BRUCEB NEWS
Spotify Unwrapped 2019: My Top Ten List Is 260% Better Than Last Year
Spotify has launched its annual Spotify Wrapped website, where you can look back on your year of music listening, including your top artists and top songs. You’ll find a new playlist in the Spotify app with your most-played songs from 2019. It's the end of...
PRINTER MANUFACTURER FUN
It should be fun to watch the printer market over the next six months or so. Dell wants to market printers under its own name, instead of reselling everybody else's printers -...
WINDOWS 2000 SERVICE PACK 3
Microsoft has released Service Pack 3 for Windows 2000, a huge collection of security updates and bug fixes. When I get it on CD, I’ll be talking to my clients about it. Everyone...
LORD OF THE RINGS DVD
The Fellowship of the Ring will be released on DVD in the next few days. But if you’re considering it, be careful! There’s going to be two versions released on DVD, and they’re...
CITIZENS’ OPEN DECLARATION AGAINST CORPORATE INJUSTICE
Harley Aulance, a reader of the Register, drafted a bill declaring war on the media giants threatening our freedoms. If they're going to declare war on us, it only seems fair to...
COPYRIGHT MARTIAL LAW
The entertainment industry has so far proven to be completely paralyzed by new consumer technology, unable or unwilling to come up with ways to do business that take changing...
THE END OF FREE E-MAIL
Microsoft and Yahoo are aggressively trying to push people to paid e-mail services by making it harder than ever to rely on free ones. Apple Computer is cutting free e-mail...
THE ALLEGED JPEG PATENT
Here’s more information about Forgent’s claim that it has a patent on the .JPEG file format (see below). It’s not the first time that a company has waited until some technology...
RECORDING INDUSTRY SEEKS IMMUNITY FOR HACKING OUR COMPUTERS
Congress is about to consider an entertainment industry proposal that would authorize copyright holders to disable your PC if you run a file sharing program. Later this week,...
AOL RENEGES ON COMMITMENT TO OPEN UP INSTANT MESSAGING
As a condition of approving the AOL Time Warner merger, the Federal Trade Commission required AOL to open up its AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) network to MSN Messenger, Yahoo...
NEW HP DESKJET PRINTER
Take a sneak peek at the new HP Deskjet 5550, due to hit the stores any day now. I don't have a direct link, but you can get all the info by going to the HP Shopping site. Type...
10% OFF DELL ORDERS
Special deal available only thru bruceb consulting, good July 22-26: take ten percent off all Dell Small Business orders. To take advantage of this promotion, Click here here to...
NEW COPY PROTECTION SCHEME
The recording industry has developed a new recording format that is piracy-proof. Here’s an article with more details. Nicknamed the 'Record', the new format takes the form of a...
BILL GATES ON SECURITY Bill Gates sent out a widely circulated e-mail message today about secure computing. It’s interesting reading, even if you’re suspicious of Microsoft’s...
WATCH A COMPANY DESTROY ITSELF
This is fun. Forgent Networks, Inc., is attempting to ambush the digital imaging industry by claiming that it owns the software patent on JPEG compression technology. Forgent...
WHY FREE DOWNLOADS HELP, NOT HURT
Remember Janis Ian, folksinger since the 60s? She wrote an article about file sharing that is being widely circulated (it turned up on CNet today). She draws on common sense and...