Monday, February 25, 2002

[Hack the Planet] The Register comes to the USA. "It's just like The Register UK in style and (mostly) content - only without so many stories about BT and UK broadband." 9:51:49 PM

[diveintomark] Pound on the table.  A lawyer friend once gave me this piece of advice, which is apparently something they teach you in law school:   If the law is on your side, pound on the law.  If the facts are on your side, pound on the facts.  If neither is on your side, pound on the table.   Just something to think about as this discussion drags on. 8:07:40 PM

[Sam Ruby's Radio Weblog] ...there is so much more to Apache: Axis, Cocoon, Xindice, etc.... 8:03:44 PM

[IDG InfoWorld] IBM makes gains in weak server market 7:58:26 PM

[IDG InfoWorld] Intel, BEA tune Java software for Intel servers  BEAs purchase of JRockit goes public.  7:55:41 PM

[IDG InfoWorld] Trillian restores AOL IM connection  AOLs anti-customer behavior will get them in the end.    They ought to take a page from Google's book and see if they can find a way to be profitable by giving customers what they want.   It may not get them this year or next.   But it will get them eventually.   2:05:24 PM

[SJL's Radio Weblog] The Federal Reserve has released the final report on its US Retail Payments Research Project. 2:01:32 PM

When you talk to music industry execs, they will point out that, while their profits on popular artists are very high, they are balanced by the losses on the majority of albums that never pay for their own production costs.    So, they say their like VCs, speculating on music interests -- they need the big pay offs to make the risk worthwhile.   Seems to me that the internet gives them a way to reduce their risk by waiting 'til artists prove themselves before investing in producing their music and promoting it. 1:56:38 PM

[Wired News] Judge: If You Own Music, Prove It. The judge in the Napster copyright infringement case questions whether the record labels own copyrights to songs -- copyrights that are the base of their suit. By Brad King.  Wow.  Sometimes my goverment surprises me -- in a good way.  This seems like an interesting twist, if nothing else.  On the one side, Napster had every intention of profiteering on the illegal trade of artists music.  On the other, the music companies are so clearly trying to reserve their right to inflate prices and control artists.   I still think, when the dust settles, the record companies will call the shots -- it still takes an investment to become a pop star.    But they'll definitely see their margins squeezed if this plays out as it should. 1:52:59 PM

[Slashdot] Sun Bashes Linux on (IBM) Mainframes ... while IBM (Linux on Mainframes) crush sun... 11:41:43 AM

[SJL's Radio Weblog] VeriSign runs the XML Trust Center. Their new Trust Services Integration Kit is available for download. 11:35:42 AM

[Slashdot] The Future of MREs 11:32:52 AM

[John Robb's Radio Weblog] Cool.  An item I wrote in the weblog on personal storage devices (PSDs) has been picked up by an Indian technology portal called Samachar.  11:25:38 AM

[John Robb's Radio Weblog] Dane.  As mentioned earlier on this weblog.  Nothing will protect you from a well orchestrated n-1 strategy on eBay.  The problem with eBay is the leverage an n-1 strategist has at his/her fingertips.  You can't get that leverage via a physical world storefront -- it is too capital intesnive and restricted to executives at major firms (like Enron and Global Crossing).   BTW, I am waiting for somebody to investigate how much money and when George Gilder made from advocating Global Crossing and Worldcom.  His advocacy knew no bounds and based on anecdotal rumors from a friend, he followed a pay to play method of analysis (yikes!).  Gilder moved markets when he wrote reports.  He should be under the gun with the rest of his good friends at these now bankrupt companies. 11:20:05 AM

[BBC World] Plane speeds 'explain WTC collapse'. The second plane to hit the twin towers was travelling much faster than the first - causing the South Tower to collapse first, data reveals. 537 miles per hour. Yow. How many things do you see on a day to day basis moving that fast. 11:17:10 AM

[Scripting News] Mark Paschal has a suite of tools for Radio 8 called "Kit."  11:11:39 AM

[BBC World] 'Terror tunnels' found in Rome. Italian police discover holes near the US embassy which they believe were intended to be used by terrorists planting a bomb. 11:10:09 AM

[kuro5hin.org] The Wobbly Millennium bridge reopens. Perhaps you've noticed the logo at the top of the Kuro5hin frontpage? Well, this is a story about a wobbly bridge that survived... 11:08:47 AM

[Scripting News] Julian Bond: "I'm still amazed by the clarity, precision and elegance of the early RFCs. They feel like polished and cut diamonds that have had everything extraneous stripped away. Just enough to get the job done and no more. I think we could do worse than go back and review the RFC process and style and apply it to the current efforts."  11:04:00 AM

[Daypop Top 40] George W. Bush, Movie Star the last sentence of the article makes me think one word: puppet 10:58:30 AM

[Slashdot] The Challenges of Making a Multiplayer Game 10:57:33 AM

[Daypop Top 40] "The Future of Ideas" 9:54:59 AM

[Slashdot] Fighting Spam on the Home Front 9:41:05 AM

[SJL's Radio Weblog] InfoWorld: Picking through the Hailstorm. "In addition to selling the infrastructure for companies to run their own .Net My Services programs, Sohn said that Microsoft plans to eventually run datacenters attached to MSN that offer these services, but that the company will not set itself up as the primary datacenter for .Net My Services." 9:38:59 AM

[ZDNet Tech News] BEA touts 'Visual Basic for Java'. BEA is testing out a new strategy by taking a page from Microsoft--pushing its new Java-based programming tool, WebLogic Workshop, as a must-have for developers. 9:37:21 AM

[Scripting News] The NY Times asks "Is Weblog Technology Here to Stay or Just Another Fad?" Wouldn't it be something if they really attempted to answer the question.   9:32:27 AM