The WIPO is getting sick

What kind of jackass would try and prevent blind people from getting books?

Turns out, the UN's World Intellectual Property Organization. See, copyright owners seem to think that blind people don't want electronic books to be available to them. So the whole Kindle "text to speech" system? Nope - some filthy dirty pirate might want to use that to (gasp!) get the book in audio format and spread it over the Internets! Oh, noes! Or what if someone develops a Braille based electronic reader, or a program that can translate normal text into Braille - well, they'd better get permission from the book's publisher first.

Of course, someone actually advocating that would have to be a pretty fracking horrible, awful person to suggest that. I mean, if you buy a book, you should be able to read it. So why would any publisher of a book want to restrict the ability to translate text to speech or Braille? What, they think a non-blind person will go "Man, this computer voice is so *awesome* compared to an actual human being - I'm never buying books on tape again!"

Next thing, they'll have to outlaw people reading the books out loud to their kids. Cause, you know, those stinking kids can just go buy the audio versions themselves for their bedtime stories. The little bastards.

Office 2008 for Mac still doesn't have full exchange support

Outlook 2001:  Full exchange support

Entourage 2004:  Partial exchange support - if you set up your Exchange server to use IMAP, LDAP for address book.  Calendar synching didn't happen

Entourage 2008:  Will it be fully Outlook feature compliant with Exchange?

<blockquote>"No," says Wilfrid, "it won't match 100% feature-for-feature to Outlook 2007. But we've made a lot of progress since 2004, and this has been the next step in our ongoing investment in Exchange support. We're closing the gap with each release."  Source:  <a href="http://apcmag.com/7842/office_2008_for_mac_fails_to_deliver_full_exchange_support">APC</a></blockquote>

You know, Microsoft, it's pretty bad when you can't make your own products with with <em>your own products</em>.  "Oh, we're working on it!"  How about heading down the hallway, sticking your head in the door and saying "Hey, Rhonda - got the specs on how Exchange does X?  Great - thanks!"

Nah. That would be too hard.  Might make Macs 100% compatible or something.  Heaven forbid, can't have that.

Blogged with Flock

That's it. I'm done with Digg Shouts

If you Digg Shout at me, I am removing you from my Friend's list. I don't give a crap about your story. If I post a diggable story, you can see it on your "Friend's Activity" list. You don't need me going "Heeeeeeyyyyy! Check me ooooouuuuuuuttttt! Please digggggg me!"

So - new rule: You shout at me for anything other than a real message like "Hey, I read your comment on X and had this thought I wanted to take offline", then you're off the friend list.

Pownce

So, I got an invite to Pownce.

And I guess I got a Pownce address.

...

Now what? Looks like YAB (Yet Another Blog) site. Anything special about Pownce I should care about?

iTunes and Amazon: Competition FTW!

Once again, from "Information Security Economics - and Beyond" by Ross Anderson and Tyler Moore:

In January 2005, Varian presented a surprising result [55]: that stronger
DRM would help system vendors more than the music industry, because the
computer industry is more concentrated (with only three serious suppliers of
DRM platforms – Microsoft, Sony, and the dominant firm, Apple). The content
industry scoffed, but by the end of that year music publishers were protesting
that Apple was getting too large a share of the cash from online music sales. As
power in the supply chain moved from the music majors to the platform vendors,
so power in the music industry appears to be shifting from the majors to the
independents, just as airline deregulation favoured aircraft makers and low-cost
airlines. This is a striking demonstration of the predictive power of economic
analysis. By fighting a non-existent threat, the record industry had helped the
computer industry forge a weapon that may be its undoing.

So now what's happening? Well, Amazon released 256-bit DRM free MP3's for $0.89 - and now Apple is about to get their Independent labels in at $0.99, DRM-free tracks.

I think the music industry "gets it" - that offering DRM free will let them break the power of Apple. By now, it's probably too late - Madonna, Nine Inch Nails, and others aren't using labels anymore, just concert promoter agencies. They're selling their own music directly, and pocketing more of the cash.

Still, if you're Apple, I guess you have to worry a little bit that someone else could dethrone you. (Looks at the Zune.) Maybe not.

iPhone bug

I have discovered a bug in the iPhone.

I have some lists set up that look like this:

Rule: Song that hasn't been played in 2 months
Select 1 GB at Random

This rule is so that I don't listen to the same songs over and over, and I always have 1 GB of stuff I like on my playlist. When I drive back and forth to work, I listen to Podcasts, and at work I listen to my music. When I get home and synch, my iPod reports to the main music library what songs I listened to, so they get replaced.

However, I also sync my iPod between 2 computers - one just for music, 1 just for the calendar. This means that my laptop shouldn't put any music on my iPhone - just sync to Outlook. Only my home PC is my music source.

But - if I sync my iPhone to my laptop, then sync it with my home system, my "listened to" music doesn't get registered as having been listened to - the playcount remains the same. However, if I *don't* plug the iPod into my laptop for calendar synching, then my main music library gets the message that I've listened to a song.

I guess what I'll have to do is wait to get home, sync with my home library, then sync with my laptop, then sync with my home library again.

Illegal immigration - half of the solution here

Crackdown of illegal immigrants on a NY slaughterhouse that employs 5500 has left them 1100 people short.

Now, that's one half of the illegal immigration problem. Now you need to fine the business for having hired illegals in the first place. You do that, and suddenly it becomes affordable to hire citizens.

I have too many fans

Lately, my Digg account has been getting a lot of "fans". This is where someone ads you to their friend's list, and you haven't added them.

Seems to be a lot of them, with comments like "Nice post!" or "Wow!" or "Check this out!" Yup - seems that Digg is getting its first spam bots.

And here I was thinking I was just popular.

Amazon MP3 store? Oh, lordy, yes.

For some time, there's really only been one choice for a good online store. Yes, there's cdbaby.com and others that sell stuff by independant artists. Don't get me wrong - I like independant artists, and if I hear a good song by an indy band, I'll go get it.

But there's some stuff I just like. Nirvana. The other day, I caught "Wayward Son" and went "Dang - I need that on my iPod!" And for that, it's the iTunes store all the way. The other stores, from Real to Wal-Mart and especially the Zune store, didn't work on anything but either a Microsoft Plays-for-Sure, or a Zune - which wasn't even Plays-For-Sure! What the hell was that about?

I liked the iTunes store. Easy to use, click, click, done. Good prices. Yeah, I was worried that some day if I ever left the world of iPod that my songs didn't work, but that's not going to happen soon.

But then - Amazon.

Le sigh.

MP3 files. No DRM. Works on anything that'll play MP3 files, from iPods to Sony to Microsoft to Joe Bob MP3 player. Has a downloader that works with Windows and OS X, and will have a Linux version soon. Not a huge library yet, but good sized. Prices cheaper than the iTunes store. Heck, way cheaper - the entire Pink Floyd "The Wall" was only $9 for a 2 CD set. 256 bit encoding, so it's so close to CD quality you can smell it.

I told my wife if she's going to buy a song online, let me know first, because I'd rather go to Amazon than iTunes at the moment. Bravo, Amazon.

You actually get it, and you got me to spend $20 on you already. Bravo.

Damn it, Windows!

Look, it's pretty damned simple. I have a laptop. I have an external monitor. The monitor is to the left of the laptop. I have the monitor to the left of the laptop. I have "Extend my display to this monitor" enabled so I can have two displays at once.

Then why is it every third day or so, I have to ****ing remind Windows "Hey, dumbass, the monitor is to the *left*, not the *right*?" Come on - I don't move it. It's not a new monitor or docking station.

Get it already!