indy

Spectators at this year's Indy 500, the 100th anniversary of the race, will see a 10-story-tall door free-standing in the infield of the old Brickyard. Attached to that door will be an orange track, a full-scale roadway designed to look like Hot Wheels' signature plastic tracks.

A driver from the newly formed Team Hot Wheels will speed down the 90-foot ramp, launching into the air in an attempt to break the current world record of a 302-foot jump in a four-wheeled vehicle. Hot Wheels won't name the driver, but we think of him as crazy brave.

Hot Wheels has not released details of what sort of car the driver will use. From the promotional video below released by Hot Wheels, it looks like it will be a custom truck, similar to the kind used in off-road races.

The race, and jump attempt, take place on May 29. … Read more

It's race day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. You can almost feel the rumble of the engines and hear the whine of fine-tuned race cars whipping around the curves. Here they come! A small herd of flat fish pull quietly up to the track. These aren't your usual racers. They are participants in the Formula Sun Grand Prix, part of the American Solar Challenge for solar-powered cars.

The track racing event begins on May 2 and continues through May 7, but I'm standing outside an engineering building in Albuquerque at the send-off for the University of New Mexico team. The fire-engine-red car is swarmed by media members and well-wishers who can't take their eyes off the futuristic-looking design.

It took 15 electrical, computer, and mechanical engineering students about eight months to put this creation together. It's called the Lobo del Sol, which translates to Sun Wolf.

The three-wheel car is powered by an electric motor culled from a scooter. The body is crafted from Nomex, a lightweight material that's also used in race car driver fire suits.

The chassis is all hand-made. Small square solar panels donated by Schott Solar look like they've been sewn onto the surface into a big, high-tech quilt.… Read more

Metallica kicked off the first Record Store Day at Rasputin Music in San Francisco on April 19, 2008, and Record Store Day is now celebrated on the third Saturday every April. Special vinyl and CD releases and various promotional products are made exclusively for Record Store Day, and hundreds of artists in the United States and in countries across the globe make special appearances and performances. Festivities include performances, cookouts, body painting, meet-and-greets with artists, parades, and DJs spinning records.

Yes, it's easier and sometimes cheaper to buy music online, but brick-and-mortar shops offer a nice alternative. Who knows, … Read more

Independent films have always been a valuable source of content for Netflix, but rarely was it more important than during a public relations crisis two weeks ago.

Showtime and Starz, two-high profile pay-TV services that supply Netflix, the Web's top video-rental service, with popular TV shows and films, announced that once their contracts ended they would reduce the amount of content they provide for Netflix's streaming service. Netflix's Watch Instantly service is seeing white-hot growth and managers are trying to stoke interest by acquiring more material to stream. Some Hollywood bosses have said they aren't comfortable … Read more

Not long ago I did a story about how e-book piracy was accelerating and that publishers should be concerned. But while piracy is certainly an issue, there's something else lurking out there that may be a bigger problem: e-book price erosion. Or put another way, the blogification of the book industry.

Now, I know what you're saying: that's great news. These publishers have been gouging us with ridiculous pricing for digital files that cost next to nothing to produce (in terms of material costs) and finally we're starting to see lots of deals out there. But … Read more

[Update: The winner of the 2011 IGF Grand Prize was, not surprisingly, Minecraft.]

Months before popular indie game Limbo was a critical and commercial hit on Xbox Live, in-the-know industry watchers were well aware of the game, thanks to its multiple wins (Excellence in Visual Art and Technical Excellence) at the 2010 Independent Games Festival, an awards show held each year during the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

The nominees come from all over the map, from already-released indie games to works in progress that are far from sure to ever get a commercial release. Some are PC games, … Read more

The two camps that have waged copyright war this year on accused movie pirates --adult and independent filmmakers--are teaming up to fight illegal file sharing.

Kenneth Ford, one of the attorneys that made news this year by filing copyright lawsuits against tens of thousands of people, told CNET on Monday that he is now working with Dunlap, Grubb & Weaver. DGW is the Washington, D.C., law firm that sometimes operates as U.S. Copyright Group and represents nearly a dozen indie film studios, including the makers of the Academy Award winning war film, "The Hurt Locker."

"[… Read more

Apple's letter to music labels about the company's adoption of 90-second song samples sounded brash and uncompromising, reminiscent of how the company once seemed to negotiate with the music industry.

Apple wrote in e-mails to an undisclosed number of music industry executives--made public on Tuesday--that it would soon offer longer samples for songs that are at least two-and-a-half minutes in length. For shorter songs, iTunes would continue to offer 30-second previews, the company wrote. CNET broke the news in August that Apple planned to offer longer samples.

What raised eyebrows about Apple's note was that … Read more

Apple isn't offering much savings for consumers in an iTunes promotion of indie music.

On iTunes homepage today, Apple posted an ad linking to a list of nine songs from independent artists, including "Too Much" from Sufjan Stevens, "Golden Haze" from Wild Nothing, and "Revival" from Deerhunter.

According to the blog Digital Audio Insider, a Web search found that the first five songs are available for free elsewhere on the Web.

"The first five tracks are all songs the respective artists and record companies are already giving away online," DAI wrote. &… Read more