µblog - archive for 2006-08

Mike:

The telcos really need to learn to hire better shills. Even as someone who supports their position that legislation may be premature, I’m embarrassed by the hired help they trot out who can’t even sound halfway competent.

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Ryan Block:

DRM man, it’s like a freaking mobiüs strip of customer hurt.

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Here’s a crazy idea. Use Amazon S3 as a virtual tape device. Then just run level 0, level 1 etc. backups against the “tapes”. When you feel like it, delete the old ones from the S3 store.

Why? Well, tape backup strategies are basically a solved problem. Tape handling and storage is still a major pain in the butt though. Assuming you can trust Amazon with your data, why not use them as your offsite backup?

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Danny Ayers on the “Trickle of News”:

I find it really strange that it takes a little hack (state of the art maybe 2001) and a pithy slogan for this to appear on a lot of people’s radar. It’s as if the blogosphere ends at techmeme.

I agree. It’s as if the US is only now waking up to the mobile reality we in the EU have been living in for the last few years.

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Eventful day. Both cats went to the vet’s to be neutered, which went well. But the tabby started bleeding when we came home, so she’s back for observation.

I score meta-blogging points for this post, as it’s posted from my cellphone and it’s about cats.

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On my way to work after 2 hours at the dentist. My mouth feels like a building site.

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The rain from yesterday will make a repeat appearance today. Appropriate song: “No Blue Skies” by Lloyd Cole.

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US youth confused about the legality of CD/DVD copying.

As who isn’t. really?

Contains this little gem:

The music industry now considers so-called “schoolyard” piracy – copies of physical discs given to friends and classmates – a greater threat than illegal peer-to-peer downloading, according to the RIAA.

Say what?!

They should be encouraging this. Someone recommends music to their friends, potentially making the music more popular. And this is a bigger problem than online file-sharing?

The music industry made billions by selling content on vinyl again in CD format. Now they’ve found that you can legally buy a CD in stores that contains the data, unencrypted, in high quality.

Ways for the recording industry to move forward:

• sue every person on the planet
• outlaw CDs; invent a new, DRM-laden format; confiscate all CD players and records on the face of the earth
• accept that double-digit profit margins are a thing of the past, make peace with their customers, and work together with musicians to make money in the new digital marketplace.

Considering the stupidity exhibited in the past, I’m betting on a combination of the first and second alternatives.

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Sweden, the new Somalia:

With its worldwide following, many here see the [Pirate] Bay as the devil on Sweden’s shoulder, legitimizing contempt for intellectual property rights and threatening to saddle the country with a lasting reputation for international lawlessness.

(Wired)

Go us!

Since the established parties suck so much I might as well vote for Piratpartiet this election…

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Rogers Cadenhead has a good observation today.

On podcasting (specifically the Gillmor Gang, which I unsubbed from a long time ago):

Finding this nugget in the noise reminds me of what podcasting offers that blogging lacks: Content that sucks in two dimensions. A bad podcast suffers both in quality and in the amount of time required to find this out. I could’ve back-buttoned 60 bad blog entries in the time I listened to one Gillmor Gang.

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Update: apparently it was Michael Arrington burning his bridges at AOL, not Jason Calacanis. I’ve updated the post accordingly, No matter, the one that’s left cuts to the heart of the criticism against podcasting. You can scan a bad blog in seconds, not so with a bad podcast.

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Nick Carr:

TechCrunch’s Mike Arrington takes a break from profiling tiny companies with silly names to blast the world’s largest search engine.

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