van

Report: MySpace Music close to naming CEO

MySpace Music is getting closer to finally finding a CEO.

Peter Kafka at the blog All Things Digital is reporting that negotiations between MySpace Music and Courtney Holt, an MTV executive, are all but finished. Kafka writes: "At this point there doesn't seem to be anything left beyond 'i'-dotting and 't'-crossing."

Last week, we reported that MySpace Music offered Holt the vacant CEO job. On Tuesday, I reported that Owen Van Natta was a top candidate until bowing out relatively late in the process.

The newly launched music service is hosting a party in San … Read more

Ex-Facebook exec withdrew candidacy for MySpace Music job

Two months ago, MySpace Music appeared ready to fill its CEO position. The new music service had whittled down the candidates to Owen Van Natta, the former Facebook executive, and Andy Schuon, a longtime music industry insider.

So how did MTV executive Courtney Holt get the job offer? As first reported by CNET News last week, Holt was offered the job to help operate what some expect will be the most significant iTunes challenger to come along in awhile. According to music industry sources, Holt has yet to accept the job as he and MySpace Music continue to wrap up … Read more

The 404 165: Where we don't discuss geopolitics

On today's show, it's all about guido fist pumps and geopolitics. Psyke! We actually talk about big foot news (down, but not out), more Spanish insensitivities, ugly ducklings, neuvo guido fashion, the Goslings vs. the Reynolds, and Wilson's disturbing explanation of evolutionary breast development.

After receiving an e-mail from one of our listeners requesting coverage of the dismal political climate in modern Georgia, we dig deep and produce: "I love the money pit." That's all we have to say about that. There are few things that we don't discuss on The 404, and … Read more

Blu-ray releases for the week of August 12

This week we have Oliver's Stone's The Doors, with Val Kilmer's riveting portrayal of a volatile 60s icon, another Jean-Claude Van Damme film to add to the many other films in his cinematic canon, and Smart People, starring Ellen Page; you know, that actress who starred in that unknown, Oscar-winning indie film (sarcasm) called Juno.

7 Seconds (Sony) Beat the Devil (Blu-ray Only) Belly (Lionsgate) CJ7 (Sony) The Doors (Lionsgate) Elvis: Viva Las Vegas (CMT) Felon (Sony) Half Past Dead (Sony) Kiss of the Spider Woman (City Lights) Last Time I Saw Paris (Blu-ray Only) Maximum Risk (Sony) Prison Break: Season Three (Fox) The Secret (2008) (Walt Disney) Smart People (Walt Disney) xXx: State of the Union (Sony)… Read more

The open source book you'll actually want to read

A few months back, I helped to review and edit a book for Van Lindberg and O'Reilly Media called Intellectual Property and Open Source: A Practical Guide to Protecting Code. Over the past 10 years, I've read every open-source legal book written. Lindberg's book is by far the best.

If you've wanted a book that helps to explain complex open-source legal questions in a readable, approachable style, this is it. If you've wanted to know how to write an open-source contract, or whether patents were going to be the undoing of your project, here's your book.

Lindberg is an exceptional writer. Take this opening to his chapter on the GPL:

Almost all of the difficult questions that open source lawyers worry about revolve around the GPL.

The GPL has a lot of things going for it: it is the single most common open source software license; it has brought together a large and vibrant community of developers; it is a brilliant hack.

At the same time, there is no single license that is more mistrusted or reviled than the GPL. Many open source developers refuse to accept or release code under the GPL because it imposes restrictions at the same time as it grants freedoms. I know from personal experience that the GPL gives most lawyers fits.… Read more

First Montalvo patent is issued

Finally, I can call myself an inventor.

I've been inventing things for almost 20 years now, but Montalvo Systems was the first company I worked for that took intellectual property seriously. (That was no coincidence; it was also the first company I worked for where I helped develop the intellectual-property strategy.)

During my years at Montalvo, I came up with quite a few ideas and participated in brainstorming sessions that yielded more ideas. Most of these sessions were limited to Montalvo's own people, but there was one person I brought in to help us as a consultant--Don Alpert, who was the principal architect of Intel's Pentium processor and, possibly less significantly, a member of the editorial board at Microprocessor Report.

Working with three of us from Montalvo--myself and chief architects Greg Favor and Peter Song--Don took the lead in preparing a set of related patent applications describing a new way to design microprocessors.

The first patent from this set was… Read more

Why you hate the GPL and why I love it

I'm helping to edit what is turning out to be a shockingly good book on the legal issues around open source, from the developer's perspective, which Van Lindberg is finishing up and which O'Reilly will be publishing. When it comes out, you will want to buy it. It's incredibly well-written and expresses things much more clearly than I've yet seen in my 10 years within the open-source community.

As a case in point, Van explicates the Great Divide between those who love and loathe the GPL by citing a post on the Python mailing list about a controversial bit of code called setuptools:

[T]his information is VERY helpful. It makes it blindingly obvious to me now that the difference between loving and hating setuptools is whether you're *intentionally* using it, or whether it shows up in your ecosystem uninvited....… Read more

Where we can't wait till the year 20X6

EPISODE 83

On today's show we easily solve the Earth's environmental problems. Then we'll talk about what it must be like to get trapped in an elevator for 41 hours and figure out the proper way to say "Mario." It's a Jersey thing. Plus we'll tell you our idea for the ultimate action movie, all on today's 404.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Is the time right for watch phones?

Maybe there's something to this latest watch phone trend after all. Barely a day after posting an item about a model that didn't send people rushing for the vomitoria, we see that another one has surfaced to pique our interest.

The WM2 from Netherlands-based Van Der Led (we'd never heard of them either) has come up with an innovative solution to the obvious challenge of limited real estate on such gadgets, embedding a keypad on the wristband.

Other specs include Bluetooth, 1GB of built-in storage, 300 minutes of talk time, and 240 hours on standby, according to … Read more