iTunes killer: Okay, we all know where I stand on the chances of iPod/iTunes juggernaut being stopped. However, Nick Wingfield in tomorrow’s WSJ previews the launch of Napster To Go.

Quote:

In the new Napster service, subscribers will be able to download music onto their PCs, then transfer it to their portable music devices, as they do with iTunes. Users will be able to fill their music players up with as many songs as the players will hold — but it is necessary to plug the devices into their PCs at least once every 30 days, so Napster can verify over the Internet that users are still paid-up members. Stop paying the monthly fee, and the songs become unplayable.

Okay. I’m convinced. Not.

Update: I’ve decided to agree with Laura (see comments). If someone prefers the subscription model, why shouldn’t they have that choice? iTunes should offer both.

What a neighborhood: Wow. I’m in John Battelle’s neighborhood. Gee, I guess the Searchblog’s “Findory Neighbors” somehow measures who his weblog’s biggest fans are. You can learn more about Findory Neighbors on Alex Edelman’s blog.

Inside blogging: Bush campaign and inauguration webmaster Patrick Ruffini (and blogger friend) is live blogging the state of the union address.

Magazines & blogging explored in February Folio: Folio: Magazine takes a look at the whole blogging thing and what it might mean for magazines. Unlike the interview today on the public radio show, Marketplace, in this article, I actually make sense.

Unlike that radio quote, this is how I really talk:

“If magazines wade into blogging thinking it’s just like magazines or a Web site, they’ll discover how unfun life can be in Blogistan.”

Side note: My friend Cam Bishop is on the cover of the issue.

Hmmm: Rafat Ali (PaidContent.org) reports “a rumor, half-fact or fact” that, “A major B2B media company, operating in content space similar to (PaidContent.org), has started buying out blogs. The company hopes to develop B2B blogs focuses on various topics, using the specializes bloggers…”

I’ll be commenting on the topic (not, actually, this specific rumor) of media company blogging “properties” and the other “blog media news of the week,” blog custom publishing, at some point in the next couple of days.

As one can assume, I have muddled opinions on both topics.

Martha Stewart, Firing: An Apprentice spin-off is being developed with Martha Stewart playing the role of Donald Trump. As she’ll surely be in the “post-incarceration redemption mode,” I predict this will be a kinder, gentler show in which Martha dismisses losing candidates by throwing them a going away dinner party.

Super Bowl hype embargo: Bill Simmons uses 2,000 words to argue why he doesn’t think Jacksonville is the right place to have a Super Bowl. As I’ve said way too often, the two weeks before the Super Bowl are the worst two weeks in sports. Primarily, because typically talented writers like Bill Simmons are reduced to cranking out this kind of crap. Unless the Titans are involved (hey, it could happen again one day), I’ve sworn off all pre-Super Bowl hype for the rest of my life.

Sign me up: I know that one reader of this weblog will not approve (he’s not a fan of Bezos, long story), but I’ve already signed up for Amazon Prime - “All You Can Eat” Express Shipping. For $79, you get a year of “free” (how’s it free when I pay $80 for it?) 2-day shipments and overnight shipments for $4 with no minimum purchase required. Up to four members of a household can use it. A quick review of my Amazon.com purchase record convinced me that, for me at least, this is a no-brainer. Apparently, they’ll still be offering the super saver free shipping for purchases over $50. Also, before you purchase anything at Amazon, remember to come to the rexblog and click on the link to my Amazon.com affiliate store on the left-hand column of any page on this blog. I was saving up all my commissions for a plasma TV (I was up to, like, $22) but then I donated it to the Red Cross tsunami-relief fund, instead.

More Microsoft lousy name suggestions: Dan Gillmor is also asking for suggestions of names that Microsoft can use to keep customers from buying Windows Lite. From last Friday, here are my top-10 suggestions for unappealing names:

10. Windows Weakling
9. Windows Yugo
8. Windows Mute
7. Windows Crash
6. Windows Without
5. Windows Osama
4. Windows Short Horn
3. Windows Slow Edition
2. Windows FU-EU
and the number one least appealing name…
1. Windows Mini

Would the Federalist Papers receive “press protection?” An article in the Christian Science Monitor today explores whether or not “press protections” extend to bloggers.

Here’s a quote:

Ultimately, the issue comes down to whether bloggers act like traditional journalists, says University of Iowa law professor and First Amendment specialist Randall Bezanson. Simply expressing opinions to a tiny audience doesn’t count, he says. If so, “then I’m a journalist when I write a letter to my mother reporting on what I’m doing. I don’t think the [constitutional] free-press clause was intended to extend its protections to letters to mothers from sons.”

As the primary authors of the Constitution did not use the “press,” but, rather, used the anonymously written “blogs of their era,” pamphlets, as their primary means of simply expressing opinions to a tny audience, I suggest “writing letters to mom” is not the proper comparison.

Tune in? While I have actually not heard it, I’ve heard that a story about CEO or corporate blogging is airing on the morning version of of the public radio program, Market Place this morning (it should be available online later today). I know that Steve Rubel and I were interviewed for the story, but the story is short, and well, Steve being from New York and all, well, he talks faster than me. So, maybe I’m on it, or maybe not. No matter. It’s another item for the cause. By the way, I blogged the interview last Friday over at the Hammock Publishing weblog, Hammorati.

Update: Here is the segment (it starts at the 4:35 minute mark), but listen fast. I’m at the end for about 2 seconds and provide absolutely nothing insightful.

Ground blogs day: Weatherbuggers Stephanie Bloggy Blozy and Mark Hoekzema, who typically blog hurricanes, are blogging Ground Hog’s day in Gobbler’s Knob, home of Punxsutawney Phil. Then tomorrow and for the rest of eternity, Stephanie and Mark will continue to re-post the exact same posts day after day.