Michael Robertson Continues to Embrace Censorship on the Web

As many of you know, Michael Robertson is suing me for my freespire.com website, which is critical of Robertson for his treatment of employees and shareholders. (Linspire didn't even have a trademark application pending for the term "Freespire" when I started using freespire.com, and the freespire.com domain name was even offered to Linspire before I started using it, so it's pretty obvious to me that his legal bullying is a silly attempt to stifle my freedom of speech.)

Tonight, Michael Robertson broke a new record for censorship on his blog at michaelrobertson.com. Robertson was once again trying to justify making copies of music files and storing them in lockers without authorization (the same thing he did that tanked MP3.com). I made a legitimate post to his forum and my post was censored in less than three minutes! Wow, they're fast with the censorship button over there. =) Instead of rebutting my post, or responding to it, Robertson just has it censored. Nice!

Here is a copy of my post, for those of you who blinked and missed it before it was censored. (Click on the image to enlarge it.) You'll see from the "PS" in my post I was even expecting to be censored, knowing how much Robertson dislikes contrasting points of view.

Click on above image to view my censored post at michaelrobertson.com.

Here is the link that was in my post if you want to check it out: http://www.sideload.com/cb/search/?keywords=the+beatles&pg=1

It appears censorship remains alive and well not just in China, but at MichaelRobertson.com.

Michael is welcome to post to my blog's forum anytime without fear of censorship. In fact, the Linspire shareholders would love to hear from him and what happened with Linspire's cash and assets.

Long live Freedom of Speech!

Kevin

Photos of My Daily Run and Full Moon

I run 3 to 4 miles a few times each week. Yesterday during my run, I took a few snap shots with my iPhone. I'm lucky to be able to just step out my front door and enjoy this beautiful run anytime I want. It's easy to see why I love to run, and why I love San Diego.

Click to Enlarge

Click to Enlarge

Click to Enlarge

Click to Enlarge

Click to Enlarge

Click to Enlarge

Click to Enlarge

We also had an amazing full moon a few nights ago. These photos, taken with my iPhone, don't do it justice, but gives you an idea. It was really incredible.

Click to Enlarge

Click to Enlarge

My Email to Apple about their iPhone App Store Approval Process

Below is an email which I sent to the good folks at Apple.



Apple,

As the CEO of a company with a popular app in your iPhone app store (Dating DNA), I'd like to offer up the following suggestion:

Apple should offer "priority reviews" to developers for $20 (or whatever amount makes sense) per app submission. In other words, developers could still submit their apps to the App Store for free and wait several days for the normal review process, OR they could choose to pay an extra fee for a quicker turn around. Apple would then use those funds to hire more QA testers.

The problem we have as a developer, is we release a product which both the developer and Apple find no problems with, but once thousands of people start using it, users may discover a serious crash or bug. There is currently no way for developers to get users an immediate fix for this. =( This causes the iPhone user to suffer, and it gives the developer a black eye for not having corrected the problem quickly. They blame the developer (low star rating, bad write ups and reviews, angry emails, etc.), not knowing a fix has been waiting for approval from Apple for weeks.

Charging a fee would also solve the problem of developers submitting new versions too often, because they know their either going to have to wait or pay a fee. You could even charge the fee EACH TIME the app needs to be re-submitted, forcing developers to really make sure the app or update is tested fully before submitting.

As you know, the App Store is hot, and it's only going to get hotter. This problem needs to be solved for the sake of Apple, developers and, most importantly, the customer. My suggestion seems like a very fair and easy solution to implement. For the smaller developers who can't afford a fee, it would still be free but they just need to wait a little longer, but for the bigger developers who have invested tens of thousands of dollars into their app, they could pay for quick turn around on updates and fixes.

Thanks for considering my suggestion, and keep up the great work!

Kevin Carmony
CEO, Dating DNA

---

PS: I sent this to people I personally know at Apple, as well as their developer program team. From the dev prog team I received an auto reply that they would get back with me, but it started with:

"Please note that the Apple Developer Connection will be closed from Wednesday, December 24th through Friday, December 26th for the December Holiday. We will re-open on Monday, December 29th, 2008."

Hmmmm....considering today is January 15th, it makes me wonder when they'll be getting back to me. =)

Networks Are Training Us NOT To Watch New Shows - Eli Sone and Dirty Sexy Money Canceled

It bites when you start watching a new TV series, only to have it canceled. This is particularly true when the producers of the show have no warning that it's being terminated, leaving the ending to a series unfinished and ambiguous. More and more TV shows are an on-going story rather than a series of unrelated episodes, and it's frustrating to have shows such as Jericho be yanked without an ending.

The Network Irony

Today, more and more TV shows are available "on demand," through Amazon, iTunes, the networks' own websites, etc. This creates an irony for the networks. You see, because we all now know that we can download a series anytime we want, the networks are training us NOT to watch new shows. I know for myself, I almost never watch a new show for the first season or two, because I worry that I'll just get all into it, only to have it then get canceled. So, I tell myself, "If it makes it into a second or third seasons, THEN I'll go back, watch the earlier episodes on demand, and then start watching the regular series."

This happened to me recently with three shows: House, Eli Stone, and Dirty Sexy Money. I had heard good things about all of these series, so I recently got them all on demand, got all caught up and hooked on all three shows. House had survived for many seasons, so I figured even if it was canceled anytime soon, it would have been worth the ride. However, I had just finished watching all the episodes to Eli Stone and Dirty Sexy Money only to hear they were being pulled. Ugh!



I guess I need to start not bothering with series until after four or five seasons, not just two or three.

Sign this petition to save Eli Stone.

Sign this petition to save Dirty Sexy Money.

Email ABC to save Eli Stone and/or Dirty Sexy Money.

Kevin