paladinrecords.com

In the meantime, PhotoShelter is offering Digital Railroad customers a special offer–three month’s credit for their Digital Railroad account. The offer is set to expire November 4.

To our valued Members and Partners:

Digital Railroad has attracted a loyal set of customers and partners, and we regret this unfortunate outcome. Without sufficient long-term financial support, the business had become unsustainable.

If my eyes serve me right, you are gone.

Take the offer or not, but definitely take this as lesson that you can’t rely 100 percent on online archiving services. It’s best to keep a copy of your data offline as well.

If the news about bank collapses hasn’t devastated you enough, I have another depressing one. This time it comes from the Internet, but is no less devastating for a good number of people, hopefully not including you.

As of Wednesday, if you go to the Web site of Digital Railroad you will be greeted with this:

It’s unclear now if customers can still somehow retrieve their photo archive or will get money back for the undelivered services.

The once popular Web site, where professional photographers archived and sold their photos, is now gone, completely. As it turned out, at about 5 p.m. EDT on Monday, the Web site alerted existing customers about the shutdown and gave them a 24-hour window to download their photo archive. However, just about 10 hours after the alert, the site was shut down completely.

On October 15th we reported that the company had reduced its staff and was aggressively pursuing additional financing and/or a strategic partner. Unfortunately, those efforts were unsuccessful. Therefore Digital Railroad has been forced to close all operations.

We deeply regret to inform you that Digital Railroad (DRR) has shut down.

Thank you for allowing us to serve the photographic community these past few years.

March of the Penguins: the only movie in Netflix's top 100 that you can stream

Unlike buying bulk orders of DVDs for its disc-by-mail business, the Watch Now queue is determined by the deals it can cut with studios. And while those same studios will let the likes of Apple and Vudu offer a decent selection of download-to-own movies on their respective streaming boxes–often available the same day as the DVD release–they seem far less willing to negotiate deals that will allow most services (with the possible exception of cable video-on-demand) day-and-date streaming rentals on a pay-per-view basis.

Netflix Watch Now is currently only available to subscribers on Windows PCs using Internet Explorer. The company has hinted that the service will be coming to Macs by the end of 2008. Indeed, a recent demo of Microsoft’s Silverlight technology showed that–theoretically, anyway–the company could deliver high-quality on-demand video streams to Macs–using the
Firefox browser, no less!–replete with a variety of social networking and interactivity that bests current DVD offerings. And Netflix has also confirmed that four hardware partners (one of which is LG) are scheduled to release a “Netflix box” by year’s end, which will allow the Watch Now library to be viewed directly on your TV–no computer necessary. But until Netflix is able to negotiate deals for a wider range of compelling content–something far better than the five percent of its most popular titles that it’s currently offering–the Watch Now feature will remain more a gimmick than a compelling service.

Wrong. A quick survey of the site’s top 100 list (and the top 25 list for each genre) reveals that little more than 5 percent of the site’s most popular movies and TV shows are available for streaming. For instance, March of the Penguins is the only movie in the top 100 that’s available for streaming (and it’s also one of the 4 streamable documentaries). Meanwhile, several key genres have no streaming titles in the top 25, including action, children, comedy, drama, horror, musicals, romance, sci-fi, and thrillers.

What do you think: do you enjoy the offerings on the Netflix Watch Now feature? Or do you opt for competing offerings such as Hulu, iTunes, CinemaNow, or Vongo?

Given the on-the-fly nature of such most popular lists, these numbers will no doubt fluctuate a bit. And Netflix has definitely been building up the Watch Now library–there is, believe it or not, a better selection than there was a few months earlier. But it seems clear that the Watch Now library is going to remain woefully underpopulated for the near future–and it’s unclear how much Netflix can do about it.

The “Watch Now” feature on Netflix is a great idea: instant access to thousands of movies and TV shows, available for instant streaming to your browser at the touch of a button. There’s just one big problem: despite an advertised library of over 8,000 titles, very few of them seem to be movies or TV shows that I want to watch.

(Credit:
CNET Networks)

(Credit:
CNET)

Out of 41 titles currently in my queue, only 4–The King of Marvin Gardens, Das Boot, The Good German, and Pickup of South Street–are available to be streamed. OK, fine–my taste for older movies is probably throwing things off. Surely plenty of newer, more popular movies are available to be streamed, right?

(Credit:
Google)

(Credit:
Google)

When the installation completes, the program’s main window opens, prompting you to add your Google ID and password, and to select either two-way syncs, syncs from Google Calendar to Outlook, or syncs from Outlook to Google Calendar. You can also reset the frequency of updates; the default is every two hours.

Google Calendar Sync is so fast and simple to use that my calendars were synced before I knew it. When you install the program, you’re asked where you want to place the utility’s shortcuts; by default, they’ll be added to your Start menu and desktop.

After seeing what Google can do to enhance Office applications, I’m thinking that a Windows-killing desktop operating system from the company isn’t such a bad idea.

Decide whether you want two-way calendar syncs, or one-way transfers between Google Calendar and Outllook.

Another limitation of the utility is that only your pop-up event reminders will transfer from Google Calendar to your Outlook calendar because Outlook doesn’t support e-mail and SMS alerts. If you encounter problems using Google Calendar Sync, check the information on Google’s troubleshooting page for the program.

Google offers some caveats about using its Calendar Sync program. For example, you need to uninstall any third-party calendar-syncing applications on your PC beforehand. If you’ve been using another method, you must choose which of the two calendars you want to use as your primary one and clear the entries from the other. Finally, you have to perform a one-way sync from the primary to the secondary before you can schedule automated syncs.

I didn’t I notice any missing or garbled entries. In fact, the similarity of the two calendars’ appearance was a little spooky: I thought for a second that Google had taken possession of my copy of Office. (I probably jumped the gun on that thought by a couple of years.)

Last January, a Worker’s Edge post described how to swap data between your Google Calendar and the calendar in Outlook 2003 or 2007, using the import/export functions of each product.

Uncheck the installer's shortcut options to prevent a new icon to be added to your Start menu or desktop.

If Outlook’s not open on your machine, you’ll be prompted to enter your Outlook username and password. Then the data in each calendar will be added to the other (if you selected the two-way option). When I installed the Google sync utility, I was surprised how quickly the dozens of entries in my Google Calendar were added to Outlook.

A few months later, Google released a free program that not only moves data between the two calendar apps, but it also syncs the calendar entries automatically at the interval of your choice.

And while I’m sure I’m a couple days behind on this–I was out of the office since last week–I haven’t heard any other talk about Spore billboards, so it caught me by surprise, especially since I’ve been following the progress of the game so closely and also since the billboard is just feet from my office.

You’ve played with the Creature Creator, you’ve read the stories, you’ve watched the videos. Maybe you’ve even had a chance to see Spore’s creator, Will Wright, give one of his famous talks on the subject.

(Credit:
Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)

So far, this is the first advertising for the game that I’ve seen in public. But I can only assume it’s just the beginning of what will be a very large ad campaign.

A billboard for Electronic Arts’ ‘Spore,’ which launches Sept. 7, on a wall in downtown San Francisco.

As I was returning from lunch Wednesday, I noticed a giant billboard on the side of a building just down the street from CNET Networks’ headquarters with the phrase, “Tired of your planet? Flights leaving daily at Spore.com.”

But if you’re not a gamer, you might not have any idea what Spore is. Until now, that is.

Either way, I’ll be very interested to see how this presumed ad blitz takes shape: Will there be TV ads? Big glossy spreads in magazines? An alternate-reality game?

SAN FRANCISCO–If you’re a video game fan, you are probably quite aware that Electronic Arts’ evolution game Spore is just days away from launch.

After all, EA has a ton invested in the game, and the stakes are high, both for the company and for Wright, the highly regarded designer behind SimCity and The Sims among others.

If you happen to run across something interesting, please do consider dropping me a note. I’d love to hear about it.

As if this week wasn’t already stressful enough on Wall Street, at the end of Tuesday trading, Google’s stock dropped over 200 points to $249, due to what the Nasdaq is calling “erroneous orders.” The share price has since rebounded to $415 in after-hours trading. According to a comment from the Nasdaq to Reuters, “Transactions at or above $425.29 and at or below $400.52, that were executed between 3:57 p.m. and 4:02 p.m. EST, would be wiped out.” That means that those who may have cashed in on this error are going to be out of luck.

Even though the situation is being rectified, this incident has certainly caused even more uneasiness in already shaken investors.

Google's stock dropped to $249 towards the end of trading on Tuesday due to "erroneous orders."

(Credit: Yahoo Finance)

In addition to this core overview of your finances, you can also set-up reminders when it’s time to pay bills. The system will automatically figure out what bills you’re paying after keeping an eye on your bank account and credit cards for a few months. You can also add them in manually.

Rudder’s name for this magic number is “what’s left” and it figures out what you’ve got for discretionary spending based on when you’re getting your next paycheck and what’s in your various savings and checking accounts, compared to credit card payments and other bills that need paying off. The entire process is shown to users, something Roy hopes will educate as much as it does take the work out of doing the math yourself.

Rudder delivers personal account balances to your e-mail and figures out what you've actually got left to spend in between now and your next paycheck.

(Credit:
Rudder/CNET Networks)

Rudder is also building out its own widget platform starting with a “spendmeter” that looks like one of those classic gauges at a nuclear power plant. The more you spend the closer it gets to the red zone, meaning you’ve got to slow down to avoid financial meltdown. Rudder is opening this up with an application programming interface to let developers create their own widgets that go on the system, later including premium widgets that offer advanced functionality for a small fee. Additional revenue will come with targeted coupons based on places where customers are frequently visiting. Roy told me they’re “only going to send you offers if we know it will save you money.”

I met with its creators last week to talk about what would make someone want to get all of this piped into a place where they might already be getting information overload. Rudder founder and CEO Nikhil Roy told me it’s more of a utility for trying to cut through all the numbers and get to what’s most important–like how much money you can actually use once bills have been paid.

I’ve embedded Rudder’s six-minute pitch from Demo below.

One product that slipped under the radar in the past week is Rudder, an e-mail-based personal finance manager that launched at DemoFall and is a replacement for the now-defunct Spendview (coverage). Unlike a destination site like Mint.com, the idea of Rudder is not to have you continually visit a site to track financial activity. Instead, the idea is to have it delivered to your e-mail in-box.

Although the company created an early alpha program in a matter of weeks, senior director Dariusz Paczuski said it will probably be a couple of months before a public version is ready. He said it will definitely happen within the current fiscal year, which runs through June.

SANTA CLARA, Calif.–Microsoft is, indeed, working on an
iPhone application.

With that time frame, it is possible some other Microsoft division could beat Tellme out of the gate, although I haven’t heard any other firm plans. (Microsoft did license its ActiveSync technology to Apple, which allows the iPhone to connect to an Exchange server.)

The iPhone does present some interesting challenges. One of its big features is the fact that everything is done via a touch screen. But Tellme relies on a physical button to determine when to start listening to a query.

As I predicted, it is the company’s Tellme unit that is actively developing a program for Apple’s iPhone. Tellme offers voice-activated search for a variety of phones, including the BlackBerry.

(Credit:
Microsoft)

“I’m not sure we can squeeze it out this year, given everything we’ve got going on,” Paczuski told me at last night’s Churchill Club event.

One of the big challenges in bringing the Tellme search application to the iPhone: the lack of physical buttons on the device.

“You want a button,” Paczuski said. Even on Sprint’s touch-screen Instinct, Tellme is able to use the call button to determine when a user is speaking. He said that when the iPhone application launches, there will probably be a big virtual button in the middle of the screen.

commentary

This has always been a problem with Silicon Valley’s technology-fixated economy, and it’s about to get worse. Hope springs eternal in Silicon Valley, however, and clean technology and other cutting-edge technologies will almost certainly spur investment and, hence, jobs. In the long term, Silicon Valley will also benefit from a trend toward the creative class congregating in urban centers.

The report also showed that the gap between the wealthiest and the poorest residents continued to grow. The percentage of households earning more than $100,000 a year rose to 42 percent in 2008, from 35 percent in 2002, while the number of households earning $35,000 or less rose to 20 percent, from 19 percent in the same period.

Not everyone, however, is being hit equally:

A new report from the Joint Venture Silicon Valley and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, as The New York Times details, indicates a 1.3 percent drop in Silicon Valley employment. That may not sound like much, but if you’ve driven in Silicon Valley lately in rush-hour traffic, you can see a real difference.

Silicon Valley was late to the recession “party,” but the global financial crisis is causing companies to tighten their belts, leaving a stretch of Highway 101 relatively traffic-free and out-of-work entrepreneurs with some difficult choices.

In other words, venture capitalists and successful technology executives are likely to weather the recession in comparative style, but the fire fighters, janitors, and rank-and-file technology workers are going to feel significant pain.

But that’s later. For now, Silicon Valley won’t be the land of opportunity for too many that support, but don’t commensurately profit from, the technology economy. Move on, Tom Joad. Move on.

Follow me on Twitter at mjasay.

Importantly, such people really have nowhere to go: many live at a considerable distance from Santa Clara and other primary places of employment, commuting an hour or more to get to work each day. There are few alternative industries in Silicon Valley to absorb technology’s outcasts.

Related:
Meetro team launches Lefora, free hosted forums

(Credit:
CNET Networks)

Searching forums for specific posts can seriously suck. Most have proprietary search tools that can be unfamiliar or downright difficult to use. Some even require you to fill out a captcha to avoid getting attacked by bots or having its forums infested with spam. Twing is a new service that’s attempting to solve these problems with a search tool that scours hundreds of user forums and lets you search by individual posts or a topic thread all in one place.

Competing forum search tools include: Boardreader, Omgili, and BoardTracker.

I found it to do a pretty good job giving me some basic results with simple queries. You can also filter down your results with a myriad of tweaks, right down to what type of forum content you’re looking for, be it audio, video, or images. These filters and special terms can be stacked on top of one another, letting you hone your search a little or a lot depending on how much effort you put in. I found I was able to get a general list of posts that had something to do with what I was searching for with a fairly minimal amount of effort–which is a good thing.

In addition to a search, there’s an entire directory of forums listed alphabetically or by interest. This is actually one of the coolest facets of the site, as it will tell you how many posts and users a forum has, along with its growth (presumably within the past 30 days). It’s a great way to see what’s hot, regardless of what forum platform it’s on.

Search forums for exactly the post you're looking for with Twing. (click to enlarge)

What wasn’t working when I tried out Twing earlier today was a neat little info button that expands below each search result. I’m assuming it gives you a quick overview about the forum the post is in, but it was coming up blank. Presumably when it’s working, you can see whether the forum you’re about to view the post on is populated with a large audience and a lot of topics, or just small with good SEO.

Death and Zigler declined to discuss specifics about how the brands will be displayed, but Zigler said it won’t be traditional product placement. “This is not about a soda on a table and having someone take a sip,” Zigler said. “This is about organic storytelling.”

Executives at NBC Universal know they must walk a fine line in creating a Web series designed to showcase an advertiser’s product or service. To some, it sounds like a recipe for disaster.

NBC is also testing the advertising in-show strategy on TV, but Zigler said the Web is the perfect place for experimentation.

SEED_H

Cameron Death (pronounced deeth), NBC Universal’s vice president of digital content, said the network will start by learning what message the advertisers want to convey and which consumer groups they want to reach. “We work with the brands to get right insights and then use our history of storytelling at NBC,” Death said, “to make it come alive in the viewers’ imagination.”

“We can get high production values on digital and still be cheaper than TV,” Zigler said. “It gives us an opportunity to try some new things, and we won’t break the bank.”

The big question is, how will the network avoid alienating audiences if writers have to cuddle up to brands? I can’t imagine how hard it would be to write an entertaining script while trying to tuck a commercial into the plot–and, indeed, executives at NBC Universal said they can do it.

The first show, called Gemini Division, is a sci-fi thriller starring Dawson. She’s a New York City cop who stumbles on a conspiracy to replace humans with clones. The show, which is expected to appear at video portal Hulu, will unfold over 50 four-minute episodes starting this summer.

“If it’s cheesy,” said Vivi Zigler, NBC’s executive vice president of digital entertainment and new media, “if it doesn’t fit, if it’s inappropriate, it won’t work for us. It won’t work for the brand. We’re dead.”

The network on Friday said it has directed writers, producers, and actors including Rosario Dawson to create stories that incorporate brands, such as Microsoft, Intel, and Cisco Systems into the story lines.

Like many other Web sites that offer video, NBC Universal is searching for new ways to pitch ads to Internet users, a group that has been reluctant to accept Web commercials.