I was busy all day today trying to ensue we are all set to close on our new house next Tuesday (and still get actual work done) so I didn’t get a change to make any posts, but there were a few things that I wanted to note. I’m going to cheat and list them all here.

• Starting tomorrow, the NYPD is going to be conducting random searches of people bags on the subway. They are circumventing the whole illegal search thing by letting you leave the station if you refuse to submit to the search. This really pisses me off, and is most certainly a step WAY to far. More bomb sniffing dogs and equipment would do more to prevent incidents like London and still not trample all over the constitution and our liberty. [via The NYT]

• Engadget has a good article detailing a possible scenario with the DVIMAGIC which highlights the flaws in HDCP. Hey Industry! DRM as a concept is fundamentally flawed! You can’t force behavior with legislation and technical limitations. Perhaps one day the right people will realize that and work to change their business to provide quality content in a format and at a price point people want. Until then we’re going to have to fight them every inch of the way.

• In the same vein, it seems the IFPI is tooting thier own horn and claiming that an observed trippling of legal music downloads is because of a “fear of getting caught breaking the law, or the realization that many networks could damage your home PC”. As Caesar points out, that’s bullshit. Maybe sales have trippled because the number of available outlets have tripled? Nah… [via Ars]

• Finally a lighter note, CNet published a list to the Top 10 online fads. While I don’t necessarily agree with all the rankings the list and the others in the Ars thread were good for some great “OMG, I remember that! That was awesome!” chuckles.

I saw on [Planet ArsLounge](http://rianjs.net/arslounge/) that hanser came up as Wesley Crusher when taking one of those what _blank_ are you? quizes. I took the quiz so that I could come out as someone cooler and then point and laugh, well…

Ok, so that didn’t work out to well. Sigh.

TivoToGo was “released” a week ago. I haven’t said much about it for the same reason I put releasted in quotes. They officially announced that TTG was officially available on Jan 3rd, however they have decided to do a phased rollout, and to date the update has yet to be pushed to my TiVo. In one sense I’ve been waiting for this for long enough I can wait a bit more, but enough is enough. One of the big reasons (other the the standard lack of time due to baby) I have yet to hack my series 2 is because downloading is the main feature I want, and TTG has been coming so I haven’t made the time.

Once the update comes I’ll see how things work. I already know it won’t be ideal, the series 2 only has USB 1 to hook the network adapter to, so transfer speeds will be less then ideal. Plus they are adding DRM to the downloads, which a hacked solution doesn’t have. I’m not really worried about the DRM since it will likely be cracked before I even have my first show downloaded, but it adds another step. At the worst I’ll just burn the recording to DVD (when they release the DRM compliant DVD burning software) and rip that. One can only hope that someday the lesson that trying to prtoect your content via a technology solution jsut isn’t feasable, you have to offer compelling contant at a decent price point. The music industry is starting to show signs they are trying, not television and film have the same road to travel.

All this is starting to make adding TV to my media PC more attractive, but so far the interface just isn’t as friendly as the TiVo.