An interesting on-going study of Gator by Ben Edelman at Harvard has gathered much interest lately.

Today it appears that the pop-up ads provider Gator is fighting against the study of its software and advertisement placement. On the Greplaw blog Ben writes about Gator blocking access for his test servers, now he is looking for proxys to use for his study.

InfoSync World has an article about Philips E Ink technology.

E Ink, Philips show paper-like display

Philips and E Ink have unveiled a new paper-like display prorotype at the Society for Information Display (SID) show, boasting higher resolution than anything seen before.

[...]

The display features a resolution at 160 pixels per inch (ppi), which is significantly higher than anything demonstrated previously. Enabled by continued improvement in E Ink's electronic ink display material and Philips' custom designed thin-film-transistor (TFT) backplane and driver electronics, the new displays are a result of the collaboration between the two companies that have been ongoing since early in 2001.

A picture of the device is also shown.

This is very interesting: A blog with quotes from Google staff's Usenet postings.

Instead of having to keep updated on various Usenet groups and Google staffs postings there, all I have to do is add GoogleGuy Says to my blog-reader and I'm automatically updated on postings. Just wish I could put more blogs than Evan's to the list of Google staff blogging.

BTW: If you want to keep updated on new results for searches in Google, then you might want to check out the excelent e-mail service from Google Alert (read to FAQ to get to know more about the service). Looks like a ready good service if you want to keep updated on a subject, or just want to know whenever the search for your name changes ;-)

[Via JD on MX]

According to a new report most record company executives probably would rather have not been published, the download of music files online is actually benefiting the record companies, rather than being damaging to them and their sales.

Stereophile Magazine : The Downloading Myth

Several studies also suggest that in light of the deterioration of radio in the US, unauthorized online file trading may be one of the few promotional avenues that actually lead to authorized purchases. New research from Nielsen//NetRatings reinforces this idea, finding that for several key youth-oriented music genres, file traders purchase a higher percentage of music than other internet users.

The report shows that there is a significant increase in CD sales to consumers downloading music online.

According to their latest data, Nielsen//NetRatings estimates that online music swappers were 111% more likely to purchase rap music than the average Internet user over the past three months.

Dance and club music held the second spot, with downloaders 106% more likely to have purchased dance and club music than the average Internet surfer and 77% more likely to purchase alternative rock. R&B/soul music and rock rounded out the top five.

The Nielsen NetRating report is available online (PDF).

Adding to the evidence of peoples willingness to buy music both on- and offline is the success of the Apple iTunes Music store.

Maybe the record industry should calm down, and not make the same mistake Jack Valenti of the MPAA did when trying to ban the VCR. Quote:

"I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone."

Today the majority of the revenue for the movie industry comes from sale/rental of VCRs and DVDs...

If you are interested in how it is to be living in Iraq right now, then Where is Raed ? / Dear Raed is a blog that you should read. Its been quiet for a while, but now he is blogging again. Well worth taking the time to read, may even make some americans understand that war isn't a computer game.

Its the sad story of the web, resources come and go. Not too long ago I got this e-mail from a fellow in Germany:

Hello Jarle, any idea about where Kenny Bunch and his URLS got lost to...? It's the browserHistoryClass you mentioned that I am interested in. Keep up the good reviewing and evaluationg work that you are known for. I enjoy coming back to read exciting news every time... Kind Regards from Frankfurt Philip Lynch

As luck would have it I got in touch with Kenny and now have the pleasure of being allowed to host the files here at weblog.bergersen.net

So now, the neat little class for those of you that want to integrate the back/forward browser buttons in your flash projects, is back again:

BrowserHistory Class

Kenny is a little busy these days, working his ass off and getting ready to get married, so it might take a little while before a new version of the class becomes available. I am sure he will get around to making it even better some time after the honeymoon!

Congratulations on the marriage Kenny!

No, I am not paid by Opera, but I thought this article in The Register was fun reading.

You can't trust a mother when she praises her child, but you can trust dear old Mum's recommendation for a new piece of technology.

The latest instance of approval from the matriarch followed her installation of the Opera browser. It seems with version 7.1 of Opera for Windows, a bunch of Norwegian programmers have done what Microsoft still can't - make a browser that puts loads of good features right at any mum's hands.

So go out and grab it: Opera

This is a funny bug found in Internet Explorer (and all other software where the HTML rendering libraries are used, such as Outlook and co.).

By including <input type crash> in your HTML code, it is actually possible to get Internet Explorer & co to crash! Talk about compliance.

Check out the bug report: Secunia - Advisories - Microsoft Shell Light-Weight Utility Library Denial of Service

Reportedly, the vulnerability can be exploited to crash the following applications: - Windows Explorer - Internet Explorer - Outlook - Outlook Express - Frontpage

NOTE: Other applications may also be affected.

Solution:
There is no immidiate solution available.

If this is regarded as a serious risk, then don't view untrusted HTML documents. Use another browser that isn't linked to the vulnerable library when surfing the Internet.

Yet another good reason to switch to Opera!

Disclaimer: I am norwegian, and so is Opera Software. Unfortunately I don't own any stocks in the company ;-)

This looks like a very interesting project. Randy Rants's SharpMT is a Windows offline editor for MovableType. It is using XML-RPC to post to MovableType, and is quite handy if you aren't always online, but still want the ability to work on blog postings.

The project is in a very active phase right now, with new builds being released almost every day. Its still in Beta, so if you start using it - you might find yourself updating quite often. It requires the Microsoft .NET Framework.

Things to (possibly) come include a spell checker and a "WYSIWYG" editor.

[Via Anders Jacobsen's Blog]