Rumors

How greedy can people be? Very. Case in point, yesterday the MPAA filed suit against 6 BitTorrent sites that distributed torrents for TV programming. Keep in mind, the downloading of TV Torrents cost the MPAA and their members nothing, and actually helped promote some more obscure programming from overseas here in the US (Doctor Who 2005, The Office, etc). It truly seems that Fair Use no longer has any meaning. More than likely, this is the result of some lawyers scaring the shit out of executives. I wish those same executives would understand more about The Long Tail and care less if I happened to miss and download the latest copy of Joey.

Rant to the MPAA: is it just me or are you actually becoming more and more desperate with each pathetic attempt to stifle alternate distribution models? I don’t need Best Buy or any other Big Box outlet to buy my media anymore. Why do I have to pay $17.99 for a CD that cost 1/100th the amount the produce as the $9.99 DVD sitting next to it? The simple matter is, you either need to ADAPT or DIE. Personally, I vote for death, since you really bring no value to the equation anymore. Why not provide the TV content for $.99 a download, or setup your own OnDemand service? Remember us, the FANS of the product you produce? We are desperate for a better way to watch YOUR content. Get your heads out of your lawyers’ asses, and figure out a way to make it work. ADAPT OR DIE.

Apple was granted a patent regarding a new tablet form factor computer. The sketches look interesting, but there is hardly any detail. Should be interesting as time goes on.

Want to know the what the color of eyes your children will have? Wonder no longer. My money is s/he will still be a snotty brat. *grin*

Where do you really fit on the political spectrum? This test claims I am a liberal. *shrug*

Seems I am not the only one that thinks Microsoft is facing some of the stiffest competition it has ever seen. It’s about damn time.

This is a good article regarding the economics of deploying Open Source Software (OSS). Seems the biggest advantage of using OSS is vendor independence. Those of us who are in the business of providing OSS Solutions could have told you that a long time ago. Locking yourself into a proprietary solution, tends to lock yourself in with one vendor. If that vendor begins to degrade, you are in far worse of a situation than had you started with OSS. You can ALWAYS find someone to come in to maintain an OSS project.

Technorati Tags: bittorrent, video

Technology, Video

In case any of you noticed, Google was actually down for about 15 minutes Monday, May 9th around 21:00 EST. Seems someone made a DNS entry boo boo. Looks like they need some better change control.
This is a great read for anyone interested in Cryptography. Bruce Schneier is the developer of the still as of yet unbroken Blowfish algorithm and gives a ton of research to read.

Interesting new product for iPods from Macally. Small, portable speakers that plug right into the top. Very neat.

Michael Dell has invested nearly $100 Million (U.S.) in Red Hat. Makes one wonder what type of influence the number one computer retailer in the world may have on Red Hat. Also makes one wonder what kind of pressure Dell & RedHat may place on Microsoft in the future. Perhaps Mr. Dell got a chance to play with the new Apple Tiger operating system, and wonders how many more PC’s he would sell if he had that kind of interface on his computers.

To all of you right wingers out there, sometimes the courts actually get it right. The FCC was dead wrong in this case regarding Broadcast Flags and the courts were well justified in striking down this bad regulation. Hrm.. the courts working the way the courts should. Imagine that.

For Tiger users, this is a simple to use widget management tool. This is another great color wheel tool for the web developers out there.

Finally, perhaps the explosive growth Firefox has enjoyed is starting to slow down. Maybe Firefox has made it to the desktop of the “low hanging fruit” of users, or those savvy enough to download and make the switch from IE themselves. In my experience, this is probably about 6.8% of the users in general. *grin* Supporters of Firefox and the Mozilla projects need to keep spreading the word that there is a better alternative to Internet Explorer.

Technorati Tags: google, security, apple, linux, mac, oss

Technology

While playing around with Tiger and Safari 2 today, I ran across how Safari 2 handles RSS feeds.

When you see a blue RSS button like this one in my address bar, simply click it to reveal a rendered version of the RSS feed.

As always, simply drag the feed icon (The little box next to “feed://” above) to the bookmark folder you wish, and the feed will always be up to date when you click on it. Very slick!

This is a much simpler way for the everyday user to make use out of RSS feeds. The rendered RSS feed looks better than any other implementation I have ever seen. If you have Tiger and Safari 2, be sure to give this a try!

Technorati Tags: apple, mac, social

Apple, Technology

I finally got around to upgrading my 17″ PowerBook this weekend to Tiger (OS X 10.4). After making a complete mountable image of my laptop on an external drive, I reformatted my laptop harddrive and went through the complete installation process without a single hitch. After copying key Applications back over and along with their corresponding /Library/Application Support directories, I was back up and running inside of an hour. Not bad. I didn’t even loose a single Firefox extension.

Some more tidbits regarding Tiger:

• In my opinion, the best of Tiger’s new features is the Dashboard. I’ve already installed quite a few widgets, including this Flicker widget FlickIt.
• Windows users can now take advantage of zero-configuration networking with Bonjour. (formally Rendevous). This allows for easy setup of any network based application.

This article describes 15 uses for RSS feeds and how it can make your life better.

Regarding the recent screaming from the right regarding judicial nominations and the threat of the “nuclear option”, please keep this in mind. Recent Republican attack ads have claimed courtrooms have sit empty due to the Senate confirmation process being slowed by the Democrats. However, the fact is there are now half as many vacancies as when President Bush took office, and cases are typically being decided more quickly now than they were in 1999, when it was the Republicans opposing Bill Clinton. However, the Republican sure know how to whine and bitch louder. Here’s an idea, shut up and sit down. The system is working exactly as it should. Better yet, keep making fools and continue to marginalize yourself. The polls are reflecting exactly what the majority thinks about this. Hopefully, so will the next election.

Have a good week! Pacers play Detroit tonight in Game 1 of the East Semi-finals.

Technorati Tags: osx, apple, social

Apple, Technology

First…the dark side..

While I don’t quite remember the Duck and Cover films from the height of the Cold War, I do remember having the bejesus scared out of me by the thought of thousands of nuclear warheads reigning down upon our heads. My parents discussed survival with me and I read about Nuclear Winter. Now it seems that all of that never actually went away and is more dangerous now than ever. Thanks a lot for nothing, President Bush.

Now, for some lighter stuff. “I, Cringely” writes about a new company called DayJet. Seems the founder of Citrix is applying the BitTorrent ideal to the airways. Interesting concept. At $1-$3 per mile, that makes a one-way trip to Seattle cost somewhere between $3,000-$9,000. Note to self: Win Lottery, pay $4,500 for flight to Phoenix for dinner. One-way.

Finally, I have said it before and I will say it again. Microsoft is beginning to show some strain from all of the competitive assaults and I hope they are truly scared of Google. Frankly, it is about damn time. After some of Gates & Co.’s past exploits, it was only a matter of time before the karma police came in to knock his door down. As a strong Open Source advocate who has seen the havoc wrecked upon the computer world by the past anti-trust behaviors of Microsoft, this merely seems overdue. After Attorney General “Ass” Ashcroft took the federal government’s foot off of Microsoft’s throat, most geeks were probably like me and thought Microsoft’s market share was secure. Certainly, at least for the near-term. That future does not seem so certain today with Apple, Google, Time Warner, Sony and many others encroaching on Microsoft’s traditional turf, that of the “Desktop Dictator”.

If more companies would simply behave by Google’s mantra of “Do No Evil”, perhaps we wouldn’t have the amount of ethical scandals and blowups we see today. That damn eternal optimist in me never shuts up.

Technorati Tags: politics, pop culture, google

News and Politics, Technology

This past week has been interesting, to say the least. Rarely do so many events take place in such a compacted period of time that have such a profound effect on my life. Perhaps, none as much as the latest release of Apple’s newest operating system OS X v10.4. Affectionately known as Tiger, well at least by most (SCREW YOU TIGER DIRECT.. *ahem* sorry…).

One could argue that turning 35 this week would be a bit more of a milestone, but I’ll reserve my more darker thoughts regarding this subject to my written (and well hidden) journal. Suffice it to say that I do feel twice as old as I did when I was 17.

Anyway, if you have some time to kill and are have an interest in the Unix-y stuff in Tiger, this article by John Siracusa is highly recommended.

Have you ever wondered why your neck hurts after sitting at a computer for hours upon hours reading such articles? From time to time, I will read an occasion article regarding workspace ergonomics to reinforce good habits. This one was a bit more detailed than most.

For those BitTorrent fans out there, this site is an excellent resource. Shhhhh

The Aardvark Firefox Extension is absolutely essential for anyone doing web development. The ability to quickly see what tags are associated with what element is a wonderful thing. Kudo’s to the Aardvark team! Excellent work. Another extention that I use is the Tidy HTML Validator. Excellent tool, also. I realize I sound like a CD stuck on repeat, but if you are not using Firefox as your primary browser. Do yourself and your computer a favor, and go there now. You will not regret it.

My friend Kent introduced me to some new music this week and I am really starting to dig it. You may want to check out the Kaiser Chiefs yourself.

Of course, the Indiana Pacer’s took quite a beating last night from the Boston Celtics. Maybe they will choose to show up and play for Game 5.

That’s about all I have right now. Everyone have a good week!

Technorati Tags: personal, mac, bittorrent, apple, p2p

Apple, Technology