Category Archives: Links

Links to interesting articles I found surfing the web.

Links

UK music biz wins right to sue AllofMP3 here

This is a bit of a weird one. For those that have not come across it, AllOfMP3 is a Russian competitor to music downloading sites like Apple’s iTunes Music Store. It distinguishes itself by offering higher quality (good), in a number of different formats (good), without digital restrictions managements (also good) and for a much lower cost.

(DRM is the bit in iTunes that stops you burning your purchases more than five times or streaming to more than five computers.)

How do they do this? The UK and US music publishing companies allege that it is illegal. AllOfMP3 contend that they comply with all Russian laws (and the local authorities seem to agree).

The BPI is taking it to court to find out:

UK music biz wins right to sue AllofMP3 here | Reg Hardware

My take is that it probably is illegal. Anything that is too good to be true generally is. However I suspect most people are not naive enough to think it is 100% legit. So, given that it’s illegal, why are people willing to pay for the service if they can get the same songs from your common-or-garden P2P network?

It has to be convenience.

In the UK AllOfMP3 is the second most popular download service after iTunes. They are clearly doing something right and maybe record companies should be trying to find what the secret sauce is rather than trying to shut them down. Is it not in their favour for more people to buy more songs?

Links

Train to the Roof of the World

I couldn’t let the inaugural train journey betweeen Beijing and Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, go by without comment. It represents a huge shift for the Tibetans and, while it could bring some positive changes, it’s more likely to bring large numbers of Chinese and a quickening of the pace of the decline of their unique culture.

Wired has a nice article — “Train to the Roof of the World” — that takes a balanced view of the technology and politics. The BBC’s — “First Beijing train reaches Lhasa” — is much shorter if you’re pushed for time!

Also see the pictures from my 2002 trip to the region.

Links

To hate America is to hate mankind

As today is Independence Day in the US, there has been a lot of introspection on the state of the country in much of the press.

“To hate America is to hate mankind” is the UK-based Telegraph’s take on things. It investigates the results of a recent survey which concluded that “many Britons regard America as malign, although they remain fond of individual Americans.” (I’m anti-Dubya but married a Californian so I think it’s fair to say that I agree with that!)

“We Need Fewer Secrets” talks about the “Freedom of Information Act” and compares its efficiency with some of those countries that the US is trying to impose its values on.

Links

The Scariest Terror Threat of All

I liked Bruce Schneier’s article in Wired entitled The Scariest Terror Threat of All. Most articles we see these days are asking for more surveillance and intrusions into our private lives in order to fight the “War of Terrorism,” but this one explains why all that effort is misdirected.

[G]ood terrorist ideas are a dime a dozen. Anyone can figure out how to cause terror. The hard part is execution.

He builds his case by asking readers of his blog to post suggestions for the next big terror attack. Certainly imagination is not in short supply as some of the plots are truely scary and downright evil.

He concludes:

Terrorism has always been rare, and for all we’ve heard about 9/11 changing the world, it’s still rare.

Links

WSJ.com – Mac’s Moment?

It’s nice to see an article about Apple that’s not about the iPod! This time a reasonably sized Japanese company has switched most of it’s 2300 PCs over to Mac’s.

It’s a sensible move if you ask me! Given the ease of use, lack of virus and availability of MS Office I’ve never quite understood why Mac’s are not in wider use. I guess we need more conversions like this to reassure people that it’s not a foolish move.

The annoucement of a beta version of software to allow Windows XP to run on new Intel Macs, isn’t going to hurt either.