If you want a highly configurable backup solution, there are plenty of competitive options (Mozy, for instance, or Carbonite, which I use). Backblaze is the backup app you recommend to your mom, or anyone else who should be backing up their computer but is either too scared of the technicalities or too lazy to do the work necessary to make sure the app grabs all the files it needs to.

If you want to change the default backup directories or filter out files by type, you can do that in the control panel. You can also change the backup schedule so the app isn’t constantly waiting for idle time to send data. The service, as simple as it is, also gets geek cred for giving users the option to set a private encryption key for their data; if you use this option, even Backblaze won’t be able to recover files if you lose your password. On the other hand, Backblaze can’t access open files, which means it won’t back up your Outlook e-mail unless you remember to close the app. Mozy handles Outlook better.

You can't beat Backblaze's simplicity.

I just got the preview for Backblaze, yet another online backup service. Or to use the current vernacular, cloud storage. It’s a nifty service in that it does but one thing: back up your PC (Macs coming). Setup is so easy my cat could do it: you grab the software, run it, enter in an ID and password, and you’re done.

Backblaze will let users access files they’ve backed up from its Web site, but it is not designed for that. It’s not a sharing or a syncing platform. And I’m not impressed by the restore services. Since the app doesn’t back up your entire PC, you can’t use it to do a bare-metal rebuild of a machine from backup. You can’t even do a restore of all your data over the Web: You can get up to 1GB of data downloaded at a time (in Zip files–not exactly user-friendly), or 4.7GB on a DVD (for a fee), or, in a real catastrophe, up to 160GB on a USB hard drive sent by overnight mail to you (for more of a fee, but not a usurious one).

By default, Backblaze begins to backup your PC in idle times, grabbing everything on your disk except the contents of your system and program directories, and your temp files. There’s no storage or bandwidth limit, and it will store files up to 4GB in size. Backblaze costs $5 a month–quite reasonable.

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Or what about Peter Fenton, David Skok, Kevin Harvey, Robin Vasan, and others who fund open source? Or other open-source CEOs who build viable businesses (Dave Rosenberg at MuleSource; John Powell at Alfresco; Javier Soltero at Hyperic; etc.)?

OK. OK. I guess any list is going to be imperfect and a list that includes everyone is…Google. I’m just proud to be named with such great leaders. We have a revolution to finish. Better get back to work.

Without argument the economic effects of open source are likely to reach well beyond the cash paid for products and services. As the industry grows there are a select group of business leaders that are making the industry what it is today and will be responsible for the direction and success of the industry going forward.

Even in “retirement” I’d add Matthew Szulik who is such a beacon for many of us. I’d also add Eben Moglen because it is his legal vigilance that clears the way for open source to flourish as a business. Ditto for Mark Radcliffe who fuels the open-source startup pool with legal advice. Lonn Johnston at PageOne PR who gets their stories told. Glyn Moody and Matt Aslett for blogging them so expertly? I’d even include Richard Stallman because I can’t think of a more ardent capitalist. Seriously. The GPL is a software capitalist’s best friend.

“Ashamed” because I have such profound respect for Marten Mickos, Larry Augustin, Jonathan Schwartz, Stephen O’Grady and the Redmonk team, etc. that I think the LinuxWorld team must have made a mistake. Regardless, it is what it is. I would have had a slightly different list, but unreasonable minds can disagree.

LinuxWorld has just named its top open source business leaders for 2008. I’m a little ashamed to acknowledge that I’m on the list.

One of our tech journalism colleagues, Russell Shaw, passed away on Friday, March 14. He was on a reporting trip in San Jose, traveling from his home base of Portland, Ore. I knew Russell first as a blogger at ZDNet, where he covered broadband, VoIP, smartphones, and other topics.

Russell was very prolific and knowledgeable, and wrote about a broad range of subjects. In addition to technology, he covered everything from rock concerts and hotel management to politics and entertainment. He was a contributor to Huffington Post and the author of several books, including Caution! Music & Video Downloading: Your Guide to Legal, Safe, and Trouble-Free Downloads and Wireless Networking Made Easy: Everything You Need to Know to Build Your Own PANs, LANs, and WANs.

Russell Shaw

The software is in “beta” and we haven’t tested it out, but if you’re a Netflix user who happens to use Media Center, this is definitely the missing link.

(Credit:
Anthony Park / www.anpark.com)

[via Engadget]

Watch your 'Watch Now' streaming movies from Netflix on big TVs in a more eyeball-friendly manner with this Vista Media Center plug-in.

Users navigating from their computers can also partake in Netflix’s streaming service, letting them watch movies without having to wait discs to come in the mail. Because of the reliance on software, users enjoying Media Center via extenders (read: the
XBOX 360) cannot partake in the streaming–that is, unless they’ve got their PC hooked up directly to the TV, or are planning to get one of those newfangled Netflix Watch Now-enabled set-top boxes due to arrive later this year.

A Google spokesman said: “We have not been served with the complaint and will have no comment until we have the chance to review it.”

“Ads on third-party sites are widely acknowledged to be far less effective (and therefore less valuable to the advertiser) than ads on Google.com,” a statement from Los Angeles-based Kabateck Brown Kellner says. “Google, of course, still profits greatly from these ads.”

The lawsuit, which seeks class action status, was filed by the firm of Kabateck Brown Kellner in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif., on behalf of David Almeida, a Massachusetts-based private investigator who enrolled in Google AdWords in November 2006.

Kabateck recently won a multimillion-dollar click fraud settlement from Yahoo and was part of a $90 million click fraud settlement from Google on behalf of advertisers who sued the search companies claiming they were charged for clicks on ads that were fraudulent.

When customers do not bid for ads on third-party sites, Google places ads there anyway and automatically charges customers the amount they specified for ads on Google.com, the lawsuit says.

Google does not inform its advertisers that if they leave the box next to the content bid blank, Google will use the advertiser’s bid for clicks occurring on the content network, the lawsuit says. There is no option to opt out of content ads during the process, according to the document.

Updated 2:30 p.m. PDT with comment from the plaintiff lawyer.

On the system, customers see two blank boxes, one for typing in a bid for ads on Google.com and another one, marked “optional,” for putting ads on content network sites. Sophisticated search engine marketers know to put a “0″ in the box for the content network AdSense sites if they don’t want ads there, says Brian Kabateck, lead counsel on the case. “For most people, if you see a box and leave it blank, you think you’re not going to be charged,” he says.

When participating in Google’s online auction-based advertising system, customers specify what they would be willing to pay per-click for words or phrases that will trigger ads displayed on Google’s search site, as part of Google AdWords. They are also given the option of bidding for ads that appear on third-party Web sites, also called Google’s “content network,” which is part of Google AdSense.

My new boss, Dan Farber, correctly predicted that it was an updated version of the WorldWide Telescope program, a fact later confirmed by TechCrunch.

Microsoft researcher Curtis Wong showed an early version of the telescope software at last year’s TechFest, Microsoft’s internal science fair. Sources tell me that Microsoft’s desktop software is far more immersive than what was shown at last year’s TechFest or than the sky feature in Google Earth. In particular, the software will let you get extremely close to celestial objects, enough so that the software might be useful not just to armchair astronauts, but also to serious researchers.

Attendees of the posh TED conference will get to see the new Microsoft software next week, while the company also plans to show it at TechFest, the internal science fair that takes place the following week.

It is for former Microsoft evangelist Robert Scoble. A couple weeks back he said on his blog that a new Microsoft technology made him cry. He didn’t give many details, citing a confidentiality agreement, but he provided enough there for folks to connect the dots.

I’ll be traveling to Redmond for the event, but I’m going to take a risk and leave my hankies at home.

The technology features tens of millions of digital images from sources like the Hubble telescope as well as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, a project championed by missing Microsoft researcher Jim Gray.

Investors from major financial institutions might be forgiven for being a bit skeptical coming off Intel’s news this week that its gross margins would sag this quarter on falling flash memory pricing. But Otellini promised “this is a business that will not be a drag on Intel,” and that the company was finding ways to make sure the volatile flash memory market does not hurt its bottom line.

Intel is in pretty good competitive shape at this point, with AMD still working to get into the quad-core era. But Intel has had trouble breaking into new markets outside the PC or server in the past, which is why investors will be watching closely over the next two years to see what Intel’s talking about at that point.

Otellini reiterated much of Intel’s pitch from the last six months that the world of handheld mobile computers and low-cost PCs can supplement the slowing-but-steady growth of the PC market. Intel is investing new products like its Atom processor and attempting to break into these new markets by reminding software developers and device makers that Intel’s chips are used to run today’s PC-based Internet, and are ideal for allowing tomorrow’s mobile devices to access that Internet.

SANTA CLARA, CALIF.–Intel CEO Paul Otellini sought to reassure major investors Wednesday that the world’s largest chip maker is still poised for strong growth into new areas like mobile computers, and can maintain its current lead in PC technology.

To break into this market, Intel is reducing the time between when an idea gets approved to production starting with the new Atom generation of products, Otellini said. The goal is to get from idea to prototype in six months, and then from prototype to production in another six months. PC processor designs take much longer, several years, from idea to production.

This will have a few benefits, he said. It will allow Intel to build chipsets with more transistors dedicated to graphics, since it will no longer have to use older technology that can’t build transistors as small as its latest and greatest stuff. It will also help Intel reduce expenses as it moves toward “fewer, larger factories,” Otellini said.

Intel is at a very interesting time in its history. PC and server growth has slowed, although it continues along at a “low-double digit” growth pace, Otellini said. That’s not the kind of growth that gets investors all excited, however, they like the kind of growth more in the 20 percent range.

(Credit:
Tom Krazit/CNET News.com)

Having seen these trends a while ago, Intel has been searching for its next big thing for several years. But while it does that, and tries to build a business around handheld mobile computers and low-cost PCs, it has to keep an eye on its main markets.

Intel CEO Paul Otellini laid out Intel's plans for growth in front of investors Wednesday.

Sean Maloney, Intel’s sales chief, took the idea further as he talked about Intel’s Netbooks project to build low-cost notebooks based on the Diamondville derivative of the Silverthorne processor. Intel sees Netbooks as almost “starter PCs,” borrowing that time-honored marketing tradition of getting young kids hooked on a basic inexpensive computer and then sticking with them as their tastes mature and their demands grow more intense.

And Intel remains hard at work on Larrabee, its “many-core” programmable chip that appears to be designed for a variety of tasks that could well include graphics acceleration. By 2010, Intel hopes to have shipped Larrabee and moved all of its graphics transistor production to its leading-edge manufacturing technology, so that the same equipment is used for both CPUs and graphics, Otellini said.

Conspicuously missing from the spotlight during Intel’s presentation this year? Viiv digital-home PCs, UMPCs, and cell phone processors, which have played prominent roles in past Intel investor rallies. There may very well be a market for starter PCs and x86 smartphones, but if history is any guide, Intel will strike out on at least one of those efforts.

Instead, Intel’s CEO wants investors to focus on the potential for Intel’s large bet on mobile devices. The company has been on a evangelical push for the last six months touting the virtues of the x86 instruction set in the world of mobile devices. The idea is that anything that can run on a PC–take Adobe’s Flash, for example–would be able to run on a handheld device with one of Intel’s Atom processors.

Intel also thinks it will benefit as people start owing and using more than one sophisticated computer, whether that’s a home desktop, a work laptop, a smartphone, or something else we haven’t even thought of yet.

I just saw the news that Zend has raised $7 million more, in its fifth (Series E) round of funding. Zend last raised $20 million in August 2006. Zend has raised so much money that it must be bought for a bazillion dollars for its investors to get a good return from it.

Even so, it’s worrisome that Zend has needed to raise as much cash as it has. Yes, MySQL raised a ton of cash and saw a massive exit for its investors. But most exits - open source or not - will not see $1 billion for under $100 million in sales. It’s best to raise as little money as possible, if you can.

Any comment from Zend?

One of two things must have happened. Either Zend is struggling and this was a way to give it some runway, or Zend is doing fine but the new investor gave such a rich, (relatively) non-dilutive valuation that Zend couldn’t help but take the money. I’m guessing the latter.

There are good reasons to raise money heading into a downturn: The justification noted in the press release is to use the funds “as needed.” That sounds like “in case things go awry during a recessionary period.” This is smart.

McQuivey, a former professor at Boston University, tells record executives to cheer up because there are ways to rise from the ashes. He says first, the industry should quit fooling around with music subscriptions and ad-supported models. People want to own their music and downloads have won. Only 7 percent of adults on the Web say they have ever tried a subscription service, according to the report.

McQuivey’s finding here was particularly timely. Over the weekend, PaidContent reported that MySpace is in talks with the four top labels about launching a jointly operated, ad-supported music service.

When it comes to artists, the labels should focus more broadly on a musician’s career, including merchandise and concerts, as well as recordings. He said it’s the artists, not the CDs that are the music industry’s true product.

In a final note, McQuivey suggests that music artists, who have historically looked down their noses at advertising, had better change. He says the industry should rip a page out of NASCAR’s playbook.

“Artists who used to pretend that their platinum album success was really about their “art” will no longer have that luxurious pretense because labels won’t sign them unless they agree to a barrage of sponsorship opportunities,” McQuivey wrote. “There will eventually come a day when Chips Ahoy will contend with the Keebler Elves over who can be the official cookie of the Taylor Swift world tour.”

“The gold medal for 2007 (in music discovery) should have gone to Slacker,” McQuivey wrote. “(The) portable device provides instant access to radio-formatted music that can easily convert to a digital download with the click of a button. This model combines the simplicity of the radio experience with the power of music ownership.”

Hey, Mr. Music Executive: scrap your preoccupation with CD sales and start looking for ways to help people share, yes share music; focus more on developing and profiting from artists; and forget about subscription services and ad-supported music.

The analyst also sent a message to ad-supported music services, such as SpiralFrog and Qtrax. The ad-supported model should stay “on the radio where it belongs,” he said in his report. Social networks are better places for selling ads against music, and they also allow users to share songs virally.

These are the conclusions of James McQuivey, a Forrester analyst, according to a report titled “The End Of The Music Industry As We Know It,” issued on Tuesday.

“This move will permanently signal the end of the music business as it was once known,” McQuivey wrote. “From that point on, more music will be sold digitally than on CD, reducing CD sales to just $3.8 billion in 2012.”

That’s a fitting title because the report reads like an obituary. Tower Records, a music mecca for decades, has already closed but McQuivey argues the real deathblow to the industry will come when Wal-Mart Stores, Best Buy, and other large retailers begin scaling back shelf space for CDs.

Sharing is vital, according to McQuivey, because it makes new music discovery easier, which the Web was supposed to help with but so far has tanked. In this effort, he sends a special shout out to Slacker, a personal online-radio service.

Windows XP could soon be available on the XO.

He said the laptop’s open-source software had actually scared away potential adopters.

In an interview with the Associated Press following the departure of the OLPC project’s president, Nicholas Negroponte said the open-source Sugar software, developed expressly for the XO, could run on top of XP. Negroponte cited weaknesses in the XO’s current open-source operating system (right now the XO can’t support the latest versions of Flash animation) as well as the Linux community itself (for being too “fundamentalist”) as the reasons for a possible future shift.

An XP-only version of the XO could come soon enough. In December Microsoft said it would begin running limited tests in January to see if the operating system would be a good fit for the low-cost device. At the time, Microsoft said it could have XP running on the XO by the second half of the year.

The chairman and founder of the One Laptop Per Child initiative said in an interview Tuesday that the XO laptop may switch from using Linux to eventually running Windows XP, according to several reports.