The heat index in most of the Northeast has been a few degrees into the triple digits for three days. But as your friends here at Appscout will gladly tell you, the Internet never sleep--for that matter, neither do award ceremonies. With that in mind, armies of Web stars in various interpretations of formal attire descended upon NYU's Skirball Center for Performing Arts for the 2008 Webby Film and Video Awards.
Chloe Albanesius is working on a post that will feature a complete rundown of the event, including all the now-infamous five-word acceptance speeches. For me, the high point of the evening was partaking in the red-carpet press gauntlet and getting a chance to chat up some comedy legends such as David Wain (pictured above, a self-proclaimed AppScout fan--I'll refrain from going all fanboy and declaring Wet Hot American Summer the funniest movie of all time), Lorne Michaels, Seth Myers, Tim and Eric, and the night's host, Judah Friedlander. We also spoke with Michel Gondry and Rosie Perez, as well as Web stars like Tay Zonday and the Obama Girl, Amber Lee Etting.
After the jump, videos of Tay Zonday singing Weezer, Amber Lee Etting waxing analytic about VP nominees, Tim and Eric talking about sketch-comedy PC optimization, an utterly confused David Wain, and more.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Best TV On the Web: Wainy Days
Don't know David Wain? Learn his name. He's making some of the funnier--and oh-so-definitely not-safe-for-work--online videos on his weekly show, Wainy Days. It's a "channel" on the Web site My Damn Channel.
I'd never heard of Wain until stumbling upon Wainy Days by accident, after following links for the Internet phenomenon called You Suck at Photoshop. In Wainy Days, Wain plays a fictionalized version of himself, constantly on the hunt for love. Or, just as often, sex. Non sequiturs and breaks with reality and the fourth wall are de rigueur. So is the recurring gag of pushing people down as they pass on the street.
A typical episode usually features Wain meeting a girl, getting the girl, and losing the girl in the most ridiculous way possible. For example, in "Dorvid Days," he runs off to LA to be with his online girlfriend Nora. She introduces him to her brother with "Stephen Hawking Disease." The brother gets lost and is mistaken for an ice cream cart by the ice cream guy. (Yeah, you read that right). Wain saves the brother. But the girl breaks up with Wain for the ice cream guy anyway.
And that's a polite example, one of the few that doesn't feature some over-the-top comedic violence, ridiculous sexual situations, and/or copious amounts of bodily fluids. (Did I mention it's NSFW? Seriously. Even with no nudity.)
Wain's street cred: He is the co-creator of comedy groups The State and Stella and directed the films Wet Hot American Summer and The Ten. The latter, recently released on DVD and iTunes, is heavily (but not annoyingly) pimped on all the most recent Wainy Days episodes. (And it's on my Netflix queue, believe me.)
Since Wain actually knows a ton of Hollywood talent from his films, he features actors you've actually heard of as guests on Wainy Days, including Rob Corddry (The Daily Show), Jonah Hill (SuperBad), Paul Rudd (The Ten, 40-Year-Old Virgin) and David Krumholtz (Numb3rs). And Wain is frequently helped out behind the scenes by former Stella and The State comrades such as Michael Ian Black--the man who used to be the voice of the beloved-by-some Pets.com sock puppet.
What's more, Wain knows many a cute starlet, and he usually casts them in roles where he can make out with them (at the very least). Who can blame him? Elizabeth Banks (Slither, Scrubs), Jennifer Westfeldt (Kissing Jessica Stein, Notes from the Underbelly), Callie Thorne (Rescue Me), Tawny Cypress (Heroes), and Julie Bowen (Lost, Boston Legal) have all felt the brunt of Wain's on-screen affections. Rashida Jones (The Office), however, played Wain in drag.
My Damn Channel is only six month old but is churning out the funny. Other shows are run by Harry Shearer (every other voice on The Simpsons) and bizarro "teen" comedian Andy Milonakis. Artists at My Damn Channel get 100 percent creative control, which is obvious. The kinds of things Wain pulls off would never make it on regular network television (well, maybe on HBO or IFC). That lack of a filter means the average viewer has to really like the artist's sense of humor to enjoy the show. In the case of Wainy Days, count me as a fan. The "second season finale" for Wainy Days is coming in February, so catch up now.
I'd never heard of Wain until stumbling upon Wainy Days by accident, after following links for the Internet phenomenon called You Suck at Photoshop. In Wainy Days, Wain plays a fictionalized version of himself, constantly on the hunt for love. Or, just as often, sex. Non sequiturs and breaks with reality and the fourth wall are de rigueur. So is the recurring gag of pushing people down as they pass on the street.
A typical episode usually features Wain meeting a girl, getting the girl, and losing the girl in the most ridiculous way possible. For example, in "Dorvid Days," he runs off to LA to be with his online girlfriend Nora. She introduces him to her brother with "Stephen Hawking Disease." The brother gets lost and is mistaken for an ice cream cart by the ice cream guy. (Yeah, you read that right). Wain saves the brother. But the girl breaks up with Wain for the ice cream guy anyway.
And that's a polite example, one of the few that doesn't feature some over-the-top comedic violence, ridiculous sexual situations, and/or copious amounts of bodily fluids. (Did I mention it's NSFW? Seriously. Even with no nudity.)
Wain's street cred: He is the co-creator of comedy groups The State and Stella and directed the films Wet Hot American Summer and The Ten. The latter, recently released on DVD and iTunes, is heavily (but not annoyingly) pimped on all the most recent Wainy Days episodes. (And it's on my Netflix queue, believe me.)
Since Wain actually knows a ton of Hollywood talent from his films, he features actors you've actually heard of as guests on Wainy Days, including Rob Corddry (The Daily Show), Jonah Hill (SuperBad), Paul Rudd (The Ten, 40-Year-Old Virgin) and David Krumholtz (Numb3rs). And Wain is frequently helped out behind the scenes by former Stella and The State comrades such as Michael Ian Black--the man who used to be the voice of the beloved-by-some Pets.com sock puppet.
What's more, Wain knows many a cute starlet, and he usually casts them in roles where he can make out with them (at the very least). Who can blame him? Elizabeth Banks (Slither, Scrubs), Jennifer Westfeldt (Kissing Jessica Stein, Notes from the Underbelly), Callie Thorne (Rescue Me), Tawny Cypress (Heroes), and Julie Bowen (Lost, Boston Legal) have all felt the brunt of Wain's on-screen affections. Rashida Jones (The Office), however, played Wain in drag.
My Damn Channel is only six month old but is churning out the funny. Other shows are run by Harry Shearer (every other voice on The Simpsons) and bizarro "teen" comedian Andy Milonakis. Artists at My Damn Channel get 100 percent creative control, which is obvious. The kinds of things Wain pulls off would never make it on regular network television (well, maybe on HBO or IFC). That lack of a filter means the average viewer has to really like the artist's sense of humor to enjoy the show. In the case of Wainy Days, count me as a fan. The "second season finale" for Wainy Days is coming in February, so catch up now.
Wainy Days Season 3 Premiers on MyDamnChannel
We got an e-mail from the folks at MyDamnChannel, letting us know about the premier of the third season of that old Appscout favorite, Wainy Days. Eric Griffith wrote up the show back in January upon stumbling upon it after a late night You Suck at Photoshop binge (we've all been there, right?).
We caught up with Wain again a few weeks back, when he was accepting a Webby for best online comedy series, alongside the aforementioned Photoshop duo.
If you haven't seen the show yet, the good and bad news is that you can catch up with the entire series in one sitting. Fans of Wain's work with sketch groups Stella and The State pretty much know what they're in for, but if you're unfamiliar with Wain's work, it ought be mentioned that Eric typed the letters NSFW about a half-dozen times in his writeup of the show.
Check out the new season here.
We caught up with Wain again a few weeks back, when he was accepting a Webby for best online comedy series, alongside the aforementioned Photoshop duo.
If you haven't seen the show yet, the good and bad news is that you can catch up with the entire series in one sitting. Fans of Wain's work with sketch groups Stella and The State pretty much know what they're in for, but if you're unfamiliar with Wain's work, it ought be mentioned that Eric typed the letters NSFW about a half-dozen times in his writeup of the show.
Check out the new season here.
Hands On with Paglo: A Search Engine for IT
One issue that a number of small and medium-sized businesses face when managing their IT infrastructure is keeping tabs on where everything is and what condition it's all in. From the condition of desktops across the organization to the types of servers in the datacenter and what they're all running to the number of mobile devices on the network, IT departments are organizations of any size need effective and efficient ways to gather information about their environment and changes in it at a moment's notice.
Paglo can help. I've been playing with Paglo for the past several weeks since its private beta went public, and I've been hard pressed to find a better tool to collect the wealth of data that Paglo does on all aspects of a business's IT infrastructure. Add to this the number of ways that Paglo allows you to conveniently customize dashboards and reports for ease of retrieval, and you have a service that could make IT executives at a number of modestly-sized companies very happy.
Many IT departments struggle with the challenge of how to manage and collect information about their infrastructure easily. I've been involved with IT departments making the transition between small business to large enterprise, and the task is much more daunting than simply making sure to keep a solid monitoring tool on at all times. It was difficult in the course of reading about and examining Paglo to try and pigeonhole it into a specific type of tool, like a monitoring tool, a configuration management database, an alerting tool, an asset management database. The truth is that Paglo does all of these things, and unlike many applications that try to do too many things at once, Paglo does them all pretty well.
At it's heart, Paglo is a search utility, and through the types of information you can obtain through targeted searches, IT staff can greatly minimize the time required to research and obtain information about their existing systems in order to diagnose issues, track changes, or proactively find problems.
Here's how it works: a systems administrator or engineer planning to use Paglo for the IT infrastructure that they manage downloads the Paglo crawler once the company is signed up with Paglo for service. They install the crawler on their own machine or any other computer with access to the corporate network, and the crawler than traverses the corporate network, collecting information about the company's IT infrastructure and sends it back to Paglo to be kept in the company's repository. Then, authorized users and IT administrators at the company can log in to Paglo's site to begin searching and retrieving information about their company's IT environment in a matter of moments.
The search functionality is where Paglo really shines. Because the crawler can collect a wealth of information about a company's IT environment, and uses a number of protocols to collect its information, you can use Paglo to not just see how many devices the crawler has encountered, but detailed information about those devices as well. For example, the Paglo crawler uses familiar protocols like SNMP to pull configuration data from servers, switches, and routers, so you can tell that the firewall that you knew was there is actually a Juniper SSG 500. You can see with a single search how many servers you have in your datacenter, and the breakdown of which ones are running what operating systems.
It would be one thing if Paglo stopped there, but it goes on to collect more information about the devices and systems it encounters, from firmware information to model and serial information--anything a systems admin may find useful, or an Operations Manager might find important when collecting broad information about their IT environment.
Paglo may sound daunting, but the service is extremely simple. When you log in, you're presented with a search bar and a brief glimpse at your available search index, that can include as much or little information as you like. The test account I used had inventory information, running processes and active devices on the corporate network, and a list of top searches, alerts, and dashboards at the bottom of the page. If, for example, I wanted all of my desktop and laptop users to grab a copy of the newly released Firefox 3 but didn't know how many of them already had it, I could simply type "Firefox" in the search bar to find any and all systems with Firefox in its configuration information. If I read about a vulnerability that's corrected by a specific Windows Server 2003 patch, I can see how many servers are missing it by searching for the patch number. I can even search for "devices by subnet" to see all of the devices on my network organized by their network segment.
As you perform searches that you think you'll do often, you can save those searches as "dashboards" that can be referred to quickly by any corporate user that logs into Paglo. The dashboards are available with one click from the sidebar menu, and the test account that I was given showed useful information like server CPU utilization, free disk space on all of the test company's servers, active alerts, and overall inventory of workstations, servers, printers, and other devices. Being able to access this type of information, like how much free disk space is available on xyz server, is critical to system administrations when trying to diagnose a problem. Being able to see this information easily in one tool without having to physically log on to the server to investigate can save time and energy. Being able to see how much free disk space is available across your entire datacenter however, can be a lifesaver and is critical reporting information for an IT department's internal customers at any business.
In addition to dashboards, you can turn your searches into alerts that will contact critical IT personnel when changes occur in your IT environment. For example, you can set Paglo to notify you when disk space gets low on a critical server, when a switch or router stops responding, or even something more nuanced like when a network printer is out of paper or a certain undesirable application appears on a system on your network.
Paglo offers its software as a service, meaning that Paglo hosts the application and its interface on their own and provides companies access to it for subscription fees. During its private beta, the company managed to sign up over 800 businesses, including universities, hospitals, and construction companies. The service is aimed primarily at businesses of small-to-medium sizes with about 50-1000 employees and IT resources that match up with those people.
The Paglo crawler is completely open source, so as the service gains traction in your organization, you can design plug-ins and add-ons to supplement the crawler's data collection abilities. Additionally, part of the benefit of Paglo offering its software as a service is that you have a broad community of Paglo users to share information with and draw knowledge from. If another company uising Paglo has developed an add-on that scans firewalls for active rulesets, that company can then publish the add-on to the Paglo community where other companies can then download it, use it, and even improve on it and re-post it.
Paglo calls these add-ons and tips "Share-Its," and encourages companies using the service to help each other solve difficult IT questions using Paglo, share their experiences using the service and how it's helped them manage their IT infrastructure, and even post the share-its they've developed for use in other organizations. Best of all, no company-specific data is posted with the share-it, just the add-on itself.
Security might be the only area that might make some companies a little wary of a service like Paglo. Because the service is hosted by Paglo and presented by Paglo to users, and because of the nature of a crawler like the one that collects information about your network and infrastructure and sends it to Paglo, some IT security personnel might need to be sold on the benefits of sending all of that sometimes sensitive technology information off-site to a third-party, even if it makes the environment easier to manage. Paglo makes every effort to keep company specific information private, but that may not be enough for some businesses who simply don't want to risk someone else knowing what they have in their datacenters or what applications their developers use or create. Paglo has no plans to offer their service to companies to deploy in-house, but when I asked about the issue of information security and possibly providing their search functionality to customers in-house, the response I got indicated that the door might be open to that type of offering in the future.
When I had the opportunity to speak to Paglo CEO Brian de Haaff and CTO Christopher Waters, they beamed about the broad functionality of their service and how valuable the information that Paglo collects could be to IT departments. The goal, they explained, is to provide a service that helps IT departments at small and mid-sized businesses that are often understaffed wrangle and manage increasingly complex IT environments and provide on-demand information about their applications, platforms, and infrastructure. Paglo is in open beta at the moment, and companies can sign up to use the service for free through the rest of the summer.
Paglo can help. I've been playing with Paglo for the past several weeks since its private beta went public, and I've been hard pressed to find a better tool to collect the wealth of data that Paglo does on all aspects of a business's IT infrastructure. Add to this the number of ways that Paglo allows you to conveniently customize dashboards and reports for ease of retrieval, and you have a service that could make IT executives at a number of modestly-sized companies very happy.
Many IT departments struggle with the challenge of how to manage and collect information about their infrastructure easily. I've been involved with IT departments making the transition between small business to large enterprise, and the task is much more daunting than simply making sure to keep a solid monitoring tool on at all times. It was difficult in the course of reading about and examining Paglo to try and pigeonhole it into a specific type of tool, like a monitoring tool, a configuration management database, an alerting tool, an asset management database. The truth is that Paglo does all of these things, and unlike many applications that try to do too many things at once, Paglo does them all pretty well.
At it's heart, Paglo is a search utility, and through the types of information you can obtain through targeted searches, IT staff can greatly minimize the time required to research and obtain information about their existing systems in order to diagnose issues, track changes, or proactively find problems.
Here's how it works: a systems administrator or engineer planning to use Paglo for the IT infrastructure that they manage downloads the Paglo crawler once the company is signed up with Paglo for service. They install the crawler on their own machine or any other computer with access to the corporate network, and the crawler than traverses the corporate network, collecting information about the company's IT infrastructure and sends it back to Paglo to be kept in the company's repository. Then, authorized users and IT administrators at the company can log in to Paglo's site to begin searching and retrieving information about their company's IT environment in a matter of moments.
The search functionality is where Paglo really shines. Because the crawler can collect a wealth of information about a company's IT environment, and uses a number of protocols to collect its information, you can use Paglo to not just see how many devices the crawler has encountered, but detailed information about those devices as well. For example, the Paglo crawler uses familiar protocols like SNMP to pull configuration data from servers, switches, and routers, so you can tell that the firewall that you knew was there is actually a Juniper SSG 500. You can see with a single search how many servers you have in your datacenter, and the breakdown of which ones are running what operating systems.
It would be one thing if Paglo stopped there, but it goes on to collect more information about the devices and systems it encounters, from firmware information to model and serial information--anything a systems admin may find useful, or an Operations Manager might find important when collecting broad information about their IT environment.
Paglo may sound daunting, but the service is extremely simple. When you log in, you're presented with a search bar and a brief glimpse at your available search index, that can include as much or little information as you like. The test account I used had inventory information, running processes and active devices on the corporate network, and a list of top searches, alerts, and dashboards at the bottom of the page. If, for example, I wanted all of my desktop and laptop users to grab a copy of the newly released Firefox 3 but didn't know how many of them already had it, I could simply type "Firefox" in the search bar to find any and all systems with Firefox in its configuration information. If I read about a vulnerability that's corrected by a specific Windows Server 2003 patch, I can see how many servers are missing it by searching for the patch number. I can even search for "devices by subnet" to see all of the devices on my network organized by their network segment.
As you perform searches that you think you'll do often, you can save those searches as "dashboards" that can be referred to quickly by any corporate user that logs into Paglo. The dashboards are available with one click from the sidebar menu, and the test account that I was given showed useful information like server CPU utilization, free disk space on all of the test company's servers, active alerts, and overall inventory of workstations, servers, printers, and other devices. Being able to access this type of information, like how much free disk space is available on xyz server, is critical to system administrations when trying to diagnose a problem. Being able to see this information easily in one tool without having to physically log on to the server to investigate can save time and energy. Being able to see how much free disk space is available across your entire datacenter however, can be a lifesaver and is critical reporting information for an IT department's internal customers at any business.
In addition to dashboards, you can turn your searches into alerts that will contact critical IT personnel when changes occur in your IT environment. For example, you can set Paglo to notify you when disk space gets low on a critical server, when a switch or router stops responding, or even something more nuanced like when a network printer is out of paper or a certain undesirable application appears on a system on your network.
Paglo offers its software as a service, meaning that Paglo hosts the application and its interface on their own and provides companies access to it for subscription fees. During its private beta, the company managed to sign up over 800 businesses, including universities, hospitals, and construction companies. The service is aimed primarily at businesses of small-to-medium sizes with about 50-1000 employees and IT resources that match up with those people.
The Paglo crawler is completely open source, so as the service gains traction in your organization, you can design plug-ins and add-ons to supplement the crawler's data collection abilities. Additionally, part of the benefit of Paglo offering its software as a service is that you have a broad community of Paglo users to share information with and draw knowledge from. If another company uising Paglo has developed an add-on that scans firewalls for active rulesets, that company can then publish the add-on to the Paglo community where other companies can then download it, use it, and even improve on it and re-post it.
Paglo calls these add-ons and tips "Share-Its," and encourages companies using the service to help each other solve difficult IT questions using Paglo, share their experiences using the service and how it's helped them manage their IT infrastructure, and even post the share-its they've developed for use in other organizations. Best of all, no company-specific data is posted with the share-it, just the add-on itself.
Security might be the only area that might make some companies a little wary of a service like Paglo. Because the service is hosted by Paglo and presented by Paglo to users, and because of the nature of a crawler like the one that collects information about your network and infrastructure and sends it to Paglo, some IT security personnel might need to be sold on the benefits of sending all of that sometimes sensitive technology information off-site to a third-party, even if it makes the environment easier to manage. Paglo makes every effort to keep company specific information private, but that may not be enough for some businesses who simply don't want to risk someone else knowing what they have in their datacenters or what applications their developers use or create. Paglo has no plans to offer their service to companies to deploy in-house, but when I asked about the issue of information security and possibly providing their search functionality to customers in-house, the response I got indicated that the door might be open to that type of offering in the future.
When I had the opportunity to speak to Paglo CEO Brian de Haaff and CTO Christopher Waters, they beamed about the broad functionality of their service and how valuable the information that Paglo collects could be to IT departments. The goal, they explained, is to provide a service that helps IT departments at small and mid-sized businesses that are often understaffed wrangle and manage increasingly complex IT environments and provide on-demand information about their applications, platforms, and infrastructure. Paglo is in open beta at the moment, and companies can sign up to use the service for free through the rest of the summer.
iTunes Store Hits 5 Billion Downloads
They may have seen a good deal of increased competition, as of late from the likes of mega retailers like Amazon, but Apple's iTunes store doesn't look like it'll be going away any time soon. The country's number one music retailer announced today that it had surpassed five billion downloads.
The online media store isn't doing too shabbily on the movie front, either. Users are currently purchasing 50,000 movies per day through iTunes, making it the world's most popular online movie store as well.
Now if only people would start buying iPods...
The online media store isn't doing too shabbily on the movie front, either. Users are currently purchasing 50,000 movies per day through iTunes, making it the world's most popular online movie store as well.
Now if only people would start buying iPods...
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Meez Launches Meez Nation, A Virtual World
Meez, a social entertainment community that allows users to create their own 3D animated avatars to socialize and play games, just announced the launched of its new virtual world, Meez Nation.
"The number one request from our community of more than 7 million users has been to add a virtual world," says Sean Ryan, CEO of Meez. "Meez Nation is a significant addition to our already potent mix of 3D avatars, a virtual economy and casual games. It will significantly boost user involvement and brand engagement on Meez."
You can use Meez Nation to explore a variety of neighborhoods, including public hangouts and personal Roomz that can be custom decorated and shared with friends. You can also stroll though the beaches of Chillville, walk in the wealthy area of Posh Heights, hang out in the metropolitan Uptown, cool down at a paradise called Arcadia, party at Hell's Kitchen, or stick around in the entry point neighborhood, Burbia.
The game includes the option to visit 50 Cent's Virtual Office to listen to songs from the artist's upcoming album. This room also allows you to participate in an animated rap battle and to purchase 50 Cent's music on iTunes through a provided link.
In the Roomz and neighborhoods of Meez Nation, you can chat among each other, listen to music, watch YouTube videos, and leave answering machine messages. In order to purchase items, you can also use Coinz, Meez Nation's virtual currency.
It appears that Meez Nation is providing a fun platform for teenagers and young adults to engage in, but how long will this virtual-world craze last? I think the success of Meez Nation will be dependent on how much the virtual world keeps up with the real world.
"The number one request from our community of more than 7 million users has been to add a virtual world," says Sean Ryan, CEO of Meez. "Meez Nation is a significant addition to our already potent mix of 3D avatars, a virtual economy and casual games. It will significantly boost user involvement and brand engagement on Meez."
You can use Meez Nation to explore a variety of neighborhoods, including public hangouts and personal Roomz that can be custom decorated and shared with friends. You can also stroll though the beaches of Chillville, walk in the wealthy area of Posh Heights, hang out in the metropolitan Uptown, cool down at a paradise called Arcadia, party at Hell's Kitchen, or stick around in the entry point neighborhood, Burbia.
The game includes the option to visit 50 Cent's Virtual Office to listen to songs from the artist's upcoming album. This room also allows you to participate in an animated rap battle and to purchase 50 Cent's music on iTunes through a provided link.
In the Roomz and neighborhoods of Meez Nation, you can chat among each other, listen to music, watch YouTube videos, and leave answering machine messages. In order to purchase items, you can also use Coinz, Meez Nation's virtual currency.
It appears that Meez Nation is providing a fun platform for teenagers and young adults to engage in, but how long will this virtual-world craze last? I think the success of Meez Nation will be dependent on how much the virtual world keeps up with the real world.
Customer Service 101: Microsoft Deletes MSN Music Servers
Remember when you heeded the music industry's piracy warnings, and eschewed file-sharing services such as Napster to purchase your music legally via the MSN Music Store?
Looks like taking your chances with the RIAA might have been a better option. As of August 31, Microsoft will delete its MSN Music license servers, so music purchased from the now-defunct MSN Music Store will be accessible only via the five computers you authorized to play the tunes.
Buying a new computer or upgrading your operating system? Say goodbye to your music. The music restrictions do not just apply to new computers. If you upgrade from Windows XP to Vista, your MSN Music Store music will be gone.
"As of August 31, 2008, we will no longer be able to support the retrieval of license keys for the songs you purchased from MSN Music or the authorization of additional computers," according to a Microsoft customer e-mail. "You will need to obtain a license key for each of your songs downloaded from MSN Music on any new computer, and you must do so before August 31, 2008. If you attempt to transfer your songs to additional computers after August 31, 2008, those songs will not successfully play."
Microsoft launched the MSN Music Store in September, 2004, in an effort to compete with Apple's iTunes, but it never made much of a dent in iTunes' business. Two years later, Microsoft started redirecting MSN Music Store shoppers to the Zune Marketplace.
Looks like taking your chances with the RIAA might have been a better option. As of August 31, Microsoft will delete its MSN Music license servers, so music purchased from the now-defunct MSN Music Store will be accessible only via the five computers you authorized to play the tunes.
Buying a new computer or upgrading your operating system? Say goodbye to your music. The music restrictions do not just apply to new computers. If you upgrade from Windows XP to Vista, your MSN Music Store music will be gone.
"As of August 31, 2008, we will no longer be able to support the retrieval of license keys for the songs you purchased from MSN Music or the authorization of additional computers," according to a Microsoft customer e-mail. "You will need to obtain a license key for each of your songs downloaded from MSN Music on any new computer, and you must do so before August 31, 2008. If you attempt to transfer your songs to additional computers after August 31, 2008, those songs will not successfully play."
Microsoft launched the MSN Music Store in September, 2004, in an effort to compete with Apple's iTunes, but it never made much of a dent in iTunes' business. Two years later, Microsoft started redirecting MSN Music Store shoppers to the Zune Marketplace.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Microsoft Backtracks, Allows MSN Music Access Until 2011
After taking some heat for its April decision to shutter its MSN Music servers, Microsoft this week backtracked and decided to allow access until the end of 2011.
"After careful consideration, Microsoft has decided to continue to support the authorization of new computers and devices and delivery of new license keys for MSN Music customers through at least the end of 2011, after which we will evaluate how much this functionality is still being used and what steps should be taken next to support our customers," Microsoft wrote in an e-mailed letter to customers that was posted on BoingBoing.
The software giant initially planned to delete its MSN Music license servers on August 31, meaning any music purchased from the now-defunct MSN Music Store would only be accessible via the five computers users authorized to play the tunes.
Get a new computer or upgrade your operating system? Say goodbye to your music.
The announcement prompted the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) to demand that issue refunds for the lost music.
Microsoft launched the MSN Music Store in September, 2004, in an effort to compete with Apple's iTunes, but it never made much of a dent in iTunes' business. Two years later, Microsoft started redirecting MSN Music Store shoppers to the Zune Marketplace.
"After careful consideration, Microsoft has decided to continue to support the authorization of new computers and devices and delivery of new license keys for MSN Music customers through at least the end of 2011, after which we will evaluate how much this functionality is still being used and what steps should be taken next to support our customers," Microsoft wrote in an e-mailed letter to customers that was posted on BoingBoing.
The software giant initially planned to delete its MSN Music license servers on August 31, meaning any music purchased from the now-defunct MSN Music Store would only be accessible via the five computers users authorized to play the tunes.
Get a new computer or upgrade your operating system? Say goodbye to your music.
The announcement prompted the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) to demand that issue refunds for the lost music.
Microsoft launched the MSN Music Store in September, 2004, in an effort to compete with Apple's iTunes, but it never made much of a dent in iTunes' business. Two years later, Microsoft started redirecting MSN Music Store shoppers to the Zune Marketplace.
YouTube Launches Screening Room
Many independent filmmakers try to expose their work to a large audience, but have a difficult time finding the right platform to market a film. You Tube just launched on Wednesday the YouTube Screening Room, which the company calls the world's largest theater.
Every other Friday, You Tube adds four new films to the Screening Room. Those who watch the videos are allowed to rate and leave their comments.
"Hopefully as they see thousands of people watching their films, it's going to be a very eye-opening experience," says Sara Pollack, YouTube's film and animation manager in a CNN article.
A majority of the films that appear on the site will be those that have won at international film festivals, but every once in awhile, YouTube says it will roll out movies that have never been seen before by an audience. The YouTube Screening Room welcomes submissions, and those interested can submit a film by sending an email to the site.
Every other Friday, You Tube adds four new films to the Screening Room. Those who watch the videos are allowed to rate and leave their comments.
"Hopefully as they see thousands of people watching their films, it's going to be a very eye-opening experience," says Sara Pollack, YouTube's film and animation manager in a CNN article.
A majority of the films that appear on the site will be those that have won at international film festivals, but every once in awhile, YouTube says it will roll out movies that have never been seen before by an audience. The YouTube Screening Room welcomes submissions, and those interested can submit a film by sending an email to the site.
Netflix Ends 'Profiles' Feature, Irks Customers
Online movie rental company Netflix has decided to do away with its "profiles" feature, which lets people set up separate movie queues within a single account.
"Too many members found the feature difficult to understand and cumbersome, having to consistently log in and out of the Web site," according to a Thursday post on the Netflix blog.
The company will end the service, which launched in 2005, on September 1.
With profiles, a person who has a subscription that lets you rent three DVDs at one time, for example, can set up to separate up two profiles - allocating one DVD to themselves and two DVDs for their kids. The kids can add the movies they want while the subscription owner adds their selections to a list separate from the kids. To switch between profiles, you click on a drop-down menu at the top of the page.
"Continuing to maintain the profiles feature for the passionate few who use it (including myself) distracts us from the mission of presenting to all our members the easiest way to find the best titles for them from the 100k plus on DVD and the 10k plus available instantly," Netflix said.
The company promised to help "find better ways for families to share accounts than the existing profiles feature" but did not provide any additional detail.
The backlash has already started. An irate member slapped together a Web site (http://www.savenetflixprofiles.com/) with a petition that calls on Netflix to continue the profiles feature.
"As Netflix customers, we believe that this is a very useful feature, and in some cases the sole reason of retaining our memberships," the site reads. "We demand that Netflix reverse this decision, or otherwise when this change goes into effect, we will consider canceling our memberships and looking elsewhere for DVD rentals."
As of 5pm Eastern time, the petition had garnered about 350 digital signatures.
"Too many members found the feature difficult to understand and cumbersome, having to consistently log in and out of the Web site," according to a Thursday post on the Netflix blog.
The company will end the service, which launched in 2005, on September 1.
With profiles, a person who has a subscription that lets you rent three DVDs at one time, for example, can set up to separate up two profiles - allocating one DVD to themselves and two DVDs for their kids. The kids can add the movies they want while the subscription owner adds their selections to a list separate from the kids. To switch between profiles, you click on a drop-down menu at the top of the page.
"Continuing to maintain the profiles feature for the passionate few who use it (including myself) distracts us from the mission of presenting to all our members the easiest way to find the best titles for them from the 100k plus on DVD and the 10k plus available instantly," Netflix said.
The company promised to help "find better ways for families to share accounts than the existing profiles feature" but did not provide any additional detail.
The backlash has already started. An irate member slapped together a Web site (http://www.savenetflixprofiles.com/) with a petition that calls on Netflix to continue the profiles feature.
"As Netflix customers, we believe that this is a very useful feature, and in some cases the sole reason of retaining our memberships," the site reads. "We demand that Netflix reverse this decision, or otherwise when this change goes into effect, we will consider canceling our memberships and looking elsewhere for DVD rentals."
As of 5pm Eastern time, the petition had garnered about 350 digital signatures.
Auction Typos Can Be Your Gain
Auction Bloopers is a new Web site that will search not only for the actual/proper spelling of an item but includes a variety of typos as well. The downside is that it means you'll have more pages to scroll through, but on the plus side you won't have to waste time seeing if the competition already decided to look up "Xbbox 360" before you.
Do an eBay search for a video game console or movie on DVD and you're bound to find dozens (if not hundreds) of auctions, and likely a lot of competition. However, try misspelling "Xbox 360" as something like "X-box" and you will find far few auctions and possibly far less competition from other bidders. Now you could try to type "box 360" and "xbox36" but why go through the trouble when a Web site can help you.
Post by Peter Suciu
Do an eBay search for a video game console or movie on DVD and you're bound to find dozens (if not hundreds) of auctions, and likely a lot of competition. However, try misspelling "Xbox 360" as something like "X-box" and you will find far few auctions and possibly far less competition from other bidders. Now you could try to type "box 360" and "xbox36" but why go through the trouble when a Web site can help you.
Post by Peter Suciu
Hands On: Viddix Impressive Presentations
I found a site which really impressed me. That's a good way to start a review. I'm impressed by Viddix.com, a website which allows you to "connect all kinds of content to the timeline of videos." Think of this as a Powerpoint presentation where your normally live part is digitized too.
Based in the Netherlands, this is a startup that's remained basically under-the-radar. In fact, back in October of '07 their own site proclaimed:
"While still testing, we will not be attracting too much attention to our concept. We will show it to some people and will see what happens. We think it's cool (although we have a lot to do) and hope you will come to like it too."
I've got a quick demo at the bottom of this entry which will explain this online application much better than I ever could. What I can tell you before you watch is, my Viddix presentation was really easy to do. I sat down in front of a camera, spoke for around a minute, uploaded my video, then watched it, stopping it to add cuepoints. The cuepoints can trigger links, text, images, RSS feeds, custom XML feeds or polls.
It's intuitive and incredibly simple to operate. Adding my cuepoints and custom iPanel content only took a few minutes. I wish there was a way to bring content on and off instead of leaving it until the next cuepoint is reached and that there was more control over the size and positioning of text, but those are small points. Viddix is free to use after registering.
Based in the Netherlands, this is a startup that's remained basically under-the-radar. In fact, back in October of '07 their own site proclaimed:
"While still testing, we will not be attracting too much attention to our concept. We will show it to some people and will see what happens. We think it's cool (although we have a lot to do) and hope you will come to like it too."
I've got a quick demo at the bottom of this entry which will explain this online application much better than I ever could. What I can tell you before you watch is, my Viddix presentation was really easy to do. I sat down in front of a camera, spoke for around a minute, uploaded my video, then watched it, stopping it to add cuepoints. The cuepoints can trigger links, text, images, RSS feeds, custom XML feeds or polls.
It's intuitive and incredibly simple to operate. Adding my cuepoints and custom iPanel content only took a few minutes. I wish there was a way to bring content on and off instead of leaving it until the next cuepoint is reached and that there was more control over the size and positioning of text, but those are small points. Viddix is free to use after registering.
Create Floating Definitions in Word
Q: I have a large Word document in which I want to insert a definition for a word or phrase, which you can read by hovering over the word or phrase with the definition becoming visible or via pop-up. For example, take the sentence, "The Governing Body is meeting to compose a vision for future expansion and direction of construction". When you hover over the underlined phrase, I would like this definition to appear: "A group of individuals that has the legal authority to make decisions for a company". The second problem is replacing the non-underlined phrase "Governing Body" with the definition-equipped Governing Body. I am using Word 2003, but also have Word 2000 and Word 2007. - Michael Fairshter.
A: While this type of popup definition is fairly common in Web pages, it's not something that's built into Word. However, by making use of the tools Word does offer, you can come very close. Here's how you'd do it in Word 2007:
Highlight the phrase to be defined and copy it to the clipboard
Click the Insert tab
Click Bookmark in the ribbon
Paste the phrase in as the bookmark name, replacing any spaces with underscores
Click Add
Click Hyperlink in the ribbon
In the Hyperlink dialog click the Bookmark button
Select the bookmark you just created and click OK
Click the Screen Tip button and enter your definition.
Click OK
That's it. When the reader hovers with the mouse over the underlined phrase the screen tip will appear. The phrase "Ctrl click to follow link" will also appear, but by linking the phrase to the bookmark we've ensured nothing bad will happen if the reader does Ctrl Click.
As for putting the same screen tip on other instances of the same phrase, you're going to have to do a little manual labor. Copy the tip-equipped phrase to the clipboard, then use Ctrl F to find each additional instance and paste over it. It's not a completely elegant solution, but it does the job. - Neil J. Rubenking.
A: While this type of popup definition is fairly common in Web pages, it's not something that's built into Word. However, by making use of the tools Word does offer, you can come very close. Here's how you'd do it in Word 2007:
Highlight the phrase to be defined and copy it to the clipboard
Click the Insert tab
Click Bookmark in the ribbon
Paste the phrase in as the bookmark name, replacing any spaces with underscores
Click Add
Click Hyperlink in the ribbon
In the Hyperlink dialog click the Bookmark button
Select the bookmark you just created and click OK
Click the Screen Tip button and enter your definition.
Click OK
That's it. When the reader hovers with the mouse over the underlined phrase the screen tip will appear. The phrase "Ctrl click to follow link" will also appear, but by linking the phrase to the bookmark we've ensured nothing bad will happen if the reader does Ctrl Click.
As for putting the same screen tip on other instances of the same phrase, you're going to have to do a little manual labor. Copy the tip-equipped phrase to the clipboard, then use Ctrl F to find each additional instance and paste over it. It's not a completely elegant solution, but it does the job. - Neil J. Rubenking.
Zoomii.com: A Virtual Bookstore, Complete with Shelves
Browsing online bookstores by scrolling through search results is so 2007. More and more services are trying to spice up online book shopping by providing new interfaces and methods to browse book catalogs, and Zoomii is no exception. The service takes the form of a virtual bookstore and allows you to browse a massive wall with actual books on it, organized by category. The goal of the site is to duplicate the feeling of being at a bookstore, wandering through shelves with different types of books on it.
The developer behind Zoomii loves bookstores so much that he wanted to bring the experience online. Zoomii is designed to make shopping for books on the Web as close to the real experience as possible. You can search for specific books if you're in the mood, or you can browse the shelves aimlessly. You can even bring up a legend of book genres and click the one you're interested in to zoom directly to the virtual shelf-space where those types of books live.
The fact that you can navigate the virtual shelves like you would an interactive map is what's really cool. You can zoom in on a bookshelf to get a better view of the books that are on it and click and drag the shelves around your browser window to move around the "bookstore." Zoomii sports almost 20,000 books on its shelves. If you see a book that's particularly interesting or that you'd like to add to your cart, simply click on the book's cover to add bring up detailed information about the book and a larger view of the cover.
Zoomii isn't a bookstore in and of itself however. All of the books on the virtual shelves and the other 160,000 books in the service's database are all piped in from Amazon.com, so when you use the service to find a book you'd like to buy and click to add it to your cart, it's really going in your Amazon cart. When you actually check out and purchase the book, it's a transaction between you and Amazon, so Zoomii isn't involved in managing your purchase, and your credit card information stays between you and Amazon. Zoomii is able to function as a virtual bookstore because it's part of the Amazon Associates Program, which means that when you purchase a book using Zoomii as a conduit, they get a percentage of the purchase price.
Zoomii is a fun little Web app, and while it may not make your life easier or streamline some task for you, it definitely blends Amazon's massive catalog of books with the feeling of shopping in a real bookstore, passing books on the shelves. The service is definitely a bit more interesting than scrolling through pages upon pages of search results and book recommendations.
The developer behind Zoomii loves bookstores so much that he wanted to bring the experience online. Zoomii is designed to make shopping for books on the Web as close to the real experience as possible. You can search for specific books if you're in the mood, or you can browse the shelves aimlessly. You can even bring up a legend of book genres and click the one you're interested in to zoom directly to the virtual shelf-space where those types of books live.
The fact that you can navigate the virtual shelves like you would an interactive map is what's really cool. You can zoom in on a bookshelf to get a better view of the books that are on it and click and drag the shelves around your browser window to move around the "bookstore." Zoomii sports almost 20,000 books on its shelves. If you see a book that's particularly interesting or that you'd like to add to your cart, simply click on the book's cover to add bring up detailed information about the book and a larger view of the cover.
Zoomii isn't a bookstore in and of itself however. All of the books on the virtual shelves and the other 160,000 books in the service's database are all piped in from Amazon.com, so when you use the service to find a book you'd like to buy and click to add it to your cart, it's really going in your Amazon cart. When you actually check out and purchase the book, it's a transaction between you and Amazon, so Zoomii isn't involved in managing your purchase, and your credit card information stays between you and Amazon. Zoomii is able to function as a virtual bookstore because it's part of the Amazon Associates Program, which means that when you purchase a book using Zoomii as a conduit, they get a percentage of the purchase price.
Zoomii is a fun little Web app, and while it may not make your life easier or streamline some task for you, it definitely blends Amazon's massive catalog of books with the feeling of shopping in a real bookstore, passing books on the shelves. The service is definitely a bit more interesting than scrolling through pages upon pages of search results and book recommendations.
Locomatic Manages Your Mac's Network Locations
If there's one thing that irritates a Mac geek, it's the fact that MacOS doesn't switch network profiles by default if you move between a wireless and a wired network, or even between multiple wired networks on its own. For example, when I move from the wireless network at the office to my wireless network at home, I have to change the network profile, called a "location," manually. Locomatic takes care of that irritation by detecting what network you're connected to and automatically adjusting the location to match.
For most Mac users, the fact that the locations don't switch automatically isn't a big deal; in most cases it's okay to configure your Mac to accept whatever network configuration it gets from the network's DHCP server or router. Unfortunately however, if you move between networks that require specific configuration, like custom DNS servers, static IP addresses, or a specific gateway, moving between the office and the home office might mean a trip into the Network System Preferences. That trip may not be a big deal to someone very familiar with MacOS, but it can be annoying for an expert and near-crippling for a novice.
Locomatic takes care of it for you, so your configuration profile changes automatically depending on the network you've connected to. Locomatic can handle wired and wireless connections, and can even handle networks that use proxy servers and other complex location information. As long as you configure the network profile once in the Network System Preferences, Locomatic can switch between them.
Additionally, the new version of Locomatic can even change your browser's home page and your default printer for you when you switch networks, so you don't have to take a trip into the Print and Fax System Preferences to change default printers from your office's network printer to your home printer when you head home for the day.
The developer behind Locomatic provides documentation and an older version of the software if you need help troubleshooting or learning to use the app. Locomatic is free (although the developer graciously accepts donations), and version 2.1 works with both Mac OS 10.4 and 10.5.
For most Mac users, the fact that the locations don't switch automatically isn't a big deal; in most cases it's okay to configure your Mac to accept whatever network configuration it gets from the network's DHCP server or router. Unfortunately however, if you move between networks that require specific configuration, like custom DNS servers, static IP addresses, or a specific gateway, moving between the office and the home office might mean a trip into the Network System Preferences. That trip may not be a big deal to someone very familiar with MacOS, but it can be annoying for an expert and near-crippling for a novice.
Locomatic takes care of it for you, so your configuration profile changes automatically depending on the network you've connected to. Locomatic can handle wired and wireless connections, and can even handle networks that use proxy servers and other complex location information. As long as you configure the network profile once in the Network System Preferences, Locomatic can switch between them.
Additionally, the new version of Locomatic can even change your browser's home page and your default printer for you when you switch networks, so you don't have to take a trip into the Print and Fax System Preferences to change default printers from your office's network printer to your home printer when you head home for the day.
The developer behind Locomatic provides documentation and an older version of the software if you need help troubleshooting or learning to use the app. Locomatic is free (although the developer graciously accepts donations), and version 2.1 works with both Mac OS 10.4 and 10.5.
Become a Professional Internet Surfer in Minutes
There are days when the phrase "professional Internet surfer" sums up my job description nicely. And while I did, in fact go to an accredited university, I can't help but think that if I had pursued a degree that was closer to that description, rather than spending countless hours in creative writing and literature courses, perhaps I'd be bringing in a touch more money at the end of the day.
The thing is, in the dark days when I went to college, as far as I know, no one actually offered this major. Now, thankfully, there's MyInternetDiploma. It seems a safe bet that the site isn't actually accredited, being that their courses don't extend much beyond filling out a few fields with personal information, clicking Send, and waiting for an e-mail (which, come to think of it, doesn't seem too far removed from my days at U.C. Santa Cruz). But what's accreditation (or proper grammar) in this fast-paced Web 2.0 world of ours?
So if you've got a couple of minutes and a valid e-mail, you too can be well on your way to a lucrative Web surfing career.
The thing is, in the dark days when I went to college, as far as I know, no one actually offered this major. Now, thankfully, there's MyInternetDiploma. It seems a safe bet that the site isn't actually accredited, being that their courses don't extend much beyond filling out a few fields with personal information, clicking Send, and waiting for an e-mail (which, come to think of it, doesn't seem too far removed from my days at U.C. Santa Cruz). But what's accreditation (or proper grammar) in this fast-paced Web 2.0 world of ours?
So if you've got a couple of minutes and a valid e-mail, you too can be well on your way to a lucrative Web surfing career.
Best TV (Commercials) On the Web: Fred
NewTeeVee posted last night about a mysteriously popular video show; apparently Fred is a YouTube wunderkind, coming out of nowhere to get four of the top 20 videos on the service this month. The top Fred video, entitled "Fred Loses his Meds," has been seen by 4.9 million people.
Who's Fred? Described on his channel as "a 6-year-old with anger management issues," his videos are really a pretty funny improved stream-of-consciousness spewing from the mouth of a 15-year-old playing at being 6, with the added touch of fast editing and turning up the pitch of his voice, so he comes off like a chipmunk on meth. (Okay, it's funny if you don't have a hyperactive 6-year-old of your own.)
The actor behind Fred, named Lucas, is probably going to be the next Andy Samberg (who made it to SNL through his Web videos). Or not. Judge his success by this: Fred's already doing commercials. The folks behind the Zipit Z2 Wi-Fi device for instant messaging and music playing, have built an entire site around Fred videos ("fredisodes") to feature his copious use of the device. Kids can send the annoying squirt's videos to parents, to let him beg for a Zipit on their behalf.
Fred's using the Zipit in his YouTube videos as well. I really like his whining in one that he paid more for his Zipit than his nemesis Kevin, because the price just dropped to $49.95. This comes in-between Fred's usual screams and yelling, the kind all parents are probably used to.
Fred's the brainchild of three teenage cousins (including Lucas) under the name JKL Productions. They launched their YouTube channel a couple of years ago by lip-syncing to a Hannah Montana tune after Lucas got a video camera for his birthday. It's obvious they've pushed their craft of online sketch videos from juvenile to professional enough (or just funny enough) to get an endorsement deal. It's the new American dream, come true.
Who's Fred? Described on his channel as "a 6-year-old with anger management issues," his videos are really a pretty funny improved stream-of-consciousness spewing from the mouth of a 15-year-old playing at being 6, with the added touch of fast editing and turning up the pitch of his voice, so he comes off like a chipmunk on meth. (Okay, it's funny if you don't have a hyperactive 6-year-old of your own.)
The actor behind Fred, named Lucas, is probably going to be the next Andy Samberg (who made it to SNL through his Web videos). Or not. Judge his success by this: Fred's already doing commercials. The folks behind the Zipit Z2 Wi-Fi device for instant messaging and music playing, have built an entire site around Fred videos ("fredisodes") to feature his copious use of the device. Kids can send the annoying squirt's videos to parents, to let him beg for a Zipit on their behalf.
Fred's using the Zipit in his YouTube videos as well. I really like his whining in one that he paid more for his Zipit than his nemesis Kevin, because the price just dropped to $49.95. This comes in-between Fred's usual screams and yelling, the kind all parents are probably used to.
Fred's the brainchild of three teenage cousins (including Lucas) under the name JKL Productions. They launched their YouTube channel a couple of years ago by lip-syncing to a Hannah Montana tune after Lucas got a video camera for his birthday. It's obvious they've pushed their craft of online sketch videos from juvenile to professional enough (or just funny enough) to get an endorsement deal. It's the new American dream, come true.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Nikon Capture NX 2 Image Editing Software Available
Nikon announced that Capture NX 2 image editing software is now available at authorized Nikon dealers and through the Nikon Mall online store.
Capture NX 2 (Mac and PC compatible) is designed for photography enthusiasts and provides powerful tools "operated by simple yet visually intuitive controls" for easier photo processing. Capture NX 2 utilizes U Point technology to give photographers access to Control Points that enhance color, exposure, and other image quality settings quickly and easily.
NX 2 works with JPEG, TIFF, and RAW files. The company claims it has a minimal learning curve and that users will experience simplified image browsing, selection and labeling and improved batch-processing capabilities.
A 60-day free trial is available at Capture NX's Web site. It's also available at the Nikon Mall. List price is $109.95 to upgrade from Version 1 or $179.95 for the full version.
Capture NX 2 (Mac and PC compatible) is designed for photography enthusiasts and provides powerful tools "operated by simple yet visually intuitive controls" for easier photo processing. Capture NX 2 utilizes U Point technology to give photographers access to Control Points that enhance color, exposure, and other image quality settings quickly and easily.
NX 2 works with JPEG, TIFF, and RAW files. The company claims it has a minimal learning curve and that users will experience simplified image browsing, selection and labeling and improved batch-processing capabilities.
A 60-day free trial is available at Capture NX's Web site. It's also available at the Nikon Mall. List price is $109.95 to upgrade from Version 1 or $179.95 for the full version.
Un-Block Startup Programs in Vista
Q: I downloaded and installed the latest rendition of Startup Cop Pro from PC Magazine. It works great but I am not happy with the way it interfaces with Windows Vista. I always get the bubble stating that Windows has blocked some programs from starting. The only program that is blocked is Startup Cop Pro. I have not been able to find any way to authorize this program to run without my intervention each time I start the computer. Is there a way to add it to an authorized list or does the author of the program have to create it as an authorized Windows Vista program? It would be great if the end user could modify the authorized list but I cannot find such a reference at the Microsoft site. - Gordon Gipson.
A: I recently answered a question about how to prevent that "blocked some programs" balloon when it's caused by using MSCONFIG. In that case the solution is simple - you manually let MSCONFIG run once so that you can tell it to stop trying. Startup Cop Pro is another story entirely. It's a program that must run at startup but that requires User Account Control authorization to proceed. For security, Vista just won't let such a program launch from any of the standard startup locations. So what can you do?
The solution lies in scheduling a task that runs at startup. You might think Vista would block this too, but there's a reason it doesn't. Any process can tweak the standard startup locations without triggering UAC, so those locations are considered dangerous. But launching Task Scheduler requires UAC confirmation, and thus Vista trusts scheduled tasks. Here's what you do:
Click the Start orb and enter Task Scheduler
Enter an Administrator password or click Confirm as required by UAC
Click the Create Task link (not Create Basic Task)
On the general tab name the task Startup Cop Pro
Select a user account that has Administrator privileges
Check the option "Run only when user is logged on"
Check the box "Run with highest privileges"
Click the Triggers tab and click the New button
Select "At log on" from the drop-down list at the top
Check the "Any user" option
At the bottom under Advanced Settings check the Enabled box and click OK
Click the Actions tab and click the New button
Click Browse and locate
In the "Add arguments" box enter /Startup
Click the Settings tab
Check the box "Run task as soon as possible after a scheduled start is missed"
Uncheck the box "Stop the task if it runs longer than:"
Click OK, OK
Whew! Now launch Startup Cop Pro, click Settings, and uncheck the "Run Startup Cop Pro at startup" box. When you reboot Startup Cop Pro will launch at startup with no gripes from Vista. Of course you can apply this technique to any program that's blocked from ordinary startup by Vista's UAC. - Neil J. Rubenking.
A: I recently answered a question about how to prevent that "blocked some programs" balloon when it's caused by using MSCONFIG. In that case the solution is simple - you manually let MSCONFIG run once so that you can tell it to stop trying. Startup Cop Pro is another story entirely. It's a program that must run at startup but that requires User Account Control authorization to proceed. For security, Vista just won't let such a program launch from any of the standard startup locations. So what can you do?
The solution lies in scheduling a task that runs at startup. You might think Vista would block this too, but there's a reason it doesn't. Any process can tweak the standard startup locations without triggering UAC, so those locations are considered dangerous. But launching Task Scheduler requires UAC confirmation, and thus Vista trusts scheduled tasks. Here's what you do:
Click the Start orb and enter Task Scheduler
Enter an Administrator password or click Confirm as required by UAC
Click the Create Task link (not Create Basic Task)
On the general tab name the task Startup Cop Pro
Select a user account that has Administrator privileges
Check the option "Run only when user is logged on"
Check the box "Run with highest privileges"
Click the Triggers tab and click the New button
Select "At log on" from the drop-down list at the top
Check the "Any user" option
At the bottom under Advanced Settings check the Enabled box and click OK
Click the Actions tab and click the New button
Click Browse and locate
In the "Add arguments" box enter /Startup
Click the Settings tab
Check the box "Run task as soon as possible after a scheduled start is missed"
Uncheck the box "Stop the task if it runs longer than:"
Click OK, OK
Whew! Now launch Startup Cop Pro, click Settings, and uncheck the "Run Startup Cop Pro at startup" box. When you reboot Startup Cop Pro will launch at startup with no gripes from Vista. Of course you can apply this technique to any program that's blocked from ordinary startup by Vista's UAC. - Neil J. Rubenking.
Facebook Overtakes Myspace In Global Views
According to numbers recently issued by Web metrics firm ComScore, MySpace no longer has the edge in global views. Last month saw Facebook pull ahead of News Corp.-owned MySpace, racking up 123.9 million unique visits and 50.6 billion page views, versus MySpace's 114.6 million visits and 45.4 billion page views, according to CNET's The Social blog.
The above image speaks volumes about the two sites. Facebook has seen a steady increase in users since the site first opened its doors beyond college campuses back in October, 2006. MySpace, meanwhile (at least according to ComScore), has seemingly plateaued in the past year, due no doubt in large part to Facebook's runaway success. This trend will likely only increase in the near future, thanks to Facebook's embracing of "the world's biggest market," China.
The above image speaks volumes about the two sites. Facebook has seen a steady increase in users since the site first opened its doors beyond college campuses back in October, 2006. MySpace, meanwhile (at least according to ComScore), has seemingly plateaued in the past year, due no doubt in large part to Facebook's runaway success. This trend will likely only increase in the near future, thanks to Facebook's embracing of "the world's biggest market," China.
Google Launches Web Traffic Search
In the Web game, it's all about traffic numbers, and as such, there are no shortage of sites devoted to measuring such metrics. As Download Squad aptly points out, however given limited or no access to server data tends to put such sites in a difficult position, and as such, it's impossible to know just how accurate their results are. However, when Google enters the proceedings, people will have to sit up and take notice.
The company recently added a feature that lets users search for Web sites on their Google Trends page. Apparently the site gets its metrics though search engine traffic, third party marketing numbers, and "anonymous Google Analytics figures."
The company recently added a feature that lets users search for Web sites on their Google Trends page. Apparently the site gets its metrics though search engine traffic, third party marketing numbers, and "anonymous Google Analytics figures."
Hands On: One Hundred Push Ups
It seems the best websites are those online for a purpose. In this case, it's Steve Speirs and his "One Hundred Push Ups" site, trying to give a little Internet love back. Steve had completed an exercise plan from a long since abandoned website, leaving him fit enough to do 100 push ups. He wrote about his progress in his blog and then forgot about it.
With the original site gone and Steve's site now being the only reference, people started turning to him. "I started receiving multiple emails asking if I had copies of weeks 5 and 6 of the plan. Luckily I had a few Word docs saved locally and was able to reply to all the requests. I attempted to contact the original web site's owner to find out what happened to the site, but never heard anything back. " With an obvious need, Steve put up his own site.
In this case, Steve's giving instructions for a fitness plan he's already tried successfully. "I really liked the simplicity of the plan, the progressive nature of the workouts and of course the end result of being able to do one hundred consecutive push ups." Me too.
Recently, I've taken to hiking a local (small) mountain. It was during a 'runner's high' moment (what sad shape am I in, if I can get a runner's high from walking) that I decided to add this push up goal. Last night I began my own quest for 100 push ups. In the pre-rest which determines your original level of fitness, I managed seven push ups. It's understandable. I'm middle aged and spend most of my waking hours sitting. Today, I'm really sore. But, I've also gotten one step closer to my six week goal.
The plan shows you how many push ups to do, three days a week. My first session was 7, 7, 5, 4 with sixty seconds between each set. At the end, I did as many additional as I could - four. It's a start.
Will I get to 100 in six short weeks? That would be very cool. No, it would be more than cool. It would be amazing.
With the original site gone and Steve's site now being the only reference, people started turning to him. "I started receiving multiple emails asking if I had copies of weeks 5 and 6 of the plan. Luckily I had a few Word docs saved locally and was able to reply to all the requests. I attempted to contact the original web site's owner to find out what happened to the site, but never heard anything back. " With an obvious need, Steve put up his own site.
In this case, Steve's giving instructions for a fitness plan he's already tried successfully. "I really liked the simplicity of the plan, the progressive nature of the workouts and of course the end result of being able to do one hundred consecutive push ups." Me too.
Recently, I've taken to hiking a local (small) mountain. It was during a 'runner's high' moment (what sad shape am I in, if I can get a runner's high from walking) that I decided to add this push up goal. Last night I began my own quest for 100 push ups. In the pre-rest which determines your original level of fitness, I managed seven push ups. It's understandable. I'm middle aged and spend most of my waking hours sitting. Today, I'm really sore. But, I've also gotten one step closer to my six week goal.
The plan shows you how many push ups to do, three days a week. My first session was 7, 7, 5, 4 with sixty seconds between each set. At the end, I did as many additional as I could - four. It's a start.
Will I get to 100 in six short weeks? That would be very cool. No, it would be more than cool. It would be amazing.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Fandango Buys Movies.com
Fandango announced today that the ticket purchasing hub has acquired the formerly Disney-owned film site, Movies.com.
"We are pleased to expand our rich entertainment reach through this strategic addition of Movies.com," said Fandango CEO, Chuck Davis, of the move. "We'll be able to leverage our combined assets to offer millions of new moviegoers the best movie-related information available on the Web."
Both sites initially launched in 2000. In the subsequent years, Fandango branched out, receiving some 6.3 million unique visitors a month. Movies.com's success, meanwhile, has been a bit more incremental, with some 1.9 uniques a month. According to a release issued by Fandango, "There is little duplication between the audiences of the two sites."
Ticketing services for Movies.com will now be handled by Fandango.
"We are pleased to expand our rich entertainment reach through this strategic addition of Movies.com," said Fandango CEO, Chuck Davis, of the move. "We'll be able to leverage our combined assets to offer millions of new moviegoers the best movie-related information available on the Web."
Both sites initially launched in 2000. In the subsequent years, Fandango branched out, receiving some 6.3 million unique visitors a month. Movies.com's success, meanwhile, has been a bit more incremental, with some 1.9 uniques a month. According to a release issued by Fandango, "There is little duplication between the audiences of the two sites."
Ticketing services for Movies.com will now be handled by Fandango.
Nokia Buys Mobile App Plazes
Leading handset manufacturer Nokia announced today plans to acquire Plazes, a Berlin-based "social-activity service." Launched nearly three years ago, Plazes is a mobile location-based service that lets users plan, document, and share social events with friends and family, tagging activities with a specific place and time.
"This acquisition helps Nokia to accelerate its vision of bringing people and places closer together, in line with our broader services strategy," said Nokia's head of services and software. "In addition to the key assets, through this acquisition Nokia will bring on a visionary team with an advanced understanding of social-activity services, as well as the technical ability to further develop this area."
Nokia's purchase of the 13-person German company is expected to close sometime in the third-quarter of 2008, at which point Plazes will be folded into Nokia's Services and Software division.
"This acquisition helps Nokia to accelerate its vision of bringing people and places closer together, in line with our broader services strategy," said Nokia's head of services and software. "In addition to the key assets, through this acquisition Nokia will bring on a visionary team with an advanced understanding of social-activity services, as well as the technical ability to further develop this area."
Nokia's purchase of the 13-person German company is expected to close sometime in the third-quarter of 2008, at which point Plazes will be folded into Nokia's Services and Software division.
Earth Album Mashes Google and Flickr to Show You the World
If you've ever wanted to see Mongolia but couldn't find the time, or you're stuck in a cubicle and dreaming of your trip to Fiji, Earth Album wants to help. The service is deceptively simple, but it's one of the coolest Google Maps and Flickr mashups I've seen. Simply drag the map around like any other Google Map, and as you click on locations around the world, photos from Flickr tagged with that location's name are displayed over the map.
Virtually every part of the world is represented at Earth Album. The service is great for the occasional desktop vacation, when boring cubicle walls just aren't enough to keep you inspired, or if you're curious about what a certain part of the world or its people look like. The map behaves like any other Google Map, you can click and drag the map around or use the directional buttons in the upper-left corner of the map. Zoom in and out on the map by using the mouse wheel or the controls on the map.
When you find a location you're interested in, simply click on its name on the map, and a stream of Flickr photos tagged with that country, city, or region will appear on the screen. Click on any one of them to see a larger version of the photo and to read the caption the user added when he or she uploaded the photo to Flickr. If you're looking for a specific place, you can click the link at the top of the screen to "find a place" and a search box will appear on the screen. Type in your destination, and the map will jump to any place in the world, and display photos tagged with that location.
The beauty of Earth Album is that you really do get a feeling for how big the world is by scrolling around and seeing all of the different places but you also get a feeling for how personal it is to the people who live in or visit those same places. You can click on areas of the planet, no matter how remote, and find photographs from that location, even if those photographs are of wildlife or rolling landscapes. Additionally, you can let the service bring up photos from your area by clicking the "find yourself" link at the top of the page.
For those days when cubicle walls get you down and the commute home doesn't scratch that itch to see the world, Earth Album can take you anywhere in the world. From entire countries to tiny cities and towns, all it takes is a few clicks to show photos from almost any part of the planet.
Virtually every part of the world is represented at Earth Album. The service is great for the occasional desktop vacation, when boring cubicle walls just aren't enough to keep you inspired, or if you're curious about what a certain part of the world or its people look like. The map behaves like any other Google Map, you can click and drag the map around or use the directional buttons in the upper-left corner of the map. Zoom in and out on the map by using the mouse wheel or the controls on the map.
When you find a location you're interested in, simply click on its name on the map, and a stream of Flickr photos tagged with that country, city, or region will appear on the screen. Click on any one of them to see a larger version of the photo and to read the caption the user added when he or she uploaded the photo to Flickr. If you're looking for a specific place, you can click the link at the top of the screen to "find a place" and a search box will appear on the screen. Type in your destination, and the map will jump to any place in the world, and display photos tagged with that location.
The beauty of Earth Album is that you really do get a feeling for how big the world is by scrolling around and seeing all of the different places but you also get a feeling for how personal it is to the people who live in or visit those same places. You can click on areas of the planet, no matter how remote, and find photographs from that location, even if those photographs are of wildlife or rolling landscapes. Additionally, you can let the service bring up photos from your area by clicking the "find yourself" link at the top of the page.
For those days when cubicle walls get you down and the commute home doesn't scratch that itch to see the world, Earth Album can take you anywhere in the world. From entire countries to tiny cities and towns, all it takes is a few clicks to show photos from almost any part of the planet.
Take a Trip to Malware City
"There are eight million stories in Malware City...". Well, not yet, but BitDefender's new free resource at www.malwarecity.com really tries to grab visitor interest with a gritty film noir style. Black-and-white images, scuffed and worn-looking headings, and an invitation to "join our army" (that is, subscribe to the newsletter) greet visitors to the site. The content isn't vastly different from what's offered by informational sites from other vendors, but the approach is engaging.
In Malware City, you can check the threat level (currently at 75%), view an interactive virus map (is Canada really 99.06% infected?), and run a free online virus scanner that will clean up any mess it finds. Blog posts report on topics of interest such as rogue security software and phishing. The site reports security-related news, and it's not all BitDefender-centric--I noticed articles about TrendMicro, McAfee and Symantec on the main page. Everywhere you go, whether ito blogs, news pages, or the online dictionary of security terms, the smudged, rough user interface lets you know you're in Malware City.
The site is totally ready for a huge spike in popularity. Its Fan Zone is already popping with themed wallpapers as well as buttons, banners, and bars that fans can use to decorate their web sites. Whether or not it becomes a popular destination, Malware City should prove to be a useful resource for news and information about malware, and there's always that handy free scan. The city opens today; take a look.
In Malware City, you can check the threat level (currently at 75%), view an interactive virus map (is Canada really 99.06% infected?), and run a free online virus scanner that will clean up any mess it finds. Blog posts report on topics of interest such as rogue security software and phishing. The site reports security-related news, and it's not all BitDefender-centric--I noticed articles about TrendMicro, McAfee and Symantec on the main page. Everywhere you go, whether ito blogs, news pages, or the online dictionary of security terms, the smudged, rough user interface lets you know you're in Malware City.
The site is totally ready for a huge spike in popularity. Its Fan Zone is already popping with themed wallpapers as well as buttons, banners, and bars that fans can use to decorate their web sites. Whether or not it becomes a popular destination, Malware City should prove to be a useful resource for news and information about malware, and there's always that handy free scan. The city opens today; take a look.
Twitter Spy Lets You See What People Are Tweeting Right Now
Thousands of people are posting new messages to Twitter every moment, and depending on how many people you're following, you might get more messages than you bargained for. Even so, what makes blogging fun is the ability to peek into the lives of other people.
Twitter Spy gives you a window into what people around the world are posting on Twitter right now. The site updates automatically as new Twitter messages are posted, and a Google Map at the top of the page displays the country from where the message originated with every refresh.
Twitter Spy reminds me a bit of Twistori, another service that updates itself automatically as new Twitter posts come in. The difference is that where Twistori is an experiment in how people use Twitter to express their loves, their wishes, and their beliefs, Twitter Spy makes no such distinction about the types of messages it displays. The site displays the Twitter public feed in real-time and lets you see instantly every message that is posted and where the poster is from on a map.
Perhaps what's most remarkable about Twitter Spy is that it smashes any notion that Twitter and obsessive micro-blogging is somehow an American pastime. In a short sitting, I saw everyone from professionals in the US complaining about their work days, teenagers in Argentina sharing the latest in their lives, a blogger in Portugal confess his blogcrush for another blogger in the US, even a news agency in Sapporo, Japan, posting its headlines to its Twitter account.
If you find an author you know or like, you can pause the feed and start it again whenever, or you can filter the feed for a specific user, country, or even number of followers to get certain kinds of tweets.
Granted, the majority of the messages you'll see at Twitter Spy are the types that you would expect from Twitter: what people are planning for dinner, where they are right now, what movie they're going to see tonight, poorly worded political proclamations, and responses to previous tweets by friends. Even so, it's fascinating to sit and watch all of that information stream by as it's posted in real time and watch the map move from country to country as new messages appear.
Twitter Spy gives you a window into what people around the world are posting on Twitter right now. The site updates automatically as new Twitter messages are posted, and a Google Map at the top of the page displays the country from where the message originated with every refresh.
Twitter Spy reminds me a bit of Twistori, another service that updates itself automatically as new Twitter posts come in. The difference is that where Twistori is an experiment in how people use Twitter to express their loves, their wishes, and their beliefs, Twitter Spy makes no such distinction about the types of messages it displays. The site displays the Twitter public feed in real-time and lets you see instantly every message that is posted and where the poster is from on a map.
Perhaps what's most remarkable about Twitter Spy is that it smashes any notion that Twitter and obsessive micro-blogging is somehow an American pastime. In a short sitting, I saw everyone from professionals in the US complaining about their work days, teenagers in Argentina sharing the latest in their lives, a blogger in Portugal confess his blogcrush for another blogger in the US, even a news agency in Sapporo, Japan, posting its headlines to its Twitter account.
If you find an author you know or like, you can pause the feed and start it again whenever, or you can filter the feed for a specific user, country, or even number of followers to get certain kinds of tweets.
Granted, the majority of the messages you'll see at Twitter Spy are the types that you would expect from Twitter: what people are planning for dinner, where they are right now, what movie they're going to see tonight, poorly worded political proclamations, and responses to previous tweets by friends. Even so, it's fascinating to sit and watch all of that information stream by as it's posted in real time and watch the map move from country to country as new messages appear.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Almost 70 Artists Tapped to Create iGoogle Themes
Google today is launching a series of new themes for the iGoogle personalized homepage. The collection is the result of collaborations with nearly 70 different artists from across the globe. Google is commemorating the occasion with a "Google doodle" on the search homepage designed by Jeff Koons.
The long list of participants includes artists from the world of design, fashion, and music, including Coldplay , Oscar de la Renta , Dolce
The long list of participants includes artists from the world of design, fashion, and music, including Coldplay , Oscar de la Renta , Dolce
EFF Demands Refunds for Invalid MSN Music Store Purchases
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) on Tuesday demanded that Microsoft issue refunds for MSN Music Store purchases that will be inaccessible after Microsoft deletes the music store servers this summer.
Microsoft announced last week that as of August 31, the company will delete its MSN Music license servers, so music purchased from the now-defunct MSN Music Store will be accessible only via the five computers you authorized to play the tunes.
Customers can apparently burn their purchased music to CDs and upload that to their new computers, but EFF says that is "woefully insufficient to redress the problem."
"Microsoft is asking its customers to invest more time, labor, and money in order to continue to enjoy the music for which they have already paid," Shari Steele, EFF executive director, wrote in a letter to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
Steele called on Ballmer to formally apologize to customers affected by the change. Customers should also be offered a refund for music purchased, or replacements from an online store that offers the same tracks in a DRM-free format, she wrote.
She also requested that Microsoft provide customers with proof of purchase, work with industry partners to eliminate DRM from the Zune music catalog, and widely publicize its efforts "so that Microsoft customers know their options."
Microsoft general manager Rob Bennett told CNet last week that continued support for Music Store purchases was impractical, and that the focus should instead be placed on the Zune. "No one ever foresaw being in this situation," Bennett said.
EFF was skeptical. "The situation was easily foreseeable when Microsoft shut down the MSN Music Store back in 2006," Steele wrote.
Microsoft launched the MSN Music Store in September, 2004, in an effort to compete with Apple's iTunes, but it never made much of a dent in iTunes' business. Two years later, Microsoft started redirecting MSN Music Store shoppers to the Zune Marketplace.
Microsoft announced last week that as of August 31, the company will delete its MSN Music license servers, so music purchased from the now-defunct MSN Music Store will be accessible only via the five computers you authorized to play the tunes.
Customers can apparently burn their purchased music to CDs and upload that to their new computers, but EFF says that is "woefully insufficient to redress the problem."
"Microsoft is asking its customers to invest more time, labor, and money in order to continue to enjoy the music for which they have already paid," Shari Steele, EFF executive director, wrote in a letter to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
Steele called on Ballmer to formally apologize to customers affected by the change. Customers should also be offered a refund for music purchased, or replacements from an online store that offers the same tracks in a DRM-free format, she wrote.
She also requested that Microsoft provide customers with proof of purchase, work with industry partners to eliminate DRM from the Zune music catalog, and widely publicize its efforts "so that Microsoft customers know their options."
Microsoft general manager Rob Bennett told CNet last week that continued support for Music Store purchases was impractical, and that the focus should instead be placed on the Zune. "No one ever foresaw being in this situation," Bennett said.
EFF was skeptical. "The situation was easily foreseeable when Microsoft shut down the MSN Music Store back in 2006," Steele wrote.
Microsoft launched the MSN Music Store in September, 2004, in an effort to compete with Apple's iTunes, but it never made much of a dent in iTunes' business. Two years later, Microsoft started redirecting MSN Music Store shoppers to the Zune Marketplace.
12th Annual Webby Award Nominees Announced
The Webby Awards announced this morning the nominees for their 12th annual awards ceremony, in the Website, video, and blog categories. Celebrating their own five-word acceptance speech limit (the sort of brevity to which we wish the rest of the world's countless award ceremonies would adhere), the announcement ushered in the nominees with the Web 2.0-friendly tagline, "more power to the people."
Among the more notable nominees this year are, "I Got a Crush on Obama," "Swift Kids for Truth," The Guardian's Comment is Free, The Huffington Post, Eyes on Darfur, and MAPLight. A full list of the nominees, along with a categorical breakdown (more than 100 in all) can be found over at the Webby Awards' official site.
"This year more than ever, we've really begun to see the Internet live up to ts early promise of empowering people," said the awards' executive director, David-Michel Davies. "Many of this year's nominees are taking politics and advocacy to an entirely new level, making it more fun, meaningful, and exciting than ever before."
The awards have also opened up voting to users. Beginning today and running through May, users can vote on the awards here. The winners will be announced on May 6th in New York. The film and video awards will be held on June 9th.
Kyle and I attended last year's ceremonies. Check out our coverage here and here.
Among the more notable nominees this year are, "I Got a Crush on Obama," "Swift Kids for Truth," The Guardian's Comment is Free, The Huffington Post, Eyes on Darfur, and MAPLight. A full list of the nominees, along with a categorical breakdown (more than 100 in all) can be found over at the Webby Awards' official site.
"This year more than ever, we've really begun to see the Internet live up to ts early promise of empowering people," said the awards' executive director, David-Michel Davies. "Many of this year's nominees are taking politics and advocacy to an entirely new level, making it more fun, meaningful, and exciting than ever before."
The awards have also opened up voting to users. Beginning today and running through May, users can vote on the awards here. The winners will be announced on May 6th in New York. The film and video awards will be held on June 9th.
Kyle and I attended last year's ceremonies. Check out our coverage here and here.
Webby Party Celebrates People's Voice Awards: Vote Now!
It's been a long journey, and it's almost over: The 12th annual Webby Awards nominees were announced April 8, and online voting for the People's Voice Awards was launched the same day. Voting for the "Oscars of the Internet" ends tomorrow, and to celebrate the entire affair, sponsor Nokia hosted a party at its store on 57th St. and 5th Ave. in New York last night.
Voting closes tomorrow, so this is your last chance to weigh in before winners are announced on May 6th. You have to register to vote. Four main groupings--Websites, Interactive Advertising, Online Film
Voting closes tomorrow, so this is your last chance to weigh in before winners are announced on May 6th. You have to register to vote. Four main groupings--Websites, Interactive Advertising, Online Film
Web Histories Playing Larger Role in Divorce Proceedings
Lipstick on the collar? One too many late nights at the office? Internet browsing histories?
Divorce lawyers are seeing an increase in the number of cases that cite Web logs as evidence, according to the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.
About 79-percent of divorce attorneys polled by the Academy reported an increase in the number of cases using Internet browsing histories during divorce proceedings in the past five years, while 44-percent cited an increase in the use of spyware to gather evidence.
"Many spouses will use the Internet in order to act anonymously, but in many ways it's the most public thing someone can do," James Hennenhoefer, president of the AAML, said in a statement. "Internet activity can provide valuable glimpses into the kinds of hidden activities that a husband or wife might be trying to conceal and spyware programs can help to make this kind of monitoring extremely easy to conduct."
Evidently, typing things like "how to cheat without getting caught" into Google, signing yourself up for a marriedbutlooking.com account, or writing up one too many "casual encounters" posts on Craigslist is not advisable if you'd prefer to emerge from divorce court with your bank account intact.
Think about that when you're taking advantage of the open bar at your friends' weddings this summer. Forget the blenders and the Williams Sonoma gift cards. It's all about the tracking software. Ah, romance.
Divorce lawyers are seeing an increase in the number of cases that cite Web logs as evidence, according to the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.
About 79-percent of divorce attorneys polled by the Academy reported an increase in the number of cases using Internet browsing histories during divorce proceedings in the past five years, while 44-percent cited an increase in the use of spyware to gather evidence.
"Many spouses will use the Internet in order to act anonymously, but in many ways it's the most public thing someone can do," James Hennenhoefer, president of the AAML, said in a statement. "Internet activity can provide valuable glimpses into the kinds of hidden activities that a husband or wife might be trying to conceal and spyware programs can help to make this kind of monitoring extremely easy to conduct."
Evidently, typing things like "how to cheat without getting caught" into Google, signing yourself up for a marriedbutlooking.com account, or writing up one too many "casual encounters" posts on Craigslist is not advisable if you'd prefer to emerge from divorce court with your bank account intact.
Think about that when you're taking advantage of the open bar at your friends' weddings this summer. Forget the blenders and the Williams Sonoma gift cards. It's all about the tracking software. Ah, romance.
May Day Boycott Looming, EBay Revises Impact of 'Bug'
The extended eBay boycott that concluded Sunday will not be the last hurrah for sellers angry about recent policy changes. Organizers are gearing up for a May Day strike of the online auction site.
"We have picked the date of May 1 [because] it gives us time to organize and spread the word, [and] it coincides with the month the new feedback changes go into effect," Mary Killion, a seller who has been organizing boycott efforts through eBay's forums, wrote in a recent post. "And personally, I always think of May as the month when things really begin to grow."
eBay sellers large and small have pledged not to list, buy, or peruse any of eBay's listings during the open-ended event. But while sellers are eager to participate in the strike, many are doubtful that their actions will result in eBay changing its policies.
"I'm afraid that if they do reverse the current changes, they will just find another way to slap us in the face," said Sandra Campbell, a power seller who was with eBay since its inception, but has since defected to other online auction sites.
"Do I think the situation will change? Honestly I don't, because I think the goal of eBay management this time is to fundamentally change the nature of the site, making it more a retail mall of homogeneous goods than an antique market or (heaven forbid) a flea-market," wrote Lillian Bauer, a seller since 1998 who shut down her eBay store last week.
appscout973:http://www.appscout.com/2008/03/may_day_boycott_looming_ebay_revises_impact_of_bug.php#more
At issue are policy changes that went into effect on February 20. Though the site decreased listing prices and made certain offerings free of charge, they also stripped sellers of the right to leave feedback, and increased the percentage of the final sale that goes to eBay.
Annoyed sellers revolted and called on sellers to boycott the site during the week of February 18. They later extended that strike to March 9.
Boycott results have been difficult to quantify, however. The sellers pushing for eBay strikes have organized themselves through online petitions, MySpace pages, Facebook groups, and eBay forum postings, but appear to currently lack a cohesive strategy that would best be able to battle an e-commerce giant like eBay.
Killion wrote in the forums that her group is in the process of choosing state leaders who will handle media contacts and news distribution.
Organizers have not had much luck negotiating with eBay.
"It would be my pleasure to discuss all of these issues with eBay," said Timothy Church, a former seller who is running the Boycott EBay MySpace page. "Currently, however, eBay has made it very clear to me they are not interested in negotiating."
eBay has been relatively unfazed by the boycotts. Though auction statistic Web sites reported a 13 percent drop in eBay listings during the first week of the boycott, eBay brushed off those stats and said they failed to take into account a 20-cent listings promotion that caused a spike in pre-boycott listings.
This is not the first time eBay has faced an angry community of sellers. The site has implemented several changes over the past few years, including 2005 and 2006 rate hikes that also prompted seller boycotts.
Sellers were not as irked by those changes as they are about the most recent overhaul.
"We didn't have a problem with the rate increases in 2006," said Ilene Rachford, an eBay seller since 2000 who recently moved her business to Neoloch. "It was just the cost of doing business. And we feel the same way about the new increases."
"What we absolutely cannot abide by is the new feedback rule," she continued. "This is completely, totally unfair and will destroy sellers in an instant. Now sellers will be open to feedback extortion, more unpaid items, buying scams and a host of other problems, simply because the buyer 'can'... and the seller has no recourse."
"What eBay fails to realize is that their sellers were also buyers," Rachford said. "Chasing them away makes that a double whammy."
Occasional powerseller Linda Adler said she sent a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission "charging eBay with fraudulent practices, restraint of trade, and operating a vertical monopoly thought PayPal and eBay."
FTC complaints are non-public, so the agency was unable to provide information on how many eBay-related filings it may have received.
Sellers thought they had narrowed in on one such fraudulent practice last week when listings from eBay-owned shopping.com popped up on ebay.com.
eBay admitted that shopping.com listings were accidentally placed on eBay, but denied that the move was intended to pad listing numbers during the boycott. Instead, a glitch related to the gallery function had resulted in shopping.com posts showing up on eBay, according to a spokesman.
An eBay spokesman told PC Magazine at the time that 5,000 shopping.com listings were erroneously placed on ebay.com. After sellers expressed doubt about that number in the comments section, eBay was asked to again confirm that it was indeed 5,000. The same spokesman responded Friday that he had originally told PC Magazine that eBay pulled 35,000 listings, but a review of the interview confirmed that he said 5,000.
Sellers were also up in arms over deleted eBay forum posts. The auction site reserves the right to delete posts it deems inappropriate, but some sellers said their posts were deleted simply because they criticized eBay.
One deleted post obtained by PC Magazine called eBay a monopoly and attacked another user as "stupid" and a "sucker." Another sarcastically called people "crackheads" and called another user dumb for believing "eBay-speak."
In deleting these posts, eBay cited its rule that bans profanity, vulgarity, hate speech, disruptive, or hostile comments, interpersonal disputes, or threats of violence on its boards.
Another deleted comment called on users to joint the SUBAT Fight FeeBay boycott. It did not contain obscene language, but referred to eBay as a tyrant and pledged to "give them a war."
When asked about deleted posts, an eBay spokesman denied last week that comments were pulled down strictly for being anti-eBay. If any such posts were deleted, it was "accidental," he said. "We're not afraid of hearing from our community and allowing them to post and discuss things and be angry on our boards."
Editor's Note: The eBay spokesman confirmed Monday that the number of postings pulled from shopping.com was indeed 35,000.
"We have picked the date of May 1 [because] it gives us time to organize and spread the word, [and] it coincides with the month the new feedback changes go into effect," Mary Killion, a seller who has been organizing boycott efforts through eBay's forums, wrote in a recent post. "And personally, I always think of May as the month when things really begin to grow."
eBay sellers large and small have pledged not to list, buy, or peruse any of eBay's listings during the open-ended event. But while sellers are eager to participate in the strike, many are doubtful that their actions will result in eBay changing its policies.
"I'm afraid that if they do reverse the current changes, they will just find another way to slap us in the face," said Sandra Campbell, a power seller who was with eBay since its inception, but has since defected to other online auction sites.
"Do I think the situation will change? Honestly I don't, because I think the goal of eBay management this time is to fundamentally change the nature of the site, making it more a retail mall of homogeneous goods than an antique market or (heaven forbid) a flea-market," wrote Lillian Bauer, a seller since 1998 who shut down her eBay store last week.
appscout973:http://www.appscout.com/2008/03/may_day_boycott_looming_ebay_revises_impact_of_bug.php#more
At issue are policy changes that went into effect on February 20. Though the site decreased listing prices and made certain offerings free of charge, they also stripped sellers of the right to leave feedback, and increased the percentage of the final sale that goes to eBay.
Annoyed sellers revolted and called on sellers to boycott the site during the week of February 18. They later extended that strike to March 9.
Boycott results have been difficult to quantify, however. The sellers pushing for eBay strikes have organized themselves through online petitions, MySpace pages, Facebook groups, and eBay forum postings, but appear to currently lack a cohesive strategy that would best be able to battle an e-commerce giant like eBay.
Killion wrote in the forums that her group is in the process of choosing state leaders who will handle media contacts and news distribution.
Organizers have not had much luck negotiating with eBay.
"It would be my pleasure to discuss all of these issues with eBay," said Timothy Church, a former seller who is running the Boycott EBay MySpace page. "Currently, however, eBay has made it very clear to me they are not interested in negotiating."
eBay has been relatively unfazed by the boycotts. Though auction statistic Web sites reported a 13 percent drop in eBay listings during the first week of the boycott, eBay brushed off those stats and said they failed to take into account a 20-cent listings promotion that caused a spike in pre-boycott listings.
This is not the first time eBay has faced an angry community of sellers. The site has implemented several changes over the past few years, including 2005 and 2006 rate hikes that also prompted seller boycotts.
Sellers were not as irked by those changes as they are about the most recent overhaul.
"We didn't have a problem with the rate increases in 2006," said Ilene Rachford, an eBay seller since 2000 who recently moved her business to Neoloch. "It was just the cost of doing business. And we feel the same way about the new increases."
"What we absolutely cannot abide by is the new feedback rule," she continued. "This is completely, totally unfair and will destroy sellers in an instant. Now sellers will be open to feedback extortion, more unpaid items, buying scams and a host of other problems, simply because the buyer 'can'... and the seller has no recourse."
"What eBay fails to realize is that their sellers were also buyers," Rachford said. "Chasing them away makes that a double whammy."
Occasional powerseller Linda Adler said she sent a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission "charging eBay with fraudulent practices, restraint of trade, and operating a vertical monopoly thought PayPal and eBay."
FTC complaints are non-public, so the agency was unable to provide information on how many eBay-related filings it may have received.
Sellers thought they had narrowed in on one such fraudulent practice last week when listings from eBay-owned shopping.com popped up on ebay.com.
eBay admitted that shopping.com listings were accidentally placed on eBay, but denied that the move was intended to pad listing numbers during the boycott. Instead, a glitch related to the gallery function had resulted in shopping.com posts showing up on eBay, according to a spokesman.
An eBay spokesman told PC Magazine at the time that 5,000 shopping.com listings were erroneously placed on ebay.com. After sellers expressed doubt about that number in the comments section, eBay was asked to again confirm that it was indeed 5,000. The same spokesman responded Friday that he had originally told PC Magazine that eBay pulled 35,000 listings, but a review of the interview confirmed that he said 5,000.
Sellers were also up in arms over deleted eBay forum posts. The auction site reserves the right to delete posts it deems inappropriate, but some sellers said their posts were deleted simply because they criticized eBay.
One deleted post obtained by PC Magazine called eBay a monopoly and attacked another user as "stupid" and a "sucker." Another sarcastically called people "crackheads" and called another user dumb for believing "eBay-speak."
In deleting these posts, eBay cited its rule that bans profanity, vulgarity, hate speech, disruptive, or hostile comments, interpersonal disputes, or threats of violence on its boards.
Another deleted comment called on users to joint the SUBAT Fight FeeBay boycott. It did not contain obscene language, but referred to eBay as a tyrant and pledged to "give them a war."
When asked about deleted posts, an eBay spokesman denied last week that comments were pulled down strictly for being anti-eBay. If any such posts were deleted, it was "accidental," he said. "We're not afraid of hearing from our community and allowing them to post and discuss things and be angry on our boards."
Editor's Note: The eBay spokesman confirmed Monday that the number of postings pulled from shopping.com was indeed 35,000.
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