We’re getting ever closer to a Blade Runner style society and I’m on board with the program. The BBC are reporting that an ethical code to prevent humans abusing robots, and vice versa, is being drawn up by South Korea. Quite how a human can abuse a robot is anyones guess (I think I abused my boombox when I was in my teens by blasting Run DMC and Mantronix at obscene levels - would that be considered abuse of a Toshiba device?).

Under the code, A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

I just hope Microsoft isn’t responsible for the embedded code in the robots, else we’ll have to wait for ver 3.0 of each robot before we could trust it…. scary mary.. In the meantime, and on a not completely unrelated note, maybe ePaper is making a comeback - checkout Eric’s entry regarding this cool technology. Personally, I think we’re 2-4 years away, not 5-10… But who’s counting?

It’s friday night, time to don Adidas sneakers and semi-flared jeans, push the moppy hair out of your eyes and jump in the car for the weekly pilgramage to the Hacienda, The International, 42nd Street, Sankeys Soap and 5th Avenue to listen to the latest groovy tunes being spun by Dave Haslam and the Ministry of Sound. Ok, so it’s all a bit retro, but a quick look through the interwebs favorite video library YouTube, shows a treasure trove of music to bring back the memories! Plenty of videos to watch after the jump.

Happy Mondays: WFL

James: Sit Down (Live @ GMEX)

Stone Roses Elephant Stone

The Charlatans: The Only One I Know

808 State: Pacific 707

I’m missed this story breaking on Feb 1, but it seems a guerilla marketing exercise for the excellent Aqua Teen Hunger Force has caused multiple security alerts in Boston. It seems a third-party marketing firm working for the Cartoon Network, put up electronic light displays depicting a Mooninite character greeting bean-town citizens and visitors with an upturned middle digit. Somehow, the light boards were misinterpreted as suspicious devices.

Boston then swung into a full security alert. Local, state and federal law enforcement agencies shut bridges and sections of the Charles River – CNN then reported that US Northern Command was monitoring the situation from its Colorado Springs headquarters.

Two men involved in planning and executing the stunt have been arrested, the Massachusetts attorney general Martha Coakley has confirmed. The charges they face include a felony - placing a hoax device that caused panic - and a separate count of disorderly conduct.

It remains a mystery as to why a full security alert was called on Wednesday over advertising devices that had been present in Boston - and other major US cities including Atlanta, Philadelphia, New York and Los Angeles - for the past two weeks, although Coakley attributed it to the devices having a “very sinister appearance” and “wires”.

Turner Broadcasting spent most of Wednesday evening apologising for the chaos both in the form of a written statement and by on-air captions during Cartoon Network programming.

Joost is getting all the attention at the moment - particularly if you’d like a free Joost Token, but this being 2007, and not 1997, it already has a pretty kick-ass rival - Babelgum, started by the founder of IPTV  - Fastweb. The interface is simple to use and elegant. Is this the start of the VideoWeb wars?  Thats all we need, another war

Here’s the blurb from Bablegum:

Babelgum ushers in a new era for television, blending the lean-back experience of traditional TV with the interactive and social power of the Internet.

-Watch in full screen

Babelgum uses cutting-edge peer-to-peer technology to stream video to your PC safely and efficiently at near-TV resolution.

-Make it personal

Create your own TV channels with niche-to-mainstream content from around the world tailored to your interests. As you use it, your TV learns what you like and just gets better.

-Share your views

Discover new content through friends, contacts and people with shared interests, and tell others about the content you love or hate.

Babelgum is creating a whole new medium for viewers, content owners and advertisers. So keep your eyes wide open.

BTW, none of these compare to my preferred TV package: TVUPlayer

Joost is looking like it could make YouTube, Google Video and Apples iTV look like 1988.  The founders of Skype and Kazzaa are betting users are happy to give up some of their broadband space, along with hard-drive space for Joost to leapfrog the established players.  The reason Joost is getting some serious media coverage is the promise of high quality content - why watch old Aunty Ethel falling asleep during the xmas holidays (YouTube) or pay $3.99 for a crappy horror B-movie (Google Video) when you can watch the latest and greatest TV shows, Movies and Sporting events - for free?  NBC, ABC, HBO, Viacom and Steve Jobs at apple must be crying into their cornflakes - these guys have got a seriously good track record of creating and launching kick-ass P2P programs - and getting millions of users….

Well, it’s not quite free, Joost will have advertising, but what the heck, 99.9% of websites have advertising or sponsorships, so I’ll gladly sit though a clever viagra ad if they allow me to watch Entourage for free! 

It seems as though Joost Tokens are the hotest item on the interweb at the moment - anyone wanna sell me one?  I’ve got an old iPod Video!