Here’s a neat idea — the text of the Bill of Rights gradually disappears as the mug is filled with hot liquid! Simulates the effect of a Bush presidency. Thanks to Boing Boing for the link.
Daily Archives: October 15, 2005
What’s in a name?
Just brooding on the way terminology can be used to ‘frame’ a discussion, and the phrase ‘Digital Rights Management’ came to mind. It should, of course, be called Digital Restrictions Management, which is the term I will use from now on.
Our broadband world
Amidst the hoo-hah over the video iPod, two interesting developments have been overlooked. Both concern the new iMac G5 range. The machine now comes with an iSight video camera built in. And it ships without a modem (an external modem is available as a high-priced optional extra). What this tells us is that Apple is now assuming that the majority of its customers have broadband connections.
The Microsoft Protection Racket
No — it’s not my headline, but one from John Dvorak, a prominent technology commentator. He’s been musing about the significance of a change in the way Microsoft approaches the provision of ‘patches’ to its flaky software. Sample:
Does Microsoft think it is going to get away with charging real money for any sort of add-on, service, or new product that protects clients against flaws in its own operating system? Does the existence of this not constitute an incredible conflict of interest? Why improve the base code when you can sell “protection”?
So what is actually going on here? I think there were some bottom-line questions that must have been brought up internally. Obviously someone at Microsoft looked at the expense of “patch Tuesday” and asked, “Is there any way we can make some money with all these patches?” The answer was “Yeah, let’s stop doing them and sell ‘protection’ instead.” Bravo! And now the company has a new revenue stream.
Costs and benefits of P2P architecture
Very thoughtful post by Ed Felten rehearsing the arguments for and against P2P vs. centralised architectures. Note that copyright infringement is only a minor issue here.
World music sales
From this week’s Economist…
Sales of music CDs and other physical formats fell by 6.3% in the first half of 2005. But sales of digital music (not shown in the chart) more than tripled to $790m. Music downloads and mobile-phone ringtones now account for 6% of retail revenues. Of the countries with the most music sales, the British bought the most per person, thanks to their attractive specialist music shops, and the release of Coldplay’s album “X&Y”.
BBC Listen Live Widget
If you’re a Mac user running OS X 10.4 (‘Tiger’), then this is something you simply must have.