Streaming is dead

Streaming never really worked great over dial-up, but I guess it was better than waiting an hour to download something.

Once you have sufficient bandwith to stream things well, progressive download will work just as well.

Plus, the market changed, with the proliferance of the iPod, and people want to download and transfer their media to portable devices.

Streaming is now only a worthwhile solution for live events.

And with the timeshifting revolution that Tivo and on-demand has brought, one can even say that “Live” is dead.

So, streaming is dead.

Long live the download.

Dave Winer audio on why patents aren’t fair

A few weeks ago a bunch of us met in NYC and Dave Winer led a discussion abouta bunch of cool topics including Ukranian food. I was having trouble with my recorder so I only have a small snippet of poor audio, but if you can overlook that, it actually is one of the most important points made during the night.
And it’s even more appropriate now, after the Apple iPhone promotion.

Dave Winer on Patents

Cisco trademark infringement was planned

Update:Dave now points to a response from Cisco SVP. Maybe I was wrong. Could Apple be that arrogant?

But really folks, you can’t tell me that Jobs didn’t know about this before yesterday. It’s probably planned buzz.

The Golden Fleece

I’m hoping part two of the latest Gillmor Gang will prove more interesting.

If you remember the Jason and the Argonauts tale, you might know how Jason succeeded in conquest over the Seed men by casting a stone at one, who thought it was his neighbor, and letting them all kill each other.

That’s what Steve Gillmor seems to do by letting the fellas discuss the importance of Google algorithms and whether site owners can get a cut by having search engines bid for their site search.

If Steve would have put the “knockoff” Cheerios down for a sec I know what he would have said.

It’s not whether Google’s algorithms hold up, it’s whether they can garner more stock in the conversation with all their attention data.

The winners of the future are not the best technologies. We’ll all be able to plug into those the same way we plug into an electrical outlet.

The winners are the services which add value to the conversations happening throughout distributed web networks.

These networks and conversations are fluid and changing constantly in response to our gestures.

Those who don’t get this are either thinking too hard or just not enough.

In a similar way that facial and hand gestures are a meaningful supplement to spoken conversations, the gestures which we talk about with attention are the metadata of the conversations happening on the web.

That equates to economic power because markets are conversations.

I agree with Jason Calacanis that many in the SEO business are trying to game this system, but I disagree when he says the system works. People are trying to game the system because it does not work. It just works better than the previous systems.

I can prove it Jason. I’ll write a better piece on a new cell phone than Engadget and see which shows up higher on Google.

No. Those dynamics are only part of the game.

The richer system envelops us with answers using our data and our network’s data in a chameleon like fashion, never static like Google. That’s child’s play.

Jason(Argonaut) succeeded in getting the Golden Fleece but was fickle and left Medea for another Princess.

Likewise, in the shorter term companies may succeed by amassing link attention.

The true winners won’t be seeking the Golden Fleece at all. They will be removing the barriers and letting the crystal waters flow in, filtered and clean, Pure Conversation.

Dainbramaged

Stowe Boyd points out that XP can boot on a Mac.
Interesting, but isn’t everyone really waiting for Mac OS X to boot on commodity PC Hardware?
Who would you pay for Mac hardware and run Windows, to see if the XP can freeze up that hardware too?

Would you like to borrow my Premium Cable package tonight?

I wonder how close we are to being able to access video stored in our homes remotely, and how this puts TV into the same boat as the music recording industry.
I know it’s possible right now, but when it becomes accessible to anyone with a remote control and and a broadband connection, things are going to explode.
Imagine going to friends house and saying, “Hey, let’s watch the Sopranos.”
“I don’t have HBO.”
“I’m recording it at home. We can access my personal copy.”
Okay, okay, nobody talks like that. I’m just illustrating the concept.
I guess that’s why Microsoft, Apple and Intel are scrambling to come up with a DRM system for home media systems, eh?

iTunes okay, but not download nirvana yet

Frank Gruber reports about Amazon’s plant to take on iTunes in the music downloads space.
I agree with Frank, who says it’s going to be tough to compete here, yet I don’t think it’s because iTunes has a great system for commercial music downloads, just a great computer based music player system in general.
Until Apple or someone offers backup of my downloads, I can’t risk storing hundreds of dollars worth of music on my desktop or portable music player.
I’ve been burned too often. (no pun intended)
As for CD’s getting scratched or lost, well I’ve been burned only a few times.
However for consuming advertisement based and free content such as podcasts, that’s great and I do that regularly.
In fact, I really think there will be an advertisment or sponsored driven model for music as well to at least complement payed downloads.
Also, if I pay for a download that i don’t want, there needs to be a way to easily “give” the rights to that data to someone else. A “used” digital music store.

Steve Gillmor doesn’t need Windows

I listened to the latest Gillmor Daily podcast today while walking with Satch.
I agree with so much of what Steve says, it’s important to note when I think he’s nuts.
While I agree we are moving to a world where the Desktop doesn’t matter as much, it seems crazy for Steve to make little of the leverage that the installed Windows base gives Microsoft.
Does it mean Microsoft will win Steve? (whatever that means)
No, and maybe they didn’t invent the distributed model, but you can’t tell me there are no advantages to owning the desktop.
I’ll give you one. Most people can’t help but think of Microsoft just by powering up their computer. That’s revs pretty high on the “Attention” meter.
Steve then goes on to make a big deal of GTalk as a new type of platform.
Of course he forgets to mention it only runs on Windows.
It interops with Jabber. That’s great. The others will have to open up eventually becaus ethey broke that open. I agree here.
So, the conclusion is that Microsoft needs to change in order to prosper in years to come.
It’s like that old Bud and Lou skit. (and Lon Chaney Jr.)
“tonight, I’ll turn into a wolf.”
“yeah, you and 20 million other guys.”
Everyone is being forced to change.
So they need to embrace open protocols like everyone else.
So, would you rather have to get millions of users to download your new “open” platform , or just include it in your next shipment or upgrade.
We all use the desktop less, Steve contends.
True. But he used it to produce that Podcast(on an Apple with Audacity, no doubt). He needed get at local memory somehow.
It’ll be years and years before bandwidth and remote horsepower oust Microsoft or an open OS from being in most people’s face. Maybe part of the change is opening Windows up in the future.
They need to change. You might say they need to change now. But you could also argue they have some time.

What is iWeb?

Seems like a pretty big buzz around about a new Apple product iWeb.
Looks like it’s a way to easily publish content to the web, like a Blog.
Wow.
Apple unleashed the rumour on the Apple page screen capture below, but the link did not go anywhere specific.
Screen Capture