Design with Intent | Fightback Devices

Spiked: When did ‘hanging around’ become a social problem?

By Dan Lockton ⋅ August 30, 2006 ⋅ One comment

Josie Appleton, at the always-interesting Spiked, takes a look at the increasing systemic hostility towards ‘young people in public places’ in the UK: ‘When did ‘hanging around’ become a social problem?’
As well as the Mosquito, much covered on this site (all posts; try out high frequency sounds for yourself), the article mentions the use [...]

Ed Felten: DRM Wars, and ‘Property Rights Management’

By Dan Lockton ⋅ August 15, 2006 ⋅ 3 comments

At Freedom to Tinker, Ed Felten has posted a summary of a talk he gave at the Usenix Security Symposium, called “DRM Wars: The Next Generation”. The two installments so far (Part 1, Part 2) trace a possible trend in the (stated) intentions of DRM’s proponents, from it being largely promoted as a tool to [...]

Review: Everyware by Adam Greenfield

By Dan Lockton ⋅ July 22, 2006 ⋅ Post a comment

This is the first book review I’ve done on this blog, though it won’t be the last. In a sense, this is less of a conventional review than an attempt to discuss some of the ideas in the book, and synthesise them with points that have been raised by the examination of architectures of control: [...]

Neuros: ‘Freedom by Design’

By Dan Lockton ⋅ July 5, 2006 ⋅ 2 comments

Following on from the last post about the Neuros MPEG4 recorder, looking on the Neuros website reveals something pretty unusual for a company involved in consumer product design – a clear statement of design philosophy, ‘What do we stand for?’ that’s heavy on content and light on vague rhetoric:
“Your Digital Rights and Why They’re Important [...]

EFF: Another Endangered Gizmo – the Neuros MPEG4 Recorder 2

By Dan Lockton ⋅ July 5, 2006 ⋅ 2 comments

Image adapted from Neuros website
Via EFF DeepLinks, details of the Neuros MPEG4 Recorder 2, a product specifically designed to allow users to break through the arbitrary architectures of control imposed by other video devices and formats, and hence make the most of the content you own:
“[It] digitizes analog video output and records it to a [...]

‘Labels on digital content should spell out how easy it is to move from gadget to gadget’

By Dan Lockton ⋅ June 5, 2006 ⋅ 2 comments

A warning label mockup*
The BBC is reporting that the All Party Internet Group (APIG), a cross-party group of MPs, has made some intelligent – and interesting – recommendations about explaining DRM more fully to consumers:
“The MPs’ report made several recommendations and called on the Office of Fair Trading hasten the introduction of labelling [...]

High frequency wave files back up again

By Dan Lockton ⋅ May 31, 2006 ⋅ Post a comment

They’re back up (well, the wave files anyway), thanks to the Internet Archive.

High frequency ringtone download

By Dan Lockton ⋅ May 25, 2006 ⋅ 54 comments

High frequencies being tested in the urban badlands: see, no teenagers here!
A lot of people find this site through searching for something along the lines of ‘Mosquito high frequency anti-teenager ringtone’, and are presumably disappointed when they find that there is no such ringtone to download, even if just because they’d like to test it [...]

The fight back: Defeating cartridge expiry

By Dan Lockton ⋅ April 15, 2006 ⋅ 2 comments

Via Boing Boing (& thanks too to Jeremy Tirrell for alerting me), a very useful piece of free software from the SSC Localization Group which allows the user to get round a variety of architectures of control designed into Epson printer cartridges, including:

The fight back: Refill ‘er up

By Dan Lockton ⋅ March 24, 2006 ⋅ Post a comment

Via MAKE – printer cartridge refilling stations are about to become a lot more widespread in major store chains in the US, such as Walgreens and OfficeMax (as opposed to the existing Cartridge World-type refill stores).

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