More bad press for Sony

It would seem that the bad press for Sony continues – though in fairness Sony isn’t the only supplier it’s just that the Times have singled them out in the headline:

End to online bargains as Sony forces prices higher
MILLIONS of internet shoppers face a “rip-off” Christmas after a decision by leading electronics companies to force up online prices for DVD players, hi-fis and similar products to high street levels.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1872549,00.html#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=Britain

The article itself is interesting in that it highlights how electronics companies do not yet understand how the Internet works.

Personally I no longer visit bricks and mortar shops for electronics goods. They’ve never got the latest stuff – I guess I’m spoilt by the likes of Engadget – and there’s never the right people there to do any demos.

What I look for is peer reviews on the Internet, of both the product and the online retailer.

But then one person cannot represent an entire martkeplace. I don’t think that the Internet should replace bricks and mortar outlets – but it certainly shouldn’t be penalised.

Is the reputation of DRM under threat?

Digital Rights Management. aka the battle between copyright holders of music and video and the fair use of consumers.

DRM seeks to limit what we all can do with music and video. The problem is the technology isn’t reliable yet and it only affects legitimate consumers. Professional bootleggers have the resources (and motivation) to avoid the protections.

It’s hotting up for Sony and it’s anti copying software that can be found on some of it’s audio CDs. The software uses cloaking techniques to hide itself and prevent removal.

Now virus writers are utilising the software to hide their own code!

The BBC has all the links you need:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4427606.stm

Blended Learning and other updates

It’s been a while since I’ve posted an entry – we’ve been busy releasing new code and bringing on new clients, briefly:

• We’ve added a DIY reporting tool for evaluation forms in addition to the standard reports. The standard reports are good for browsing, the DIY tool for analysis.
• We’ve been evaluating SQL 2005 – some very interesting tools in here.
• We’ve been busy adding new clients which means quite a bit of bespoke development work.
• We’ve added an email reminder architecture which we use to remind delegates of bookings and to fill in their evaluation forms (the online versions of course).
• Emailed joining instructions can now include vCal attachments so that your training course can be added to your Outlook calendar.
• Blended Learning and Training programmes! There are two parts to this feature. First of all you can define training programmes – groups of courses taken as a whole. For example a graduate programme. Secondly we’ve added an integration link to SkillPort. This enables you to add eLearning to your catalogues alongside your internal classroom training and your external training suppliers. More importantly you can also add the eLearning content to your programmes.

VistaDB .Net database

There’s been a lot of progress in the .Net world as it matures. Most notably the release of SQL 2005 and .Net 2.0.

If you develop using .Net (as we do) then this should be of interest to you as well. This would be very useful for a smart client as it’s reasonably small.

VistaDB 2.1 database for .NET has been released
This 2.1 update includes over 60 improvements, including new support for .NET 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005. VistaDB is a small-footprint, embedded SQL database alternative to Jet/Access, MSDE and SQL Server Express 2005 that enables developers to build .NET 1.1 and .NET 2.0 applications. Features SQL-92 support, small 500KB embedded footprint, free 2-User VistaDB Server for remote TCP/IP data access, royalty free distribution for both embedded and server, Copy 'n Go! deployment, managed ADO.NET Provider, data management and data migration tools. Free trial is available for download.
- Learn more about VistaDB
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