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Friday, June 21, 2002 |
Public Hearings on USAPA Now!
"Join the call for accountability and openness in government! In a recent letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft, Representatives James Sensenbrenner and John Conyers have asked the Department of Justice to provide a detailed report on the implications and effects of the USA Patriot Act (USAPA). The letter suggests open hearings on the practical application of new law enforcement tools and pointedly asks how the tools relate to recent claims that impending terrorist attacks have been averted. Send a letter in support of Reps. Sensenbrenner and Conyers!" [Electronic Frontier Foundation Action Center]
While I'm all for catching the bad guys, I'm against seizing a library's records without having to justify your request before a judge first and going on record with an actual reason. The worst part is that a library cornered into this position can't tell anyone about the action, including the media or even the American Library Association. This is a wide open door to abuse of the system, and we need to make sure that the government can't drive a truck through it.
11:13:52 PM Permanent link here
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The VIC development team will really enjoy this first one:
Z39.50 (to the tune of "Rock and Roll Music")
"Hook me up with that Z-3-9-fifty.
You can set it up so swiftly,
Make connections in a jiffy,
Though the search results are iffy.
It's gotta be Z-3-9-fifty,
If you want to search with me,
If you want to search with me."
Up At Endeavor (to the tune of "Over the Rainbow")
"Somewhere up at Endeavor, code runs fine.
Code runs fine at Endeavor,
Why then, oh why can't mine?
If Voyager performs just fine up at Endeavor,
Why, oh why can't mine?" [via Library Techlog]
11:02:32 PM Permanent link here
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Internet Radio Is Dead, Long Live Peercast
"The Librarian of Congress has accepted a CARP pricing structure that kills internet radio. Howard Greenstein does the math and determines that internet radio needs to charge advertisers an order of magnitude more than banner advertisers to cover the fees. Lotsa luck...
I'll toot my own horn as I predicted this last month when the Copyright office initially rejected the CARP rates:
While good news for webcasters, I wouldn't be breaking out the champagne just yet. You can damn well bet that RIAA and the labels are already filling up Congresscritter appointment books to apply some pressure.
First P2P music and now internet radio. With the two infant killer apps of broadband smothered in their crib by the entertainment industry, exactly why would new consumers sign up for broadband? Especially now that the FCC's new deregulation is guaranteed to raise prices. That game is over too, even though the telcos are still twitching. They've lost $2 Trillion in market value, and some analysts predict that 24 of the nation's top 29 telecommunications companies that have not yet filed for bankruptcy may do so in coming months. Allowing them to gouge a few more bucks out of existing broadband customers is only going to delay the inevitable.
Internet radio will continue to exist outside U.S. border (their usage costs have a percentage of revenues model that allows viable low-end webcasting) but the game is over for U.S.-based legitimate, independent webcasting. The major music labels will lock-up all their content in RealAudio and Microsoft Media formats and anyone who wants something besides Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys pablum will be pushed into low-bandwith overseas channels.
But all is not lost. Low-capacity P2P broadcast mirroring (let's call it Peercasting) could replace all independent internet radio streams in the US in a matter of weeks if Shoutcast were to add an easy to use stream mirroring/hopping capability. I have enough bandwidth for a half-dozen upstream users on my DSL pipe and 10 times that many on way.nu without much impact on my throughput....
It's a brand-new world; and the record industry is about to reap the whirlwind." [Way.Nu, via Doc Searls]
This is a great idea, but with the looming prospect of broadband ISPs implementing tier-based pricing based on bandwidth usage, it might not get off the ground either.
BTW, to see a direct effect of the CARP ruling, look at the SomaFM web site, formerly a webcasting site.
"With CARP royalties of $500 a DAY, SomaFM cannot continue broadcasting. " [Also via Doc]
No word yet on the web site for my alma mater's radio station, KJHK, about how the ruling will effect them. I still like to check in with them occasionally over the web, so I'm particularly disheartened that the new fee structure doesn't provide reduced fees for educational, college, or non-profit webcasters.
10:07:07 PM Permanent link here
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TeleRead continues providing updates about the NPR deep linking controversy, so I encourage you to keep checking David's site. Here's a question, though. If I read or listen to a story on the NPR site and I want to share it with my readers, how exactly should I do that? Quoting the whole piece in a post (or even just too much of it) on my site is clearly a violation of copyright. But I can't link to it without requesting permission first, and then I have to hope that my site qualifies for link approval. Obviously that process takes a while since Will requested permission more than 48 hours ago and he has yet to hear back from them. Has anyone requested permission before this controversy and gotten a timely affirmative response?
So what should I do if I think enough of a NPR story to recommend it to you? Quote it with no link so you have to rely on me to cite the relevant parts, or link directly to it so you can hear the whole thing and judge for yourself? Either could result in a letter from a lawyer.
9:18:23 PM Permanent link here
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"Greetings sports fans. First I want to thank everyone who sent their good wishes. This was probably the toughest week I've ever had. I came through it stronger, but changed. Not sure how much I want to write about it, but I did want to acknowledge, as soon as I possibly could, that it meant a lot to have so much support. Just got home a few minutes ago. One step at a time. ;->" [Scripting News]
Welcome home, Dave. :-)
7:25:53 PM Permanent link here
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Ben Hammersley on Setting Up a Open Wireless Node
"Ben Hammersley writes about setting up his public WiFi node in his Guardian column. Ben's experience is a little unusual -- within a day of setting up his access point, Doc Searls (who was 9000 miles from home), stumbled upon it (and Ben). Later, at a group dinner with a bunch of British geeks, Matt Jones suggested chalking 'WiFi hobo-runes' on the sidewalk marking discovered wireless service, so that other netstumblers and war-walkers may connect to it." [Boing Boing]
From the article itself:
"...As a writer, with no need to be anywhere but at the end of an internet connection, an email address and a mobile phone number, it's a revolutionary step.
But the wondrous convenience of writing in a place designed to bring me regular blasts of caffeine is really nothing compared to the serendipitous meetings it has created: for as the network I set up is free for all to use, and somewhat advertised on the web, this cafe has seen a steady stream of like-minded technology enthusiasts, bloggers, and geared-up layabouts united in the joyous realisation that they never need go to the office again. A correctly enabled laptop, and a coffee addiction later, your first delivery of email over a community wireless network seems to come with angelic music and a parting of the clouds....
Since then, he and many others have used the spare bandwidth on my internet connection, and I've drunk plenty of coffee. In fact, with the caffeine, the only thing wired around here is me."
Ryan Greene pushes back with the following idea:
"Tie this in with Autodesk's location suite (original report) and you can be alterted every time that you are in a location that you can get wireless access, which gives you the hobo runes mentioned above in a universal (and geeky) format."
12:52:42 AM Permanent link here
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Blockbuster (Supposedly) Sez: Rewind Your DVDs
"Possibly apocryphal exchange between a Blockbuster customer and various tiers of Blockbuster management over the 'Be kind -- please rewind' stickers on their DVD rental cases:
'I emailed Blockbuster regarding the rewinding of DVDs, they told me that 'Most DVD players have a 'Rewind' button on it, what it does is spins the DVD the opposite direction from the direction the DVD spins during the play mode, so by spinning the DVD the opposite direction rewinds the DVD, it's similar to the rewind feature on a VCR.' " [Boing Boing]
PLEASE don't let this happen at your library! For a break on Friday, read through the rest of the Dumb Warnings site.
12:38:31 AM Permanent link here
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RoadWired MegaMedia Bag
"Musing upon the shortcomings of laptop bags, I was very excited to find a company called RoadWired out of Henrietta, New York. They make bags for just about any kind of computer/electronic equipment that you can imagine. One of the products that caught my eye was a bag for laptops called the MegaMedia Bag. This is a very popular product for RoadWired and features 36 different compartments to hold anything you can imagine, including your laptop! [via LLRX.com]
Where do I sign?" [tins ::: Rick Klau's weblog]
12:30:54 AM Permanent link here
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Madeleine Begun Kane weighs in on the NPR deep linking debate:
"...Seriously, what's wrong with their brains? Everyone knows that the key to getting site hits is links, the more the merrier. Ask any blogger The ironic thing is that NPR's hits have surged because bloggers are now punishing it by flagrantly violating its policy and linking. Could this have been NPR's plan all along? Maybe I should post my own "no linkage without permission" notice so I can be punished too." [June 20, 2002]
12:26:38 AM Permanent link here
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Virgin Mobile Adopts MVNO Model
"Virgin Mobile announced on Thursday it will buy bulk minutes for voice and data from Sprint PCS and resell it as a cellular phone service in one of the first U.S. examples of the emerging MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) model.
Parent company Virgin Group has pioneered the service in Great Britain and Australia, offering its customers wireless in direct competition to existing wireless operators.
In the United States, Virgin Mobile USA will sell the cellular service on a prepaid basis with a single service plan, charging 25 cents for the first minute and 10 cents for each successive minute.
'Today, the market is like a big black hole where 90 percent of the users don't know what they are paying for wireless service. The current providers draw people into hidden charges, expensive monthly bills, and other gotchas so the youth has little affinity for a wireless brand,' said Dan Schulman, CEO of Virgin Mobile USA in Warren, N.J.
Among the features Schulman believes will allow Virgin Mobile to tap into a market in the United States that is far less saturated than in Europe and Asia are Rescue Ring and the Balance Button.
The Rescue Ring service is geared to young people on a blind date, said Schulman, and allows a user to receive a call at any time of his or her choosing with a message that will provide a built-in excuse for cutting the date short. Schulman added that it might be useful during business meetings as well.
Balance Button allows Virgin Mobile customers to check their balance and calling history in real time with a single click of one key on the phone....
In its nationwide launch, Virgin Mobile will use Kyocera as the cell phone manufacturer and BEA as the application service provider on the backend with the phones and service distributed in about 11,000 retail locations using major retail convenience stores like Seven Eleven and electronics outlets like Best Buy and general merchandize retailers like Target....
Sprint PCS also participated in the announcement and Charles Levine responded to questions about Virgin Mobile cannibalizing its own customer base." [InfoWorld: Top News]
12:22:05 AM Permanent link here
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"Imagine a future in which you could tell your computer to move a folder inside another, and just by pointing with your finger, it would happen. Or being able to command your computer to print your vacation pictures on the nearest color printer, and not have to supply any more configuration information.
While you're imagining these scenarios, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are working on a project that could make these, and other new ways to interface with computers, a reality.
Called the Project Oxygen Alliance, the research and development efforts underway at the Cambridge, Mass.-based school encompass as many as 200 to 300 researchers in the school's Lab for Computer Science (LCS) and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory working on a variety of projects, according to Stephen Garland, principal research scientist at the LCS....
The alliance is working on a number of projects, including those listed above, and demonstrated a handful at its second annual meeting, held last week in Cambridge. Other projects underway within the alliance include: a natural language, multilingual conversation system that can understand and respond to normal speech; a computer aided design tool that can translate images from a whiteboard into design applications; a self-configuring, decentralized wireless network; a system that intelligently allocates resources for streaming media." [InfoWorld: Top News]
12:16:54 AM Permanent link here
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Another Macromedia Weblog
"Sean Corfield, the Director of Architecture at Macromedia, has set up a weblog named An Architect's View. Lots of very good information on ColdFusion MX, as well as Rich Applications.
Check out this post with some info on CFMX on OSX." [mesh on MX]
I love the Macromedia blogs. I think they're a great tool (far easier to read than the discussion groups), and I like to read what the guys that work there think is important. It makes me respect them a little more because they're experimenting with the format to disseminate information about tips, bugs, fixes, and relevant links.
However, only one of the blogs has comments turned on, and only John Dowdell and the Radio ones have an RSS feed (which is turned on by default). I don't think anyone's shown these guys an aggregator or else they'd add a feed using VoidStar or Syndicate Your Page. So I'd like to respectfully request that the MM bloggers using Radio show the power of an aggregator to their colleagues. It's a win-win situation for everyone, because then I would read those blogs I don't visit now in my aggregator. Such as the one listed above.
12:08:17 AM Permanent link here
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© Copyright 2004 Jenny Levine.
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