I actually got a little excited thinking that someone had finally drawn a line in the sand. It’s my belief that this is a perfectly reasonable stance to take. However, to my dismay, it was an April Fool’s prank pulled off by the Moxiecode team.

Support for IE6 in particular just kills me. It’s not a modern browser, and sites should be blasting out messages to IE6 users urging them to upgrade. For my part, I often use links to browsehappy.com in my page footers, and turn it on via user agent sniffing. The evolution of the web absolutely demands shedding the past, and now is as good a time as any, if you asked me.

The biggest reason, I believe, is that ISPs will fight any types of policing laws. First, it’s not in the interest of an ISP to be held accountable for the actions of their users (something I find akin to saying that the transportation department is liable for drug traffic on the highways because they built and service the roads). Second, why would ISPs want to force users off the internet? Each lost subscriber is business they can theoretically never get back, which over time would be hugely detrimental.

There’s also the fact that this type of effort requires legislation. In order to get any type of traction on a three-strikes law, there would have to be a tremendous lobbying effort and an even greater effort to avoid the backlash that creating such a law would entail. That’s not to say that this wouldn’t be the most effective angle, it would just require an enormous sum of money. That’s money that I don’t entirely believe the RIAA is capable of producing at this point. Big ISPs and probably some major internet players would be lobbying on the other side, and the only thing of value will probably be that a bunch of lawyers would make a bunch of money. The fight will probably be very long, too, and time is certainly against the RIAA as fewer consumers buy traditional media anymore.

How are you supposed to enforce a three-strikes law anyway? Why can’t I just go to a coffee shop every time I want to do some illegal downloading? What’s to keep me from going to a new ISP? Who’s going to foot the bill for enforcement? How will those without internet access be able to hold jobs? Is it a permanent or a temporary ban?

Even given that any type of legislation passes, it’s so unlikely that it can be properly enforced that it’s fairly laughable. That is, unless it wasn’t so serious. If you have a minute, you should let the RIAA know what you think. Send them feedback, or even better, just stop buying their products until they come to their senses.

XMas is a great time of year, for sure. I don’t like it because of the religious aspects or anything, I just like it because I get to spend time with my family and I don’t have to go to work. Don’t get me wrong, I go all out every year on gifts and a tree. However, there’s one thing that’s always smelled wrong to me about Christmas – fake presents.

Fake presents, as in those empty yet impressively wrapped boxes you see in department stores every year. It’s like they are beautiful boxes without a soul inside. If there’s one thing that would make baby Jebus weep, it’s unwrapping a gift only to find nothing inside. How sad is that?

Netflix, when it began, specialized in the DVD-by-mail business. This was a great model at the time (and was supported by a great website), but the inevitable time has come to where streaming content is replacing physical media. So, instead of dying with the DVD, Netflix has rolled out a browser-based streaming product with a ton of content behind it. Not only that, they’ve gone on to bring their services to consumer devices through partnerships with the likes of Microsoft (the upcoming update to the XBox 360) and TiVo. In short, Netflix saw a problem, tackled it head on, and are now reaping the rewards of being an early entrant into an emerging market. Their monthly subscription model is perfect for access to streaming media, all of which is only a web browser away.

TiVo is a provider of DVRs and the associated program lineup services that, like Netflix, relies on a monthly subscription service to make money. TiVo is essentially a company that provides a value-added service (time-shifting of TV and program-subscription services) to an existing industry (television). TiVo has in the past (and still does) face stiff competition from the likes of cable and sattellite companies that can develop their own DVRs to sell to their customer base. TiVo has had to evolve rapidly to keep their position as a premier player in order to stay competative. They’ve done so through their additions of HD DVRs, their partnership with NetFlix to enable streaming through TiVo boxes, and by creating a top-notch DVR. They’ve also kept subscription costs low to keep customers.

Of the two companies above, the one with the murkier future is TiVo. There’s nothing special about DVR software – free alternatives exist, and they’re only going to keep getting better. Also, as programming shifts online, their set-top market will shrink and eventually disappear. In order to have them around for the long term, expect them to evolve still.

Now, let’s look at an industry that have all but failed to change their business model, and now is withering away – the music industry. CD sales are in the tanks and the major record labels are in a terrible position since their core product strategy revolves around the CD. They failed to pioneer the online subscription model, and consumers have reacted by finding illegal alternatives. DRM has been a debacle – customers avoid it like the plague nowadays. To make matters worse in this case, though, the absolute most boneheaded response to a shifting market is to sue your customers. That’s just asinine.

Congratulations to Barack Obama on clinching the Democratic Presidential Nomination! I’ll be voting for you in November!

1. End poverty rather than fight terror. The former is a solution to a problem, the latter is just treatment for the symptom. Creating prosperity in the poorest countries in the world is a realistic goal in our lifetimes.
2. Reverse the widening gap between the richest and the poorest in the world. A more even distribution of resources is paramount to global well-being.
3. Reverse the effects of man-made climate change. Climate change is likely the greatest threat that humanity has ever faced, and the outcome will almost certainly determine our ability to live on our planet.
4. Promote science and education. Education builds stable societies, and exploration of the sciences helps us to solve many issues we face now and will face in the future.
5. Ensure individual freedoms and rights. Nobody should have the right to dictate the legally allowable behaviors where there’s no harm to any party involved.

The updates to Windows Explorer serve to hide the operating system as much as possible. In addition, it’s been optimized for mouse navigation, to the extent that it’s very difficult to navigate with the keyboard and may actually be quicker with a mouse now. The breadcrumbs feature in the path bar can’t be turned off (screenshot above), which is a huge slap in the face to those that don’t find value in it like me.

The Windows+Tab feature is eye candy and pretty useless – Alt+Tab is still the way to go, and now that it shows a window preview instead of an icon it’s actually a positive enhancement. The Start Menu is not very good of an upgrade, but thankfully it’s only a single option to go back to the classic Start Menu. The desktop gadgets are kind of cool, but aren’t really that novel – things like iGoogle and PageFlakes offer similar functionality, but with portability between computers. The aero glass feature is eye candy – it really offers no useable benefit, so it’s more or less a resource sink.

So, the question is now whether or not Vista is the way to go. In my mind, XP is a superior system. I’m not buying that Vista is more secure than XP – they’re both screen doors in that regard. Vista is definitely slower than XP on a same-spec machine (and XP is getting a speed bump, too!). Vista was not developed with a power user in mind – keyboard navigation has suffered, and there are plenty of useless buttons and features cluttering up the OS. The driver support is still murky at best. However, it’s pretty clear that Microsoft is pushing hard for Vista, which means that XP has a finite lifespan. DirectX 10 already isn’t available in XP, for example. What’s next – the next version of Visual Studio or the .NET Framework may not support XP? Win2K is already out in that regard, so it probably will happen at some point.

So, what’s one to do? I’m very much a Windows developer, so I have to have a Windows machine. Is it worth it to put up with Vista? I can’t say – I still haven’t figured that one out.

If you don’t know too much about net neutrality, here’s the 10,000 foot view. Internet service providers are necessary to have access to the internet – you need a pipe to the internet in order to either serve or retrieve content, which the ISP provides to you. The internet was designed as a dumb system in that your content will be delivered at speed of the physical limitations of the network regardless of where it’s coming from, where it’s going, and what it is. In other words, it’s non-discriminatory. However, someone on the ISP side determined that if they act less dumb, they can speed up or slow down content delivery based upon any arbitrary rules, since they own the pipe that it travels through. So, nowadays most ISPs want to start shaping traffic to you based upon whether the content provider (web site) has paid them to deliver their content faster.

The typical ISP response to net neutrality is that content providers are using their bandwidth without paying for it. This is a ridiculous statement – without content providers, there would be no reason to have internet access in the first place, which would put ISPs out of business. So, what are the long-term ramifications if net neutrality loses? It’s pretty obvious that most sites won’t be able to pay even a single ISP for speedy delivery, let alone all of them. Slower sites will be marginalized to an unknown extent, which will mean a less diverse internet. Sites willing to pay the ransom will be faced with how to pay every internet service provider on the planet for the speed they want, which will be both incredibly expensive and difficult to manage. The end user will experience no benefit, either – a few sites will be faster, but most will be slower. The only party that serves to gain from an end to net neutrality is the ISP, and it’s through a tactic that’s tantamount to extortion. What if business X paid buses to deliver people to only them and bypass all it’s competitors along the way? It’s not like you’re getting a free ride to begin with, so why in the world would that be in your interest?

One of the reasons that attacks on net neutrality are possible today is the lack of competition in the broadband space. Most consumers of broadband have either just one or at most two choices in providers. When there’s real competition in an industry, no competitor can afford to devalue their service, because the customer has the ability to shop around to find what fits them best. So, what as a consumer can you do to help fight for net neutrality, given the poor choices you have available? The first thing to do is don’t pay non-neutral internet access. For now, this group is a limited pool of people, but it’s bound to increase. Make sure to tell your ISP that you’re in favor of a neutral internet, and that they risk losing you over this issue. Petition your representatives, too – they can enact positive legislation on your behalf.

Well, before we get started here, why would we want to boycott the RIAA? Well, as I’ve pointed out before, they are using their intellectual property rights in a way that’s pretty close to extortion. They don’t pay fair wages to their artists (if they pay at all). They use illegal and quasi-legal tactics against universities, ISPs, and individuals. They stifle innovation – they’ve killed Napster and Oink, for example, and they’ve come close to killing ThePirateBay and AllOfMp3. They want you to believe that you don’t own the music you’ve paid for, and that fair use doesn’t exist when it comes to music. They’re also big fans of DRM that cripples the long term value of music (just so you’ll need to buy it twice or more). What about the Sony root kit debacle?

So, how far reaching is the RIAA? According to Wikipedia, about 90% of the music on store shelves is distributed through the RIAA. That’s a lot, unfortunately. The ‘Big Four,’ the largest four companies that pay into the RIAA are Sony BMG, Universal Music, Warner Music, and EMI. In addition, there are over 1600 individual labels, which are detailed here (warning, evil empire link). Strangely enough, there are several labels on the list of labels at the RIAA website that aren’t RIAA member labels, and apparently it’s very tough to get off said list.

So, how does one go about effectively boycotting the RIAA?

Well, the easiest way is to stop paying for music put out by RIAA labels. That doesn’t necessarily mean to download illegally, but to try to find any alternate means to getting your fix. More bands than you’d expect allow tape trading, for instance. If you’re hell-bent on having the latest music without the risk of peer-to-peer download, there are a few ways to limit your exposure – be creative.

You should let your favorite bands know that you’re passionate about this issue. Chances are that they’re not too happy with the RIAA either, for whatever reason. Support acts that are pioneering new and alternative distribution models (REM, Aimee Mann, Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead – the list keeps growing). For acts on RIAA labels, let them know why you’re not buying their music, and how you’ll support them otherwise.

NEVER support DRMed music – think of the unfortunate PlaysForSure suckers out there if you need any encouragement here. Go see a live show – you won’t regret it usually, and you’re effectively supporting your favorite artists through alternate means.

Start being vocal – tell your friends how to do the same things you’re up to, and stick by your principles. Show support to people like the EFF and boycott-riaa. Don’t let the lobbying arm of the RIAA unfairly influence our political process – contact your representatives and let them know how you feel. Above all, be creative and don’t give up the fight. Remember, this is a battle that music-lovers can win – when there’s no more money flowing to the RIAA and no more artists signing on, they’ve effectively lost.