Friday, 2 May 2003
.< 9:39:50 AM >
Surging Rentals, Thanks to DVD DVD has resuscitated video sales, and now it is reviving rentals. [New York Times: Arts]
. . . while the music industry dreams of its glory days when the CD was introduced.
.< 2:09:25 AM >
Wireless News: Why Blogs Haven't Stormed the Business World 'It's quite possible that like instant messaging , blogging will become an extremely productive tool for businesses as well as individuals to gather and organize what smart people figure out daily.
But at the rate they're going, blog tools are merely building simple heaps of information, giant mounds of unorganized content. Developers of these tools must implement technologies for moving and transforming entire weblogs before things get seriously out of hand.' As one of the comments following the story points out, there needs to be a better way than the calendar to access the data. I see people saying 'a weblog must have postings in reverse chronological order'. I think this is silly and purist nonsense. It's how we identifiy a weblog now but it doesn't mean it's the best way to share information.
.< 1:36:02 AM >
Other News: 18 Hours, $275,000 in Tunes Billboard magazine reports that Apple sold about 275,000 musical cuts from the iTunes Music Store in its first 18 hours. At $.99/cut, that's more than a quarter of a million dollars in revenue. [MacInTouch]
.< 1:35:56 AM >
Reports: Bluetooth Phones Readers offer lots of tips and experiences in answer to yesterday's query about Mac-friendly Bluetooth phones. [MacInTouch]Drool . . .
.< 1:18:33 AM >
CBC News: More Toronto health workers may have SARS 'Low stressed that the possible new cases are not a major setback to public health efforts to stem the spread of SARS.
There have been no new cases within the general community in three weeks and the general public is not at risk, he said.' Everyone's holding their breath here . . . figuratively speaking.
.< 1:16:05 AM >
Bong go the classics 'When parents and teachers cannot introduce their children to the art, what hope remains for a future renaissance? Collectively, Blair's generation has dropped the baton that relayed Western music from one epoch to the next.'
.< 1:09:29 AM >
CBC News: SARS experts urge world co-operation 'Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control, called the plan "excellent" and said she would like Canada and the U.S. to work together.
"We would very much like to join in and share the development of a cohesive strategy for our countries, since we have very important issues in common," said Gerberding.' Yeah, like a border!
.< 1:07:21 AM >
CBC News: 20,000 char burst out of Yukon farm tank ' The fish farm is run by Icy Waters, a Kitchener, Ont.-based company that supplies fish to restaurants in Ontario.
[...] The char in the 50,000-litre tank were two years away from ending up on diners' plates. '
.< 1:04:49 AM >
More SARS Cases Are Reported; Virus Found to Persist in Patients Dismaying developments in three nations underscored the capriciousness of SARS, the respiratory virus that had seemed to be coming under control in many countries. [New York Times: NYT HomePage] ' "We are not getting good, fast information from Canada," said a W.H.O. official who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Countries are not very good about reporting new cases, even the United States."'
.< 12:55:18 AM >
Beware of PhotoShop 7 jpeg images! It looks like PhotoShop 7 embeds some xml code in jpeg images when saving them using the default "Save as" menu and not the "Save for web" feature, and that this xml code breaks some builds of IE6 for Windows.
I find this totally amazing...
[Paolo Valdemarin: Paolo's Weblog]
.< 12:52:56 AM >
Patriot Raid
Two weeks ago I experienced a very small taste of what hundreds of South Asian immigrants and U.S. citizens of South Asian descent have gone through since 9/11, and what thousands of others have come to fear. I was held, against my will and without warrant or cause, under the USA PATRIOT Act. While I understand the need for some measure of security and precaution in times such as these, the manner in which this detention and interrogation took place raises serious questions about police tactics and the safeguarding of civil liberties in times of war. (link)
Thus begins a very disturbing story. [Al-Muhajabah's Islamic Blogs]
.< 12:49:46 AM >
Did our leaders lie to us? Do we even care?
But it seems the agony of Sept. 11 has pushed us into an altogether new realm, where we don't even care if our rhetoric makes sense, as long as we're led to a feel-good conclusion. The joy of kicking butt obliterates the need to make an honest case for war.
Wasn't it just four years ago -- I reminded my acquaintance -- that a roiling posse of critics piously preached how utterly unacceptable it was for a president to be excused even for a piddling lie that had absolutely no impact on the lives of any non-Beltway American? Bill Clinton was impeached -- impeached! -- for not admitting an intern had performed a sex act on him in the Oval Office. (link)
This editorial hits the nail on the head. The saddest thing is that it doesn't even matter anymore. [Al-Muhajabah's Islamic Blogs]
.< 12:28:23 AM >
Viral Disturbance update 'Viral Disturbance' is...
Viral Disturbance update 'Viral Disturbance' is no longer. Before the boys went on stage, they changed their name to 'Anders and the Bangers' (Anders being the name of the drummer. Bangers, I guess, came from the fact that Alan's nickname is Banger). Their 'coming out' performance wasn't what they had hoped. They had problems with the amps (plugged in improperly I guess) and they had to start four or five times before they got going. It actually wasn't bad, but Alan was mortified. You could tell from his expression up on stage that he just wanted to run and hide. A friend videotaped them though, so they'll be able to laugh about it in a little while. For now, they're still smarting a bit too much. [Janet's Radio Weblog]Oh man. I'm sooo happy we didn't have videocameras when i was in high school. In grade 11 I got up on stage with a couple of friends to play some music. It was a disaster. We hadn't prepared ourselves. I remember feeling stupid at the time but honestly I think it makes me even more uncomfortable now. I can't imagine having the gall to think we could pull it off. I guess those are the kinds of lessons we learn when we're young. Ouch.
.< 12:17:57 AM >
A Slimmer, Lighter iPod, With Room for More Music 'Software enhancements bring the iPod dangerously close to palmtop territory. The crisp, square, backlighted screen can now display your calendar, address book, to-do list, text documents and news headlines; play a choice of three games; and even set beeping alarms. As before, you can also use the iPod as an external hard drive for everyday backups and file transport.
Apple has tinkered with the formula, but the new iPod holds more music for less money and takes up even less pocket space. And it's still the best, and best-looking, music player on the market. ' The only concern I have is with the non-standard Firewire connector. I need to know that I can buy a cable that connects to the iPod at one end and a standard connector at the other. I'm sure if it's not the case now it will be shortly. Otherwise the 'backups and file transport' only works where you have your doc.
.< 12:11:15 AM >
Apple's New Online Music Service 'Among the Music Store's many grace notes and pleasant surprises, the most amazing is the balance it strikes between the apparently irreconcilable interests of the three interested parties. The record companies get a reasonable amount of money. The bands get both exposure and protection. And the once-neglected customer finally gets what online music libraries should have been delivering all along: high-quality recordings, free from the viruses and deliberately corrupted files that increasingly poison the wells of free music-trading services like KaZaA; the freedom to cherry-pick songs without having to pay for a bunch of grade-B filler; the liberty to spend as little or as much as one likes, whenever one likes; and the flexibility to copy the music to other computers, iPods or CD's.'
|