VOD + DVD = Killer App?

I would go for this. I would also go for the opportunity to buy a DVD of the movie I just saw in the theater on my way out the door. I’d probably own a lot more DVDs if I could do that.

Slashdot | Pay-Per-View to Provide DVD After Viewing?
Comcast is entertaining an idea that would allow digital cable customers to purchase a pay-per-view movie for roughly $17 that would also include a hard copy in the mail a few days later. From the article: “The only snafu in the entire idea is the fact that only 40% of Comcast cable subscribers have the required digital box at this point in time. But still, that is 40% of 21 million customers which is not too bad. DirecTV and Dish, are you listening?”

Novell Releases Linux Usability Research

The research including videos, results, and some analysis is available at http://www.betterdesktop.org/ and is provides some insight into the usability of the OpenSuse. Developers and those lookng to migrate users to Linux desktops will find this data useful.

Novell Shares Linux Usability Research Videos
Novell Inc. released a large amount of primary desktop-usage research—including more than 200 video clips of users bumbling their way through unfamiliar computer interfaces—to the software development community Monday, as part of a new program aimed at making Linux desktops a more comfortable fit for users.

Oracle Scoops Up InnoDB

Oracle Scores Open-Source InnoDB Storage Engine
Oracle on Friday purchased InnoDB, the Finnish open-source database company whose add-on table storage engine for MySQL rivals MySQL’s own MyISAM in popularity.

InnoDB Oy Inc.’s database engine isn’t stand-alone. It is distributed as part of the MySQL database. Moreover, InnoDB’s contractual relationship with MySQL is up for renewal next year.

DIY GPS Tracking on Nextel Phones

MAKE: Blog: DIY GPS tracking
Mod a GPS enabled Nextel and fauxjack yourself…or your car, or your kid, or a big dog, or an elephant. We really, really want to track an elephant. Mologogo is a free service that will track a “friends” GPS enabled cell phone from another phone(gps not required) or on the web. It currently works on pretty much any Nextel phone with Java and GPS – even a $60 no-contract Boost Mobile phone.

Yahoo! Whitepaper on RSS

Interesting whitepaper from Yahoo! on RSS. Do the low numbers represent a market opportunity? or maybe RSS doesn’t really matter to most folks? Yahoo! sees RSS as a market on the rise.

RSS

CiteULike: Social Tagging and Bookmarks for Academics

CiteULike: A free online service to organise your academic papers
CiteULike is a free service to help academics to share, store, and organise the academic papers they are reading. When you see a paper on the web that interests you, you can click one button and have it added to your personal library. CiteULike automatically extracts the citation details, so there’s no need to type them in yourself. It all works from within your web browser. There’s no need to install any special software.

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