What if…
September 29, 2007
What if you bought a computer that you couldn’t install any of your own applications on? (Stupid, I know, but what if?)
What if that computer required you to sign up for two years Internet service with one particular company, and prohibited using any other ISP? (Not that the ISP subsidized the price or anything - the computer wasn’t cheap.)
What if some bright guys came along and figured out how to install your own applications on the computer? And then showed you how to choose your own ISP? You’d do it, right? I mean, why not, it’s your computer. But wait.
What if the company that made the computer sent down an update that checked to see if you had installed your own applications and deleted them if so?
What if that same update checked to see if you were using the required ISP, and if you weren’t turned the computer into a useless, unfixable, piece of glass and plastic?
Would you ever buy a computer from that company again?
Would you ever trust a company like that again?
Addendum: Some Apple and cell phone customers seem to be suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, so let me put it another way.
Let’s say you’re selling me a cow. You tell me that that cow is being sold for the express purpose of making milk. I agree, and buy the cow.
Later I decide that I’d prefer to make cheese. You say that’s a violation of our agreement and kill my cow.
When I paid for the cow it became my property, to do with as I please. If you don’t like how I’m using it you may choose not to do any further business with me but you don’t get to kill my cow.
And, by the way, warning me you’d kill my cow if I keep making cheese doesn’t make it all right.
The lawyers will point out that contractually I agreed to your terms. True. But I don’t think the contract said anything about killing the cow did it?
Apple’s sole redress is to halt all support of my phone. If we let Apple destroy our property for not following the rules we’re telling the music industry it’s ok to destroy a hard drive containing illegal songs, the cable company to fry our TVs for stealing cable. That is vigilante justice and a direct threat to the rule of law.
(106 votes, average: 4.07 out of 5)
Loading ...Another Brick In The Wall
September 28, 2007
Apparently Yahoo Podcasts was among its least used services. -sigh-
YAHOO WILL DISCONTINUE ITS UNDERUSED service for finding and rating audio podcasts on Oct. 31, according to the Yahoo blog. The jettison is part of the 100-day review of Yahoo operations by co-founder Jerry Yang.
(5 votes, average: 4.4 out of 5)Don’t Call It A Podcast
September 27, 2007
I’m so sad that I can’t make it to Podcast Expo this weekend due to schedule conflicts, but if I were there here’s something I’d want to talk about with my fellow podcasters.
In my keynote last year I warned that the name “podcast” was a problem. Not only is the word “pod” closely associated with Apple’s iPod in the minds of listeners, but I also felt, somehow, that the name itself is slightly demeaning. Now, a year later, I think I’ve pinpointed what made me so uneasy about the word “podcast.” It’s become clear to me that there is no such thing as podcasting!
Technically, a podcast is audio or video enclosed in an RSS feed. It’s the RSS feed that magically turns audio or video into a podcast, but why do we focus on the RSS? You don’t distinguish a blog from its RSS feed. There’s no “blogcast.” You talk about radio shows and TV shows, but no one who does a radio show says they do a “radio.”
Podcasts don’t exist separately from their content.
I create shows that are distributed on the Internet via download, Flash, and, oh yeah, RSS, but it’s the show that’s the thing. By focusing on the RSS we’ve confused people and limited our audience. Even the word I suggested last year, “netcast,” doesn’t serve. It’s a show, period. It doesn’t matter how it’s distributed. It’s all just content. Tying the content to its method of distribution is confusing our audience and holding us back.
Words are powerful. Using the right words about what you do is important. It helps you understand what you’re up to and it helps the audience understand what you offer. The word podcasting worked for us in the beginning, but it doesn’t work any more.
I am not a podcaster. I’m a journalist, a pundit, an entertainer. I create audio and video shows and distribute them over the Internet. Maybe that’s YouTube, maybe it’s my own web site, maybe it’s via an RSS feed. The medium isn’t the message - the message is the message. It’s not a podcast, it’s a show, and I plan to call my shows by the right name from now on.
Fellow podcasters, and podcast listeners, what do you think?
Have fun at PME this weekend. I’m with you in spirit!
(On a side note, I’m writing this in the Vancouver airport. It’s not a good idea to blog while eating a Cinnabon®. I need a Handiwipe!)
Vancouver Tonight, Cloudy Tomorrow
September 26, 2007
I’m in Vancity tonight for a 24-hour visit. Tomorrow is the Futureshop “debate” with Amber. I don’t even know how you debate LCD vs Plasma, but we’ll find a way. Tune in at futureshopforums.ca at 11:30a Pacific to watch - free registration required.
Incidentally, as a followup to my previous post, Amber and I have decided to take a hiatus with net@nite. Both of us are too busy to do the show justice at the moment. Sunday’s are so jammed for me what with the radio show and TWiT that net@nite is becoming a burden. We’re going to look for a better day for both of us and we’ll let you know when we’re coming back.
Now back to researching plasma tvs!
Old Skool Halo
September 25, 2007
Kevin Rose LAN partying it up on the set of The Screen Savers.
Psst. Move The Mouse
September 23, 2007
Reunited
September 22, 2007
Amber MacArthur and I will be making a personal appearance this week in Vancouver, BC on behalf of Future Shop.
We’ll be debating LCD vs Plasma and the Future of Television this Thursday, 27 September, from 11:30a-12:30p at the Futureshop store, 1740 West Broadway in Vancouver. The CBC’s Tod Maffin will be moderating (and keeping us from throwing any punches).
There’s very limited seating at the store - it’s first come, first serve - but you can also watch online at FutureShop.ca. Free registration required - limited to the first 1000 registrants.
If this goes well we may be doing events like this all across Canada.
Upcoming Radio Stuff
September 20, 2007
I’ll be on the Murray Wood Show, on NewsTalk 980 CJME in Regina and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan today from 1-2p Central Mountain time talking tech and taking calls.
I also recorded an interview with Kai Ryssdal on APR’s Marketplace yesterday. We talked about Google competitors like Powerset and Maholo. It should air on your local public radio station today or tomorrow. MP3s are available from the web site.
A Little Help Here
September 19, 2007
I love the “This Day In Leoville History” plug-in. On a blog like this with nearly seven years worth of posts it’s fun to go back in time. But you’ve probably noticed that a number of the entries are 404: file not found. They’re there, it’s just that they have punctuation in the title. For some reason Wordpress can see the entries, but the links don’t work.
For example, today you’ll see “2001: I’ve been farked” - something about the apostrophe throws off the permalink. The actual page is there but I can’t link to it.
Anyone have any experience with this? Got a fix? Maybe some sort of MySQL script to encode the non-text entities? Or a change to the default encoding? I’d appreciate any help you could offer. It’s kinda bugging me.
UPDATE: Ben had the right idea. I was using “pretty” permalinks that had the post title in the link. I changed it to year/month/day/post_id and that fixed the problem. Thanks for all your solutions!!
Drubbing In Progress
September 19, 2007
I love Scrabble, and have really been having fun with the Scrabulous application on Facebook.
I’m playing four games right now, and really losing one. To Dr. Tiki. He’s so good that he’s just toying with me now. All his moves have been for 20 and 30 points, but last move he played one for a measly eight. But I can see why.
He’s still winning by 23 points with just seven tiles left. Damn you Dr. Tiki.
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