Andrew Orlowski

Collected Journalism

Month: December 2007

  • Climate Models vs. Reality: Anton Wylie

    by

    Andrew Orlowski

    –

    Climate models appear to be missing an atmospheric ingredient, a new study suggests. December’s issue of the International Journal of Climatology from the Royal Meteorlogical Society contains a study of computer models used in climate forecasting. The study is by joint authors Douglass, Christy, Pearson, and Singer – of whom only the third mentioned is…

    Continue reading »

  • How to copyright Michelangelo: Eicher

    by

    Andrew Orlowski

    –

    Commissioned as a Christmas special for 2007, this was a couple of years in the making. Some of the world’s greatest artworks are turning into copyrighted properties. Five hundred years ago, Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Today, those images are copyrighted. How can ancient cultural icons become commercial properties, centuries after they fall into…

    Continue reading »

  • DRM: Paranoia and panic is the default setting

    by

    Andrew Orlowski

    –

    Seven years ago, it was an effort to get people interested in DRM issues. Today, as the internet pulsates with rumour, paranoia and conspiracy, there’s a different kind of problem. This constant background noise – and people’s willingness to jump in fear at their own shadows. Instead of information scarcity, there’s information overload. So to…

    Continue reading »

  • Radiohead backs WW2-style austerity program

    by

    Andrew Orlowski

    –

    Misery will be compulsory, if top rockers Radiohead have their way. The band have thrown their weight behind a “World War 2”-style programme of austerity measures: including restrictions on behaviour, and higher taxes. Last week, two newspaper columnists called for a return to the kind of social coercion only ever seen before in wartime. It’s…

    Continue reading »

  • Teachers: Feel my Truthiness – Jimbo

    by

    Andrew Orlowski

    –

    Yes, it’s that time of year when children eagerly gather round a kindly old man with a beard. He makes great promises to them, if only they just work hard enough. But they just get a load of obscenities back. Only it’s not Santa. Wikipedia’s Maximum Leader and peripatetic salesman Jimmy Wales breezed into London…

    Continue reading »

  • Nokia radical bundling deal deserves applause

    by

    Andrew Orlowski

    –

    You could be forgiven for thinking that Nokia’s music announcement yesterday was yet another subscription service. The phone giant didn’t help dispel the notion by omitting some details from the official press material. However, we were able to put more flesh on the bones of the announcement last night. It’s beginning to look as if…

    Continue reading »