...more recent posts
The RIAA wins the first battle (too bad for them they've already lost the war.) A San Francisco judge has ordered Napster be shut down (at least) until the outcome of the trial is known. The RIAA has to put up a $5 million dollar bond which will be awarded to Napster to compensate for loss of business if they end up winning the trial. Here's the slashdot thread. Here's the Washington Post blurb. Here's the wired story. Here's one of the many boycott the RIAA sites already in action.
The irony here is that one profit monger, the RIAA, is trying to kill another profit monger (Napster) and the result is going to be the rise of a radically distributed NONPROFIT ORIENTED file sharing network that literally cannot be stopped. Funny where greed will get you as move toward the frictionless marketplace.
Things are moving forward on many fronts as we speak. Over at Hack the Planet the discussion is really heating up about Jeff Kandt's plan for enabling the direct, voluntary payment of musicians (tipping.) Check out the action in the ensuing discussion. Jeff has changed the internet rallying cry from "the internet treats censorship like damage and routes around it" to "The internet treats greed like damage and routes around it." Cut out the middleman, as Dave Winer keeps exhorting us. Anyway, he's about to take his plan to a wider audience for another round of crypto vetting. Combined with a Gnutella or Freenet distributed file sharing network, I think this could really happen. I truely believe that musical artists can make money from voluntary payments. The RIAA, on the other hand, cannot. I hope that Dave Winer picks up on Jeff's ideas, and either promotes them, or something similar, in conjunction with his new Userland Radio. This is really the start of the big change. Wes Felter's headline today reads: "the singularity is coming" and I think I know what he's talking about. Hold on tight, things might get a little stranger from here on in.
I keep wanting to link to this new (to me) site that I have really been enjoying, except that it's really not about anything, and no post in particular ever seems to call for a link (sound familiar?) Still, it's a great site, and often very funny (much like another fav rasterweb.) Anyway, here's one about banannas.
Brilliant dinner last night at chez Wheel. He keeps turnin' and he can't slow down... Making me feel good today even with the grey skies and rain. Anyway, lots happening, so let's get to those links.
Zvezda docking complete. The Russian "brain" module of the space station (see picture below) was successfully docked with the rest of the station (see picture to left.) Good work. <robotvoice>must get off planet</robotvoice>
Salon has an article on Eazel a new GUI being developed for linux by some incredibly heavyweight (ex-Apple) interface people. Set for release this Fall, I guarantee you'll be hearing a lot about this one. Could make linux possible for mere mortals (like me.) It is going to be really fun watching this race: linux morphs toward the Mac as the Mac morphs toward unix (OS X.) Sounds like they are zeroing in on the promised land, but who's going to win? Anyway, read the article, or just enjoy this little pull quote
Last week, I met with Mike Boich, CEO of Eazel, who gave me a look at Nautilus, Eazel's souped-up file manager for Linux-based systems. And unlike most software product demos, which usually consist of equal parts stupefaction and irrelevance, the Nautilus run-through actually delivered. Nautilus looks like a lot of fun. More to the point, it looks like it will work.
Apparently, the MPAA v. 2600 trial has ended although no ruling has been issued yet. This is the case about that pesky piece of software called DeCSS which allowed people with linux machines to actually play the DVD's the have bought (or not bought, as the MPAA likes to point out.) Anyway, this is a really big one in terms of setting precedent for whether you actually own the entertainment content you buy, or whether you are just sort of leasing it, under incredibly tight controls. And it sounds like the judge is impressed by the good side. Still, this will almost definitely go to the supreme court, so lots more fun to come.
And in the techno-lust department, SGI has seriously cut the price on its seriously beautiful, almost-as-good-as-the-Cinema-Display, 18 inch flat panel display (bundled with Formacs ProFormance 3 PCI video card) down to $1795! Still too much of course, but this is a $1000 reduction, and with the video card, really a pretty good deal. I'm saving all pennies for next years Powerbook g4, which I'm still boldly stating has the chance to be the best selling computer of all time. This thing is going to smoke. Now get back to work, or none of us will be buying anything.
From a request on another page, I've put up some rather boring pictures I took Monday at the Union Square Green Market. If you're not familiar, this is what makes it possible to live in NYC (assuming you can't afford to eat out for every possible meal :-)
According to the latest Nielsen/NetRatings, more women than men now use the internet in the USA. That must be good somehow.
Somebody I haven't seen before in the small group over at HackthePlanet has posted a very reasonable sounding way to set up MP3's to allow people to easily send money (voluntarily) to the tracks artist. Very convining scenario. I doubt we'll see this adopted any time soon, but I do think it would work. (Slightly technical, as usual for HTP, assumes you know what public key encryption is, ect...)
This is the living and working module for the International Space Station. It's going up on Wednesday to dock with the the other two pieces (the other picture over there on the left.) We are leaving the planet, however tenuously. The BBC has the story.
I think this might work. Pre-paid debit cards for on-line shopping. Sold at 7-11's and backed by Amex, they are good anywhere on the web that a regular American Express card would be. I wonder which on line segment of the market this is going to help out most? (Hint: the only one that makes any money to begin with.) Iis it an irony that 7-11 made a lot of fuss about getting out of that business a few years ago?
Big week for Napster. Probably it will be shut down on Wednesday (although nothing is final at this point.) Dave Winer waxes nostalgic about the little program that changed everything. Sure, he's a little over the top, and a bit of an aging hippy, but is that so bad?
Not sure how I missed the rise of BBSpot, the site some have called, the techie Onion. Anyway, I did, because it's been around for a while, and I've never seen it. Microsoft Alleges US Government is a Monopoly, FTC Approves Crips-Bloods Merger, and Office Jesus Turns Water Into Coffee, plus much much more...
...and if you thought that was at all funny, you probably have low enough standards for The Adventures of Tom Cruise & Spork. (From the always quixotic riothero.)
O.K., I'll stop now.