Sponsor's Message

Hands up all those who remember what it was like to surf the web or transfer data at 14.4Kbps. Now, can you imagine what it would be like today, with the proliferation of "heavy" websites that contain hundreds of KBytes of Flash, images and other fluff?

But let's not dwell on that, after all it *is* the 21st century and there's a lot of really cool technology appearing out there

How about this MP3 player which has up to 1GB of storage in a cube that is (to use "old" measurements) less than an inch in size.

Now have your say Got something to say about today's column, or want to see what others think?  Visit The Forums While you're here, why not visit the Aardvark Hall of Shame and perhaps make your own nomination.

Is this a cool thing -- or is it just a novelty?

To be honest, I think a one-inch cube is a really bad form-factor for such a device.

If you stick it in your trouser pocket it's sharp corners are going to jab you every time you sit down -- and something that small has to be very easy to misplace or have stolen.

I also wonder why the website promoting this thing appears to have no actual pictures of the device -- only rendered images.

But never the less, for someone who was introduced to computers when it took a hard-drive the size of a desk drawer to store just 8MB, having a gigabyte in such a small space is an astonishing thing.

Now, if we could just hurry up and have NZ's copyright laws also updated to reflect the fact that we're in the 21st century, maybe we could actually legally use such a device (and iPods, and other MP3 players).

All this legislative and bureaucratic drag makes me wonder if we're really hog-tying ourselves by not keeping the country's expectations and laws up to date.

Can we really create and grow a knowledge economy in a country where it's illegal to even use something like an iPod, or where the body charged with overseeing the communications industry is "happy" that we're dawdling along at 1990's speeds?

Sure, nobody's going to be prosecuted for ripping their favourite CDs onto an iPod or other player -- and most of us enjoy significantly better than 14.4Kbps speeds when we surf the web but are these things indicative that those who have accepted the challenge of creating a "knowledge wave" have simply not really understood what's required to do so?

If we want to steam ahead at full power into the 21st century, shouldn't we be legislating and regulating like it's 2010 rather than 1990?

Aardvark Forums
The forums are back up at: www.aardvarkforums.co.nz/forums, have your say on today's column

If you feel that this is a good thing and/or you hold a "geniune affection" for yours truly -- then you are welcome to gift me some money using the buttons provided. In gifting this money you accept that no goods, service or other consideration is offered, provided, accepted or anticipated in return. Just click on the button to gift whatever you can afford. NOTE: PayPal bills in US dollars so don't accidentally gift more than what you were intending :-)

Contacting Aardvark
I'm always happy to hear from readers, whether they're delivering brickbats, bouquets or news tip-offs. If you'd like to contact me directly, please this form. If you're happy for me to republish your comments then please be sure and select For Publication.

Other media organisations seeking more information or republication rights are also invited to contact me.

Just add a couple of lines of JavaScript to your pages and you can get a free summary of Aardvark's daily commentary -- automatically updated each and every week-day.

Aardvark also makes a summary of this daily column available via XML using the RSS format. More details can be found here.

Contact me if you decide to use either of these feeds and have any problems.

Linking Policy
Want to link to this site? Check out Aardvark's Linking Policy.

Did you tell someone else about Aardvark today? If not then do it now!