Things that ... make you go hmm

[site news] Changing blog scripts

2005-03-12T10:45:00-05:00

In the process of changing blog scripts. More on this to be explained later, but some functionality (like the search) is going to be broken for a little bit, sorry, while I get the 1566 entries dumped and ported to the new database.

Apple wins, bloggers lose, expect appeal

2005-03-11T20:17:00-05:00

The ruling is in about whether bloggers have the same protections as those in major media in the highly controversial Apple trade secret lawsuit and the decision is against the bloggers. sfgate.com:

He said the trio would appeal the judge's ruling. Apple spokesman Steve Dowling said the ruling affirmed the company's view that "there is no license conferred on anyone to violate valid criminal laws." The case has been widely watched in the fast-growing world of Web logs or blogs, Web sites that contain articles or diary entries and that recently have propelled stories into the mainstream. Kleinberg, however, ruled that no one has the right to publish trade secrets that only could have been provided by someone breaking the law.

The deep throat(s) that leaked the Apple trade secrets definitely have to be nervous now. I wonder if the surprise factor really cost Apple much money in the terms of sales, but the leak most certainly will have repurcussions against the employee(s) who broke their NDA. What a mess.

S&P Equity Research puts "buy" rating on four internet online advertising stocks

2005-03-11T09:22:00-05:00

Standard & Poor, a name of which has always seemed ironic to me when talking about the stock market, is putting a "buy" rating on four internet-related stocks.

The research firm reiterated "buy" ratings on Ask Jeeves (nasdaq: ASKJ - news - people), Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ), ValueClick (nasdaq: VCLK - news - people ) and Yahoo! (nasdaq: YHOO - news - people ).

You can track these 4 stocks via Yahoo! Finance (Thanks to Steve Rubel for demonstrating how this could be done). I just realized we need a money or finance category for this blog. It will be added.

I have been itching to try out ShareBuilder and the reader comments received thus far have been relatively positive. I see they are out of Bellevue too, cool!

Now we can customize Google News

2005-03-10T12:01:00-05:00

Maybe the neverending Google News beta actually has an ending, as today I noticed a couple new changes that allow for more user customization. You can add your own sections by keyword, nice, but no RSS or Atom capability yet. RSS feeds would really make the Google News service complete. Without it, well, it seems like 1999.

BTW, just wanted to send out a good morning to Google as the stats show they are currently hammering the site. We love it when Google stops by and brings along their friends:

Not pictured: google.co.za, google.com.ph, google.ru, google.it, google.com.tw, google.co.jp, google.ch, google.be, google.com.br, google.com.tr, google.mu, google.com.my, google.fi, google.co.hu, google.co.nz, google.pl, google.co.id, google.ie, google.no, google.co.ve, and google.at

Lots of Google portals, aren't there?

(Ref spammers have intentionally been blocked out of screencap, BTW)

Feedburner stats in XML or XHTML

2005-03-10T11:29:00-05:00

How to access your Feedburner stats in XHTML or XML

Law enforcement taps on Vonage lines

2005-03-10T11:17:00-05:00

Is this why the quality of Vonage calls lately has been spotty? I'm talking to a few people and halfway through the call they say "you're dropping." Had this happen more and more frequently the last couple weeks.

Vonage has selected VeriSign NetDiscovery(TM) Services to help develop the capability for law enforcement to legally intercept calls on its Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)-based digital phone services. Vonage is not presently subject to the requirements of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), but is voluntarily complying with its provisions through this relationship.

I can see the need to be able to listen in on the alleged bad guys, but this will just give services which aren't voluntarily complying with CALEA a boost as bad guys will just jump to them. Therefore, this just invades the privacy of the rest of us good people. As a Vonage business and residential customer I give this a thumbs down. Whatever you do, Vonage, don't let your quality suffer because our loyalty to your service ends there.

MSN experiments with RSS reader

2005-03-10T10:58:00-05:00

MSN is experimenting with offering their own RSS newsreader RSS newsreader (thanks Dave). It's way early yet so no criticism yet, but if you look at the early prototype it seems like it might be heavily client-side script based like MSN Spaces. This early prototype doesn't work in Firefox, also, just FYI.

Jarett from Revel on the Indie artist perspective on music downloads

2005-03-10T00:35:00-05:00

Just posted the podcast taken from last Friday's LIVE Webmaster Cookbook radio show (#28) where among other things we talked with the frontman (Jarett) of the Nickleback-influenced, indie rock band Revel, who is about to come out with their second album. Revel's website is revelrocks.com. Check them out, especially if you like rock.

It's interesting listening to what Jarett has to say about the online music scene. Don't listen to pundits, listen to the up and coming artists themselves and their feelings about the RIAA, music fans and the internet as a viable distribution model for music. They distribute their music from their website and give away roughly half the songs, uncrippled, as MP3 downloads.

Man will lose fingers and toes to amputation over frosty chatroom love affair

2005-03-09T21:27:00-05:00

Who says internet chatrooms aren't worth losing all your fingers and toes? Not Charles Gonsoulin, anyway, who took an unwise soujourn into -15 F degrees climate.

A Los Angeles man who sneaked into Canada in February to see his Internet girlfriend will be deported -- minus all his fingers and some of his toes, the Winnipeg Sun newspaper reported Tuesday. Charles Gonsoulin, 41, will have the fingers and toes amputated because of severe frostbite suffered during a 100-hour trek from Pembina, North Dakota, across the border to Emerson, Manitoba...

Gonsoulin couldn't legally enter Canada because he was convicted of robbing a Pizza Hut in 1984, so he chose a more frigid path to bridging true online love. Another "c" to go along with chatrooms: "convicts." Hmm.

RSS/RDF to JS Converter

2005-03-09T09:46:00-05:00

Free RSS/RDF/Atom to Javascript converter

Collaborative browsing with Jybe

2005-03-08T11:14:00-05:00

Jybe is a plug-in that enables people to surf the web and chat together all in real time