Top Items:
Niall Kennedy / Niall Kennedy's Weblog:
In-depth analysis of Microsoft content syndication platform patent application — On June 21, 2005 eight Microsoft employees claimed invention rights for a "content syndication platform," exemplified by Internet Explorer 7 and its support for aggregating feed content.
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Mike / Techdirt:
Because The Patent System Sucks, The Only Thing To Do Is File For More Bad Patents — from the promoting-innovation? dept — Another day, another batch of patent lunacy. People keep asking us to comment on yesterday's story about Microsoft applying for two patents around RSS technology.
Sean Cooper / Slate:
WHY YOU CAN'T GET IPODS AT A DISCOUNT. — Last week, USA Today reported that online sales in November increased 25 percent over those from 2005. If you've shopped for gadgets online this holiday season, you almost certainly found that the camcorder or DVD player you wanted was selling at a wide range of prices.
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Joe / Techdirt:
Why Prices On Gadgets (Except The iPod) Vary So Much From Site To Site — from the shopping-around dept — Browsing through a comparison shopping engine for electronics will sometimes reveal a surprisingly wide dispersion of prices for some gadgets. The very same product, say a new HDTV …
Joel Spolsky / Joel on Software:
Explaining Steve Gillmor — Nobody I know can understand a thing Steve Gillmor is talking about, mainly because he makes so many obscure references without explaining them. I thought as a public service I would provide a detailed exposition of his latest blog post, Bad Sinatra.
Discussion:
Dana Gardner's BriefingsDirect
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Ryan / CyberNet Technology News:
AllofMp3.com Sued for $1.65 Trillion! — I haven't been able to find information on the largest lawsuit in history but I'm sure this one is right up at the top. The RIAA (yes, I was just as shocked as you ) is suing the website AllofMP3.com on behalf of EMI, Sony BMG, Universal Music …
Matt Cutts / Gadgets, Google, and SEO:
Page view metrics? Bah, humbug! — (A personal, non-work mini-rant about page view metrics.) — I want to come to Yahoo's defense about something. A recent spate of reports says that Yahoo has been surpassed by various companies in terms of page views. Why is that relatively bogus?
William Patry / The Patry Copyright Blog:
Gentlemen Stop Your Linking — Cases involving pro se defendants are usually quite dangerous, not only to the defendant, but also to the rest of us: plaintiffs who are represented by decent enough law firms, if before a district judge without copyright experience can, and often do, get away with outrageous things.
Discussion:
Digital Markets, Mathew Ingram, InformationWeek Weblog, Business 2.0 Beta, LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION and Slashdot
Variety:
Business biggies wade warily into viral video — Can conglomerates unite to take on YouTube? — To really make money from putting content like "The Colbert Report" online, Hollywood needs to follow an ad-supported model. — The creators of YouTube had a grassroots concept that turned into a viral goldmine.
Anil Dash:
How to kill a personality — About a month ago, Fortune's Jeffrey O'Brien interviewed Seagate CEO Bill Watkins, and pulled the conversation's most memorable quote for the headline: "Let's face it, we're not changing the world. We're building a product that helps people buy more crap - and watch porn."
Discussion:
Mathew Ingram, Scobleizer, Blogspotting, InformationWeek Weblog, Web Strategy, CNNMoney.com and JD on EP
Carlo / Techdirt:
Panasonic's In-Flight Broadband Service Misses Its Connexion — from the delayed dept — After Boeing announced several months ago that it was shutting down its Connexion in-flight broadband service, a Panasonic unit said it would fill the gap. It said it wouldn't take over Connexion …
Ryan Block / Engadget:
Zune oddities (part II): Zune in orange, Zune Masters program, Zune with 80GB — We tend to think of something particularly academic when we hear the phrase "accepted into our masters' program," but apparently Microsoft is working the influencer angle again with the Zuners.
Thomas Crampton / International Herald Tribune:
French court favors personal privacy over piracy searches — PARIS: A French court has ruled that music companies and other copyright holders cannot conduct unrestrained Internet monitoring to find pirates. — The decision, which could leave record companies open to lawsuits in France …
Darren / Digital Photography School:
16 Digital Photography Tips for Christmas — It's three days until Christmas so I thought a quick tutorial on the topic of Christmas Photography might be appropriate. — Here are 16 tips and ideas to try that come to mind for digital camera owners wanting to capture the big day:
Brian Ward / TechEffect:
The Venice Project: YouTube slayer? — Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis may not be household names, but the products they've created in the past, Kazaa and Skype, certainly are. The team of entrepreneurs is about to bring another product to market dubbed, "The Venice Project."
Daniel Terdiman / CNET News.com:
How I helped Spider-Man save Santa Claus — reporter's notebook Let me say this, right up front: I don't know much about the Marvel Comics universe and the mythology around its characters. — So forgive me for the egregious mistakes I've likely made in the comic book I created for this story …
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Matt Asay / Open Sources:
Red Hat: Earnings up, customers in, competitors out — Red Hat knocked the ball out of the park again this quarter, especially in light of the competitive pressures from Microsoft/Novell and Oracle. I joined in the earnings call today, and was very impressed. — Revenue, cash flow, billings, bookings were all up.
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Ben Fritz / Variety:
XBox up on downloads — Amazon digital video sales are slow — Though a box office failure, Warner Bros.' 'Poseidon' is selling well as a high-def download through Microsoft's Xbox Live. — In a topsy-turvy year for the digital download biz, a videogame service in just a few million homes …
