Technorati Weirdness

I had to remove the link to my technorati profile because it was pointing to somebody else's blog. I wonder what's up with that...

M-Dollar: Microsoft kicking Claria's tires?

M-Dollar: Microsoft kicking Claria's tires?: "there is a US$500 million offer on the table, despite a large amount of internal debate at Redmond about the wisdom of picking up the company formerly known as Gator."

*shiver*

Gator was my first experience with adware. I almost installed it several times without knowing what it was, but since I didn't know what it was I didn't every click yes to any of those popup windows.

This has gotten me thinking about google's "don't be evil" policy. I need to strike up a conversation with Phil about not doing evil. Evil seems like a tricky concept in philosophy and theology. I wonder if it's more clear from a business perspective.

If Microsoft goes through this acquisition how will they reconcile their anti-spyware stance with a new product they've acquired (is Gator or the next incarnation of it still out there?)? Can adware ever be considered not evil. Many consider it evil today... who decides whether it's evil or not?

scooblog by josh ledgard : Barrier to Entry

scooblog by josh ledgard : Barrier to Entry: "but blogging without a comment Field is not blogging to engage in a conversation."

I've been "entering into conversation" with Josh Ledgard at MS about Scoble's new magical way of linking posts together.

Blog blog blog

I said the word blog so much in the previous post I feel a little nauseous. I gotta stop saying that word. (I've always dislike the word "blog")

New Blog (sorta)

The studiogo homepage has been converted to a blog. It's kind of a blog, but mostly I'm using the blogging tools in blogger to maintain the "news" section. I'll be hacking on the blog template when I need to add more links from the front page, but blogging is easy, and content management seems hard. So I choose blogging.

check it out Studio GO

EP Downloads

Just checked the stats for June.

29 | /letsgo/downloads/01%20Ashes.mp3
17 | /letsgo/downloads/02%20For%20Household%20Use%20Only.mp3
16 | /letsgo/downloads/03%20Home.mp3
12 | /letsgo/downloads/04%20Sister_Brotherhood.mp3
13 | /letsgo/downloads/05%20The%20Grand%20Finale.mp3

Ashes takes the lead with 29 downloads from June 1st through June 21st

Here are the same stats from May.

83 | /letsgo/downloads/01%20Ashes.mp3
56 | /letsgo/downloads/02%20For%20Household%20Use%20Only.mp3
55 | /letsgo/downloads/03%20Home.mp3
57 | /letsgo/downloads/04%20Sister_Brotherhood.mp3
41 | /letsgo/downloads/05%20The%20Grand%20Finale.mp3

The downloads appear to be slowing down. Perhaps we should restart the advertising in ernest (after the website update of course).

Remix Resources

I've had a request for some sources to use for remixing. I'll work on getting those produced and packaged up under creative commons. Just remember that we'll be using the share alike license, which means if you remix you'll need to release your remix under the same license.

Unless there is gnashing of teeth, then I suppose we could talk about using a different license.

Oh and the remix resource wont be available before the new website is up. If I have time and feel like delaying it may go up at the same time, but not before.

Website Progress

I was able to make some good progress on the new website tonight. It wont be radically different but it will finally have a paypal buy-now button, which is good.

We'll also have a little more content up. I'm still not using a content management system, but I think the website will be relatively static for the most part. Maybe I'll look into using blogger or some such simple content management system to keep the root of the studiogomusic site fresh.

Paypal and an EP progress report

I've been hestitant to start really promoting the CD online until I get paypal setup on the website. For some reason I just haven't been super motivated lately.

Here's what going on though. We've sold about 42 of the original 50 cds that we produced. So next we're going to do another run of 50-100 cds. Then get paypal setup on the website. Then I actually want to start the online "advertising" in ernest. Hit up the online groups that I know. Flesh out the last bits of the website. Print up some new handout sized flyers that I can give to people who show an interest in the music. Send a promo copy to KEXP. etc... etc...

I think spending so much time making the CD has got me all burned out on it. I'm finally picking up some steam again though.

Sony to accidentally encourage P2P, iTMS use

Sony to accidentally encourage P2P, iTMS use: "This scheme is just the latest in a long series of attempts by Sony to cripple their products, annoy users, and drive consumers to competing products that are uncrippled and less painful to use. Maybe one day they'll learn, but until then they'll continue to throw money away."

The day I bought a the NetMD mini-disc players was one of the most frustrating (technological) days of my life. "You mean I have to speed hours transcoding my library of music so that I can put 2 hours of it on a mini-disc that costs 2 bucks?!?"

Mark Cuban: What am I missing Macrovision?

What am I missing Macrovision? - Blog Maverick - www.blogmaverick.com _: "I could see if the stuff worked and it kept the bad guys from doing bad things. Then it would have to be a price consumers paid. Publishers have a right to protect their content. But, it obviously doesn’t work. If it did, there would be nothing to sue anyone over."

Mark writes a good article pointing out why DRM is such a waste of time and money.

You can ask Gwen... occassionally I'll let a DVD play through to the very end and when the Macrovision logo is displayed, sometimes I can't stop a few swears from coming out... and it's because all Macrovision has been able to do, is stop me from doing things that should be covered under fair use.

Here's some free advise to the MPAA:

Stop wasting your money with Macrovision, and spend it looking for those big internet warez sites that host your movies. Also, spend 9 months and create a full featured rip/burn/mix piece of software for DVDs. Give me the same flexibility that I have with my CDs for my DVDs and I'll buy more DVDs. Get it? Let me do more with them, and they'll become more valuable to me.

Branch out, get into the hardware market... build some mobile playback devices... build a piece of software to manage your library. Screw the DRM, just target the pirates directly. The DRM doesn't stop the pirates anyway. So stop wasting your time and money.

'You've got to find what you love,' Jobs says

'You've got to find what you love,' Jobs says: "If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them."

I'm simply amazed at the arrogance displayed here. Jobs honestly thinks that no other person in the last 30 years would have ever thought to add good looking typography to the computer.

I have a prediction:

"When Jobs dies, Apple dies with him."

And here's why.

Steve is such an ego maniac and control freak that he's set his company up to rely on him completely. He craves acceptance so badly that he's created a company that is utterly dependent on his control. Now don't get me wrong. I have a 12" powerbook, and I love it. It's a great piece of engineering. But, it's only a great piece of engineering because Jobs has personally willed it into creation. He hasn't built a company that, when left alone, will create similarly well designed devices.

Think Different.... that is... Let Steve Jobs think for you.

WIL WHEATON dot NET: Where is my mind?: i am not a number! i am, rather, a series of numbers, painted across my fingernails

WIL WHEATON dot NET: Where is my mind?: i am not a number! i am, rather, a series of numbers, painted across my fingernails: "i am not a number! i am, rather, a series of numbers, painted across my fingernails"

If you look at a picture like this and think to yourself: "Is that US-ASCII or ISO Latin 1" that's a good indication that you've been emotionally scarred by internationalization.

If you don't understand what I just said, that's a good indication you haven't been scarred by internationalization. :-)

arstechnica: Can we deal on the Broadcast Flag?

Can we deal on the Broadcast Flag?

As usual, Ars does a good job of summing up what's going on with copyright. This is a good read for anybody that's heard me complaining about copyright restrictions but doesn't really know what's going on.