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Music Industry Must Respect Privacy of Filesharers
Ruling in Charter Case Smashes DMCA Subpoena Powers The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision today that will stop entertainment corporations from gaining access to the names of people using…
What is it with the little dog in Windows XP file search? Dogs fetch sticks. So I’m guessing that when I want to search for a file, the analogy is that of throwing it away somewhere into my hard drive, and I want a dog to run after it, slobber all over it, and hand it back to me? And supposedly I need a 3D animated animal to remind me that searching for a file will do this? OK, that sort of works I guess.
So what about the fact that dogs don’t always return the stick, they sometimes get bored and run off, or they grab the stick and just sit down somewhere off in the distance? At times they’ll grab the stick and give it to someone else, who will then throw it somewhere else. These are the memories I have of playing fetch. Are they really the ones I want associated with my important files? Well, perhaps it’s OK because they’re sort of man’s best friend.
What if I’m a woman? Well, Google unfortunately toes the sexist line if you’re feeling lucky, but I guess they’re hoping the dog analogy is gender neutral. So yeah, forget diamond rings, the supposed woman’s best friend, and let’s just go with a gender neutral dog analogy for now.
So umm… what if I just plain hate dogs?
Right, well if you click on the configuration button, you can change the animation to other 2D cartoon style drawings, or you can even turn it off.
Great! So where’s the 3D cat? Oh, there’s only a characterisation, a cartoon image of a cat? That sort of sucks. I guess cats don’t fetch sticks, so in theory, there was no point spending time doing a 3D cat. OK, that sort of works I guess.
So why bother including a cat at all? As a cat lover, I’d probably have preferred a dog fetching a file, and having no cat option whatsoever. A 2D cat just makes me pissed off. Even more pissed off than a fucking 3D dog slobbering over my files, and optionally, at the dog’s discretion, not returning the file at all!
Microsoft. Just when you think they start to get it… They don’t.
When The Going Gets Tough The Press Get All Whiney
Apple goes after rumor sites.
There’s been a lot of talk about Apple’s recent subpoenas for Mac rumor sites to give up their leads for leaks about unreleased products, particularly in the blogosphere, where Apple bashing seems to be a recent trend.
I don’t see anyone arguing that companies such as Apple should be completely open about new products and their development status. Of course not, people understand that when running a business, the timing and delivery of such messages have the opportunity to make or break a product or even a company. Even Scoble won’t argue that one, having intentionally kept mum about Microsoft products in his blog. I guess the blogging as open communication mantra doesn’t hold in all cases.
So assuming we agree companies need to make the decisions on when and how products are announced, why are so many people up in arms about it? Probably because they don’t know how the process works.
The problem for Apple, is that employees and third party people exposed to yet to be released products, will have signed an NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement) saying that they will not do so. This is a legally binding agreement that would have been signed willingly. Having signed countless NDAs over the years, many being from Apple, I can testify that not once was I forced into signing one.
So in order to regain control of communications, Apple goes after the NDAed folks who leaked, and because they have no idea who they are, they need to go after the rumor sites that reported them.
Apple aren’t after the sites, they’re after the employees who broke one of the most basic principles of working for a technology company. Keeping quiet about unreleased products. And if you’re not in the industry, then I guess yes you could perhaps be excused for a little Apple bashing.
In researching this, I came across an even better post, When The Going Gets Tough The Press Get All Whiney, by Adrian Sutton on his Randomness blog.
Danah Boyd’s salon article on 6A buying LJ.
BitTorrent peer to peer technology and Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds, Videora automatically and intelligently finds and downloads video you want to watch.
Podcasting’s transcription dilemma
Jon Udell nails podcasting.