David Emery Online

Friday Links XXVII

25 August 2007

WordPress.com Growth – I wonder what other big sites are out there that we don’t realise are big?

Tom Coates: This is not a brothel… – very interesting thread about PR interaction with bloggers. Our words are not for sale etc.

Little Shops of Horrors – this is pretty much the main reason I dislike record stores; they not very useable.

Banner Blindness: Old and New Findings – banner adverts really only work for the person selling the space, not the advertiser.

Think of a Will as a Program You Can Only Test By Dying – “Of course, there is one additional reason that legal documents are so long: Many lawyers are paid by the hour.”

Yahoo! Audio Search – mmm, quite nifty. I partially like the inline, mini JS audio players.

Subversion, Bug Tracker, Sponsored Links, Oh My! – hmmm, I don’t think the insertion of adverts like this into free software is a particularly nice way of doing business.

Apple & The DRM Free Market Madness – the interesting bit is this: ”...broadband provider neuf Cegetel has unveiled plans that let its subscribers pay an additional EUR 4.99 a month for access to the entire catalog of Universal Music Group’s 150,000 songs and 3,000 video clips. How long before others jump into the business?”. Exactly what value does recorded music have again?

In France, Music Will Be Free – Exactly what value does recorded music have again?

YouTube Rolls Out In-Video Ads – it’s worth pointing out (as it’s been slightly buried) that these ads will only show up on videos posted by video produces that have agreements with YouTube; they’re not going to start showing up on every video (yet).

gBox: Give The Gift Of DRM-Free Music – yet another crack at unseating iTunes and – like all the others – fails in the most important hurdle: user experience. Not only that, but it only works on Windows, which is rather short sighted in a market (music consumers) that is about 20% Mac using.

Super Super: Like Nothing and Everything – I can’t decide whether this is amazing or appalling.

PlayStation to record digital TV – very nifty addition to the PS3s arsenal. And just when I’d decided to get a 360…

The Serif: Nintendo Advertising – this is just inspired.

iPhone unlocked: AT&T loses iPhone exclusivity, August 24, 2007, 12:00PM EDT – I find it very interesting Apple hasn’t locked down all the iPhone hacking with the 2 firmware releases we’ve had so far.

Content-Aware Image Sizing – very, very nifty.