The Register asks the questions about Google’s new DRM that need to be asked.
Just because it’s Google, doesn’t mean they deserve a free pass. DRM is DRM. And now we have multiple, confusing, versions of DRM to muck up our content.
As the article says, so much for your motto, Do No Evil, Google.
If you still need to get up to speed on why DRM just plain won’t work, Read Cory Doctorow’s June 2004 speech on DRM to Microsoft or in pretty html here.
I have multiple websites through Dotster and GoDaddy, and typically register with whomever is cheapest, and then jump to a different registrar at renewal time to again keep costs down. I’ve been happy with GoDaddy’s renewal fees, as the registrars usually try to charge you double to renew vs. registering a domain, and GoDaddy usually charges the same price.
However, with paulcutler.org up for renewal, they’ve screwed the pooch pretty bad on this one. A copy of my (fairly nice) email is below, we’ll wait for their response. According to their support website their phone hold time is 17 minutes, and average email response time is 9 hours. As it’s not mission critical as the site is up now, we’ll see how their email response is.
Here’s my email / letter:
Dear GoDaddy Customer Service Representative:
I wanted to make you aware of a problem I had with your service. I visited my domain early this morning (7 a.m. CST) and I received a GoDaddy Parked Domain page. Logging in to my account at GoDaddy, it showed my domain expiring on 1-4-2006.
Unfortunately, my office network blocks webmail, so I was unable to visit Gmail to double check my last email from GoDaddy. I then assume assumed the domain had expired as the GoDaddy account page showed, and GoDaddy had given me a week before parking the domain, as it had worked last night. I then renewed the domain for another 2 years through GoDaddy early this morning.
Upon returning home tonight from work, my domain was working again, and I checked my GoDaddy account and Gmail. Sure enough, I have a receipt from GoDaddy in Gmail showing I renewed this domain on 12-8-2005 for 2 years, and my GoDaddy account now showed my domain was now renewed through 2010.
Please explain to me why my domain was parked when I renewed over a month ago. I feel taken now that I’ve renewed for an additional 2 years on top of my renewal in December and you have even more of my money. I’m extremely disappointed in your level of service, specifically in not displaying my account information correctly.
Sincerely,
Paul Cutler
(email deleted to avoid more spam)
Gov. Jim Doyle of Wisconsin signed into law a bill requiring any vendor who provides electronic voting machines must provide the code that runs on those machines.
This, combined with paper copies of the vote you cast for (which Wisconsin also requires) are a must when it comes to electronic voting. Not just to avoid the fraud as seen in Ohio in 2004, or as a check against corrupt CEOs who publicly say they’ll do everything in their power to see an election go a certain way and they also just happen to provide e-voting machines, but the code and paper voting provide trust to the end user that their vote counts.
Learn more about e-voting courtesy of the EFF.
The Gstreamer team at Fluendohas licensed the MP3 codec for use on Linux! From the article:
Why are we doing this ? Quite simple. mp3 is a very widespread format, and the fact that Linux could not legally play it out of the box in countries where patents apply is posing a lot of problems for adoption. It is one of the most commonly heard complaints about distros these days. Fluendo still fully supports open formats, and we hope people move to using them. Part of that move is being able to play your legacy formats, where you have no choice over the format. Remember, we are not giving away a free encoder.
What does this mean? That one of the biggest oversights in all Linux distributions has been fixed – Distro’s can bundle in MP3 decoding support out of the box, and not have to worry about patent issues.
Thanks Fluendo!
According to this post on BoingBoing, Cory Ondrejka, a Second Life programmer for Linden Labs, will be showing the first public demo of Second Life on Linux this weekend at the 22nd Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin.
Sweet, I can’t wait!
The first Ubuntu Desktop News has been published.
It contains an overview of all the work being done on the upcoming 6.04 Dapper Drake release of Ubuntu, specifically around desktop improvements.
With lots of topics, including speed improvements, being able to install packages by just double-clicking on a .deb file (!), Rhythmbox mention, and an interview with Sebastian Bacher, if you’re an Ubuntu user, this is worth a read!
Back in July, I blogged about Icculus starting a port of Second Life.
About a month ago, I signed up for a Second Life account as it was: a) free and b) you need an account to get on the Second Life forums. I was looking for an answer or update on the Linux port. I didn’t find anything, but I headed back today, and found this post by Andrew Linden on the Linden staff:
_Quote:
Originally Posted by Adam Zaius
I think LL’s contractor has gone walkabout. We saw some initial screenshots, then nothing._
Actually, he [ed: Icculus] did go missing. As far as I know the project was started on his own initiative. He wanted to work on it in his copius spare time and LL’s stance was, “If you can do it, great!”. He made some rapid progress, then got sidetracked and never got back to it. I prodded him twice but he didn’t reply.
Which is very unfortunate. I don’t even have access to SL at home anymore since our Windows computer finally succumbed to a virus. I transferred all of the important data over to a Knoppix/debian machine and haven’t had time to rebuild a fresh Windows installation.
I would love to work on a GNU/Linux port of SL but I already have a full plate of stuff to do that I can’t get done fast enough. 🙁
Very interesting. Nice to have an update, and I’m intrigued that Icculus started the port on his own. I’m curious if he had the source from Linden Labs, or used the Mac client to port it to Linux. I’m disappointed that it never got finished, but I more than understand getting sidetracked when you were working on it for free.
Icculus.org is down (just today) switching ISPs, and I think Icculus has a FAQ up about contacting him – and this is one of those topics that are probably taboo. Bummer.
The mashup artists, known collectively as Dean Gray, posted a mashup of Green Day’s American Idiot album in late November.
Within 10 days, Green Day’s label, Warner Music, sent Dean Gray a takedown notice. Today, Tues. Dec. 13th, is American Edit day, when websites all over the globe host the MP3’s for download. Not for commercial gain, but to share and enjoy Green Day’s music, dubbed with other music, to promote Green Day.
Hit the link above to grab a download link, or surf on over to my other website where I’ve posted the files individually and as one archive (in tar.gz format).
If you’re into other mashups, Lock3down has American Edit for download, as well as some other interesting mashups.
Wired has an article up with the must-have extensions for Firefox. (You haved moved on from using Internet Explorer, right? If you haven’t, shame on you, and switch to Firefox now.
Extensions are a great way to make a great browser even better. Browse how you want, and take control of the experience, from tabs to tagging to just plain fun stuff.
And in related news, the Firefox team has launched their newest campaign, encouraging everyone to videotape their testimonial and send it in! This campaign is timed with the newest release of everyone’s favorite browser, Firefox 1.5.
What would happen if you dressed as a homeless person, held a sign, and tried to give away Linux CD’s?
People would see what they want to see – and ignore the sign. Worth the read, a sigh and a chuckle.