Global Nerdy

There's a funny Craiglist New York ad for a web developer. Written in language that is very close to “legal” C# (I gave it a quick peek, and even put it into Visual Studio just to be double-sure; it won't compile), it lists these details:

• The successful candidate will get a fast machine with dual monitors
• The job is located in midtown Manhattan
• The application will be implemented in C# and ASP.NET
• They would prefer it if you had experience with the following:
  • Microsoft CMS
  • SQL Server
  • XSLT
  • JavaScript
  • Design Patterns
  • Technical Architecture
  • UX Design

What the ad doesn't reveal is the name of the company — at least not directly anyway. You have to figure out the company name by writing a program to decrypt perqvgfvtugf using the ROT13 algorithm, and then submit the code for your decryption program to the company.

It's a cute way to promote the position, and the “make the ad look like code” tactic seems to have worked: it's already near the top of the list at Reddit.

Link

Rafat "paidContent" Ali notes a move by a boring old standards body that might have big implications for the adoption of movie download services.

A major hurdle in the legitimate download-to-burn services taking off has been removed: At its Nov. 29 meeting, the DVD Forum gave formal approval to a new type of recordable disc that will accept movies encrypted with CSS, the same copy-protection system used on retail discs, for playback on set-top DVD players, reports Video Business.

This could eventually mean that movies downloaded from the iTunes Store, Movielink, and others become much more useful. Generally speaking, you can only play the movies you download from these services on the computer you downloaded them to. Even when you can burn a copy onto a recordable DVD, that DVD isn't playable on the DVD player hooked up to your TV.

I say "could eventually mean," because, of course, the media companies selling their movies through these services might not be so interested in permitting their customers the right to burn regular DVDs. I would expect them to ask for restrictions on the number of times a downloaded movie can be burned at the very least (the same way that you can only burn an audio CD from an iTunes playlist a handful of times, although that can be circumvented by modifying the playlist).

The funny thing is that would never have been a problem had the studios and consumer electronics manufacturers behind the DVD standard not designed CSS from the start specifically to not work with recordable discs. The goal, of course, was to combat piracy. Instead, this design flaw has resulted in a situation where legitimate movie download services are less useful to paying customers than are the free sources trading in unlicensed content.

Link

Tags: DVD, CSS, download-to-burn

I like to keep up with events in the old country, whcih is how I ran across this item in the Globe and Mail about how one of Canada's largest media companies was getting into the social media game.

Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc. is working on a plan that could soon see Canadians broadcasting their own cooking, gardening and home improvement shows on the websites of The Food Network, HGTV and other channels.

The strategy was unveiled yesterday when Alliance announced a partnership with GS New Media to create BlogTV.ca, a Canadian website patterned after a popular Middle East site that lets people broadcast live through webcams to computers and cellphones.

Alliance Atlantis is licensing the BlogTV service from Israeli company Tapuz, who appear to license the service on a geographic basis, so only Canadian users will be able to access BlogTV.ca (apparently the geolocation service Tapuz uses is a little shaky—I've seen a few Canadian users complain that their access requests were denied because the site was for use by Canadians only). That doesn't sound very web 2.0 to me. Hell, it doesn't even sound web 1.0. Obviously Tapuz wants to sell this thing a bunch of times over, but the geographic limitation of their business model is completely at odds with the way the internet works.

It would appear that the service will initially launch focused on live streaming. In other words, flip on your webcam and, hey-presto, you're broadcasting through BlogTV (BlogTV also allows users to record their broadcasts for later play). The focus on live, unedited video strikes me as weird, although I suppose it's one way to discourage users uploading copyrighted content as they do on YouTube. Unfortunately, it's also one way to discourage users from visiting the site and making it successful, as they've done with YouTube.

I suppose I should thank god it's not actually blog TV—watching people blog would be booooring TV.

It looks like techno-journo-bloggo Matthew "Geekwatch" Ingram doesn't think much of BlogTV either.

In contrast to BSkyB licensing YouTube's platform, this deal is kinda "meh."

Link

Tags: BlogTV, Alliance Atlantis, Tapuz, YouTube

Over at RFID Lowdown, they've got a list of 51 “cool, surprising and scary” futuristic uses for RFID tags, and hey, not all of them are privacy-threatening. Here are a few:

• Tracking cars for location data and traffic reports and to prevent theft
• Following things through manufacturing/processing, whether it's food or products
• Following things through the supply chain, as it changes from a tree into Kleenex
• Navigation aids for the handicapped
• Replacements for the postage stamp
• Tagging items to prevent theft/shoplifting; tagging Alzheimer's patients who are prone to wandering
• As “dongles” to prevent unauthorized access to computers
• Tagging patients so that doctors don't perform the wrong procedures on them; tagging medicine so that you get reminders to take them or not to take the wrong ones
• Shopping: Having your shopping cart say “people who bought what you boguht also bought…”, dynamic pricing, self-scanning checkout
• Dealing with clutter or large collections of items
• Telling if the soccer ball really did cross the goal line
• RFID-tagged clothes so that your smart closet will tell you not to wear that shirt with those pants
• Sorting garbage and recyclables: so your smart bin can tell you which goes where

Link

Why should The Daily Show have all the fun?

DealMac points out this ridiculously cheap limited offer for the iPod owner in your life:

Once again, HandHeldItems.com offers its iPod Crystal Clear Film Shield Protector for either the 1st-generation iPod nano or iPod "video" for $4.99. Coupon code "diofilm" trims it to one cent. That's $4.98 off and easily the lowest price we've seen. Shipping adds $2.85. Limit one discounted protector per order. Deal ends December 15.

The catch? These clear protectors wear out after a few months of use (they peel up at the edges) and have to be replaced, and probably not at the price of one penny. But, hey, you wouldn't care about that—you're the kind of geek with the balls to give someone a $.01 present.

Tags: gift ideas, iPod, protector, cheap

Kind of a follow-up on our recent posts on recommendation engine post: Greg "Findory" Linden has a quick post about a talk he gave at Stanford on personalized recommendations.

The slides from my talk are available in two versions. The first version is the talk I actually gave; make sure to read the notes pages for the slides, or it will be difficult to follow. The second version is done in a very different style and should be easier to follow without me blabbing away in front of you.

Personally, I recommend the slides with the notes. A really interesting talk; I wish I had been there.

Link

Tags: personalization, recommendations, Greg Linden