Answer, not you...

] Nonetheless, from 1979 to 1999, 69 percent of the people
] who lost jobs as a result of cheap imports in sectors
] other than manufacturing were reemployed. The mean wage
] of those reemployed was 96.2 percent of their previous
] wage.

And this article is pro offshoring. They spend paragraphs spinning the hell out of it like a high school cheer leader. Look to your left, look to your right, one of you isn't going to work again.

Who wins when jobs move offshore? | CNET News.com

an interesting article on the digital music scenario...

having nothing to do with music, i still must submit this quote, which i found of particular interest :

] perhaps Mac owners are collectively suffering from
] Stockholm Syndrome, because under the jackboot of this
] proprietary computer systems company, they don't look
] such an unhappy lot.

The Register

aparently BayStar wants to lose a shitload of cash.

Forbes.com: SCO secures $50 mln investment from BayStar

] E-Data, a Long Island-based company that's focused
] largely on licensing its patents, contends that
] Microsoft, Internet service provider Tiscali and digital
] music company OD2 are collectively trespassing on its
] rights with their new music download services, recently
] released in several European countries. E-Data is asking
] that the services, variously called MSN Music Club and
] Tiscali Music Club, be shut down until a patent licensing
] deal is worked out.

bullshit patent or legitimate case? seems kinda tenuous to me, but....

Microsoft sued over music downloads | CNET News.com

still technically a rumor, but there's some good supporting evidence that iTunes for windows will be released next week. this comes close on the heels of Napster 2.0, which was launched today.

dell, sony and real all have plans in the works as well. this is shaping up to be precicely the battle royale we all expected. who's gonna come out on top?

News: Apple to launch iTunes for Windows

whoa! emusic customers getting FUCKED. Glad i'm no longer one of them.

anyone think they're gonna be able to compete w/ BuyMusic, MuchDownloads, iTMS and whatever else we can expect to see pop up soon?

Slashdot | EMusic Acquired, Halting Unlimited Downloads

] Cable companies would be required to open their
] networks to rival high-speed Internet service
] providers under a federal appeals court ruling
] yesterday that could lead to more choices for
] consumers and subject the industry to the same
] competitive pressures roiling the telephone market.

seems like a reasonable thing to me -- telcos have to do it for DSL, why not cable operators?

Ruling Opens Cable Lines (TechNews.com)

] I believe the Unix workstation users who are buying Macs
] are small in number and not enough to boost Apple sales
] on their own. But they're key players -- the same type of
] people who snuck PCs into the corporate environment under
] the cover of darkness while their overseers remained
] wedded to mainframes and other bigger computers. These
] are the folks who'll soon be making a lot of the buying
] decisions in IT departments. So they are the future, and
] they promise a bright one for Apple.

I was pondering this a year ago, but the stock is overvalued (much more so now then it has been in the past) and there are some things that Apple has gotten wrong (like printing).

BW Online | October 1, 2003 | Finally, an Opening for Apple in IT

] It may be that SCO is taking the position that merely
] because XFS is also distributed along with IRIX it is
] somehow subject to the System V license. But if so, this
] is an absurd position, with no basis either in the
] license or in common sense.

SGI shoots back at SCO

Another article about micropayments from MIT (kinda refutes the Shirky article from a few days ago).

I actually have a BitPass account and have used it on a couple of occasions. I really don't think it's a problem. In the situation to which Shirky was responding, where every page view costs a penny or a fraction of a penny, i can completely see his argument.

But in my experience, it's a trivial thing... theres a link that says, "buy the full size version of this digital photo for a dime" or "buy access to this comic strip for 25 cents", and if you think it's worth it, you click thru, with only a one page interference to actually make the transaction. If you think the comic isn't worth a quarter, then don't pay. I disagree with the mental transaction cost argument anymore -- the system is pretty clean and simple.

Selling Online Content