DoubleClick: "If You Block Ads, The Terrorists Have Won!"

Yesterday in one of the more-ridiculous claims we've heard in some time, Bennie Smith of the online advertising firm DoubleClick had the fear-mongering and distorting of facts out into full effect:

"You'd go to your local corner shop and buy the daily paper, and you'd have these large holes where the ads were.

You'd somehow feel like your 25 cents had not gotten full value...

...that content is not without cost. And that cost is my eyeballs seeing an ad on a page. Or within an email, or next to my search results, or however it's going to come"

Errr, no Bennie...

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The Players Union As We Know It is Now Dead.

The Players Union as we know it is now officially dead. Not the NHLPA, but every players union in every professional sport. It's been a year in the making, and this week was indicative of how much things have changed.

About a week ago on this very site I posted on what looked to be the impending NBA Lockout, and mused on some things, including how ugly things could get it the players held fast and the lockout took place.

This week the NBA Players Union came to its senses and mostly folded to Owners' demands. There will be no work stoppage. The NBA and the players were just too scared to death of what might happen with a stoppage. For all their crowing and posturing, for all their mudslinging at Stern and the NBA, the Players union was full of it and weren't willing to gamble a single thing when it came right down to it because they realized the league held all the cards.

In the meantime, in NHL news Jaromir Jagr spoke out candidly about how big a mistake he thought the NHLPA made in their hardline stance against a cap. Turns out the Owners were dead serious, and this is just now dawning on Jagr.

Fat lot of good his admission does.

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Hunter: "I'm Calling Stern One More Time".

To all the NBA people that said "It can't happen here" when the NHL fell into their long lockout... get ready to eat crow.

According to an AP article on ESPN.com, the disparity between the League and Players is so great right now they can't even agree on how many items are still in dispute. This after the public mudslinging and name-calling that erupted out of nowhere within the past few weeks .

NBA Commissioner David Stern stated several days ago that if there's no deal done by June 30th there *would* be a lockout.

Now, Players Union director Billy Hunter has been quoted as saying "I'm going to call David one more time between now and June 30".

Ouch. Not exactly the commentary of someone interested in bargaining.

Both sides are predicting a long lockout, while Hunter has admitted that a lockout "would be the death" of the NBA. So... why can't these guys even bargain, let alone get a deal done? There is already a Luxury Tax in place even )no cap to fight over), and the two sides don't even want to talk.

This then raises some interesting questions: After people hammering on the NHL for nearly a year due to their lockout, is it the NBA that commits suicide, not the NHL? What happens if the NHL gets a deal done and is playing in the fall as if nothing ever happened, and the NBA is beginning a long lockout of their own? Is the NBA's fanbase and game such that *it* can survive a lockout? Where's the bashing of Stern and Hunter like people've piled on Bettman and Goodenow?

After hearing the endless prattling on about how the NHL is irrelevant in the US and nobody cares... what if it's the NBA that turns out to be the league and major sport America can do without? Could ESPN and ABC turn right around and snub their NBA contract much like they just did their NHL contract, and return to the NHL (if and) when they get back onto the ice?

I wonder if Stern and Hunter have even considered these questions as they play chicken with the league's future. All this while the NBA playoffs are garnering lower ratings still on TV, and all anyone can do is complain about a Pistons-Spurs finals and how its emblematic of the bad stage the game is at. I get the feeling Stern and Hunter think the NBA is far more important than it really is, and they're in for a rude awakening come next fall...


-- Primis.

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More Mozilla/Firefox Headaches

ZDnet Australia has a good article up chronicling Mozilla Foundation's growing woes, as it beocmes clearer that Firefox's honeymoon and media darling status are now over...

For one... Mozilla Foundation seems to have dropped the ball and missed the fact that the Firefox brand already exists as a registered trademark in Germany and the UK. Furthermore (and not without delicious irony given the recent mudslinging between the two) Netscape is still registered as owning the Firefox trademark in the US.

The article also goes on to point out that you can rack up the Debian community as another to add to the list of people growing wary of Mozilla Foundation and just what it is exactly that they plan on accomplishing. One Debian developer is quoted with the following:

"It seems to me that what the Mozilla Foundation really cares about is market share, and producing free software comes after that on their list of priorities... Their trademark policy is something that should not exist in a free software context."

The most-amusing quote though comes from Mozilla Foundation spokesperson Gervase Markham:

"I think it's clear that fundamentally, re-branding Firefox is not a complicated or lengthy operation".

There's a reason it's called ElementAnimal, folks... is everyone excited about the newest version of WaterHound yet?...


-- Primis.

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Linux's Secret Dark Side?...

The latest hot-button issue has to do with MSN's compliance with Chinese authority to filter and block out "prohibited language" such as "democracy", "freedom", and "demonstration".

Linux Lunatics have come out of the woodwork proclaiming how this is just another example of how truly evil Microsoft is and how they should be destroyed for being "commie-loving, freedom-hating jerks".

While MSN's willingness to comply to retain market share is definitely questionable (and sad, even if it *is* the price of doing business in China), there's also a dirty little secret that these same lunatics DON'T want you to know. And that secret?

Linux is also being utilized in China for the same purposes.


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Destroying the "Frozen Four"

The Frozen Four is NCAA Hockey's equivalent of the Men's Basketball Final Four, and one of the NCAA's fastest-growing championship weekends. Bids for the 2009, 2010, and 2011 Frozen Fours have been put into play now, with 6 cities vying for one of the 3 available host spots.

The 6 cities bidding cities are Boston, St. Paul, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Detroit, and... Tampa. Yeah, that Tampa, as in Tampa, Florida

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Cringley: Apple, Intel Merger Imminent

Robert Cringley has a theory... a theory with tinfoil tendencies, but also some valid points.

Cringley thinks Apple's announcement that they'll begin using Intel processors is a sign that Apple intends to merge with Intel.

Cringley's theory is this: Intel is ready to take on Microsoft and naturally wants to bump AMD out of the way as well. Apple wants to take down Microsoft and also gain more of a foothold in the dekstop market. The combination of Apple and Intel, writes Cringley, might be able to take down Microsoft, take down AMD, and make Intel-driven Apple desktops the preeminent desktop system.

There are some holes in this theory of course (Apple can't SERIOUSLY expect to woo droves of users from the modular PC world to the propietary world of Macs, it simply won't happen... the differences there are too great), however Cringley has one sticking point that nags at me. Why would Apple make an announcement that could kill their sales for a year until the Intel systems are ready to ship? Steve Jobs' public announcement essentially means "Oh yeah... anything you buy now? Things won't be the same in a year, you'll be left behind...". With that in mind, it adds some intrique to Cringley's theory, and that Intel and Apple are about to gamble and go for it all against Microsoft. I'd have to think that the collateral damage to Linux would be considerable as well...

Stranger things have happened. Up until a few weeks ago people were still calling Dvorak a nutjob for suggesting Apple was about to switch to Intel processors. Turns out he was right though...

At any rate... it does raise the question of "Just WHAT do Apple and Intel know that we don't, to be making this move right now?". People say there's no way Apple's thinking of it... but really what if Apple released an x86 version of OSX? Would Apple be willing to relenquish some of its proprietary control in order to gain an initial foothold in the PC market?

Some interesting things to think about...


-- Primis.

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More Bad PR for Mozilla/Firefox

The bad news for Mozilla Foundation gets worse.

Firefox is finding out the hard way that when you base an entire campaign around your product being trustworthy and secure, and that bugs are quickly fixed, that you can't afford to mess up... ever. Now comes the news that Firefox and Mozilla are both vulnerable to a security hole/exploit that's 7 years old, and been noted and reported multiple times.

Frame Injection Vulnerability "History":
1998-12-01 - Initially reported around December 1998 in most browsers.
2004-06-30 - Internet Explorer vulnerability re-discovered.
2004-07-01 - Multiple Browsers vulnerability re-discovered.
2005-06-06 - Mozilla / FireFox vulnerability re-discovered again.
2005-06-06 - Camino vulnerability re-discovered again


As gaffes go, this seems to be a doozy. For a group whose entire campaign is built around "We do it right the first time, and when we do find holes we patch them instantly"... 7 years seems to be a bit of a long time naturally. And in fact, it was nearly a year ago this issue was reraised with all the major browsers... and apparently Mozilla Foundation ignored it. Wait a second, isn't this monkey business precisely the sort of thing the Firefox brigade have been trying to crucify Microsoft's IE over for years now? If you were told a year ago... why is it still there, Mozilla Foundation?

It is present in 1.0.4 (I even tested it), and was also reported present in the lastest beta build ("Deer Park") even. However, there have been reports that for some reason the TabBrowser extension "fixes" the problem, although I can't confirm or deny it since my version of Firefox I used to test did not have that extention installed.

Undoubtedly now (with the cat out of the bag) it will be fixed, and soon.

However... pretty safe to say all pretense of the Firefox Team somehow being more "on-the-ball and responsive" than "evil Microsoft" has now gone out the window, and the harsh reality of likely not being able to back up their own hype is setting in.

Making a good browser that stays good isn't at all easy, and in the end hype only hurts you. Just ask Netscape... Mozilla Foundation would do well to learn from this. I doubt they will though, they're drinking too much of their own idealogical Kool-aid now, and have been for some time.


-- Primis.

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Charles Barkley - Man, Myth, Legend

As a player, a lot of people hated Charles Barkley. He was gruff, rude, mean, and generally unlikeable. He regualrly got fined and suspended for incidents on the court.

Then a funny thing happened. Barkley retired, ended up at a studio desk, and turned out to be a really funny, really sharp person (although still very, very opinionated, bruff, and sometimes mean).

If you don't know the joy that is Charles Barkley quotes, you really need to read this site. Some of my personal favorite quotes (keep in mind, most of these are things Barkley says or said live on national TV during pregame, postgame, and halftime on TNT):

To Kenny (one of his compatriots in the studio): "Oh man! I can't stand the X-Files! I don't believe in Extra-Terrestrials... until I saw your girlfriend one night. She needs to phone home."


"Hey Commissioner, I would like to tell you that I take great pride that I can say I knew you when your hair was all black!"


Greg Gumbel: "Happy St Patrick's Day".
Barkley: "Great. Another reason for the Irish to go out and drink."


"Colonel Sanders is the greatest white man that ever lived."


Ernie Johnson said relates a Barkley moment:
"Like the night he came out on the set at halftime and started eating a hamburger as his own personal protest of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). He said something to the effect that animals were 'only good for eating and testing,' to which I replied, 'You know you might have 'em protesting outside our studio with talk like that.' "
Barkley: "That's fine, we'll just run 'em down like dogs."
Johnson: "Oooooh-K ... and we'll be back."


"I hope whoever was in charge of the Halftime show is getting their resume ready" - Charles Barkley on the Country Music Halftime show @ The 2005 NBA All Star Game

The day they take Barkley off the air will be a sad day for TV indeed.


-- Primis.

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