The Richter Scale^®

When Amazon first announced they were going to be offering music without digital rights management (DRM) last year, I cheered, but didn’t do much else about it. However, while on an eight-week stint in a hotel in San Diego (which ended about two weeks ago) I decided to expand my music library, and checked out the Amazon MP3 download service. And I think it’s excellent. And Amazon’s DRMed Unbox video service isn’t too bad either.

The library of music content at Amazon is very extensive, with even brand new content available upon release by the record labels. And the prices aren’t too bad either - generally cheaper than the same music at iTunes, especially when you buy music by the album. I found album prices running from $7.99 to $9.99 typically.

To download a purchased album in MP3 format you need to install a small program from Amazon which actually performs the download, and, as I understand it, tags the MP3 files as being sold to you as the purchaser (presumably so that if you share them they can tag you for it). The Amazon MP3 downloader also lets you specify where to store the downloaded music, and you can also tell it to automatically add the newly download music to your iTunes or Windows Media Player libraries (but not both).

All the MP3s are encoded at 256Kbps, and sound great. Definitely a painless way to download music with no restrictions on your personal use of the files, unlike original iTunes songs. And, you can run the MP3s on any music player, whereas even the DRM-free iTunes downloads need to be converted into MP3 from Apple’s proprietary AAC format first.

As for video downloads, Amazon offers their Amazon Unbox service. This, sadly is DRMed, which makes it a pain to use, as you cannot convert the downloaded video into an MP4 file that you can play on an iPod, among other restrictions. Also, Unbox content is limited to either the machine you download the video on (for rentals) or you can designate two machines for “purchased” (not rented) content. Unbox works only on Windows-based PCs or on TiVo devices with current firmware.

Prices are the Amazon Unbox service are on par with iTunes - TV shows for $1.99 typically, and movies for around $9.99-14.99 (purchase) and less if rented. And, of course, some content not available at iTunes is available for legal downloadable viewing via Amazon Unbox and vice-versa. For example, we found Battlestar Galactica Season 4 on Amazon Unbox after not finding it on iTunes.

As with the MP3 downloads, the Amazon Unbox service requires the installation of a program on your PC. That program acts both as the video player and downloader, and does a pretty decent job. Visual artifacts in BSG4’s first episode were negligible on our 61” DLP display, and sound quality was excellent (and appeared to offer surround sound queues to our receiver unlike our experience with iTunes content on the Apple TV). Also, with at least the BSG4 shows we downloaded, we were able to start watching before the entire show had downloaded, so less planning required. We haven’t tested it with movies yet, and there doesn’t appear to be a separate category for HD content either.

The Amazon Unbox service, in addition to having less content (at least for what we’re interested in at this point), also has very strict requirements with respect to country of download. While iTunes lets a user with a U.S. billing address download content no matter where they happen to be in the world at the time of download, Amazon Unbox is very specific about the fact that downloads are only possible while physically in the U.S. This is similar to the restrictions imposed by the various TV networks on viewing past TV shows.

As I’ve stated before, I’m not thrilled with DRM because it makes you dependent on the vagaries and policies of the DRM provider, and you could well find yourself cut off from your content one day because of that. However, where it relates to content I am likely to only use once, like TV shows and movie rentals, I have less of an issue with it. I listen to my music library daily, so that needs to be DRM-free, but video does not - and if I want to watch a particular movie in the future, I can either buy it on physical media or rent it again.

I give the Amazon MP3 download service a 9.0 out 10.0 and the Amazon Unbox service a 7.0 out of 10.0 on The Richter Scale. The only way I can see to improve the Amazon MP3 service is to have a more complete library of all music and audio content available (some of the music I was looking for was not available in MP3 form, but they do have an excellent collection). The Amazon Unbox service needs more content, including HD content, and less restrictive use of content - I’d like to be able to play it on my iPod and not have to have a “Plays For Sure” compatible device (which Unbox does support for purchased content).

I recently purchased the new Apple TV with the 160GB internal storage drive as a way to get movies and other iTunes video content into my bedroom. My living room has an HP Digital Entertainment System PC, on which I can play iTunes videos, as well as video from other on-line sources, incidentally, which is why I didn’t need the Apple TV there.

The Apple TV was a breeze to install, as I opted for the direct-wired Ethernet connection instead of connecting to my slower WiFi network. The iTunes software installation on my notebook immediately recognized the Apple TV and started moving content over to it as well.

One glitch I ran into was that the iTunes synchronization did not copy my entire music library over to the Apple TV unit - only the last week’s worth of new music (courtesy of Amazon’s MP3 download service, which I like better than that of iTunes). Turns out the only way to force the copy of all my music over to the Apple TV was to highlight my entire library and “mark” each item (via the right-mouse-button context menu). Once I did that and resynchronized, everything moved over properly.

Video playback on the Apple TV is pretty good for regular TV shows - I have it connected to a 32” LCD panel via HDMI, and the visual compression artifacts were negligible on episodes of New Amsterdam, Reaper, and Supernatural. We also took advantage last night of the ability to rent and watch high definition (HD) movies, selecting Jodie Foster’s The Brave One as our test subject.

The movie took about 5 hours to download over our 2MBps connection. We had purchased it on Saturday evening in order to view it Sunday night, so the download time wasn’t a problem. It should be noted that some TV programming can be watched a minute or two into the download, instead of having to wait for the entire show to download, by the way.

The HD quality of the rented movie was very good - I could not discern any artifacts. The only disappointment other than the weak ending of the movie itself was that there was no embedded surround sound in the film. I don’t know if this is a normal situation or limited to just the movie we selected.

All the ordering and downloading can be done directly via the Apple TV, or also on the associated PC running iTunes. And you do need to have a Mac or PC to get the Apple TV running, incidentally. To order via the Apple TV, just enter your iTunes account information and password via the cool little remote control.

The cost for the HD rental was $4.99 ($3.99 for the non-HD version), which allows the movie to stay on your Apple TV (the only platform it will play on) for up to 30 days, and once you start watching the movie, you have 24 hours to finish it. Not unreasonable considering you don’t have to drive to the rental store to get the movie, but more expensive than a service like NetFlix if you’re an avid movie watcher.

From our perspective, it’s a lot cheaper than buying the movie on Blu-ray Disc, especially considering it wasn’t that great a movie (although Jodie Foster’s performance was pretty good).

The Apple TV, in addition to being a music and video jukebox, also offers photo storage and a related slideshow mode, and also has a YouTube viewing option where you can look at the most recent, most viewed, most popular, and searched for YouTube videos. Nice distraction, although it also serves as a reminder of how inane 99% of YouTube content can really be.

The current price of the Apple TV 160GB model is $329, and you must have a usable Internet connection, a local area network, and iTunes-capable personal computer to make it work.

My only technical annoyance with the Apple TV hardware is that is on all the time, and it runs hot. You can shut down (i.e. put in stand-by) the video output section (which is a major heat generator) of the Apple TV by pointing the remote control at the Apple TV, and then holding down the “play” button for six seconds, but this was not documented anywhere obvious. I stumbled across this tip during a Google search about the subject.

In terms of content, iTunes has a great selection of movies and TV shows, but frustratingly iTunes does not have everything I want to watch - shows like Battlestar Galactica Season 4, Private Practice, Torchwood, Pushing Daisies, Dexter Season 2, and Dr. Who were all not available, for example, requiring me to resort to Amazon Unbox or BitTorrent feeds.

I give the Apple TV a 7.0 out of 10.0 on The Richter Scale. It would rate higher if it were more eco-friendly in its power consumption and if it had greater content selection.

In catching up on some blog reading via my favorite blog aggregrator, Bloglines I stumbled across a new feature the talented folks at Bloglines have developed. They call it the Bloglines Image Wall.

The Bloglines Image Wall is a 6x4 grid of images, generated dynamically, showing the latest images from blogs that Bloglines has indexed into their databases. And it changes while you watch. And if you want to see what blog a particular image comes from, just click on it to go to that blog. It’s a fascinating way to discover blogs you never knew existed (but it requires them to post pictures).

Apparently after they launched the Image Wall a few weeks ago, Bloglines discovered that it was being viewed in family and school environments - a problem since some blogs post images which might not be appropriate for some audiences, so the Image Wall has been moved to its own domain and features an 18+ warning on the home page.

I attended an interesting conference a few weeks ago at which a number of people whom I respect shared their advice for presidential candidates in the 2008 U.S. presidential election. The conference ended with a drop in visit by New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson (himself a candidate for President, running on the Democratic ticket.

Other discussions at that conference included ones dealing with the impact of electronic communications on print media, and my aging brain slowly put together all sorts of disparate pieces. The result of my ruminations was a question: “Can the people of the U.S. elect a President with the same tools and principles used in the new Internet?” These tools include things like wikis, blogs, YouTube, Flickr, MySpace, and more.

The more I have thought about this idea, the more I have come to the realization that just as there has been a shift from physical media to electronic media, there will ultimately be a similar shift in campaigning. And thus was born the concept that I call the Wiki Presidency.

I’ve started a new blog at http://wikipresidency.blogspot.com/ to discuss and explore the Wiki Presidency, and hope that you’ll join me there and become involved in getting campaign financing abuse and partisanship out of the presidential campaign process, while bringing the ideas and energy of real people into the process.

Well, in addition to now being closely associated with discussions on the future of HD-DVD and Blu-ray standards, in particular with respect to the adult entertainment industry, a recent interview of mine has made it to the web (not YouTube yet, though).

Take a look at this clip, shot during a media luncheon at Pat Meier-Johnson’s Lunch@Piero’s event. It’s a five minute interview dealing with commentary on multimedia convergence and the future of tangible media (e.g. CDs, DVDs).

I have spent the last week setting up over a half dozen new UPSes, a new multimedia receiver, and three high end Windows XP Media Center Edition computers - two fully loaded Dell XPS 710 systems and an HP x565 Digital Entertainment Center. Seeing as these were new installations, I decided to bite the bullet and go ahead an accept Microsoft’s Automatic Update suggestion to install Internet Explorer 7 (IE7).

Well, one of the other things we do here at the Richter high-tech household is use a central file server (running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3), and that file server includes some applications we run on local systems. Well, Microsoft, in it’s desire to help the average user avoid running bad programs has implemented additional security features as part of IE7, features that get really annoying for more advanced users. In particular, when you run applications off a server on a LAN, IE7’s default settings cause a dialog box to pop-up entitled “Security Warning”, and asking you to verify you really really really want to run the program in question.

One application we use in turn spawns calls to a Windows version of the PERL scripting language, dozens of times, and each time we’d get a warning.

We used Google to try to find a solution, and the closest we got to a solution was here. But the real answer was in the comments to that blog post, and not the blog post itself.

In any event, if you have a similar problem, including for the error “Publisher Code Not Be Verified”, try this solution to see if it makes it go away. A concise summary of the solution follows.

First, get to the Internet Options control. Three ways to do this: 1) Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Internet Options; 2) Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Security Center -> Internet Options; and 3) IE7 -> Tools -> Internet Options (works only if you have the menu bar enabled).

Once there, click on the Security tab at top, then in Local Intranet, click Sites, and then unclick “Automatically detect intranet network”. Voila.

Nice of Microsoft to make it so easy to locate and resolve. Not.

One of my many other projects is an e-commerce web site called Patent Fetcher, which provides a way for folks to download complete PDF files of published patents and patent applications. One of the early challenges I faced was finding an easy way to accept payments for these downloads, for which I wanted to charge less than $1 per document. Enter Bitpass.

That was in July of 2003. Since then Patent Fetcher has used the Bitpass payment platform, which worked much like a prepaid phone card, but for on-line purchases, exclusively for the Pay-As-You-Go Patent Fetcher PDF download service, at 65 cents a download. And while the 15% cut that Bitpass took on all purchases was a bit steep, they tended to be very responsive to my unique requirements, adding numerous features to Bitpass for corporate use (as a large percentage of Patent Fetcher users are law firms and large corporations).

However, they were either before their time, or had grander aspirations (and expenditures) than their revenue stream could support. Plus, as their focus was media, they found themselves in competition first with Apple’s iTunes, and then later a bevy of other services which sold content for small amounts of money.

Regardless of the of cause of their demise, last night at 5:52pm EST, I got the following e-mail from Bitpass:

Dear Valued Bitpass Merchant,

We want to thank you for your past business, however due to circumstances beyond our control, we are discontinuing our operations. 

We have partnered with Digital River to provide operational support during the period prior to shut down.  As of today, January 19, 2007, all Bitpass Buyers with US dollar denominated accounts are being notified that they will have seven (7) days to spend any amounts that currently exist in their Bitpass Account. 

During this seven day period, US Buyers will not be able to add additional funds into their account. 

On January 26, all US Bitpass Buyer accounts will be closed and we will begin the process of refunding all unspent monies to the accountholder.

Bitpass Merchant Accounts will be available for viewing until February 28, 2007.  At that time any funds that you have on account or owed to you will be refunded or paid.  All account records and materials will be retained for 60 days and available upon request. 

Again we would like to thank you for your business and support. 

Matthew Graves
Chief Operating Officer
Bitpass Inc.

Our long time customers got the same message at approximately the same time. Talk about a Friday night surprise for all of us. Bitpass was a good thing while it lasted, but giving merchants more notice than consumers would have been greatly appreciated and desired. Instead, Bitpass merchants like myself have to scramble to communicate with our customers and deal with a sudden and near instant loss of revenue until alternatives can be found.

I ended up spending much of Friday evening trying to come up with a stopgap measure that would still allow my customers to use Patent Fetcher, and be able to continue to charge them for the downloads. Most important was to ensure minimal problems for Patent Fetcher users, so I made the service free of charge until I can develop an alternate payment platform. And this time I will bite the bullet and just do my own credit card processing instead of relying on an expensive, yet convenient, proprietary third party solution. On the bright side, this failure of Bitpass forces me to develop and complete some long overdue functionality for Patent Fetcher and should make it a much better service in the coming months.

Lesson learned: Don’t rely exclusively on proprietary technology, no matter how cool.

While I am getting fonder of Expression Engine, the software which drives this blog, the RSS/ATOM feeds the software generates leave a lot to be desired. I have therefore taken the bold plunge to syndicate The Richter Scale Blog and The Richter Scale Articles via FeedBurner.

If you are looking at my site right now, scroll down and you’ll see a much expanded list of blog readers and aggregators now supported at the end of the column on the left side of the web page.

The other thing that FeedBurner offers is the ability to subscribe to a blog via e-mail - that feature too can be found at left. Not sure how well it works, but as I post here in bursts, that might be a good way for casual blog readers to keep up with the latest posts.

Links to my blogs at FeedBurner can be found at:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheRichterScale (this blog)

and

http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheRichterScaleArticles (my articles)

I travel a lot, and I depend heavily on being able to connect to the Internet most anywhere and any time. For speed reasons, I prefer using my notebook’s WiFi connection, but have as back-up a built-in Cingular data connection, and a T-Mobile plug-in PC Card.

For WiFi, I pay both a monthly subscription to T-Mobile and Boingo. T-Mobile Hotspot service is great because it’s what’s offered at American Airlines Admiral’s Clubs, many Starbucks cafes, and Borders Books & Music stores, among others. Boingo is useful because they have roaming agreements with a slew of other WiFi hot spot operators, including Wayport, which is used by many hotels. So, instead of paying $9.95/day for access, I pay $21.95 a month. Considering I have already had nearly 60 hotel nights this year so far (and we’re only 4 months into the year), that’s serious savings.

One of the biggest frustrations of using WiFi connections, however, is finding them, and that’s where the Digital Hotspotter from Canary Wireless comes into play.

(Courtesy of Canary Wireless)

I have been testing the HS10 model of their Digital Hotspotter (MSRP $59.95) for about three months now, and it certainly works as promised. Weighing in at 2.5 ounces (71 grams) with a pair of AAA batteries, the Hotspotter, with a mere button press, will allow you find 802.11b and 802.11g access points in the area (the ones in the 2.4GHz spectrum). It’s not fool proof, but almost every time I tested it it showed the access points I knew to exist in the area, as well as a surprising number of access points which I was not aware of. I have used the Hotspotter all over the U.S. and in a number of foreign locales as well. The few times that known access points were not shown required merely rescanning with the device - a process as easy as just pressing the sole button on the Digital Hotspotter.

The things I like about the Digital Hotspotter include that it is small and compact, that it is quite fast in locating hot spots (and showing them by SSID - the network ID of the hot spot), that it gives me an idea of signal strength and whether the access point is “open” (i.e. does not require a password or encryption key). It also provides information on which channel the access point resides (something that is more useful when debugging a wireless network as an advanced user or an administrator).

Canary Wireless suggests that administrators can use the Digital Hotspotter to find unsecured access points, and certainly that has been helpful to me too.

It’s also a lot faster to whip out the Digital Hotspotter and test an area for hot spots than it is to boot a computer, and then use Microsoft’s maddeningly slow “feature” in Windows XP to scan for wireless networks. Once the Hotspotter finds a hotspot is when you need to boot your computer up and try and access the open hot spot.

Be forewarned, however, that there’s no guarantee, however, that hotspots flagged as “Open” by the Hotspotter will actually allow you free Internet access. Making that determination requires a much more complicated device and process (and takes quite a bit of time) - something that at this point is best done by your computer.

At $59.95, the HS10 Digital Hotspotter is a pretty good deal for all it does, and merits a 8.5 out of 10.0 on The Richter Scale.

I should note that the Digital Hotspotter has been out since late 2004, at least according to the user forums on the Canary Wireless web site, and it is my understanding that a new version is due out this summer.

Here is my wishlist of what I would like an advanced model of this device to additionally offer:

- A recessed button so that it does not accidentally trigger (and run down the batteries) when in my computer bag.
- A second button which would let me ask the Hotspotter to do an in-depth analysis of how “Open” the currently displayed access point was. This would involve actually connecting to the access point, trying to get assigned an IP address, and then trying some HTTP (web) requests to see if sign-in is required (e.g. like for T-Mobile or other access-for-pay wireless gateways) or if the HTTP requests are processed correctly (indicating a truly open, unrestricted gateway)
- Optionally under this second button function, the device should be configurable to check to see if one or more of a series of Internet ports are open in the network the access point is connected to, including e-mail, VPN, and SSH/telnet.

The above items would be incredibly useful to travelers and administrators alike, but likely also challenging to implement in a small battery powered package. Although, if size were not an issue, then an optional GPS module which allows the unit to report on all access points and their characteristics at a given location which could then be logged automatically would be sweet.

Mind you, there are some legal concerns here too. The St. Petersburg Times reported last summer that a man was arrested for “stealing” access to an unsecured WiFi access point in a residential area and charged with “unauthorized access to a computer network” - that’s a third-degree felony. And last month in Illinois another individual was fined US$250 and put under court supervision for a year for using a WiFi access point that he was not authorized to use (even though it was “Open"). So if you are using a Digital Hotspotter or any other mechanism to find open hotspots to use, beware the potential legal ramifications if you get caught by someone objecting to your use of their access point.

If memory serves, it was ten years ago today, on the anniversary of Pearl Harbor Day, no less, that Microsoft woke up to the threat and potential of the Internet, and started its shift towards trying to dominate the Internet in all its incarnations in what has become known as Bill Gates’ “Tidal Wave” speech. It was also the same day Microsoft announced it had licensed Java from Sun Microsystems.

My how things have changed. So, how have they done in those ten years since December 7, 1995?

In my estimation, Microsoft has not done too badly. They went from underdog (a surprising term to use in the context of Microsoft) in the web browser market to pretty much obliterating market leader Netscape. They have made significant inroads in the installed base of web servers using Microsoft operating systems (although I believe Linux still has the majority), and with .NET and web services, look to slowly be steamrolling into dominance in that new market.

But all this connectivity and dominance has come at a price. Dominance creates a target, and in the case of Microsoft’s Internet strategy, the target is system security. Microsoft’s Internet enabled products, and their desire to extend standards with arguably powerful but proprietary features, combined with the sheer amount of programming involved, has led to an incredible number of security holes which nefarious hackers are constantly looking to exploit. So, while Microsoft’s operating system runs on the vast majority of personal computers in use today, so do today’s zombies, malware, spyware, and viruses.

The Apple Mac crowd chortles over this as proof that the Mac is superior to Wintel, but they only have the enviable position of being relatively infestation free because Apple has such small market share. It’s not clear to me whether the Intel-based Apple products due out next year will become a bigger target for writers of nefarious code, however.

The biggest threats to Microsoft’s continued efforts at Internet dominance take many forms, including from small but powerful on-going anti-Microsoft sentiment spurred on by fear of what a true monopoly might impose on its users resulting in people using things like the Firefox web browser and Thunderbird e-mail client software (both excellent pieces of software, incidentally).

And witness the recent decisions in Massachusetts and elsewhere to go with open standards for office productivity software. Other threats include the proliferation of computer devices with niche focus, such as cell phones and cell/PDAs in which Microsoft is still a bit player. And then there are platform companes such as Google and even eBay (hey - they bought Skype - that’s not a pure-auction house strategy in my book).

It stunned me to read on some blog comment recently (and sorry, I didn’t take a link) where someone was happy that Microsoft was out there to stop Google. Used to be the other way around.

I’ll admit I have no idea what the next 10 years will hold for Microsoft, but 10 years ago I would have never guessed that they would have been so successful in turning around the focus of the entire company either. But back then, Microsoft was the underdog. Now everyone else is…