There was a great story by Rick Karr about Verison and compulsory licensing today on NPR's All Things Considered.

They did a great job telling both sides of the issue.  But the important part was that the compulsory licensing solution was presented in terms of its historical context.  This sort of solution was used when radio changed the way records were marketed and sold.  And that turned out okay, didn't it?

The story made it sound like an inevitability, which makes me smile.  Quotes from the RIAA didn't sound particularly reasonable (using words like "crazy"); quotes from Verison and other compulsory licensing supporters seemed grounded, sensible, and even obvious.

That's what spin sounds like when the organization writing the news isn't owned by the company the story is about.

5:46:00 PM   

Sky falls down on digital TV recorder. Upgrade cock-up [The Register]

Here at home we see a lot of problems caused by upgrades automatically shipped to our PVRs.  This Register story is about similar (albeit much more severe) problems experienced by Sky Plus users in Europe after an automatic upgrade to that system.

The DishNetwork updates we get are "opt-in"; that is, we get to choose whether we want to apply them.  Ironically, this does no good whatsoever, because at the time we're asked to make a decision about whether to accept an upgrade, we're given no information at all about what it does.  It's only weeks later on unofficial (Usenet) channels do we find out whether the upgrade a) works properly and b) is desirable.

I'm not saying automatic software/firmware upgrades are easy to engineer.  This is going to be an important way businesses build or lose the trust of their customers.

5:38:06 PM   

XBox Live Revealed As expected, the entire service will be controlled by Microsoft, and despite the included network adapter, you will still have to pay $50 to use it (making the whole thing kinda silly - Sony's charging $40 for their network adapter). [ShackNews]

This is a pointer to a New York Times article.  The Shack points out that even though the XBox already has a network adapter, you have to pay Microsoft $50 to use it, which is ten dollars more than the add-on network adapter for the Sony PlayStation 2.

Microsoft should offer free software that allows users to connect to non-Microsoft gaming services.  That'll help sell XBoxes.  They should, of course, also provide a closed gaming network, and use quality of service to differentiate it from competing services.  You know, the proprietary Microsoft service is always up, it's fast, it's easy to get started, etc.

5:14:20 PM   

Alan Cox, one of the leads of Linux: "Things like XML-RPC, SOAP and the stuff on top of them are designed to 'interwork through firewalls'. A better phrase would be 'go through the firewall like a knife through butter in a way that prevents the companies involved monitoring the activity.'"  [Scripting News]

Unless I'm missing something, his point here was that SOAP by itself can be inspected by the firewall, but in combination with SSL (which is supposed to make things more secure), the SOAP "connection" becomes firewall opaque.  Which is obviously bad for the centralized imposition of security policy.

4:36:36 PM   

Chief execs upbeat despite downturn. Despite massive unemployment, sluggish sales and bottom-feeding stock prices, executives at tech start-ups are optimistic about the future of their sector. [CNET News.com]

Ummm.  Why is this a story?  These guys are always upbeat about the future.  Ruthlessly selling the future is how these guys get their jobs.

4:04:53 PM