September 6th, 2010
Remarkable video at Gizmodo showing the Boston Dynamics “BigDog” walking robot. Particularly amazing is the way that it recovers from disturbances or bad leg placement. Take a look about 1/2 way through the video to see it brought to its knees by a slip on ice and it still recovers.
According to the New York Times, Richard Brodsky of the New York Assembly has proposed a bill that would forbid Web companies from using personal information (including clicks) for advertising to them without consent.
He states that this is in response to constituents’ concerns raised with the Google/DoubleClick deal. Not surprisingly, Microsoft is encouraging him in going forward with this bill (though we’ll have to see how their tune changes of the Yahoo deal goes through).
This strikes at the heart of the current means of monetizing web services. While I can’t say that I like being tracked, so far a combination of AdBlock and respect for the sites has worked well enough for me.