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- Report: Workers Spend 25 Percent of Work Time Goofing Around Online [Voices]September 29
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By Jacqui Cheng, Blogger, Ars Technica
If you’re reading this while your boss thinks you’re hammering away on some code or updating that Excel spreadsheet, then you’re likely one of the workers that spend about 25 percent of their work time doing personal stuff online. And chances are that your boss doesn’t even know it.
Network security consultant firm Voco says that CEOs and CIOs of companies are often completely unaware of what employees are doing online during work hours, allowing them (especially the tech-savvy ones) to get away with all sorts of online goofing off. Employees tend to spend work time browsing eBay auctions, using online dating or social networking sites, chatting over IM, and more, and they do it for just over a quarter of the time they spend at work.
- Even Heavy-Metal Fans Complain That Today’s Music Is Too Loud!!! [Voices]September 29
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By Ethan Smith, Staff Writer, The Wall Street Journal
Can a Metallica album be too loud?
The very thought might seem heretical to fans of the legendary metal band, which has been splitting eardrums with unrivaled power since the early 1980s.
But even though Metallica’s ninth studio release, “Death Magnetic,” is No. 1 on the album chart, with 827,000 copies sold in two weeks, some fans are bitterly disappointed: not by the songs or the performance, but the volume. It’s so loud, they say, you can’t hear the details of the music.
“Death Magnetic” is a flashpoint in a long-running music-industry fight. Over the years, rock and pop artists have increasingly sought to make their recordings sound louder to stand out on the radio, jukeboxes and, especially, iPods.
- FeedBurner May Not Be Hearing Your Pings [Voices]September 29
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By Marshall Kirkpatrick, Blogger, ReadWriteWeb
Blogging is a fast medium–that’s one of its advantages over traditional media. There are bloggers who specialize in reporting fast about breaking news on a wide variety of topics. Most of those bloggers use Google’s RSS publishing technology FeedBurner as a middleman to deliver their posts to subscribers and capture analytics.
If FeedBurner decides to take its sweet time in delivering the news, that’s bad for bloggers. Unfortunately, that’s what’s happening right now. We’ve been seeing delays of up to 20 minutes between posting to our site and our posts appearing in our FeedBurner feeds. That’s a pretty serious problem and we’re not alone in experiencing it.
- AOL Boss Randy Falco Begs Time Warner To Put Him Out Of His Misery [Voices]September 29
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By Peter Kafka, Managing Editor, Silicon Alley Insider
Time Warner (TWX) CEO Jeff Bewkes says he’ll have a decision on the future of AOL “soon”. That can’t come fast enough for AOL boss Randy Falco, who we’re told is now fuming about the limbo state his company has entered: “When is New York going to sell us?” we’re told he muttered in earshot of his lieutenants recently.
Meanwhile, Matt Marshall at Venturebeat doesn’t have a timeline, but he does have a theory about who’s going to buy the company: Both Yahoo and Microsoft. Matt’s scenario, which he says Microsoft is “quietly readying” (according to “sources close to AOL”): Yahoo snaps up AOL, then Microsoft buys both companies.
- MySpace, The Orchard Respond to Indie Label Equity Questions [Voices]September 29
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By Mark Hefflinger, Editor, DigitalMediaWire
After independent record label bodies including Merlin and A2IM criticized MySpace (NWS) for not offering them an equity position in its MySpace Music joint venture with the major record labels, MySpace responded in a statement saying it offered all labels the same deal, while independent music digital distributor The Orchard, which signed on with MySpace Music, explained its decision. “We have offered a relationship with Merlin that provides equal opportunities to Merlin’s labels and Merlin’s artists that we have provided to ALL labels and artists whether they are Indie Artists, Major Artists or Unsigned artists,” reads the MySpace statement.