By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Intel Quietly Adds DRM to New Chips
Normally when a chip manufacturer introduces a revolutionary new feature it launches an advertising blitz. When it launches a feature none of its curtomers want, however, it keeps pretty quiet about it. That has been the case with Intel and its very quiet introduction of digital rights management (DRM) into some of its new processors. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. We Are All Apprenticing at Light Speed
If there is a theme for today's newsletter, it is probably this. "We are all improvising at some fundamental level; making it up as we go along. Instead of looking for someone with an answer to copy, we now have to participate in the invention process ourselves." You cannot learn it all - you certainly cannot learn it all ahead of time. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. You Own Nothing
Michael Robertson - founder of the Linux company Linspire (formerly known as Lindows) - explains why he funded a $200,000 prize for the first person to install Linux on a Microsoft Xbox. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Authentication and Identification
On the one hand, we have the assertion that I am a certain person. That is 'identification'. It is the specific process of attaching an identity of a presence - either a physical presence, or in the context of our current enquiry, a virtual presence. And on the other hand we have the verification - the means of proof that what I say is true, that there is sufficient evidence for my claim. That is 'authentication'. In this paper I argue that we we don't need authentication, that authentication won't work, and that people don't want it. What will work? What do people want? Identification. By Stephen Downes, Stephen's Web, May 3, 2005 [Refer][Research][Reflect]. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. REM Song Row Halts Film
It's not often you can strike a blow against both education and the environment at once, but with copyright laws being what they are, I guess, you can do anything. More...

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Imagining the World: The Case for Non-Rendered Virtuality - the Role Play Simulation Model
A 'rendered' virtual environment is one in which the scene is generated dynamically by the computer, such as in Doom or Quake or in flight simulators. The author's argument in this paper is that rendering in educational games detracts from a focus on pedagogy and is, moreover, unnecessary. More...

Cette technologie est surtout associée aux cryptomonnaies comme le Bitcoin. Elle est donc moins connue du grand public et suscite parfois de la méfiance. Toutefois, elle procure un avantage considérable, que soulignent tous ceux qui croient en ses vertus, contre les fausses nouvelles : elle est infalsifiable parce qu’elle est reproduite et authentifiée dans un fichier de comparaison, partagé sur un réseau. Plus...