The Obama-Biden ticket has posted an on-line calculator which will show you how much you’ll save under their proposed tax plan. Don’t vote against your own financial interests. This is interesting if you’re making under a quarter of a million dollars a year. Which is probably just one or two of you

Check it out at:

http://taxcutfacts.org

Reporting mediums are still feeding on the carcass of the NetFlix outage which occurred earlier this month. NetFlix has reported that it has traced the cause of the outage to a hardware glitch which prevented it from shipping movies to its customers. Most people report not even noticing a delay and received their movies as scheduled. I received my new red envelopes about a day longer than the usual turn around time. To be honest, I wouldn’t have even noticed the delay if it weren’t for all the media reports analogous to the sky falling.

Today I read an article written by CNET’s Greg Sandoval raising the question “Is it time for NetFlix to invest in a system upgrade?”. My response to that article is “Upgrade what?”. Since NetFlix has released no details about the hardware failure, I find it ridiculous that this question is even being asked. Sandoval’s article is just one more example of how gas is poured on the flames in the tech world.

We all depend on things that from time to time suffer from a part failure or an interruption in service. Cars, phones, cable, and electric service are but a few. The response to these breakdowns and outages seem to be very miniscule in comparison to what a technology based, or so called Web 2.0 company, suffers. Think about it… What was your response the last time you lost electricity to your home. Was there a huge out cry for system upgrades and portents of disaster for the industry? Chances are you just waited for the lights to pop back on, and then went back to business as usual. Why aren’t technology and web based companies afforded this same behavior?

Sensational reports and rhetorical questions have been posed about Amazon, Twitter, and Google just to name a few. Rafe Needleman, also at CNET, even posted an article citing the 10 Worst Web Glitches of 2008 (so far). It’s interesting to see these things noted, but the level to which the attention rises is way out of proportion. After all, there is a great chance of disaster when electricity ceases to flow. The same cannot be said if someone receives their DVDs a bit late in the mail.

Tim Westergren, the founder of the web radio service Pandora, has said in an interview with The Washington Post that his company may be close to a shutdown. He stated that the company is approaching a "pull the plug kind of decision" and that "This is like a last stand for webcasting". He reports the problem stems from last year’s royalty hike for web radio which makes it extremely expensive for independents, like Pandora, to stay afloat in the business. The increase will eat up 70 percent of Pandora’s $25 million in revenue. This situation also effects other music streaming sites such as Last.fm, Shoutcast, and Live365. SoundExchange, an organization comprised of record label representatives and performers, believes that internet radio owes a bigger portion of profits than traditional radio. It appears SoundExchange continues to cut favorable deals with satellite and cable radio while not negotiating in good faith with webcasters. Organizations like the SaveNetRadio Coalition, as well as, independent webcasters like Pandora have fought the increased fees. Why more artists aren’t coming out to decry these fees is puzzling. Net radio serves to provide them with a large amount of free exposure they would otherwise not receive. The short sighted focus on immediate and large royalties from webcasters is just one more example of the greed of the music industry and its effort to remain in the role as "gate keeper". The industry is slowly learning its lesson about DRM and should take the same heed regarding these royalty fees. What can you do? Visit SaveNetRadio.org. There you will find information for contacting your local legislator and voicing your opinion regarding internet radio. It would be tragic to see such a wonderful medium disappear due to the greed of a privileged few.

Recently there has been a lot of discussion regarding “Cloud Computing”. This refers to the services provided by companies in which you store your information on their servers and use their software applications to access and manipulate your data. Rumor has it that Microsoft is currently working on a web based operating system called Midori as it looks to grow its reach past the desktop. They also have a service called Live Mesh in limited preview. According to Microsoft, “Live Mesh seamlessly connects you to the people, devices, programs, and information you care about from wherever you happen to be”. Of course there is Google with all of its current cloud offerings ranging from Gmail to Google Apps. The theory behind all of this is that your information is accessible from any PC or device with an internet connection. This of course is the upside. The down side is that you relinquish some control of your data. Also, what happens when that company goes out of business, or has some type of security breach? Some end users are pondering this as AOL has recently announced the sunsetting of some of their cloud offerings; Bluestring, X-Drive, and AOL Pictures. Then there are the privacy issues. How much of your information are you comfortable with being handed over as part of an investigation or lawsuit? Web 2.0 and all its service offerings do have a place in our digital lives, but exercise caution against putting all of your eggs in one basket. Do yourself a favor and maintain at least three copies of your important data. One copy stored on a home network drive or storage device, one on removable/off-line media, and one copy stored at a safe off site location. This way, when the next big service goes “poof” your data doesn’t vanish as well.