Sunday, November 21, 2010

Articles with witty titles

This article in the Wall Street Journal has a very witty title.  Worth reading for that reason alone.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704444304575628610624607130.html?mod=WSJ_Tech_LEADTop

Apparently cookies are causing problems all over the world.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Internet Monopolies

Good article discussing how the internet is becoming controlled more and more by monopolistic companies


Gotta keep these guys down. 

Monday, November 1, 2010

Facebook Says User Data Sold To Broker

"Facebook Inc. said that a data broker has been paying application developers for identifying user information, and that it had placed some developers on a six-month suspension from its site because of the practice.


The announcement, which Facebook made on its developers' blog Friday, follows an investigation by Facebook into a privacy breach that The Wall Street Journal reported in October."


Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704477904575586690450505642.html?mod=WSJ_hp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsForth#ixzz142bvDRgC


I am not much of a conspiracy nut, and I am generally a pretty trusting person, but I have quit on Facebook, and I feel that this is making my decision all the better.  I know that Google and everyone basically sell our information, but I don't tie my name or friends to that data.  


Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Online Music Streaming

WSJ posted an article, its borderline interesting.  It appears that the US 2d Cir. COA has decided to revisit royalty fees for streaming music online. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882404575520722135691874.html?mod=WSJ_Tech_LEFTTopNews

I don't think that setting royalties is a good issue for the court.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Blockbuster. . .

New article in NY Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/business/19digi.html?_r=1&ref=technology

As discussed at length Blockbuster is on the rocks.  Netflix wins. Redbox wins.

I think there are two lessons to be learned from Blockbuster and from Barnes and Noble.  The first is that being late to the party can be fatal.  Both showed up on the internet scene after their rivals, and as a result, they both seem to have lost.  The other is that, perhaps, it is best to stick to what you do best.  For Blockbuster that involves a large selection of movies available at a known location, and available as quickly as the customer can drive there.  Obviously they felt a need to respond to dwindling demand for that business, but maybe there is something to downsizing and fitting that niche.  As for now they may go the way of Circuit City.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Why my iPhone sucks. . .

I found this article on the New York Times website this morning. http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/report-looks-at-trends-with-mobile-apps/?ref=technology

The article grabbed my attention because I think that it helps explain the recent troubles I have been having with the most expensive piece of junk I have ever purchased, an iPhone 3G.  I cannot hear on the phone.  Plain and simple.  I thought that the problem was that maybe I had a bad phone, but this article has changed my opinion.  I am pretty sure, after looking at these numbers, that Apple decided to skip on the phone part of their "cell phone" and make a portable gaming device that will also answer some phone calls that are made to the number it associates with, and that some of those phone calls will be clear enough for the two parties to reach an understanding.  If that was the purpose of the iPhone development, then they were wildly successful.  As for me, I still want to be able to make phone calls from time to time, so I am considering a upgrading to a bag phone for the future.