Tuesday, March 04, 2003

Justin Hall: "I'll put my brain in Dave Winer's hands for a little while." Scary thought. [Scripting News] 9:41:07 PM    comment []

A national WiFi map from Don Park. [Scripting News] 9:40:35 PM    comment []

Supreme Court curbs trademarks' reach. A U.S. Supreme Court ruling gave a suprise legal boost to Americans who own Internet domains that criticize corporations or use their trademarks. [CNET News.com] 9:39:24 PM    comment []

The Inquirer: BeOS rises from the dead in Zeta incarnation. [Hack the Planet] 9:37:47 PM    comment []

Apple preparing digital music service. Apple Computer is preparing an online music-buying service for Mac and iPod users and is close to winning many of the licenses it needs from major record labels, sources say. [CNET News.com] 8:25:23 PM    comment []

Today 'Spongeworthy' Once More. The Today Sponge contraceptive was all the rage when it was suddenly pulled from the shelves in the mid-'90s, disappointing countless women and inspiring a memorable episode of Seinfeld. Well, smile girls, because it's back. [Wired News] 8:23:53 PM    comment []

Toys were us. The best book yet about the dot-com years shows how the battle between etoy and eToys.com encapsulated the idiocy -- and the idealism -- of that weird era. [Salon.com] 7:08:05 PM    comment []

Mark reports that the Wall Street Journal says Amazon Approved To Sell Domain Names. Amazon.com Inc. has quietly received the go-ahead to begin selling Internet addresses to users who want a piece of cyberspace real estate. The Seattle-based Internet retailer in early December was accredited as a so-called "domain name registrar," making Amazon one of about 160 companies and organizations that are permitted to register Internet addresses, or domain names, ending in familiar suffixes like ".com," ".net" and ".org." Amazon received accreditation from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or Icann(www.icann.org), the nonprofit group that oversees the administration of Internet addresses That's quite a development. 4:59:30 PM    comment []

News from Iran: Basij arrest Internet matchmakers and 68 dating youth The story quotes Ahmad Rouzbehani, a deputy head of the volunteer Basij, saying, These individuals used to arrange Internet chats and supply pornographic pictures to their subscribers before luring them to a place at north Tehran and then duping and misusing them. Also, After a series of intelligence and reconnaissance operations in coordination with the judiciary officials, these individuals were arrested in a surprise blitz and a large number of pornographic CDs, several computers and satellite dishes were seized. 11:58:45 AM    comment []

Publishers Lunch on How the Press Keeps Booting the Wells Story: Ever since last Friday the nation’s print media has had a field day making fun of Yankees pitcher David Wells for appearing to take issue with what he "says" in his forthcoming book Perfect I'm Not: Boomer on Beer, Brawls, Backaches and Baseball. (Some stories stuck with straight ridicule, while others compared him to Charles Barkley, who truly disputed material in his first autobiography years ago.) But on the two primary stories Wells disputed, it turns out he was right. The widely quoted galley text estimating that 25 to 40 percent of all major leaguers are juiced (apparently referring to steroid use, though other passages allege widespread use of amphetamines as well) was indeed changed before the book went to press. As Lunch learned yesterday from publisher William Morrow, the printed version indicates a lower figure of 10 to 25 percent. And co-author Chris Kreski has confirmed that he inaccurately transcribed Wells’s account of how much sleep he got the night before pitching his perfect game. But even as the facts have come to light, most of today’s papers still misplay the story, making it seem as if Wells is changing his text in response to press outcry—-rather than acknowledging that they all failed to observe the primary condition of a galley copy, which is to check the accuracy of the final text with the publisher before running any quotes. Once again it appears that News Corp.-brethren the New York Post played a starring role in jump-starting coverage that neither the publisher nor the authors were prepared to handle yet. Wells told the Post yesterday that [Harper Collins] had a deal to get some recognition out with The Post and The Post turned around and screwed them. And that's how this whole mess started. According to a separate source involved in the publication of the book, the Post was one of a very small number of galley recipients beyond traditional book reviewers (who no one expected to cover the book pre- publication, though the title was not formally embargoed). By this account, the Associated Press had been promised the first official pre- publication interview with Wells, scheduled for about a week before the original release date, and the Post was to follow with an excerpt from the book, having bought a chapter that corresponded to the story they ran. Our source confirms Mr. Wells’ contention that the Post violated the rules under which they obtained the copy in covering revelations from the book last Thursday. After the surprise trumping by the Post, the AP was quick to jump in with their own story on Friday (when the erroneous figure regarding steroid use was first published), without checking the text. Wells may be upset, but Morrow publisher Michael Morrison isn’t. He says, We’ve got a great relationship with the Post and that the coverage is great for us. Morrison offers a somewhat different account, saying that We were talking to them [the Post] along with other media about a first serial…but nothing was set in stone. As for the AP, Morrison says We were talking to the AP about an orchestrated first interview, but notes that reporters are free to pursue a story where they see one. 11:58:40 AM    comment []

Just noticed. Get Your War On's tribute to Mr. Rogers. [Radio Free Blogistan] 7:16:16 AM    comment []

Harvard Professor Proposes Alternative Economics Class. A Harvard professor has proposed an alternative to the introductory economics class taught by an occasional adviser to President Bush. By David Leonhardt. [New York Times: Education] 7:13:31 AM    comment []

AF series starts. Our TV series "Adam's Family" started airing Saturdy, to great response and viewership. Some call it a reality show, others a reality soap. I like to think of it as a weblog on TV. It's pretty much what I expected to be able to do with the "Freedom Controller" if the bandwidth had ever arrived. Unicast for now then ... [Adam Curry: Adam Curry's Weblog] 7:11:40 AM    comment []

Klez Won't Stop Making Net Rounds. Few e-mail viruses last as long as the Klez virus has. Not only was it the most pervasive when it hit last year, but it seems to have the longest legs, topping the antivirus charts for almost a full year. What's a security-conscious Net user to do? By Michelle Delio. [Wired News] 7:05:34 AM    comment []