Some people have too much free time. Using the same ASCII characters that you type on your keyboard, New Zealander Simon Jansen is re-creating most of the original 1977 “Star Wars” as frame-by-frame animation (www.asciimation.co.nz). He began in 1997, but he’s gotten only as far as the destruction of Alderaan. At that rate, he’ll never get to Jar Jar.
The average web user can easily access less than 20 percent of U.S. government sites, the Commerce Department discovered last year. The solution? A new service called usgovsearch.com, which lets you search 4 million federal Web-site pages and a vast archive of summarized descriptions of government-funded research projects. Public schools and libraries will soon get free access to the site; individuals must pay $5 a day.
MUSICTwo Net Wins in the MP3 Wars
Last week was a good week for MP3 and its partisans. The RIAA, which represents the major record labels, lost its court battle to restrict the Rio portable MP3 player. Then ASCAP, the world’s largest performance-rights society, struck a licensing deal with MP3.com to manage royalty payments for unsigned artists and allow up-and-comers to record cover versions of hit songs. It’s a one-two punch that leaves the labels singing Eurythmics’ “Thorn in My Side.”
