Mozy Raises Rates, Agitates Digerati

Mozy’s unlimited cloud backup service is decidedly less unlimited today. As the company has retired it’s $4.95 plan in favor of new tiers of service (shown above) with data overages running $2/month per 20GB. While quite a few seemed riled up, I don’t particularly mind. Mozy needs to make money and it’s easy to see how the top few percent of users could impact the bottom line. A Mozy VP responds on CNET:

We do not take this on lightly…I don’t expect everybody to be happy about it. But if they take a look at what we’re doing and why, it’ll at least be understandable.

As I told photographer Thomas Hawk, you generally get what you pay for. And Mozy is owned by industry giant EMC… something I take comfort in. I’d say they’re much less likely to lose his data than Flickr – a photo sharing service that operates without a backup or un-delete option. There continues to be an unreasonable expectation that everything on the Internet be free or inexpensive. The sooner we collectively get beyond that, the sooner we’ll have higher quality services and support.

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Amazon Set To Take On Netflix & Hulu?

Looks like Amazon is about to amp up their video-on-demand service with an unlimited streaming tier. At least that’s what we’re left to infer from the one Amazon customer whose account appears to have accidentally received early access the service: Your Amazon Prime membership now includes unlimited, commercial-free, instant streaming of 5,000 movies and TV … Read more

Will You Pay $8/Month For Online News?

Ongo is a new service that sounds crazy, might be brilliant… or might just be as crazy as it sounds. Here’s the pitch: It’s a one-stop shop for news. Right now that stop is a web site, but there’s an iPad app waiting for Apple’s approval and other mobile apps could follow. Content comes from … Read more

Cablevision to the Cloud!

After years of wrangling, Cablevision has launched a remote-storage DVR service letting subscribers record and store programs on the operator’s network with no need for a local hard drive. Jeff Baumgartner confirmed with Cablevision spokesman Jim Maiella that the service, called DVR Plus, launched in the Bronx last week with a price tag of $10.95 … Read more

It’s Time For Netflix To Say Goodnight To Silverlight

netflix-silverlight-error

In 2006, Netflix scored a grand slam when they announced a $1 million prize for anyone who could improve their recommendation engine by at least 10%. It took 3 years for a team of scientists to actually accomplish this feat, but the prize was ultimately worth far more than a million dollars in publicity and to Netflix’s bottom line. Better recommendations not only led to happier subscribers (less churn), but they also made it easier for Netflix to sell the niche content that they spend less money on. Recognizing the benefit that they received from the contest, Netflix was quick to announce a sequel, but ultimately had to suspend their plans over privacy concerns.

While a contest to replace Silverlight likely wouldn’t garner as much attention, I believe that the financial benefit to replacing this video platform could be just as significant.

Some will argue that I’m being tough on poor old Softie and that Silverlight represents some of the best video compression out there, but consider my logic for a moment. From where I’m sitting, Silverlight has two basic flaws: It’s buggy as all get out and it’s a bandwidth thief.

The screenshot posted above is a real life example of Silverlight in action. All video frameworks are prone to errors of course, but look at all the hoops Netflix makes their customers jump through just to support this buggy piece of software.

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Security Alternatives to Norton

Internet security month continues here at Zatz Not Funny. Personally and professionally I’ve had a hand in this arena to varying degrees over the years. As our origin story remains untold, you didn’t know that we launched “Project Safety Net” before ZNF morphed into a digital media blog – and the site was intended to provide security guidance for lay people. Like my mom.

As Norton periodically blocks our site from visitors, I’d like take this opportunity to provide some alternate solutions that might serve you better.

The false positives seem to have started about 15 months ago, when various Norton products or components would throw up an interstitial web page strongly encouraging visitors to steer clear of ZNF. One regular reader kindly alerts me when this happens, as he did yesterday, and has previously provided screenshots (above) that’s allowed me to file reports with Norton. Additionally, Norton’s incorrect flagging led to a rather entertaining exchange on the Roku Forums a few months back. From “Village Idiot” :

I have good reasons to trust Norton. – i have no reason to trust you. I DON’T trust some site i never heard of before. It would be really stupid to throw away a trusted Norton program for an unheard of site. Good luck on your site. I just don’t need the risk.

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Twitter & Southwest Need To Check Their Security

At every available opportunity, I partake in airborne WiFi services. Yeah, I know public wireless isn’t the most secure form of connectivity. But, at the same time, I haven’t been bothered to set up a personal tunnel. And I’ll do just about anything to pass the time on a cross country flight… as I did … Read more

The Snapstick Web Video Box

During my brief visit to the Engadget trailer at CES, Jacob Schulman suggested I track down the Snapstick box. Unfortunately I never managed to find the company, so we’re swiping his hard work instead. Snapstick is currently a prototype set-top device, although a deal’s been inked with D-Link, designed to channel web content onto one’s television. … Read more