Month: November 2007

SpiralFrog Loses $3m in 3 months: Not “Getting It” is Getting Expensive

SpiralFrog Loses $3m in 3 months: Not “Getting It” is Getting Expensive:
That’s a whole lot of money to throw away but it shouldn’t come as any surprise. The SpiralFrog model is awful. Users get free downloads of DRM laden songs that they can listen to in Windows Media Player, but they have to periodically answer survey questions and view ads in order to for the songs to continue playing. The site itself looks like one big ad with music appended to it.

For a totally different take on free music downloads as an ad supported business, see our coverage of Peter Rojas’s startup RCRD LBL. RCRD LBL is hardly a dream come true, either, but it sure leaves SpiralFrog in the dust.

[Terrible. Simply an incredible misunderstanding of what the markets wants…]
Source: Read/WriteWeb

An Open Letter to Comcast and Every cable/Telco on P2P

An Open Letter to Comcast and Every cable/Telco on P2P: Thats not to say there isnt a place for P2P. There is. P2P is probably the least efficient means of distributing content in the last mile. Comcast, Time Warner, etc should charge a premium to those users who want to act as a seed and relay for P2P traffic. After all, that is why P2P is used, right ? For content distributors to avoid significant bandwidth and hosting charges. That makes it commercial traffic far more often than not. So make them pay commercial rates. [Hmmm, a different perspective.]
Source: Blog Maverick

Amazon Announced Kindle

Amazon Announced Kindle: You’re going to see two kinds of reviews: bad ones from people who haven’t used it and good ones from people who have. It’s that kind of product—plus Jeff Bezos’s reality-distortion field isn’t as large as Steve Jobs’s. I have used it and if someone gave me a choice of receiving an iPhone or a Kindle, I’d pick the Kindle. [Here’s what I don’t like… Guy doesn’t mention that Truemors is carried before he starts opining (although he does note it with an exclamation point later on). Second he sets you up by saying “bad ones from people who haven’t used it and good ones from people who have.” which immediately dismisses the opinion of people who haven’t used one as invalid, and further suggests that anyone who has used on has written positively. Wow. No wonder he was a world class evangelist. It’s a bit overstyled IMHO. but check out Mark’s take on it, and Seth’s. Granted each with their own agenda, but still. My take? It’s a digital rights issue. BigCo’s are always trying to grab them and give nothing in return. Not such a good thing. I’m trying to teach my son right now that it’s OK to give away toys he doesn’t play with anymore. Same for his books. How does this lesson fit into these corporate interests? Not.]
Source: Guy Kawasaki

There is nothing quite like a shorn scrod…

There is nothing quite like a shorn scrod: For now, I shaved my head so she's not the only one bald in the house. People have told me that they think what I did was awesome. I thank you all for your encouragement, but it is very little sacrifice.[Not that Theo isn’t cool, he is, but I agree, I’d do that in a second for Noah. Maybe more vain folks would have a tougher time with it, and would still do it. I would, and I think Theo would as well. You can see for yourself. Just go look at the picture. It tells the whole beautiful story… See? Ain’t no thing in that relationship. Lovely!]
Source: The Scriptures of Jesus

JumpBox Inc.

Applications | JumpBox Inc.: We take popular Open Source server applications, remove all the install headaches and make them much easier to use. We call our virtual appliances JumpBoxes and they are free to download and use. To earn our living, we sell access to enhanced features of the JumpBox platform and additional support options in the form of JumpBox Assurance plans. Feel free to browse around, there’s something in the library for pretty much anyone. [Nice. Where’s a Rails setup?]
Source:

The serverless Internet company

The serverless Internet company: They have about 15,000 people already creating live video channels. They have one of the most innovative Web sites I’ve ever seen.

But they don’t own a server.

How else has the world changed? Where the hell is Microsoft in this whole business? How did Microsoft screw this up so badly? Let’s get this straight. Amazon used to be a book store. Now they are hosting virualized servers for Internet companies. So much for having billions of dollars in the bank like Microsoft does, some of the smartest people in the world working in your research arms and having “monopoly” market share in operating systems. [Wow.]
Source: Scobleizer – Microsoft Geek Blogger

A Public Market for Public Music

A Public Market for Public Music | Linux Journal: I’m wondering about a project name and description. Right now I like Project Pay4Play, or p4p. With p4p tools, I should be able to say “I’ll pay for that” when I hear a song or a program I like. I want to be able to do this with any podcast or stream that I hear on my browser, my mobile phone, my PDA, my iPod, my iTunes — even my car radio. [I like the idea, but I don’t understand the value proposition.]

Caught in Apple restart hell

Caught in Apple restart hell: Oh, and if you think I have something against Apple, no I don’t. But my computer, a 17-inch MacBookPro, has already been in the shop twice. My son’s MacBookPro 15-inch has been in the shop twice and has a dead USB port now so both of our machines need to go back into the shop.

What’s ironic is lots of other computer companies would LOVE to give me free stuff (I don’t take it) but Apple is the only company that’s never raised a PR finger to help me. Instead I feel so honored to spend my money on this crap. Why? Just to have a shiny machine?

Well, sorry. The shine is wearing off. Screw you Apple.

[I really wish he hadn’t mixed these two issues… that of him having problems and the lack of PR love. The second issue shouldn’t even be brought up, especially in this context, as it makes it seem like the problem is that Apple’s given him no free stuff. Now, as far as problems are concerned, there’s nothing more frustrating than a dead machine for most of us who live on one machine and don’t have a shelf full of replacements. So I feel his pain as Apple’s theme of “It just works” can be annoying, since it doesn’t always, and despite an OK track record things still things do go wrong for everyone at times. I wish Apple didn’t claim this, since it isn’t true, but still, the issues here got mixed beyond my ability to parse them. ]
Source: Scobleizer – Microsoft Geek Blogger