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Netflix Splits DVD & Streaming Businesses

Something pretty remarkable happened this morning: I, and zillions of other Netflix subscribers, received an email from Netflix CEO Reed Hastings. Now, I'm not exactly pals with the guy, but I'm a fan of his company, as I watch movies that come in little red envelopes and stream on my TV and stuff. The email (also posted as a blog entry, linked above) was a mea culpa from Hastings, apologizing for "arrogance" and a failure to "communicate" about the recent Netflix pricing changes, in which the company... READ ON

Article

Archive Team: A Distributed Preservation of Service Attack

Jason Scott is my favorite archivist; I've written about his work on early LOL Cats, Computer Beach Party, his BBS Documentary, and his talk at Defcon 18 about inter-(software)-pirate battles. His latest talk, from Defcon 19, is the best yet -- Scott explains what the Archive Team does, why it matters, and what it has saved. It's surprisingly emotional for nerds like me, who remember early web history, and appreciate seeing it preserved. Scott is a man who is driven -- this is his life, this is our... READ ON

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Trover

Today, I'd like to introduce you to a fascinating, new-ish site/app called Trover, the next great collection of User Generate Content (UGC). If you go to their Web site, you'll find the most basic, simplest user interface since Dropbox.com. Just type in your location, or any location, and start to browse a treasure trove (hence the name) of photos from around the location. The further you scroll, the further from your location you go. If you're using the app, you can add your own images and tag their... READ ON

Article

Dot.Whatever

Sometime soon—like maybe even by the end of this year—the dot.com empire will be a thing of the past. Not what they stand for, mind you, but the actual .com nomenclature... at least if most of us have our way. Already, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers [ICANN] has rolled out .xxx. Up until recently, .com was the most valuable suffix on the Internet. You’ve all heard stories, I’m sure, about people buying up dozens, hundreds of random .coms with the hope of selling them for... READ ON

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Gis.to wants to help you read more/less

If you're like me, _flossers, you spend a lot of time online wishing you had more time to read longer pieces, or, alternately, that there was less to read. Well, there's never going to be less to read, only more. So how to solve the problem? Well, an up-and-coming Web site wants to hep you with this problem. Gis.to (yep, that's the URL) is a new platform being developed by three Chicago friends who want to address the fact that they don't have time to read all the great long-form content online, but... READ ON

Article

Snail Mail My E-Mail

So here's something pretty amazing: An artist and designer named Ivan Cash has decided to give back to the world in the form of snail mail. No, I don't mean junk snail mail. I mean, you can type an e-mail, send it to Ivan via his new, temporary Web site www.snailmailmyemail.org and voila he not only turns your e-mail into good ol' fashioned snail mail, but he pays the postage too! And get this: he'll mail it anywhere in the world. It's all part of a 30-day charity endeavor/interactive art project that Ivan... READ ON