Tag Archives: General

Never doubt Apple's ability to counter-punch

CNET said it perfectly:

When it comes to public relations battles, Apple is a devastating counter-puncher.

NBC just learned the hard way. Late last night, NBC leaked that it would not renew its TV show contract with iTunes. Supposedly, NBC was not satisfied by the financial terms Apple was offering. Nevermind the fact that it was iTunes single-handedly rescued the TV series The Office from being canceled, turning the show into one of the few hits NBC has had recently.

Apple recently has championed consumer rights when it comes to digital media and decided dust off the boxing gloves once more by removing the upcoming fall season of NBC TV Shows from the iTunes Store.

The move follows NBC’s decision to not renew its agreement with iTunes after Apple declined to pay more than double the wholesale price for each NBC TV episode, which would have resulted in the retail price to consumers increasing to $4.99 per episode from the current $1.99. ABC, CBS, FOX and The CW, along with more than 50 cable networks, are signed up to sell TV shows from their upcoming season on iTunes at $1.99 per episode.

In one paragraph, Apple laid perhaps the best argument it has ever had for its iTunes pricing structure. After all, if 50 cable networks think $1.99 per episode is acceptable, then why does NBC need to double the price? With rumors that NBC wanted even more DRM on its TV Shows, this price increase clearly would not help consumers in any way. Apple seized on the moment and with one press release, practically knocked NBC out.

So now, NBC has lost its iTunes marketshare (30%), the vast majority of its digital sales, no access to the iPod/iPhone, and has pissed off consumers royally.

Brilliant move NBC. Can’t wait to see what you come up with next. I am sure this will make the stockholders really happy.

Hurricane Watch

As some of you know, I will be getting married in a few weeks and going on a honeymoon. The honeymoon’s destinations? Grand Cayman, Cozumel (Mexico), Costa Maya (Mexico), and Belize. All of which are either getting directly hit or slightly “missed” by Hurricane Dean.

Last I heard, Grand Cayman got a big break with the Hurricane missing 100 miles to the south. Lots of rain and I am sure wind, but it survived.

Cozumel appears to be avoiding a direct hit according to the last report I read, but is still going to get tons of rain and wind as if a Tropical Storm was passing through tonight.

The big unknowns for us at the moment is Belize and Costa Maya. Last I heard, Costa Maya was more or less in the direct path of the Hurricane. I also don’t know what part of Belize I am going to…if it is the north part of the country, that could end up getting hit pretty good, if it hits the southern part, then probably just lots of lots of rain/wind.

At least our cruise isn’t this week…

Site security

I have been working all day on making sure this web site is safe after that DreamHost security break-in. Many other people have also been hit by this.

As far as I can tell, my site did not have any of the spam links inserted into my web pages. This suggests I am part of the group who had their FTP password stolen, but nothing changed.

However, I am now extremely paranoid.

A list of what I have done so far:

  • Changed all of my passwords on this site and dreamhost (that means dreamhost panel, ftp, wordpress, mysql, etc.). I may decided to generate completely random passwords that are all different for each component.
  • Completely deleted every file on my web site (after a backup of course). I have downloaded a completely fresh copy of WordPress and just installed it.
  • I have switched to the default WordPress theme for the time being, until I can comb through the code on my old theme to make sure it is safe.
  • I will check all of my plugins, download the latest versions of them, and install the new versions.

Remember WordPress users (and I am sure other web site software suffers from the same problem), your mysql password is kept in the wp-config.php file. I highly recommend you change your MySQL password.

In fact, I highly recommend that ALL DreamHost customers change their passwords. I wonder if the initial count of 3,500 accounts compromised could be low.

What a mess. I hope DreamHost figures out how this happened.

Off day

I took today off from work so I could get my car towed to the garage and repaired. It was kinda a tense week, as I drove to work every day in a car with a several ticking time bombs inside. However, the car survived the week and will be repaired by Tuesday.

So I spent the day doing some things around the apartment that I have wanted to do for awhile. Pretty productive day overall.

My brothers are coming over tonight and are bringing the XBOX 360 with them to try out on my HDTV.

Tomorrow we get to stand outside in the pouring rain for 6 hours to watch our cousin graduate at UNH. Should be a cold, miserable, blast!