Blue Sky On Mars

MS masters NC mind-set: “But what many are missing is the more dangerous threat behind this closed part of Microsoft’s so-called new open-standards approach to network computing. If Microsoft controls the management of user data and user authentication, it controls the flow of the services others can provide.” This article makes Passport sound a lot more
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Smart Tags and the Microsoft Problem Revisited: “Moral rights are a package of intellectual property rights granted to the original creator of a work, and include:

“ Michael Fraase says in his article that these rights are actually written into law in many countries.
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Yahoo! Groups : decentralization: “Because of the — and there’s no better word for it, we’re shocked –
uproar, the following changes are going to be made:
1. smart tags off by default (they were on by default to exercise the code,
get Watson crashes)
2. the user-overrides-authored-meta-tag option removed
3. no recognizers shipping in box. So until you do have a recognizer
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Here’s an interesting bit: the Evergreen Albums. It’s an analysis that takes time and platinum albums into account. I haven’t read the full analysis yet, but when I do, I’ll probably add some commentary here.

The Comic Reader brings us Coins of the Realm Part 2, an excellent comic strip style essay on the advantages of micropayments for musicians. (I wouldn’t say for the music industry, because a lot of industry middlemen would lose out.

Unisys Apologizes for Creating Unintended Consequences of the Computer Age: “Unisys Corporation today issued a public apology for the many human inconveniences resulting from its invention of UNIVAC I, the world’s first commercial computer, introduced on June 14, 1951.” This press release, which mentions things like not being able to do more than 5 minutes of work before being interrupted by an emailed joke, is an amusing way for Unisys to highlight the fact that 50 years ago they fired up the UNIVAC I.

News: Beware of wolves in agnostic’s clothing: “Consider the cost difference between producing useful software, and producing profitable retail software. To produce software, you need to develop the software, document it, and distribute it. In contrast, to make profitable software, add on these services: marketing, commercial distribution and retail channel development, package design and manufacture, sales, business development, advertising, public relations, and so on.
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Dave Winer is proposing Microsoft-Free Fridays as a response to Microsoft’s attempts to leverage their monopoly to increase their control over the Net/Web. It’s an interesting idea. His plan is to not allow access to his site using IE on Fridays. One blog, Unicast has already implemented this, and is talking about going so far as to not allow Windows users.
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The “Shortcuts” topic will be for multiple quick things that come up over a day or two. I could’ve called them “Quickies”, but then this site would be just a little too much like Slashdot without the discussions.
CNN brings us a fun little article about a Japanese company offering Godzilla meat. It’s really corned beef, but who’ll know? It probably should have been something that “tastes like chicken”.
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Salon.com Books | The morality police: “Cloaking themselves in concern for the welfare of children, censors have managed to successfully paint the people who oppose them as willing corruptors of children.” A lucid argument in defense of free speech that also takes the interesting perspective that minors are not all innocent and are also that there’s no proof that they’re harmed by the media.