I love that pollsters call people with regularity to inquire if they are having good times. "Good times? Why, yes."
Satellite Radio Fun | 4:48 PM
The Pharmer's Almanac today launched a grassroots campaign to get the new
satellite radio stations,
XM and
Sirius, to start a jam rock channel on their service. Great idea. But me? I'm convinced satellite radio companies will find themselves deep in bankruptcy proceedings by this time next year. Financials for XM indicate that the service (with a $10 monthly fee) needs 4 million subscribers just to break even. Are you kidding me? Since service launched last winter, XM has trumpeted "huge" subscriber numbers -- somewhere around 70,000 as of last month, nascent techno-scribe CS tells me. They'll be lucky to get to 400,000 before they crater. (
TiVo, by the by, will probably plateau in that range too: "During the year ended January 31, 2002, TiVo activated approximately 226,000 new subscribers to the TiVo Service bringing the total installed subscriber base to approximately 380,000 as of January 31, 2002,"
sez their 10-K. 400,000 subscribers ain't making anyone rich.)
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Bring Phish to Satellite Radio! [pharmers.com]
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Can Digital Radio Get Clear Signal? [NY Observer]
Good piece last fall from the ever-reliable Christopher Byron.
Survivor Update | 8:53 AM
As another season of
Survivor draws gloriously to a close, so too does the Survivor 4 tournament at the
Deadpool. To quote
Rufus Gifford, "Don't you sometimes wish Survivor could just go on forever?"
Wednesday, May 01, 2002
Virus Fun | 9:50 AM
One of the Internet's better-kept secrets is that, with minimal effort on my part, I can send an email that appears to have come from your email account. The brandspankingnew
Klez virus, which paid a visit to my home PC last week thanks to the friendly users of
Survivor Deadpool (running a high-volume website ensures that you will get dozens of copies of each new virus) exploits this weakness in hilarious ways. According to Wired News:
The latest variant of the Klez virus started spreading 10 days ago. The virus e-mails itself from infected machines using a bogus "From" address randomly plucked from all e-mail addresses stored on an infected computer's hard drive or network. Recipients of the virus-laden e-mails, not understanding that the "From" information is virtually always phony -- or even that they have received a virus -- have been clogging networks with angry and confused e-mails that are causing a great deal of cyber-havoc...
A mailing list for fans of the Grammy Award-winning Steely Dan band has posted an explanation directed to those who were subscribed to the list by the virus: "We are not infected with the Klez virus. We don't know if you are infected with the Klez virus. You may be. But even if you are not, someone out there who is infected has both your address and our address on their computer ... and therein lies the problem," the explanation reads, in part...
E-mails containing an invitation to view what purports to be an attachment with pornographic images appears at first glance to have been sent out by Catholic parishes in New York and Maryland. The attachment actually contains the Klez virus, and tracing information indicates the e-mails were actually sent from an Internet service located in the United Arab Emirates.
·
Klez: Don't Believe 'From' Line [Wired News]
Alexa Update Update | 9:10 AM
LS.com reader and savant
Michael Basta reports that Alexa's new search engine contains "misty water-color memories of the way we were..." Mr. Basta is fondly recalled as the driving force behind
Hide/Seek/NYC.
·
Mouseion.com [info.alexa.com]
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SiteSherpa.com [info.alexa.com]
Happy May Day | 8:59 AM
As good a day as any for
headline writers. Where's
Josh Albertson when you need him? At least
Indymedia is on the case legitimately.
·
Mayday! Mayday! Angels Defeat Tribe [Akron Beacon Journal]
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Mayday! Delays in Digital TV [Variety via Y!News]
