http://importance.corante.com/ en-us ernest.miller@aya.yale.edu 2005-06-22T08:26:43-08:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 http://importance.corante.com/archives/2005/06/22/a_dirge_for_real.php Jeff Louella discusses the rise and decline of Real Networks (The Rise and Fall of a Revolutionary Company).The application that changed me in so many ways seems to be dying a slow painful death. The company that once revolutionized the... 6166@http://importance.corante.com/ Blink › 2005-06-22T08:26:43-08:00 http://importance.corante.com/archives/2005/06/13/google_map_hacks_taking_off.php CNN runs an AP wirestory on the increasing number of hacks for Google Maps (Google Tinkerers Make Data Come Alive).Geeks, tinkerers and innovators are crashing the Google party, having discovered how to tinker with the search engine's mapping service to... 6024@http://importance.corante.com/ Blink › 2005-06-13T07:47:34-08:00 http://importance.corante.com/archives/2005/05/24/ms_to_lock_up_office_documents_lock_in_customers.php C|Net News reports on a couple of initiatives by Microsoft to bring more security into the workplace (Facing 'New World of Work,' Microsoft Locks Up Office). Apparently Microsoft will be adding new forms of DRM to their popular office suite... 5715@http://importance.corante.com/ Security 2005-05-24T06:40:19-08:00 http://importance.corante.com/archives/2005/05/17/aol_wants_im_integrated_with_videogames.php Corante's Get Real notes that AOL is releasing a software developer kit (SDK) so that videogame creators can integrate AIM and ICQ functionality into their videogames - IM with friends while you waste far too much of your time on... 5664@http://importance.corante.com/ Blink › 2005-05-17T16:07:27-08:00 http://importance.corante.com/archives/2004/08/30/the_google_file_system.php Slashdot points to an extremely interesting Google Gmail hack - the Gmail File System (GmailFS - The Google File System):GmailFS provides a mountable Linux filesystem which uses your Gmail account as its storage medium. ... GmailFS supports most file operations... 5391@http://importance.corante.com/ Copyright 2004-08-30T05:30:40-08:00 http://importance.corante.com/archives/2004/07/06/quote_of_the_day_telecom_and_drm_edition.php Telepocalypse discusses why DRM is bad for communication networks (DRM - enemy of telecom):Ultimately, telecom is about communications, not media. DRM inhibits communications. That’s the opposite of what you’re after. If we’d had DRM before the Internet became widely available,... 5199@http://importance.corante.com/ Digital Rights Management 2004-07-06T05:44:44-08:00 http://importance.corante.com/archives/2004/06/01/microsoft_extends_software_support_intuit_forces_obsolescence.php C|Net News reports the somewhat surprising move by Microsoft to extend support for older versions of their software that are still widely used (Microsoft slows to support customers' pace). Microsoft has been frequently accused of dropping support for older software... 5130@http://importance.corante.com/ Open Standards 2004-06-01T15:54:46-08:00 http://importance.corante.com/archives/2004/03/26/tivos_quasinew_extended_commercial_model.php A few days ago C|Net News reported that TiVo is planning on rolling out a quasi-new advertising model this fall (TiVo looks to tune in to advertisers). The new system is described thus: Known as Video-to-Video, the idea is to... 5077@http://importance.corante.com/ Broadcatching/Podcasting 2004-03-26T21:27:08-08:00 http://importance.corante.com/archives/2004/02/11/rss_for_tv_music.php Andrew Grumet is developing a very interesting TiVo hack (RSSTV: Syndication for your PVR). Basically the idea is to share PVR program recording information via RSS. So, when you subscribed to an RSSTV feed, your PVR would record the shows... 4980@http://importance.corante.com/ Blogging and Journalism 2004-02-11T23:23:01-08:00 http://importance.corante.com/archives/2004/01/16/why_not_run_your_own_game_server.php Terra Nova has an interesting little article on so-called "rogue servers" that host MMORPGs (Free Rogue Server Achieves Significant Population). Most, if not all (any P2P MMORPGs out there?), MMORPG are based on the client/server model, where each user has... 4960@http://importance.corante.com/ Copyright 2004-01-16T09:28:53-08:00 http://importance.corante.com/archives/2003/12/18/openoffice_in_more_government_shops.php C|Net News reports that more government organizations, this time in Israel and Texas, are adopting or testing open source desktop software, such as OpenOffice, as an alternative to Microsoft Office software (OpenOffice makes government inroads). This is great news. However,... 4940@http://importance.corante.com/ Open Source 2003-12-18T09:18:24-08:00 http://importance.corante.com/archives/2003/11/06/w3c_working_draft_on_antirobot_tests.php The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has been one of the leaders in ensuring the web is accessible to everyone despite disability (Web Accessability Initiative). Now, C|Net News reports that the W3C is concerned about access for the visually impaired... 4875@http://importance.corante.com/ Open Access 2003-11-06T15:23:34-08:00 http://importance.corante.com/archives/2003/11/06/the_problem_with_incompatible_drm.php C|Net News has an interesting piece on the incompatibilities created by the use of DRM (Stalemate on digital content?). The underlying video might be standard MPEG, but the differing DRM used by two different systems makes the formats incompatible. You... 4874@http://importance.corante.com/ Digital Rights Management 2003-11-06T13:32:55-08:00 http://importance.corante.com/archives/2003/10/27/microsoft_to_apple_vae_victis.php Seth Schoen takes a look at Microsoft's response to iTunes for Windows (I discussed MS's response here: Microsoft on iTunes for Windows) and finds Microsoft's declaration of higher numbers of compatible systems as compared to Apple's iTunes to be risible... 4825@http://importance.corante.com/ Open Standards 2003-10-27T17:36:39-08:00 http://importance.corante.com/archives/2003/10/27/alternate_reality_visions_of_the_computing_future_from_microsoft.php The New York Times (reg. req.) has a confusing report on the competing visions for the future of computing from Microsoft and IBM (Two Companies at Odds Over the Internet's Future). Not surprisingly, Microsoft denigrates IBM's vision: "I.B.M. is talking... 4812@http://importance.corante.com/ Open Access 2003-10-27T00:04:06-08:00