Archive for January 21st, 2008Z80xxc! writes “InfoWorld is reporting that on February 12th, Microsoft will roll out Internet Explorer 7 through Windows Server Update Services to all systems - regardless of whether or not the update had been requested previously. The piece also mentions ways to prevent the update from occurring, for sysadmins who do not want to use IE7 on their systems. Microsoft claims that the decision was made due to ’security concerns’.” Read more of this story at Slashdot. Filed under: Television, World wide web, Competitive strategy, Apple Inc (AAPL), Time Warner (TWX), Amazon.com (AMZN), Next large thing, Technology Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) movie network HBO will start testing an on the internet video service. The new project would grant network subscribers to watch programming on their PCs or download them to watch later. According to The Wall Street Journal, “HBO is starting a trial of the service, called HBO Broadband, in Green Bay, Wis., the network states, and could roll it out more widely later this year.” While HBO’s brand is well-known among cable subscribers, it is difficult to predict whether this will translate into a big audience on the internet. The amount of premium content available over the internet is growing rapidly as companies like Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX), Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) enter the industry. In a field this crowded, newer competitors might have trouble finding audiences. HBO does have one distinct advantage. Many of the programs on the network are produced for its viewers and are not available elsewhere. This big amount of original content might draw a substantial audience for the new distribution channel. But the field is getting crowded. Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com. James Hardine writes “Wikileaks has released a couple of hilarious legal demands over a confidential briefing memo entitled Project Wing — Northern Rock Executive Summary. Northern Rock Bank (UK) collapsed spectacularly late last year on the back of the sub-prime lending crisis and was re-floated by the Bank of England at a cost of over mAriuZ writes “Bob Rogers just released Parrot 0.5.2. This monthly release includes a couple of interesting new features. First, we’ve bundled Patrick Michaud’s Rakudo (thats the implementation of Perl 6 on Parrot) such that you can type make perl6 on Unixy platforms and make perl6.exe on Windows and get a working standalone Perl 6 binary. This is experimental and we hope to iron out some installation and deployment issues by next months release, but it was important to demonstrate our progress. The second new feature is a toolkit for starting your own compiler. Max Mohun built a prototype several months ago, and we’ve added a stripped-down version for now that builds the skeleton of a compiler for you using the Parrot Compiler Tools. I mentioned the LOLCODE compiler in What the Perl 6 and Parrot Hackers Did on Their Christmas Vacation; this is how Simon and Company were able to get LOLCODE up and running so swiftly.” Read more of this story at Slashdot. Filed under: World wide web, Video, Windows, Macintosh, Podcasting, Web services, Freeware
Using CuePrompter is pretty easy: all you need to do is copy and paste your script in a box on the site and then “Start Prompter.” CuePrompter then launches in a new window with you text and you’re a play button away from teleprompter bliss. You can customize CuePrompter for your needs by choosing between a small screen size (good if you’re using your personal webcam) or a huge screen size (good if you’ve got a camcorder set up across the room) as well as a small or massive font size depending on your situation and eyesight abilities. The prompter has nine different speeds, can be made full-screen, viewed in normal or mirrored mode, and can be played backwards. Each prompter session is limited to 2000 characters and requires you to be running MS Internet Explorer 5.0 or above and MS Windows XP, 2000, or 2003 to work properly. We tested it out using Firefox on a Mac and only ran into problems using the mirror and full-screen mode. CuePrompter also seemed to have some minor issue translating apostrophes. One thing that definitely makes CuePrompter different than regular prompters however is you’ve no way to really control the prompter once its started beyond easy starting and stopping, so once you start CuePrompter you superior be ready to go. [via EmilyChang] Filed under: Internet, Web services  RapidShare, the popular file hosting site used by developers and pirates alike has apparently been shut down at least temporarily by a court order. Heise Online is reporting that GEMA, a German royalties collection agency has filed a complaint against RapidShare, claiming that the service hosts copyrighted materials, which it’s fairly safe to state is true. GEMA wants RapidShare to provide details on how many files hosted on the site are copyrighted works of GEMA members. RapidShare has historically said that it does not inspect the files uploaded by users. We’ve seen companies like YouTube demonstrate in current years that it is possible to build copyright detection software to inspect for illegally uploaded files. But we’ve also seen that no system so far is foolproof, so it should be interesting to see if RapidShare fights the complaint, promises to implement some sort of filters, or fades off into oblivion. Another open question is what will happen to all the RapidShare members who have shelled out money for paid accounts? While RapidShare has provided some basic services for free, users have to pay subscription fees for access to faster downloads and and simultaneous downloads. Update: As several people have pointed out in the comments, RapidShare appears to be back online. The reports of a site shutdown were apparently false and everything is back to normal. [via TechShout, thanks Omar!] Filed under: Audio, World wide web, Web services, web 2.0
On the site, there’s no hint that GlobalPandora is planning on making a comeback besides asking if anyone has “access to U.S. servers or U.S. shells.” So unless there are some friendlies out there that’ll support GlobalPandora, the box will remain shut unless you mind setting up your own proxy. And if you don’t want to deal with a proxy, despite Pandora being as fascinating as it is, there is a nice selection of other online radio alternatives that might work for users outside of the U.S. - a number of which GlobalPandora has been good enough to list on it’s “we’re down” page. Thanks Andrew! Filed under: Fun, World wide web, Web services, Time-Wasters, web 2.0  There has always been one major problem with the internet: it’s run by humans instead of LOLcats. Sadly, the government isn’t into LOLcats, so we’ll never see the dream realized. There is, however, a simulation effort. I’d like to introduce the LOLinator. The LOLinator is a website designed by an underground effort of LOLcats to show the world what an LOLcat world wide web would look like. It takes any website and sends it back to the LOLcat home base, where LOLcats work swiftly and efficiently to create a simulation of an LOLcat version. A couple websites we advocate running through the system are Apple.com, Apple.com/store, and Microsoft.com. The image above shows what an LOLcat run Download Squad would look like. Personally, we think it’s an improvement, but the discrimination against cats in the workplace would never land us any cat employees. What a sad world we live in. Oh yeah, if you have any recommendations for sites to run through the LOLinator, please leave them in the comments. Filed under: World wide web, Web services
All that is changing. DivShare, which has been having trouble making money, and which was put up for sale a while back, has announced plans to institute storage and bandwidth caps. DivShare users with free accounts now get 5GB of storage and 50GB of bandwidth. If you want more you’ll have to pay to upgrade your account. Sure, 5GB is more space than you get from a lot of competing services. But when you’re a company that’s built its name on unlimited uploads and downloads, any limits are a bit hard for users to swallow. According to the DivShare Blog, fewer than 10% of the service’s users are currently exceeding the limits, so most users won’t need to upgrade. And users who have already exceeded the limits won’t have files deleted, but they’ll have to delete some files before they have the ability to upload any more (or you know, create a new account). In theory, the move will make the service more reliable for the vast majority of users who don’t come close to approaching the new limits. But something tells us that won’t mean much to users who have been told to delete files. [via CyberNet] Filed under: Internet, Productivity, Web services, Beta, Search
There are all kinds ways to track your stuff on the web (Del.ici.ous, Remember the Milk), but they leave your data segregated across several Web sites. There are also a few options for corralling and indexing all your stuff right on the computer (Google Desktop, Mac OS X Spotlight), but they don’t help much when you’re away from your desk. The folks at iubo feel your pain and have designed a Web site where you can store online all the dribs, drabs, and what-nots you accumulate and then access them later, no matter where you’re. Once you create an account, you can add and track information on pretty much anything you can think of: pictures, bookmarked Web sites, contact information, notes, documents, and so on. You can even add tags and color-code data for easier searching later. Gallery: iubo
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