Licensing agreements are what’s keeping Spotify from becoming available sooner in the U.S. and other major markets. The company, which employs about 90, expects to launch in the U.S. by the end of the year or early 2010.
“Don’t Copy That Floppy’s” aesthetic — think “Saved By the Bell” — and bubblegum hip-hop track ensured that it would be on YouTube when such a thing came into existence more than a decade later. The official original video has gotten more than 50,000 hits, and it’s spawned a remix and spoofs such as “Don’t Copy That Spaghetti” and “Don’t Copy That Dinner.”
Tags: internet, law, media, music, social, wsj
The school did its homework, confirming through his old tweets that he was originally from St. Louis and a fan of the local team.
Benjamin Akande, dean of Webster’s school of business and technology, then convinced Cardinals management to let Mr. Dorsey throw the pitch. Once the deal was sealed, Mr. Akande contacted Mr. Dorsey via Twitter with the invitation.
He quickly accepted and asked if he could tweet the news. Unsure if his IT staff was ready for the ensuing traffic surge, Mr. Akande asked him to hold off, he said. “We wanted to make sure that we could handle 1.3 million followers.” The microsite they created, webster.edu/jackatwebster, got thousands of visits and retweets shortly after Mr. Dorsey’s announcement…at game time, one of the first people Mr. Dorsey is likely to meet is Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, who dropped a fake-account-related lawsuit against Twitter in June. “It’s going to be a very engaging conversation, but I think it’ll be good-natured,” Mr. Akande said. “Tony knows Jack is coming.”
Twitter Co-Founder to Throw Opening Pitch in St. Louis
Tags: twitter, wsj
Vice co-founder Gavin McInnes talked with me about his
new video series for Teva (and then blogged about the stuff we discussed that didn’t make it into the story, as well as Gawker’s reaction).
Then I wrote a story, blog post and follow-up blog post about texting while driving — the emerging category of services that prevent it, the workaround services, the debate over the risks and the growing support for a ban on the practice.
And this is the latest study to light up the blogosphere — lots of stats on Wikipedia participation, but the most striking is the low percentage of female contributors. Former Lifehacker Gina Trapani follows up with her tips on changing that.
Tags: internet, law, media, texting, video, wikipedia, wsj
“I very much hope the song does justice to his memory as the last survivor. It would be very easy for our generation to forget the true horror of war, without the likes of Harry to remind us,” Thom Yorke said.
The two of them nailed down a first draft of the story in two months, which posed some challenges considering the site on which it’s based is essentially a collection of funny cat photos. “The Web site’s really plotless,” Ms. Steinberg said.
Or is it? “The through line is that all cats want cheese, and all LOLruses want buckets,” Ms. Pomranz said.
“Then it became a story of a quest. These cats are on their search for the Holy Grail,” Ms. Steinberg added.
“It’s your classic story quest arc,” Ms. Pomranz said. “The question is, what should you do or not do?”
“How do you pursue your dreams, and how does that journey affect your character,” Ms. Steinberg said.
The explanation was getting weighty. “It’s really full of LOLs,” she said.
He receives frequent emails from satisfied customers and has seen Grindr in use in dozens of countries, including Iran, Israel and Kazakhstan. One user told him he used the app to chat with a fellow passenger while flying over Dallas, using Virgin America’s Wi-Fi service.
So many straight people have requested their own version of Grindr that it is now in development, Mr. Simkhai said. It will launch as a separate app and most likely with different branding, in coming weeks, he said (a lesbian version is also a possibility, though he hasn’t seen as much demand).
Though Grindr lends itself to hook-ups and casual dating, he sees its potential as something more. “As it grows, people will find that, ‘Oh, there’s someone in the café with me,’” he said. “It’s not like you’re going to jump in and have sex right then and there. I think as it evolves and matures, I think the usage of it will also mature and evolve.”
Tags: apple, celebrity, internet, iphone, media, wsj
This weekend’s news that Amazon.com removed sales rankings for gay and lesbian books has coined a new term, already in heavy rotation on Twitter and the blogosphere: AmazonFail.
Tags: amazon, blog, twitter, wsj
Mr. Penn, who played Kumar in “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle” and starred in “The Namesake,” ended his run on the medical drama “House” as his character, Lawrence Kutner, committed suicide. “House” star Hugh Laurie had hinted at a major shakeup on the show, and Fox created a “memorial” for Dr. Kutner, complete with a tribute video and Facebook fan page.
But the fictional death also sparked a flurry of Internet searches from people unsure whether the character or Mr. Penn himself was dead. Several queries, including “kal penn death” and “did kal penn die” landed on Google Trends earlier today, indicating how frequently Internet surfers have been searching those phrases. Yahoo Answers also features a few questions from confused viewers, as do Mahalo and WikiAnswers.
Kal Penn Goes from White Castle to White House
Allison Puccioni, an imagery analyst at Jane’s Information Group, said Musudan had been largely dormant for about two years until January. Since then, as satellites have photographed people and vehicles moving outside the rocket facility, she has been studying it as activity picked up. “We knew the thread would be test, assemble and launch,” she said.
Days before the launch, she said, photos showed black sedans, an indication that VIPs were been driven in to see the missile.
“At this point, we have so many images, we could practically do a flipbook animation sequence of the entire thing,” Ms. Puccioni added. “You can’t get the whole story, but if you know enough about the features of the area, little things can tip you off.”
From Space, All Eyes on North Korea
The song’s pro-labor lyrics include “Get ready to strike, get ready to walk the line” and “Protect my health care, don’t lower my wages / Realize, recognize, mobilize, stay alive” and even a shout-out to technicians who support U-verse, AT&T’s TV service.
It was co-written by Ray and Rachael Rodriguez, AT&T employees who are active in the Communications Workers of America Local 6222, as well as Riley Wallace, a Toronto hip-hop artist whose stage name is Special.
Ms. Rodriguez, who works as a customer service representative in AT&T’s Houston office, said the idea struck as she and her husband realized that most of the U-verse technicians he works with have been with the company for fewer than two years. “We just felt we had to come up with a creative way to reach this next generation of union workers,” she said.
AT&T Workers Create “Ready to Strike” Ringtone
Tags: asia, att, internet, media, politics, wsj
A week ago, Gioacchino Giuliani (some news reports are calling him Giampaolo Giuliani), a seismologist at the nearby Gran Sasso National Laboratory, predicted that a large quake could occur soon after several small tremors. According to Reuters, his warning prompted vans with loudspeakers telling residents to leave their homes.
Authorities, however, told locals that the tremors were not unusual, accused Mr. Giuliani of “spreading alarm” and forced him to take his findings off the Internet.
Time reported Guido Bertolaso, head of Italy’s Civil Protection Agency, saying last week, “These imbeciles enjoy spreading false news … Everyone knows that you can’t predict earthquakes.”
After the quake, Mr. Giuliani demanded an apology for the denouncement. He told an Italian news outlet that “there are people out there who should be offering me apologies — and whose conscience should bear the full weight of what has happened.”
Seismologist Was Forced to Remove Earthquake Warning From the Internet
Tags: europe, internet, wsj
