May 2007 - Posts
There aren't many technology companies that I try to stay away from completely, but there a few, and RealNetworks is one of them. I have never liked their software, and frankly, I've never quite understood their reason for existing. I mean besides Rob Glaser getting to do his own thing, what has RealNetworks accomplished? They created media formats that no one wanted to use, so they switched to reverse-engineering their competitor's formats. Oh and they took Microsoft for $460 million for beating them with "monopolistic power". Nevermind that Microsoft's software/technology was and still is superior.
Anyway, after a relatively long period with no news, RealNetworks has announced a new version of RealPlayer:
How is the new RealPlayer different from previous versions? Let’s touch on a few highlights: The most notable difference is visible across tens of thousands of web sites immediately after installation. On-demand and live streaming and progressive video in the four major formats – Flash, Windows Media, QuickTime and Real – is now downloadable through a very simple download button that temporarily hovers near video content as it plays.
Ignoring the fact that there are already dozens of ways to download YouTube videos, why would I want to? The quality is usually pretty horrendous. I suppose downloading live streaming content is cool, but not when you consider that most live feeds are posted in downloadable form later anyway.
Seems to me like this is a last-ditch effort to make Real relevant. If you're really interested for some reason, Scoble has a video interview and demo with Vice President Jeff Chasen.
I think Jason Cox said it best in a comment on Scoble's post:
Real? How about no. Friends dont let friends use Real.
Agreed.
Steve Jobs has finally made good on his promise to offer DRM-free music through iTunes. Apple is announcing today the availability of iTunes Plus:
Apple® today launched iTunes® Plus—DRM-free music tracks featuring high quality 256 kbps AAC encoding for audio quality virtually indistinguishable from the original recordings—for just $1.29 per song.
In addition, iTunes customers can now easily upgrade their library of previously purchased EMI content to iTunes Plus tracks for just 30 cents a song and $3.00 for most albums.
I think this is great news. The more retailers that offer DRM-free music the better! I am kind of confused by the pricing though.
Why are DRM-free tracks more expensive than DRM'd ones? They are higher quality encodings, sure, but so high than an extra 30 cents is warranted to cover the costs of storage and transfer? I don't think so. Not when Amazon S3 sells bandwidth for 20 cents per GB.
I also find it kind of insulting that they named the store "iTunes Plus". A more appropriate name would be "the iTunes you actually want" or something. Seriously.
Microsoft Surface is insanely cool. I mean uber cool. Seriously, go watch the videos and tell me you're not excited (Channel 10 has a longer video and Popular Mechanics also has a video). If there was ever a question about whether or not Microsoft can innovate, that question has been answered. Sure, similar ideas have existed for a long time, but not commercially available products. Microsoft Surface is new, different, and exciting. They've made it happen. From the press release:
Surface turns an ordinary tabletop into a vibrant, dynamic surface that provides effortless interaction with all forms of digital content through natural gestures, touch and physical objects. Beginning at the end of this year, consumers will be able to interact with Surface in hotels, retail establishments, restaurants and public entertainment venues.
It's kind of like the user interface in Minority Report, except that Surface is not a hollywood trick. Surface is real!
Five years in the making, Surface is being targeted at businesses initially. According to CNET News.com, Microsoft expects that individuals will be able to get their own surface computers "within three to five years." The devices currently have a price tag of around $10,000. Okay, that kind of sucks, but it's to be expected for cutting edge technology I suppose.
Don't be surprised if Surface is all you read about for the next few days - the blogosphere is sure to be buzzing. Heck, there's already a bunch of articles and posts available and it was just announced! For instance, this "making of" article is an interesting read.
So yeah, Microsoft Surface looks awesome! I'm all excited now :)
As you may know, my mobile phone provider is Telus Mobility. I have used them for years and for the most part, I've been content. Not excited, not angry, just content. I did write about some text message troubles I had back in January though, and noted:
...there was absolutely no wait time to talk to someone (minus the stupid speech recognition menu which took a couple minutes). This is a BIG improvement for Telus...normally you have to wait forever!
On Friday, I had another somewhat similar experience. My text messaging was not working as expected, so I called support. Right away I talked to a friendly lady who told me they were experiencing troubles in Alberta and B.C. with text message delivery. She connected me to network services anyway, to see if my problem was something more.
After about 15 minutes of waiting to talk to someone, I gave up. I hoped the problem was simply what the first lady had told me - temporary delays. Turns out she was right - my messages started working again late on Friday, and I started receiving a bunch of messages yesterday and today that were not delivered over the weekend.
As I walked in the door tonight around 7 PM though, it got even better! My cell rang and when I answered I was greeted by a recorded message from Telus Mobility. Turns out they were very sorry for the delay I had experienced Friday, and to apologize, they credited $5 to my account.
That's the kind of thing that will make me a happy customer instead of a content customer. They went the extra mile. Well done Telus Mobility!
Last night Sharon and I went to see the season sixteen finale of Die-Nasty at the Varscona. I had never been to one of their improv shows before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I knew that Edmonton's own Georges Laraque was guest starring though, so I was definitely excited. Before I get to the show, here's a bit of background on Die-Nasty itself:
Die-Nasty is a live improvised soap opera, running weekly in the city of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada since 1991. Die-Nasty's improv comedy format features a continuing storyline and recurring characters, live music, and a director who sets up scenes for the audience (and performers) in voiceover.
For last night's finale, the focus was on the Stanleycubric Cup final between the Edmonton Die-Hards and the Montreal Canadiens. Dwayne "the Good One" Minsky (played by Matt Alden) led the Die-Hards to the finals but had switched sides to the Canadiens. Thus, the Die-Hards were in need of a new hero - which is where #69 Wellen Dowed came in, played by Georges Laraque. As you can imagine, there was lots of material for the actors to work with!
Georges did an excellent job last night (maybe he has a future in Hollywood). I think he was in every second scene! Much of the humor came from the actors admiring the size of Georges and his hands and, um, other parts. He held his own though! He almost broke the stage in one scene, when he started cheering after having scored a goal. I expected nothing less from Georges, who you'll recall, was quite fond of slamming the glass at Rexall Place after a goal.
Here are some memorable quotes from last night:
"I haven't played a single game all year. This is bullshit!"
- Georges Laraque's opening line
"I have a million dollar tool, that's why I built the shed."
- Donovan Workun as Hogey Oogachakka, responding to a comment about his weight
"And the hockey has started. The ice is icy! The sticks are sticky! And the puck is black."
- Ron Pederson as the new announcer for the Die-Hards
"Where the fuck were all of you the rest of the season!"
- Jeff Haslam as Derrick Capilano at the start of the show (no doubt a dig at the audience...it was a packed house, probably because of Georges)
In one scene Georges made a dig at MacT, but I don't recall exactly what he said. It was pretty funny though!
I really like actors Jeff Haslam and Mark Meer, so I was happy they were there. Sharon remarked that Jeff's shirt seems to get tighter every time we see him, and that Mark is superb at accents. Both are absolutely true! The only negative thing about last night's show was that actress Davina Stewart wasn't present.
If you want to see Die-Nasty, they'll be at the Fringe this summer. There's a "soap-a-thon" coming up soon too, but I'm not sure when that is. And keep an eye out for Georges - maybe he'll become an actor!
Here are my weekly notes:
- My roommate is gone! Kim has travelled north to Inuvik for the summer. Miss ya Kim!
- I managed to lock my keys in the trunk of my car today. Not my finest moment. Turns out the tow truck guy that Honda arranged to come help couldn't get the car unlocked! Apparently a special tool is required. Ah well...thanks Dickson for helping me with the spare key.
- Went to see Pirates 3 tonight - much better than the second one. It didn't feel like a long movie, though it was. And man oh man did Keira ever look amazing...
- This giant pig is pretty amazing, but here's my question: how did it get so large?
- For my fellow Coke addicts - the New York Times has a really interesting article analyzing the past, present, and future of the company.
- Research shows that infants have amazing capabilities that adults lack. That probably means there's money to be made in helping adults unleash their inner-infant.
- I have a couple job interviews this week that I am really looking forward to. Hopefully they go well!
Yesterday at an event called f8, Facebook launched their new "platform" which enables third party companies to integrate applications right inside of Facebook. Mashable has a pretty good overview of thirty such applications. Everything about the Facebook Platform seems fairly ballsy, but you can't argue with statistics like these:
- Facebook is growing 3% per week, which is 100,000 new users per day.
- 50% of registered users come back to the site every day.
- Facebook is generating more than 40 billion page views per month. That’s 50 pages per user every day.
- 6th most trafficked site in the U.S. More page views than eBay. Says they are targeting Google next.
In short, there's no better place for such a platform to be built than on Facebook.
The last point above, as reported by Michael Arrington, is particularly interesting. I suspect there are millions of people around the world right now who think that Google is the Internet. Increasingly though, you might say the same thing about Facebook. If their user growth continues, and the Platform takes off, Facebook might become the new on-ramp to the web. No need to go anywhere else when all your friends (and family, colleagues, etc) and apps (webmail, shopping, stocks, etc) are in one place.
Not only is the name "Facebook Platform" incredibly obvious, it's also very astute. Facebook is no longer just a social networking site. It really is becoming a social operating system, as some have called it.
What does this have to do with Microsoft?
Microsoft is a platform company, plain and simple. Think of a Microsoft product - chances are it'll be a platform product. Windows, Office, SharePoint, .NET, Xbox, etc. Microsoft is pretty good at laying the foundation and helping others build on top (which only serves to make their platform all the more important).
The Facebook Platform sounds very much like something Microsoft would build. To see what I mean, read this sentence:
Facebook is a platform that provides a common abstraction of the infrastructure and guts of a system, allowing third parties to build interesting and useful applications on top.
Now replace Facebook with Windows. Or Office. Or .NET. See what I mean? It still makes sense. Facebook is very much taking a page from the Microsoft playbook with Platform. I think it's brilliant. And I think Microsoft should have done it a long time ago.
But they didn't. I think they are moving in the right direction with Windows Live, but it sure is taking a while. Perhaps Colin is right...maybe Microsoft should just buy Facebook. I don't think it'll happen though.
At least Microsoft isn't totally out to lunch on this - they are partnering with Facebook to integrate Popfly.
Lots of talk today about Google's $100 million acquisition of RSS management company FeedBurner. Congrats to the FeedBurner guys! I do have to admit though that I am bit sad that FeedBurner is now a Google property. I guess they were too valuable to remain independent forever though. From TechCrunch:
Feedburner is in the closing stages of being acquired by Google for around $100 million. The deal is all cash and mostly upfront, according to our source, although the founders will be locked in for a couple of years.
The information we have is that the deal is now under a binding term sheet and will close in 2-3 weeks, and there is nothing that can really derail it at this point.
Must be pretty sweet to get an all cash deal. TechCrunch confirmed it today, but it looks like Valleywag had the story right last week.
Not everyone is happy about the deal. Todd Cochrane does a good job of spreading FUD in his post. Todd, you need to worry less!
On my way to the Stadium LRT parking lot I always pass a billboard...no surprise there, billboards are everywhere. Usually I just ignore it, because most billboard ads just don't catch my eye after the first time I see them...again, no surprise. For the last few weeks though, I have laughed every single time I've seen this particular billboard. I finally took a couple photos today. The billboard is a bright gold and blue ad for "Diamond Shreddies":
Recent advances in cereal technology have allowed us to take Shreddies cereal to a whole new level of geometric superiority. One taste and you'll wonder how you've been so square for so long. Welcome to the 45th degree. Welcome to Diamond Shreddies country.
I love this campaign! Apparently they have TV commercials too (which I haven't seen). I think it's an incredibly creative way to spice up something familiar and old. Good job Kraft!
I use Flickr to host my photos and I love it. I haven't had any problems with the site, and I've been a happily paying customer for a couple years now. There are tons of photo sharing sites available though, and it seems Flickr is far from being the clear winner, despite having lots of positive brand recognition.
In fact, I think Facebook is probably the largest photo sharing site on the web.
Here's what I have been able to find:
Notice how for Photobucket I said "images" - that's because they host a lot of icons, graphics, and other kinds of items that aren't really photos. There are a bunch of other sites that fall into that category as well. Another site that probably should be on the list is Zooomr, but I couldn't find any stats for them. I suspect they are somewhere between SmugMug and Flickr.
Clearly, based on the number of photos stored, Facebook is the winner. They have incredible growth too (over 60 million photos added per week) as outlined in yesterday's post. Certainly just hosting the most photos doesn't make one site better than another, but it is still pretty interesting to compare. SmugMug's Don MacAskill is always talking about speed and performance, and for good reason - SmugMug is the clear winner in terms of load times. There are a lot of other metrics that could be used to compare sites.
The one disadvantage Facebook has (depending on how you look at it) is that all the photos are behind their walled garden. Otherwise, you could almost consider them a photo sharing site instead of a social networking site!
For me, the most interesting thing is the total number of photos across all these sites - over three billion ignoring Photobucket, just from the sites I listed. I find it unlikely that there are many duplicates (ie, most users don't post photos to multiple sites), so the number is particularly astounding.
Just imagine what the first photographers back in the 1800s would think of this photo sharing craziness!
UPDATE: Turns out my estimate for Zooomr was horribly off the mark. Don points out in the comments that they have 1 million photos - and that getting to the million mark is a big deal (Thanks Don for the info). I think I guessed so high because of the many TechCrunch posts covering Zooomr! Oh well.
I didn't post notes last night, but it's a long weekend, so I figure tonight is fine :)
- We're still working on an update for Podcast Spot. Not going home until we're done. Like Dickson remarked, it seems we always work harder on holidays!
- Went to see Shrek the Third last night. It had it's moments, but I wouldn't have been sad if I had to wait for the DVD. I am disappointed more people didn't join us though!
- Every time an online store announces DRM-free MP3s, I am going to think of this comic.
- Mark Shuttleworth says that Microsoft is not the real threat. He predicts Microsoft and "Linux" will be working together in a few years (I put that in quotes because it will really be IBM, Red Hat, etc). His post is worth a read...I think I agree with most of what he's saying.
- I've been harping on Firefox for being a resource hog for years. The press seems to have caught on this last week. (That link is for Wired, here's the NYTimes article.)
- I really like data visualizations. I came across Breathing Earth this week via Darren. Pretty cool.
- So I've been looking for a full-time programming job lately. Had my first interview Thursday, and it went very well. More on this later.
- Halo 3 has a release date: September 25th, 2007.
As you may know, I am a big fan of the Tablet PC. I've had a Toshiba Portege for a few years now, and before that I had the first Compaq model. Unfortunately, most people still buy regular laptops. I think there are two reasons for that:
- Tablet PC's are a little more expensive than regular laptop computers.
- Computer stores don't showcase tablets, so not as many people know about them.
Both of those things might change in the near future! According to a post on Dell's blog today, the rumored Latitude Tablet PC is real. There's a short video with a few details. I think there's hope that Dell's tablet will be cheaper than the competition, taking care of point #1. And as for point #2, I imagine the tablet will be included in Dell's mailouts, which are kind of like the old AOL disks - everyone gets them!
Elsewhere in the world of Dell today: some really nice LCD monitor technology and design.
I just watched the season six finale of Smallville and it ended in a cliffhanger as expected. And it'll be back next season, also as expected. It was consistently one of the CW's top-rated shows this season, so I figured it was very unlikely to suffer the same fate as Gilmore Girls. The seventh season should get underway late September or early October.
There's a chance that Smallville may have an eight season, but that would be its last according to Executive Produce Al Gough:
We'll officially find out about season 7 on May 17th [during the CW upfronts], but obviously we feel very confident we'll be back. As for season 8, who knows? There are a lot of factors that will play into that decision, not the least of which is the quality of season 7, so that is what we are focusing on at the moment. If there is an 8th season, that would be the show's last. Every hero may have a beginning, but every story has an end.
With that in mind, I hope they go the full eight seasons! It's a nice round number (and lucky in Chinese culture). Would make for an excellent DVD set.
As for tonight's finale, it was pretty intense. Perhaps not as good as last season's finale, but still pretty good. I won't give anything away here, so if you want to read some discussion regarding the episode, check out KryptonSite.
The one thing I will say is this: the Martian Manhunter was entirely underutilized. Such a waste.
I came across a really interesting post yesterday at Mashable! entitled Why Google Is Making Us Dumber. Eye-catching title is it not? Stan, the author, argues that our growing reliance on Google might cause problems when Google isn't around:
I used to be able to quickly convert pounds to kilograms. Currently, I lack this knowledge, because I know that Google has built-in unit conversion capabilities. Simply type X pounds to kilograms into Google and you get the answer.
What happens if I’m abroad and need to quickly convert between pounds and kilograms? Problem.
As for being abroad: the Internet is almost everywhere! Soon it will be, so I am not sure we should be so concerned with that. It's true, Google knows all kinds of great information: math, conversions, capital cities, currency conversions, etc. I relied very heavily on the conversion capabilities while doing my astronomy homework this past year. Does that make me dumber? No.
I think Stan is wrong to suggest that Google is making us dumber. Instead, Google allows us to put our energy towards more important thought activities. Generally speaking, math or unit conversions are just small pieces in a larger puzzle. If we don't have to worry about these smaller pieces, we can put more effort into solving the puzzle.
I think Google is just one piece in a "thought stack" - roughly analogous to a web server in a technology solution stack. Imagine if you had to build a web server every time you wanted to create a website...you'd never get the website built! It wouldn't be worth the effort. So instead we have a general purpose web server that we build on top of. Google is like that general purpose web server, but for basic kinds of thought activities. Instead of doing a conversion everytime you are designing a widget, Google does the conversion and you focus on the widget.
(It should be noted that Google could be replaced with something else, just like Apache and IIS do the same job and are replacements for one another.)
If you like the idea of the technological singularity, this "thought stack" should make a lot of sense. Perhaps one day the Google-like module will be embedded directly into our brains.
Twitter is in the news again (at least in the blogosphere). Yesterday Jason Calacanis posted that he'd be willing to pay for a premium account on Twitter. Dave Winer then chimed in and said that it could be accomplished without Twitter's help at all. And then Boris Mann posted a bit of a rant saying that Twitter is Jabber. Boris says:
My only explanation for the Twitter craze is that North Americans are still enamored of anything that can do the tiniest bit of mobile integration.
No Boris, there's a very simple reason that Twitter is all the rage right now and Jabber is not (and never has been except among geeks) - we need someone to complain to. XMPP is great, but when something goes wrong, what do you do? Who do you turn to? At least when Twitter breaks I know who to contact.
It's a fundamental problem with almost all open source projects - accountability is lost. This is especially true when you want to use the project for something serious, like Jason does. That's why companies like Red Hat, IBM and Bryght are the ones we turn to for integrating open source technology. If something goes awry, I know there's someone out there who will take my money to get it fixed.
Twitter doesn't have that many users. It doesn't have really impressive technology, as Boris has pointed out. Twitter is where it is today because it was created by and continues to be run by a corporate entity.
In my humble opinion, the way movies are released today sucks. First they hit the theatres, then DVDs, then video-on-demand services, and finally television. The movie studios really like these different release windows for some reason. Why not release movies to all of these distribution channels at once? It makes a lot of sense to me. The hottest item during the Xmas shopping season in 2006 was probably HDTVs, and I suspect it will remain a big seller this year and next. Watching new releases like Spider-Man 3 in the comfort of my own home sounds very appealing.
The idea is finally being explored:
Comcast is trying to make the "simultaneous release" dream happen, but with prices being proposed in the $30-50 range per screening, the dream looks more like a Hollywood acid trip.
Yeah, that price simply isn't going to fly. The article includes a bunch of really great analysis, so check it out.
Here are ten reasons why I think the "simultaneous release" dream needs to happen (in no particular order):
- Drinks and snacks at the theatre are horribly overpriced - talk about price gouging. Not to mention the cost of gas to get from your house to the theatre! I'd rather eat the food I already have in the house, thanks.
- There aren't any crying kids, cell phones, or other distractions in my house. Oh and my floors aren't sticky either.
- I don't like being forced to sit through fifteen minutes of commercials before the movie previews start. It makes seeing a 90 minute movie a two hour experience (and that's assuming you don't line up to get good seats).
- Many people have invested thousands of dollars into a comfortable home theatre system - simultaneous releases let them make the most of it.
- Hollywood would make more money. Increased sales and reduced marketing expenses.
- Pause! You should control the viewing experience, not the theatre. Want to pause for a few minutes? Go for it.
- We'll get better quality movies. Instead of making only movies that are likely to do well at the box office, Hollywood would be free to make all kinds of movies with each one being widely accessible.
- Theatre owners would be forced to revisit their business. Why do we go to the theatre? I think "to see a movie" is a secondary reason. The primary reason is to socialize. Perhaps theatres will come up with a better overall experience when their backs are against the wall.
- Independent and other small movie studios would play on the same field as the big boys. Remember all the trouble Mel Gibson had to go through to get The Passion of the Christ released in theatres? It wouldn't have been such an issue in a world with simultaneous releases.
- Control over the volume. Control over the temperature. No parking necessary. You can lay down if you want. Etc.
Anything else? I think it's only a matter of time until the simultaneous release becomes the norm.
Wow, another long time in between posts, this is not like me! I had a good reason though - Traz. Here are my weekly notes:
Traz is my Mom and Dad's new puppy. He came all the way from New Brunswick and stayed with me Friday before heading to his new home in Yellowknife on Saturday. He's totally cute. Here are some photos I took, and here are some from my Dad. Puppies are a lot of work! Good luck Dad.- Kim looked after Traz on Friday night for a few hours so I could go with Megan and Aimee to see Brand New at the Edmonton Events Centre (formerly known as Reds). It was a good show. They played a long instrumental piece at the end which Aimee liked, but I wasn't so keen on.
- The final episode of Smallville's sixth season airs Thursday. It had better be good. I wasn't that impressed with this week's ep.
- Microsoft showed off a public beta of Halo 3 on Friday - gamers gave it mixed reviews but there's lots of time to go before it is launched. On the topic of games, check out the official Simpsons-themed Xbox 360.
- Back in December the city of São Paulo banned outdoor advertisements. Here are some photos of the city from this month and last. I think the law should be reviewed. The city looks barren and ghostly now.
- What a cool idea: a vending machine that allows "watching ads" as a form of payment for drinks.
- News of the Windows Live Folders beta broke yesterday...is a "Windows Live Drive" on the way? I hope so. Some competition for Amazon S3 would be good.
- As those of you on Facebook are probably aware, I've got a giant card for Mr. Rice who is retiring as principal of McNally after decades? on the job. Let me know if you want to sign it and we'll work out a time. If you're not in Edmonton anymore, email me.
Happy Mother's Day!
As you know, I don't worry that much about online privacy. In fact, I think it's a huge waste of time to be overly concerned about privacy on the web. I always keep two things in mind:
- There is no such thing as private information.
- If someone looks at information online and draws a negative impression about me, I have larger problems than privacy to worry about.
So far my strategy has been working fairly well. To my knowledge I haven't missed out on any opportunities because of information about me found on the web - quite the opposite in fact.
For some reason though, I am fascinated by the worries and concerns of others when it comes to information privacy. And believe, me there are a lot of worriers out there. So many, it seems, that Global TV's troubleshooter looked at the security of Facebook and other popular websites last night (unfortunately they haven't full embraced the new web, and the video is not available on their site).
They contacted a local "hacking" firm, and asked them to review Facebook, Gmail, and other popular sites. The gentleman they spoke to couldn't have been more cliché - long hair, super geeky, could be mistaken for a girl, you know the type. Anyway, they apparently spent over 30 hours trying to "hack" into Facebook and couldn't get in. I just shook my head through all of this. They deemed Facebook "very secure". Well, problem solved I guess, haha!
Then they spoke to a professor from the UofA (if I remember correctly) who said that living under the assumption that your information is safe is a dangerous thing to do. Finally someone smart! The segment then ended with the anchors asking each other if they were on Facebook (they aren't, unfortunately). Oh and the suggestion that you should read the privacy policy of every site you visit (yeah, cuz that's going to happen).
It doesn't matter how secure Facebook is. Privacy is not about technology. If someone wants to find out something about you, they will. Social engineering, dumpster diving, and many other techniques are far more effective than trying to hack into a site like Facebook. More importantly, there's no need to - just create your own Facebook account! Chances are, the person you're interested in hasn't adjusted their privacy settings anyway.
For its part, Facebook follows two core principles:
- You should have control over your personal information.
- You should have access to the information others want to share.
A respectable policy, no doubt. Here's the problem though. Let's say I give access to certain information only to my brother. No one else (in theory) can see it, right? Wrong. I can give my brother access to the information, but I can't restrict him from doing something with it.
Technology is just a tool. People are the gatekeepers of privacy.
Back in February I posted about Evan Williams and Obvious Corp. trying to sell Odeo. I hadn't heard anything since then, so I kind of figured they were unable to find a buyer. Turns out they did though. From TechCrunch:
Details are just coming out, but New York based SonicMountain, a new startup, has acquired Evan Williams’ Odeo. The announcement will come sometime tomorrow. The price is not being disclosed but is in excess of $1 million, and the deal was all cash.
Mike Arrington isn't joking when he calls SonicMountain a new startup - their website is plain and empty. The only thing of interest is the news release:
SonicMountain intends to incorporate exciting enhancements to the Odeo community within the next few months. Improvements in content organization, search, crawl, plus podcast hosting of both audio and video are only a sampling of upcoming upgrades planned for the site.
Evan Williams will work with SonicMountain as an advisor for the next six months or so.
I'm interested to see what SonicMountain actually does with the site. Intentions are one thing, actions are quite another.
Looks like the "our business model sucks so let's insult our customers" mantra has made it to the desks of Warner Bros. executives. If you've never been to an advance movie screening, too bad, because they are now banned for Warner Bros. movies in Canada:
Frustrated with unauthorized camcording of its new releases in Canadian cinemas, the studio said it will immediately halt all "promotional and word-of-mouth screenings" of upcoming releases.
"We regret having to cancel our screenings in Canada, but our studio must take steps to protect not only our branded assets but our commitment to our filmmakers and to our distributors," Warner Bros. president of domestic distribution Dan Fellman said.
I can honestly say that were I to download a movie that was recorded using a camcorder in a theatre, I would immediately delete it. Not because I am sleeping with movie studio executives, but because a movie recorded using a camcorder just can't look very good. Any serious pirate will have the time and bandwidth to go for quality!
When will these idiots learn? Camcorders in Canada are not the source of piracy. I doubt the practice has any measurable effect on the movie industry at all. Mathew Ingram points out a number of flaws with the argument being made, and Engadget gets a dig in too, noting the ban affects upcoming movies like...
...the upcoming Ocean's Thirteen and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which'll surely not be pirated now.
Surely not indeed! Come back next week to read about Warner Bros. suing toddlers and their grandparents!
Yesterday Microsoft launched the new version of Hotmail, called Windows Live Hotmail. I rarely use Hotmail anymore, but I signed up for the Windows Live beta quite a while ago to check it out. I will say it's better than what they had, but it's still not for me. I really wasn't that excited about it at all, until I came across something interesting. From the press release:
Windows Live Hotmail will deliver a safer, more powerful and productive e-mail experience than previous versions with flexible access via the Web, on a mobile phone or with an e-mail client.
Say what!? An email client? That's something I'd be interested in.
Available later this month in 11 languages worldwide, the new Microsoft Office Outlook Connector beta will enable people to view and manage their Windows Live Hotmail account from Outlook for free, with full contact, e-mail and e-mail folder synchronization.
I have Outlook open almost 24/7 as you know, so I'll definitely be checking out the awkwardly named Connector. If they throw in the @live.com address too, I'll be just peachy!
For more info, check out LiveSide.
I would say that Facebook is well on its way to becoming the definition of social networking. There are only a few more features it needs (like an API that can edit data), and of course there are a lot of features that would be nice to have. One such feature that I place in the latter category is music, and it's coming soon:
It is being rumored that Facebook will be announcing an online music service on May 21st.
Facebook is supposedly lining up several partners from the music industry for their music service, which is sure to be a hit amongst Facebook users, and a rival to MySpace Music and Bebo Bands.
Sounds cool, so long as Facebook doesn't screw it up. I hope the dev team is repeating this to themselves over and over:
NEVER AUTOPLAY MUSIC ON PAGE LOAD! AUTOPLAY IS EVIL! SITE-WIDE MUTE IS IDEAL!
Yes the capitals are required. If they allow music to be played on the site without my explicit permission, I'm going to blow a gasket.
Back in November I saw the documentary Who killed the electric car? and I remember being less than impressed, as my comments at the time confirm:
The movie could have been better. It felt like an extended commercial, and the people involved seemed like fanatical environmentalists. Oh, and when they realized they couldn't answer the question properly, they just blamed everyone.
Essentially the filmmakers didn't present a very strong case for why, exactly, electric cars should rule the roads. They seemed ticked at GM more than anything. According to a post over at Engadget today, GM is dabbling in electric cars once again, this time with the Chevy Volt:
Those of you as taken with GM's Chevy Volt concept vehicle as we are may want to take a minute to reconsider any impending car purchases, as the car is now officially headed into production -- in two different versions no less. According to Autoblog, that could put the car on track for a roll out in 2010, although GM isn't quite ready to get that specific.
Apparently there will be a plug-in gasoline model, and a fuel cell model (though the latter will be too expensive for mass production). The plug-in model should deliver a gasoline savings of 500 gallons per year on average.
Do we really want plug-in automobiles though? Sure they result in some gasoline (and emissions) savings from the cars themselves, but what about on balance? Over 70% of the electricity generated in the United States comes from fossil fuels. With that in mind, plugging a car in is a lot like filling it with gas. The environment doesn't really benefit. It might have more of an impact in Canada, where just 28% of our electricity comes from fossil fuels, but most of the Volts will be sold in the US.
Another thing to consider is the return on investment. GM claims they are willing to lose money on the Volt initially, but I'll believe it when I see it. Besides, losing money on something doesn't mean it's cheap - just look at the PlayStation 3. Consumers will ask this question: will the price premium of the Volt be recouped in gasoline savings before the car is discarded? In most cases, I bet the answer will be no.
The last thing I'll mention here is technology. New car technologies will not rule the industry for decades like the combustion engine has. What happens if someone perfects the fuel cell a few years after the Volt is produced? So long Chevy Volt, that's what. This is another big reason that cars like the Volt need to be inexpensive. Otherwise, justifying their purchase is difficult at best.
I'm not sure plug-in cars like the Chevy Volt are a good thing at all. In the best case scenario, consumers love them, GM sells a lot of them, they last for more than ten years, and they really do have a positive impact on the environment. I think that's really unlikely though. The more probable scenario is that only GM wins by charging a premium for the Volt. Consumers pay more to get a car with a short lifespan, and little to no positive effect on the environment.
Here are my weekly notes:
I went to see Spider-Man 3 last night, and I enjoyed it. I think the critics were unnecessarily harsh (though not harsh enough to make it rotten). It's like they all met in the back room and decided to call the movie "a disappointment." With a few minor exceptions, I thought Spider-Man 3 was even better than the second movie.
There is a particular villain who really should have its own movie, so I wouldn't be sad to see them make another installment in the Spider-Man series. If you believe the chief executive of Sony Pictures though, they'll be making more than just another one:
Sony Pictures chief executive Michael Lynton told the BBC: "Everybody has every intention of making a fourth, a fifth and a sixth and on and on."
There would be "as many as we can make good stories for", he pledged.
That is kind of exciting to hear, but you have wonder if fans will get tired of Spider-Man movies at some point. Or more importantly, if the actors will get tired of the movies!
He probably said that because Spider-Man 3 has broken both the opening day and opening weekend North American box office records, bringing in $148 million (do they not count Sunday as part of the opening weekend, or what?). It'll be interesting to see if it can hang on to that record with Shrek 3 and Pirates 3 coming out later this month.
Don't listen to the critics, Spider-Man 3 is definitely worth going to see.
On Wednesday I wrote that the writing is on the wall for DRM. Today over at ars technica, Ken Fisher agrees:
What makes it even more deplorable this time is that it's now 2007, and the writing is on the wall: DRM is a failed idea, and a waste of time and money.
I don't want to pick solely on DRM though. The Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) is just as much to blame for the whole HD-DVD key fiasco. Ken explains:
AACS LA isn't claiming copyright protections for the key. Rather, the key could constitute a circumvention device, which makes it illegal per the DMCA. Until a court has ruled, it's all speculation of course.
I think something has gone terribly wrong when the law makes the simple act of writing a number illegal. Bill Clinton did a lot of good things while in office, but signing the DMCA into law was not one of them (in my opinion).
The DMCA is not a real solution to the problems faced by copyright holders. DRM is essentially security through obscurity. In other words, it's not at all secure, and once the secret has been revealed there's no going back. Organizations like the MPAA and RIAA know this, so they look to the DMCA as a sort of fallback mechanism: "if the secret gets out, or is bypassed, we'll just sue."
Instead of using the DMCA to punish the potential circumvention of DRM, rights holders should be figuring out how to remove the need for DRM altogether (thus removing the desire to circumvent it). You know, like this.
Fix the business model, and the problems go away. Yes, I really do think it's that simple.
Everyone is buzzing about the New York Post story that Microsoft is very seriously trying to hook up with Yahoo!. You can read lots of opinion over at TechMeme. The idea is not new - rumors surfaced back in January 2006, and probably existed before that too.
I am excited about the possibility of a combined Microsoft-Yahoo! organization. However, it seems the reason behind such a deal would be to better compete with Google. I don't think that's a good enough reason for MSFT and YHOO to tie the knot. Why not? For the same reason this person thinks Google should buy Starbucks (what a stupid idea):
Google was listed as the 17th largest US company in market value, $143 billion at the time of publication in the Forbes 500. Google sprang to that size faster than any company in history. It remains the only company that is not diversified, at that scale or anywhere close to that scale. And when you check on its standing according to revenue (10.6B), it drops from #17 to #241.
Google has one source of revenue: AdSense. What if something happened to AdSense? Nothing is bulletproof. Without AdSense, Google would die. Period. I'm not saying that Microsoft and/or Yahoo! should try to disrupt the AdSense machine. All I am saying is that it's far easier for Google to make a mistake and pay the price than it is for Microsoft or Yahoo!.
Do it like they do in F1
In Formula 1 racing, one strategy for passing a competitor who is in front of you is to wait, especially if there are a lot of laps left in the race. The reason behind this is simple. If you get too impatient and a take a big risk to go for it, you could very well crash. In general, you're far better off staying close behind your competitor, putting immense pressure on them. Most of the time, they'll make a mistake, and you'll have a chance to capitalize on it with a clean pass. Michael Schumacher was incredibly good at this.
Perhaps Microsoft should take a page out of Schumacher's playbook? Microsoft can afford to be patient, and the race is far from over.
If Microsoft and Yahoo! want to join up to share technology and build better products, that's one thing. If it's just about beating Google, there's better ways of doing it.
According to the Globe and Mail, government employees in Ontario have been banned from accessing Facebook. Kristen at Mashable points out that YouTube, online poker, and various other sites are also banned. And Mark Evans points to this story about TD Bank banning Facebook during business hours. There are undoubtedly many other major organizations that have banned access to Facebook and other social networking sites.
I think these bans are ridiculous. And Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty makes it easy to understand why:
"I think Facebook is predominantly a social network. It has its value, but we just don't really see how it adds value to work that you do in the workplace."
You sir, Mr. McGuinty, are an idiot.
When you don't understand something, the correct course of action is to learn about it. Admit you don't know something, and then find out what it is that you don't know!
The idea that work exists only between the hours of 9 to 5, and only in your place of business, is dead. Welcome to the 21st century. Human behaviour has changed, and it's time that the workplace caught up.
I am reminded of something Leonard Brody said yesterday (I am paraphrasing here):
People often say "oh email, instant messaging, there's too much information, I can't take it!" Well, you're all liars. You thrive on more.
It's true. Employees today can be incredibly productive, so long as their employers make it possible. Banning them from something like Facebook isn't going to help. There are no doubt many people working for the Ontario government who are part of an older generation, one that isn't trained to be connected all the time. Perhaps banning Facebook won't affect them much.
The ban sets a dangerous precedent, however. The next generation of workers the government hires simply won't stand for it. They are fundamentally different, wired to be connected 24/7. To them, Facebook is both entertainment and work. It's a tool, not a time-waster. They'll use it to connect with friends, and they'll use it to connect with colleagues. Banning Facebook for these workers will definitely hinder their productivity.
Don't be surprised to read about the Ontario government reversing this decision sometime in the next two years. I don't think they'll have any other choice.
As much as I love Opera, it is still just software, and that means it too is vulnerable to security issues. Maybe not as badly as IE or Firefox, but vulnerable nonetheless. That said, I'd be remiss if I only posted about Opera's positives and ignored this bit of news:
It is being reported that Opera v9.20 is vulnerable to an attack which causes it to consume 100% of its host machine's resources, rendering the PC unusable.
There is currently no work-around so anyone worried about this situation should disable the BitTorrent engine within Opera by following the instructions found on Opera's site.
Fortunately I wouldn't have been affected by this. The first thing I did after installing Opera 9.2 was disable BitTorrent downloading in the browser, as I much prefer µTorrent.
Earlier today, Dickson and I attended the luncheon and awards ceremony for the 2007 VenturePrize business plan competition. As you probably know, we competed last year and narrowly missed out to ProExams (now ProTraining). The ProTraining guys invited us to join them at their table this year, and we happily accepted!
First of all, congratulations to the grand prize winner, Picomole Instruments, and to their competition - Business Infusions Inc. and Nirix Technology (I was pulling for Nirix as I had met and talked with CEO Steven Hsu in the past and was following their progress though the semi-finals). All of the elevator pitches and videos were very well done. In fact, I'd say the videos this year were far better than any of the videos created last year. Much flashier! The other big observation was that this year's event seemed much smaller and a little more low-key than last year. I suspect this is because last year was extra special with the grand opening of Hall D.
The guest speaker today was Leonard Brody, who talked about Canada and entrepreneurship. Leonard is currently a director of NowPublic, a partner at Growthworks Capital, and has advised many of our country's politicians. When he started his presentation, I wasn't sure if it was going to be that good. That's just the initial impression I got, perhaps because he was so distracted by the lapel microphone.
When he finally got things rolling though, I was impressed. He's a great speaker and he's obviously done his homework. Instead of sharing experiences however, Leonard chose to focus on statistics from recent research. Of course, statistics can be manipulated, so I took everything he said with a grain of salt. That said, he was pretty much preaching to the converted (at least with me). Some of the ideas he talked about:
- In recent years, Canada is an economic wonder.
- We need to do a better job of telling our story as Canadians.
- Mobile phones are going to be huge.
- My generation spends more time on media than work. And we have to multitask.
- "Smart" is irrelevant.
- Continuous partial attention (related to the multitasking).
Basically, the Gen-Yers and Millenials are taking over and they don't do things the same way as previous generations. The workplace isn't ready for them. And you should join Facebook (okay he didn't say that exactly).
I'd say his presentation was the highlight of the afternoon for me. Like Dickson remarked, they needed "victory music" or something in the background when they announced the winner of the competition! The loud applause followed by silence was somewhat off-putting.
One final remark on the afternoon - lunch was delicious! And I actually ate it this year (too anxious last year to eat). The main course was Achiote Marinated Chicken Breast, Black Bean Orange Salsa, Basmati Rice, and Seasonal Vegetables. Dessert was good too: Mini Citrus Cheesecake on Rosemary Crust, topped with Brambleberry Compote and Orange Sour Cream Drizzle.
Congrats to Picomole, and thanks again to ProTraining for the invite.
Has DRM (digital rights management) ever accomplished anything positive? I find it really hard to believe that DRM has increased sales of music, movies, or any other protected content. In fact, I'd bet it has had the exact opposite effect. Just mentioning the acronym brings nothing but negative thoughts to mind.
I think it's only a matter of time until DRM is gone. Steve Jobs doesn't want DRM. EMI is willing to forget about DRM. And yesterday, thousands of online citizens proclaimed in a unified voice that they do not want DRM either. The writing is on the wall. The only question now is when DRM will disappear.
I can't say it any better than Cory Doctorow:
AACS took years to develop, and it has been broken in weeks. The developers spent billions, the hackers spent pennies.
Instead of spending billions on technologies that attack paying customers, the studios should be confronting that reality and figuring out how to make a living in a world where copying will get easier and easier. They're like blacksmiths meeting to figure out how to protect the horseshoe racket by sabotaging railroads.
The railroad is coming. The tracks have been laid right through the studio gates. It's time to get out of the horseshoe business.
In the past, movie studios and record labels had to worry about content and distribution, but no longer. It's clear now that distribution doesn't need a helping hand. The sooner the studios and labels figure that out and stop wasting money on it, the better it'll be for all of us.
Wow, just wow. Digg has imploded. This might seem comical at the moment, but I think May 1st, 2007 may go down in Internet history as a very critical day. Ryan Block has the best recap of what has transpired that I've seen:
Brace yourself: there is a revolt underway at Digg. Users are virulently spreading the HD DVD AACS decryption key against Digg’s wishes, with each removed post spawning dozens more in its place. But how did such a loyal userbase as Digg’s so quickly divert its all-consuming energy to defying — even damaging — the company to which it was so loyal?
The rest of his post explains the timeline. Basically it's like this:
- Someone posted the HD-DVD decryption key on Digg.
- The story was removed, and that user was banned.
- The story was reposted, and removed again.
- Digg users then flooded the site with stories about the key.
As Ryan says, the web has just witnessed its first "massive, simultaneous revolt."
When I started writing this post a few minutes ago, digg.com was down. Looks like it is back up now, but for how long? Digg's founder Kevin Rose had this to say earlier tonight:
We hear you, and effective immediately we won’t delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be.
If we lose, then what the hell, at least we died trying.
If there was ever a reason to start realizing the power of the web, this is it. Who cares what happens to Digg...what does this event mean for the web and society in general? I'm not sure how yet, but I think Digg's implosion might just have changed the world.
The 72-hour conversation that Microsoft likes to call Mix is over tomorrow, and so far, there has been absolutely no news about Internet Explorer 8. As I like to say, the silence has been deafening! Oh there's been lots of news about Silverlight (Colin has a number of great posts), but nothing about IE8. A quick search shows that Miguel de Icaza (among others, undoubtedly) noticed this as well:
Someone mentioned (and I forget whom it was) that talk about IE8 was strangely missing from the whole conversation. There were no announcements about new upcoming features in IE, no mention of whether IE8 will support what-wg nor any future plans.
It makes sense that Silverlight should have its day to shine, but seriously, IE8 is important! Why not drop even a few tidbits about what to expect? Firefox 3 received a ton of press back in February when it became clear that the nextgen browser would support offline applications.
Maybe Microsoft is keeping quiet about IE8 to let the "we love all platforms and browsers" message permeate the blogosphere.
I should point out that the IE team posted this almost two weeks ago:
We will have more information to share about the next release in the future, but MIX07 is too early yet to discuss specifics.
All I want are tidbits, not specifics!
UPDATE: Mary Jo Foley has written a post describing what was mentioned about IE8 at Mix today. Mostly general stuff, like security being the top priority.
Late last night Amazon sent an email to S3 customers announcing an upcoming pricing change. Storage costs will remain the same, but the price for bandwidth is going to change:
Current bandwidth price (through May 31, 2007)
$0.20 / GB - uploaded
$0.20 / GB - downloaded
New bandwidth price (effective June 1, 2007)
$0.10 per GB - all data uploaded
$0.18 per GB - first 10 TB / month data downloaded
$0.16 per GB - next 40 TB / month data downloaded
$0.13 per GB - data downloaded / month over 50 TB
$0.01 per 1,000 PUT or LIST requests
$0.01 per 10,000 GET and all other requests
They claim that if the pricing had been applied to usage for March 2007, about 75% of customers would have seen their bill decrease. In some cases however, the price change makes things significantly more expensive, as this thread points out:
Uploading 1GB of 4K files will cost $2.72 instead of $0.20
We haven't yet figured out how Podcast Spot will be affected, but I suspect we'll see a slight decrease. I'm also interested to hear from Don MacAskill on SmugMug.
UPDATE: Don talks about the new pricing model here and says they'll save money.
I have been blogging for about three and half years now, and lately I've been wondering about my posting habits. Do I tend to post at a certain time of day? How about a certain day of the week? I certainly don't try to - I just post when I have something to share.
I ran the numbers tonight, and here's what I found (click on a graph to enlarge). The percentage on the Y-axis means "percentage of my posts". For days of the week:
Looks like my post frequency drops off on the weekend, but not as much as I thought it might. For hours of the day:
Looks like I am definitely a late-afternoon/evening blogger! This is quite a bit different than the blogosphere as a whole.
When I do these numbers again, I'll have to figure out how many posts are made on days where I post more than once. I'd also like to find out what the average number of words/characters per post is, but that calculation is a little more involved.
Kind of a neat exercise, I have to say. It'll be interesting to see how these statistics change in another three and a half years!