of information with great concern and as incompatible with China's aspirations to build a modern, information-based economy and society."