Yahoo rents surf simulator for summer party [Caption Contest]
A faux-surfer bails on a compress-air wave at the summer party held on Yahoo's Sunnyvale campus yesterday. Have a better caption? The best one will become the new headline. Yesterday's winner: "Hotmail? Hot bride!" by sarahfu67. (Photo by Yodel Anecdotal)
July 3rd, 2008
Americans resign themselves to crappy Internet connections [Telcos]
If the latest study from Pew is any indication, most Americans have resigned themselves to what passes for broadband in the United States. 72 percent of cable and 62 percent of DSL subscribers are happy with their connection speeds, with only 24 percent demanding more bandwidth. Also, the digital divide is getting wider, with fewer lower-income households paying for cable or DSL plans. [GigaOm] (Photo by secretlondon123)
July 3rd, 2008
Will Ferrell promotes latest movie online with least funny clip ever [Startups]
Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly made an appearance at IBeatYou, the online video competition site founded by basketball star Baron Davis and Jessica Alba baby daddy Cash Warren, to promote the comedy duo's new flick Step Brothers. Ferrell calls out Adam McKay, his production partner and cofounder of FunnyOrDie, another LA-based online video startup, to participate in the staring contest Ferrell kicks off with his costar.
One has to wonder if Ferrell isn't trying to undermine the competition, however, considering how not-funny the clip is. Neither Ferrell nor Reilly can seem to decide who's the straight man and who's the goofball. IBeatYou should probably stick to promoting itself with Jessica Alba — 758 users participated in her staring contest, compared to twelve so far for Ferrell and Reilly.
July 3rd, 2008
EMI sues Hi5 and VideoEgg for listening to EMI [Copyfight]
Record label EMI may have tired of suing individual file sharers for copyright infringement. But a number of music-industry plaintiffs, all partners and subsidiaries of EMI, are suing social network Hi5 and advertising startup VideoEgg in New York Southern District Court for copyright infringement. According to the complaint [PDF]:
While each of the defendants has the right, ability and legal obligation to prevent infringement of plaintiffs’ copyrighted works, they have allowed infringement to go unchecked, content to profit handsomely from advertisements that appear side-by-side with infringing content.
What's particularly about the suit is that EMI's strategy seems to imply that because VideoEgg used technology like Audible Magic and human review to filter copyrighted content from the company's servers, it's more liable, not less.
No wonder YouTube took so long to install filtering software, which has long been demanded by rightsholder organization like the Recording Industry Association of America. In a prepared statement, VideoEgg argues the suit is without merit and asserts that it upheld the law under the DMCA:
VideoEgg has consistently worked to employ best practices to protect content owners. We took all the steps necessary to avoid copyright infringement issues, including systemwide deployment of Audible Magic, the leading provider of content identification services. Moreover, we have never received a takedown notice from EMI nor any of its affiliated companies.
Moreover, the company's deal to provide Hi5 with video uploading services for the social network's users ended in April, so it can not be accused of continuing to enable new cases of infringement. What's worrisome is that EMI is going after a company for doing exactly what the RIAA asked — pro-actively policing its network for infringement. And where's ostensibly tech-savvy former Googler Douglas Merrill in all of this? Somebody needs to explain to EMI's legal team how bad it looks trying to punish one of the companies actually doing their bidding.
July 3rd, 2008
Is Barack Obama's online campaigning truly interactive, or just an ATM? [Politics]
While political pundits gasp with awe at the amount of money Barack Obama has been able to raise online, the leftist wonks at Alternet are ringing the alarm bell over the candidate's support of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act amendments pending in Congress. The bill would broadly expand executive powers to conduct warrantless wiretaps, as well as grant immunity to telcos which voluntarily participated in the illegal surveillance of American citizens at the current administration's request.
A group of supporters are lobbying the Democratic senator to change his position on the bill on his campaign social network, MyBO. The question is, will Obama actually take serious policy suggestions from supporters using the same website he's already using to mobilize volunteers and, more importantly, raise more cash than any presidential candidate in history? The Magic 8-Ball says "very doubtful." (Photo by AP/Jae C. Hong)
July 3rd, 2008
Boing Boing's relationship with Violet Blue comes full circle [Nerdfight]
Sex blogger Violet Blue may have tried to ride the Boing Boing coattail express to microfame by airing grievances publicly. But once upon a time she waged the same kind of war on Boing Boing cofounder Xeni Jardin's side against Matthew Neal Sharp, curator of xenisucks.com, and the New York Times. Now, after the bad breakup between the two bloggers became serious business, another gentleman has put a thumb in the third eye of the popular catalog of eclectic ephemera by creating violetbluevioletblue.net — a directory of formerly wonderful things from Boing Boing that featured Blue, deleted by Jardin from the site a year ago.
I'd make a "so meta" joke here, but apparently you pseudomodernists are beyond that by now. In a further twist, site creator Ed Hunsinger is perfectly within his rights to un-unpublish work from Boing Boing under the site's Creative Commons license noncommercially, as long as it's properly attributed — though that does shut him out of turning his traffic into pageview gold with ads brokered by, say, Boing Boing band manager John Battelle's Federated Media. Yes, the wheel in the sky keeps on turning.
July 2nd, 2008
Is the Asperger's Gambit today's Twinkie Defense? [Hans Reiser]
Attorneys for software developer and convicted murder Hans Reiser are now trying to convince a judge and jury that their client is "mentally incompetent," having portrayed what looked like attempts to cover up a crime as the misunderstanding of social cues. Their suggestion: Reiser has the mild form of autism known as Asperger's syndrome. If successful, Reiser would be jailed at a mental institution instead of with the general population, where the resemblance to Tobias "Toby" Beecher on HBO's Oz would not serve him well. Sentencing is scheduled for Wednesday, July 9th. (Photo by AP/D. Ross Cameron)
July 2nd, 2008
Hotmail? Hot bride! [Caption Contest]
Sabeer Bhatia, the Hotmail founder who gleaned a cool $400 million in the email startup's sale to Microsoft, got married this year to the gorgeous Tanya Sharma, heiress to the Baidyanath Group fortune. This picture of the bride and groom from the nuptials held on "the exclusive Malaysian Island of Langkawi" was published by our new favorite anonymous blogger covering the Indian tech and outsourcing scene who promises further dish. Have a better caption? The best one will become the new headline. Yesterday's winner: "I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do." by kadedworkin.
July 2nd, 2008
Vinod Khosla bets on all the horses, but saddles up with Obama campaign [Politics]
Accel Partners' Joe Schoendorf has asserted in the past that betting against venture capitalist Vinod Khosla is a good way to lose money. One reason why is because Khosla covers his bets — in the primary election cycle, Khosla donated the maximum amount allowable for an individual, $2,300, to the campaigns of Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Barack Obama. Since 1986, the India-born venture capitalist has given a total of $63,800 to Democrats and $19,400 to Republicans. But now that the primary season is over and Obama and McCain are due to be coronated by their parties at the summer conventions, which horse will Khosla be riding?
Obama. He's joined the Democratic senator's "India Policy Team." But there's more to it than just ties to India. Khosla is also a big investor in ethanol production, and is pictured here with General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner, and Bill Roe, president of ethanol manufacturer Coskata. Obama has taken large donations from ethanol lobbyists and pandered to corn growers as a strategy to boost support in conservative southern Illinois during his run for the senate. Obama can certainly turn to Khosla to argue the merits of turning food into fuel by proxy. Personally, I'm just surprised Khosla has offered no support for presumptive American prime minister Amitabh Bachchan. (Photo by AP/Gary Malerba)
July 2nd, 2008
Steve Jobs accused of fraud in class-action suit [Lawsuits]
Last Friday, shareholder plaintiffs filed suit against San Jose District Court against Apple CEO Steve Jobs, former CFO Fred Anderson, ex-general counsel Nancy Heinen, and members of the company's board of directors looking to reclaim the $7 billion in lost stock value when the company restated its financials in the wake of a — let's say it — hopelessly boring stock-option scandal that takedown-hungry journalists cared about far more than their readers. Let's be real: If anyone really cared about Jobs's fudging of stock-options grant dates, would it have taken so long to drum up some outraged shareholders? This smells of bored lawyers. The old-news complaint:
The defendants knew that options were not granted on the dates that were disclosed to shareholders and falsified the company's records to create the appearance of illegality, and thus bear direct responsibility for their actions.
A previous suit was dismissed because the actions by Apple directors and executives in 2000 and 2001 were too old for courts to consider. We're not sure yet what's so different about this case, except that it's well-timed for bad publicity ahead of the iPhone 3G launch.(Photo by AP/Paul Sakuma)
June 30th, 2008
@tigerbeat Obama: "They did that on the idea of God-given inalienable rights." Actually, I thought those truths to be self-evident. My bad.
June 30th, 2008
@dearsarah Ex-communists make the best capitalists. My fear is being lured by the sweet song of monied sirens into a baptism by liquidity.
June 30th, 2008
Did I just get invited to my first VC party? Via Facebook? Not my fault -- couldn't set "politics" on profile to "revolutionary socialist."
June 28th, 2008
My three favorite menswear blogs
I admit, I’m more than a bit of a reactionary when it comes to fashion, particularly menswear. I’m sure in some circles, once upon a time, my attitude that every man should tie their own tie and anyone over twenty five should have at least one good suit and a selection of sportcoats would [...]
June 28th, 2008
After twelve hours of sleep, butter and pickles on a feta and scallion roll and a large coffee with lots of cream, now feeling much better.
June 27th, 2008
Dear Kink: Really love what you've done for the old armory building. The drapes especially. Truly a porn castle. Sincerely yours, Jackson
June 26th, 2008
Just passed my pageview quota today, so the rest of the month in traffic is bonus gravy. Which tastes so good on sandwiches. Mmmmmm, gravy.
June 26th, 2008
After twelve posts today you can stick a fork in me, because I'm done. Thankfully, only one more day before @owenthomas returns from vacay.
June 23rd, 2008
Hip-hop still alive, and maturing, after turning 30: http://tinyurl.com/3mka6f Yes, two Canadians have created "Bash'd: A Gay Rap Opera."
June 23rd, 2008
Dance Off with the Star Wars Stars 2008
June 23rd, 2008
Bumped my head on a cabinet, and got a typical sore lump. What's weird is that I also have a numb area around my ear. A little freaked out.
June 22nd, 2008
Unavailable by phone or email for over 48 hours, I was worried the Internet might have asploded. Thankfully, "2 Girls, 1 Cup" lives on.
June 20th, 2008
On the way to the Sierras for CampCamp 5.0. Thanks to EVDO, I'll be blogging at 70mph on Eastbound I-80 and knee deep in the Truckee by 5pm.
June 18th, 2008
@jonnodotcom In the Carolinas, really big ones are called "Palmetto Bugs," but with the resemblence, methinks it's a colloquial euphemism.
June 18th, 2008
@timstreet gives me the details you won't get from embargoed PR on YouTube's new "Screening Room." http://tinyurl.com/6syqkr Thanks, Tim!
June 18th, 2008
Jackson Cell031.jpg
Jackson West posted a photo:
T-Mobile
the nabe the nabe
June 18th, 2008
Manning a solo shift at the 'Wag, crazed with the awesome power to confuse and annoy the technoblogamemesphere. Muwahahahahaha! Muwa. Haha.
June 16th, 2008
Abundantly full male nudity fest: American Crime ** Kung Fu Panda *** Zohan * Sarah Marshall ** Onion Movie ** SATC * Hulk ** Stop-Loss ***
June 15th, 2008
Okay, found the Netflix number via Hacking Netflix: http://www.hackingnetflix.com/ I'm getting six months refunded. So that ended well.
June 15th, 2008
Netflix has been billing me for ten months for a cancelled account, has no 800 number and refuses to let me contact customer service online.