Other Tech

SQUID Recordings Origin: Strange Days What is it? Using a jack plugged into the cerebral cortex, users can record every aspect of their experiences and burn them onto media that look suspiciously like Minidiscs.

It’s been a hard day at work. You want to unwind in front of the flat-screen. You don’t want interactivity. You don’t want infotainment. After slaving at the PC all day, you don’t want to surf. You want to watch some damn TV, do some 12-ounce curls, and then doze off. I ask you: Is that so wrong? According to companies like Google, yes, it is. And they want to change that.

• Part One Are Discs Obsolete?

• Part Two The Artists' Perspective

• Part Three Gluttons for Punishment: How the Music Industry Continues to Sabotage Its Own Future

Just a week before the May 9 release of their two-CD set Stadium Arcadium, the Red Hot Chili Peppers found that the whole album had been leaked to the Internet, letting fans download it free from file-sharing sites. These days, of course, leaks are hardly novel - but the reaction of the band's bass player, Flea, was.

Musicians sound off about the merits and detriments of the CD and how they're dealing with a digital-delivery-oriented future

Close your eyes. Wait, don’t do that. You won’t be able to read. Imagine yourself sitting in the center seat, center row, of a dark and empty theater. It’s a good theater, quiet, and you can feel the space stretching out from you in all directions. A sound rises to an audible level far in front of you. It’s a bee. Okay, maybe you don’t like bees. It’s an old plane, rotary engine struggling to turn over, the sputters emanating from a center channel speaker unseen behind the screen in the dark theater. The plane taxis left. There’s no picture on the screen: You localize it just by how the sound moves toward the left speakers.

Boys love toys, but only if they've got a gimmick - and both of the items I checked out this month do.