Darrell Smith's Radio Weblog

Wed, 16 Aug 2006 22:29:39 GMT

If you have ever heard of MYSPACE.Com you will appreciate what is about to take place here. (MySpace is in the top 10 of sites ONLINE out of MILLIONS) Darrell is creating a COMMUNITY system where people will be able to create their own VIRTUAL office space in the VORTEX community. This space will initially be FREE with voucher activation but down the road will cost (and YES, you will be able to earn commissions!). It is VITAL that you get as many people on board Vortex by way of the voucher, RIGHT NOW. Time is of the essence. This "COMMUNITY" will be like a GATED online community and the ONLY way in is via a Vortex voucher! This community will have SOME similar features as MySpace but will be MORE geared towards the MLM'er and Affiliate marketer (our market!). MLM builders and Affiliate marketers will WANT to have their own "PLACE" within this community. It will be geared towards ANY MLM builder and ANY company. YOU will have the opportunity to profit from their participation as time goes on. The MORE people you introduce to this "COMMUNITY" the better for you! This community will become a MAJOR tool people will use to build their respective MLM downlines (no matter WHAT company it is!) More at Vortex Marketing Group [VortexDaily]

Fri, 09 Jun 2006 20:42:44 GMT

Steve Jobs: "If you always want the latest and greatest, then you have to buy a new iPod at least once a year." [Scripting News]

Sat, 27 May 2006 03:38:09 GMT

Morpheus makers file suit against eBay. Streamcast Networks, the creators of the Morpheus file-sharing software, is alleging in a lawsuit that auction house eBay is profiting from peer-to-peer technology that rightfully belongs to it. More at CNET News.com [Darrell Smith]

Sat, 27 May 2006 03:28:24 GMT

Mark Cuban Signs With SIRIUS.

Filed under: SIRIUS, Talk/Entertainment, Deals, Programming

I am a little late in reporting this, but SIRIUS announced on Tuesday that Mark Cuban, the outspoken, sometimes too outspoken for the NBA league commissioner, owner of the Dallas Mavericks has signed to do a weekly talk show. Mark Cuban was interviewed by Kevin C. Tofel back last October for Weblogs Inc. sibling blog HDBeat.com. Cuban's show "Radio Maverick" will be broadcast on SIRIUS Stars 102 Sundays from 12 pm - 2 pm ET starting this summer.

In the press release Cuban is quoted as saying that he is fired up about the show and that "I plan on raising hell and covering any and all topics that I think are interesting and taking no prisoners along the way." Having seen and heard some of his tirades toward the NBA officials during some of the Dallas Mavericks games, he definitely has his own opinions and is not afraid to use them.SIRIUS' President of Entertainment and Sports, Scott Greenstein said "Radio Maverick will be a forum without limits, where he can talk to SIRIUS listeners about everything from the NBA to an MBA."

[Via TheStreet.com]

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[Droxy (Digital Radio)]

Mon, 29 Aug 2005 19:38:45 GMT

King Kong vs. the Pirates of the Multiplex. Piracy in the digital era is more lucrative, sophisticated and elusive than ever - and poses a large financial threat to the movie industry. By TIMOTHY L. O'BRIEN. [NYT > Technology]

Mon, 29 Aug 2005 19:16:48 GMT

AOL Radio with XM on the Mac.

Filed under: Digital Broadcasting, XM

Our friends over at TUAW took at look at the AOL Radio with XM Preview on the Mac and had some rather disappointing results. When it was first launched, it had no Mac support whatsoever (disappointing since I've heard AOL Music's videos work great on the Mac) but now it sounds like they've fixed that. Since we're strictly Windows-based here, we really didn't find much wrong with it, but I'm curious about our reader's experiences.

Our only gripe is that the sound quality isn't nearly as nice as regular XM, but then again, this IS a free service so expectations weren't that high. Anyone else try it out?

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[Droxy (Digital Radio)]

Sun, 14 Aug 2005 17:27:46 GMT

Supreme Court Ruling Will Chill Technology Innovation.

Washington, DC - Today the Supreme Court issued a ruling that could impede makers of all kinds of technologies with expensive lawsuits. The long-awaited decision in MGM v. Grokster states that P2P software manufacturers can be held liable for the infringing activities of people who use their software. This decision relies on a new theory of copyright liability that measures whether manufacturers created their wares with the "intent" of inducing consumers to infringe. It means that inventors and entrepreneurs will not only bear the costs of bringing new products to market, but also the costs of lawsuits if consumers start using their products for illegal purposes.

"Today the Supreme Court has unleashed a new era of legal uncertainty on America's innovators," said Fred von Lohmann, EFF's senior intellectual property attorney. "The newly announced inducement theory of copyright liability will fuel a new generation of entertainment industry lawsuits against technology companies. Perhaps more important, the threat of legal costs may lead technology companies to modify their products to please Hollywood instead of consumers."

The Supreme Court has also ordered the lower court to consider whether peer-to-peer companies Grokster and StreamCast can be held liable under the new standard. StreamCast is confident that it will pass muster under the new, multi-pronged test.

MGM v. Grokster was brought by 28 of the world's largest entertainment companies against the makers of the Morpheus, Grokster, and KaZaA filesharing software products in 2001. The entertainment companies hoped to obtain a legal precedent that would hold all technology makers responsible for the infringements committed by the users of their products. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), along with StreamCast counsel Matt Neco and Charles Baker of Porter and Hedges, defended StreamCast Networks, the company behind the Morpheus filesharing software.

The entertainment companies lost their case in District Court, then lost again on appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The lower court rulings were based on the Supreme Court's landmark decision in the 1984 Sony Betamax case, which determined that Sony was not liable for copyright violations by users of the Betamax VCR.

Contacts:

Cindy Cohn
Legal Director
Electronic Frontier Foundation
cindy@eff.org

Fred von Lohmann
Senior Intellectual Property Attorney
Electronic Frontier Foundation
fred@eff.org

[EFF: Breaking News]

Sun, 14 Aug 2005 17:24:40 GMT

"Podcast" now officially part of the English language.

Filed under: General, Podcasting

Much to the shagrin of Microsoft employees, the word "Podcast" has been added to the Oxford Dictionary, officially making it part of the English language. Podcast joins with other notable additions to the famed dictionary such as fanboy, offshoring, supersize and hinglish.

Example of all three used in a sentence:
Droxy's own fanboy Ryan Saghir attempted to supersize his Hinglish podcast recordings by offshoring to Mumbai.

Ehhh... that's all I can come up with. If you've got something even remotely funny, post a comment.

[Via iPodDailyNews]

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[Droxy (Digital Radio)]

Sun, 14 Aug 2005 17:21:58 GMT

XM looking at Wireless Satellite Radio.

Filed under: Digital Broadcasting, XM

XM Satellite Radio CEO Hugh Panero said that XM has been in talks with mobile hardware companies and service providers about how they can enter the wireless industry. Sirius has already announced a deal with Sprint to deliver select Sirius content to their PCS Vision subscribers, though the timing on the deal is still unknown.

Panero brought up a couple possibilities: Selling content to wireless providers, or deliverying directly to cellphones that are XM-enable (presumably using their new XM Connect-and-Play technology).

While Panero didn't disclose any company names, we do know that they've recently partnered with Samsung, so you can bet that's one foot in the door they're going to exploit.

[via PaidContent]

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[Droxy (Digital Radio)]

Sun, 14 Aug 2005 17:12:41 GMT

Podcasting gets VC's

Ok, I know there are plenty out there that want to discount the value of podcasting, etc., etc. However, both Podshow and Odeo have just received funding to help take another step to viable business models.

Adam Curry's Podshow got a commitment of $8.5M and Odeo's is undisclosed at this time.

The "network" podcasting model could be the way to provide scale to advertisers/agencies that specifically need niche "formats" without having to contact every individual podcaster.

First iTunes 4.9, now venture capital money.

Keep an eye out on bigger companies (ie. Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft??) wanting to buy these "networks" to provide another advertising opportunity. Hmm...Mark Cuban did pretty well when Yahoo! came knocking on his door back in the Broadcast.com days...

Thank you Doug Kaye for the heads up!

_____
tags: podcasting | adam curry | podshow | odeo

- Todd Storch [ktoddstorch @ business thoughts]

Sun, 14 Aug 2005 17:02:00 GMT

CacheLogic Claims Nearly 2/3 of files on P2P are videos

P2P traffic analysts CacheLogic claim nearly (61.4%) two thirds of files being swapped on P2P networks are video files. CacheLogic uses traffic monitoring techniques to analyse file extensions and packets of data on four P2P file sharing networks, over 48hrs.

The four networks in question were Gnutella, the primary network used by Deepnet Explorer, Bearshare, Limewire and many more. Another network was FastTrack, which is in decline but mostly used by Morpheus, Grokster and KaZaa. Another network was Bittorrent, which is different than most networks as you can’t search it (until recently when a web search was introduced). Finally eDonkey was also used. The only big network missing was Gnutella2, the primary network used by Sharaza and TrustyFiles.

The report also brought us some groundbreaking news, 68.9% of audio files being swapped are MP3s. I would have never guessed! I never see OGGs or WMAs being swapped (am I the only one who uses them? Apparently not, 12.3% are OGGs, really!).

The BBC explains this by then yatting on how the networks work, Bittorrent tracker sites host links…

The report found large files such as videos or Linux distros are swapped on Bittorrent or eDonkey and small ones (music) are swapped on FastTrack or Gnutella. I would like to see someone who actually downloaded a single from BitTorrent! It also found that lots of legal file sharing is taking place on BitTorrent (namely Linux distros). However there has being a fall in the amount of files on BitTorrent after the MPAAs hunt on trackers, which could have caused SuprNova to shut.

The thing I found most funny about the article was the picture they chose. How could you run a video on the image to the right – it’s using an old style keyboard and most computers are black. It looks from the Windows 95 period – but then again it could have a 3Ghz processor, but that’s highly unlikely.

Tags: music, movies, video, videos, mp3, P2P, file-sharing, linux, open-source

(via.)

- J Anderson [Webby's World]

Sun, 14 Aug 2005 17:01:09 GMT

Technorati to be Sold?

BL Ochamn has reported a rumour, that Technorati, a popular tagging site, could be bought.

I for one have thought before What is Technorati’s business plan? the answer is no one knows. This means it will probably be sold to a big company.

I’m not really one for this kind of thing but who will it be? Microsoft, Google or Yahoo! My bet is on Yahoo!, however Google may be interested in offering real-time results. Yahoo! seems very keen to extend it’s influence in the blogosphere with the likes of Yahoo! 360 and it’s purchase of Blo.gs.

A Microsoft-blogger named Robert Scoble said if he had the cash and power he would buy it, though I believe Microsoft will eventually take over the blogosphere (just after Bill Gates achieves world domination), I believe they would invent there own product (for once!). Microsoft didn’t buy MSN Spaces, unlike nearly everything else they make, but made it.

If Technorati is bought I hope they improve it by reducing spam.

Tags: Technorati, google, microsoft, msn, Yahoo, Yahoo!, blogosphere, blog, blogs, search, search engine, tagging

(via.)

- J Anderson [Webby's World]

Sun, 14 Aug 2005 16:41:00 GMT

Last week two podcasting companies announced investments by venture capitalists and angel investors in Silicon Valley and Boston. The investors must have some idea what businesses the companies are in, but we're no wiser after the announcements. What do you think? [Scripting News]