By John Gruber
WorkOS launches auth.md — an open protocol for agent registration.
Linked List: May 2, 2006
Tuesday, 2 May 2006
- iPod Relief for Trapped Miners ★
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The Age:
Two men trapped in a Tasmanian mine for more than a week are listening to iPods while rescuers prepare to start a new drilling operation in a bid to free them.
- Gartner Says Microsoft to Delay Vista Yet Again ★
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Reuters:
Microsoft Corp.’s long-awaited release of the upgrade to its flagship Windows operating system will likely be delayed again by at least three months, research group Gartner Inc. said on Tuesday. […]
A Microsoft spokeswoman said the company disagreed with the Gartner report and it was still on track to meet its launch dates.
(Via Daniel Bogan via AIM.)
- Google’s Double Standard ★
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Jeremy Zawodny:
If Google actually cared about user choice, they’d have asked the Mozilla Foundation to configure Firefox to prompt you to choose your favorite search engine the first time you ran it. You know, a level playing field.
[…]
And let’s not forget about Safari, where Google is the default and it’s very hard for normal people to change that.
- Michael Tsai on the ‘Get a Mac’ Ads ★
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Michael Tsai isn’t thrilled:
Windows and PCs have all sorts of problems, but I don’t think that, for most users, frequent restarting and trouble talking to digital cameras are among them. How is this supposed to appeal to the millions of PC users who already work with digital photos? By insulting them? I’d rather the ads showed what people can do with Macs.
I think what he’s missing is that the ads are actually funny. They definitely won’t appeal to everyone, but almost no ad ever does. And those that try to appeal to everyone are usually so bland they wind up appealing to no one.
- Riot Slimer ★
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Patent for non-lethal “gun” for police to use against mobs; sprays a super-slippery slime that causes people to fall down. (Via Coudal.)
- Siracusa on the ‘Get a Mac’ Ad Campaign ★
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John Siracusa likes the new ads, except for the “Viruses” one:
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that Mac OS X will soon suffer a plague of viruses and malware. I don’t think it will, at least not to the degree that Windows has suffered. But that’s not important. The threshold for backlash is much lower. A single, legitimate Mac virus spreading in the wild is all it’ll take to start the snowball rolling downhill. The media is already hungry for stories about Mac malware. Apple’s new ad makes this into an even bigger story. “Apple Touts Immunity, Then Gets Infected.” One virus makes that headline. The reality of the overall malware situation on Macs and PCs is irrelevant.
I disagree here. If and when Mac OS X gets hit by an actual destructive virus, there’s going to be an overwhelmingly disproportionate reaction in the mainstream media no matter what. So why hold back? It really is a legitimate selling point, and the media reaction isn’t going to be that much different now that Apple is actually advertising based on this.
- Napster Turns to Advertising ★
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Jefferson Graham reporting for USA Today:
All the songs on Napster are free again.
In a bid to gain traction against Apple’s dominant iTunes online music store, Napster over the weekend shifted to an advertising-supported model. Visitors can listen to any of the 2 million tunes in its catalog without having to fork over a credit card or download the Napster software application.
But there is a catch. You can only listen to a song five times. After that, you have to either buy it for 99 cents or sign up for a monthly subscription.
(Via Larry Angell.)
- Apple Launches ‘Get a Mac’ TV Ad Campaign ★
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Swinging hard against Windows with my favorite weapon: humor. I just saw the “Viruses” one on tonight’s Daily Show With Jon Stewart. These are good commercials.
Update: In “Network”, the Japanese girl playing the digital camera says something (in Japanese) near the end that causes both herself and the Mac guy to crack up. Thanks to Takaaki Kato, I have a translation: “He looks like a nerd”. (The Japanese word she uses is Otaku.)