Not to degenerate Venture Beat at all, but really a spat over attribution is one way to start out Monday morning, probably not the best one we could think of, but there it is all the same. Reminds me of academic honesty, there are no consequences for plagiarism on the internet, but boy do schools hammer students who do not properly attribute sources, and in some cases, to the point of bouncing students out of entire programs.
The whole story revolves around Ars Technica and Venture Beat, who both wrote about Apple IPhone penetration on the worldwide market. The striking similarity between maps and theory is there. If I was grading the paper, I would be running both of them through turitin and looking at more similarities along the way.
In a link from Paris Lemon points to Duncan Riley’s thoughts from 2007 on just how much does Ars Technica rip off story ideas? There is a certain amount of humor here though given our past encounter with someone claiming to be from Ars.
Our own issue with Ars Technica rolls around this article where they got all sorts of cranky pissed off because we quoted one of their articles. Hey who knew they didn’t like back links or attribution on their own right from another blog? Who knew we were a spam blog, really, we didn’t know that either.
Ars is Ars, they provide something and are popular, even if they hate backlinks, or do not properly attribute, in the end game, things like this happen, and while it is not right, Ars seems to be in their own universe when it comes to the blogging world. As long as they stay in their own universe things are ok and as long as they are not harassing us, that is even better.
We have seen this same issue played out all over the place, who owns the idea, who owns the content, and some ideas are just better than others. They inspire, and in reading the two articles, to me they seem very similar, again back to the school house and grading, I would be talking to both students about now.
Oh an on a closing note, we really dare Ars to come back and call us a spam blog again, because we linked to one of their articles with proper attribution.
tags: ars technica, venture beat, paris lemon, duncan riley, techwag, attribution, iphone, risk, map, spat
The apple update pushing safari on windows users is back, even if you said no the first time, the second round of updates for your apple software is busy wanting to install itself again. This is after all the hoopla about pushing software that people do not want, it looks like Apple update does not keep track of user preferences. This picture of the update screen was taken yesterday.
The real problem with this is that the Apple Macbook Air was hacked in 2 minutes at the latest Pwn to Own contest. This update presents a very real security threat for people who use this software, yet it looks like Apple update is still pushing the update, and the safari install.
The hack that was used was an undocumented hack, meaning there is no patch for this one, and this is a serious issue for people who are being subjected to the Apple Update.
This is dangerous and irresponsible for Apple to keep on pushing the update, it represents a very real security threat to people’s computers. They need to fix their update system so that people who say “no” to downloading and installing safari can keep their “no” preference.
Sure, we got notice for putting safari on computers that we had Itunes on, but you know as a Windows Vista and XP user, it was really simple to click on quit, no don’t want the crap ware update, and then move along to go do things that we were going to do with the computer anyways.
No down time, no loss of productivity, and most of all No Safari browser. Like I need three browsers on my desk top.
Then comes along a great read from “The Angry Drunk” who basically calls the unwanted but easily stopped safari update what it is ‘a whiny meme’. Heck if we are going to talk about “bad windows citizens” lets take a look at some real gangsters, bot net herders, virus writers, and that whole lot.
Second, bitching that anyone is a “bad” Windows citizen is the rhetorical equivalent of arguing that one turd in a sea of shit is particularly stinky. Microsoft is a bad Windows citizen. And I’ll tell you, having Safari magically appear on my computer pales in comparison to the times I’ve come back from lunch to find that all my work has been killed by a Windows update (the first fucker who tells me how to disable that gets tazed in the genitals…I know how to disable it). Source: The Angry Drunk
We all have our horror stories, and not that I am a drooling apple fan anyways, every OS has issues, every browser has issues, and every update has issues. This is why we have legions of crappy security people at every company short of a mom and pop or a super small startup. Seriously, that safari update just gave a lot of people a lot of job security because it has a lot of known ways of being hacked and broken. Not that any other browser is necessarily better or safer, or more standards compliant.
Pushing an update with some one’s bright idea of something that people would want, that is ok, because it is really simple to say “no”. If you don’t want it say no, but if you are a foaming at the mouth apple Ipod fan or Iphone fan without the MAC, hey you might want to try it, and if you have ever tried to navigate the apple web site it is a load of difficult to follow links and animations.
What would be interesting to see is what the install base looks like, we all know about the IE install base, and the Firefox install base, but how many times are those programs actually used? Install base is a joke, the push from apple was a joke, the whole meme is funny as hell. This is very easy to “get over” and just do the Nancy Regan thing, Just say No.
Digital distribution patents are at the heart of Zap Media’s patent infringement lawsuit in the great patent troll haven of Eastern District of Texas. The idea of delivering digital content is nothing new, the problem is going to be that just about everyone who delivers any kind of digital content is going to run smack into the Zap media patents.
ZapMedia wants royalties on Apple’s sales of iPods and iTunes music, which reached nearly $11 billion last year. The success of iTunes has helped make Apple the No. 2 music retailer in the U.S. behind Wal-Mart Stores Inc., according to market researcher NPD Group. The patents in question cover a way of sending music and other digital content from servers to multiple media players, a broad description that could also apply to a wide swath of other companies selling digital media and the devices to play it. Source: AP
The idea of patenting business methods is already coming under fire, and this might be one of the last big patent lawsuits when it comes down to that. The delivery of digital media is really a business process rather than an actual technology like an MP3 player. Delivering bits has been around since the dawn of the internet that is what the internet is all about.
Patents like this just make everyone’s life hard, if not impossible to do incremental improvements on a process.
I got an IPod classic for Christmas, and over the last 90 days it is growing more apparent that the simple act of owning the IPod has changed how I transport, use, and consume media.
While it is fun to bemoan the lack of choices on ITunes or even on Amazon (where I can get MP3’s that are not on ITunes), there is one point that is not arguable, that point is that I have not bought any physical media in the last 60 days.
In the mean time I have spent some 300 dollars on ITunes and Amazon buying digital media. That is 300 dollars I did not spend at a local music store undercutting my desire to shop locally. That is 300 dollars I did not spend at the local video store that is 300 dollars I did not use to rent a movie. That is 300 dollars that went right to Apple and to Amazon Unbox for MP3’s that were not in the ITunes catalog.
Congratulations Apple and Amazon, guess where I am spending all my entertainment dollars, all to feed an Apple IPod classic. I could have spent more though.
I would have and could have easily spent twice what I did spend if the shows were available for download. Companies are losing money because I won’t buy something that won’t work on my choice of player, or that the player won’t deal with the format. The media producers walked away from at least 300 dollars because the media was not in ITunes or broken fundamentally in a format war that costs. That format war cost the media 300 dollars, think about it. There is 300 dollars on the table, and the media companies walked away from it.
No physical media, no visits to the stores, no reason to visit a physical store. Barely coping with the lack of back catalog music, non-existent movies I would spend money on, TV shows that are caught up in a pissing match that I would have bought (come on BSG). While I am busy not spending money on things that I would have spent money on if they were available, the facts are there. New IPod, money to spend, nowhere to spend it for some stuff, and a complete lack of desire to visit any store with physical media.
Life changing? Probably not, interesting, yes, if a diehard physical media owner like me can be won over by something as simple as the IPod, no wonder why the media companies are choking.
Ever wanted to just get one song from the Battle Star Galactica sound track, ever wanted to find that one odd band out there so you can put it on your MP3 player? Ever wanted to purchase a movie only to find out that all the legal outlets do not have it.
Ever wanted something that you were willing to pay money for, but it is not available legally, on line, in the store, or from the creator?
Welcome to “why media pirates win”. The fun new game that pits a society that is accustomed to immediate gratification against the needs, wants and desires of media companies to maximize the money that they can make off of what they are producing.
Making money is good, very few companies are out there for long term survival working off the “free economy” that wired is so proud of talking about. If you read the article you will note that giving something away for free is good, as long as you are paying for it by selling something that is needed to make what you are giving away for free actually work.
Restrictions on media, DRM, interoperability issues along with non-availability of goods are all driving a thriving underground piracy process. It is not that people are not willing to spend money, the latest Nine Inch Nails experiment, along with the Radio Head pay what you think it is worth experiments show that free works, if you want the super deluxe edition, then you pay. You pay a lot, and there are enough people out there that are willing to be separated from their dollars.
Itunes, the Zune store all need to be more comprehensive, meaning they need to serving all the back catalog as well as the new stuff. The media companies need to get this, release quickly, release now, people will still buy the stuff. This is about the only real way to address the thriving underground that is supposedly hurting the industry. Although even that has been called into question so many times now that the argument has gone stale and dull.
It is not about more protection, it is all about interoperability and access. What we would not give for better access and availability to the many things that we would be willing to spend money on.
If you get the idea that we are getting frustrated with the ITunes store, you would have nailed the intent of this blog entry right on the head.
ZDNet reports that apple has posted its latest updates to the Apple gadget line. We are still going to hang out until the IPod Touch is available in the 160 Gig version, but if you want to go out and get the latest and greatest, then head on down to your local apple store and spend money.
The problem with incremental upgrades like this is that while they offer additional capacity, they offer additional odds and bobs, they really don’t end up offering everything that someone wants. While safe from a business viewpoint, sometimes it is best to wait until the gadget really has all the features that you want, or the features that someone has hacked into the system.
These gadgets can do more, as the apple Iphone hackers have shown, the problem is getting my 60 gig’s of stuff into a 32 gig Ipod Touch (ITouch), just not going to happen until it meets at least the capacity level of the classic Ipod. Small and cool, but in the longer run, probably a wait to purchase until the Iphone has 3G, the IPod Touch has at least 60 Gig’s. At least at that point, it starts making sense.
