The Seattle Times Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Jun. 9--CUSTOMIZE YOUR ENTERTAINMENT: Is Microsoft trying to own the listing process for video-on-demand?
The company has received a patent for technology that allows people to create their own electronic lists of movies, games, television shows and other programming. In the patent application, Microsoft says the invention is designed for a home network that can broadcast movies and film trailers to multiple locations.
The patent, number 6,571,390, was made public on the Web site of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Microsoft did not answer questions last week about what it plans to do with the technology.
IGNORED SOFTWARE VENDORS: Microsoft used to be friendly to independent software vendors, or ISVs, when it was trying to build out the Windows operating system, but now the company "doesn't give a hoot," said Rob Glaser, chief executive officer of RealNetworks. "Microsoft is less relevant to ISVs now than at any time in my adult life."
Glaser made his comments Thursday to attendees of the WSA's 11th annual Investment Forum. He also said Microsoft is stubbornly clinging to its .NET technology when other companies in the industry are embracing other formats for Web services.
WEBBY WINNERS: Amazon.com won again in the commerce category in the Webby Awards, the annual online honors for Web sites announced last week. Other winners included social gathering site Meetup in the community category, the NASA Earth Observatory site in the education category, Google News in the news category and online comic strip "Get your war on" in the humor category.
VIDEO-GAME CHALLENGE: The Interactive Digital Software Association has joined a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of new Washington-state legislation banning the sale of certain video games to minors.
ISDA President Douglas Lowenstein said courts have found that video games are a constitutionally protected form of expression, with the same First Amendment status as art, film and music. The legislation, signed last month by Gov. Gary Locke, imposes a fine on retailers who sell, to children, video games that depict violence against police officers.
CHARM YOUR COMPUTER: Can't get rid of that pesky Blue Screen of Death? New Witch, a magazine for up-and-coming practitioners of witchcraft, has some tips to ward off computer crashes, according to The Washington Post.
First, turn off the computer when practicing magic, because the energy overload could be too overwhelming. A witch should also name the computer and talk to it in a soothing, friendly manner.
Cursing at the computer is a no-no, but if it happens, one way to dispel the bad energy is by shaking a coffee can full of coins around the machine. We hope that coffee is decaf.
ON THE RECORD
DEALS: Renton-based Topics Entertainment will begin publishing and distributing test-preparation software by Kaplan, including box sets focused on the SAT, ACT and PSAT tests. ... The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has signed a purchase agreement for the Metis Enterprise visual modeling software and services from the Sammamish-based Computas subsidiary of a Norwegian company of the same name.
NEW PRODUCTS: Pacific Software Publishing, a Bellevue developer, has released VB Development Suite, software using Visual Basic to develop programs for the Windows Internet Information Server.
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(c) 2003, The Seattle Times. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
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