by Saleem Khan, CBC News Online

Internet inspired insanity and infamy, helping kids, scoring cool gear and the fight for your right to enjoy music all grabbed our attention this week. Here's the list:

Facebook fun has consequences
Amber MacArthur to launch new TV show
Triple A to the rescue. No, not that triple A
Music online: U.S. copyright law author concedes failure
Geek out on Xbox, help kids, win wild Wii

by Saleem Khan, CBC News Online

Xbox Canada wraps up its second annual Badges of Honour campaign for the Children’s Miracle Network on Sun., April 1, and Nintendo is giving Canadians a chance to win a tricked out Wii.

Blast the link below for tips on the swag.

by Saleem Khan, CBC News Online

A post on Michael Geist's blog alerted us to a conference on music and copyright [68 kb PDF file] hosted at McGill University in Montreal last week. During the course of the conference, one of the speakers, Bruce Lehman – the architect of the often criticized and much-maligned U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and WIPO Internet Treaties – effectively admitted that his approach had been wrong.

More on the fight for music through the link below.

by Paul Jay, CBC News online

Thinner mobile devices have changed expectations consumers have for batteries - from their size and weight to the amount of juice they can provide.

But it's still nice to know an old-stand by -- the triple A battery -- can perform stand-by duty when needed.

by Saleem Khan, CBC News Online

Hardcore internet geeks and technophiles are no stranger to Amber MacArthur – the host of a slew of technology broadcasts and podcasts that include shows on G4TechTV and her own pioneering video podcast CommandN. The affable P.E.I. native has even inspired fan sites and discussion forum groups like Facebook's Buy me a drink, I'll introduce you to Amber Mac, I hear she's single.

Her new biweekly show, Webnation, hits the airwaves tonight.

Click the link below for more on Amber Mac's day job.

by Saleem Khan, CBC News Online

Amid all of the interesting and unusual technology projects that were discussed at the ICE07 interactive media conference in Toronto last week, one kept popping up in conversations: Facebook.

Click the link below for a Facebook blog story.

by Saleem Khan, CBC News Online

Things to come and technology's impact on people caught our attention this week, from the future of Google and Gears of War to fighting for freedom and a Facebook frenzy.

• Google tight-lipped on cellphone plan
• New Line wins Gears of War film rights
• EFF to honour Boing Boing's Doctorow

by Paul Jay, CBC News Online

We're late to getting to this, but digital rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation announced a couple of weeks back the winners of this year's Pioneer Awards and we'd be remiss if we didn't mention they will be honouring Canadian Cory Doctorow.

Click below to read more.

by Saleem Khan, CBC News Online

It may not be the most popular Xbox 360 game but Gears of War has just been picked up by New Line Cinema for development as a feature film due to hit theatres in 2009, according to Variety.

Click the link below for more.

by Saleem Khan, CBC News Online

Google finally got back to me with their comment on purported plans to launch their own cellphone:

"Mobile is an important area for Google and we remain focused on creating applications and establishing and growing partnerships with industry leaders to develop innovative services for users worldwide. However, we have nothing further to announce."

The Google spokeswoman who e-mailed the statement also noted: "This is all we plan to say."

by Saleem Khan, CBC News Online

Web 2.0, blogs, wireless technology and the perennial favourite video games were all on our minds here at the CBC tech desk this week. The offerings:

• 'Parasites' find a champion
• Web 2.0, we hardly knew you
• Wireless N crawls towards certification
• Crackdown sales surge, Microsoft expands game network
• Wikipedia buries Sinbad for a day
• Blog battle continues

by Saleem Khan, CBC News Online

The continuing saga of blog boosters and bashers is getting increasingly bizarre.

The latest to weigh in? Veteran broadcast journalist Dan Rather and fashion maven Anna Wintour.

Click the link below for more interweb weirdness.

by Paul Jay, CBC News Online

Mark Twain must have seen Wikipedia coming. To paraphrase Mr. Clemens, the online encyclopedia's reports of American comedian Sinbad's death appear to have been greatly exaggerated after another case of contributor tampering.

The entry in the biography of the 50-year-old comedian said he had died of a heart attack. The story was picked up by readers and spread through the online world.

Of course, Sinbad wasn't dead, he was just touring.

by Saleem Khan, CBC News Online

Wags who said they were going to buy the "Halo 3 demo disc" – otherwise known as the Realtime Worlds' Xbox 360 game Crackdown – put their money where their mouth is in February, pushing the science-fiction action game to the No. 2 spot on the Canadian sales charts.

Read more on the rankings and cross-platform online gaming through the link below.

by Paul Jay, CBC News Online

We had pretty much given up hope that the IEEE would ever approve wireless N - the latest version of the 802.11 wireless networking standard. But word has reached us via arstechnica that the second draft of wireless N was approved yesterday, putting us all a little closer to a final draft, expected in 2008.

It's hard to read a story about the Internet without finding some reference to Web 2.0 - the catch-all term for the sea-change move of digital media towards social networking and community-driven content such as Wikipedia. Snappy movies have even been made about it. Others wonder if we should all be discussing Web 3.0, whatever that is.

Click on the link below to read about one of the non-believers.

by Saleem Khan, CBC News Online

Try as we might, it seems we can't escape the idea that bloggers are parasites. We certainly don't like the notion since we count ourselves among the ranks of those seeking out new, informative and even quirky and whimsical things online, comparing and contrasting them with other finds, throwing in some original reporting and research and sharing it all with anyone who cares to read it.

It's nice to see we're not alone. Click the link below for another perspective on the debate.

by Saleem Khan, CBC News Online

The future was a recurring theme on our blog this week, from Web 2.0 to software (including video games). Get a peek at the rest of the 21st century:

• Retiring EA CEO on the future of video games
• U.S. patent office going Web 2.0
• Software practices law without a license
• Nintendo's Miyamoto keynote webcast
• Does YouTube hint at the future of news?

by Saleem Khan, CBC News Online

Journalist Arthur Kent – who rose to international fame as a correspondent for NBC News during the first Gulf War in 1991 – is taking a leap into the internet with a new website that he hopes will become the YouTube of journalism: Skyreporter.com.

Click the link for more on his vision of the future.

by Saleem Khan, CBC News Online

Shigeru Miyamoto, the man behind iconic video game creations such as Mario, Zelda and Donkey Kong, is scheduled to deliver his keynote address today at 3:30 p.m. ET at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Calif.

The senior managing director of Nintendo and general manager of Nintendo's entertainment analysis and development division will discuss his creative vision and how it drives his work as well as its impact on creating new technologies.

Hit the link for the live webcast.

www.visualwebcaster.com/Nintendo/38232/event.html

by Paul Jay, CBC News Online

While here in Canada we're still learning to use tax software to file online, over in the United States even more advanced online software applications are practising law.

Which, in the case of the Ziinet Bankruptcy Engine, may not be a good thing. A judgement against Ziinet's owner was upheld after a court ruled the software made too many decisions to be considered a clerical tool.

by Saleem Khan, CBC News Online

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is taking a step into the deep end of the internet with plans to let visitors to its website comment on patent applications and vote the best remarks up or down along the lines of Wikipedia, Digg or Slashdot.

Vote to read this post by clicking the link below.

by Saleem Khan, CBC News Online

Outgoing Electronic Arts Inc. CEO Larry Probst recently took some time to talk with the Wall Street Journal about his view of an industry that has changed significantly in his two decades at the company – and continues to evolve dramatically.

More on Probst's probing insights through the link below.

by Saleem Khan, CBC News Online

Parasitism, the weird world of the interweb and video games were all on our minds here on the CBC Technology desk this week. Here's a quick reference list for you to check it out.

• Apple iPhone ad airs during Oscars


• The perils of community editing


• We're all parasites: pro blogger


• World's oldest blogger has Canadian connection


• Halo 3 beats Gears of War as Xbox 360 killer app


• A word of advice: tip your robot waiter


• What's in a name? McAfee's 'parasitic' podcast
• Internet wisdom from 1993

by Saleem Khan, CBC News Online

We were looking at blogging about the police chief and police dog with degrees from the same university but in the interests of harmony, passed it along to our consumer news colleagues.

But there's (a little) more bite to the story through the link below.

by Saleem Khan, CBC News Online

A third blog post in a row touching on the theme of parasites might seem to be too much – which is why I held off posting this item yesterday. The culprit this time is computer security and antivirus software vendor McAfee Inc.

Bore through the link below for one more.

by Paul Jay, CBC News Online

Sure, we make fun of Asimo every now and then, but we here at the CBC we love robots as much as the next group bloggers. Our office even has its own mail-robot. So naturally, when University of Tokyo researchers create a tea-serving robot, it sends our kettles a' tootin.

But we can't say we're quite behind the mindset behind the creation of this particular tea-server. As University of Tokyo professor Tomomasa Sato explains:

"A human being may be faster, but you'd have to say 'Thank you.' That's the best part about a robot. You don't have to feel bad about asking it to do things."

Click for more to read about why robots have feelings too.

by Saleem Khan, CBC News Online

When Microsoft Corp. launched its sophomore entry into the console video game market in 2005, the Xbox 360 lacked a must-have game that would drive sales the way the original Halo did for the original Xbox in 2001.

Many have argued that Gears of War filled that role for the Xbox 360 when the highly anticipated game hit stores in November 2006. It seems they're wrong.

Blast the link below for more on the quest for Xbox 360's killer app.