PDASmart offers superior iPod battery replacement

Another tidbit to keep handy for that not too distant day when I will need it.

PDASmart offers superior iPod battery replacement. PDASmart.com is offering an iPod battery replacement kit that’s much better than the Apple original, offering 35 percent better battery life than the stock iPod, and a decent price. ” The Do-It-Yourself kit comes complete with very detailed instructions and all the right tools to do the job without damaging your iPod (please don’t pry open that case with a flat-tipped screwdriver!). We had this battery developed with the same lithium-ion polymer battery technology as the original and it is rated at 3.7 volts and 850mAh.” Looks good. [Paul Thurrott’s Internet Nexus]

Playfair forced offline by Apple, reappears on Indian site.

It must be frustrating to be a corporate lawyer with a technological clue. You know that sending a cease and desist letter will immediately trigger the proliferation of copies across the net and around the world, as well as generating all sorts of unwanted publicity. On the other hand, if you don’t you violate your responsibilities to your shareholders. I think “bullied” is a bit inflamatory. IANAL, but this strikes me as yet one more piece of evidence that the DMCA is bad law.

Playfair bullied offline by Apple, reappears on Indian site. PlayFair, the free software project that allowed you to strip the copy-restriction wrapper off of your iTunes Music Store tracks, has been removed from SourceForge in response to a threatening letter, apparently from Apple. It has been relocated to a server in India, and development continues apace. Link (Thanks, Jonathan!) [Boing Boing]

You are your references

If you’ve been paying attention, this is in the “well, duh?” category, but it’s worth having handy for those who haven’t. You might also want to take a look at David Brin’s The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us to Choose Between Privacy & Freedom? for a longer take on the same question.

First Impression. “You are your references.”

–Seth Godin , Author, “Purple Cow“

[Fast Company]

Key paragraph:

One thing is becoming crystal clear: You are your references. If a friend tells me a play is no good, I don’t go. A friend’s recommendation will also determine my choice of lawn-care service or an island to vacation on. My publisher just sent me an email asking about a potential author–and if I don’t back up the author’s version of our relationship, he won’t get the contract.

No person or company can escape their past. You can no longer change your prices with impunity, because the old price lists may be cached at The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine (www.archive.org ), which regularly takes snapshots of Web sites and stores them forever. With a little care, you won’t hire a manager with a history of abusing his employees, because the lawsuits are all in the public record.

Agility and adaptiveness. Ray Ozzie

I suspect that this has always been the case. What is happening now is a growing appreciation for the truth of this observation and more effort directed toward understanding and shaping the adaptation as it occurs.

Agility and adaptiveness. Ray Ozzie:

“We should distrust any elaborately planned, centrally deployed, and carefully developed business system or process. Successful systems and processes will be agile and dynamically adaptive; they’ll grow and evolve as needed over time.”

[Seb’s Open Research]

Freely copy iTunes Music Store files

Something to have handy.

Freely copy iTunes Music Store files. PlayFair is an open source app that strips Apple’s DRM out of iTunes Music Store singles, allowing you to freely copy the music you pay for.

It takes one of the iTMS Protected AAC Audio Files, decodes it using a key obtained from your iPod or Microsoft Windows system and then writes the new, decoded version to disk as a regular AAC Audio File. It then optionally copies the metadata tags that describe the song, including the cover art, to the new file.

Link (Thanks, Rod!) [Boing Boing]

'Perfect' Corporate Weblogging 'Elevator Pitch' Competition

This is shaping up to be an interesting effort.

You might want to take a look at Blogging's Three Cores: Discover, Read, and Write, which contains some excellent ideas from fellow judge Phil Wolff. You might also want to look at Shel Israel's 12 tips on Giving Great Presentations and Doc Searls It's the Story Stupid for good advice on distilling messages.

Perfect Pitch – Corporate Blogging.

Judith reminds us of the 'Perfect' Corporate Weblogging 'Elevator Pitch' Competition.  Go on, take that ride :

Don't Forget The 'Perfect Pitch' Competition…. 

Have you submitted your ‘Perfect Pitch’ entry yet?

The rules of engagement for this contest are listed in: The ‘Perfect’ Corporate Weblogging ‘Elevator Pitch’ Competition, which was posted on March 29, 2004.

We have the honor of hosting this competition with an awesome group of internationally respected judging panelists:

danah boyd, Dave Pollard, Dina Mehta, Don Park, Elizabeth Lane Lawley, Flemming Funch, Jason Shellen, Jim McGee, Lilia Efimova, Martin Dugage, Phil Wolff, Ross Mayfield, Scott Allen, and Ton Zijlstra.

So submit your entries soon as the deadline is Midnight [EST] April 15, 2004!

Please submit your entry to: pitch at weblogsinc dot com. Thanks! (-:=

 [The Social Software Weblog]

 

[Conversations with Dina]

Social Network Systems from Bob Frankston

Now these are Social Network Systems I can endorse!

Is it SATN?. No, just Bob Frankston and his three newly proposed YASNS — EomE [Enemy of my Enemies,] Blind Trust Network, and the Mindless Philatelist Network:

You’re invited to join the EomE network

Unlike David Weinberger who seems to dislike the social networking phenomenon, I embrace and extend the concept.

Enemy of my Enemies is a new social network. Unlike the old ones it focuses on the real need to protect ourselves from “them”.

Warning: you must click the button an even number of times otherwise you will be considered an enemy.

You will be asked to make sure that you are indeed the enemy of at least one of my enemies. Don’t be surprised if you are on enemy list yourself. You can be in both categories though in order to join you will have to agree to attack yourself to protect me.

The Trust Network is the new effort to solve the problem of trust on the Internet. You can simple check a box to say you trust me. We at the Trust Network understand that there are people who you trust with your life but not your money but such fine distinctions are not compatible with the need for naive trust. All who are trusted agree to encode all their information into the semantic web ontology that eschews ambiguity in favor of simplicity. Esperanto is the only language allowed within the Web of Trust (WoT).

For those reluctant to be enmeshed we are willing to assist with the “Home Lobotomy Kit”. It provides all the instructions you need (spoons not included). After the operation you will find no ambiguities in the concept of trust.

After all, the whole purpose of these networks is to collect people like we collect stamps. So why bother with the people part and go straight to the Mindless Philatelist Network. This is the network for people who don’t really care what they collect as long as they have the most. Stamps are simpler than people but either way only quantity matters.

[The Social Software Weblog]