Posts filed under “Analysis”
Thoughts on Chrome OS and the Cr-48
Much to my surprise, I receieved an unmarked box containing a Cr-48 laptop from Google. No warning. Just arrived. I’m not complaining. I’ve been using the Cr-48 with Chrome OS a lot this past week. It’s been a pretty enjoyable experience. This is very much a beta, and this is why I’m posting thoughts and [...]
Patents are like teenagers with guns
Christopher Montgomery, founder of the Xiph.org Foundation, on why software patents suck and need reform: “Patents are like every teenager carrying a hand gun,” he told me. Sooner or later, one of those guns could go off. Don’t get too excited about Google open sourcing the VP8 video codec. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t have [...]
How I’m going to test the iPad and how you can help
By now, you’ve probably read glowing review after glowing review of the iPad by tech columnists, but I want to share my experiences with you when I get my iPad. I will not have received an iPad for free, nor will I be testing it out as my job for a news outlet or tech [...]
Paying for news has to be easy on consumers
Does the Star Tribune’s new Access Vikings Premium sound easy to you? But in addition to the info, registrants have to accept the site’s e-mailed FYI Newsletter and FYI Offers. The offers can be customized, it looks like, but choosing from various categories. [By this point I would be pulling back.] Then they can pick [...]
Thoughts on why micropayments are a dangerous delusion
Mathew Ingram has a post over at The Nieman Journalism Lab asking if micropayments are the holy grail or a dangerous delusion? I think the answer is obvious. Micropayments will not work for news. Why not? I don’t believe there is a market — News is one of those things that I think macropayments make [...]
Bringing engagement to an old, one-way medium
This is a cross post from BeatBlogging.Org. I thought the post may be more relevant here: I want to share with you a project I’ve been working on, and why I think it illustrates how engagement and interaction are coming to all old medium platforms. Since earlier this year I have been helping best-selling thriller [...]
The limits of cloud-based services
My Internet connection has been anything but “Comcastic” the last few days. I’ve been treated to frequent outages, slowness and, in general, a horrible experience. (Maybe Comcastic means craptastic?) Yesterday was even worse when my power went out for three hours while I was trying to work. Both of these issues point to two inherent limitations [...]
Thoughts on AP’s quest to crack down on Internet sharing
The AP is planning on encasing its content in a DRM-like “wrapper” to ensure that their content and headlines aren’t used without their consent — and without payment. Being paid for your work sounds like a good idea. But the AP is going further than ever before with its copyright claims over its content, and [...]