Again, its not about the hardware or even the OS, its the cut of the APP sales...Google is destined to make waaaay more money on the deal by virtue of simply having more people running Android and thus buying apps from the Android Marketplace.
Not quite.
For Google it's all about your data and advertising. Remember they are an advertising company and everything they do is geared about getting more views of their adverts and being able to better target that advertising. They build products to ensure that they have a user-base to supply adverts and mine data.
If it was about app purchases then Google would have rolled out purchasing throughout the world. They haven't. Instead developers who wish to make money from products have to offer their products for free and place advertising inside the apps. The fact that the largest vendor of adverts for Android happen to be Admob which is owned by Google isn't a coincidence.
In short, the Android eco-system is geared around free software (because it generates more eyeballs than paid software does) supported by in-app advertising provided by Google.
They already have Media Center for Windows, the XBox 360, and Media Center Exteders... they're going to add something ELSE to the mix? Never mind Zune.
At a guess, they'll be creating a solution which involves a cut down version of Windows 7 and Windows Media Center so that vendors can simply load it onto some custom powered hardware.
My HTPC is an Asus EeeBox EB1012 with Windows 7 Home Premium (£280), WinTV-NOVA-TD Dual DVB-T Stick (£55) and an MCE remote (£25). Total cost is £355.
Unfortunately for Microsoft, I can buy a Humax PVR9300T500 for £189. Yes, it doesn't do everything my HTPC does, but it's significantly cheaper. They need to get the price of their own software down so that vendors can produce something in this area.
Regarding timing, here in the UK, Freeview HD PVR's are few and far between and very expensive (Humax have one for £350) and the BBC backed YouView has not yet materalised. If Microsoft can reduce their software down so that a vendor can quickly release a dual DVB-T2 product at a competitive cost, then they have a good chance of grabbing a chunk of the market as there are plenty of people who have HD TV's but not a receiver capable of getting HD content.
There will never be a "year of linux desktop" same as how there was never a "year of firefox web browser". You'll know it has happened when everyone has it.
The year of the Linux desktop could have been 2009 around the time of netbooks. However OEM's mucked it up by picking less than stellar variants of Linux and customers appeared only too happy to desert when Microsoft finally got their act together.
As a result, Linux netbook sales tanked and it's almost impossible to buy one in a major retail outlet these days as customers aren't interested.
I don't believe Linux will ever have such a good chance again and, personally, I blame this on the OEM's who could have escaped the grasp of Microsoft but, in their haste, failed to ensure that the customer experience was a good one.
How is this better than a web-based news source, even a paywalled one?
Well, for starters you can read it on the underground.
Hell, it'll make reading it on the overland train better too given that access to the internet (at least on my route) is problematic thanks to all the tunnels, bridges and dead spots.
ISP's in the UK already perform content filtering using the IWF blacklist.
It's optional, but mandatory for any ISP that wants a shot at bidding for contracts with government agencies and other public bodies. In other words, pretty much all of them have it.
You don't need to split the screen to play Contra!
Proper co-op should be one screen.
Agreed. Especially since forcing the game-play to one screen has the unintended (but good) side effect of preventing you from just buggering off and abandoning your team mates.
I've tried playing a couple of games on-line (Half-life, Counter Strike, Call of Duty and Quake) and have never come across any kind of team cohesion. The game starts and everyone in your team generally runs off in opposite directions and you barely see them any more until you've all died and the game restarts.
Maybe I'm getting old but it doesn't feel very teamy to me.
It's worth noting that the FBI can allege anything it wants against this poor fucker without facing any real repercussions, and that it's totally irrelevant to this issue.
Well if you're going to get snotty about it, the DMCA exemption doesn't cover unlocking phones for selling overseas. So in this case I'd say yes, it is pretty relevant.
Worth noting that the FBI allege that Majed was reselling the phones and funneling the profits to Hezbollah.
I'm not sure how that makes convicting someone (for something which has already been deemed legal) any more valid (and quite frankly, I don't know enough about the DMCA or US laws to even begin to form an opinion) but I do think it would have been nice if the story included this fairly important bit of information.
Having said that, I didn't know that videos could be dropped into the videos folder mind you, thanks for the information. However I'm pretty happy with MediaBrowser and the GF likes the UI so I'll probably stick with that.
I take it you haven't touched Boxee, MediaPortal or GameEx... All of which offer functionality missing from WMC. Though to be honest, I would love to have the best features of all three in one software.
I've played with Boxee a fair bit but it didn't support playback or recording of live TV. Never heard of GameEx I have to admit. I looked at MediaPortal, installed it to trial and the GF hated the UI so I never went back to it. I may look at it in the future, but now I have WMC set up it'll be a pain in the backside to move to something else.
I'm using and loving WMC, but sounds like you have installed some cool options. Could you post/list what you have extended it with? Thanks!
Certainly! Here you go:
MediaBrowser - an XBMC like interface for managing all your ripped movies and TV shows.
Remote Potato - installs a web-server on your HTPC which will allow you to view what shows you have recorded, manage your recordings (including delete and schedule new shows) and stream recorded TV to your screen.
MediaControl - a plugin that enables FFWD and RWD for non-WTV and DVR-MS files.
MoveRecordedTVMovies - a simple command line app which looks for movies stored in your "Recorded TV" folder and moves them elsewhere (complete with correct folder structure). Handy if you don't want TV movies to clutter up your other recordings.
Shark007 codec pack - the only codec pack you need. Install, select default/recommended settings and you'll be set up with all the major codec support (including MKV with DTS audio).
TunerFreeMCE (or) NeverMiss.TV - Allows you to watch catchup shows from BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5.
You should also check out The Green Button forums as they have lots of useful information and links to third party software. Also the people on it are extremely friendly if you have questions or issues.
I also have a script which removes duplicate recorded TV shows (when series link glitches) and I'm in the process of cleaning it up to release. I'll post the link to the forum above when it is completed.
Just team up with the BBC and offer iplayer, Free in UK the rest of the world can pay say £15/$20 month - then we can have full length seasons of Dr Who - whats not to like:-)
Funny you should say that as the BBC are launching their own set-top box here in the UK some time next year. Technically it's not just the Beeb but a consortium of content providers (BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Five), hardware providers (Humax, Cisco, Technicolor) and ISP's (TalkTalk and BT) who will provide a platform called YouView (formally Project Canvas) which will allow customers to watch and record Freview HD (DVB-T2) as well as stream or purchase content from a marketplace.
So for example, if you search for "Top Gear" you will get results that offer you the two shows running in the next fortnight, the two shows on BBC iPlayer, the box set from one vendor and the ability to rent (stream) from a couple of other vendors.
There is a one off payment for the box and, like the current Freeview service, no subscription fees for about 50 channels (of which about 20 or so are of interest to the majority of people). There are no restrictions on where you live or which ISP you are with. Although the hardware manufacturers are limited at launch, more will come on board as time goes by.
It's like Google TV but for the UK, with a slicker UI and has the backing of major content providers before it starts. In other words, a properly thought out end-to-end proposition.
Microsoft probably have a good chance of making this work on the basis that Windows Media Center is actually a very capable DVR and they have several customers of their MediaRoom solution. I've been running Windows 7 Media Center in my home for several months now and it's extremely slick and does the job reasonably well. It's UI is light years ahead of all the others - although that is probably helped by the fact that the hardware I'm using is significantly more powerful than your usual set top box.
My only real complaints are:
The EPG provider Microsoft uses in the UK is absolutely dire. They frequently forget meta-data and get the series link information wrong - which of course means that the experience is impacted. Our US friends don't seem to have these issues as their meta-data is correct.
Even if you have the codecs installed, it cannot browse or play non-WTV or DVR-MS without the use of something like MediaBrowser (which itself, is a slick application).
When you do get non WTV or DVR-MS files playing, FWD and RWD don't work. This can be fudged with a plugin called MediaControl but it isn't perfect.
Some times it reports that it cannot record a show on a tuner because there is no signal. Doesn't matter what button you press, it'll show you the same error several times before finally dismissing.
Compared to my old Topfield (which was considered one of the better DVR's here in the UK yet couldn't handle daylight saving and botched up all your recording timers, had a ghastly UI, put the wrong metadata in your recordings if you padded the start time, had a completely broken series link and would only work reliably if you flashed it with custom firmware) 7MC is a work of art.
Desire the issues, once you've worked around these and installed a couple of other (free) applications then you have a very capable DVR which can not only record and playback live TV, but access your DVD rips from multiple locations around the house (with the correct meta-data and cover art), view, schedule and play back recorded shows via your mobile or desktop web browser and play back streamed video from a number of online sources.
Yes, Boxee or XBMC would be a better choice if you just want to play video - but the GF wants to watch and record live TV which means that WMC is a good option.
My smart phone does. This will never be able to replace other forms of money until they get that one sorted.
They already solved this a long time ago, you don't need any power in your phone to make a payment. PIN verification can be done at point of sale using the merchants terminal.
Please don't think that your misunderstanding of the very basics of mobile NFC payments is validated by the moderators who also appear to misunderstand the very basics of mobile NFC payments.
If you really do get stuck, look up the walkthrough to help you over your tricky point. It's no different from asking a friend how they did it, and it'll allow you to see other parts of the games you buy.
True but with some games even a walkthrough won't help because it's more about skill and luck rather than following the correct path.
I just realised I did also manage to finish Monkey Island. Still not very impressive gaming credentials though!
I never finish games because I'm a shit gamer. There I said it.
Actually, that's not quite true. I finished Prince of Persia, Half-life and Half-life 2 but nothing else.
Why? Because I get stuck on one point to which I simply cannot progress. After playing it for what feels like the hundredth time I get bored and move on to something else.
This is why I like something like the helper in NSMB on the Wii. Sure it's cheating in a sense, but quite frankly, I don't care as I'd far rather be helped by a computer to get past one really difficult part than accept that I'm probably never going to be able to get past a stage and never play the game again.
This is so true. A comment here has no credibility in and of itself but there WILL be serious physicists posting on a physics story here. The same with any other scientific, technical, or engineering article.
Unfortunately it still doesn't seem to work. I've seen plenty of articles where I am reasonably knowledgeable about the subject (either having worked in that area or because it is my product!) and yet there are plenty of uninformed comments which are then voted up by uninformed moderators.
I've tried posting but often my comments never get voted up because they go against what the current +5 opinion is. After a while I just don't bother any more.
Like losing your cellphone wasn't bad enough so far?
Worst case, you'll lose between £10 and £15. This is because transactions have two limits, a maximum cumulative amount and a maximum purchase amount.
If someone steals your phone, then they'll be able to make a couple of low value payments. However as soon as they make a payment which is over the purchase amount or they make a number of low value payments and the next one will take them over the cumulative account, then they will need to validate using your PIN. Which they won't have.
Think of it in the same way as losing cash. If you lose £15 then it's gone. The upside to mobile NFC is that as soon as you lose your phone, you can contact your issuer and get the account frozen - potentially before the thief has managed to start spending anything.
What I mean is, there's almost no expensive components in this phone. Heck, it doesn't even have a screen. All it needs is the simplest or the cheapest microprocessors that is capable of making a call. Yet, it still costs £60 to £80.
Tooling costs are extremely expensive. Not only that, but they'll be even more expense the smaller the production run because you won't be able to get a company like Foxconn to do the work. Then when you amortise that large production cost over that small volume, you'll find that your cheap device suddenly becomes not so cheap after all.
Unlike the majority of people on Slashdot, I used to design and launch mobile phones for a living, so have been through that pain before.
Telstra should get a serious ass kicking over this. The amount of money they've spent on advertising alone for this product line wipes out any possible "we didn't know" excuse.
Not quite.
Because Telstra have no access to the source code, they will have asked their third parties to agree to unlimited IPR indemnity on the basis that it is the responsibility of the software company (and not Telstra) to ensure they are in compliance with the licences for the portions of code that they have in their firmware.
This indemnity basically says "Yes! We stand by our claim that the code we have developed is either ours or licenced correctly and if we muck up, you the customer won't be penalised". As such, any legal challenges and the costs associated with one towards Telstra for these products will simply be passed onto the hardware manufacturer.
Speaking as someone who has worked for two other network operators developing products in exactly this way, it is standard practise and you'd be extremely stupid not to sign an agreement like this as the costs of going to court (for a product you had no control over) can run into millions.
Finally, the amount you spend on advertising doesn't make the slightest bit of difference.
You didn't look very hard. Check the top of the screen, Support -> User Guide.
Firstly, that's a user guide, not an overview of the features. Secondly, he shouldn't have to "look very hard". Thirdly, if you have a web site design which means that potential customers have to go into "Support" to find out what features your product has, then you've failed.
Something about the shear inconsistency of the outcomes tells me how broken this system of courts truly is. It's not based on anything real. It's based on appearances, fuzzy opinions, manipulated interpretations, etc. This woman shared some music over the internet, and they want to financially crucify her. $54,000 thousand would take a lot of people a long time to pay off, let alone $1.5 million. That amount would effectively end her financial life.
The issue here was raised by Harvard Law professor Charles Nesson. To quote Ars' coverage of the case:
Nevertheless, Nesson was given his chance to speak to the judge before jury selection, and he argued for the idea that statutory damages were meant to be decided by judges, who had knowledge of similar judgments and cases, rather than by juries, who would essentially be plucking context-free numbers from the air in most cases. The result: "arbitrary, excessive verdicts."
Nesson's evidence was simple to understand. Look at Thomas-Rasset ($1.92 million) and Tenenbaum ($675,000), he said. The upper end of the statutory damage range, $150,000 per infringement, should apply to the most heinous act of infringement that could possibly be imagined. "In a spectrum of reprehensibility," what Thomas-Rasset and Tenenbaum had done was minor, the copyright equivalent of jaywalking. And yet look what juries, which knew little or nothing about handing out such damages, had done!
This is why the amount in damages has been so varied.
I really expect an app from National Rail to be arriving any time now based on the squirming exhibted in the corrspondense.
Based on this list it looks like their business model is to charge for the feeds and lets others manage the hassles of development, testing and publishing.
You'll notice that they are all pretty expensive, I read somewhere else that this is because the cost for the licence to use the API is a lot of money and this forces up the pricing.
Been there many years ago with television listings presented on a mobile phone. In my case, some of the TV channels felt the listings were copyrighted to them (despite actually encouraging people to watch them!) so I had to pull the service.
In the end, I rewrote the code to screen-scrape the websites in question and released the code as a download. I was no longer running a publically available service and those people who wanted to use it had to download and set up the code themselves - which was nicely covered under the T&C's which stated "personal, non profit use only".
You do get a problem where if they change the layout then you have to re-code but big companies tend to do this very infrequently. For me it was more about the desire to keep the itch that I wanted scratched up and running than anything else.
21 comments at threshold 4 and not one person has noticed that the ability to lend a book is determined by the publishers?
Yep, that's right. The restrictions on 14 days and only once per book pales into insignificance if the publishers flip the "do not allow lending" button when they upload the content to Amazon.
I would not be surprised if a very small amount of Amazon's portfolio have lending enabled.
Slashdot Mirror
Not quite.
For Google it's all about your data and advertising. Remember they are an advertising company and everything they do is geared about getting more views of their adverts and being able to better target that advertising. They build products to ensure that they have a user-base to supply adverts and mine data.
If it was about app purchases then Google would have rolled out purchasing throughout the world. They haven't. Instead developers who wish to make money from products have to offer their products for free and place advertising inside the apps. The fact that the largest vendor of adverts for Android happen to be Admob which is owned by Google isn't a coincidence.
In short, the Android eco-system is geared around free software (because it generates more eyeballs than paid software does) supported by in-app advertising provided by Google.
At a guess, they'll be creating a solution which involves a cut down version of Windows 7 and Windows Media Center so that vendors can simply load it onto some custom powered hardware.
My HTPC is an Asus EeeBox EB1012 with Windows 7 Home Premium (£280), WinTV-NOVA-TD Dual DVB-T Stick (£55) and an MCE remote (£25). Total cost is £355.
Unfortunately for Microsoft, I can buy a Humax PVR9300T500 for £189. Yes, it doesn't do everything my HTPC does, but it's significantly cheaper. They need to get the price of their own software down so that vendors can produce something in this area.
Regarding timing, here in the UK, Freeview HD PVR's are few and far between and very expensive (Humax have one for £350) and the BBC backed YouView has not yet materalised. If Microsoft can reduce their software down so that a vendor can quickly release a dual DVB-T2 product at a competitive cost, then they have a good chance of grabbing a chunk of the market as there are plenty of people who have HD TV's but not a receiver capable of getting HD content.
The year of the Linux desktop could have been 2009 around the time of netbooks. However OEM's mucked it up by picking less than stellar variants of Linux and customers appeared only too happy to desert when Microsoft finally got their act together.
As a result, Linux netbook sales tanked and it's almost impossible to buy one in a major retail outlet these days as customers aren't interested.
I don't believe Linux will ever have such a good chance again and, personally, I blame this on the OEM's who could have escaped the grasp of Microsoft but, in their haste, failed to ensure that the customer experience was a good one.
Well, for starters you can read it on the underground.
Hell, it'll make reading it on the overland train better too given that access to the internet (at least on my route) is problematic thanks to all the tunnels, bridges and dead spots.
ISP's in the UK already perform content filtering using the IWF blacklist.
It's optional, but mandatory for any ISP that wants a shot at bidding for contracts with government agencies and other public bodies. In other words, pretty much all of them have it.
Agreed. Especially since forcing the game-play to one screen has the unintended (but good) side effect of preventing you from just buggering off and abandoning your team mates.
I've tried playing a couple of games on-line (Half-life, Counter Strike, Call of Duty and Quake) and have never come across any kind of team cohesion. The game starts and everyone in your team generally runs off in opposite directions and you barely see them any more until you've all died and the game restarts.
Maybe I'm getting old but it doesn't feel very teamy to me.
Well if you're going to get snotty about it, the DMCA exemption doesn't cover unlocking phones for selling overseas. So in this case I'd say yes, it is pretty relevant.
Worth noting that the FBI allege that Majed was reselling the phones and funneling the profits to Hezbollah.
I'm not sure how that makes convicting someone (for something which has already been deemed legal) any more valid (and quite frankly, I don't know enough about the DMCA or US laws to even begin to form an opinion) but I do think it would have been nice if the story included this fairly important bit of information.
Ahh yes, whoops. Sorry about that.
Having said that, I didn't know that videos could be dropped into the videos folder mind you, thanks for the information. However I'm pretty happy with MediaBrowser and the GF likes the UI so I'll probably stick with that.
I've played with Boxee a fair bit but it didn't support playback or recording of live TV. Never heard of GameEx I have to admit. I looked at MediaPortal, installed it to trial and the GF hated the UI so I never went back to it. I may look at it in the future, but now I have WMC set up it'll be a pain in the backside to move to something else.
Certainly! Here you go:
You should also check out The Green Button forums as they have lots of useful information and links to third party software. Also the people on it are extremely friendly if you have questions or issues.
I also have a script which removes duplicate recorded TV shows (when series link glitches) and I'm in the process of cleaning it up to release. I'll post the link to the forum above when it is completed.
Funny you should say that as the BBC are launching their own set-top box here in the UK some time next year. Technically it's not just the Beeb but a consortium of content providers (BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Five), hardware providers (Humax, Cisco, Technicolor) and ISP's (TalkTalk and BT) who will provide a platform called YouView (formally Project Canvas) which will allow customers to watch and record Freview HD (DVB-T2) as well as stream or purchase content from a marketplace.
So for example, if you search for "Top Gear" you will get results that offer you the two shows running in the next fortnight, the two shows on BBC iPlayer, the box set from one vendor and the ability to rent (stream) from a couple of other vendors.
There is a one off payment for the box and, like the current Freeview service, no subscription fees for about 50 channels (of which about 20 or so are of interest to the majority of people). There are no restrictions on where you live or which ISP you are with. Although the hardware manufacturers are limited at launch, more will come on board as time goes by.
It's like Google TV but for the UK, with a slicker UI and has the backing of major content providers before it starts. In other words, a properly thought out end-to-end proposition.
Microsoft probably have a good chance of making this work on the basis that Windows Media Center is actually a very capable DVR and they have several customers of their MediaRoom solution. I've been running Windows 7 Media Center in my home for several months now and it's extremely slick and does the job reasonably well. It's UI is light years ahead of all the others - although that is probably helped by the fact that the hardware I'm using is significantly more powerful than your usual set top box.
My only real complaints are:
Compared to my old Topfield (which was considered one of the better DVR's here in the UK yet couldn't handle daylight saving and botched up all your recording timers, had a ghastly UI, put the wrong metadata in your recordings if you padded the start time, had a completely broken series link and would only work reliably if you flashed it with custom firmware) 7MC is a work of art.
Desire the issues, once you've worked around these and installed a couple of other (free) applications then you have a very capable DVR which can not only record and playback live TV, but access your DVD rips from multiple locations around the house (with the correct meta-data and cover art), view, schedule and play back recorded shows via your mobile or desktop web browser and play back streamed video from a number of online sources.
Yes, Boxee or XBMC would be a better choice if you just want to play video - but the GF wants to watch and record live TV which means that WMC is a good option.
They already solved this a long time ago, you don't need any power in your phone to make a payment. PIN verification can be done at point of sale using the merchants terminal.
Please don't think that your misunderstanding of the very basics of mobile NFC payments is validated by the moderators who also appear to misunderstand the very basics of mobile NFC payments.
True but with some games even a walkthrough won't help because it's more about skill and luck rather than following the correct path.
I just realised I did also manage to finish Monkey Island. Still not very impressive gaming credentials though!
I never finish games because I'm a shit gamer. There I said it.
Actually, that's not quite true. I finished Prince of Persia, Half-life and Half-life 2 but nothing else.
Why? Because I get stuck on one point to which I simply cannot progress. After playing it for what feels like the hundredth time I get bored and move on to something else.
This is why I like something like the helper in NSMB on the Wii. Sure it's cheating in a sense, but quite frankly, I don't care as I'd far rather be helped by a computer to get past one really difficult part than accept that I'm probably never going to be able to get past a stage and never play the game again.
Unfortunately it still doesn't seem to work. I've seen plenty of articles where I am reasonably knowledgeable about the subject (either having worked in that area or because it is my product!) and yet there are plenty of uninformed comments which are then voted up by uninformed moderators.
I've tried posting but often my comments never get voted up because they go against what the current +5 opinion is. After a while I just don't bother any more.
Worst case, you'll lose between £10 and £15. This is because transactions have two limits, a maximum cumulative amount and a maximum purchase amount.
If someone steals your phone, then they'll be able to make a couple of low value payments. However as soon as they make a payment which is over the purchase amount or they make a number of low value payments and the next one will take them over the cumulative account, then they will need to validate using your PIN. Which they won't have.
Think of it in the same way as losing cash. If you lose £15 then it's gone. The upside to mobile NFC is that as soon as you lose your phone, you can contact your issuer and get the account frozen - potentially before the thief has managed to start spending anything.
Tooling costs are extremely expensive. Not only that, but they'll be even more expense the smaller the production run because you won't be able to get a company like Foxconn to do the work. Then when you amortise that large production cost over that small volume, you'll find that your cheap device suddenly becomes not so cheap after all.
Unlike the majority of people on Slashdot, I used to design and launch mobile phones for a living, so have been through that pain before.
Not quite.
Because Telstra have no access to the source code, they will have asked their third parties to agree to unlimited IPR indemnity on the basis that it is the responsibility of the software company (and not Telstra) to ensure they are in compliance with the licences for the portions of code that they have in their firmware.
This indemnity basically says "Yes! We stand by our claim that the code we have developed is either ours or licenced correctly and if we muck up, you the customer won't be penalised". As such, any legal challenges and the costs associated with one towards Telstra for these products will simply be passed onto the hardware manufacturer.
Speaking as someone who has worked for two other network operators developing products in exactly this way, it is standard practise and you'd be extremely stupid not to sign an agreement like this as the costs of going to court (for a product you had no control over) can run into millions.
Finally, the amount you spend on advertising doesn't make the slightest bit of difference.
Firstly, that's a user guide, not an overview of the features. Secondly, he shouldn't have to "look very hard". Thirdly, if you have a web site design which means that potential customers have to go into "Support" to find out what features your product has, then you've failed.
The issue here was raised by Harvard Law professor Charles Nesson. To quote Ars' coverage of the case:
This is why the amount in damages has been so varied.
Based on this list it looks like their business model is to charge for the feeds and lets others manage the hassles of development, testing and publishing.
You'll notice that they are all pretty expensive, I read somewhere else that this is because the cost for the licence to use the API is a lot of money and this forces up the pricing.
Been there many years ago with television listings presented on a mobile phone. In my case, some of the TV channels felt the listings were copyrighted to them (despite actually encouraging people to watch them!) so I had to pull the service.
In the end, I rewrote the code to screen-scrape the websites in question and released the code as a download. I was no longer running a publically available service and those people who wanted to use it had to download and set up the code themselves - which was nicely covered under the T&C's which stated "personal, non profit use only".
You do get a problem where if they change the layout then you have to re-code but big companies tend to do this very infrequently. For me it was more about the desire to keep the itch that I wanted scratched up and running than anything else.
21 comments at threshold 4 and not one person has noticed that the ability to lend a book is determined by the publishers?
Yep, that's right. The restrictions on 14 days and only once per book pales into insignificance if the publishers flip the "do not allow lending" button when they upload the content to Amazon.
I would not be surprised if a very small amount of Amazon's portfolio have lending enabled.