ViiV (yeah, I have no idea how to pronouce it either) is Intel’s new platform push into the ‘multimedia home’ market. There is considerable rumbling that this is a new spin on the Trusted Computing Platform (TCM) efforts past. One of the nastier aspects of which allowed content providers to tie aspects of the DRM to specific hardware features; think hardward decoders. In the absence of these ‘features’ (and an OS that supports/recognizes/enables them <cough>Windows<cough>) the content is rendered unplayable.

This horrific idea limits content playback to specific hardware (Intel) and software (Microsoft & maybe Apple) vendors and blocks any OEM or open sourced tools entirely through the womb of patent protection.

Openness and standards are what drive inovation. You need look no further than the PC vs. Macintosh situation. IBM made a choice to open the platform and allow third-parties to build hardware that extended their basic platform; Apple choose to lock out all other hardware manufactures. The result is that the PC has a 90% market share and Apple has 10%.

When products and created that lock customers into a specific environment they either find away around it, or go elsewhere.

» DRM: Three dirty letters you won’t hear in a CES keynote | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com

I spotted this near Central Square in Cambridge today. Hilarious.

You can pick one up for yourself here.

I came across this company whilst doing a search for digital music catalog providers. I do not have any direct experience with them but they do seem to offer the full range of services you would require to build a music store. I would put them in the same category as MusicNet & Loudeye (perhaps MoonTaxi aka PureTracks) but with the added bonus of a ‘viral marketing’ component.

They have a system that allows users to forward playlists to friends via email, IM, etc. The recipient hears 30s samples of each song and is offer the opportunity to purchase the song. When a song is purchased the originator of the playlist receives a 10% credit toward a new track download.

However, I would be a bit skeptical of their catalog. Their website claims ‘over a million tracks available for download’ however several press releases, albeit some over a year old, mention numbers in the 200-500,000 range. They have published deals with a few of the big indie aggregators (Orchard, IODA, CD Baby) but there are many, many more; it would be good to know with whom they have deals in place.

Also, all descriptions of their service describe ‘permanent download’ rights such as burning to CD (limit of 10 burns), transfers to portable devices (max of 3 devices) and playing on other PCs (max of 5). There is no mention of subscription based licensing being supported.

Lastly, they are have a store presence on eBay which is currently listed as eBay’s largest store. It seems that eBay measures ‘largest’ by number of active listings under that store. If PassAlong has the over 1M tracks it claims it’s no surprise that they are eBay’s largest.

PassAlong Networks – Music Distribution Platform Developer and Song Catalog for Music Fans, Artists and the P2P Industry

It has been warm here in Boston, way too warm for January. In the last two weeks we’ve had highs in the high 50s! Today is the first day in what feels like weeks that it has been even close to normal. See for yourself…

I finally got around to updating the blogroll entries here to match my SharpReader setup. The OPML exported by SharpReader didn’t make it over a simple file import into WordPress, it died an ugly XML related death. I saved the OPML off to a web server and tried to import via a URI… success!

I’ve also did a quick posting to my ‘About‘ page. It’s cheesy, but it’s a start.