Warner Music Group Drops DRM for Amazon

Amazon is becoming a great place to shop for MP3s…

Slashdot: “SirLurksAlot sends us to Ars Technica for an article about the Warner
Music Group’s decision to allow DRM-free music downloads through
Amazon. This reversal of Warner’s former position has been underway for
some time, and it boosts the number of DRM-free songs available from
Amazon to 2.9 million. Quoting: “Warner’s announcement says nothing
about offering its content through other services such as iTunes, and
represents the music industry’s attempt to make life a bit more
difficult for Apple after all the years in which the company held the
keys to music’s digital kingdom.”

Apple signs movie rental, DVD deal with Fox

Finally…

iLounge: “Apple has signed a deal with 20th Century Fox to offer digital rentals
of the studio’s films, and to include a FairPlay DRM’d, iPod-compatible
digital file on the studio’s new DVD releases, according to a Financial
Times report. Citing a person familiar with the situation, the report
says only that the rented movies would be active “for a limited time,”
and that they would be made available through iTunes.”

Batcave Theater

Um, holy crap…

Neatorama:

“How would you like a batcave in your basement, complete with a
bat-theater? A retired naturalist has just that! DC Audio Video Systems
of New Hampshire set up a complete home theater in her cellar.

The set-up includes prop bats which hang from above,
a motorized 110 16:9 Stewart Electriscreen, Triad Silver THX Speakers,
and a Sony G90, a $36,000 commercial 1080p 2500 x 2000 CRT projector.
The room also features eight black, motorized leather recliners and a
LiteTouch LC5000 System for Lighting Control.

It has stalactites, too! It’s the “battiest” place to watch any of the Batman films. Link -via Unique Daily“

Seasons Greetings From Valve

Rock, Paper, Shotgun: “How can we not post this? Did they get a choir to sing it, or is it magical digital music? I’m too inept to know. What matters is that they bothered.”

LINK TO EMBEDDED VIDEO

Team Fortress 2 Griefers Implement Forced Trivia Game

One of the funniest things I’ve seen in a while…

Boing Boing: “Team Roomba” takes griefing, the act of being a total asshole to
members of your own team, to a whole new level. I love the Stockholm
Syndrome people start to exhibit towards the end. And you have to wait
until the end (or the mid-way point, at least) to see some of the most
inspired griefing I’ve ever seen.”

CLICK TO EMBEDDED VIDEO

Xbox Live having trouble. Again. On Christmas day.

Engadget:

“We
hear a lot of people are having problems with Xbox Live today (we’re
not, for the record), but if you’re feeling a bit sheepish about giving
the gift of a 360 + Live service to a loved one, just imagine how
Microsoft must feel. The service — which we’d like to remind everyone
is paid, unlike the competition’s — has been up and down since Christmas weekend.
And it’s not some surprise that there would be an influx of users
today, nor is it any mystery to Microsoft how many Live accounts and
Xboxes were sold over the past couple of weeks — which is precisely
why this kind of thing is so annoying. Thankfully, it seems to be a bit
less widespread than last weekend’s outage. Feel free to shout it out
in comments.”

Read – Xbox Live status
Read – Outage on Xbox Live Forums (again)

Yngwie Malmsteen Acoustic Guitar Solo

Get some:

Japan’s chief cabinet secretary says alien spacecraft are real

Boing Boing:

“Japan Probe report that Japan’s chief cabinet secretary Nobutaka
Machimura said UFOs (meaning alien spacecraft, not flying objects that
have not been identified) are real.

Yes, UFOs do exist, Japan’s top government spokesman said on Tuesday.

The comment by chief cabinet secretary Nobutaka Machimura drew
laughter from reporters at his regular briefing on government policy.

Earlier the cabinet, responding to an opposition lawmaker’s
question, issued a statement saying it could not confirm any cases of
unidentified flying objects.

“This is an issue that the nation is interested in — it is a
defence issue and a confirmation operation needs to take place,” Ryuji
Yamane, a lawmaker from the main opposition Democratic Party who
submitted the question to the cabinet, told Reuters.”

Link | BBC story

Track Your Holiday Flight with Google

Lifehacker:

“Google rolls out a new flight tracking feature: just type your airline
and flight number into the search box, and get the departure and
arrival location and estimated time. I’m also a fan of 4INFO’s SMS flight status check
on the way to the airport from my cell phone. How are you going to
track your (and your arriving loved ones’) flights this holiday season?
Give it up in the comments.”

Better flight stats results [Official Google Blog]

The Invader Scarf

Me wantey…

Engadget:

“You can’t get much dorkier than a) knitting or b) reminiscing about your misspent youth jerking the stick with Space Invaders. Combine the two, however, and you’ll be the most fashionable kid at Legoland. Add a random sampling of mystery QR codes and Mister Green Jeans himself will be asking you for couture tips. Best get your order for the $66 Invader Scarf in soon though, Lendorff Kaywa is only knitting 500.”

[Via Oh GizMo!]