Category: Technology

Deep linking is something that every blogger and most all people who manage websites do. They link to web addresses other than the top level domain.
In a column in PC Mag from December 27, 2006, Hate Deep Linking? Lock the Door, Dummy!, John Dvorak hits it on the nose when if you don’t want it, don’t let them do it.

I agree that if this ever gets enforced across the web, the internet as we know it will go away. It hits at the very basic building blocks of why the Internet has taken off. It allows information to be linked and shared and other links, tying it all together. That is why it is called the web.

If you don’t want people deep linking to your site, use the technology that is available today to block it. If you allow it, I agree with Dvorak:

The message a judge should hear is that if a site technically allows deep linking, then it is tacitly and overtly allowing it—perhaps encouraging it. The links are fair game, period. If it tries to block it, then it is not allowing it. That’s that. Simple. It works. No more complaining.

Judges who will be ruling on this need to understand the technology that they are ruling on and make rules that apply. If someone tells you to stop linking to their site, respect them and take it down. But if you have site and don’t want people to deep link into your site, then block it. If you don’t, you can’t complain.

Sometime in the second half of 2007 Comcast will roll out Tivo for the Motorola DCT6412 set top boxes and I will probably be one of the first ones to sign up for the service.
Once you sign up, the software will download to your set-top box and Comcast will send you a Tivo remote.  This is going to be so cool.  The current user interface that is provided on these set-top boxes is horrible.

The only drawback is that it going to cost more money than the $10 that I am already paying for the HD DVR.  So how much is it going to cost?  Who knows, but it better not be too much.

The question that remains is that will I be able to share with my other Tivo’s or will I will be able to download it to my computer and burn a DVD or transfer it to my laptop?  I have seen some that says that will be disabled and many who don’t discuss it.  This would be good to include and what separates Tivo from the rest.

You can read more on CNET, TiVo without a TiVo box or on Engadget, Comcast DVR with TiVo: pics, features.  You can take a look at a video presentation from the floor at CES at PC World, Tivo Demonstrates on Comcast DVR.

One of the biggest things keeping people keeping people, including me, from upgrading my DVD player to a HD-DVD or a Blu-Ray DVD player is cost and not knowing who is going to win the war.
Why can’t someone create a device and/or disk that will allow me to play either technology?

Well, according to the New York Times, Warner Brothers is working on a disk that will allow them to place one movie on a disk that will play on either a Blu-Ray or a HD-DVD player. They are trying to come up with a solution because neither format is going away anytime soon.

The next great thing would be to develop a player that would play either format. Up until now, the licensing agreement from both the camps forbid their licensees from developing a player that would play both formats.

Read the New York Times Story (New Disc May Sway DVD Wars)