A new direction for Utne

NY Times: A new direction for Utne. The bimonthly magazine is now focusing on printing more original material.

The iTunes Music Store

Here's more on Apple's new iTunes Music Store.

The DRM issues are interesting here. The page says:

In a nutshell, you can play your music on up to three computers, enjoy unlimited synching with your iPods, burn unlimited CDs of individual songs, and burn unchanged playlists up to 10 times each.

And this:

One of the first things youíll notice about the music is the stunning sound quality. In fact the sound was so good that audiophiles who beta tested the iTunes Music Store were astonished to learn they were listening to 128 kbps sound files. The secret? Itís the new AAC format, which combines sound quality that rivals CDs with smaller files sizes (compared to MP3s). So not only do the songs take up less space on your hard disk, they can be downloaded faster, too.

I'll be interested in hearing users' reactions after they've used the new service. I'll try downloading iTunes4 in the next day or so and give it a whirl. Can't tell if these downloaded songs will work only in an iPod or if they'll work with MP3 players as well, which seems unlikely given the new format.

Later: Joi Ito shares his iTunes Music Store buying experience and the DRM factor.

Rights for Creators website

The National Writers Union has created a Rights for Creators website that targets unfair, restrictive contracts for freelance writers.

Calling all California newspaper bloggers

Paul Grabowicz of UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism is putting together another conference panel and wants to know:

Are there any newspaper reporters or columnists in California, other than Dan Gillmor, who write weblogs sanctioned by their publications?

I don't know of any. (The SF Bay Guardian dropped their blog a year or so ago.) Do you?

NewsHour segment on blogging

A few months back a reporter for PBS's Online NewsHour contacted me for some background on the blogging phenomenon. Tonight, their segment on blogging airs "at approximately 29 minutes" after the program begins. The story contains interviews with Joan Connell of MSNBC.com, political blogger Josh Marshall, one of Joshís readers, a group of bloggers who are not (yet) nationally known, and discusses the Trent Lott affair and warblogs, with some general explanation thrown in for our audience.

The real audio/transcript version should appear on this page sometime soon.

Among the Maya ruins

Yesterday's NY Times Travel section featured stories on Maya ruins in Central America and southern Mexico.

Here's an online photo slide show accompanying that article. I just love this stuff, as you might guess from my own photo package of Maya ruins at Tikal, Guatemala. Now I've got to figure out how to carve out some vacation time in Palenque or Tulum.

Will Plain-Text Ads Continue to Rule?

Jakob Nielsen: Will Plain-Text Ads Continue to Rule?

The Madonna Remix Project

In a salute, of sort, to Madonna telling downloaders to f*** off, some enterprising folks have put together the Madonna Remix Project, featuring Madonna's admonition in several remixed flavors.

Hollywood Reporter has the story. Excerpt:

A third group saw a creative opportunity. "What the f--- do you think you're doing," Madonna's now-infamous phrase, is turning up in dozens of remixes and the computer-aided musical collages known as cutups or mashups.

Independent music community DMusic is now hosting a competition for the best Madonna-based track, with the first prize being a "boycott-riaa" T-shirt and stickers.

Market for DVD singles expanding

NY Times: Music labels -- not the movie studios -- are pushing a new market for DVD singles.

DVD singles ó digital videodiscs that typically include two music videos along with extra features ó represent a market that is just beginning to be charted by the music business. Some record labels ó in an industry suffering a two-year sales slump ó hope that the new format can become the modern-day successor to the vinyl 45 single. Retailers, however, are unsure whether to place them in video or audio departments, in part because there is no standard packaging.

A profit, of sorts, for Slate

NY Times: Stop the presses:

In the first quarter of this year, Slate took in more money than it spent.

Of course, given $20 million in investment and all of the traffic-generating muscle of the MSN Network behind it, it is tough to call that fiscal state of affairs profitability ó indeed, company officials are specifically prohibited from doing so because Slate's financials are not broken out in Microsoft's filings. But it is still a milestone for a general-interest magazine that publishes only on the Web.

Good news, and proof, yet again, that platform visibility matters.

Blockbuster to take on Netflix

From Monday's NY Times: Blockbuster said it would introduce an online rental service sometime next year to compete with Walmart.com and Netflix.

HTML email question

A question for anyone who's conversant with HTML email newsletters:

When I want to link to a hotlinked story in an HTML email newsletter, like the one I get from Wired News, I have to click through the link in order to obtain the url (right-clicking the link doesn't let you copy the shortcut).

That's often problematic when I have two or more browser windows open, as I routinely do when I compose my Movable Type weblog. The problem is, half the time, clicking on the link will call up one window, and half the time it will summon up the other browser window -- the one with my half-written entry for my weblog, sometimes wiping out what I've written. There seems to be no rhyme or reason in when one window opens rather than my blog window.

Anyone have a solution to this? Lemme know and I'll post it, or post it below.

Stupid right-wing commentator tricks

Knucklehead talk-show host Michael Savage is threatening to sue SavageStupidity.com for a trademark violation because SavageStupidity.com is "confusingly similar" to MichaelSavage.com.