Category Archives: cbs

Happy 15th Anniversary, Download.com



download.com
download.com

Today we have application stores up the ying-yang. But 15 years ago, trying to find applications for your computer was a lot harder. We did have two decent sources: Tucows.com and download.com (a CNet company, now owned by CBS). Since then, these two sources have grown to better catalog Freeware, shareware, and paid applications. This week, we say Happy anniversary to Download.com.

While the domain was registered on February 24, 1996, Download.com will officially launch on October 23rd, 1996 (Reference via CNet article). Since then, the website sees almost 10 million downloads of software a week. The top downloads being AVG and Avast antivirus software. A long cry from Hey, Macaroni (the dancing macaroni meme), WinZip 32 and Duke Nukem 3D – which was the most downloaded in 1996. WinZip is still one of the top 5 download pieces of software on the site.

For 15 years, download.com has kept a great archive of software, weeding out the obsolete, malware producing items. They have been sued for some software downloads, most notably the free music download program LimeWire. While download.com did not promote the download of mp3 music or movies, the peer-to-peer software is another way to download legally shared items. Of course, this has always been the conundrum of file sharing.

In retrospect, TuCows has been in operation since 1994, offering the same services. Other services have come and gone, but download.com has stayed strong. So happy 15 years to a source that I’ve personally used many a time from my IT career.


Old Media and the New Frontier



Recently Disney bought an estimated 30 percent stake in Hulu.com, bringing the streaming giant even closer to world domination, and adding to the credibility of its online-based television distribution force.

It is clear that Hulu.com and its partners have invested large sums of money into developing and funding this new media distribution center, yet anytime someone tries to bring this content to the general public and make it easy to use, they seem to go out of their way to hurt their own investment.

Take Boxee for example, they have developed an easy to use interface that collects all of the online media sources into one place for users of a broad range of operating systems. Instead of embracing and thanking them for this improved user interface and social media integration, Hulu’s partners demanded that Hulu take steps to ensure that their content wasn’t available on Boxee’s system.

Their chief concern according to many tech analysts is that the major media companies make more money from standard broadcast commercials than they do from online advertising. This sounds to me like the classic question of “What came first the chicken or the egg?”

It would seem logical to me that the best way to improve the value of your product for advertisers would be to reach as mainy people as possible. In a time of economically hardships such as these I would expect that advertisers, like any other business, would be looking for the most bang for their buck. I would state that online distribution is a much better advertising proposition for today’s market, for one simple reason. if I’m watching something I’ve recorded on my DVR equipped cable box, there is zero chance of me watching an ad. If I’m watching Hulu or one of the other major media online outlets that have built-in mandatory ads, I’m almost guaranteed to watch it unless I need to get up and refill my drink or perform another mundane tasks typically reserved for commercial breaks.

As it stands now, television has went from the world of ad supported shows of the 1960’s to the DVRed shows with no commercial breaks of the 21st Century.

Feel free to comment or rate this with the links below or I can be contacted at jparie@gmail.com.


Mighty Mouse sues… Well, Mighty Mouse.



The Company Man & Machine has filed a lawsuit over the “Mighty Mouse” name with Apple and CBS. The Maryland based company put out a water-resistant optical mouse in called Mighty Mouse. Their claim is that Apple put out their Mighty Mouse over a year later.
Now we all know Mighty Mouse as a Superhero mouse that comes to save the day. The Mighty Mouse Trademark is owned by CBS – aka Viacom. However, CBS owns Mighty Mouse under the cartoon character – not as a wireless mouse (or as the Patent and Trademark Office states, “G & S: Computer cursor control devices, namely, computer mice.”).
M&M first registered the Trademark on 3/16/2004. CBS registered it as a wireless mouse for Apple on 8/02/2005. The case is Man & Machine Inc. v. Apple Inc., 8:08-cv-01311, U.S. District Court, District of Maryland (Greenbelt).


GNC-2006-11-28 #220



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Advertising on Eggs and the Front Page of Newspapers!



So you get up on a Sunday morning go grab a newspaper and what do you see on the front page, a big huge advertisement disgusted you throw it in the trash. Having your tranquil morning interrupted you decide to cook some eggs. As you open the egg carton you notice the eggs have a mark on them. Pulling one out of the container you stare at a CBS logo on the egg with their domain name emblazed below it. You think to yourself I just paid someone good money to put ads on my food and the single most sacred page of a news paper now has a advertisement on it.

I’m a commercial type of guy and realize we live in a commercial world, but this is getting ridiculous. If I buy any of those eggs with CBS imprints on them. I am going to go down to the local CBS affiliate, demand a refund of the cost of the eggs after all if I am going to be forced to be exposed to a commercial on my food then they can pay for the eggs themselves.

I might as well get something out of my attention correct! If the newspaper that I barely scan as it is puts ads on the front page, I am going to unsubscribe. It’s time that the media figure out that in your face crap is not going to work anymore. [Eggs] [Techme]