[+] Open the Meta Bar Tag: internets interestingness. There are 18 posts tagged internets interestingness. Open the Meta Bar to choose a different tag.
As always, I’m a sucker for good info-graphics and good motion-graphics. Put the two together and you’ve really got me.
You have to watch this a couple times to really internalize some of the numbers. In particular, Facebook’s overall dominance is simply staggering.
(via @micah)
It took a pretty big fiasco, but as the Ars Technica notes, this is the first time Microsoft has very clearly suggested users move away from IE6 because of a specific flaw. Now if they would all just heed that advice…
It’s a step forward, but then: two steps back. “I’m not aware that the vulnerability exists in other [non-IE browsers]… But those products may have other vulnerabilities.” Sigh.
That’s like saying: “I know smoking can cause cancer, but you might get cancer from something else, so you might as well smoke.”
(via @elliothere)
As you can see, the client configuration currently at risk is Windows XP running IE6,” the blog post reads. “We recommend users of IE6 on Windows XP upgrade to a new version of Internet Explorer and/or enable DEP. Users of other platforms are at reduced risk. We also recommend users of Windows XP upgrade to newer versions of Windows.
Counter-point.
Fantasy world is thinking that everyone has the ability and the access, the know how or even the desire to upgrade their browser.
Point.
If you’re one of those people who is hiding behind the outdated notion that web sites should look, or be experienced, exactly the same in every browser, you are in for a nasty shock. The real question is not should web sites look the same in every browser but can they? The answer is no. Live with that, move on.
If you are one of those people who is waiting until using progressive CSS is safe because all major browsers support the same CSS at the same time, you’re living in a fantasy world.
I’ll say this up front: I sincerely (and selfishly) wish I had written and posted this months ago. I posed the following argument to a friend not long after I had become hooked on Twitter, and frankly, had I written about it then, I would’ve looked like a genius at the outset of the fix replies debacle. Instead, you’ll have to take my argument for what it may (or may not) be worth now:
Huh? Let me explain: Twitter is brilliant because of its simplicity and the way it lends itself to being an open and public messaging/broadcasting platform. These basic tenents are what differentiated it and helped it become what it is today among a host of other more “traditional” social network sites.
I would go so far as to say that the ultimate genius of Twitter is its lack of features. There are no groups, there are no sub-sets or tiers of users. No special treatment. Up until Twitter “fixed confusing replies” (as they originally put it), everyone saw what everyone else wrote (unless they chose not to). You are valuable to people on Twitter if they listen to you and find value in what you say. On some level, Twitter stumbled into what it is today. It would be hard to come up with a more simple structure for a social network if you tried. Simplicity is the genius of Twitter. But there is a problem…
Here’s the deal: until network providers no longer think of themselves as content providers there will be a conflict of interest in the way they do business.
A network provider has a vested interest in expanding and increasing the quality of their network. A content provider has a vested interest in the status quo and not allowing new business that might threaten its own revenue streams.
So all those cool data applications Apple and AT&T tout for the iPhone or other smartphones sold by the operator? Just remember they exist only at the behest of the carrier; if they threaten to expose its network’s shortcomings, they’ll get blocked.
A glimpse into the future.
Been there, done that. And no, the studios don’t get it yet.
A great read.
Okay, so this is today’s reality. You’re paying somewhere between $25 and $75 for your broadband Internet connection. And another $45 to $110 for your television cable access… What if you could just stream those TV shows from the Web on your flat panel, any old TV. You could cancel your TV cable and save real money.
Let’s be realistic…
Here’s the one thing that’s always bugged me on some level about the “support IE6” argument: Why is there an expectation that everyone will eventually upgrade?
Why isn’t support for old browsers (any old browser, regardless of market-share), an extra line-item on everyone’s invoices by default?
Still far too high a percentage and enough to make you grown [sic]. Also, the last few pounds are the hardest to lose…
Maybe IE 8, Windows 7, and the great new browser war will help, or maybe some percentage is for lost computer souls.
“Communications Minister Stephen Conroy proposed the filter earlier this year, following up on a promise of the year-old Labor Party government to make the Internet cleaner and safer.”
Just an FYI. Not even that great of an article, and I’m not sure it will even pass. But I think it’s good to occasionally sound the warning bell.
Some semblance of censorship is coming to the internet near you (ISP-based, gov-based, or even volunteer). It will start “for the greater good” (i.e., to rid the world of child pornography). But follow it out. Imagine a world where you need a license from your government (and all other countries you want to be exposed to) to sell online, or to start the next ebay, or Google, or Twitter. No license? You don’t get added to the filter’s white-list. I know, you probably think I’m crazy. I sure hope I am.
There have been some rumblings lately regarding the disappearance of some movies (and tv shows) from Netflix streaming and the iTunes store. This article tells us that the culprit is mostly TV licensing deals.
The part that caught my attention is the defense by the film/tv studios: they’re not willing to kill (or even just modify) an existing business model to help out a new one (the internet).
I think they’re missing something critical. I think there is a leapfrog event happening. I skipped right over things like Tivo or on-demand cable (one of the ways a license deal can get something pulled from the net) and I generally no longer watch any form of on-air tv: cable, antenna, satellite or otherwise. If tv/film wants to reach me, it has to be through the internet. And I know I’m not alone.
The insistence of the industry to adhere to their old business models could get to the point that they miss out on an entire segment of their potential audience. A segment that is growing.
More and more we’ll need to rely on each other to help filter our content for us and bring the best stuff on up to the top.
Talking about the Stone Throw Records website
Matt is right on about this site. Sometimes we try to do too much and while the list of “features” is long, the user experience is so bad that it’s hard for anyone to focus on what we want the site to do.
There’s no harrasing email-to-a-friend links, digg this, flickr that?—?no high-octane, freakshow music players that kill your browser and first born, no live chat, no personalized fan pages, no nothing. No bullshit. It’s just music and information, well presented.
I don’t really know anything about this service or who is behind it other than the video (sorry, it wasn’t embeddable). But go watch the video and see if it opens your mind a bit.
2 isn’t a new concept, but I think some companies “get it” more than others. I think we’ll even begin to see more and more highly niched companies that are successful doing a couple small tasks really well in a way that no one had ever done before.
(via @tobi)
The problem isn’t that people won’t pay for music. It’s that we’re not giving them appealing options.
Almost every single paragraph of this article was quotable. I had a hell of a time picking just one. So go read the whole thing.
Ok, one more:
“Anybody who believes music should be free is an imbecile. It’s just that we need innovative marketers who can figure out how to package it so people will pay for it. At more than a buck a throw.”
If you make music accessible enough, all of it for a very low price, easily played, people will pay for it. That’s immutable. Work from that point backward, not from the premise of getting the public to have collective amnesia and go back to the pre-Napster days.
Just last week I wrote a post on how little TV I watch on my actual TV. Well, after talking with my housemates, we decided to pull the plug, literally. We called up our cable company and asked them to cancel our TV service. No landline. No cable TV. What’s next?
And that was in 2005.
I love up-ending the status quo and I’ve always felt privileged to be involved and experience, in some small part, the changes the net has brought to existing business models, particularly in media.
What baffles me is how many people in more “traditional” advertising agencies are just now figuring this out and are often clueless on how to deal with the affects to their business model. It’s like watching the record companies destroy themselves all over again.
When Alison Fetherstonhaugh was 15, her father, Brian, who is chairman and chief executive of OgilvyOne Worldwide, asked her to keep a diary of her media activities. What she recorded back in 2005 was startling… Half of the TV she was watching wasn’t live. She zipped through TV ads. She didn’t read newspapers.
I haven’t sat down in front of a TV in weeks, even months. But just tonight I got caught up on The Simpsons, watched a piece of 60 Minutes that Jason Fried had tweeted about and later I’ll probably watch a movie. I’m a fan of Prison Break, but hadn’t seen any of season 3 or 4 until last week. Netflix got me caught up on season 3 and Hulu on season 4.
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