Getting down from the tree. XML has developed a tree-centric vision of the documents which is insufficient for some applications. Patrick Durusau urged us at XML Europe 2002 to "get down from our trees" and explore "Concurrent Markup for XML Documents", a XML based technique to define several intermixed tree structures for the same XML document. [xmlhack]

Interesting.  On the surface, this is similar to work done by Kai Mantsch and myself at pcOrder.com in 1998.  (We collaborated with Dave Hollander from HP.)  It was a "multi-treed" DTD. 

One tree described the configuration of a rack of servers from the financial standpoint: as line items on an order, with SKUs and prices and quantities and such.  The other tree described the same rack from a configuration standpoint: which CPUs were cabled to what disk arrays, their physical location, power connections, etc.

For the life of me I don't know where that DTD is now.  I'm guessing it's still in production use at HP somewhere.  I don't think I have a copy.

Prediction: Eminem will sell more copies because of "piracy" of his new album.  I believe product marketing is not a zero-sum game.  From a marketing standpoint, this extra exposure is like getting a ton of radio airplay before the album's debut.

Eminem CD spotlights new piracy patterns. A database that can identify CDs placed into computer drives reveals the new Eminem album was a hit before it officially went on sale. [CNET News.com]

When you download an entire album before it's released and burn it onto a CDR, be careful what software you use to play that CD in your computer.  It may be reporting to the RIAA.

Gracenote has a long and sordid history.  You may prefer freedb instead.

SBC, Lucent team on Net telephony. The telecom twosome play up the technology as a way for companies to use voice over the Internet without having to make investments in new equipment. [CNET News.com]

Looks like this might go a long way towards addressing reliability concerns, at least for businesses interested in outsourcing VoIP.  SBC's disaster recovery plans are likely to be better than yours. 

It doesn't, however, mention QoS.  I really surprised we haven't heard more about QoS support at the infrastructure level.  VoIP-using business customers should love it because it improves reliability, and providers should love it because it enables them to better predict bandwidth utilization (which would be useful for capacity planning and tiered pricing).  Am I just missing something?

Report: Rival sues RIM. Handheld maker Good Technology files a pre-emptive lawsuit against BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, seeking protection against patent infringement claims. [CNET News.com]

Now for a different take on patent nastiness.  According to the Wall Street Journal, Good is making a pre-emptive strike, asking the court "to declare that RIM's patent on a technology called single unified e-mail is invalid, or to declare that Good is not violating the patent."

Patent experts agree that 60% to 70% of all US software patents are invalid and should not have been granted.  Apparently the USPTO is actually less effective that flipping a coin.

Alex Cox: But who are the real pirates?  [Scripting News]

Writer-director Alex Cox (of 1984's Repo Man) has opinions about the MPAA: "Corporate multinationals, wielding unchecked power, terrify me far more than kids with video cameras. In fact, the latter, such as the Norwegian schoolboy who cracked the DVD code, encourage me greatly: their resourcefulness and creativity - rather than the special pleading and restrictive practices of the MPAA - represent a possible bright future for our industry."