Our report Feb 27 may have been a little premature, with the deleted Blogging Times strangely returning in the last 24 hours.

The old template is back at the site, however although the URL and header still state that you’re visiting The Blogging Times, the sites title has been changed to “abc”, both in the browser and feed:

The links in the feed also dont work, taking users to the 404 Not Found screen.

Stupidly, none of the original content has returned either. At the time of writing The Blogging Times has the grand total of 4 posts with hundreds, if not thousands of previous posts remaining lost to the search traffic that they use to bring in.

The new editor goes by the name of Eddie Daroza, apparently the author of The Rad Report, a down market tabloid/ celebrity blog, and it would appear as a consequence that The Blogging Times is headed down market as well, with headlines such as these:

The “Porno” tag is an interesting touch for what was once a news blog of serious note. Admittedly I shouldn’t be one to criticize typos, but these pictures “own” Technorati? I thought the VC’s owned it, but I could be wrong.

I’d ask the sites owner for a comment, but I think he sort of already gave us an answer to where he’s looking to take the site in this video:

Disclosure: I was previously a paid contributor at The Blogging Times

Tags: Howard Linzdon, Blogging Times

Originally posted on March 1, 2007 @ 5:40 pm

Thanks to a partnership between Japanese mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo and the fast food chain McDonalds, customers visiting fast food restaurants in Japan will soon be able to pay for their meals by using their cell phones. Similar technology is already being used in Japan to allow commuters to purchase train tickets using their mobile phones.

While the immediate thought turns to customer convenience, analyst Julie Ask thinks that other factors may also be in play.

It gives both McDonald’s and DoCoMo the opportunity to track consumers and their eating habits. Cash is more likely to be used in small transactions. Electronic payments will allow user behaviour to be tracked and used for marketing purposes.

The Brits have more.

Originally posted on February 27, 2007 @ 12:40 pm

Google and the NBA have reached a deal that lands a NBA channel over at YouTube, much like the NHL one.

According to Ars Technica, the NBA videos won’t only make it to YouTube but also on ad places in the Google Adsense network for a limited time. Both parties are to evaluate this method of reaching out after this initial period.

Users will be encouraged to continue uploading NBA videos to YouTube. The top “Post Up the NBA” (e.g., user-submitted) videos each week will be compiled into a weekly “NBA Top 10 on YouTube” highlight reel that will be broadcast on the league’s cable NBA Channel. Users will be able to rate the “Post Up” videos.

Ars has more, as has the NBA channel of course, with the typical autoplay feature on the videos so turn down the volume. I’ll tell you one thing, Ahmad Rashad’s words does not rhyme well with Regina Spektor… Then again, what does?

Originally posted on February 28, 2007 @ 6:32 am

US Representatives Rich Boucher (D-Va.) and John Dolittle (R-Calif.) have introduced legislation to the US House of Representatives that seeks to amend the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to make the Act more consumer friendly in terms of fair use of digital media.

The Freedom and Innovation Revitalizing U.S. Entrepreneurship (or FAIR USE) Act seeks to make things easier for consumers to use the content they buy across numerous devices, where as today the DMCA legally restricts such uses.

Rich Boucher told the Washington Post that “Without a change in the law, individuals will be less willing to purchase digital media if their use of the media within the home is severely circumscribed and the manufacturers of equipment and software that enables circumvention for legitimate purposes will be reluctant to introduce the products into the market” and has the backing of the Consumer Electronics Association.

ars technica on the other hand argues that the proposed changes do not go far enough, stating that the bill does not appear to propose what many proponents are seeking: clear protection for making personal use copies of encrypted materials, with;

no allowance for consumers to make backups of DVDs, to strip encryption from music purchased online so that it can be played anywhere, or to generally do any of the things that the DMCA made illegal in one fell swoop.

Personally, some changes should be better than none at all, but I’m not American. Any thoughts?

Originally posted on February 27, 2007 @ 7:51 pm