(source: Guardian) AOL has announced that it will not release any new versions of Netscape and is cutting back jobs, so you can pretty much declare Netscape dead in the browser wars. This is interesting to note as Microsoft announced recently that there would be no new standalone versions of its browser either and that they were going to make it part of their OS.

(story: Mobiles ring with sounds of the wild). Here is a creative use of an existing database of sounds: wildlife recordings from the British Library’s sound archive turned into phone ringtones! This mobile phone ringtone market is one to consider if you have sound files. How to convert midi files and add these ringtones to your phone? Ringtone Converter Software (free trial / $18.95)

No, really, it is true (source: CNN). Microsoft is giving away thousands in a promotion for its new v6.0 of MSN Messenger.

The lottery will award $1,000 an hour from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. PT (starting July 25) to randomly selected users. The weekly $10,000 giveaways will run for four Fridays, ending August 15.

So make sure you login on Fridays for you random chance to win. I wonder how many folks that get the lucky instant message will think that it is spam or scam? Doh! Hmm

(source: MSNBC) Penthouse has been having trouble getting issues out citing that it has been having trouble covering printing costs. This is not a good sign for the future of the magazine, nor the century-old mansion. The internet has been tough on print porn mags like Penthouse, but Playboy still holds onto a reported circulation of three million plus. I was a bit surprised that it took the main porn mags so long to take a more adaptive position on the web. The RIAA could heed similar lessons with it’s policy on music downloads. Perhaps too little, too late.

While on our vacation we saw two movies in the theater, the first of which was T3: Rise of the Machines starring the pretty much one-dimensional actor Arnold Schwarzenegger

No spoilers here in this review because, hey, this whole movie is a spoiler. It starts out of nowhere and slowly grinds to a very unceremonial entry by the man, er the machine, that has always promised he would be back. It is 10 years after T2 and somehow the future can’t be stopped, even though we were convinced in T2 that it could be. Once again a terminator — a newer, better looking one played by Kristanna Loken is sent back to come after an older John Connor played by Nick Stahl who is completely and thoroughly unconvincing in his role. I mean where are all the mannerisms and tie-ins to T2’s younger John Connor? Teenage Connor was rebellious and had sort of a punk edge where 10 year older John Connor borders on neurotic behavior over the weight of the world that the future can’t be changed. He is helpless. This dramatic a character change needs some sort of explanation other than the 5 minute one that Terminator 3 provides. Maybe they felt it was more important to keep this on the editing table and we’ll get the real version of the film — the director’s cut — on DVD in a half year or so.

T3 should have gone down with Cameron’s Titanic. I get this feeling that somewhere Cameron is very glad that he had nothing to do with this horrible sequel. It’s the worst movie I’ve seen this year, maybe in the last 2 years, and yes that includes Daredevil. You can see from the ticket stubs how much $$ I wasted on this. Is there anything redeeming about this sequel? Not really.

Don’t even get me started on all the reasons that this sequel is a complete failure for the franchise and for Arnold’s waning career. Most people will go see this one on the strength of T2 — just like we did, but this has all the looks of being turned into a sequel farce. And yes, the ending totally leaves the door more open for sequels, but I think I’m looking more forward to Jason vs. Freddy. Maybe those two horror freaks will hook up with a 90 year old Arnold and we’ll have a tag team match. Related reviews at Rotten Tomatoes. Grade: F

Is there hope in this article which asserts that Microsoft is enjoying a 300 percent increase in the last 3 months in the number of new websites hosted on recently released Windows Media Server 2003? Microsoft dominates the OEM and desktop market but it is a “distant second” according to Netcraft as far as web hosting goes. Hopefully some portion of these 300 percent that are choosing M$ have read about the security flaws in their new server. I think if you run anything Microsoft that you better get on their security bulletin email list: http://register.microsoft.com/regsys/pic.asp which, a couple times per week on average, I’d say releases new patches for their software.

This news24 story goes through how porn is becoming more acceptable in society today.

“Pornography has gone mainstream all over America,” said the magazine Newsweek. “From movies to television shows to music videos and magazines, porn stars and porn iconography are everywhere, pointing to a national comfort level that few would have predicted even a decade ago.”

My take is that this is long overdue and that the people who always stereotype porn as being associated with drugs, STD and the like need to climb out and realize that this isn’t such a black and white issue. Hmm

As much as webmasters (myself included) would love to see more broadband users the fact remains that the majority of users in cyberspace still use dial-up (source: The Mercury News). I think it is important to remember that if you have broadband content that you should try and make it available to those with dial-up connection. Recently, on our vacation the best connection in every hotel or motel we stayed at was 32k.

(source: cnn) Yesterday the web was abuzz with news that Metallica was suing a Canadian band called Unfaith for trademark infringement over the use of the chords E and F. Problem? The whole thing was bogus! This just goes to show that Metallica has a long ways to go with their sue-happy rep.

Thanks to Southern Gal who was the very first webmaster to jump in and pledge to the Blogathon cause for ASACP and my efforts here at makeyougohmm. Go check out her weblog, post a comment, and share the love. Please take some time and donate to this cause as the donation doesn’t have to be large — it can be as small as a buck or two, so break out those piggy banks for this good cause. Tomorrow’s Script School radio show at 2pm PT / 5pm ET will focus on this cause and what will be happening during the Blogathon.

While on vacation I did some training for staying up into the wee hours and made it until 4:30 am one night, so I’m going to continue the training over the next week and will be reporting on how it’s going as well as give some more insight into what I plan to be doing during this 24 hour Blogathon. I should mention that I stopped drinking coffee a few years ago, so I’m not likely to be using caffeine to get me through it as I imagine others will be. My favorite beverage is chilled water. Will I be one of the few drug-free Blogathon contestants?

Related entry: here