Ramblings of a Technology Addict

Friday, April 11, 2003

Debt Relief for Iraq.

Okay, so over the past few months, I've had a lot of cynical things to say about Pave France, but I think now they could be on to something.
This Resolution has caught their eye, and I think it's one we need to consider. Basically, it's support for debt relief for post-war Iraq. Congress would urge France, Russia and China to forgive their debts to the nation, since they were created against the interests of the populace, and the will of a strongarming dictator.
Not a bad idea, folks. Spread it around. They've got information on how to contact your Congressperson on the site as well.
3:34:23 PM  comment []

Two years...

Two Years ago, the Cloudmakers were formed by accident to play a game of seemingly infinite complexity and depth. The game they played together formed in turn a community of like and unlike minded individuals with varied skills and talents, each with their own expertise. The community ballooned to 7000+ on a Yahoo! Group with the same name. Between April 12th, 2001 and the release of AI, and then beyond, the Cloudmakers worked ceaselessly on puzzles of devilisih detail and difficulty. They mounted the single largest distributed attack on a single server in order to crack a more difficult puzzle.
Voiced by Sean Stewart, and created by Pete Fenlon and Elan Lee, the puzzles created an interactive fiction that the players were allowed to tinker with, not unlike the original computer games of Adventure and Zork. The community itself began to grow and change and solve puzzles with astonishing quickness.
As the game finished, other efforts popped up. The genre was evolving.
A year later, on the very day that Cloudmakers celebrated their first birthday, Collective Detective was born. A service directly created to meet the needs of a community like Cloudmakers. It was specialized, with its own IRC server, with its own database and file system. It was ready-made.
In its first year, the Collective has earned $40k in prizes and cash, and been part of solving numerous online puzzles as groups. Now comes the third chapter: The Collective Effect A group dedicated to solving difficult problems through distributed efforts. Their first effort will be directed toward raising $125,000 for a pair of conjoined twins in Egypt. I've added a link tagged badge at right, and if you'd like one for your website, you can create one here.
The world that started two years ago with the first Smart Mob is only growing further and further. Welcome to the new era of altruism and service.
1:10:15 PM  comment []

On Apple and Music and Universal.

So, various news outlets this morning are reporting that Apple is negotiating with Vivendi (a company that is hemorraging financially...) to purchase Universal Music. Everyone is talking about this because it brings Apple into stark contrast on a few issues. One. Music Service. Apple's been rumored to be producing a new pay for play music service for use on their iPods. Meaning, you buy per song, not per album. So when Hit Artist #20055 comes out with their hot new single, I can shell out a buck or two and download it to my iPod.
Now, Two. The RIAA. If Apple indeed buys Universal, suddenly their Rip. Mix. Burn. philosophy is introduced into the RIAA. With Hilary Rosen packing up and heading for the hills anyway, Apple has a chance, as suddenly one of the big five, to have major input on how the RIAA handles its policies. Welcome to the new era.
The problems that stand in their way are not exactly small. The problems are monumental. First of all, it seems like the deal with Vivendi will likely include about $6 billion. Apple has in the bank about $4 billion. So, a company that has for years survived losses based on their cash reserves alone is about ready to trade most or all of its financial security to buy a record label? In an industry they don't have experience in? In an economic time where entertainment budgets are rapidly decreasing? Now that part could help them as it allows you to buy music for less than the brutally expensive prices of FYE and other entertainment outlets, and get only what you want.
So the big question is, is Apple out of its frickin' tree? Or do they have something insanely great to show the world?
It's not hard to imagine an Apple Music Service that would rock. Fast downloads from Akamai-hosted servers, integration with Music Match and iTunes (or an iTunes port to Wintel), open format, either with AAC or MP3 (hopefully the former, not the latter), A system not unlike Audible.com's keying to prevent massive internet-based music sharing against copyrights, but that allow you to burn to CD so you can listen in your car. This isn't an impossible dream, but it does question how Universal will make Apple money. That is the problem.
It will likely drive traffic to the Apple site and people will see just how easy it is to use a Mac with an iPod and have a great music library. It could increase the switcher traffic, as that would be a draw. But there is also the great possibility for Apple to run itself into the ground.
Which is why I think Apple must have something truly incredible behind the curtain, or else this will sound the death knell of the Mac.
11:11:02 AM  comment []