bruceb news

There’s no good news about DSL any more. Prices are going up, availability is going down, the horror stories about installations keep multiplying, and Northpoint’s demise has everyone scared about relying on any provider besides Pacific Bell. And Pacific Bell’s motivation to support DSL is unclear. Here’s one article among many bemoaning the sorry state of the industry.

Keeping up? In a couple of weeks Intel will roll out a 1.7GHz Pentium 4 processor, and slash prices yet again on most of the rest of its processors. Dell has been doing a lot of price-cutting lately too. Buy a computer or two for yourself, okay?

Two years ago America Online decided to block outside access to its instant messaging system, in a heavyhanded tactic that made their boo-hoo complaints about Microsoft look very hollow.

It may have backfired. A new study shows Microsoft Messenger has taken the lead in worldwide and US usage. And MS Messenger is even more deeply embedded in upcoming Microsoft releases of operating systems and net services.

The article has a good description of Microsoft’s tactics, by the way, which strike me as eminently fair: “Target the software that potentially threatens the Windows franchise, create your own version, tie it closely to Windows, push your product as a standard, solicit developers and vendors to build and sell it, and then watch market share tilt in your favor.”

Here’s a good article that explains all the issues about file formats and pricing for downloadable music from the record labels – and concludes that they stand a good chance of getting it completely wrong.

Here’s a glimpse of the future according to the recording industry.

Like the announcement with RealNetworks a couple of days ago and MSN yesterday, MTV and VH1 are rolling out a service with the cooperation of the major record labels. It’s routine – Internet radio and the option to buy songs by downloading them. Still no information available on file format or the extent of the restrictions on the use of the downloaded files. But look at the prices! Anywhere from a buck to $2.50 for a single song, and anywhere from ten to eighteen bucks for an entire CD. Think about that! […] continued

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.

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. AOL and RealNetworks are the first companies to sign up to offer the service to consumers, but the library will be licensed to third parties, including Napster if it wants in.

All the interesting details have been left out of the announcement. […] continued

Scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Symantec’s AntiVirus Research Center today confirmed that foot-and-mouth disease cannot be spread by Microsoft’s Outlook email application, believed to be the first time the program has ever failed to propagate a major virus. “Frankly, we’ve never heard of a virus that couldn’t spread through Microsoft Outlook, so our findings were, to say the least, unexpected,” said Clive Sarnow, director of the CDC’s infectious disease unit.

Your computer will probably automatically adjust the time when Daylight Savings Time returns tomorrow morning. But that may be the only thing it gets right about the time. Here’s an article that explains why your computer’s clock is notoriously unreliable.

Microsoft has new initiatives on the way that are meant to move programs and data online, relieving companies and users from some of the burden of maintaining it all. Confidentiality will be the key issue that will persuade or dissuade people from trusting the services.

Many of the new .NET services are built on the Passport system created by Microsoft. Passport is an integral part of Hotmail and MSN Messenger. The Register is the first to notice that the current Passport Terms of Service give Microsoft and its business partners the right to own every bit of information that goes through the Passport system. […] continued