Update: Reuters.com is reporting that the major record labels have said that this information is false. They have not signed a contract with Qtrax but they were working together on beta testing. So now we would have to wait and see if any of the major record labels would actually sign the contract which we doubt. Why doesn’t each major record label run there own website/p2p and make their own profit ?
The new buzz
of the internet for today is a company named Qtrax which is going to offer free and legal music to download. It is going to work with p2p in a way that you don’t have to download any program, it runs of your browser. The great news about this is that all major record labels have signed an agreement so it is legal to download it from the website. It also offers more songs than iTunes and Amazon which is a great way to compete. Of course to every great story comes bad news. So far it is DRM wrapped, you need a specific player to listen to the music and even worse for most, it doesn’t work with your ipod. They say that they are working on it but until then I don’t see myself using this service. Mac users are also screwed because it only works for Windows at the moment but it is expected to be Mac compatible in March. I hope everything works out the way they plan it and that it will be free and legal, if it does these will be a great success.
Yasser
One of the biggest t.v. programs of the year is going to air on February 3rd. It is no lie that the Super Bowl is one of the most watch t.v. shows of the year, even people that don’t watch football love watching the Super Bowl. One of the greatest part of this event is there exciting new, funny, expensive commercials that air during breaks. This year the show is going to be transmitted by Fox News which is charging an all time record high of $2.7 million dollars for a 30-second commercial. Ticket sales to attend the Super Bowl will add up approximately $57.6 million this year. You can see the Super Bowl economy is a strong one and everyone seems to want a piece of that pie. Business owners try to make the best out of their places to try and get people to go to their event/party. This means they have deals on drinks, maybe free t-shirts or something else. It is also known as the # 1 day to buy snack foods so it is also a competition for the chips companies to offer the best deals or the most attracting bags. The Super Bowl Economy is without a doubt a great business day for many.
I found this great article in ITworld.com about the history of five generic domain names: milk.com , meat.com, music.com, eat.com and car.com . These would be names worth a lot in the domain real estate business but yet none of them started as what their name says, they were all geeky websites. It would be worth a lot owning one of these domains.
In this brave new Web 2.0 world, it’s almost a badge of honor to have a Web site name that only hints at what the user will find there (see Flickr) or is so opaque as to offer no clue at all as to what the Web site is about (see del.icio.us). It’s easy to forget the first Internet gold rush of the mid-to-late ’90s, when dot-com domain names based on ordinary (and, investors hoped, marketable) nouns and verbs were snapped up by hopeful companies from the humble geeks who had purchased them (often ironically) in the early ’90s. The weird and wooly history of the Web can best be traced through some of its most generic domains. Here’s a sampling that trace the arc from the geeks to the entrepreneurs and into a more staid corporate world.
Keep reading more…
The topic for discussion in my Intro to International Relations class was the United Nations. Most people know the name but know little about the organization itself. The definition according to Wikipedia is:
The United Nations (UN) is an international organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress and human rights issues. The UN was founded in 1945 to replace the League of Nations, in the hope that it would intervene in conflicts between states and thereby avoid war.
So the common knowledge about the U.N. is that they prevent wars and help out other countries. The truth is that they don’t do a very good job at it. And if you don’t agree with that then why was there Apartheid in South Africa for such a long time? Why is the current situation in Darfur still going on? Pick an issue and you will see that the U.N. has done little or nothing to solve this issue. But the question is, why doesn’t the U.N. work? It is a bunch of countries that gather and try to solve problems that other countries have. The important meeting where all the states get together, or all the members, is called the General Assembly. There everyone discusses topics and vote on what should/shouldn’t be done to bring peace and solve problems. What most people don’t know is that there is also a Security Council composed by 5 permanent members: China, United States, France, Russia and the United Kingdom. There is also 10 non-permanent members that rotate every year.
These five permanent members come from World War II, which is what made the United Nations exist. These five dominating countries have a great power. These five states have the power to Veto any proposal. You don’t need all five of them to veto, just one. Thus, if a proposal is given that doesn’t benefit any of the permanent members, one of them will most likely veto it in their personal interest. Meaning… nothing will ever be passed that doesn’t benefit or affects one of these states. If the U.N. would work better then there would be no permanent members, they should rotate the entire Security Council every year. Because these five countries are in charge of making these decisions before they reach the General Assembly, they will never have any repercussion from the U.N. This is a monopoly on an international level. Why doesn’t someone challenge the U.N. on this?
Yasser
The great thing about the internet is that when we want to learn how to do something we no longer need a book. We can always search for it online and hopefully find a good website that explains things slowly or at whatever speed you desire. Sometimes it is hard finding these websites that have How To’s but my favorite has always been About.com, they always seem to have the information I need for most non-technical stuff. But there is a lot of other websites that teach us how to build, write, do other things. TeacherTube is almost a new one that teaches us through videos. It is quicker than searching YouTube for videos. ReadWriteWeb has published a big list of sites that have tutorials and other How To’s. So next time you need to learn how to do something just go visit the list because it will probably be faster than searching through every website.
Yasser
Yahoo has recently improved their service in OpenID. It now has over 100 million users ID and it could be used in 9,000 websites so far. OpenID is a project that Yahoo has that enables people to have one account that is valid for hundreds and thousands of websites. That means that you wont have to register each time on a new website, you could just use your OpenID. It sounds like a great idea but… Microsoft already had this idea and it is called Passport but no one really uses it. Maybe Yahoo has better luck at selling this product to the market. The idea is great but this would mean that if someone steals your OpenID then they just stoled your ID for hundreds of websites. You can go to Yahoo OpenID to learn more and register if you’re interested in having one.
Yasser
Finally a new show that I could look forward to watching. The Sarah Connor Chronicles started yesterday (Jan. 13th) and it was a great first show. It reminds me of the first time I saw Terminator I and Terminator II. They even used some famous quotes from the movie like “come with me if you want to live”. They also used the same house where they killed the guy who “created” the war of robots. Just from one episode I could say that it is going to be a great show this season and I recommend it to anyone who likes good shows, specially if you were a fan of Terminator. The whole series is based on what happened after Terminator II, the kid is a bit older and new adventures await. Don’t miss it.
Yasser
I finally got rid of my MySpace account 
. It was something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time but never did until today. The reasons why I didn’t want to delete it was the fact that it’s a good way to keep in contact with friends who are very far away or you don’t get to see often. It had pictures with comments that are some what memorable but I saved the pictures and the comments… the comments are not that memorable. If you were that important in my life I will remember you. Other than that MySpace is the perfect place to be anti-social. You stop calling and/or texting people and just text them online. You check their pictures to see how are they doing and what are they up to. If you really consider yourself my friend then you would actually look for me and vice-versa. The top friends list is things of high school. I’ve been in so many top friends knowing that the person and I barely communicate or see each other. There is also the fact that MySpace just gives people a bad name and it’s full of spam. But now I’m free from all that hypocrisy. Bye Bye MySpace… Facebook would be next but I need it to survive in college.
Yasser
The security expert Bruce Schneier has recently written an article on Wired.com about using Wi-Fi networks that don’t have password protections. His position on this topic is, use it. His own wireless network is not protected so others can use it. The way he sees it is that other people benefit from it. This might come from the same ideology of hackers that everything in the internet should be free and everyone should have access to these. He is not worried about his security because he knows how to secure his computer no matter what network is he on. This is a great article to debate on whether you believe in using your neighbors unprotected WiFi and if you should allow your neighbors use your unprotected wireless network.
Similarly, I appreciate an open network when I am otherwise without bandwidth. If someone were using my network to the point that it affected my own traffic or if some neighbor kid was dinking around, I might want to do something about it; but as long as we’re all polite, why should this concern me? Pay it forward, I say.
I haven’t been following politics lately because I already feel informed of what is going on. As usual Mike Gravel is always excluded from talking and lately from participating in the Iowa Caucuses. Surprisingly, Hillary Clinton didn’t win at Iowa but it is no surprise that she is in the lead and to me it seems pretty obvious that no matter what happens she is the candidate that will run in 2008 for president. Not that she is the best, but it is the agenda. On the other hand Dennis Kucinich was also not allowed to participate in the Iowa Caucuses which is not quite fair. Here is a little view of what the future looks like: Hillary for President, John Edwards for VP and they will win the elections. But maybe things change from here until then.
Yasser
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