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Linked List: December 27, 2007

Thursday, 27 December 2007

Wal-Mart Cancels Movie Download Service 

I don’t think their heart was ever in it, because they didn’t want to undercut their lucrative DVD business.

What’s in a Name? 

Steven Heller on anonymous commenters:

A rose is a rose, and a real name at the end of a blog post is an indication that the person who authored the statement is taking responsibility, indeed ownership of the words — it is a simple act of honesty. For too long bloggers have been given license that is not tolerated in letters-to-the-editor columns of newspapers and magazines (except in extraordinary circumstances). If one is willing to expound, exclaim, or critique it should be done under a real name and with links to a valid email or website address.

Uneasy Silence: ‘Lies, Lies and Adobe Spies’ 

Uneasy Silence reports that Adobe CS3 apps are phone home periodically with connections to “192.168.112.2o7.net” — a web server whose name is clearly designed to look like a local area network IP address (particularly when the “o” is capitalized in “2o7.net”).

This is a disgrace, whatever the actual reason for the connections.

Fortune Ranks Radiohead’s Self-Publication of ‘In Rainbows’ as 59th Dumbest Moment in Business 

Yeah, $3 million dollars in revenue in one month, with not a penny of it going to a record label, is so stupid! Ha-ha! Maybe someday the guys in Radiohead will make as much money as the business geniuses writing for Fortune. (Via Cameron Moll.)

Customer Service, Creative Style 

I love the way that the reset instructions resemble the secret unlock codes for a video game — left-left-right-right-down-up-down-down.

New York Times Feature on Apple Retail Stores 

Katie Hafner reporting on Apple’s retail success:

Meanwhile, the Sony flagship store on West 56th Street, a few blocks from Apple’s Fifth Avenue store, has the hush of a mausoleum. And being inside the long and narrow blue-toned Nokia store on 57th Street feels a bit like being inside an aquarium.

It’s a good story overall, but anti-kudos to the Times editor who wrote the headline, “Inside Apple Stores, a Certain Aura Enchants the Faithful” — the description of Apple customers as “the faithful”, i.e. that Apple customers are semi-cultists, was never fair or accurate, but the whole point of this story is that it’s never been less true than now, in that the stores are bringing in tons of brand-new customers every day.

The Megapixel Myth 

Ken Rockwell on why “megapixels” are a terrible metric for evaluating cameras.

Benazir Bhutto Assassinated in Attack on Rally 

Merry Christmas, I hope you like civil war erupting in a failed state with nuclear weapons.