Author: Serkadis

For the most part, digital music has killed the liner notes that used to come with CDs. Now, MusicDNA, a new file format that looks a lot like Apple’s iTunes LP format, wants to bring liner notes to the 21st century. MusicDNA is a new rich-media extension for digital music files that enriches songs and albums with additional data like lyrics, videos, RSS and Twitter feeds, as well as up to 14 additional pieces of metadata like mood and tempo. Artists and record labels will be able to ship up to 32GB of data with these files.

Sponsor

MusicDNA is the creation of Dagfinn Bach’s Bach Technologies. Bach worked on building one of the first MP3 players in 1993. One of the most prominent backers of MusicDNA is Karlheinz Brandenburg, one of the co-inventors of the MP3 format. The company plans to ship its software in the spring.

Just a Wrapper

It’s important to note that MusicDNA doesn’t propose a new format for encoding the music itself. Instead, MusicDNA is simply an XML-wrapper for music files. In theory, this should make it easier for music labels and artists to adopt this new format as the actual music file will be compatible with virtually every MP3 player on the market. These devices will just play the MP3 track and ignore the rest of the data. To get access to the additional information, though, you currently have to use MusicDNA’s own player. The company plans to release plugins for iTunes and Windows Media Player later this year.

Is MusicDNA Doomed?

We have to wonder, though, if anybody is really interested in yet another proprietary file format for distributing music. While the iTunesLP format hasn’t exactly caught fire yet (though the mythical Apple tablet could change that), Apple isn’t likely to license this technology from Bach. It’s also important to note that Sony, Warner, Universal and EMI have developed their own file format for bundling music files with additional content.

At this point, it seems rather unlikely that MusicDNA will be a major success. While the developers claim to have 10 partners on board for the launch, none of these are major labels. Unless MusicDNA can get the major labels to give up their own format and to drop support for iTunes and the iTunesLP format, this venture isn’t very likely to succeed.

Discuss

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In the highly publicized aftermath of a Microsoft Internet Explorer vulnerability that opened the door for malicious hackers to tap into Google’s infrastructure, the search giant on Monday rolled out a new “stable” release of its Google Chrome for Windows. Although the timing of the new release probably isn’t connected to the security issues facing IE, Google nonetheless is pressing ahead in its efforts to grab market share from IE and Firefox, the market-leading browsers.

Google Product Manager Nick Baum said Google Chrome 4 includes two of the browser’s most frequently requested features: Extensions and bookmark sync. Extensions are small programs that aim to add useful functionality, such as alerts, notifications and quick access to Internet sites.

1,500 Extensions

Google previously launched extensions on the beta channel, and has since paved the way for developers to contribute extensions for the increasingly popular browser. In all, Chrome 4 users can now browse through 1,500 items in Google’s extensions gallery and install them on the stable version of Google Chrome.

“Extensions let you add new features and functions to your browser. Some provide one-click access to some of your favorite web applications like eBay and Digg, or news and information sources such as NPR and Time.com,” Baum said. “Others are useful tweaks for performing common online tasks such as browsing photos, getting directions, or shopping.”

Baum said extensions on Google Chrome take only seconds to install, and can be uninstalled just as easily. That means users can experiment with various extensions and decide to keep or discard them through the extensions tool.

Baum described bookmark sync as a “handy feature” for users who rely on several computers, such as a laptop at work and a desktop at home. Users can enable bookmark sync to synchronize bookmarks on all of their computers, Baum said, so that when they…

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The 2009 recession was a “huge setback” for the world’s poorest people, Microsoft cofounder and Chairman Bill Gates wrote in his 2010 annual letter from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. “Although the acute financial crisis is over, the economy is still weak and the world will spend a lot of years undoing the damage, which includes lingering unemployment and huge government deficits and debts at record levels,” Gates wrote.

But Gates wrote that he is “still very optimistic about the progress we can make in the years ahead.” The key to that optimism is scientific and technological innovation.

It’s innovation that will make the difference between a bleak future in which donor funds deliver little measurable benefit to the developing world and a bright one, in which governments, nonprofits and private companies can “do a lot more for the same cost,” Gates wrote.

Innovation Is the Future

Without innovation, Gates wrote, “the picture is quite bleak. Health costs for the rich will escalate, forcing tough trade-offs and keeping the poor stuck in the bad situation they are in today.” The poor will be hurt both by rising energy costs and the impact of climate change, and the poor will suffer food shortages, he wrote.

“However, I am optimistic that innovations will allow us to avoid these bleak outcomes,” Gates wrote. “In the United States, advances in online learning and new ways to help teachers improve will make a great education more accessible than ever. With vaccines, drugs and other improvements, health in poor countries will continue to get better, and people will choose to have smaller families.”

“With better seeds, training and access to markets, farmers in poor countries will be able to grow more food,” he wrote. “The world will find clean ways to produce electricity at a lower cost, and more people will…

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AOL has closed on its acquisition of StudioNow, a provider of video creation, distribution and storage technology. AOL, which recently spun out of media giant Time Warner, said Monday that it paid nearly $36 million in cash and stock for the Nashville, Tenn.-based StudioNow.

AOL will use StudioNow’s assets to add video capabilities to its Seed.com content-management system.

Seed.com purchases and distributes work for all of AOL’s properties, including entertainment, news, sports, lifestyle, technology and finance. Seed.com also enables contributors’ work to be seen, heard or read on AOL’s more than 80 niche content sites. Until now, Seed.com has put out calls for text and photos from its network of professionals.

Tapping Assets

“StudioNow and AOL share a passionate commitment to high-quality content, services and technology, and that makes us a natural fit for this new partnership,” said David Mason, cofounder and CEO of StudioNow. “This new chapter for StudioNow presents a tremendous opportunity for our growing professional creative network to reach new audiences, diversify their assignments, and increase their income as the number of projects coming from the numerous AOL properties will create a surge in video assignments.”

While AOL has the technological expertise to develop its own technology for the Seed.com platform, it decided not to.

“I think there are times to build IT in-house — i.e., Seed.com — and times to leapfrog through an acquisition like StudioNow,” said Caroline Campbell, vice president of AOL corporate communications. “You’ll see this type of mix from us going forward — build it/buy it — aligned to our strategy and aimed at making the company successful long-term.”

In this case, AOL may have gained an additional perk with the acquisition. AOL plans to tap into StudioNow’s national network of more than 3,000 professionals, who will be asked to produce video at the request of content…

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Filed under: Apple Financial, Liveblog

Thanks for joining TUAW for our liveblog of Apple’s first quarter 2010 earnings conference call.

If you’ve never joined us for a liveblog before, it’s a blast. You can send us your questions or comments as the phone call is progressing. We’ll be supplying our “expert commentary,” but we invite your inquiries and opinions as well. Just use the CoverItLive tool below to join in.

To listen to the phone call, you can tune in at http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/01/21alert_results.html. After the phone call has been completed, you can revisit our liveblog at this page and listen to the phone call at the same URL.

TUAWLiveblog: Apple’s Q1 2010 results conference call originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While investors speculate as to whether Greece or the euro is going to crash, it’s no surprise that parties in the EU are questioning their ties to both.

An internal report obtained by SPIEGEL warns that the differing competitiveness among euro zone countries is “a cause of serious concern for the euro area as a whole.”

The report said that ‘peripheral’ countries Greece, Portugal, Spain, Ireland, and Italy would “jeopardize confidence in the euro and threatens the cohesiveness of the euro area.”

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• RBS: Here’s Why Greece Will Ultimately Be Bailed Out By The Europeans
• Morgan Stanley: Greece Is A Trojan Horse That Threatens The Euro And The Credibility Of Europe Itself
• Reminder: The Worst Sovereign Isn’t Greece, Iceland Or Ireland

On Monday, a national park in China officially renamed one of its mountains after James Cameron’s cinema blockbuster Avatar. The peak formerly known as “South Sky Pillar” (“Heaven and Earth Pillar”) officially had its name changed to “Avatar Hallelujah Mountain.”

The groundbreaking science-fiction epic is poised to sink Titanic as the highest-grossing movie of all time after topping the North American box office for a sixth consecutive weekend.

Being ineffectual is hard work. TSA nappy time! To sleep, perchance to dream of more hilarious pranks. ANIMAL’s Bucky Turco snapped this at New York’s LaGuardia airport.

According to Larry Dominique, Nissan North America’s vice president of product planning, Infiniti is once again considering an entry-level front-wheel-drive vehicle, or a family of models. The Infiniti G and M will be exempt from the strategy.

“The core of the brand is very important to us, this kind of performance sedan,” Dominique said. “Can you have other vehicles in different segments around the core of your brand? Yes.”

Speaking at the 2010 Detroit Auto Show, Dominique said that many buyers don’t know or care whether their cars are based on a front-wheel-drive or all-wheel-drive platform. He cited Acura’s TSX and TL models as examples.

“Those buyers are OK with it,” Dominique said.

Today, all of Infiniti’s models are based on a body-on-from, rear-wheel-drive platform. The company used to offer front-wheel-drive models in 1991 and the I35 sedan was the last model to feature the platform before it was discontinued in 2004.

– By: Omar Rana

Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required)

Two women and a man found dead this morning in separate locations in Lancaster and Palmdale may have been involved in a murder-suicide, authorities said.

One woman was discovered in the 38700 block of 31st Street East in Palmdale and the other was found in the 45300 block of Beech Avenue in Lancaster. Both were pronounced dead at the scene.

The man, a possible suspect in the murder-suicide, was found with an apparent gunshot wound in a Mustang at Avenue E and Sierra Highway, said Lt. Ed Stewart of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

"There is a relationship between all three individuals," Stewart said. "It’s not a random act. It was probably planned, for whatever reason."

— Amina Khan

A bunch of folks have been sending in this wonderful Public Domain Manifesto, put together by Communia. It’s a wonderful read, highlighting the importance and value of the public domain, and putting forth a series of general principles which appear to make a lot of sense. It also discusses other aspects of related issues, such as the importance of individuals choosing to not use copyright, as well as the value of fair use and fair dealing. The point is both to highlight how important the public domain is to a vital thriving culture, and also to point out how the public domain has been steadily eroded over the last few decades. A key point is found in the first principle, and it’s to remind everyone that copyright is an exception to the public domain, not the other way around:

The Public Domain is the rule, copyright protection is the exception. Since copyright protection is granted only with respect to original forms of expression, the vast majority of data, information and ideas produced worldwide at any given time belongs to the Public Domain. In addition to information that is not eligible for protection, the Public Domain is enlarged every year by works whose term of protection expires. The combined application of the requirements for protection and the limited duration of the copyright protection contribute to the wealth of the Public Domain so as to ensure access to our shared culture and knowledge.

Unfortunately, it’s rarely thought about like this. Instead, most people consider copyright to be the rule, and things like the public domain and fair use to be exceptions. This is a problem, and it impacts how people view, understand and respond to things like copyright and the public domain itself.

To be honest, I have no idea how useful something like this manifesto really will be. Very few politicians seem to understand or care about the public domain and its importance. The manifesto might not have much of an impact on its own, but as a general set of principles for people to understand and gather behind it does seem like a good thing.

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O studenta frantuzoaica, aflata in ultimul an, Celine interpretata de Julie Deply, intalneste un baiat American pe nume Jesse (Ethan Hawke) in trenul Budapesta – Viena.

In Viena coboara amandoi si ies impreuna. Idila lor de 14 ore este foarte impresionanta, doar ca la sfarsitul calatoriei, vor trebui sa se desparta. Sau nu?….

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Detectives remain perplexed by a triple homicide in Lawndale and are asking for the public’s assistance in solving the case.

Authorities received a phone call Friday afternoon about a possible gunshot victim in an apartment in the 14600 block of Larch Avenue in Lawndale, said Los Angeles County sheriff’s Det. Karen Shonka.

When deputies arrived they found three victims dead: Brittany Howard, 23, who was shot several times;  Ivison Washington, 27, Howard’s boyfriend, who was shot in the head; and Brandon Wright, 27, Howard’s brother, who was also shot in the head.

Shonka said all three lived together in the apartment with Howard’s 7-year-old daughter, Harmony. Harmony told detectives that her uncle, Wright, had walked her to school that morning and likely got back to the apartment about 8 a.m.

What happened next is a mystery.

Sometime between 8 a.m. and 2:20 p.m., when authorities received the call, someone shot all three victims. Shonka said there was no sign of forced entry to the apartment, nothing was taken, and nothing looked out of order in the residence.

Washington was a former gang member who got out of prison about seven months ago, Shonka said. But detectives said the shooting does not look like a regular gang killing, and any of the three victims could have been the intended target.

"I worked gangs for 10 years and this is not your typical gang shooting," Shonka said. "It looks more like a professional hit."

Though detectives do not have a motive in the killing, Shonka said it could be a dispute about business or money.

Shonka said detectives have no leads on the case right now. None of the neighbors heard anything the day of the shooting because of a thunderstorm, Shonka said, so no one has been able to provide detectives with a more specific timeframe for the killing.

Shonka said Harmony is staying with relatives.

"She didn’t even cry," Shonka said.

Detectives are asking anyone who might have information to call the sheriff’s Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500. Shonka said any information, even if it seems insignificant, could help detectives solve the case.

— Anthony Pesce

More breaking news in L.A. Now:

Downtown’s Grand Avenue now a candidate for Eli Broad’s art museum

Murder-suicide suspected in 3 Antelope Valley deaths

State Supreme Court OKs ‘John Doe’ warrants based on crime-scene DNA

California Supreme Court throws out pension charges against 5 ex-retirement board members in San Diego

California state prison changes take effect today

Zsa Zsa Gabor’s husband wants to be governor; California residents want to cut services

Vans, small trucks deliver supplies to snowed-in Big Bear

New rainstorm headed to Southern California

Crews work to clear closed roads to Big Bear of snow and ice

School district gets heat for banning dictionary over ‘oral sex’ definition. What do you think?

Ion merge la spital, unde Gheorghe era internat la Reanimare cu mainile si picioarele rupte.
Ion catre Gheorghe:
-Ma Gheo’, ce-ai patit, ma?
-Apai ma Ioane, stai sa-ti zic cum s-o intamplat: mergeam eu intr-o zi asa si undeva pe un deal am vazut o gaura mare in pamant.
-Si?
-Si am mers sa vad ce-i acolo…
-Si?
-Si am ajuns la ea si-am strigat tare:Uuuu!
-Si?
-Si din gaura s-a auzit:Uuuu!
-Si?
-Si am mai strigat o data:Uuuu!
-Si?
-Si din gaura s-a auzit iar:Uuuu!
-Si?
-Si am mai strigat o data:Uuuu!
-Si?
-Si…m-a lovit trenul!

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9. Gheo
10. Zugravii

Researchers at the International Computer Science Institute and UC-San Diego have achieved 100% success rates in filtering spam from a specific botnet. The strategy? Capture the enemy, and make him talk.

A botnet is a computer that’s been hijacked to send spam out into the world without its owner’s knowledge. By running a captured software bot on a machine and analyzing the contents of 1,000 messages that it sent out, the team was able to decipher what template it was using to vary its missives and elude filters. They then based their filters on that template.

The result? A 100% success rate in blocking emails from that botnet, and—more importantly—no false positives. That is to say, the filter ended up letting every legitimate email through and blocked all of the spam.

The full results of the study will be made public in March, but until then it’s good to see that the good guys have a little Jack Bauer in ’em in the escalating spam arms race. [New Scientist]

“If you follow Charlie
from state to state,
you’ll see the whole South.
Now, won’t that be great?”

Travels with Charlie: Way Down South, A Search & Find Geography Book, written by Miles Backer and illustrated by Chuck Nitzberg, presents geography and facts about states in the American South in a visually exciting way.  The book begins with a poem, introducing readers to landmarks they’ll see as they “travel” with Charlie, a lovable dog with a red bandanna, through the South.  The book then presents a 2-page spread profiling each southern state.  The left page has facts including State Nickname, State Capital, State flag, interesting “Did You Know…” trivia, and landmarks for readers to identify.  The right page has a map of the state along with comical but educational illustrations depicting key landmarks and state characteristics.  For example, North Carolina – The Tar Heel State – depicts the Wright Brothers Memorial in Kitty Hawk with an illustration of a plane like the one first flown there in 1903.  A picture of a dresser represents the furniture industry in High Point and students learn from the facts that there are over 125 furniture factories in the High Point area.  The “Did You Know…” facts also tell readers about Blackbeard the Pirate and the Lost Colony.  On each state page, Charlie is hidden within the map for readers to find among the state landmark illustrations.  The book concludes by asking readers to find a particular landmark on each state map page; “Can You Find…a festival in Virginia with a big, brass band…?”

Curriculum Connections

Travels with Charlie: Way Down South is appropriate for teaching United States regional geography and state facts to a variety of grade levels from Kindergarten to 5th grade.  This book is a great way to introduce students to the ideas of maps (K.4b), geographical regions, how geography influences people, places, and history (VS.1i, USI.2, USII.2), and factual information about states.  This book is part of the Travels with Charlie series which includes Travellin’ the Northeast and Way out West.  Fourth grade students studying their own state history could also use this book to compare and contrast their state to one or more of the states highlighted in the book, illustrating skills for historical and geographical analysis and good citizenship (VS.1).

Additional Resources

• National Geographic Mission Geography: USA Lesson Plan; students will research and learn about the culture, physical geography, and history of states in each region of the United States.  Students will also develop a “family travel plan” highlighting destinations in selected states while working with real-life limitations.
• TlsBooks Southern States Word Search; students search for the names of Southern States hidden within the word search.
• KidsGeo.com United States of America Map Match Game; this is a fun, interactive game where students are randomly shown the shape of a state and must place it on the US map as quickly as possible to familiarize them with the location of states.

Book: Travels with Charlie: Way Down South, A Search & Find Geography Book
Author: Miles Backer
Illustrator: Chuck Nitzberg
Publisher: Blue Apple Books
Publication Date: 2007
Pages: 36
Grade Range: K – 5
ISBN 10: 1-59354-594-0
ISBN 13: 978-1-59354-594-9

Hace unos días toco “una de esas tribunas” a las que acostumbra El País (¡Mueran los ‘heditores’!, Luigse Martín), tan tendentes a establecer por un lado que los viejos modelos son muy superiores a lo que trae internet como a describir el cúmulo de fatalidades que se nos viene encima a pesar de las evidentes ventajas para los ciudadanos que, confundidos y ciegos a ellas, caen en las garras de la red. Sin internet se vivía mejor, en definitiva. La tesis en esta ocasión era que los editores aportan mucho valor a la creación literaria respecto a las posibilidades que abre la autoedición, como por ejemplo salvarnos de que los mediocres publiquen y salvar a los genios de la literatura de sus demonios y faltas de ortografía.

En fin. Mientras, en el mundo real, Ian McEwan (del que guardo un grato recuerdo gracias a “Amsterdam”) firma un acuerdo exclusivo con Amazon en el que dobla el porcentaje que se lleva para las ventas (Times Online). Si alguien va a revisar sus textos no será un editor a la vieja usanza al que el escritor inglés parece no necesitar más. Un día las editoriales se pueden despertar y observar que Amazon es el gran editor global, capaz no sólo de encargarse de la venta y distribución sino también de la impresión en papel, de la versión digital y, hasta cierto punto, del marketing

Si hasta plataformas de autoedición como Bubok deberían estar preocupadas, qué decir de las grandes editoriales. El peligro que se cierne es que los autores consagrados, los que más venden, empiecen a percibir que no las necesitan tanto como afirmaba el señor Martín y que se deberían llevar más dinero por la venta de sus obras. No, todavía no es el apocalipsis para los editores tradicionales, pero sí puede ser una de las últimas llamadas de atención antes de que empiecen a pasarlo realmente mal, los nuevos intermediarios están aquí y entienden perfectamente algo que será básico los próximos años: el precio de venta del libro digital tiene que ser mucho menor que el del libro físico e internet permite optimizar procesos de forma que los escritores puedan ganar más por sus libros. De nuevo, editoriales y tiendas de libros ante el espejo de la industria de la música.

Relacionado: Los detectives salvajes en el Kindle.

TechDirt’s Mike Masnick is at the Midem music industry conference in Cannes this week. He put together a fantastic memo to the International Association of Entertainment Lawyers: “The Future Of Music Business Models (And Those Who Are Already There)”.

Masnick writes that the mainstream entertainment industry’s formula for contending with the Internet — desperately trying to invent “new copyright laws or new licensing schemes or new DRM or new lawsuits or new ways to shut down file sharing” — is counterproductive.

However, there is another solution. Stop worrying and learn to embrace the business models that are already helping musicians make plenty of money and use file sharing to their advantage, even in the absence of licensing or copyright enforcement.

In simplest terms, the model can be defined as:

Connect with Fans (CwF) + Reason to Buy (RtB) = The Business Model

He lists a dozen artists who’ve done well for themselves through various permutations of this model. Everyone knows about the efforts of big names like Trent Reznor and Radiohead, but Mike also draws attention to less-famous success stories like Josh Freese, Jill Sobule, Corey Smith, Jonathan Coulton, Moto Boy, Amanda Palmer, Matthew Ebel, Moldover and K-Os.

As you look through all of these, some patterns emerge. They’re not about getting a fee on every transaction or every listen or every stream. They’re not about licensing. They’re not about DRM or lawsuits or copyright. They’re about better connecting with the fans and then offering them a real, scarce, unique reason to buy — such that in the end, everyone is happy. Fans get what they want at a price they want, and the musicians and labels make money as well.

These stories stand in stark contrast to the problems that major labels’ copyright-enforcement efforts can cause for their artists. Just last week, we noted how even talented and popular bands like OK Go and Death Cab For Cutie have seen their promotion actively undercut by their own labels’ copywars.

The memo is a great roundup of clever new business models that music fans and and aritsts alike will find worth reading.