The Browser, Patched and Hacked

A co-worker today called tech support to get rid of the spyware/adware that had crept onto his machine. After running their cleaning tools, they installed the Google Toolbar for him to get rid of pop-up ads. The toolbar is a fine utility - I use it on my work machine, too - but it’s only useful because it plugs an Internet Explorer feature hole. If IT would just let us use Firefox, we wouldn’t need an extra software to block pop-ups and we wouldn’t get nearly as much crapware on our machines due to its decreased vunerability to security issues. But I guess if they gave us tools that work properly they wouldn’t get paid to fix them, so instead we have to live with an intentionally inefficient system.

Gmail4Troops and ComixRelief

I’ve donated three Gmail invitations to Gmail4Troops, an idea that Wil Wheaton has set up. The concept is that since Google offers so much storage space it would be ideal for soldiers who want to exchange photos or video clips with friends and family at home. If you have any free Gmail invitations, please consider passing a few along.

I’m also going to pick up a few titles on Wednesday to send to Operation Comix Relief. It’s a program set up by an Air Force nurse to get people to send comic books to troops who’ve been injured and are recovering in military hospitals. They’ve found that reading comics helps them get back into a childhood mindset that lifts their spirits when they’re dealing with rough stuff.

New WMAlumni Stopped Forwarding Mail

Katherine figured out today that the William & Mary Alumni email service started using new software and had stopped forwarding her mail. If you had previously set your email to forward to another address you may have to do it again.

I logged into mine (which I have almost never used) today to find 924 junk messages (all porn). Surprisingly, about half of it actually had “SEXUALLY EXPLICIT” in the subject line like it’s supposed to.

Velvet Squibs

An article today on C|Net called iPod undermines Microsoft on copy-locked CDs says that SunnComm has gotten a flood of complaints about Contraband, the new Velvet Revolver album, because it won’t play on iPods due to idiotic copy protection software. According to their representative, 80% of the comments they’ve gotten are compatibility complaints because the CD comes in the WMA format which won’t play on iPods¹.

According to the article, the only reason that the entire music industry doesn’t support only Microsoft’s WMA is because iPods won’t play it. While I still maintain that a war over file formats is a stupid war, it’s interesting that by refusing to support WMA Apple has in a way defended we consumers from a copy-protected monopoly, even if only by forcing us to use one system over another.

But the lesson that record labels need to learn isn’t about which crippled file format to use, it’s that consumers don’t care about file formats. People want to buy their music and play their music. They want to be able to make copies of their music. Copy protection only stops legimitate consumers from being able to do things they should be allowed to do, like listen to music they paid for on mp3 players they paid for. Someone who doesn’t know how to get around copy protection² isn’t the one who’s going to be burning 10,000 copies of an album and selling it on street. It’s the annoyed customer who just bought an album they can’t listen to who gets stopped by this technology.

According to C|Net:

[…] labels see the success of BMG Music’s Velvet Revolver disc, as well as a handful of other recent releases, as a good sign and say they’re now likely to go ahead with more experiments.

I’d hazard to guess that exactly zero people who bought the CD said, hey, have you heard about this new copy protection? I better get this CD and try it out. The success of Contraband wasn’t the DRM, it was the music.

If I go to the store and pick up a physical copy of Contraband, I buy a disc that I can’t make a copy of and can’t listen to on my iPod. It I go to the iTunes Music Store, I can buy a version that lets me do the latter but only lets me do the former seven times due to iTunes’s FairPlay DRM. That iTunes’ user rights are less restrictive than others doesn’t make it a good choice, just a slightly less crappy one.

Are these my only options: Buy the CD that BMG won’t let me use like I want to, or buy the iTunes track that lets me do it but restricts me (and is a lower quality file). Suppose that I were able to get enough people worked up over copy-protected CDs that I organized a sizable boycott. Would I be sending the right message to the record label? Wouldn’t I be hurting the artist in doing so? Sorry musician, I know you worked really hard on these songs, but because your record label decided to install some software no one’s going to hear to them.

Consumers don’t care about file formats. We don’t want copy protection. Stop trying to sell it to us.

Further reading: Cory Doctorow gave an excellent speech to Microsoft on this issue. Read it or listen to it.

1. Actually, the iPod can play WMA-formatted songs, but that feature is disabled. ↩
2. Most DRM software can be deactivated by holding SHIFT while inserting the disc. In fact, holding SHIFT should, sadly, be standard practice when insterting any CD into a Windows environment left Spyware destroy us all. ↩

Mapping a Gmail Outbreak

Gmail is spreading through my peergroup like a virus. Two days ago Patient Zero was given three free invitations to give out. Within a day each of those people got three invitations and now they have started infecting others.

What this shows me is that Google has succeeded on two major fronts. Here’s how it works:

Success

Be a credible company that people don’t hate. (“Don’t Be Evil.”)

Build a better mousetrap.

Everyone is grabbing up Gmail because it’s a great product coming from a company they like/trust/don’t hate. Yahoo! Mail and Hotmail have stagnated, filled their interfaces with ugly ads, suffered from feature bloat, and reduced their free versions to the lowest tolerable functions. Who knew that providing good service was the secret to success?

[Oh, and yes I’m using Gmail now, too, but all my mail is going to both addresses, so just keep using my old one. I think I still prefer a good mail client to webmail when I’m at home, so for now at least I’m just going to be using Gmail at work.]

Looking a Gift Monitor in Its Refresh Rate

Summer is here so I’ve loaded back up my summer stylesheet. I think it’s my favorite.

The IT department at work gave us new monitors last night. The old CRT I had was terrible, so I’m grateful for some LCD action, but with the increased clarity somes a strong display of how nice ClearType will be. (They’re supposed to give us Windows XP soon.) Everything looks jagged. I guess I’ve been spoiled by iMac and PowerBook monitors.

Stompjam

I think that Customatix has gone out of business. Customatix.com is down and I can’t find them anywhere else. Guess I’ll have to be extra nice to my remaining pair of customized shoes.

It's Not a Flower

I get a small but steady flow of undeliverable mail notifications that seem to be the result of a virus. Chances are that someone out there who has me in their MS Outlook address book has a virus that’s sending out messages posing as me and probably others. My understanding is that if you use MS Outlook you should be running a virus scan about once every 10 minutes.