Exploration

GUE divers Jablonski and McKinlay explores the Leon Sinks section of Wakulla, and “by the way” sets a new world record for cave penetration.

Intelligence

Eva Vertes is a microbiology prodigy. Her discovery, at age 17, of a compound that stops fruit-fly brain cells from dying was regarded as a step toward curing Alzheimer’s. Now she aims to find better ways to treat — and avoid — cancer.

Culture

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Some late night writings before I head over to Stockholm…

- A funny sarcastic little post at Techdirt on the never-ending topic of intellectual property rights. This is one is about “why anyone would like to create anything without the possibility to earn money through the protection of intellectual property rights ( since it can shared without cost). This is based on the simple logic that when it is out there in a digital form it is impossible to protect and possible to share freely. Arguably and according to many IPR owners, the challenge is of course to continue making a profit and staying in business. Below is a little post from tech dirt answering the claim that “if no IPR existed, creative works would disappear”.

It’s always fun to hear people say that without intellectual property rules creative works would disappear. This is wrong on any number of levels, as we’ve discussed in great detail. However, Justin Levine points us to an an amusing analysis of George Lucas’ plans to let fans post their own video mashups on the Star Wars website. Lucasfilm and a company named Eyespot will run ads alongside these mashups, keeping all the money for themselves. They also won’t let the people who create the mashups profit from them directly. If ever there were a case of digital exploitation, this should be it, right? Or, as the tongue-in-cheek analysis from Randy Barnett notes: “But the laugh is really going to be on Lucasfilm because, as we all know, people won’t invest scarce time producing creative works that others want to watch without the financial incentives provided by intellectual “property” rights granted for “limited times” (i.e. in perpetuity). So it is safe to predict that no one will contribute any mashups to the new Starwars.com website. Boy, will that be embarrassing for them!” Indeed. Yet, somehow, people are still going to tell us that without intellectual property there would be no incentives to create content? URL: People Will Create Stuff For Free? Impossible! By Mike Masnick Via Techdirt.com

Worth mentioning as a similar example is also the “Super-Short” contest we (FILMERE) are hosting. Here filmmakers are competing to create the best 60 second movie with no monetary award and instant sharing at Nlive. Even though the best contributions are rewarded with screenings at national cinemas and in taxi’s, I would still argue that the most important motivating factor for participation is the mere joy of producing film and the desire to gain appreciation for ones effort!

However, the motivation for creating original “artwork” is obviously a tiny part of the story, and it is always easy to argue against the present without presenting a solution for the future. I believe the Electronic Frontiers Foundation´s suggestion for a business model for the music industry “Voluntary Collective Licensing” resembles a meager start towards a solution. However new forms for commercialization for audiovisual production is needed, and those ready to adapt and exploit new technologies and business formats will probably be the winners. Even more disruptive technologies than file sharing will surface for sure!

Other interesting perspectives on the whole “piracy” debate may be found here (PDF in Norwegian by Espen Andersen) and the less documented contrary may perhaps be illustrated here.

Will clean up this post later and do something more comprehensible I think…but enough for tonight. (Illustration: byte.org)

Edited: Some inappropriate description about the Techdirt post.

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Last Friday we finally celebrated the end of program ceremony for our Masters degree at the Norwegian School of Management. It was a great celebration at a restaurant in the sunny hills of Oslo. Thanks to all friends and co-students for making it a memorable evening, and thanks for all the moments we have shared together “assimilating” new knowledge at the library and spending late nights at various parties and get-togethers. (For my part this was my final return to academia for a while).

Secondly I would like to congratulate all my fellow students with their new positions and at the same time mention where I am heading myself. Last august I accepted an offer from Deloitte Consulting as a consultant in Strategy and Operations. I am very much looking forward to start working for all our fascinating clients, return to the consulting profession and would like to present my sincere appreciation for hiring me. In addition, since we (graduates at NSM/BI) are all eagerly talking about our new jobs I cannot help bragging a bit about my employer as well, recently being ranked the tenth most prestigious Management Consulting firm in the world, and the second most prestigious Technology Consulting firm in the world

Well…all that is left now is to do some “minor” revisions of the final Master Thesis and hand it in before the deadline in September, and THEN academia will not see me for a while !

Edit: Some typos and language

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Try it out!

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Great Speech by Cory Doctorow!

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Ernæringsekspertene har kuttet forbindelsen til sentrale deler av biologien. Det er svært uheldig. Ut fra et evolusjonsperspektiv er mange av kostholdsrådene fra ernæringsforskere unyanserte. I verste fall kan de være årsaken til mange av de omfattende helse- og atferdsproblemene som vi sliter med i vestlige land, sier forsker Iver Mysterud ved Biologisk institutt på Universitetet i Oslo. Nylig kom han med boka Mat, menneske og evolusjon.

Selv om dette skulle være like riktig som forfatteren argumenterer for, er det vel uansett ingen bombe at vi spiser langt mer fett, fiber og sukker enn vi har spesielt godt av.  Mysterud argumentere for et kosthold som ser (forkortet) sånn ut:

Spis steinaldermat
• Kjøtt, fisk, skalldyr, grønnsaker, frukt, bær, røtter, insekter, nøtter og sopp, samt mat fra hav og strandsone.

Spis mindre brød

• Evolusjonsmessig er vi ikke fullt ut tilpasset kornprodukter. De negative effektene kan variere fra person til person. Kostholdsråd bør derfor gis individuelt.

• Én av hundre nordmenn har intoleranse for gluten i hvete, som er årsaken til sykdommen cøliaki.

• I korn fins det ”antibeite-stoffer”, som plantene har utviklet som et forsvar mot å bli nedbeitet av fugler, innsekter og hjortedyr. Flere av disse stoffene er også vanskelig fordøyelige for mennesker.

• Noen mener peptider i korn (kjeder av aminosyrer) kan skade immunsystemet og utløse psykiske og nevrologiske lidelser hos sensitive personer (hudsykdommer, diabetes type 1, leddgikt, epilepsi, autisme, schizofreni og depresjon).

• Korn inneholder 60–70 prosent stivelse. Dette er et problem for den økende delen av befolkningen som sliter med for høye insulinnivåer etter måltider med mye karbohydrater. Mest problematisk er finmalt korn med høy glykemisk indeks.

Spis mer omega-3

• Vi bør øke inntaket av omega-3-fettsyrer (tran, fet fisk, kjøtt fra dyr som har beitet ute, linfrø og valnøtter) og redusere inntaket av omega-6-fettsyrer (margarin, en rekke planteoljer og kornprodukter).

• Nyere forskning antyder at betennelsesreaksjoner kan være underliggende årsaker til alt fra hjerte- og karsykdommer til demens og en rekke mentale lidelser og atferdsproblemer. En reduksjon av omega-6-inntaket (som er betennelsesfremmende) og økning av omega-3-inntaket (betennelseshemmende) vil i så fall motvirke slike problemer, ifølge boka.

Melk

• På samme måte som for gluten i korn, kan spesielle peptider fra proteinet kasein i melk påvirke immunsystemet og føre til en rekke psykologiske og nevrologiske lidelser. Dette er for lite undersøkt, mener Mysterud.

Unngå Ferdigmat

• Unngå bearbeidet og næringsfattig ferdigmat med mange tilsetningsstoffer som var ukjente hos våre forfedre.

I praksis vil vel dette bety at jeg “nok en gang” bør kaste alt jeg har i kjøleskapet…

Kilde: Iver Mysterud: Mat, menneske og evolusjon. Gyldendal Akademisk 2006, 112s.

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And something very rare: Steve Jobs and Bill Gates together on “D”.

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This is a really interesting aspect of building a better world for all of humanity. Surprisingly many of the global challenges are related to structural design issues such as building proper housing based on protected knowledge. We (at least I) tend to think that many of the problems concerning intellectual property rights and human development (for those who cannot afford to pay the price for the knowledge) is related to products such as AIDS medicine or software. However this organization focus on the simple fact that insight on how to build properly designed buildings is just as much about sharing knowledge as it is about availability of capital.

As stated by the organization: “we believe that where resources and expertise are scarce, innovative, sustainable and collaborative design can make a difference”.

Well worth to visit www.architectureforhumanity.org

Cameron Sinclair at TED.

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Deloitte & Touche recently published a report on media habits in the new and coming generations. Does not seem to be any revolutionary new insight here that has not already been covered in blogs or public discussion, but it neatly sums up some implications for where companies should put their advertising budgets. The survey contains information from 2,200 U.S. consumers between the ages of 13 and 75.

Advertising Insights

• 64% tend to pay greater attention to print ads in magazines or newspapers than advertising on the Internet

• More than one-in-four would pay for online content vs. being exposed to ads

• Search engines and word of mouth are the most effective means for driving Web site traffic — 85% of Xers are influenced by someone’s recommendation

• 87% of respondents continually visit the same Web sites

• Generation Xers are a little more responsive to advertising

The respondents were also asked what future products they desire.

Future Products

• 64% want to easily connect their television to the Internet for viewing videos and downloading content to their television
• 60% want the ability to move their content to any device they own without any problems
• 57% want an entertainment and communication device that lets they them do everything
• 49% want a computer or similar device that will be the center of their household media experience

The fascinating part of this data, is that it seems to confirm all the predictions consumers and perhaps the producers have already made on what kind of products will be viable options for the near and coming future. As have been seen many times in the past…will perhaps the competitive advantage in the future be reserved for firms that manage to offer solutions not already on the list?

Photo: freefoto.com

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Yojimbo

- A very handy and unobtrusive app that stores all kinds of information including bookmarks, passwords, pdf´s etc in a central place. I find it particularly handy for keeping track of bookmars when using multiple internet browsers (and easy to sync with online services such as del.icio.us).

Journler

- A great journaling tool for all students and note takers out there! This is nothing more than a very intuitive and “low hassle” application for taking all kinds of notes (lectures, meetings etc) and storing them according to date, label etc.

Novamind

I have tested quite a number of Mind-Mapping tools, but this is by far the best I have seen (for mac) both in terms of usability and feature richness (with few no-bullshit features). Version 4.0 will soon be released so don´t go handing in your money until it is out there

Yep

Simple and powerful tool to keep track of and organize all your PDF´s. After some years of studying, the amount of PDF’s spread around my hard-drive has become quite extensive. This application allows you to sort and see all your PDF files without needing to upon trillions of preview screens or use cumbersome spotlights searches.

Remote Buddy

Turns your apple remote into what it should be….into a versatile and powerful remote control for all your apps! (Also adds support for Bluetooth remotes).

Delicious Library

Funny application using the built in isight to read bar codes on all your books, movies etc. The applications then adds your items to an intuitive library (book-shelf) to let you easily organize and keep track of all your precious items.

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Interesting 3.min speech by Stewart Brand.

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Dette er virkelig en av de mer inspirerende bøkene jeg har lest på lenge. Antageligvis den første “no-bullshit” boken om kreativitet jeg har hatt på nattbordet. Ikke bare har Ken Robinson en stil og et språk som er en fryd for både den venstre og høyre hjernehalvdel, den klarer også mesterstykket å balansere avliving av noen myter, beskrive temaet som “mykt” nok til at det er inspirerende og samtidig klart beskrive det økonomiske og samfunnsmessige behovet for endring i vårt syn på kreativitet.

Jeg har som ambisjon å ikke kopiere tidligere bokomtale i mine egne, men her tror jeg det er på sin plass å sitere noen av kommentarene på baksiden:

The best analysis I’ve seen of the disjunction between the kinds of intelligence that we have traditionally honored in schools and the kinds of creativity that we need today in our organizations and our society. I learned a lot.

- Howard Gardner, A Hobbs Professor in Cognition and Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Som alltid er det likevel ting å utsette…jeg synes den første og andre delen av boken presenterer et logisk og konsist resonnement for forståelsen av kreativitet som konsept og hvordan vårt samfunn i dag hemmer nyskapning og innovasjon. Avslutningen av boken og tankene om hvordan vi kan endre og legge til rette for kreativitet synes jeg ikke er helt på samme nivå.

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1. What does Encyclopedia of Life seek to accomplish? What are its objectives?

Ultimately, the Encyclopedia will serve as an online reference source and database for every one of the 1.8 million species that are named and known on this planet, as well as all those later discovered and described. Encyclopedia of Life will be used as both a teaching and a learning tool, helping scientists, educators, students, and the community at large gain a better understanding of this planet and all who inhabit it.

Encyclopeda of Life

Oppdatering: Bakgrunn for prosjektet… E.O Wilson på TED

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In its attempts to sell you ever-more expensive PCs, the computer industry is constantly producing faster, smaller and sexier machines. That’s great for gamers, technophiles and Dell shareholders. But what about the rest of us? What do we get from all the bells and whistles piled into today’s PCs?

Not enough to justify the $1,000 price tag the industry hopes we’ll go for. The average consumer spends just $741 on a PC today, compared with $912 three years ago, according to the Consumer Electronics Association–even though advances in technology mean new machines have more processing power, memory and other features.

In fact, many consumers don’t need to upgrade. A bare-bones computer suits them just fine–and these days, they can buy them for as little as $85.

From forbes.com

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Siden det er dagen før dagen tillater jeg meg å banne litt i “nasjonalkirken” og fundere litt på hva vi hadde vært dersom vi ikke fikk en egen grunnlov den 17. mai 1814. Hvis vi uten videre fundering antar at den mest naturlige union eller “nasjonspartner” i 1814 og tiden som fulgte ville være Sverige, og vi ikke hadde noe nasjonalitetssmotiv for å regjere på egenhånd, er det ganske festlig å sammenligne samfunnsøkonomiske forhold mellom Norge og Sverige. (og hvordan det kunne blitt hvis vi ikke skillte lag).

I gamle dager:

Og så i dag…

Oppsummert:

• To land med sterk økonomi, nesten like kulturer og identisk språk.
• Det ene landet god på høyteknologi, det andre på utnytting av naturressurser
• Det ene landet, høyt og rart => spennende for turisme, produksjon av kraft osv. Det andre landet flatere med rom for primærnæring og industri.
• Det ene landet svært gode på å drive business lokalt og internasjonalt med mange internasjonale merkevarer og sterk forretningskultur. Det andre landet litt traustere med en egen jantelov som står i veien for tilsvarende berømmelse (trenger et vennlig spark både her og der).
• Det ene landet flinke på infrastruktur, det andre landet litt etter…
• Det ene landet med svært mye ledig kapital det ikke kan utnytte i eget land…det andre landet med rom for mer investering

Hva kunne vi vel ikke fått til sammen?

Gratulerer med dagen i morgen!

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Må si at jeg er generelt gått lei foredrag som handler om den “nye” interaksjonen på web, herunder funderinger om web 2.0, 3.0 osv. Likevel ble jeg ganske glad og imponert over Eirik Solheims underholdende, og samtidig inspirerende og informative foredrag “profesjonelle medier i en verden av amatører” under gårsdagens CINAI seminar. Tilsvarende presentasjon ser ut til å være brukt også i et annet foredrag og den finner du her.

Vel verdt en titt!
Takker ellers for et godt gjennomført arrangement!

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Klok av egen skade hadde jeg faktisk ikke trodd de tålte noe særlig…

Les mer på:
http://www.dagensit.no/min-it/article1069085.ece?WT.svl=article_image

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Leste akkurat den siste boken til Jan Guillou “Madame Terror” om vår alles kjære operatør Carl Gustaf Gilbert Hamilton.

Historien er kanskje litt spesiell i Hamilton sammenheng og inneholder intet mindre enn en spesialprodusert U-båt i titan for Palestinerne, et nesten-utbrudd av en ny verdenskrig og en Carl Hamilton på bedringens vei etter å ha blitt dømt for drap på en lang rekke informatører til den svenske etterettningstjenesten.

Historien er ganske kraftig preget av forfatterens sympatier i midt-østen konflikten (Israel-Palestina), men ikke mer enn at historien blir ganske tidsriktig og “livlig”. Et av avsnittene jeg lo mest av må likevel være amerikanernes frustrasjonen over at nordmennene nok en gang må rote seg inn i rollen som fredsmegler med statsminister Stoltenberg i spissen.

Boken gir god verdi som sengelektyre, selv om den neppe havner øverst på listen i Hamilton-serien.

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Fascinating (in a rather geeky way though)…but still worth a try!

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Her er altså listen:
(fra thinkers50.com)

1 Michael PORTER (2)
2 Bill GATES (20)
3 CK PRAHALAD (12)
4 Tom PETERS (3)
5 Jack WELCH (8)
6 Jim COLLINS (10)
7 Philip KOTLER (6)
8 Henry MINTZBERG (7)
9 Kjell NORDSTRÖM & Jonas RIDDERSTRÅLE (21)
10 Charles HANDY (5)
11 Richard BRANSON (34)
12 Scott ADAMS (27)
13 Thomas A. STEWART (37)
14 Gary HAMEL (4)
15 Chan KIM & Renée MAUBORGNE (31)
16 Kenichi OHMAE (19)
17 Patrick DIXON (46)
18 Stephen COVEY (16)
19 Rosabeth MOSS KANTER (9)
20 Edward DE BONO (35)
21 Clayton CHRISTENSEN (22)
22 Robert KAPLAN & David NORTON (15)
23 Peter SENGE (14)
24 Ram CHARAN (-)
25 Fons TROMPENAARS (50)
26 Russ ACKOFF (-)
27 Warren BENNIS (13)
28 Chris ARGYRIS (18)
29 Michael DELL (33)
30 Vijay GOVINDARAJAN (-)
31 Malcolm GLADWELL (-)
32 Manfred KETS DE VRIES (43)
33 Rakesh KHURANA (-)
34 Lynda GRATTON (41)
35 Alan GREENSPAN (42)
36 Edgar H SCHEIN (17)
37 Ricardo SEMLER (36)
38 DON PEPPERS (48)
39 Paul KRUGMAN (40)
40 Jeff BEZOS (39)
41 Andy GROVE (26)
42 Daniel GOLEMAN (29)
43 Leif EDVINSSON (-)
44 Jim CHAMPY (25)
45 Rob GOFFEE and Gareth JONES (-)
46 Naomi KLEIN (30)
47 Geert HOFSTEDE (47)
48 Larry BOSSIDY (-)
49 Costas MARKIDES (-)
50 Geoffrey MOORE (38)

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Les hele saken her

Copyright(c)Øyvind Fosse

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Steve Jobs
February 6, 2007

With the stunning global success of Apple’s iPod music player and iTunes online music store, some have called for Apple to “open” the digital rights management (DRM) system that Apple uses to protect its music against theft, so that music purchased from iTunes can be played on digital devices purchased from other companies, and protected music purchased from other online music stores can play on iPods. Let’s examine the current situation and how we got here, then look at three possible alternatives for the future.

To begin, it is useful to remember that all iPods play music that is free of any DRM and encoded in “open” licensable formats such as MP3 and AAC. iPod users can and do acquire their music from many sources, including CDs they own. Music on CDs can be easily imported into the freely-downloadable iTunes jukebox software which runs on both Macs and Windows PCs, and is automatically encoded into the open AAC or MP3 formats without any DRM. This music can be played on iPods or any other music players that play these open formats.

The rub comes from the music Apple sells on its online iTunes Store. Since Apple does not own or control any music itself, it must license the rights to distribute music from others, primarily the “big four” music companies: Universal, Sony BMG, Warner and EMI. These four companies control the distribution of over 70% of the world’s music. When Apple approached these companies to license their music to distribute legally over the Internet, they were extremely cautious and required Apple to protect their music from being illegally copied. The solution was to create a DRM system, which envelopes each song purchased from the iTunes store in special and secret software so that it cannot be played on unauthorized devices.

Apple was able to negotiate landmark usage rights at the time, which include allowing users to play their DRM protected music on up to 5 computers and on an unlimited number of iPods. Obtaining such rights from the music companies was unprecedented at the time, and even today is unmatched by most other digital music services. However, a key provision of our agreements with the music companies is that if our DRM system is compromised and their music becomes playable on unauthorized devices, we have only a small number of weeks to fix the problem or they can withdraw their entire music catalog from our iTunes store.

To prevent illegal copies, DRM systems must allow only authorized devices to play the protected music. If a copy of a DRM protected song is posted on the Internet, it should not be able to play on a downloader’s computer or portable music device. To achieve this, a DRM system employs secrets. There is no theory of protecting content other than keeping secrets. In other words, even if one uses the most sophisticated cryptographic locks to protect the actual music, one must still “hide” the keys which unlock the music on the user’s computer or portable music player. No one has ever implemented a DRM system that does not depend on such secrets for its operation.

The problem, of course, is that there are many smart people in the world, some with a lot of time on their hands, who love to discover such secrets and publish a way for everyone to get free (and stolen) music. They are often successful in doing just that, so any company trying to protect content using a DRM must frequently update it with new and harder to discover secrets. It is a cat-and-mouse game. Apple’s DRM system is called FairPlay. While we have had a few breaches in FairPlay, we have been able to successfully repair them through updating the iTunes store software, the iTunes jukebox software and software in the iPods themselves. So far we have met our commitments to the music companies to protect their music, and we have given users the most liberal usage rights available in the industry for legally downloaded music.

With this background, let’s now explore three different alternatives for the future.

The first alternative is to continue on the current course, with each manufacturer competing freely with their own “top to bottom” proprietary systems for selling, playing and protecting music. It is a very competitive market, with major global companies making large investments to develop new music players and online music stores. Apple, Microsoft and Sony all compete with proprietary systems. Music purchased from Microsoft’s Zune store will only play on Zune players; music purchased from Sony’s Connect store will only play on Sony’s players; and music purchased from Apple’s iTunes store will only play on iPods. This is the current state of affairs in the industry, and customers are being well served with a continuing stream of innovative products and a wide variety of choices.

Some have argued that once a consumer purchases a body of music from one of the proprietary music stores, they are forever locked into only using music players from that one company. Or, if they buy a specific player, they are locked into buying music only from that company’s music store. Is this true? Let’s look at the data for iPods and the iTunes store – they are the industry’s most popular products and we have accurate data for them. Through the end of 2006, customers purchased a total of 90 million iPods and 2 billion songs from the iTunes store. On average, that’s 22 songs purchased from the iTunes store for each iPod ever sold.

Today’s most popular iPod holds 1000 songs, and research tells us that the average iPod is nearly full. This means that only 22 out of 1000 songs, or under 3% of the music on the average iPod, is purchased from the iTunes store and protected with a DRM. The remaining 97% of the music is unprotected and playable on any player that can play the open formats. Its hard to believe that just 3% of the music on the average iPod is enough to lock users into buying only iPods in the future. And since 97% of the music on the average iPod was not purchased from the iTunes store, iPod users are clearly not locked into the iTunes store to acquire their music.

The second alternative is for Apple to license its FairPlay DRM technology to current and future competitors with the goal of achieving interoperability between different company’s players and music stores. On the surface, this seems like a good idea since it might offer customers increased choice now and in the future. And Apple might benefit by charging a small licensing fee for its FairPlay DRM. However, when we look a bit deeper, problems begin to emerge. The most serious problem is that licensing a DRM involves disclosing some of its secrets to many people in many companies, and history tells us that inevitably these secrets will leak. The Internet has made such leaks far more damaging, since a single leak can be spread worldwide in less than a minute. Such leaks can rapidly result in software programs available as free downloads on the Internet which will disable the DRM protection so that formerly protected songs can be played on unauthorized players.

An equally serious problem is how to quickly repair the damage caused by such a leak. A successful repair will likely involve enhancing the music store software, the music jukebox software, and the software in the players with new secrets, then transferring this updated software into the tens (or hundreds) of millions of Macs, Windows PCs and players already in use. This must all be done quickly and in a very coordinated way. Such an undertaking is very difficult when just one company controls all of the pieces. It is near impossible if multiple companies control separate pieces of the puzzle, and all of them must quickly act in concert to repair the damage from a leak.

Apple has concluded that if it licenses FairPlay to others, it can no longer guarantee to protect the music it licenses from the big four music companies. Perhaps this same conclusion contributed to Microsoft’s recent decision to switch their emphasis from an “open” model of licensing their DRM to others to a “closed” model of offering a proprietary music store, proprietary jukebox software and proprietary players.

The third alternative is to abolish DRMs entirely. Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat. If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store. Every iPod ever made will play this DRM-free music.

Why would the big four music companies agree to let Apple and others distribute their music without using DRM systems to protect it? The simplest answer is because DRMs haven’t worked, and may never work, to halt music piracy. Though the big four music companies require that all their music sold online be protected with DRMs, these same music companies continue to sell billions of CDs a year which contain completely unprotected music. That’s right! No DRM system was ever developed for the CD, so all the music distributed on CDs can be easily uploaded to the Internet, then (illegally) downloaded and played on any computer or player.

In 2006, under 2 billion DRM-protected songs were sold worldwide by online stores, while over 20 billion songs were sold completely DRM-free and unprotected on CDs by the music companies themselves. The music companies sell the vast majority of their music DRM-free, and show no signs of changing this behavior, since the overwhelming majority of their revenues depend on selling CDs which must play in CD players that support no DRM system.

So if the music companies are selling over 90 percent of their music DRM-free, what benefits do they get from selling the remaining small percentage of their music encumbered with a DRM system? There appear to be none. If anything, the technical expertise and overhead required to create, operate and update a DRM system has limited the number of participants selling DRM protected music. If such requirements were removed, the music industry might experience an influx of new companies willing to invest in innovative new stores and players. This can only be seen as a positive by the music companies.

Much of the concern over DRM systems has arisen in European countries. Perhaps those unhappy with the current situation should redirect their energies towards persuading the music companies to sell their music DRM-free. For Europeans, two and a half of the big four music companies are located right in their backyard. The largest, Universal, is 100% owned by Vivendi, a French company. EMI is a British company, and Sony BMG is 50% owned by Bertelsmann, a German company. Convincing them to license their music to Apple and others DRM-free will create a truly interoperable music marketplace. Apple will embrace this wholeheartedly.

Source: http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic/

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I bloggen til Cisco beskriver Senior Vice President nå deres perspektiv ganske så direkte: Cisco Blog

Via: schobleizer.com

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Jeg undres…

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So, I will not go into a discussion here about business models or the competitive advantages posed by the different systems, but rather just focus on some fun stuff. At the end I have also included a parody on one of the Apple “Switch” commercials which is really good.

Copycats?

Features Episode 1

Features Episode 2

Features Episode 3

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Ikke bare er det helt ok at man bruker litt flere egenmeldinger enn nødvendig mot slutten av året “for å få brukt dem opp”, det er rett og rimelig og forventet. Like akseptert og forventet er det at ansatte koser seg på kveldene med en øl eller 10 for så å møte på jobb, grønne i ansiktet og med følelsen av å bli slått innvendig i hodet med slegge.

I bunn og grunn er vel alle vi nordmenn enige i; at det er hyggelig å ha det hyggelig og at det sosialt å være sosiale også med kollegaer. Likevel “begynner” det kanskje å en god del piler som peker i retning av at vi har en kultur i arbeidslivet som ikke helt er konkurransedyktig med de kulturene vi møter og vil møte i den store “flate verdenen” (Ref. Friedman).

Hvordan kan en norsk bedrift med følgende omtrentlige tall henge med…?

15% redusert kapasitet på en vilkårlig dag i uken (fyll),
6-9,4% kontinuerlig sykefravær (hhv. kvinner og menn),
vesentlig høyere lønn enn resten av verden eksempelvis Mc´Donalds timelønn i Norge: ca 110 kr UK: ca 45 kr.
25% kortere arbeidsdag (7.5 mot 10t) osv.

Listen av interne og også eksterne faktorer er sikkert mye mye lenger.
(Eksempelvis 28% selskapsskatt mot EU landenes stadig dalende satser).

Noen som sa konkurransefortrinn?

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Is it not great that some of the very best tools out there are free?

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Foldable keyboard by Meritline

The virtual keyboard by Virtual Devices

Recently I have been quite impressed by the so called intuitive, “interface-free” touch driven computer screen presented by Ted Han at the TED conference 2006. This must be one of the most exciting improvements in many years. Click play and be amazed!

From ted.com:
Jeff Han is a research scientist for New York University’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences . Here, he demonstrates — for the first time publicly — his intuitive, “interface-free,” touch-driven computer screen, which can be manipulated intuitively with the fingertips, and responds to varying levels of pressure.Jeff Han at TED

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Being perhaps one of the more experimental computer users out there, I have experienced all kinds of computer failures throughout my computer-using career.

Recently I experienced that also Mac’s do fail. A little while ago my OS-booting hard drive suddenly cramped up with what I used to know as corrupt sectors or bad blocks (now known as invalid leaf records). Having finally understood that there is ouf course only one mantra that is of any real assistance when hard drives take a ride on the wild side and Murphy enters the building…: backup backup backup, this was indeed one of the easier ones.

One of the few positive things about computer crashes is really the unintended opportunity to learn something new. Having all important data stored on one or two external drives, the process of going through the “architecture” of Mac OSX solving problems has been quite interesting. Not only is it fascinating to see the differences in how operating systems gives users access to their computer, the “ideology” behind a OS becomes a lot clearer.

So what is the point of all this late night jibberish? As long as all backups are in place, computer crashes do offer new insights, it is not a horrifying event and it gives ample opportunity to finish reading “The world is flat” by Thomas Friedman.

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Ok…only one last Youtube video.
Found a tribute video of one of the really big heroes of my youth…couldn´t resist posting it.

Enjoy! One of the greates athletes of ALL time!

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SAS-pilotene er ikke alene…over den store sjøen utspiller det seg et ikke ulikt scenario. I Nortwest airlines har fagforeningen nylig gitt grønt lys for en pilotstreik. (Nortwest pilot union strike) Pilotene har sikkert her også mistet noen goder, som selvfølgelig ikke er hyggelig. Like fullt er Northwest Airlines snart praktisk talt konkurs. Selskapet søkte om chapter 11 beskyttelse allerede i september 05. Dette ser ikke ut til å hindre pilotene i å legge ned arbeidet sitt.

…blir jeg sittende og undre sent på kvelden… Hva får en gruppe ansatte til å miste bedriftens levegrunnlag helt ute av syne? man har påført sin egen arbeidsplass titalls millioner i kostnader? Dette har jeg vanskelig for å forstå, både for SAS og NW

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