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June 1, 2003
SJ Mercury: FCC's Powell must be held to his word.
Dan Gillmor. It's not alarmist, given the plain-as-day trajectory of policies -- including the FCC's own recent actions -- to suggest that the Net's promise is in jeopardy. A few giant media and telecommunications companies could well grasp full control of the Net.
June 2, 2003
Washington Post: FCC Votes to Ease Media Ownership Rules.
Powell, who has called the controversy "one of the toughest things I've ever faced," said earlier that the current rules fail to take into account the growing influence of Internet and paid television programming, and have been broadly questioned by the courts.
Useit.Com: Usability For $200.
most important point to remember, though, is that you can do it. No matter what your project, and no matter how big or small your budget, usability is there to help you succeed.
June 3, 2003
NY Times: In Computing, Weighing Sheer Power Against Vast Pools of Data.
But now two leading American computer researchers are challenging that policy. They argue that federal money would be better spent directly on the scientific research teams that are the largest users of supercomputers, by shifting the financing to vast data-storage systems instead of building ultrafast computers.
Wired News: Tech a Key in Media Rule Change.
In a statement issued Monday, Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy, one of three Republicans who backed the measure (which passed by a three-to-two margin), concluded that consolidation of media is less problematic now that the public has more sources of information from which to choose.
June 4, 2003
News.Com: Nullsoft founder says he's had it with AOL.
Calling coding "a form of self-expression," Frankel said he could no longer put up with AOL's interference. "The company controls the most effective means of self-expression I have," he wrote in a note posted on his personal Web site. "This is unacceptable to me as an individual, therefore I must leav (sic).
June 5, 2003
NY Times: Verizon to Reveal Customers in Piracy Case.
The ruling removes — at least temporarily — the presumed veil of anonymity from the millions of people who let other Internet users download copyrighted music from their personal computers using programs like KaZaA.
BBC News: Virtual future for ancient relics.
Copying this many objects using traditional resin moulds would take several years. But using the new laser scanner, the production time would be cut to weeks. A Scottish company called Kestrel 3D has been given two tablets to create samples.
June 6, 2003
News.Com: Fighting for a new Net copyright deal.
Q&A with Lawrence Lessig. We're ready and eager to build a large grassroots organization of people who demand of Congress that it do something to restore some balance here. This petition is a first step toward going to Washington and saying that there's a large number of people who want you to consider this.
AskTog: Multiple Mistakes Drown Interface.
I’m a member of the Building and Grounds committee at our Quaker meeting house. This month, when the group got together to check out problems around the building, someone had posted a hand-written sign on our new ultra-quiet dishwasher: “Do not operate the dishwasher unless John or Bettie is here to help!”
June 7, 2003
Good Experience: Spam is not a problem.
My contention is that more technology, or more laws, may solve the problem in the end, but for now it's up to each individual user to make a small investment of time and effort to manage their e-mail on their own.
June 8, 2003
SJ Mercury: Internet calls to challenge telephone companies.
Dan Gillmor. While Japan is leading the pack in this emerging service, there's little doubt that VoIP is taking off globally. According to Cisco Systems, one of the major players in the field, sales of VoIP equipment are growing at better than 35 percent a year. The transition is going relatively slowly in the United States, at least so far, but it is inevitable.
NY Times: Industry Offers a Carrot in Online Music Fight.
But for the first time in the Internet file-sharing wars, record industry executives have in recent weeks started to address music fans directly, both offering carrots and wielding sticks to persuade people to buy their product again.
June 9, 2003
WIRED: Slammed!
Paul Boutin. Maresh had spent two years in front of the console, but, he says, "I had never seen anything like that." Fifty-five million meaningless database server requests were traversing the globe - and one of Akamai's Hong Kong locations was caught in the crossfire. Maresh was the first person on earth to spot the Internet worm that came to be known as Slammer.
News.Com: TiVo, Gemstar end lawsuit, team up.
The two companies announced Monday that they have dismissed a lawsuit Gemstar filed against TiVo in early 2000, which alleged that TiVo's digital video recorder service infringed on Gemstar's patent for electronic programming guide technology. Gemstar was seeking an injunction and unspecified monetary damages.
NY Times: The Man Pushing Faster Internet Access in U.S..
The industry coalition had a recent success in persuading the F.C.C. to modify its rules so that telecommunications companies will not be forced to lease their high-speed access lines to competitors. But it continues to face a difficult battle to get Congress to grant tax credits to companies building next-generation Internet access networks.
June 10, 2003
Boston Globe: Media chiefs express fears of digital piracy.
For all of the new ways that digital technology and high-speed Internet connections are making music and movies available, many of the nation's media giants remain profoundly fearful that online distribution will open the door to massive piracy.
News.Com: Yahoo sets up spam roadblock.
The company said its spam-blocking method differed from those of its competitors because it targets the use of its service to send junk mail out, rather than targeting unsolicited mail on its way into members' in-boxes.
June 11, 2003
EE Times: U.S. high-speed access nears 20 million subscribers.
High-speed Internet access connecting U.S. homes and businesses increased 23 percent during the second half of 2002, according to government figures released Tuesday. The Federal Communications Commission said there were 19.9 million high-speed lines as of the end of 2002.
June 12, 2003
WIRED: Bill Gates, Entertainment God.
These two homes represent two futures. The first is what consumers want: digital media their way, in whatever form suits. The second is what Hollywood wants: media lockdown, with every use subject to permission and often then only for a fee. In the middle stands Microsoft, determined to navigate these extremes.
News.Com: Is Ma Microsoft calling?
That's just the tip of the iceberg: In a move that could shake up the telephony services market, Microsoft eventually plans to add support for video conferencing, cheap Internet voice calls, and complex message-management functions.
EE Times: IEEE OKs 802.11g WLAN standard, three others.
The IEEE on Thursday gave its stamp of approval to two new wireless local- and personal-area networking standards and two corresponding recommended practices. The move is expected to open the floodgates to product introductions and upgrades while ensuring interoperability between those products.
June 13, 2003
News.Com: Microsoft: No new versions of IE for Mac.
Although Microsoft may continue to provide security and performance updates, no major new releases are planned, Microsoft Product Manager Jessica Sommer told CNET News.com. Sommer said that, with the emergence of Apple's Safari browser, Microsoft felt that customers were better served by using Apple's browser...
eWEEK: AOL Connects AIM, ICQ Users.
America Online Inc. has released an alpha version of its ICQ messaging client that allows for instant messages to be exchanged between ICQ and AOL Instant Messenger users for the first time.
June 14, 2003
InfoWorld: Tape's last legs.
I expect that by 2006, you’ll have your pick of recordable drives and libraries capable of storing 25GB to 50GB on each side of a two-sided disc. When that kind of capacity is a reality, tape’s time will have finally run out.
June 15, 2003
SJ Mercury: Latest version of ReplayTV cuts ability to share shows, skip ads.
The decision to jettison the features represents a major strategy shift by the device's new maker, Digital Networks North America. The company acquired the ReplayTV brand from bankrupt SonicBlue in April and is now seeking to soothe relations with the entertainment industry.
June 16, 2003
Useit.Com: Diversity is Power for Specialized Sites.
Diversity is power on the Web. Big sites may be bigger, but smaller sites will keep scoring higher for specialized topics, both in terms of their connections with users and in terms of each visit's commercial value.
NY Times: Computing's Big Shift: Flexibility in the Chips.
Under this new approach, software is able, on the fly, to effectively redraw a chip's physical circuitry. Not only can adaptive computing enable a single chip to perform tasks normally requiring several, it can add speed while saving cost and energy when compared to today's conventional static chips in which circuitry is inflexible.
News.Com: Why Europe still doesn't get the Internet.
The all-but-final proposal draft says that Internet news organizations, individual Web sites, moderated mailing lists and even Web logs (or "blogs"), must offer a "right of reply" to those who have been criticized by a person or organization.
June 17, 2003
Crypto-Gram: The Risks of Cyberterrorism.
Even during the war in Iraq, which was supposed to increase the risk dramatically, nothing happened. The impending cyberwar was a big dud. Don't congratulate our vigilant security, though; the alarm was caused by a misunderstanding of both the attackers and the attacks.
MIT Technology Review: Spam Wars.
Despite deep divisions among this assemblage on who has the best tools for eradicating spam, there’s broad consensus on one point: if there’s one thing worse than a piece of junk e-mail, it’s the prospect that a spam filter will stop a legitimate message from reaching its recipient.
June 18, 2003
Wired News: Take My Data Center, Please.
Today, Suppers said, practically every large city in the country has some data center space up for sale. Downsized telcos -- including MCI, which is in the process of selling four large facilities, and Cable & Wireless, which plans to put 15 centers on the block -- top the list of sellers.
EE Times: Sony claims to have a 'Feel' for Bluetooth.
The Bluetooth community is struggling to find a way to ensure that consumers can quickly set up Bluetooth connectivity that currently takes hours in some cases. The goal is to get Bluetooth-enabled devices up and running within five minutes of taking them out of the box.
June 19, 2003
News.Com: Senator OK with zapping pirates' PCs.
"I think that industry is not doing enough to help us find effective ways to stop people from using computers to steal copyrighted, personal or sensitive materials," he said. But Hatch noted that his proposed law permitting wide-scale destruction of computers used to download illicit files from peer-to-peer networks was still on the table.
June 20, 2003
Good Experience: The Most Important User Experience Method.
If you really want to become a better user experience practitioner, learn how to work with and change the organization. This is in contrast to most UX books and events, which are endless discussions of *methods*...
Network World: Amtrak expands automated voice system.
Julie is an automated voice response system developed by SpeechWorks of Boston to field queries about train status, reservations and fares. Julie was originally put into limited service in April 2001, and SpeechWorks and Amtrak have been steadily adding to Julie’s range of capabilities.
SJ Mercury: Wide world of laptops.
This is the flipside to our national romance with gadgety technology -- cell phones, remote controls, GameBoys. While business laptops are getting thinner, lighter and more connected, the laptops for the rest of us have wider screens, bigger processing engines and bigger batteries to power it all.
June 21, 2003
Forbes: The Trojan Document.
Adobe Chief Executive Bruce Chizen says his firm can gross $5 billion a year, but to do so he has to stop selling software in batches of 50 to designers and start selling to governments and corporations at 1,000 seats per clip. That means coming up with a product used by every department in a company, familiar to interns, executives and all in between.
June 22, 2003
SJ Mercury: Nokia making bets on mobility once again.
Dan Gillmor. Nokia is betting it can again capture the market's emerging sweet spot as mobile communications expand beyond their foundation in voice conversations to incorporate a multitude of data and multimedia features and services.
June 23, 2003
News.Com: Supreme Court backs library Net filters.
In upholding the law, the court said protecting young library users from inappropriate material was a substantial government interest and that filtering software is currently the best way to do that. "No clearly superior or better-fitting alternative to Internet filters has been presented," the opinion stated.
NY Times: Europe Set to Begin Digital Tax.
That changes with the new rules, which the European Union approved in May 2002. Under the new regulations for the so-called value-added tax, or V.A.T., companies outside the European Union have two options for paying the tax on downloads, auction listings and Internet services.
June 24, 2003
Washington Post: Ruling Backs Porn Filters In Libraries.
The decision was something of a departure for a Supreme Court that has generally taken an expansive view of the First Amendment. In two previous reviews of recent congressional attempts to regulate sexually explicit material in cyberspace, the court struck down one law and issued a mixed ruling on a second.
NY Times: Congress Finds Rare Unity in Spam, to a Point.
As with a variety of other technology debates about privacy and copyright, Congressional positions on spam have little to do with political ideology and turn more on interpreting the balance between the rights of consumers and the rights of the businesses that sell to them.
June 25, 2003
Wired News: Design According to Ive.
Ive couldn't help himself. Design is his vocation. Get him started, and he'll talk at length with great sincerity and enthusiasm about the design of something as deceptively simple as a latch for an access panel.
June 26, 2003
Wired News: Are You in RIAA's Cross Hairs?
The vagueness seems to be a deliberate move by the RIAA to strike fear in anyone who trades, experts said. The intent is to scare everyone from prototypical pirates who share hundreds of ripped CDs through T-1 lines to teens who trade a handful of pop tunes.
Good Experience: Customer Experience and Hotels.
Customer experience is a long-term investment, and it needs to be applied consistently across the experience. It simply makes no sense to make lots of long-term investments (brass fixtures, downtown real estate, valet parking) and then throw in a short-term shaft (killing visitors on toll-free calls).
NY Times: Video Chat Software Reviewed.
Even in their preliminary incarnations, these programs illustrate two important points. First, the addition of voice and video changes the experience so profoundly, it's not really chat any more. Second, Apple and Microsoft may as well have come from different planets.
June 27, 2003
News.Com: Dell builds its wireless portfolio.
The T-Mobile deal also grants Dell customers 2,000 free minutes of wireless access during their first month of service. Meanwhile, Dell is moving ahead with plans to build Wi-Fi into its Axim personal digital assistants, which will let the devices access 802.11 wireless networks as well.
June 28, 2003
Technology Review: Master of Design.
Q&A: Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO. Early cars looked like carriages, early TVs looked like radios. Every time somebody brings you something that’s new, it looks like the old thing. It’s only the second or third generation before it finally starts to look like the new thing.
News.Com: FCC official: No need to regulate ISPs.
The FCC has been debating whether such rules are necessary amid fears that consumers could be blocked from going to Web sites that do not have a business relationship with their ISP, whether it's a cable company or a telecommunications company.
June 29, 2003
SJ Mercury: Mobile-phone technology moves toward nirvana.
Dan Gillmor. Thanks to the ever-escalating progress of hardware -- faster processing, more storage, miniaturization and lower costs -- technology and communications companies are cramming more and more capabilities into smaller and smaller devices.
June 30, 2003
NY Times: A Safer System for Home PC's Feels Like Jail to Some Critics.
But by entwining PC software and data in an impenetrable layer of encryption, critics argue, the companies may be destroying the very openness that has been at the heart of computing in the three decades since the PC was introduced.
News.Com: Microsoft's new push in Washington.
They're waving the marketing slogan of "Net neutrality" and warning that the cable companies could start to favor some Web sites over others or even block access entirely. Be skeptical of this flimsy claim. There is no evidence that any company offering cable modem access does this--or, for that matter, ever will.
Useit.Com: Information Foraging: Why Google Makes People Leave Your Site Faster.
Information foraging is the most important concept to emerge from Human-Computer Interaction research since 1993. Developed at Xerox PARC by Stuart Card, Peter Pirolli, and colleagues, information foraging uses the analogy of wild animals gathering food to analyze how humans collect information online.
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