Global Playboys.net

Steve Jobs

February 6, 2007

With the stunning global success of Apple’s iPod music player and iTunes online music store, some have called for Apple to “open” the digital rights management (DRM) system that Apple uses to protect its music against theft, so that music purchased from iTunes can be played on digital devices purchased from other companies, and protected music purchased from other online music stores can play on iPods. Let’s examine the current situation and how we got here, then look at three possible alternatives for the future.

Apple – Thoughts on Music

Did you know, that you can use iCal to subscribe to loads of calendars published on the internet? For example, you could have the current weather conditions in your area or major historical events written into your calendar. Not to mention public holidays (Being a student I nearly always forget about them and in the end I’m annoyed, that the shops are closed.)

Here are some of the mose useful iCal resources to start with:

Apple iCal Library - Good for public holidays, iTunes charts, sports and movie releases

iCalShare – Big database of published calendars, though some of them seem to be offline or outdated.

Interesting Google Calendars – Since google has sort of a calendar function as well and supports the ical-Format you could also use those. (but don’t forget: Google is evil)

Some calendars I’m subscribed to:
(If you’re on a Mac your iCal should pop up right when you click the link.

• Austrian Public Holidays (by Apple)
• Earth Seasons until 2020
• Moon Phases
• Celebrity Birthdays

I’m sure that there are plenty more out there. If you don’t find what suits you, you could also just publish your calendar on a site like icalx.com

Is Google getting too powerful? That’s at least what some students from FH Ulm think. Personally I decided to diversify a little bit and make an attemp to move beyond Google. Here is a good starting point: Be sure to try clusty and kartoo!

The Race to Beat Google

“Information can be used for bad purposes, but I would prefer to have knowledge than to live in the virtual stupidity that our governments, religon and media has instituded among us.”

-^sm@ck

^sm@ck