Brilliant in its simplicity
David Weinberger and Dave Winer agree! This, from Joho, is a brilliant little nugget about the Web that originated (of all places) with Jakob Nielsen (aka the Godfather).

Winer on Links and Trust

"Links are the stuff of the Web and every link is a little - little - act of selflessness: 'Here's someplace else you might find interesting, so go away from my site. Go! Scoot!' Businesses obsessed with 'sticky eyeballs' are the last ones to figure this out."

posted by Eric J | 12:39 PM

Transition
You may notice some changes happening to this blog over the next few days. I'm moving everything over to Movable Type. That's right. I'm actually putting the finishing touches on a similar transition for another blog. It's really not too bad. The import features works better than I could have imagined. Ben and Mena Trott deserve a big hand. And a round of applause too ;)
posted by Eric J | 11:11 PM

Syndirella
For those of you who just can't get enough blogs and news feeds, Syndirella is an outstanding news reader. Simple interface, intuitive navigation, and slick integration with the browser. One caveat: it's Windows only and requires the .NET Framework. Most of us have to use a Windows machine at work anyway, so this is a perfect way to waste time at work without blatantly surfing the web.
posted by Matt Wood | 4:31 PM

Web inventor peers into the future
In a recent interview posted on the BBC's website Tim Berners-Lee takes a moment to look into his crystal ball and explain what he thinks the future of the web looks like and gives a great explanation of what everyone means by the "semantic web."
posted by Lannie Byrd | 4:13 PM

Take that you RIAA $#!&@?
This story is just too awesome. I'll be smiling all freaking day. Looks like the RIAA wrongly sued some 65-year-old lady. Brings all those other suits into question, which is EXACTLY what I was pointing out last week when bitching about how the RIAA knew to name that 12-year-old girl in another suit.

Anyway, the story (from the EFF) says that the Recording Industry Withdraws Music Sharing Lawsuit. Here's a couple of wonderful little quotes:

What was the problem? The recording industry charged Ward with sharing songs using the KaZaA filesharing software, but she owns only a Macintosh computer which cannot run KaZaA.

"The Sarah Ward case demonstrates the reckless, frightening nature of the recording industry's campaign against ordinary Americans," said Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Legal Director Cindy Cohn. "These record labels violated her privacy, sued her for potentially millions of dollars, and forced her to hire a defense lawyer before finally recognizing that they had no case against her."

Brilliant you freakin' boneheads. How do you spell abuse with only four letters? RIAA!
posted by Eric J | 9:59 AM

The damndest thing
I know that nobody will believe me but if you use Blogger then maybe you'll understand this post. I never go into my blog settings for any reason. Just no need to. So, imagine my surprise when I got a publishing error and noticed that my ftp path had been changed to the path I had last year with my old host. Very odd. All fixed now but it was rather frustrating. Good thing I'm so damn brilliant.
posted by Eric J | 8:22 PM

A simple solution
So the FTC's Do Not Call List is "On Hold" (headline writers everywhere salivate at such puns) and millions of Americans fear their evening meals will be interrupted by the despicable telemarketer (telemarketus interruptus).

What amazes me is that nobody seems to realize that there is a solution that will satisfy both the poor sap interrupted at dinner and the telemarketing industry at the same time. Of course nobody's asked me (as usual) but I do have this solution and it's brilliant in its simplicity.

Require, by law, that every telemarketer provide his/her real name and home phone number to anyone who requests it during a telemarketing call. Simple huh?

Think of all the problems this would solve. You listening FTC?
posted by Eric J | 6:41 PM

Internet Access Restored... for now
The RoadRunnner guy stopped by to "check on things" at about 11 a.m. Nice guy really. Smiles and jokes. He hooked up a new modem, tested the line (?) and walked into the backyard to "look things over." He soon returned to inform me that he'd just spoken to HQ and discovered that my entire area Hub had been down since Saturday and the "Hub guys" were working on it that very minute.

Oh really!?!

So I sat at home between 8 and 11 (well Noon actually) so someone could walk up and tell me that a mystery crew is repairing my service. Brilliant. He explained that the Hub caused my entire area to go down and that there was nothing else he could do while he climbed into his van and drove off. Deja Vu. The guy I called Saturday said the exact same thing. Brilliant.

But wait, there's more!!!

I called up RoadRunner to get some sort of an estimate on when the outage would be repaired. A week? 10 days? 6 months? Any sort of estimate. The nice lady on the phone said she just didn't have that info. So I asked for the supervisor. Marcell picked up the phone and explained that the crew working on the problem didn't even know when it would be repaired? Excuse me? You mean that nobody at Time Warner/RoadRunner has a clue about when this Hub will be fixed? It may take ten years but nobody knows. Maybe an hour. Nobody knows.

I illustrated the ridiculousness of this fact by describing a fictional situation to Marcell where I drop my car off with a mechanic. Before I leave I ask the mechanic how long he thinks it will take to fix the car. Mechanic shrugs and says, "No idea."

I ask for some sort of estimate and he says that there's absolutely no way of knowing. I ask, "A week? 10 days? A year?" and he shrugs again explaining that he just can't say.

Then I ask Marcell if this would be acceptable to him and he startles me by saying, "Yes, sometimes they just don't know. I left my car at Covington Pike Toyota for a month once, waiting on parts."

Oh crap. So this explains the problem. RoadRunner is staffed by people who like being jerked around and don't mind being screwed. If it were me, I'd turn the car around and head for another mechanic. But not Marcell. He just grins and bears it.

It was during our conversation that my RoadRunner service blinked back on so I really didn't have a reason to argue with him any longer. I thanked him for his time and hung up but I'm still baffled that he didn't find it odd that absolutely nobody had a clue of when the problem would be fixed.

Oh well, it's all working fine right now. I sure hope it lasts. How long do I hope it lasts? I dunno, I can't really give an estimate.
posted by Eric J | 12:18 PM

Awesome!
A List Apart, for people who make websites { tease }
posted by Eric J | 2:46 PM

Dropped the AOL...
AOL Time Warner recently decided to drop AOL from its name thus becoming Time Warner... again. Time Warner owns RoadRunner, the Cable Modem based broadband ISP... which decided to drop my service today. Ironically I'm using AOL dialup to post this note about Time Warner's RoadRunner ISP being out of commission... until Tuesday?!?

After waiting 23 minutes on hold a RoadRunner technician informed me that he was one of only two technicians working today and that he'd arrange for some service guys to wake me up early Tuesday morning to figure out why my service suddenly died.

Oddly enough, I'm not angry about this whole situation. It's weird. I should be angry but I'm not. Maybe because I don't have a ton of Web project deadlines looming over me or maybe I've just become so accustomed to getting screwed by RoadRunner service that I almost enjoy it now?

Whatever the reason I think this is a good reason to take a few days off from blogging and go outside to enjoy the nice weather before I must begin thinking about the imminent leaf raking.
posted by Eric J | 9:04 PM

Remainder Links Get Steroids
Shaw, of American Feed Magazine fame, has joined our motley crew to add little linky nuggets to the ever popular webraw remaindered links. The remaindered link idea was "borrowed" from Jason Kottke but we're blazing our own trail here by providing... uh... different links than Kottke. Or maybe the same ones. I don't know. I guess we're not really blazing anything here but at least we have links, served up piping hot.

I'm addicted to bad metaphors. Please help.
posted by Eric J | 9:40 AM

Goodbye Cubey
Our old friend cubicle dweller calls it quits. Hamster enthusiasts around the world mourn.
posted by Matt Wood | 10:29 AM

Good Rotation
Finally got around to installing and testing the Hiveware image rotator. Big improvement over the JavaScript solution I've used in the past. So anyway, I put together a little tester page that cycles through all the graphic images used on this site and sizes them at 250 pixels wide and 100 pixels tall regardless of their true size. I also set the page to refresh every 5 seconds. Maybe it's just me but it seems kind of neat to see all those site graphics displayed out of context and at unintended sizes.

So enjoy or ignore. The choice is yours. Refreshing Page
posted by Eric J | 4:05 PM

Let's ask some questions
Is it just me or is there something really strange about this whole RIAA lawsuit against a 12-year-old girl? We know that the suit was settled for $2,000 and that everyone (except the RIAA I guess) thinks it's horrible to sue little girls but do we really know the whole story?

I'm no lawyer (surprise) but I do have some questions to ask that I haven't heard anyone else asking:

1. How did the RIAA actually name the 12-year-old honor student (Brianna LaHara) in this lawsuit? If she was 12 then I assume that her ISP was under her mother's name. Also that the computer itself was purchased by her mother. It was at her mother's house and all the bills were probably paid by her mother. How did the RIAA know to sue Brianna and NOT the mother? How were they able to track down the file swapping to this little girl?
2. I think there is some sort of Child Protection act where children under 13 can't log into things without their parent's permission. I'm kind of fuzzy on this law but since she is 12, I guess I'm wondering how her name became involved in this at all. Let's assume that the RIAA tracked her down because she used her real name or something. Legally her mother would have been required to sign some sort of waiver to give the girl permission. Wouldn't this make the mother responsible and not the little girl? And if so, why wasn't the mother the one named in the suit?

Maybe I'm just ignorant of how all this legal stuff works. It just seems really odd to me. Something doesn't quite fit. Let's say my ISP is signed up under my wife's name, paid for with her checks, and our Kazaa service was registered with her information (assuming we had Kazaa, which we don't). Now, let's say I do all the file swapping and she merely pays the bills. How would the RIAA figure out that it was me doing the swapping?

Maybe the RIAA called up the mom and said, "Who's swapping files in your house?" and the mom said, "Brianna." Could it be that simple? Maybe so, but I do want some answers.
posted by Eric J | 2:24 PM

Sign This Petition
If you haven't signed the EFF: RIAA Petition then you should do so now. Not sure what good will come of it but it is better than just sitting on your ass and watching the RIAA turn the Internet into a policing network.
posted by Eric J | 4:12 PM

RAGE!
I don't know how I've missed this news from Zeldman about browser patents. Been busy doing other stuff I guess. Well, now I've read it and I'm seething. At the moment I'd like nothing better than to grab everyone at Eolas, drag them into the street and beat the living hell out of them. This particular case is exactly the reason that patent and copyright laws must be revised NOW!

The whole point of both patent and copyright law is to protect the artist/inventor and provide an incentive for innovation. Without some type of protections, the argument goes, then artists and inventors would not create and we'd enter some sort of cultural and technological black hole (whatever). Now, what I'm wondering is why isn't half a billion dollars enough incentive to create this "plug-in" technology? Why take the money AND force IE to be handicapped? Especially if Eolas isn't going to offer up their own browser. Why not say, "Hey, we got all this cash, we're happy. Let the Web continue on its merry path."

I'm too mad to think clearly right now. I'm enraged. There is absolutely NO justification for this to occur. I wonder if there is a jury involved with this ruling at some point. I'd like to meet them and bitch slap them till they cry like little babies. I'm sorry for my juvenile rant but if this doesn't prove that the state of IP is dying quickly then I don't know what does. I guess behind all this rage is a deep sadness because I realize that the spirit of sharing and innovation and excitement that created the Web (and the Internet) is simply a thing of the past.
posted by Eric J | 11:32 PM

Oh yeah, Blogging!
REWIND<<<
This day last year I lamented the fact that I rarely met or knew anyone who had ever heard of blogging. My how times have changed. This week was the first time in a long while that I ran in to someone who had not heard the term blog. We've even got a couple of blogs running at work now. Blog Blog Blog. It's finally a household term... almost.
posted by Eric J | 2:05 PM

Goodbye Man in Black
We'll miss you Man In Black. You were one of a kind and the world just isn't the same without you.
posted by Eric J | 9:30 AM

We Remember
Pausing a moment to reflect on the events of September 11, 2001, and how our lives changed forever on that infamous day.
posted by Eric J | 4:24 PM

The stupid things that make us smile
Last month I mentioned that my name was the second search result on Google. It's called Ego-surfing and yes, it is sort of sad. Anyway, it turns out that my name is pretty common (especially in Europe) so it made me smile today when I realized that a Google search for Eric Janssen yields this site as the number one result.

I should note that getting your first and last name to yield a top result isn't all that impressive in the grand scheme of things. The true test of Web dominance and popularity is when just your first name yields a top Google result. It's too bad my first name is also the acronym for the Educational Resources Information Center.
posted by Eric J | 1:14 PM

Free Blogger Hoodie!
UPDATE: Important Blogger Pro Announcement

Regular readers of this blog (and the irregular ones too) know of my intermittent frustration with Blogger service over the past year. While I'm pretty forgiving for the occasional service outtage, it was Blogger's inability to properly communicate with customers that received my ever growing ire. However, tonight I got an email reminding me once again, of why Blogger isn't so bad after all. The email is from Evan Williams (Blogger co-founder) and basically says that regular Blogger users will soon enjoy all the Blogger Pro features. He also thanks the Pro subscribers for funding the company while it was struggling and a bunch of other fun stuff. The best part is the very end where he says that we (all Pro subscribers I guess) get a Free Blogger Hoodie. Now that makes me smile.

I just signed up for mine. Thanks Blogger. Thanks for making me smile.
posted by Eric J | 10:37 PM

Public Relations Fun
Saw this at Slashdot and thought it was too good to pass up. The RIAA has apparently sued a 12-year-old girl for downloading music. The report says she lives in a "city Housing Authority apartment" with her mother and 9-year-old brother. Besides the obvious PR problems this story creates, there was a particular quote that caught my attention.

"Usually, they listen to songs without recording them. 'There's a lot of music there, but we just listen to it and let it go,' Torres said."

Interesting. I wonder how many Web neophytes believe that this practice exonerates them from any legal action from the RIAA?
posted by Eric J | 11:54 AM

Deep Linking Policies Deep Sixed?
While the recent spate of RIAA lawsuits has infuriated many consumers as well as privacy advocates, there is some good news today in the land of copyrights. A Dutch court ruled today that documents and links about The Church of Scientology are legal and that ISPs are not directly responsible for the content of their customers.

The ruling has no impact on the RIAA situation but it is encouraging because the "little guy" actually prevailed against the lawyers and finances of the powerful Scientologists. A side effect of this ruling could be the legal end of stupid linking policies set by corporations. The anti-deep link crowd has never had much legal ground to stand on but now that real estate has gotten considerably smaller.

On a related note: I wonder if anyone knows the Operating System and Software used by the individuals named in the RIAA lawsuits. I would love to know that. If it turns out that they were all using Kazaa or Morpheus on Windows XP then we all know what will happen as a result. I have a hunch that none of the defendents are Mac users (though statistically that's probably a pretty safe hunch). I also have a question. How does the RIAA actually know who to name? Do they participate in the file sharing and log the IP when downloading a song? I mean, how does that work exactly?
posted by Eric J | 9:24 PM

Google's cache copy
I admit that I really like using Google. I don't like some of the things Google does but as a search engine, Google has been the best product I've ever used. One of my favorite Google features is the wonderful Google Cache. However, until today I've never even considered the possible legal problems associated with the Caching feature.

Reading "Google's cache copy" at the Google Watch site has caused me to rethink my feelings about the beloved Google Cache.

Is it copyright violation or isn't it? And if not, what is the difference between offering a cached copy of a Web page and a "cached copy" of an mp3? Both are protected by copyrights. What is the difference between Google serving up thousands of "cached" mp3s and millions of cached Web pages? Why is Google allowed to serve up copyrighted material while I'm not allowed?

These are questions that I want answered. The amount of hypocrisy surrounding copyright laws and their enforcement continues to amaze. I don't want Google to stop caching pages, I just want some answers.
posted by Eric J | 7:14 PM

Google Me Elmo
By now you're probably aware that Google pulled links to Kazaa imitators under pressure from the DMCA. Google received this letter from the owners of Kazaa and subsequently yanked the links from their service. However, part of Google's efforts to explain their actions result in a link (bottom of page) to the page listing all of the omitted URLs. That's beautiful. So, even though they de-linked the "offenders" Google still provides a way to find the sites. I'm not a big fan of de-linking but if you must comply, this is the best way to do so. And, for the hell of it, I'm posting all the links removed from Google. Believe it or not I've never used Kazaa and the only link I recognize is Zeropaid.

http://www.kazaagold.com

http://mp3download.com

http://www.kazaalite.tk

http://www.kaaza.com

http://doa2.host.sk

http://www.k-lite.tk

http://www.kazaa-file-sharing-downloads.com

http://www.kazaalite.nl

http://home.hccnet.nl/h.edskes/mirror.htm

http://www.kazaa-download.de

http://www.zeropaid.com

http://www.kazaalite.nl/downloads.htm

http://kazaa.infos-du-net.com

http://www.kazaa-lite.tk

http://www.kazaa-lite.info
posted by Eric J | 9:49 PM

Offline Competition
Universal to Cut Prices of Its CD's: Finally, somebody is actually thinking of a way to combat "piracy"... by direct competition. I'll cautiously watch the results of this price cutting but I know that I'll be in line to buy a couple of cheaper CD's. By doing this, Universal is participating in a traditional retail maneuver of slashing product prices (aka Sale) to entice consumer purchases.

Why has it taken them so long to put their CD prices on a diet? Who knows but I speculate that it's mainly due to their addiction to the outrageous profit margins on each CD sale.
posted by Eric J | 8:01 AM

This is what we wanted all along
You remember those surreal Qwest commercials where the guy walks into some dilapidated hotel and asks the clerk if they have a movie channel or something? She responds by saying they have every movie, ever made on demand anytime, 24/7. He mutters "How is that possible" and we learn that Qwest makes it possible. I didn't really care for the ad but the idea behind it is exactly what I want and I doubt I'm wrong in assuming it's what most people want, especially the evil file swappers.

Reading this recent Washington Post article about virtual delivery got me pretty excited. The system being developed is exactly what the Qwest commercial was talking about. If it becomes a reality, and I can have any movie and any song on demand at any time, I'll gladly plop down $40 or whatever a month to get that service. I'm less interested in having a physical copy of something and more interested in being able to enjoy it whenever I want, at a reasonable price.

And this very idea is exactly the type of thinking that will keep the music and film industry from dying a death of irrelevance. Providing customers exactly what they want will terminate any need for questionable (p2p) alternatives.

We'll see what happens in the next couple of years. These types of technology predicitons have a tendency to stall.
posted by Eric J | 10:02 PM

RSS vs. Email
The recent SPAM crisis has e-publishers looking for alternatives to e-mail. This article "Is RSS the Answer to the Spam Crisis?" discusses how some are using RSS as an alternative to the now classic e-mail newsletter. While a total embrace of RSS tempts the blogger in me, I must side with the e-mail newsletter crowd (partially at least) for three reasons:

1. People don't always know what they want. As odd as this may sound it's true. You may not ask for Uncle Albert to send you that funny joke or reassuring quote but there it is, in your inbox and you're glad it's there. And it's those special, unrequested e-mails that actually keep SPAM alive and keep e-mail as a vital part of our daily communication. And it's that mindset, needing to be available to those we don't know or who aren't in our address book, that makes e-mail a great space for subscription-based newsletters. People regularly turn to the inbox for communication and adding a desired newsletter to the pile makes perfect sense to that mindset.

2. People don't read RSS feeds. One argument for RSS replacing newsletters is that more people read them than e-mail. My response is, "no they don't." Maybe at this moment it seems that way but if you're really honest, a newsletter in RSS form is just as likely to be read as a newsletter in e-mail form. It's all about the content.

3. Personal Bandwidth. RSS is a much larger strain on personal bandwidth than e-mail. I know the arguments but without some sort of pushing technology a hit must be made regularly to check for changes. E-mail doesn't do that.
posted by Eric J | 6:56 PM

Where are they now?
UPDATE: Shortly after posting this I received an email from Bloglet. It was the same site update email that I once received regularly when I subscribed to the service. I haven't gotten any communication from Bloglet in months. However, after this post about the service I get this email update. Bizarre.

---

Is anyone really still using Bloglet? I had it set up on this blog for a few months and found it more of an annoyance than a feature. While on the subject, does anyone really use audblog?
posted by Eric J | 9:37 AM