Every once in a while, we get people with marginally valuable domain names to sell contacting us and asking for an excessive amount of money. Here's one guy with a somewhat relevant three letter domain we had some fun with. (The domain name and author's name have been changed).

"Bob" wrote:

Hi Bill,

We own site XYZ.com and were looking to sell it.

We would much rather sell it - previously we were entertaining offers in the high 5 figures - let me know your highest bid and maybe we can work something out.

Thanks
Bob

My reply:

Hi Bob - Your site and domain will require a lot of work. Google says you have 1 outside link, and a 2 page rank for the home page, and your Alexa rank is 600,000+, which means you have very little traffic. If you were me, how would you justify a 5 figure price were I to present this to my partners? Thanks, Bill

Bob writes back:

Hi Bill,

It all comes down to supply and demand - we are only interested in getting the current market value.

eg. a similar 3 letter domain sold for $195,000 last week => MCC.com

See the link below:
http://www.dnjournal.com/domainsales.htm

In my opinion, XYZ.com is a much higher quality domain with much more potential...

Try searching XYZ vs MCC on google.com it generate results for 62,100,000
"Results 1 - 10 of about 62,100,000 for xyz. (0.05 seconds) "

The XYZ.com domain is clearly more valuable than other simple 3 Letter dot com domains e.g. MCC.com

With the right promotion & development this domain can easily be turned into an 8 figure/year operation.

Due to the current economic situation, I would be willing to let it go for under $195,000 - but it must be a competitive offer...

Thanks
Bob

And my response:

BOB -

IMO, WTF? LOL

- BSD (CEO)

At-Large Recorder is already working with SlingPlayer 2.0, so that's one option, but I suspect they will use a different technology (Flash?) for their media service. Once we get our beta invite and try it out, we'll let you know what we discover.

As far as the service goes, here's our take. The Clip-and-Sling idea is moronic - I sincerely doubt people will take the time to make clips of TV shows, and also people will be less than likely to watch them. Of course, people DO this already in YouTube, but the effort involved in this acts as a natural filter for presenting interesting things to viewers. if it's too easy to make clips of TV shows, there will be a lot of noise. Also - being tied to the content owners may limit the flexibility of end-users to make compelling clips. We'll have to see how the service evolves.

However - if they can provide LiveTV over the web, I can see that as being a game changer. And with the new SlingCatcher boxes coming out which let your TV become the viewing hardware for any Sling stream, we may finally get true IPTV. This will open the floodgates for other similar services, as nobody wants to be left behind.

As a media geek, I'm finding it difficult to something basic. And Apple seems to be working against me. Here's what's frustrating:

I want to be able to update the media on my iPhone over-the-air. I want my Podcasts to be updated automatically, without having to sync with my PC. I also want to be able to email radio shows automatically recorded as MP3 files (using Replay A/V) to my iPhone, and then play them. (Think TiVo for the radio - on your phone!) For me, this would be the coolest. But no luck :(

On the Podcast side, an app called Podcaster promised to do just that sort of thing, but was rejected from the Apple store for no apparent reason.

On the Radio show side, Replay A/V is able to send me emails with links to download radio shows automatically recorded by my home PC. I was hoping to be able to send myself radio shows to listen to on my iPhone. But alas, Safari is "unable to download" files from these links. (The links are generated by YouSendIt, which is integrated into Replay A/V).

So, here are my theories:

Stupidity: Is Apple so dumb as to disallow significant over-the-air media transfers for no good reason?

Evil: Is Apple disabling this capability in order to enable their own service?

Weak: Is Apple being bullied by AT&T to disallow too much 3G data traffic? (Another app that let you use your iPhone as a laptop modem was also killed by Apple.)

This is also puzzling given the Pandora player, which is also a media downloader, and works great on the iPhone. There's no way Apple could kill the Pandora app though, as it would create a huge outrage.

These uncertainties should be troubling to anyone seriously considering developing media enabled apps for the iPhone. And the authoritarian, opaque, random policies behind the app store really need to end, otherwise all the development talent will go to Android or some other truly open platform, the coolness of the iPhone notwithstanding.

We were featured in an article done by Reuters on September 26, mentioning how Replay Media Catcher was able to download movies from Amazon's new VOD (Video on Demand) service.

Apparently, Amazon was asked for comment, and shortly before the article hit the wires, they had updated their system, making Replay Media Catcher (for now anyway) unable to record. Other aspects in the article are still valid though, but Amazon was a particularly big part of the story.

Nevertheless, there are other ways to record from Amazon -- we recommend WM Capture. As this is a real-time high-quality recorder that works by capturing videos directly off of your PC's screen, there's no way it can be blocked.

The other interesting thing is how the story got going in the first place, which we're still trying to figure out. Stay tuned!

The money quote:

We should all be grateful to companies like Applian for bringing technology and culture to our doorsteps. These are truly creative and innovative people who still produce a real product, the kind of people who had made this country great. Compared to the parasites on Wall Street, whose only motivation seems to be greed and who are quickly bringing us to our destruction, they're like a beacon of light. We're powerless, I'm afraid, when it comes to repairing our economic foundations. Thanks to Applian Technologies, however – and all such – there is a means of escape.

May they all survive!

Read the entire article to learn more.

It looks like this was a stopgap solution by Adobe. It appears Adobe made a technical tradeoff between continuing to support their existing ad insertion technology, and fully encrypting their content. There are a lot of really talented engineers at Adobe - I just don't think they have yet built a DMCA compatible system due to time constraints. Their Flash Video server technology is really well done, and after a major re-architecting, they will probably discover a better balance between ad serving and encryption.

As far as the DRM issue goes: never, ever redistribute anything you've recorded without the express written consent of the content owner. Recordings are always for your personal use only. Applian's intent is not to encourage customers to violate copyright laws.

This would be a huge bonus for Replay A/V users. Imagine having your favorite radio shows recorded on a PC at home, imported to iTunes automatically, and available for listening wherever you are. This can be done now with the YouSendIt plug-in we provide (as you can email yourself recorded files automatically), but this mechanism would be much slicker.

Go Apple!

The Silverlight NBC Olympics server uses Windows Media Player for live streams and VP7 for prerecorded videos. VP7 is the format used by web sites like abc.com or fox.com and can provide very high quality (lossless) video compression including HD. The problem with this format is that it cannot be reliably streamed for longer periods of time like the live broadcasts. The math used to compress the video and the audio does not allow recovery when packets are lost which results in out of sync audio. Currently Windows Media Player is the only format that can do this. The live stream Olympics can be recorded with WM Recorder or Replay Media Catcher but the prerecorded clips can only be recorded with WM Capture.

The Microsoft contribution is via the Silverlight video player, which you must install in order to watch video. Few video providers use Silverlight, which is why there are no programs (yet) that can record those feeds via stream capture.

If you're looking to record some of these events and save them forever, the best program to use is WM Capture. This on-screen recorder makes great quality videos from the Olympic feeds.

To burn these recordings to DVD, try the new Replay Converter 3.0, which is currently in beta. You can also make iPod format videos, or AVI files to import them into your favorite video editor.

Oh yeah - Go Team USA!

UPDATE: I noticed that you need to enter a zip code and your Cable provider to watch some online feeds. Try 94118 and ComCast Digital if you're disallowed access.

This is a great reason to use Replay Music to create unprotected MP3 files from the songs you purchased.

When purchasing the Replay Capture Suite you automatically become a member of the new Applian Advantage Club. Club members can read and post in the forums and receive special discounts on Applian software for their friends and family.

If you are currently an owner of the Replay Capture Suite, join us in the new forums today! Just register using your email address and your Replay Capture Suite activation code.

See you in the forums!

Podomatic has a pretty cool service - you can start your own Podcast with just a PC, a microphone, and an internet connection. Just go to their site, speak your Podcast, and it's uploaded and added to their directory. And it's free. Pretty awesome.

Thanks again Justin!

1. You can record up to 2 minutes from any source without a content redistribution contract. However, your clips are only accessible to you.
2. All recorded clips are automatically uploaded to the Sling server. There is no local file storage for your own clips.

The concept of "fair use" is still foreign to these guys. By playing the content owners game, they are digging themselves into a hole for the future.

Turns out Sling has had to reach content redistribution deals with EVERY TV content owner on the planet for this feature. Each content owner must explicitly give Sling permission to record, and then sets the time limit - some may allow 15 seconds, some four minutes, etc. No agreement: no recording.

This is an INSANE amount of work for a feature with dubious value to customers. From our perspective it's great news, as SlingPlayer 2.0 will NOT have any significant recording options.

At-Large Recorder (and every other Applian product) is all about recording for personal use. You've paid for the content already, you can record it. Just don't redistribute it to others.