Website Hosting

As a result of something I saw on the web today I'm thinking about setting up a YouTube clone. No, I'm not thinking about setting somethingup that then becomes hugely famous and thus makes me a fortune.

Rather, I'm interested in those video clips that the other sites won't host. They won't host them because their business model looks for the mass market. I, on the other hand, am not interested in the mass market, in fact, don't have a business plan. Rather, this might be a labour of love.

The problem here is that bandwidth costs money. Whether I look at business website hosting or personal website hosting, the costs of streaming video could be serious. It doesn't take long for bandwidth costs to become significant if thousands of people are looking at something as heavy as video.

But what is the idea, I hear you say? Simply, host all of the videos banned by the others. They won't annoy a government because, well, they need to be friends with governments, so that the population can see the mass of their stuff. We would show only those clips that governments didn't want people to see.

However, casting around for possibilities, I see that at this site for business website hosting, I can get two terrabytes of bandwidth for $75 a month. This seems to make the idea, at least to begin with, worthwhile.

Hmmmm. Should I do it or not?

Poker Online

Yes, yes, we all know that gambling on cards is fer the devil. Fine. Those who think that way can simply not do it. Those of us who do wish to should be allowed to get on with our own pleasures: we've not gone round banning Bible classes now have we?

Good, having sorted out the moral points now we get to the technical. If we are one of those minority that use Macs we're not quite as spoiled for choice about where we can play as those who use (spit) PCs.

Which brings us to Mac Poker. An excellent liitle site dedicated to showing both where and how you can play both online and using your Mac.

For example, if you're into Pacific Poker, or Full Tilt Poker, there are sections telling you all about those variations.

If you're a Mac user and you want to be able to play poker online, then this is a site you simply must check out.

Making Savings Online

Have you worked out how to make the best possible savings when shopping online yet? I mean we all know how to do it with the bricks and mortar stores: just clip the coupons out of the newspapers. But how do we find those online coupons?

Frotunately, I've got good news. When you decide you're going to go shopping online just click through any of the links here to Coupon Chief. There you'll find a full listing of the coupons that you can use to save money at the virtual world's stores.

For example, now that spring is here, are you going to need some home and garden discounts? You know, maybe you're going to , now the better weather is here, fix up the yard, so you'll need some Spring Hill coupons? Or maybe you want to work on the house, so that Home Depot discounts make more sense?

Whichever, in fact whatever, it is that you're looking for you'll get the best possible savings by getting the right coupons.-

Your Necessary Info on Katie Holmes

There's an interesting little site (well, for a given value of "interesting") out there to bring you all of your essential celebrity news about Katie Holmes.

Yes, of course her marriage and her husband, Tom Cruise are talked about, how could anyone not be interested in the marriage of Katie Holmes?

There's also a section of photos of her and then again of news stories concerning her.

There's also some news videos about her.

Click through to get to your one stop shop for information about your favourite celebrity, Katie Holmes.

London Stock Exchange Buys the Italian Stock Exchange

Bansturbation Again

As soon as anything goes wrong, the immediate reponse of the bureaucrats is to want to ban it.

As with the microwave popcorn ban that's being proposed.

You see, the employees of the City of Seattle are too stupid to do it properly. Thus the proposed ban.

Might it not be easier to hire slightly more intelligent employees?

Sex and the Soccer Stars

This isn't normally how we relate soccer and sex:

German sex shop chain Beate Uhse must pay German soccer stars Michael Ballack and Oliver Kahn 50,000 euros ($67,380) each for using their names for vibrators without permission, the company said Monday.

The company had marketed the sex toys, dubbed "Michael B." and "Olli K.," before Germany hosted the World Cup in 2006.

Although the surnames of the two German soccer stars were not used, it was clear they referred to Chelsea midfielder Michael Ballack and Bayern Munich goalkeeper Oliver Kahn.

Kahn and national team captain Ballack sued Beate Uhse in court for unauthorized use of their names and won.

At least with British soccer players we normally hear about them using their own anatomy in such escapades.

Ringtones Links

"Everybody loves ringtones. So i decided to have a search for the best ringtones sites. Maybe everyone knows Ringophone.com or Ultrasonic-ringtones.com but to tell the truth the best site for free ringtones to download is GoldRingtone.com. Download the best Ringtones for free! Doesn't it sound attractive? The site has a weekly update (as they inform me with their press release) so you can continuously find the best new free ringtones.

The site is simple. The users can download free mp3 ringtones from any carrier. Besides, there are sections for all carriers. You can get free Sprint Ringtones, or free Cingular Ringtones.

Halo 3: Three Editions

So the upcoming Halo 3 is going to come in three editions:

The Microsoft/Bungie marketing machine is cranking up.  We now have more details for the upcoming, sure-to-be-blockbuster Halo 3 versions you will be able to purchase this Spring (southern hemisphere)
Fans can shell out US$129.99 for the Legendary Edition of Halo 3, three disks packaged in a 'Spartan Mjolnir Mark VI helmet' shaped case.
Disk one will obviously be the much awaited final installment in the Halo trilogy, seeing the Master Chief back on Earth defending against a Covenant and Flood invasion.
The other two disks contained in the Legendary Edition will feature supplemental bonus material such as a HD "making of Halo 3" doco, behind the scenes footage, early game concepts and evolution.  There will be featurettes concentrating of the Bungie Halo 3 team showing them working on graphics, audio and creative design for the game.
The disks will also include an audio-visual calibration tool so that players can optimise their specific home theatre set-ups to get the most from a Halo 3 experience.

No doubt someone is already working on what they're going to put in the fourth different release for Halo 4.

Skype Developments

Skype seems to be adding features to its services after its being bought by e-Bay.

Skype Ltd. has released a new version of its Internet telephony and instant messaging software that adds a feature to let users create business reviews, and another one to sell expertise, as the eBay Inc. subsidiary promotes interaction among its users.

Skype 3.1, available for Windows, features SkypeFind, designed to let Skype users post and find reviews of business establishments. It also introduces a test version of Skype Prime, a marketplace where Skype users can market knowledge and advice to others.

The company unveiled SkypeFind last month in a beta version of Skype 3.1. Already, SkypeFind contains around 4,500 listings from 124 countries and Skype expects it to have over a million listings by year's end.

Meanwhile, Skype Prime made its debut last week in another prerelease version of Skype 3.1, as an expertise marketplace open to both individuals and businesses interested in selling their advice. Unlike SkypeFind and Skype 3.1, Skype Prime is still considered to be in a beta, or test, phase.

SkypePrime looks interesting. I wonder if the world would actually be interested in a scandium expert online?

Vonage and Verizon

I hope this is just one of the regular spats that companies have about patents:

Verizon and Vonage on Wednesday will present opening statements in a patent-infringement case that could have a big impact on consumers and the nascent Internet telephone industry.

Most immediately at risk is the future of Vonage (VG).

Vonage, one of the best-known brands in the Internet phone world, acknowledged last week that it doesn't have a plan for getting around use of technology that Verizon (VZ) claims violates patents it owns.

The upshot: If Verizon prevails in court, Vonage could be forced to shut down, at least temporarily, while it redesigns its service. That could cause a lot of heartburn for Vonage's 2 million customers.

Brooke Schulz, a Vonage spokeswoman, said Monday that Verizon's claims are baseless. "This is about Verizon trying to stifle competition," she said. "We have not infringed on their patents, period."

As for the prospect of Vonage shutting down, Schulz says, customers shouldn't worry. "We're working on a redesign plan."

Internet telephony, also known as VoIP, for Voice over Internet Protocol, is a Web-based phone service that closely mimics traditional phone service but sends calls over the Internet. VoIP costs only about $20 a month — though it requires an existing high-speed Internet connection — compared with $40 to $60 a month for regular phone service.

By the end of 2006, there were 8.6 million VoIP users in the USA, estimates JupiterResearch. By 2010, the number is expected to reach 22.5 million. Many of those customers are coming from traditional local phone providers such as Verizon and AT&T.

Verizon sued Vonage in June, claiming broad patent violation. An amended complaint in January alleged that Vonage "has appropriated the results of years of research conducted by Verizon and its predecessors.

If verizon actually has a case then there's an awful lot of us who are going to get screwed: including me.

 

Technorati tags: vonage, verizon

Only Famous Peckers

Have the right to claim a domain based upon their name:

Only famous people who trade on their name have any chance of winning control of internet addresses containing their name, according to a decision by the World Intellectual Property Center (WIPO).

Publishing executive David Pecker lost the right to gain control of davidpecker.com in a case judged by the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center. It found that Pecker failed to demonstrate that he had rights to the name davidpecker.com other than "broad assertions".

...

In order to gain control of a domain a person or company has to prove three things. They have to show that the domain is the same or confusingly similar to a trade mark or service mark in which the person has rights; that the other party has no legitimate interests or rights in the domain, and that it was registered or is being used 'in bad faith'.

In order to gain control of a domain you must fulfil all three conditions, so if the Panel finds one step which you fail it rarely considers the other two.

The Panel found that Pecker could not show that he had a trade mark or service mark right in the name David Pecker, so could not gain control of the domain. Other Panels had found in the cases of famous people that being famous, and therefore trading under your name, did sometimes qualify for that step.

So if you're not famous and your name is dick, prong or woodie, then, sorry, but you're simply out of luck.

 

Technorati tags: pecker, domains

Windows Vista

Can you believe this? Microsoft spent $500 million on the launch of Windows Vista?

Microsoft's $500m Windows Vista launch on Monday was the culmination of months of heavy sell intended to persuade the company, as much as everyone else, that not only is the operating systems is essential to users' computing needs, but also that it will translate into sales gold.

If bullishness were revenue, Microsoft is well on its way to a bumper fiscal 2007 and 2008. Windows Vista is supposed to out-ship Microsoft's last client - Windows XP. And Windows Vista will break all records bar Windows 95, by hitting 200 million PCs a mere 24 months after this month's launch, according to Microsoft.

In God's name, why? They're going to sell a copy on every new PC in the world anyway, aren't they? Anyway, me, I'm sticking with XP. Next time I change, I'm hoping that Linux will finally be user friendly.

 

Technorati tags: Windows, vista, XP, Microsoft, Linux