Thursday, 31 May 2007
(With apologies to Sufjan Stephens for the title.)
As reported in Quad-Cities Online by Mitzie Stelte, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich raided numerous state funds to pursue the state’s appeal of their controversial ban on violent video games.
This may be what politicians do best, but the law had no chance of winning the appeal, and I consider a primary task of the Governor to figure out where the state’s money is best spent. I guess he figured the positive political points he’d score for this pointless exercise would outweigh any negative ones if he got “caught”. I hope he was wrong. Illinois, it’s up to you now.
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Posted by Tom
Wednesday, 30 May 2007
In my previous post I wrote a disagreement with Bob Lefsetz regarding his rant on how Apple implemented iTunes Plus (i.e., DRM-free music). I thought Bob was wound a little tight, but the man’s entitled (we all are), and I like his site.
Now, just a few hours later, Bob has another rant up, and it seems he’s just shy of wearing a tin foil hat. The conspiracies are everywhere. Here is the complaint:
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Posted by Tom
Wednesday, 30 May 2007
First, if you check you’ll see that The Lefsetz Letter is one of only thirteen sites I link to in my sidebar, so it goes without saying that I like the site a lot.
Having said that, in my opinion he’s off base in his rant today about iTunes Plus. The gist of his complaint is that you either see the iTunes Plus tracks (i.e., higher-quality and DRM-free) or the usual tracks from before today, but not both. As he states:
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Posted by Tom
Wednesday, 30 May 2007
Well, the bad reporting on Microsoft’s Surface has already begun. For example, see this article on ZDNet. Mary Jo Foley claims “An unblinking eye on Microsoft”. Well, it’s easy not to blink when you’re asleep. This article is just silly.
For example, we get this gem:
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Posted by Tom
Tuesday, 29 May 2007
Microsoft issued a press release today introducing Microsoft Surface at the Wall Street Journal’s D: All Things Digital conference. Put simply, Surface is surface computing designed primarily for retail locations. To see this technology in action check out Microsoft’s web site for it.
This looks like pretty good stuff. It appears to have gone through a few iterations, and is past any early stages. The press release says it will be available for restaurants, hotels, etc. by Winter of this year.
A lot of people are looking forward to Bill Gates and Steve Jobs on the stage together tomorrow at All Things Digital. Some may have felt that Jobs might overshadow Gates, since Apple is a hot company right now and the iPhone is right around the corner. This may change that; Steve might be busy fielding a few questions about Bill’s latest technology announcement.
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Posted by Tom
Tuesday, 29 May 2007
In a previous post, I wrote that the Linux community should not sit idle while Microsoft implies that Linux violates numerous patents, and could be sued for this.
Based on an article in Information Week, I’m happy to say they will not be idle at all:
““Touch one member of the Linux community and you will have to deal with all of us,” Linux Foundation director Jim Zemlin warned Microsoft in a column that appeared May 25 on the BusinessWeek “Viewpoint” slot of its Web site.”
Good for them! And the best part of all:
“Labeled the foundation’s “formal” response to Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith’s statements earlier this month, the column suggested that the foundation was prepared to step in with countervailing patents if Microsoft took action against anyone.”
As mentioned in my post, it’s likely Microsoft has some patent violations of their own. Kudos to the Linux group for letting Microsoft know that patent suits can go both ways.
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Posted by Tom
Tuesday, 29 May 2007
So Paul Thurrott retracts his previous post about Microsoft selling one million Zunes. But he does so in a manner that makes it appear to be no big deal.
Paul specifically said in his original post that it was “not too shabby”. Further, it was a big enough deal for him to post it in the first place (and on a holiday, no less). Now that he has to retract it, well, hey, it’s only a month away (if it happens), so it’s apparently still some sort of accomplishment. Um, no.
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Posted by Tom
(With apologies to Sufjan Stephens for the title.)
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