Nosce te ipsum

Apple's Xserve could make inroads in the data center Its dirt-cheap dual-processor server competes favorably with rival offerings

Last month, Brandchannel.com dubbed Apple Computer Inc. the "brand with the most global impact." But you'd never know it by looking at corporate desktops today.

Windows machines are the undisputed personal computers of choice for corporate IT, the biggest single market for PCs. Research conducted by Framingham, Mass.-based IDC underscores the fact. IDC ranked the maker of Macintosh machines No. 10 on its market-share list in 2004, two spots behind the Chinese company Lenovo Group Ltd.[~]and the list was prepared before Lenovo's planned acquisition of IBM's PC unit.

Yet despite significant efforts by Windows suppliers, Apple still remains a dominant player in vertical market segments such as publishing and digital media. And with the growing popularity of its low-cost Xserve Unix servers, Apple has an opportunity to compete head-to-head with industry leaders like Dell Inc. inside the data center for general-purpose applications such as e-mail and Web serving. Read More....

Bye Bye Napster!

Straight from the horses mouth:

Before I get into the reasons for cancelling my subscription, let me first start by saying that I think the concept (and many aspects of their execution) can be pretty compelling.  The online store is inviting, and the integration into the rest of my life was unparalleled.  Having access to millions of songs from just about anywhere in my home, at work, and on the road (on my Tablet or my Smartphone) is a great vision.  So, in my opinion, Napster could be onto something.

OK - why cancel then?  Simple.  It didn't always work. 

Example #1: I was on my way back from the Web Spam Squashing Summit on Thursday when I had an urge to listen to John Legend on the plane while catching up on email.  I opened up Windows Media Player and double-clicked on the first song in the album.  What happens?  Some ridiculous message pops up saying I need to "authorize" the music before it would play.  Mind you, I had listened to this album a half-dozen times over the last few weeks.  Well, seeing as how I was on a plane with NO way to access the Internet, this obviously wasn't going to work.  No John Legend for me.  Instead, I had the privilege of listening to the guy two rows over whine for 90 minutes.

Example #2: Two hours ago, I was walking to the book store to check out (and ultimately buy) Designing with Web Standards on a beautiful Seattle afternoon.  I plugged headphones into my phone, opened up Windows Media Player, and clicked on Stevie Wonder/Music of My Mind.  Same damn thing.  Can't play the music without connecting to the Internet to authorize it.  "OK, great, this time I have an Internet connection.  No problem."  No dice.  Turns out over-the-air authorization doesn't (or didn't) work.  And it kept trying to connect for the rest of the afternoon.  Ugh.

Two strikes, Napster is out.  I am not waiting for a third, I play by my own rules.  Which brings me to a declaration: The end-user should never, under any legitimate circumstances, have to worry about copy protection.  This is the chief rule of DRM and the only way on Earth people will ever put up with it.  I had sync'ed my phone earlier today - why didn't it re-authorize the songs at this point?  I listened to Napster songs a couple of days ago - couldn't it reset ALL of my licenses at this time?  Note: I have no idea how this process works, and frankly don't care.  If you block two perfectly routine and valid attempts to listen to music, it doesn't work AT ALL.

Ironically, I wanted to post a comment this this person's blog entry but was faced in bold text with a notification that MSN Spaces require you to be logged in before you can post comments. Logged in? This is a blog right Microsoft? Isn't that toally un-blog like? Lame but do you expect from them.

As usual, John's article cuts to the core, saying it far more eloquently that most.