web_services
THE DEATH OF INTERNET RADIO
The death of Internet radio is three weeks away. No fooling.
The recording industry collaborated with the media conglomerates that own virtually all conventional radio stations in the country to close down the Internet radio industry before it has a chance to develop into a true competitor. Congress and the Copyright Office jumped right in to help, under the auspices of the evil Digital Millenium Copyright Act. […] continued
Read moreTRAVEL WEB SITE SHENANIGANS
I had to chuckle (to avoid crying) reading this article about the squabbles between Orbitz, Travelocity and Expedia. At first, you’ll be sympathetic to the claims that Orbitz is competing unfairly by obtaining lower prices from its airline owners than are available to Travelocity and Expedia. But keep reading, and it becomes obvious that all three are would-be monopolists who have no interest in consumers, except to figure out the most effective ways to pick our pockets. […] continued
Read morePAY MUSIC SERVICES
The music industry’s pay services, RealOne and PressPlay, are worse than you realize. Read the details here, then do what I did – uninstall all the RealNetworks software from your system and ignore the industry’s efforts to provide “legal” sources of music until they come up with something that isn’t insulting. […] continued
Read moreYAHOO MAPS
Yahoo has created its own web site for maps, instead of relying on AOL’s MapQuest. Here’s an article about the corporate stuff, and here’s the new Yahoo map service.
KICK OUT THE JAMMIES
If you’ve got kids and a broadband Web connection, you might want to check out Kick Out The Jammies, a new online radio station for kids. The playlist ranges from “Itsy Bitsy Spider” and “Purple People Eater,” to Mozart, the Rolling Stones and Steven Sondheim. It stands out a bit because it’s created and operated by David Bowie. […] continued
Read moreONLINE STREAMING MUSIC
If you’ve got a broadband connection (DSL or cable) and you want to listen to some music, don’t overlook AOL Time Warner’s Spinner.com and Microsoft’s MSN Music. Both allow you to choose a channel from a long list of narrowly-targeted choices (Big Band jazz, Dixieland Jazz, Fusion, Ragtime, Smooth Jazz, and a couple of dozen more jazz channels, for example). […] continued
Read moreMICROSOFT PASSPORT
More and more online merchants are signing up to accept payments through Microsoft’s Passport system. It’s an important part of Microsoft’s long-term goal to take over the Internet and collect fees for every online transaction. I signed up. If you have a Hotmail account, you’re already plugged into the Passport system. […] continued
Read moreMULTIMEDIA WEB SITES
If you’re bored, here’s a couple of things worth looking for online (especially if you have a broadband connection):
- AtomFilms.com, one of the more creative sites playing streaming movies over the Internet. Check out Creature Comforts, an oddball five-minute film from Nick Park and Aardman Animations, creators of Wallace & Gromit.
ORBITZ.COM
Five major airlines are working to bring Orbitz.com online next month as a one-stop source for airline reservations. Every other human being connected with the travel industry is screaming bloody murder. The airlines have already squeezed commissions to travel agents and Orbitz looks like an effort to short-circuit the remaining agencies and the online travel services. […] continued
Read moreMICROSOFT TO CHANGE PASSPORT PRIVACY POLICY
Microsoft is hustling to revise its privacy policy for Passport and Hotmail, after a torrent of criticism from privacy advocates. (See my item on March 30.) Microsoft says it’s a terrible misunderstanding, just some old legalese that they forgot to update. Here’s an article about the gosh darned oversight.
MUSICNET DETAILS
RealNetworks and three of the five biggest music companies announced a new Net music service yesterday. Notably absent was Universal – the biggest catalog, but also the most vociferous opponent of online music – and Sony, busy developing its own service.
RealNetworks intends to operate the infrastructure and make the entire back catalog from the three companies available for download or streaming into your computer. […] continued
Read moreWEB LOGS
This is an interesting experiment for the bruceb news page! It’s constructed using Blogger.com, one of the most popular resources for creating an online journal. Here’s an article from MSNBC about the growth in public online journals and diaries.
Since I know you rely on my news updates, here’s a link to the old archives. […] continued
FINDLAW ACQUIRED BY WEST
If you’ve been using Findlaw for its wealth of law-related resources (including free California cases and codes), then you may be interested to learn that West Group has agreed to acquire Findlaw. Here’s an article with all the information known to date. Reading between the lines, it looks like Findlaw was running out of cash and West saw an easy and cheap way to upgrade its current web offerings. […] continued
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