Links 02/06/08 (Awesome Stuff Edition)
What Kind of World Do You Want?
Here's a video sharing community by Five for Fighting dedicated to giving contributions to charities you select every time a video you upload is viewed. It's a neat concept, and some people have created some very moving videos.
Adobe Labs: Buzzword
This is an amazing online word processor. It's responsive, recognizes some common keyboard commands, and just plain looks nice.
via Daring Fireball
Fluid
Speaking of web applications, this neat little utility lets you create separate desktop links to all the web apps you use. Each web application opens in its own site-specific browser, giving them their own workspaces separate from your traditional web browsing. It looks really great, but I don't have Leopard yet. However, if you do, it looks worth checking out!
also via Daring Fireball
Links 01/12/08
As John Gruber puts it: "Maybe they’re not so dumb after all."
Ars Technica: Under pressure from EMI, RIAA could disappear
From the article:
EMI was the first of the majors to drop DRM at iTunes and Amazon, moves that have made its digital music a more attractive option. But if EMI can force a restructuring of the IFPI and RIAA, the impact could be just as significant for the industry.
Windows Errors That Are Really Funny
"Error: The operation completed successfully." Even Windows admits how unusual it is for it to do something right. (Zing!)
Links 12/21/07
NYT: Apple Rumor Site to Shut Down in Settlement
What exactly did Apple gain in pursuing this to begin with? It sure isn't good PR...
Ars Technica: Exclusive: Retail chain scalping Wii allotment on eBay
Ars breaks a story on a chain of gaming stores that are not selling Wiis in their storefronts. Rather, they are putting them straight onto eBay at a nearly 100% markup. While not outright illegal, this is certainly no way to gain consumer trust.
Currently, the accused retailer has an official response on its website's front page. Check it out.
Ars Technica: RIAA writes its own "news" for local TV stations
My love for the RIAA never wanes, so I have to pass this piece along about a somewhat factually-sketchy informercial the organization wants aired in news broadcasts.
I think this quote sums it up well:
For an industry already the target of so much consumer suspicion, feeding misleading claims and self-serving footage to ostensibly objective "news" outlets just doesn't seem like a great idea.
Links 12/14/07
Discussing the possibility for an open Arctic ocean in summer months, [Dr Mark Serreze] told the meeting: "A few years ago, even I was thinking 2050, 2070, out beyond the year 2100, because that's what our models were telling us. But as we've seen, the models aren't fast enough right now; we are losing ice at a much more rapid rate.
While the ocean-supported glaciers will not affect ocean levels, land-bound glaciers and ice sheets (like those on Greenland) will. This on the same day I read about failing penguin populations in the Antarctic...
Jim Hill: A special "Where's WALL-E" edition of Why For?
On a much more trivial note, in this blog post, Jim Hill tries to create a definitive list of the in-references and self references found throughout Pixar's films. Needless to say, this makes for a long read.
via Daring Fireball
Ars Technica: RIAA: Those CD rips of yours are still "unauthorized"
< soapbox > In other words, the RIAA would rather you not make mix-CDs for use in your car or put music you already own on your iPods. Why? Because you are no more than potential revenue to them rather than a human being. < soapbox / >
Links 08/15/08 (Part 2)
Paul Thurrott is absolutely right in this case. The Mac is not a gaming machine. It's great at many things (otherwise I wouldn't be on my second Mac laptop and desktop), but gaming is a lost cause here.
So what's a Mac user to do? Well, you can forget about this EA silliness, for starters, and grab yourself a real video game machine, like an Xbox 360 or a PS3.
Yup, we got a PS2 back in 2002, and we haven't missed gaming on the Mac since. (Well, except for Cro-Mag Rally perhaps.)
Engadget: Samsung files patent app for fertility measuring phone
Okay this has to be at least the third strangest thing I've seen today. (And quite possibly the most bizarre use for a cellular phone I've ever heard of.)
Ars Technica: Row brewing over attorneys' fees in RIAA loss
Why does this not surprise me?
Links 07/17/07
From the site:
We're going to give you Menuet and Art Collector, and all we ask for in return is that you'll donate what you can to a charity. If you can't donate money to one of the charities offered through our site, please go ahead and help out some local charities with old clothes or perhaps some of your time as a volunteer.
Ars Technica: RIAA spends thousands to obtain $300 judgment
Don't these guys have anything better to do with their time and resources?
Indexed: Do Your Thing
This makes me happy.
Links 06/26/07
Basically, employers can currently ignore the First Amendment rights of their employees – and this should be especially important to bloggers. If you write or say something that upsets them, contradicts decisions, upsets their political views, or merely generally irritates them, they may fire you. The podcast discusses the issue very thoroughly.
It's ironic that I should stumble upon this story on the tenth anniversary of this Supreme Court decision (and I don't mean ironic in the rain-on-your-wedding-day way).
This is, without a doubt, the sexiest Windows-based laptop ever created. If it weren't for the blue LEDs and the obligatory marketing stickers, it might just be as drool-worthy as a MacBook Pro.
However, we need to work on the name. XPS M1330? That's like running into a strikingly beautiful and achingly intelligent woman but learning her name is Hanktrude. It just mars the experience. Anyway, cool features, light, small, $2,200. Check it out if you use THOSE computers.
Here are a bunch of prerelease reviews of the iPhone. Nothing staggering here at all. THe general gist is that the iPhone works exactly as advertized (including the improved battery life). The touch screen works well but takes getting used to. EDGE is slow. If you want to read the full reviews, click away!
- The Mossberg Solution: The iPhone is a Breakthrough Handheld Computer
- NYT: The iPhone Matches Most of Its Hype
- Newsweek: At Last, the iPhone
- USAToday: Apple's iPhone Isn't Perfect, But It's Worthy of the Hype
So will the iPhone do to the mobile phone industry what the iPod did for digital music. Who knows? It could be incredible. It could be the next iPod HiFi. Still, if I try one out in a store and don't instantly dislike it, that will say a lot about it as a cell phone!
via DF and TUAW
Oliver Toast: Introducing MiniMail
This small app creates a small notification window for Apple's Mail application – much like the notifier featured in modern versions of Outlook.
screenshot by Oliver Toast
It's a neat idea, and it
costs $9. Personally, I'm happy with Mail.appetizer which offers the
same basic functionality for free. (However,
MiniMail definitely offers more features.) Here's
what Mail.appetizer looks like:
Ars Technica: Microsoft's
anti-virtualization stance: forget DRM, think
Apple
Ken Fisher thinks Microsoft's stance that limitation
of Home editions of Windows virtualization based on
DRM concerns is a snowjob. The real motivation may be
to make it more expensive for Mac users to create
virtual Windows machines.
Microsoft using arbitrary methods to stifle the
competition? I can't imagine...
Ars Technica: Exonerated defendant sues
RIAA for malicious prosecution
The title says it all.
Links 04/20/07
However, Microsoft can't hide the fact that the Xbox 360, like its predecessor, has been a financial disaster for the company. Maybe it's time that Microsoft stopped hemorrhaging cash and looked to other markets that would be more rewarding for the company and its shareholders.
I can't see this happening. Microsoft is too proud to abandon such a high-profile product. 10 million XBox 360s are in the hands of consumers. As a product, the 360 is a success (and the article notes this). Unfortunately, as is the often the case with consoles, it is a financial black hole.
Ars Technica: Despite revenue slump, RIAA still not getting the big picture
I really didn't expect them to. The RIAA is large, inflexible, and quickly becoming obsolete. They blind themselves to the changing of their own industry much the same way AMerican auto makers have for years.
Links 03/16/07
- Signal-to-Noise ratio and the elimination of the nonessential
- Slide design: signal vs. noise (redux)
CPUs: Seven Blog Virtues
Kathy Sierra posts some great tips (in PDF format) on producing a well-received blog. This is essential reading for all of us bloggers out here!
DT: 12 Ways to Boycott the RIAA
Mark Fleischmann:
The RIAA’s degeneration into a corporate bully is both sad and self-defeating. Warring against consumers has not reversed declining CD sales or replaced eroding revenues with legal downloads. It has merely turned off a new generation of consumers, possibly forever.
I think the RIAA should start reading Creating Passionate Users.
Links 03/05/07
"DMCA scholars often spar over whether or not the blanket prohibition against circumventing access controls truly applies to fair use, but I think it's quite clear what the RIAA and the content industry thinks: the DMCA makes circumvention illegal, period. Does this all-or-nothing principle sound familiar? If you're thinking of Prohibition in the United States, you're right on the money."
Opposable Thumbs: Reviewing reviews: a rebuttal
I didn't even know this was an issue, and I don't know why anyone at Sony would care ... unless they are just bitter about the negative press the PS3 and some of its launch titles have been receiving.
Let's see, instead of focusing on games I've avoided due to reviews, here are some games I never would have bought had it not been for the reviews I read: Burnout 3, Katamari Damacy, Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, Ratchet & Clank, Jak & Daxter, Pikmin 2, Dark Cloud, Beyond Good & Evil, Lego Star Wars, SSX Tricky, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Silent Hill 2, and Animal Crossing.
For the most part, if I want a game enough, I'll at least rent it despite the reviews. On the other hand, good reviews have turned me on to properties that I might have otherwise dismissed, and many of these have sequels I've picked up. In my opinion, reviews are good as long as some other consumers are like me.
Nobel Intent: An ancient solar observatory
"Dating suggested that the towers were constructed around the 4th century B.C., making them over 2,300 years old. According to Ghezzi, "Chankillo reflects well-developed astronomical principles, which suggests the original forms of astronomy must be quite older," than previously believed."
Macworld UK: Mac Users were Microsoft's "Guinea Pigs"
You know what? Ignore this article. Read the real memo instead. It tells the story of someone working hard to keep an important Mac application alive despite upper management. The "guinea pig" quote in the memo really comes off as Waldman trying to appeal to Gate's judgment. Mac sites are making this more sensational than it is, and they are making the good guy in the story sound like a villain...
I post this because I am getting tired of the Mac web going out of its way to vilify any individual even remotely associated with Microsoft.
Links 03/02/07
I think I feel a blog post being inspired as I read this entry.
Indexed: WIth Penguin's Viking Studio
Congratulations, Jessica!
Pathological paranoia can only go untreated for so long before the victim destroys him- or herself. It's like the RIAA is a case study in a psychology textbook.
- Ars Technica: RIAA launches propaganda, lawsuit offensive against college students
- Ars Technica: RIAA slams FAIR USE Act
Ars Technica: The gaming-violence connection: why society finds it comforting
From the article:
"Far from being a new danger, the Sternheimer suggests that gaming is simply the latest in a long series of media influences to take the blame. "Over the past century, politicians have complained that cars, radio, movies, rock music, and even comic books caused youth immorality and crime, calling for control and sometimes censorship." She terms the targets of such efforts "folk devils," items branded dangerous and immoral that serve to focus blame and fear."
Links 02/13/07
This is another great Kathy Sierra post. Oddly enough, even though she is talking about software and product design, this concept can apply back to classrooms. How much does the payoff of the work and projects we assign to students correlate with the perceived rewards of said work?
Presentations ETC Homepage
This site offers a lot of free PowerPoint backgrounds and Keynote themes (and the Keynote themes are honest-to-goodness theme files). Most are pretty average, but I found two I like: Cloudy, a very minimalist theme, and Old Book, a nostalgic-looking theme.
x
The site also contains links to several useful PowerPoint and Keynote resources.
Two more links to keep you feeling the RIAA love...
- Ars Technica: Leaked letter shows RIAA pressuring ISPs, planning discounts for early settlements
- Ars Technica: Study: P2P effect on legal music sales "not statistically distinguishable from zero"
Links 02/09/07
In a completely unexpected and uncharacteristic move, Steve Jobs writes an open letter on the Apple website regarding his thoughts on DRM, muisc labels, and future possibilities. He even goes so far as to say Apple would embrace DRM-free sales through the iTunes store if they could get the labels on board. Of course, this has generated a lot of feedback. Here's just a fraction:
- Presentation Zen: DRM Must Die
- Daring Fireball: Reading Between the Lines of Steve Jobs 'Thoughts on Music'
- Playlist: Partners, Rivals React to Jobs' Anti-DRM Comments
Neatorama: 11 Most Important Philosophical Quotations
I took some philosophy in college for fun. I haven't studied it much since, but I still find it, and the individuals involved, endlessly fascinating.
Tech Republic: Don't Be Misled By These 10 Windows Vista Myths
When upgrading to a new operating system, it is good to be informed, but don't get caught up in negative hype.
Continued RIAA Villainy
RIAA's Earned Reputation
I can think of no other industry that holds its consumers in such general contempt as the recording industry (except, perhaps, the oil industry whose executives hold our very planet in contempt).In fact, let's take a stroll down memory lane:
- Ars Technica: RIAA says CD ripping, backups not fair use
- Arts Techica: RIAA defendent argues damages are excessive
- Ars Technica: RIAA lawyers bully witnesses into perjury
- WinInfo: Microsoft caves to Universal in music deal (I might also mention that this Internet Nexus post claims Micrsosft has had to enter into similar agreements with the other music labels.)
This is but a small sampling of the RIAA and music labels stepping on others' feet, and all but one of these links is from this year! Again, the only explanation is that they hold their customers in absolute contempt.
The Latest Offense
Now, record executives aren't just being disrespectful to their source of income (read: you and me). They are now claiming too much profit is making its way to the hands of recording artists trough new avenues of distribution such as iTunes, the Zune Marketplace, and cell phone ring-tones.The IGN article states it well:
"At best the RIAA is kicking artists when they're down via this action, and at worst has fully revealed that despite repeated claims that artists need to be protected from piracy, the organization is very much the tool of the major labels and publishers who have famously never really cared about the artists in the first place."
Growing Irrelevancy
Middlemen – that is all the record labels are. They are to music what Dunder Mifflin is to paper. They take stuff others created, package it up, overcharge for it, and then take the lion's share of profit for themselves. Again, except for the oil industry, can you think of another industry so willing to alienate all around them for the sake of profits?Unfortunately, the record labels are slowly becoming irrelevant, and they know it. However, instead of evolving with the times and redefining their roles in the marketplace, the big labels are merely throwing their collective weight around, trying to cash in on as much as they can before the axe falls.
What would be great is if major online music retailers like Yahoo! Music, iTunes, Urge, and Zune Marketplace would allow artists to submit tracks and albums directly, bypassing the publishers entirely. The problem with this, of course, is that the artists still rely on the music labels to provide studios and equipment to record with. Also, the studios often own the copyright to an artists work rather than the artist him-/herself, and there may be no quick solution for these issue.
Regardless, the RIAA has become a dinosaur that has become both carnivorous and cannibalistic in its attempts to maintain a stranglehold on its profits. These executive don't care about the artists they represent, nor do they care about the consumers that purchase their product. If the record labels and the RIAA continue their reign of terror, it won't be long until artists and consumers start looking for ways to eliminate them from the equation entirely.
So Much To Say
One of the more interesting tidbits lately has been some quotes attributed to Edgar Bronfman, Jr. of Warner Music Group where he attacks Apple's fixed pricing structure in the iTunes Music Store, and he claims right to a chunk of Apple's profit margins on the iPod because people buy the iPod to carry music they distribute. Interesting thoughts – however, I think this guy is only managing to confirm Steve Jobs comments about "greedy" record executives.
First, let's look at the pricing structure controversy. I agree with Mr. Bronfman completely on this. Charging $0.99 for every song is unfair. Prices should cap at $0.99/song for premium songs, and perhaps we can set a basement price of $0.49 for less popular material with prices in between the two limits for various material. That sound fair, right? Oh, you want to charge more for the popular tunes, even in 128 kbps encoding. Yeah, that's just greedy.
(By the way, I know Apple is responsible for the encoding quality of the songs downloaded from the iTunes Music Store, but I do think is should still be a factor in the price. If they start supporting 256 kbps or more, then we'll talk.)
Now let's examine the second point: The record labels deserve a cut of iPod sales. If we follow this reasoning, every publisher or developer that creates titles for the Macintosh deserve a percentage of every computer Apple sells. The same goes for Miscrosoft and Windows software. After all, who would buy a computer that runs no software? Every network and production studio should get a cut of every television sold. Every radio station should get a cut of every stereo sold. Every web site should get kickback from internet subscriptions.
I'm sorry, record labels are not special and do not deserve special treatment. They deserve no cut of the iPod pie any more than I deserve a cut of AOL's profits. Verdict: Greed.
I love music. I love listening to a wide variety of music from Bach to Bob Dylan, the Beatles to Dave Matthews to Philip Glass. However, it's sad to see the powers over such a worthwhile medium are so much more concerned with lining their pockets thatn they are the fair treatment of the consumers that support them. Then again, that really is one of the biggest weaknesses of the United States in general: "My money before your wellfare."
I know Apple has its own agenda, and it may be playing cards that just make the record labels take the bad PR when iTunes Music Store prices rise, but I hope Steve Jobs rakes people like Mr. Bronfram across as many coals as he can before relenting. There, end soap box rant.
Wow, I actually started this post feeling all calm and serene, and now I'm all in a huff. That means I don't even want to start addressing these other comments from our (edit: sorry, Finland's) beloved record industry! ; )