The next time you launch a huge online enterprise designed to cash out on Nasdaq IPO, it might be worth to check the Dotcom Business Plan Archive, MSNBC warns. David A. Kirsch, a professor of entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland, is collecting dotcom business plans and stories about creative destruction. Alas, both archives require free registration. There have been other attempts at creating such a colelction.
Sara Ford from Microsoft posted a good outline of a test spec. The experience comes directly from working on Visual Studio product, I assume. Joel’s article on testing is also a good one to accompany this posting.
Andy Oram has a pretty nice overview of VOIP, reported from the Fall 2004 Conference and Expo of the Voice on the Net (VON) Coalition. Beyond the initial euphoria on getting cheap calls and being able to talk to the person on the other side of the world for the same price, as the person across town, Oram provides a list of problems and aspirations for VOIP industry. For many it currently is the price, especially if you’re an international caller or have the family all around the States. But for quite a few others the savings are miniscule, it’s the applications that count. Online voicemail, call forwarding and call logs that Vonage offers are just the small “features”, the big possibilities include plugging in the search engine to go over your voice mail and using smart routing to forward the calls from important people right to your cell phone, while the others enjoy the voicemail.
Google’s AdSense terms of service changed today. Chapter 11, which ironically describes Payments to the Webmaster from GOOG, now have the following limitations:
Notwithstanding the foregoing, Google shall not be liable for any payment based on
- (a) any amounts which result from invalid queries or invalid clicks on Ads generated by any person, bot, automated program or similar device, as reasonably determined by Google, including without limitation through any clicks or impressions
- (i) originating from Your IP addresses or computers under Your control or
- (ii) solicited by payment of money, false representation or request for end users to click on Ads;
- (b) Ads delivered to end users whose browsers have JavaScript disabled;
- (c) Ads benefiting charitable organizations and other placeholder or transparent Ads that Google may deliver;
- (d) Google advertisements for its own products and/or services; or (e) clicks co-mingled with a significant number of invalid clicks described in (a) above, or as a result of any breach of this Agreement by You for any applicable pay period.
Google reserves the right to withhold payment or charge back Your account due to any of the foregoing or any breach of this Agreement by You, pending Google’s reasonable investigation of any of the foregoing or any breach of this Agreement by You, or in the event that an advertiser whose Ads are displayed in connection with Your Site(s) defaults on payment for such Ads to Google.
In addition, if You are past due on any payment to Google in connection with any Google program (including without limitation the Google AdWords program), Google reserves the right to withhold payment until all outstanding payments have been made or to offset amounts owed to You in connection with the Program by amounts owed by You to Google. To ensure proper payment, You are solely responsible for providing and maintaining accurate contact and payment information associated with Your account. For U.S. taxpayers, this information includes without limitation a valid U.S. tax identification number and a fully-completed Form W-9. For non-U.S. taxpayers, this information includes without limitation either a signed certification that the taxpayer does not have U.S. Activities (as described on the Google AdSense: Tax Information Page located at https://www.google.com/adsense/taxinfo, or such other URL as Google may provide from time to time) or a fully-completed Form W-8 or other form, which may require a valid U.S. tax identification number, as required by the U.S. tax authorities.
Any bank fees related to returned or cancelled checks due to a contact or payment information error or omission may be deducted from the newly issued payment. You agree to pay all applicable taxes or charges imposed by any government entity in connection with Your participation in the Program. Google may change its pricing and/or payment structure at any time. If You dispute any payment made under the Program, You must notify Google in writing within thirty (30) days of any such payment; failure to so notify Google shall result in the waiver by You of any claim relating to any such disputed payment. Payment shall be calculated solely based on records maintained by Google. No other measurements or statistics of any kind shall be accepted by Google or have any effect under this Agreement. The payments made under this Agreement are for use by You only and may not be transferred or in any manner passed on to any third party (i.e., distributed to Sites managed by You that require separate payments) unless expressly authorized in writing by Google (including by electronic mail).
Scientific American explores the reasons behind musical phenomenon. What makes the brain appreciate the music? Why do humans tend to love certain kinds of music and reject the others? Are musicians who create music wired up differently than the rest of us?
Overall, findings to date indicate that music has a biological basis and that the brain has a functional organization for music. It seems fairly clear, even at this early stage of inquiry, that many brain regions participate in specific aspects of music processing, whether supporting perception (such as apprehending a melody) or evoking emotional reactions. Musicians appear to have additional specializations, particularly hyperdevelopment of some brain structures. These effects demonstrate that learning retunes the brain, increasing both the responses of individual cells and the number of cells that react strongly to sounds that become important to an individual. As research on music and the brain continues, we can anticipate a greater understanding not only about music and its reasons for existence but also about how multifaceted it really is.
Om Malik points out the BPL buzz, and the fact that the media seems to be very excited about it, while the utilities themselves are yawning at the proposition.
The Register talks about new Linux-based portable media players available from iRiver. PMP-120 and PMP-140 feature 3.5” color screen and 20 and 40 GB drives. The price tag is $500 and $600 respectively. The players support MP3, WMA, WAV and ASF music formats as well as MPEG, ASF, AVI and DivX video formats. Microsoft has extensive FAQ on portable media players.
Steve Makofsky’s post about troubles he has had with Vonage’s VOIP service prompted this write-up, as about a month ago I became a Vonage customer as well. Right now my phone number is in the process of being transferred, and until then I am happily using the landline provided by Qwest for the last few days, but there were some quirks to the sign up process that made me mad as well when dealing with their support.
Overall, however, the service is pretty good for what they charge. All the billing, the calling log, and voicemail happen on the Web site, so you can see right away how much that call to Germany cost, as it shows up on your bill almost in real-time. The same for voicemail - it’s all available online, although it’s not perfectly clear what storage they allow for it. Instant call forwarding and 911 management via Web site is convenient as well, so overall if you sign-up goes smoothly, it’s a good company to be with.
Promoting its operating system family and giving third-party hardware and software manufacturers more chances to get advertising and sales, Microsoft launched Windows Marketplace - a comparison shopping + reviews + ratings site for everything Windows. A company has to fill the application to be considered for inclusion in the marketplace. You don’t buy the product from Microsoft, however, as this sample page depicts more than a dozen merchants selling Apple iPods.