Music thing: Behringer sued for $1 million by FCC

Music thing: Behringer sued for $1 million by FCC for selling 100,304 'digital devices' which hadn't been tested and approved by the FCC.

"My" Documents?

Nice rant.

shahine.com/omar/ - "My" Documents

Scott Adams thinks he is in a coma

I like Scott Adams comic (Dilbert), but usually what he writes on his blog is not as good (My point of view). But this, I liked:

My current view of reality is that I’m in a coma someplace and this apparent reality is my dream. It’s not so crazy if you compare it to the alternative explanation that I really did become one of the top selling cartoonists of all time with no experience whatsoever. Or that my first two books were both #1 New York Times best sellers, and I’ve now authored more books than I’ve actually read. And those two examples aren’t even the most unlikely ones.

The Dilbert Blog: Too Many Coincidences

CCC | Chaos Computer Club: Boycott the music industry

CCC | Chaos Computer Club: Boycott the music industry

Orphan Works?

Under the proposed legislation, a person or other entity who wants to use a copyrighted work is required to make only a "good faith, reasonably diligent search" to locate the copyright owner. If, after making such a search, the user is unable to locate the copyright owner, he/she/it gets an almost free license to use the work. If the copyright owner never comes forward, the user gets to use the work for free. Even if the copyright owner discovers the use and demands payment, the MOST the copyright owner can get is "reasonable compensation," i.e. a reasonable license fee for the use actually made. There is NO possibility of statutory damages or attorneys' fees, even if the work was registered before the use was made without your permission.

Could be a solution for copyright piracy: "Well, I did a good faith, reasonably diligent search for the song 'Holier Than Thou' but I just couldn't find the copyright owner..."

ASMP - Urgent Call for Your Action on Orphan Works

The classic three

child porn, bomb-making instructions and terrorist training videos

Oh yes, the four three apocalyptic riders of the internet.

Razorback2 Hogtied: eDonkey users brought to their knees ... laughing - The Digital Music Weblog

RealPlayer?

Get RealPlayer NOW!

No sir, I won't.

BBC - Top Gear

Flickr: Banksy

graffiti removal squads are becoming the art critics of the 21st century

http://flickr.com/groups/banksy/discuss/125242/ Flickr: Banksy

On missing memos

[Prior] to 1954, experts believed that running a mile in less than four minutes was beyond human capability. People assumed it was an insurmountable human limitation--not possible. Some believed that even if you could, your heart would explode. But in 1954, Bannister broke the four-minute-impossible-barrier and clicked in at 3:59.4.
...
If--prior to Bannister's run--some of them had missed the memo on the whole heart-exploding thing, chances are the record would have fallen sooner.

Creating Passionate Users: The Clueless Manifesto

The Monster Blog: The Case for Product over Process

With all the time we commit to dressing for the job we want, figuring out how to embrace office politics, scheduling meetings to formalize a project, and finding ways to protect ourselves, our personalities and our interests from those we work with, it’s no wonder we wrongly brand those who might actually have the moxie and insight to reveal their raw ideas as amateurs.

The Monster Blog: The Case for Product over Process

Even Penguins need Powerpoint.

Mikehall's Embedded WebLog : Even Penguins need Powerpoint.

Rantings of a Sandmonkey: Boycott Egypt

Rantings of a Sandmonkey: Boycott Egypt

Ross Mayfield's Weblog: The Wiki Effect

At Nokia, the first wiki was brought in as an experiment by the Corporate Strategy team without consulting the IT department.

"After installing it we were told that it was probably against company policy."

Ross Mayfield's Weblog: The Wiki Effect

Hallway Meetings

I'll simplify. I saved the company $75k randomly bumping into Tony in the hallway.

Rands In Repose: Reinventing the Hallway

Things said in court...

Q: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact?
A: Gucci sweats and Reeboks.

Things said in court...

Things to look out for when building a large application.

"Idiots are a lot smarter than you" - wait to see what breaks before you fix it.

When people ask for features, get to the bottom of why they are asking for
that exact thing. Solve the problem, rather than doing exactly what your asked
for.

Make sure the URLs follow the path of the site. DONT include session data,
drop ugly details that are to do with the system, not the user (.php, .aspx,
?, &, etc.)

When you've figured out someone is spamming, don't let them know - let them
keep posting and just silently junk their stuff.

Make users do the minimum amount of work. But make them do something.

Manage your effort - be careful where you spend your efforts.

Don't waste time building features nobody uses.

If users do have to register, send them straight back to where they were when
they're done. Don't dump them on the homepage.

Morals: You have to develop a sense of morals when you build your system. It's
the user's data; it's not yours. Make sure they can remove themselves and
their account if they want to.

Infection: Understand infection vectors for promoting your system. "Enable
evangelism". RSS lets you get at users who don't use your system directly.
Also think about iCal, M3U - anything that a desktop app can consume over
HTTP. Do an inventory to get into every desktop app. possible.

It's a tool. The community can grow elsewhere. No threading etc. "del.icio.us
sux" is an awful experience I'd rather user's didn't have.

(Just a selection)

Joshua Schachter, del.icio.us

Epic Battles - Today: GIMP vs. Photoshop

This is interesting.

Having tried GIMP sometime ago, I have learned to hate it. I use Photoshop and I like it.

But I only bought Photoshop Elements and every once in a while, I miss something out of the big Photoshop CS. I mentioned this last week to a friend and he told me: "Why don't you use GIMP?"

GIMP, the Photoshop Killer.

It was this way when I had first contact with Photoshop in 1999. Everybody says: "You can use GIMP, it is as good as Photoshop."

Well, I told him, that I think differently, and it seems like I'm not the only one.

GIMP, not the Photoshop Killer.

Why Photoshop tops most-wanted Linux app list

BMW.de has been kicked out of the Google index

German BMW Banned From Google

and

Google macht ernst: BMW ist draußen [Die Dezentrale]

(via wirres.net)

Ten Ways To Take Advantage of Web 2.0 (web2.wsj2.com)

Encourage Unintended Uses

Something to keep in mind.

Ten Ways To Take Advantage of Web 2.0 (web2.wsj2.com)

Apple patents the Lemur?

Music thing: Will Apple kill the cute little Lemur?

McNugget number - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The largest (original) McNugget Numbers are 37 and 43.

(Via Proudly Serving)

McNugget number - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Schneier on Security: The Failure of US-VISIT

One thousand bad guys, most of them not very bad, caught through US-VISIT. That's $15M per bad guy caught.

Schneier on Security: The Failure of US-VISIT

Fleck.com Blog: The truth behind the Flickr and del.icio.us acquisition

In reality however a big company can't do anything in 24 hours. It will take a week just to get a meeting with the first person of the 100 people you need to reach and convince if you want to do anything. And then there are budgets, targets and other projects that take up all resources or seem to be more important to the CEO or your manager.

Fleck.com Blog: The truth behind the Flickr and del.icio.us acquisition