diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06')
29 files changed, 16 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Fri/css10.txt b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Fri/css10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a973024 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Fri/css10.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +World Wide Web Consortium is [celebrating][1] the tenth birthday of Cascading Style Sheets. The good old CSS Level 1 spec was officially published on December 17th 1996. Why I remember when they were just a we little thing, still in diapers...
The W3C is really isn't being hyperbolic when they say style sheets have "changed the face of the web." We've come a long way from those dark days of Angelfire-hosted tables-based layouts and that progress is in no small part a result of CSS.
By embracing the age-old programming concept of separating content from display, style sheets have allowed designers and amateurs alike to create the fancy and often truly beautiful web that we enjoy today.
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of CSS, the W3C has launched an [improved validation service][2] for web programmers who want to test their designs for CSS standards compliance. The W3C is also inviting developers to [submit][3] their favorite CSS designs which will be integrated into the CSS 10 Gallery.
And the future of CSS looks good as well, browser support for CSS3 is already beginning to appear. Apple's Safari browser already supports several aspects of the new spec and other browsers are beginning to as well.
CSS3 is still in development, but it promises even more features and at the same time implementation easier. CSS3 includes all of CSS2 and adds new selectors, more powerful borders and backgrounds, vertical text, speech and more.
And for those that think CSS isn't helpful, consider this: it got me this job. Somewhere around 1998 I was trying to make one of those awful Angelfire "homepages" and in course of searching to understand just what the hell CSS was for, I ran across a Wired-owned tutorial site named Webmonkey. Just hit the fast-forward button and here we are. Thanks CSS.
So happy birthday CSS. I don't like to think about where the web would be without style sheets, it's not a pleasant thought.
[1]: http://www.w3.org/2006/12/css10-pressrelease.html "CSS 10 Press Release"
[2]: http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/ "CSS Validator"
[3]: http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS10/reactions.html "CSS 10 Gallery"
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Fri/feed-icon.jpg b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Fri/feed-icon.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5867186 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Fri/feed-icon.jpg diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Fri/reboot.txt b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Fri/reboot.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0601daf --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Fri/reboot.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +<img alt="Any_key_3" title="Any_key_3" src="http://blog.wired.com/photos/uncategorized/any_key_2.jpg" border="0" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 5px 5px;" />The morning reboot loves a Friday.
* [CSS turns 10][1]. Sorry we missed your birthday CSS, but truthfully the belated birthday cards are usually much funnier than the regular ones. Yes, Tuesday marked ten years of Cascading Style Sheets on the web. No word on the impending funeral services for the <code><table></code> tag.
[1]: http://www.w3.org/2006/12/css10-pressrelease "CSS turns ten"
* [According to Groklaw][2] Jeremy Allison (of samba fame) has "resigned from Novell in protest over the Microsoft-Novell patent agreement, which he calls 'a mistake' which will be 'damaging to Novell's success in the future.'"
[2]: http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20061221081000710 "Allison resigns"
* It was bad enough that Microsoft touted RSS in IE7 like it was some revolutionary new technology, but now the Redmond giant is trying to [patent the technology][3]. According documents filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office, Microsoft is seeking a patent for "finding and consuming web subscriptions in a web browser." Time to stop drinking your own Kool Aid guys.
[3]: http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220060288011%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20060288011&RS=DN/20060288011 "Microsoft RSS patent application"
* It's the first nerd restaurant. Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese, has [launched][4] a new restaurant, uWink, where each table has touch-screens for ordering food and playing video games. Bushnell says the target audience is 21 to 35 year old women, though he also thinks it will appeal to kids. Ya think?
[4]: http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyid=2006-12-22T140035Z_01_NCE337636_RTRUKOC_0_US-FOOD-RESTAURANT-UWINK.xml&src=rss "Nerd Restuarant"
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Fri/rss-patents.txt b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Fri/rss-patents.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7b1c027 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Fri/rss-patents.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +Microsoft has [filed][1] two separate patents involving RSS technology. The patents were originally filed 18 months ago, just days before the company [announced][2] RSS support for IE7, but were only released to the public yesterday.
Public outcry quickly followed since Microsoft had little if anything to do with the development of RSS. Dave Winer, the self-described inventor of RSS, [lashed out][4] via his blog claiming "Presumably they're eventually going to charge us to use it."
"This should be denounced by everyone who has contributed anything to the success of RSS," Winer writes.
But Winer is wrong about a couple of key points. First of all the documents in question are not patents, but *applications* for patents which have not yet been granted. Second of all, from my reading anyway, Microsoft is not patenting RSS, but RSS within Vista/IE7. Of course I'm not a patent lawyer, I could be wrong about that.
The big mystery is what Microsoft is planning to do with the patents if they are awarded them. The sad state of patent affairs in the United States has led to several cases of Microsoft being [sued ][5]for technologies they did arguably invent simply because some else owned a generic patent on them.
Nick Bradbury author of popular RSS application FeedDemon, [writes][3] on his blog:
>But before the geekosphere goes into "patent attack mode," let's take a breather and think about why this patent was filed. For example, quite often companies file patents just to protect themselves from lawsuits. There are plenty of sleazebags who file patent applications on obvious ideas, and then wait for someone like Microsoft to infringe those patents... Yes, it sucks that the patent process has devolved to such a state, but this is the reality of the environment that today's businesses have to operate in.
The only thing that's for sure is Microsoft did not invent RSS and the do not yet have a patent for it either. The RSS entry on Wikipedia [provides some background][3] if you're curious who did invent RSS. The short answer -- lots of people working together and separately.
It would be nice to see Microsoft release some information on what they plan to do with these patents, but for now we'll just have to wait and see whether the U.S. Copyright and Patent Office grants them.
[1]: http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220060288329%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20060288329&RS=DN/20060288329 "Microsoft Patent application"
[2]: http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2005/06/24/432390.aspx "IE blog on RSS in IE7"
[3]: http://nick.typepad.com/blog/2006/12/microsofts_cont.html "Nick Bradbury on Microsoft patent claims"
[4]: http://www.scripting.com/2006/12/21.html#aTaleOfCorporateAtrocity "Dave Winer on Microsoft patent claims"
[5]: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1661094,00.asp "Microsoft settles with InterTrust"
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Fri/w3c.jpg b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Fri/w3c.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9e512bf --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Fri/w3c.jpg diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Mon/digg-logo.jpg b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Mon/digg-logo.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..47712b1 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Mon/digg-logo.jpg diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Mon/digg-screen.jpg b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Mon/digg-screen.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..29b09b0 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Mon/digg-screen.jpg diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Mon/digg-update.txt b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Mon/digg-update.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..37e34e4 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Mon/digg-update.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +The popular "social" news site Digg revamped its design and added some new features earlier today. In addition to a new liquid width design optimized for large monitors, Digg has several new features including the ability to digg podcasts, more video features and a new, live-updating, "Top 10" feature.
The biggest new feature is the ability to digg podcasts. In an attempt to broaden its appeal, Digg is moving beyond web headlines to "deeper" content like podcasts.
Among the new features in the podcast section is the ability to listen to dugg podcasts within the Digg site. Dugg podcasts can be browsed by series and individual episodes which makes it easy to find podcasts by topic and jump to the most popular episode to see if you like it. Currently the podcasts section is in beta and will require a Digg account to use.
The new layout also sees Digg putting a greater emphasis on the video portion of the site. In addition to giving video its own spot on the top navigation bar, it's now possible to watch videos directly within Digg. Videos from supported services (YouTube, Metacafe and more) can be viewed in an AJAX overlay which embeds the video player and also provides a link to digg the video.
The news pages now offer the ability to sort based on the most popular stories within certain time periods, including the last twenty four hours, last seven days, last thirty days and the last year.
Another nice new feature is the "Top 10" list in the right hand column of most pages on the site which allows you to see at the glance what is "hot" right now on Digg. The new top 10 feature changes categories as you zoom into the the site, showing the top ten list for whatever category you're browsing through.
The new layout will be welcomed by Digg users with large monitors and the top navigation makes finding your way around much easier (which is how it should have been all along).
[1]: http://blog.digg.com/?p=57
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Mon/digg-video.jpg b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Mon/digg-video.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..995ab63 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Mon/digg-video.jpg diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Mon/google-nasa.jpg b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Mon/google-nasa.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c196596 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Mon/google-nasa.jpg diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Mon/google-space.txt b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Mon/google-space.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1da7874 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Mon/google-space.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +It's enough to induce a nerd heart attack -- Google and NASA have [partnered][1] for a "Space Act Agreement." The search behemoth and the U.S. government space agency will team up on a collection of projects aimed at combining, "large-scale data management and massively distributed computing."
Google Maps Mars? Oh yes. The NASA press release says:
>As the first in a series of joint collaborations, Google and Ames will focus on making the most useful of NASA's information available on the Internet. Real-time weather visualization and forecasting, high-resolution 3-D maps of the moon and Mars, real-time tracking of the International Space Station and the space shuttle will be explored in the future.
NASA says there will be Google Earth flyovers available for the surfaces of Mars and the moon in the near future. Do you role that into Google Earth or is it time to re-brand -- Google Universe maybe?
The NASA data comes from the Ames Research Center which is not far from Google's Mountain View campus.
The Google-Ames partnership began to [take shape][2] last year, but this is the first announcement of practical applications and future plans.
So far there is nothing new on the Google site, but we'll be sure to keep you posted.
But the announcement is much more than cool nerdery like Mars flyovers, NASA and Google intend to collaborate in a variety of areas, including user studies and cognitive modeling for human computer interaction.
The announcement also mentions the possibility of "science data search utilizing a variety of Google features and products."
"NASA has collected and processed more information about our planet and universe than any other entity in the history of humanity," says Chris C. Kemp, director of strategic business development at Ames.
"Even though this information was collected for the benefit of everyone, and much is in the public domain, the vast majority of this information is scattered and difficult for non-experts to access and to understand," he adds.
One line toward the end of the press release caught my eye, "NASA and Google also are finalizing details for additional collaborations that include joint research, products, facilities, education and *missions*." (emphasis mine)
Google *in* space? Now there's a thought. Perhaps Google will get around to that global free wifi I've been dreaming of and they've been denying.
[1]: http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2006/dec/HQ_06371_Ames_Google.html "NASA-Google Parter for Space Act Agreement"
[2]: http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,69014-0.html "Wired on Google/Ames"
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Mon/nightlybuild.txt b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Mon/nightlybuild.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ca18c2c --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Mon/nightlybuild.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +The Nightly Build, compiling the headlines that got away.
* In addition to [partnering with NASA][1], Google also [announced][2] it has acquired [Endoxon][3] a European mapping company. According to the Google Blog, the Endoxon acquisition will "enhance Google geo products worldwide."
* Gizmodo wasn't lying, they were just misleading us in a crass attempt to generate page hits over the weekend (judging by comments on Digg, this may have been a bad idea on Gizmodo's part). Anyway Yes, the iPhone [arrived][4] today. The iPhone being a rather dull VoIP phone from Linksys, not the much rumored cellphone from Apple.
* The [Digital Watermarking Alliance][7] has come out in favor selling music in the MP3 format using . See Wired's [Listening Post][6] for more details.
* A company called KishKish has released a lie detector plugin for Skype. Ryan Singel over at Wired blog 27B Stroke 6 wants your help [testing it][5].
[1]: http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2006/12/google_space_go.html "Monkey Bites on Google NASA deal"
[2]: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/12/mapping-europe.html "Google Blog On Endoxon acquisition"
[3]: http://www.endoxon.com/ "Endoxon"
[4]: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6189145.stm "The iPhone"
[5]: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2006/12/help_27b_test_s.html "Help 27B Stroke 6"
[6]: http://blog.wired.com/music/2006/12/labels_could_se.html "Listening Post on Digital Watermarking Alliance announcement"
[7]: http://www.digitalwatermarkingalliance.org/ "Digital Watermarking Alliance"
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Mon/psplogo.jpg b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Mon/psplogo.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..47ad0ed --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Mon/psplogo.jpg diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Mon/reboot.txt b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Mon/reboot.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4417e37 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Mon/reboot.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +<img alt="Any_key_3" title="Any_key_3" src="http://blog.wired.com/photos/uncategorized/any_key_2.jpg" border="0" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 5px 5px;" />Happy monday from the doughnut stuffed reboot.
* You, me, we are Time magazine's [Person of the Year][1]. It seems that our contribution to the web trend of "user-generated" content is more significant than Iranian nuclear weapons, delusional North Korean dictators and a host of other seemingly more important people. But then again, when the bombs start flying, it will be nice to have a decent collection of break dancing videos to watch while eating spaghettios and waiting out the U238 half life.
[1]: http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=internetNews&storyid=2006-12-17T134242Z_01_N15184106_RTRUKOC_0_US-TIME.xml&src=rss "You are Person of the Year"
* The Wall Street Journal will [launch an online stock tracking feature][2] next month. The online content is part of the WSJ's recent downsizing move. From what I can tell the new stock tracker will be free, though WSJ subscribers will access get additional content.
[2]: http://online.wsj.com/submkt/tourc/STARThere.html "Wall Street Journal Markets Data Center"
* [MySpace Mobile][3] will go live today. The service, which partners MySpace with Cingular, allows subscribers to post photos, blog entries and comments to their MySpace pages for $2.99 a month.
[3]: http://cingular.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=press_releases&item=1801 "Cingular partners with MySpace"
* It's about time Santa got some geo tracking tech in that sleigh. With that in mind Google Earth is offering a [Santa Tracker][4] overlay. From the Google Earth homepage: "Every day from December 12th until Christmas Eve, a clue will appear outside Santa's North Pole workshop which, if you can solve it, will lead you to a toy hidden in a Google Earth satellite image. And every day, the location of the previous day's toy will be revealed."
[4]: http://earth.google.com/santa/ "Santa in Google Earth"
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Mon/sony.txt b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Mon/sony.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5f160d1 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Mon/sony.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +According to London's Financial Times, Sony will soon be [offering movie downloads][1] for the popular PlayStation Portable (PSP) game console. The move will pit Sony against Apple's iTunes Store which began offering video downloads early this year.
The article claims the users will be able to buy a movie from Amazon and other Sony partners and download it onto a Sony MemoryStick. The user can then legally transfer the film via the MemoryStick to one Sony PSP.
Sony is currently distributing a 4 gigabyte version of the MemoryStick which the company claims can hold up to ten movies. Presumably they mean heavily compressed movie files.
For now Amazon is the only official partner onboard although Sony is said to be in talks with both MovieLink and CinemaNow about possible distribution deals.
One player decidedly not invited to the party is Apple's iTunes Store. Currently, the iTunes Store's movie selection is limited to offerings from Disney Studios, whereas Sony will offer films from the Home Entertainment of Sony Pictures.
With more than 20 million PSPs sold worldwide Sony, the demand for PSP movies certainly exists, at least in theory.
Sony expects to launch the service in the first quarter of 2007 after securing more deals with online video providers.
[1]: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/f290b0ec-8df6-11db-ae0e-0000779e2340.html "FT on Sony Announcement"
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Thu/reboot.txt b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Thu/reboot.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..36fd46b --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Thu/reboot.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +<img alt="Any_key_3" title="Any_key_3" src="http://blog.wired.com/photos/uncategorized/any_key_2.jpg" border="0" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 5px 5px;" />The morning reboot, because it's morning, duh:
* AllofMP3.com [gets the legal smackdown][1]. Several major record labels are suing the Russian music site claiming it has been profiting by selling copies of music without their permission. Warner Bros., Arista, Capitol and others are behind the suit.
[1]: http://www.mosnews.com/money/2006/12/21/mp3court.shtml "Labels sue AllofMP3.com"
* Seagate, the worlds largest hard disk manufacturer, will [acquire EVault][2], an online data storage service for $185 million. Will Seagate drives start shipping with a one-click back-up-to-web storage solution?
[2]: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061221/ap_on_hi_te/seagate_evault_acquisition "Seagate buys EVault"
* [FeedYourZune][3] is a new podcast-to-Zune RSS program that takes care of automatic download and syncing of Audio and Video Podcasts to your Zune. The software also sports RSS video playback, playlists, favorites and more.
[3]: http://feedyourzune.com/ "FeedYourZune"
* Last week we told you about The Pirate Bay's decision to [block Swedish ISP Perspektiv Broadband][7] because Perspektiv had blocked its customers from accessing AllofMP3. Well, it seems that on some level The Pirate Bay's move worked, whether under pressure from negative publicity or some other reason, Prespectiv has lifted its ban of AllofMP3 and The Pirate Bay has in turn [stopped blocking Prespectiv customers][7].
[6]: http://thepiratebay.org/blog/46 "The Pirate Bay Blog"
[7]: http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2006/12/the_pirate_bay_.html "Monkey Bites on TBP"
* It's nearly Christmas and with that in mind, check out [The Luddite's Christmas gift guide][5] and If you haven't seen it yet, definitely take a look at the uncensored version of the Justin Timberlake SNL sketch *[A Special Christmas Box][4]* (NSFW).
[4]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dmVU08zVpA "YouTube - a Special Christmas Box"
[5]: http://www.wired.com/news/columns/0,72335-0.html?tw=rss.index "The Luddite's Christmas Gift Guide"
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Tue/macheist.txt b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Tue/macheist.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..93eff81 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Tue/macheist.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +Last week Mac site MacHeist offered users a bundle of 10 Mac shareware apps for the bargain price of $49. The total price of all the apps bought separately would have been over $350, obviously for consumers the bundle was an excellent deal.
The reaction from consumers was massive. MacHeist sold 16,821 bundles, which though hard statistics are unavailable, given small size of the audience to begin with, might be the largest, most successful sale of Mac shareware ever.
MacHeist is the brainchild of Phill Ryu an eighteen year old mac user who previously created and hosted My Dream App, and John Casasanta, developer of iClip. "John came to me with the idea of a bundle sale, something similar to MacZot," Ryu says. "We started brainstorming about how to make it more fun than just another mac bundle sale and MacHeist was the result."
Ryu says they had no idea that MacHeist would be as successful as it was. "We weren't expecting the kind of sales we ended up with. We told the developers we were expecting somewhere around 5000 sales." The final numbers put MacHeist at over triple the initial forecast.
But the Ryu concedes that at least some of the additional sales may have come about because of controversy surrounding the event.
You might wonder where the controversy lies in a sales event that triples its expectations and donates $200,000 to charity.
According to some commentators, the most important people, the developers themselves, were left out of the equation. The controversy centers around how much money the developers were paid versus how much MacHeist itself made.
Though no figures have officially been released, some developers who declined to participate have reported that they were offered a flat rate around $5000.
Longtime Mac blogger, John Gruber, writes on Daring Fireball, "respectable agents or managers take no more than a 15 percent cut of their clients' revenue, and usually not more than 10 percent. That's true in sports, it's true for authors, and it's true for entertainers."
While that may be true, Mac shareware developers are hardly comparable to celebrities. Most sports celebrities for instance, make more than in an hour than all the developers of MacHeist bundle apps combined will likely make in the lifetime of their products. In other words %10 of a celebrity's profits is a lot of money, but 10% of the Mac developer's profits isn't.
What makes the supposed controversy even sillier is that none of the developers themselves are complaining. In fact most are quite happy with the sale. Oliver Breidenbach writes on his blog, "I don't care how much money the MacHeist guys make, I care about how much my company makes and how the Heist brings us forward towards our goals."
Additionally, because sales so exceeded their expectations, Ryu says MacHeist passed a bonus on to all the developers. "We've given pretty substantial bonuses, which work out to about double the money of the original agreements."
Ryu says that developer feedback has been positive. "Nine of the ten developers are very happy with the sale," he says. The tenth developer asked not to be named and delined to comment for the story.
"I feel like it brought a lot of focus to mac shareware." Ryu counters. "We had a lot of feedback from customers who said they had never even heard of shareware let alone bought."
If you missed out on the bundle, Ryu wouldn't give a date, but he did say that MacHeist will be offering another shareware app bundle sometime next year.
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Tue/reboot.txt b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Tue/reboot.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2a64ce1 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Tue/reboot.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +<img alt="Any_key_3" title="Any_key_3" src="http://blog.wired.com/photos/uncategorized/any_key_2.jpg" border="0" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 5px 5px;" />The morning reboot:
* There's a new player coming to the field of facial recognition, Swedish startup Polar Rose will [launch a public test][1] of its software in March. Polar Rose's software analyzes digital photos to locate faces and convert to resulting data from 2D images to 3D models.
* The Federal Court of Australia has [ruled][2] that linking to copyright infringing materials is illegal. The case in question involves the now-defunct MP3s4free.net, a user-submitted link site leading to copyright infringing materials. But wait, I thought we were Person of the Year for our user-generated content? Oh, right...
* There are [reports][3] of a worm that may be circulating via a feature in Skype's popular VoIP service. The worm sends messages via Skype Chat, asking recipients to download and run a file called sp.exe. Sp.exe is a trojan horse that will then steal passwords and download additional files.
* The CEO of Phillips Electronics, Paul Zeven, has an interesting [op/ed piece][4] on CNet in which he wonders "if consumers really want all this. Have we gone too far? Are we in step with the needs of today's American consumer?" Needs? *Needs*? We don't need your stinking needs, just gimme my robotic vacuum cleaner and step away from the Wii.
[1]: http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=internetNews&storyid=2006-12-19T150920Z_01_N19231410_RTRUKOC_0_US-INTERNET-RECOGNITION.xml&src=rss "Polar Rose to launch next year"
[2]: http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-6144590.html "CNet on Australian Copyright Case"
[3]: http://www.idm.net.au/story.asp?id=7841 "Skype Worm"
[4]: http://news.com.com/2010-1041_3-6144335.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-20&subj=news "Do you need gizmos?"
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Wed/build.txt b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Wed/build.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..80faa8a --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Wed/build.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +The Nightly Build, compiling the days headlines for your nutritional benefit:
* Sony has finally [settled][1] with the State of California for a measly $750,000 on charges of violating "state laws prohibiting false or misleading advertising, unfair or unlawful businesses practices, and unauthorized access to computers." The Sony fiasco involved a CD that secretly installed a program on users hard drives as an attempt at DRM. There should definitely be at least two more zeros on the end of that settlement figure.
[1]: http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7005915959 "Sony settles with California"
* Popular social bookmarking site del.icio.us has a new [developer API][3] coming soon. Details are few thus far, but there is a screencast preview. Among the cool new features is the ability to display tags that other people have applied to your page.
[3]: http://developer.yahoo.net/blog/archives/2006/12/preview_of_the.html "del.icio.us API"
* And just to balance the last item, Google has gotten rid of an API. The search giant quietly [removed its SOAP search API][4] earlier this month and is telling developers to switch to the AJAX API instead. Perhaps not coincidentally the AJAX API embeds ads on the users page, whereas the SOAP API did not.
[4]: http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/006996.html "Google ditches SOAP"
* The Wall Street Journal's Joseph Rago has an op/ed piece entitled *[The Blog Mob][2]* with the lede: "Written by fools to be read by imbeciles." Ah, thanks Joe. Wait a second, you're writing for a "Journal" and that journal displays its [entries in reverse chronological order][7]... Joe, are you saying you're a fool? (Note the first link may require registration -- natch)
[2]: http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110009409 "Fools and imbeciles"
[7]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog "Wikipedia definition of a blog"
* And finally, it has nothing to do with software or the web, but it's pretty darn remarkable: "Japanese man [survives][5] 3 weeks in the outdoors by hibernating." [via [BoingBoing][6]]
[5]: http://www.cbc.ca/cp/Oddities/061220/K122004AU.html "Japanese Man survives by hibernating"
[6]: http://www.boingboing.net/2006/12/20/japanese_man_survive.html "BoingBoing on hibernation"
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Wed/delicious.txt b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Wed/delicious.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d258168 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Wed/delicious.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +My article on the MacHeist app bundle experiment was [published][2] on Wired earlier today and since Monkey Bites readers are the inquiring sort, we thought we'd post some more of the developer feedback we received.
After the jump is the full text of an email interview with Wil Shipley, "Chief Monster" at Delicious Monster Software maker of the popular Mac application [Delicious Monster][1], which was part of the MacHeist Shareware bundle.
<b>There's was some negative reaction to MacHeist's profits versus that of developers, do you feel cheated at all?</b>
I don't feel "cheated," since I knew exactly what the terms of the deal were going in -- I agreed to a fixed amount so they could include my software in a bundle for a week.
The point that most of the detractors are ignoring is that none of us knew how successful the bundle would be -- not the developers, not the guys at MacHeist. They were taking as much of a risk as we were -- if all of their site's visitors had said, "Nice site, but I'm not interested in the bundle" then they would still have been liable to pay all of us developers a fixed amount. There was simply no way to accurately guess how many of the people who were on the MacHeist site might decide to buy the bundle at the end of the game. We were all gambling.
Now, in fact the bundle was enormously successful, more than any of us had ever thought, so MacHeist made a killing. I guess I could whine about this, but such is the nature of gambles -- they assumed more of the risk, and as such they got the bigger payoff when the jackpot hit. Plus, MacHeist actually decided to double what they are paying us developers after it hit so big.
Sure, it twinges a little to think they made something like half a million dollars in two months, but that's largely just jealousy. My reasoning behind agreeing to be in the bundle was pretty straightforward: the first version of Delicious Library has been out for over a year, and so it doesn't get covered a lot in the press -- nobody wants to review a product that is considered "old", and have everyone say, "Dude, I've been using that since, like, your mom used to ride her dinosaur to school!" Exposure is much harder to get at this point, so bundles and sales and other kinds of events are much more attractive to me.
If Phil had come up to me next year sometimes after Delicious Library 2 had shipped and offered me the same bundle -- well, he would have been turned down. But at this point what I have from the bundle is: (a) a pile of cash, (b) a ton of exposure, (c) a week of increased non-bundle sales from said exposure, and (d) 16,821 new customers who might potentially upgrade to 2.0 or recommend 1.0 to their friends.
My philosophy on software sales has always been, if I could GIVE my software to half the people in the world, and they would recommend it to the other half and they all would buy it, I'd be the richest guy who ever lived. The problem with that abstract theory is somehow figuring out how to divide the computer users of the world in half, because if you accidentally give your software to EVERYONE in the world you're boned. This bundle offered the opportunity to get my software into the hands of what I believe to be connected Mac users, at a steep discount for them.
<b>Would you do it again?</b>
If there's ever a MacHeist 2 or similar bundle, I'll certainly consider participating (depending on how long Delicious Library 2 or Delicious Interiors has been out, or whatever), but I'm going to ask for a lot more money. The MacHeist team is a victim of their own success here -- now that everyone in the world KNOWS how popular their bundles are, we KNOW that they aren't taking that much risk, and so the risk/reward calculation is different the second time, and we'll all ask for a bigger slice. C'est la vie!
[1]: http://www.delicious-monster.com/ "Delicious Monster"
[2]: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/software/0,72333-0.html?tw=wn_index_1 "MacHeist Is a Bundle of Joy"
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Wed/macheist.jpg b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Wed/macheist.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..96863ce --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Wed/macheist.jpg diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Wed/pandora-logo.jpg b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Wed/pandora-logo.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c61d2b1 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Wed/pandora-logo.jpg diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Wed/pandora-screen.jpg b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Wed/pandora-screen.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c8a4bc6 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Wed/pandora-screen.jpg diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Wed/pandora.txt b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Wed/pandora.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8f73dde --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Wed/pandora.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +As mentioned in [the morning reboot][1], music sharing service [Pandora][2] has added some nice "social" features. Previously user profiles were limited to bookmarked songs, but as of today users can now list bio information, leave comments, bookmark other users and create artist lists.
Previously Pandora was somewhat limited in its sharing tools. You've always been able to email station to friends whether or not they were Pandora members, but there weren't many tool for interacting with other Pandora users. The focus of the site was clearly on the music and search tools.
While the focus of Pandora hasn't radically shifted, the new features do put some additional emphasis on Pandora users and community, rather than just services.
All the new profile features come with privacy controls, users can set their profiles public or private and turn comments on and off. It would nice if Pandora had an option to control the privacy of comments rather than just turning them on and off, for instance perhaps an option to allow trusted users to comment but block everyone else. Unfortunately that isn't currently possible.
In addition to the new profile features, there's also a couple of new search possibilities that let you find other users with similar tastes. When you find another user with a station that fits your musical taste, you can add that person by clicking the blue "bookmark this person" button on their profile page (assuming their profile is public of course).
While not exactly revolutionary, the new features bring Pandora more in line with competitors like [last.fm][4] and give yet another way to discover new music. Of all the services I [reviewed][3] last month for Wired, Pandora continues to deliver the most exciting and varied recommendations.
[1]: http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2006/12/the_morning_reb_13.html "The Morning Reboot, Wednesday December 20"
[2]: http://www.pandora.com/ "Pandora"
[3]: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/internet/0,72182-0.html?tw=wn_technology_software_9 "Fine Tune Your Music Discoveries"
[4]: http://www.last.fm/ "last.fm"
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Wed/reboot.txt b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Wed/reboot.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..45f18d9 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Wed/reboot.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +<img alt="Any_key_3" title="Any_key_3" src="http://blog.wired.com/photos/uncategorized/any_key_2.jpg" border="0" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 5px 5px;" />The morning reboot, feeling young today:
* The new version of the popular blogging platform, [Blogger][2], is out of beta. [According][1] to Google: "the old version of Blogger is not dead, but it would like to retire for a little while... maybe go to Hawaii or play World of Warcraft all day?"
[1]: http://buzz.blogger.com/2006/12/new-version-of-blogger.html "Blogger out of beta"
[2]: http://www.blogger.com/start "Blogger"
* The Wall Street Journal [reports][3] that Ticketmaster has bought a 25 percent share of the social music site [iLike][4]. Ticketmaster hopes to use links on iLike to <strike>rip off consumers</strike> sell tickets. I really enjoy iLike, hopefully Ticketmaster won't screw it up.
[3]: http://users1.wsj.com/lmda/do/checkLogin?mg=wsj-users1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB116657976118655285.html%3Fmod%3Drss_whats_news_technology "WSJ on iLike-Ticketmaster deal"
[4]: http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2006/10/post.html "Monkey Bites on iLike"
* "It's Pat" as a ringtone? Apparently yes, for Cingular customers anyway. Cingular has [partnered with Saturday Night Live][5] to offer multimedia downloads, including video clips and "original material produced with the mobile screen in mind." And yes, famous sketches as ringtones.
[5]: http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=internetNews&storyid=2006-12-20T092931Z_01_N20333885_RTRUKOC_0_US-SNL.xml&src=rss "Cingular to offer SNL sketches, ringtones and more"
* Popular social music site [Pandora][6] has added some [new social features][7] like listener profiles with musical preferences and listener searches.
[6]: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/internet/0,72182-0.html?tw=wn_technology_software_9 "Wired.com on Pandora and others"
[7]: http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/12/19/pandora-goes-social/ "Techcrunch on Pandora"
* The Free Software Foundation [launched][8] a new anti-Microsoft website called BadVista.org earlier this week. The FSF claims that BadVista.org has a "twofold mission of exposing the harms inflicted on computer users by the new Microsoft Windows Vista and promoting free software alternatives that respect users' security and privacy rights."
[8]: http://badvista.fsf.org/ "BadVista.org"
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Wed/zoho.txt b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Wed/zoho.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2a04b7b --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Wed/zoho.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +<img border="0" src="http://blog.wired.com/photos/uncategorized/zoho_logo.gif" title="Zoho_logo" alt="Zoho_logo" style="margin: 0px 0px 5px 5px; float: right;" />Zoho, the online office tool suite we've [looked at before][2], quietly [updated][1] earlier today adding a new feature -- the Zoho Wiki.
Zoho is pushing their wiki as "wiki for the rest of us," with some nice features like a WYSIWYG editing interface with spell checking, revision history and difference comparisons.
Creating a wiki is one-click simple, just fill in the form information and the wiki will be added under your username with the address something like: mywikiname.wiki.zoho.com. Note that the name of your wiki is not editable after you create it, though you can change the title at any time.
Under the settings button you can control outside access to your wiki by making it public, private or limited to a select group of members.
Wikis are customizable with number of skins available and in addition, users can upload a logo or other image. There's also an option to control the position of the nav bar on the public wiki pages.
Zoho wikis can handle a number of embedded Zoho objects like Zoho Sheet charts, Zoho Show slide shows and Zoho Creator applications, as well as outside content like YouTube videos and more. Any changes to the Zoho object are automatically synced both ways whether the edit is made in the Wiki or the Zoho app.
In total Zoho users can create three wikis and each of those wikis can contain an unlimited number of pages.
Like most of Zoho's offerings the new Wiki feature is free for registered users.
[1]: http://blogs.zoho.com/general/introducing-the-zoho-wiki/
[2]: http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2006/11/zoho_announces_.html "Monkey Bites on Zoho"
\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Wed/zoho1.jpg b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Wed/zoho1.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..398d0b0 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Wed/zoho1.jpg diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Wed/zoho2.jpg b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Wed/zoho2.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ff9c41c --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Wed/zoho2.jpg diff --git a/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Wed/zoho3.jpg b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Wed/zoho3.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..38cf4e2 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/published/Webmonkey/Monkey_Bites/2006/12.18.06/Wed/zoho3.jpg |
