Idea Portal

Today!

"Today" is the name of a website which is maintained by reformists in Iran. The site is officially filtered and banned in Iran by the hardline judiciary, and the programmers have been under great pressure recently and even some jailed.

As a move showing the protest, many Iranian weblogers have renamed their weblogs to "EMROOZ" the persian word for "Today".

Not only the move symbolizes a possible unity among opposition, but it resembles the special nature of internet as a public media which can not be shut down by a group of idiots.

iPod under attack!

here comes another article not directly but indirectly playing a dirty trick!

The sub title of the first news on news.com under a bold title of "Longhorn's squeeze play" read as: "Next Version of Windows will let firms block access to iPod and other storage devices, CNET News.com has learned."!!!!

Well the first impression at least for me was that they have found a piece of code in windows (almost impossible to find anything in a black hole!) that as in the quick time case is producing some sort of error for iPod users!!

Well I don't know, maybe one could do so, but apparently news.com has not learned this!! but they are telling the old story of "Storage Device Policies" which already exists in SP2!!!

so what's the story?

1. Don't forget about the Longhorn, it may take long, but it is coming. LONGHORN, LONGHORN, LoNgHoRn.... ah and one more thing, longhorn!

2. ah! what was that rarely seen, bad gadget's name? huh? i what? iPod! yeah, that will not work under windows anymore. forget about that! LONGHORN

shameful! I refer you to an older article on news.com:
Analyst: iPods a network security risk
so not only it's bad for users, but for you dear large business owner, who will soon use LONGHORN!

well i hate my post, cause i got caught in their game, repeating "that name" many times!

MSN Music store & C|net

It's simple! #iPod = Sum(from 1 to 100 of #other BRANDS)
no question apple is only one but it produces more than all other PMP producers. so how can WMA be played by far larger number of players??!!

Unless Microsoft would not plan for any digital rights management scheme, and MSN music store would instead of WMA sell MP3 files that can be copied on almost any player in the world without a protection! Then of course everybody would love that service!

Find the discussion here,

I'll copy the discussions so far here, in case they would like to erase it from news.com.

PMPs that play MS format
Posted by: Shauheen Zahirazami
Posted on: September 7, 2004, 8:54 PM PDT
Story: Jobs offered to let Sony into iTunes, report says
Christophe Guillemin says: "Microsoft's music downloads, on the other hand, can be read by a far larger number of music players", I tried to find a good supporting info for the above sentence!

I came up with another article on CNET News.com by Ina Fried [1] wich says:
"..the bigger question is whether Apple will be able to maintain its current lead--claiming 70 percent of legal music downloads and roughly half of the U.S. digital music player business."

so I wonder how the writer concluded FAR larger number of music players play MS format???

[1] http://news.com.com/MSN+Music+is+off-key%2C+Apple+says/2100-1027_3-5345131.html
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Device support for WMA
Posted by: Evan Hansen
Posted on: September 8, 2004, 4:33 PM PDT
Story: Jobs offered to let Sony into iTunes, report says
HI, I'm CNET News.com's department editor for the Internet and Networking sections. Apple is the market leader in digital music sales, both on the hardware sales and commercial song download side. But more portable music player devices support Microsoft's Windows Media format. There are about 70 devices on the market that you can buy that play WMA files. By contrast, only the iPod plays iTunes songs. That said, the MP3 format has the most support--almost every device supports it, including iPod--but not many paid download services use it because MP3 doesn't have a digital rights management scheme to protect against unauthorized use.
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Number vs Brand
Posted by: Shauheen Zahirazami
Posted on: September 8, 2004, 6:35 PM PDT
Story: Jobs offered to let Sony into iTunes, report says
Unfortunately Evan Hansen is making the same mistake as the writer of the article.

Facts:
1. Apple is the market leader in digital music sales; both hardware (iPod) and commercial song download (iTunes)

2. There are many other companies that produce portable digital music players than Apple (e.g. Creative, RCA, Rio …)

But:
The number of iPods sold, and already in the market (at least US market) is equal to the total number of all other 70 companies that produce and sell PMPs which play WMA together. Therefore it is defenitely not true to say "Microsoft's music downloads, on the other hand, can be read by a FAR larger number of music players"!!
maybe you could say "More brands can be found in the market, which can read Microsoft's music downloads".
which still would not be an informative phrase cause it misses the point that their number is FAR less than iPods!

News.com

For many years now, I've been relying on reading c|net news.com. But recently I have the annoying feeling that there is something going wrong over there!

Christophe Guillemin has written this article special to CNET News.com.

It almost goes well, until here:

"Microsoft's music downloads, on the other hand, can be read by a far larger number of music players."

!!! Microsoft !!! you mean that stupid WMA??! give me a break! how did you count that one? which resulted in FAR larger number? perhaps he has found an MS patent on Cassettes, magnetic tapes, and added all portable cassette players as well! even with that will it sum up to be FAR larger number?!

According to another article on news.com published: September 2, 2004 By Ina Fried Staff Writer of CNET News.com:

"Apple ... claiming 70 percent of legal music downloads and roughly half of the U.S. digital music player business. "

well may be that other half is FAR more important! Well, at least to MS it is!!!

Montreal Film Festival

Montreal Film festival is over. Unfortunately I could not see more than 3 movies, although there where many good ones. I really think that they could lower the price of tickets. Since for many of the movies the theatres where not really full, actually we saw one of them almost alone!!! Obviously when there are more than 20 movies on your wish list and seeing each will cost 10 bucks, and you are a student on a tight budget, you will have to sacrifice some for the others, and even sometimes choose at random! Although I had purchased some tickets from “Concordia Graduate Students Association� for a good price, but it was not enough!

Anyways, I just would like to give you an advice based on my own experience, when you are going to see a movie in an international film festival don't go foe the unknown ones, in search of a new color of art, it can be a real waste of time and money. steve+sky was a Belgian movie (with French sub title) that was a real waste of time to be seen! Unless you are sort of person who tries to be considered as a pure art lover! Then you are right! I don't understand people talking Martian!!!

iMac G5

I'm really so excited about the new iMac G5, and I really can't wait to touch one. I'm sure that it's not just me, everybody even in the camp of anti-Macs would be interested to see what a superior design, and care for the product will lead to.

I was reading an article on Macworld News and I'd really think that, some of the things apple has accomplished with iMac G5 is really extraordinary! I mean really extraordinary.
I specially love the idea that they have gone for the real all-in-one design, by putting the power supply and speakers inside the case.

Also from the repair point of view, there are two interesting points to be noticed. First is that the back of the box opens with 3 screws that don't even fall out after being opened. Second point is putting the indicators on the main board that will help an apple care service understand any problems over the phone.

The point is not just being intelligent but also, to care for user.

Apple rules

This year's Paris expo keynote missed Steve jobs. I wish him a very quick get well. If you have not yet seen the new iMac, click here to stop knowing nothing! It's so good, that it really doesn't need my praise! What I want to point out here is that, it looks like, some people are either used to expect more than they should, or they are trying to do a dirty advertising against some product!
I mean this article by Forrester.

Reading the article first you will see how the writer is impressed by the new iMac G5 design and performance and price. But later he has pointed two stupid points that in his view is the reason why apple has failed to achieve success!!!!

The first reason is: Where is the wireless connectivity?!!!!

For his info, I refer you all to spec page of iMac G5.
All models have: Wireless AirPort Extreme ready (based on 802.11g specification; IEEE 802.11b Wi-Fi certified) 4; internal Bluetooth module available as build-to-order option.

Perhaps the writer expects that apple would bundle an iPod, iSight, a printer, scanner and an extra hub for him as well with the same price! Uhhh, I understand, wish that they could deliver the computer with a cute girl inside the box!!!!

The second point is even funnier! Why didn't they include a TV tuner?!!!!

To my surprise the title of the article reads "Apple's missed opportunity"!!!!!
You know what?! Either they are hoping to find a problem, but they obviously are in jeopardy or they don't know what more to expect!