filters

Buzz Out Loud 824: I am the thumb

In today's show, featuring co-host Dan Ackerman, we discuss the benefits of being an independent musician (Dan says it's a great time!), the increasingly furious-yet-futile fight between the MPAA and RealDVD, Delta preemptively filtering porn on planes, and Kid Rock finding a home on the Web, regardless of whether we want him there.

Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 824

eBay buys Bill Me Later, lays off 1,000 http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10058660-92.html

Judge temporarily halts sales of RealDVD in wake of lawsuit http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081005-judge-temporarily-halts-sale-of-realdvd-in-wake-of-lawsuit.html http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10058574-93.html… Read more

B+W infrared filters for digital cameras

B+W Filters, made by Schneider Optics, earlier this month released two infrared filters for digital cameras, the B+W IR 092 and the B+W IR 093. The IR 092 is nearly opaque and allows a small amount of visible light through, similar to a No. 25 Wratten gel. The IR 093 is completely opaque, allowing only IR light to pass through, similar to a No. 87 Wratten gel. Both filters are available with screw-on mountings in 35 sizes from 19mm to 77mm to fit a variety of lenses.

While most digital cameras have an infrared blocking filter built-in, … Read more

Indecent Exposure 13: Inferior exchanges

Why you might want to use filters on digital cameras and how well digital equipment retains value. Plus more pink thinking.

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EPISODE 13

Clorox on Brita cartridge recycling: Not so easy

Drinking filtered water may save plastic bottles, but what happens when you need a new filter cartridge?

Last year, cleaning-product maker Clorox, together with bottle maker Nalgene, launched a campaign that struck an environmental chord with consumers.

In the Filter for Good campaign, the companies appealed to Americans to "take the pledge to reduce bottled-water waste." By investing in a reusable Nalgene bottle and drinking tap water filtered with Clorox's Brita products, they hinted, Americans could avoid littering the planet with 38 billion water bottles each year, thus saving the 1.5 million barrels of oil used … Read more

Rainwater harvesting advocates bring filter tech to the U.S.

SPICEWOOD SPRINGS, Texas--When Joe Wheeler built his new house here in 2001, he was told that it would cost $10,000 to drill a well, and that he wouldn't be able to drink or bathe in the water. Undaunted, he turned to the old-fashioned idea of rainwater collection to solve his water problem.

Wheeler talked to people who had experience with rainwater collection, and eventually installed what was available on the market at that time, so-called first-flush technology. The first-flush system he had installed sent the first, dirty batch of water from the roof into a diverter tube, and … Read more

The Filter's recommendations hew to the mainstream

The Filter is an entertainment recommendation service that asks questions about your taste, then tries to refer you to CDs and DVDs you might be interested in buying. (The site will eventually add other forms of entertainment, such as TV shows.) It's been in a closed beta since earlier this year, and has gotten some press thanks to the involvement of art-rocker Peter Gabriel. On Tuesday, it opened to the masses.

The idea's not new--Amazon.com has had a recommendation engine for years, and many online music services like Pandora, iLike, and Jango employ variations on that theme. … Read more

Lifesaver: An ultra-filtration water bottle

Remember the LifeStraw, a sip-and-survive filtration straw? Here's another solution for dealing with Gaia's water woes: The Lifesaver bottle. Michael Pritchard developed the device after witnessing the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, apparently pouring his life savings into researching a chemical-free solution that's able to purify 4,000 to 6,000 liters on a single filter. We're not clear if this will work on sea water, but it will elimiate bacteria, viruses, parasites, fungi, and all sorts of microbiological waterborne pathogens.

The invention, which won an award from Well-Tech, has a replaceable filter that's good for … Read more

Peter Gabriel a fan of Radiohead-esque Internet efforts

Peter Gabriel, the Grammy award-winning performer, this week applauded attempts by some artists to experiment with new ways to sell music.

Since October, the bands Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails have generated plenty of notoriety after distributing their own albums--without the backing of any music label--through heavy use of the Internet.

"I think it's fantastic that these new models are appearing," said Gabriel, one of the founders of the band Genesis, told me on Monday. "You don't need very many people to make a project economically viable if you're distributing yourself."

When it … Read more

YouTube's filtering issues still not 'moot'

LAS VEGAS--A year ago Wednesday, Google CEO Eric Schmidt delighted an audience of TV and radio broadcasters when he promised to roll out a system that would mean the end of piracy at YouTube.

"We are in the process of developing tools which are called 'Claim Your Content,'" Schmidt said at the National Association of Broadcasters 2007 conference. "If people tell us this is a licensed copy, our computers will automatically detect that an illegal copy has been uploaded and then automatically delete it."

Schmidt went on to say YouTube was "close to turning this (system) on&… Read more