Friday, June 06, 2003

Preview: New York Times Archive and Weblogs. [Scripting News] 6:13:53 PM    comment []

Howard's Webby Speech. My keynote for this year's Webby awards [Smart Mobs] 6:13:11 PM    comment []

More blog bashing. Simon Dumenco gives TiVo and blogs a sarcastic treatment in American Idle, in New York Metro (New York Magazine too? Dunno). And Doc (with whom you're not supposed to play cards, right?) takes it apart, puts it back together, and looks ahead. 6:06:37 PM    comment []

European Regulators Seek More Evidence in Microsoft Inquiry, by Paul Meller, NYT. The European Commission sent a questionnaire to music and movie companies two months ago, asking them how they view the technologies they use to disseminate material over the Internet. We had some outstanding issues and decided to investigate these issues further, Amelia Torres, the commission spokeswoman, said today. In 2000, the commission accused Microsoft of stifling competition in the market for media-playing software by bundling its Media Player software into its Windows operating systems, to the detriment of rivals like QuickTime from Apple Computer and RealPlayer from Real Network. The bundling argument is one of two core elements in the commission's case against Microsoft, the other being that the company has leveraged its dominant position with Windows to muscle out competition in the related market for software that runs networks of computers. 1:50:10 PM    comment []

The State of Oregon is selling surplus state property via eBay. 12:50:14 PM    comment []

Antipiracy team scans Asia P2P sites, by John Lui, CNET News.com. The Business Software Alliance (BSA), whose members include large companies such as Adobe and Microsoft, has recently aimed its software-sniffing Web crawler specifically at Asia- Pacific sites, according to a BSA representative. 12:50:12 PM    comment []

Net Radio Debate Simmers Despite Deals, by David McGuire, washingtonpost.com. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is hoping a deal it announced Tuesday will end a lengthy battle over Internet radio royalty rates, but many online "webcasters" say they still are facing royalty payments that will put them out of business. The RIAA's deal allows college, nonprofit and religious broadcasters to pay up to $500 a year for the songs they play online. The agreement comes on the heels of similar deals the RIAA reached with commercial Web radio operators earlier this year. . . . Under the college deal, nonprofit webcasters with less than 200 listeners an hour on average will pay $250 to $500 as a flat annual fee. Stations exceeding that limit would pay .02 cents per song for each listener above 200. The rate is, by far, the RIAA's lowest, and has pleased some nonprofit webcasters. The deal is a huge boon to college stations, said Fritz Kass, director of New Windsor, N.Y.-based Intercollegiate Broadcasting System Inc., which represents more than 800 college radio stations and helped broker the RIAA deal. But Deborah Proctor, the general manager of WCBE, a nonprofit classical music station based in Raleigh, N.C., said the rate is deceptive. With a growing international listener base that now tops 1,400 listeners an hour, WCBE is well over the caps set forth in the deal and could be on the hook for tens of thousands of dollars a year, dating back to 1998, Proctor said. Even if she could afford to pay them, Proctor said the rates are too high for a nonprofit station that doesn't advertise. I think it would be immoral and an improper use of the contributions that were entrusted to us if I were to pay this very unethical rate, she said. 12:50:08 PM    comment []

Wired Magazine Story to Detail Slammer Web Attack, by Reed Stevenson (Reuters). The article, which will be published in Wired's July issue due out on Tuesday, details how the Slammer worm, also known as "SQL Slammer," spread rapidly through the Internet on Jan. 25, shutting down Internet service providers in South Korea, disrupting plane schedules and knocking out automatic teller machines. The article includes the underlying software code for Slammer. The thing to note here is that the people who are in a position to wreak havoc on the Internet don't have to read about it on Wired, said Blaise Zerega, managing editor of Wired, which covers a range of subjects centered around technology. But the people who are in a position to prevent it from happening do read Wired. Our thinking was to shine a light on the problems and issue a wake-up call, Zerega said. 12:50:01 PM    comment []

Fighting for a new Net copyright deal. Five months after losing a battle to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit copyright protections, Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig launches a public campaign to enact what he says is a policy that's better in step with the Internet age. [CNET News.com] 7:58:01 AM    comment []

Wal-Mart to back RFID. Wal-Mart is expected to throw its weight behind RFID (radio frequency identification) technology at an industry conference in Chicago on Tuesday. These RFID tags contain microchips that can communicate wirelessly with computers when in the presence of a scanning device. Executives of the company are expected to make a presentation encouraging its top 100 suppliers to start using wireless inventory tracking equipment. Wal-Mart is the world's biggest retailer. Wal-Mart to throw its weight behind RFID [Smart Mobs] But see also this coverage of RFID tags and ''tracking everywhere'' here on A blog doesn't need a clever name. 7:57:22 AM    comment []

page not found. Excellent 404 error page [Adam Curry: Adam Curry's Weblog] 7:53:34 AM    comment []

Sammy Sosa's sanity. How corking your bat is a lot like a Martha Stewart stock deal, but nothing like throwing a spitball. [Salon.com] 1:00:41 AM    comment []

Baseball's Greatest Hits. Chicago Cub outfielder Sammy Sosa is not the first baseball player to have broken the rules in baseball. I should know, I did it and it added five years to my career. By Bill Lee. [New York Times: Opinion] 12:52:58 AM    comment []