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p>The Ed Techie: What Mailbox limits reveal:

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Grainne posted recently about the frustration of continually getting the ‘Your mailbox is over its size limit’ in our OU email accounts. I can’t tell you how annoying this – sometimes I am just trying to send a quick response to someone before I have to dash out of the door, but it won’t let me because I have to find and delete any attachment over 2K to free up space. Grrrr.

(Discovered this site through the Edublogs Awards.)

It’s interesting to see the comments on the gist of this article — in terms of how reasonable the restriction or attitude behind it are. IT usage restrictions always seem to generate two separate camps of apologists and critics. Apologists focus on the rational behind it, the need to balance services with resources, and limitations of the technology or workflow. Critics tend to express frustration over inconvenience, limitations, or restrictions that make their work harder, or prevent them from performing a specific action, or in a particular way.

While I can’t claim to have a solution to IT limits (regrettably, my superpowers don’t seem up to the task) I do notice that we seem to have an opportunity for dialog. IT Governance is an increasingly hot topic, particularly with institutions struggling to prioritize during lean budget years. We clearly have a pool of customers who are more than willing to tell us what they think is important.

I think the need to create dialog highlights one of the reasons a number of us found Collier’s MyUMBC feedback feature so compelling. By integrating feedback submission forms into every page, portal visitors are encouraged to communicate their reactions and thoughts (even about email quotas ) making the barrier to contribution very low. At the same time, while many of us have feedback forms that email teams, the MyUMBC example of integrating the admin panel & tools to ease followup/contact make it easy to go back, and mine through the data, or engage customers in dialog regarding their experiences with the product or service.

I’m happy to say that Jenn’s work on the feedback portlet stemming from the JA-SIG Unconference seems likely to move uPortal (and maybe someday Sakai or other portlet containers ) further in the direction of built in mechanisms to collect these user sentiments and provide information so we can work to better address our users concerns, experiences, and frustrations.

Rethink: Beginning Rails: From Novice to Professional:

But where does this leave individual developers/firms/companies who’ve used the logo to promote Rails services or Rails-based products? If the logo is a trademark (and it is), then shouldn’t everyone who’s used it in vain stop using it? I should think so, but it would be nice if there were some kind of “logo program” to replace it—some kind of official “We Use Rails” logo with open-but-very specific licensing provisions to allow people to indicate that they use Rails, or that their product/book/service is about Rails, without necessarily claiming or implying approval by DHH. I mean, when Engine Yard uses the logo, does that mean they’re an “approved” Rails host? Are they more or less “approved” than Dreamhost? If we’re talking about the logo as a protected trademark, then let’s not keep the discussion limited to books and conferences.

(Via nuby on rails.)

Interesting question for lots of organizations. I know a lot of groups are starting to develop sanctioned “affiliate”, “partner”, or other logo programs. Seems One incentive is the ability to then offer usage of a logo as a benefit to joining at some level.

Killing the Music – When I started in the music business, music was important and vital to our culture. Artists connected with their fans. Record labels signed cutting-edge artists, and FM radio offered an incredible variety of music. Music touched fans in a unique and personal way. Our culture was enriched and the music business was healthy and strong. That’s all changed. Today the music business is in crisis. Sales have decreased between 20 and 30 percent over the past three years. Record labels are suing children for using unauthorized peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing systems. Only a few artists ever hear their music on the radio, yet radio networks are battling Congress over ownership restrictions. Independent music stores are closing at an unprecedented pace. And the artists seem to be at odds with just about everyone — even the fans. [ "(extlink)Washington Post":http://washingtonpost.com ]

Music as a business really does seem to be struggling. It’s not just sagging sales. Less albums are being released, and more of what is being released seems to be “Best of” albums, or generic sounding items. New artists are having a harder and harder time breaking into the business, and fans seem to be increasingly frustrated. Somehow, the relationship between the labels, artists, and fans have to change. Continue Reading »

Disposable DVDs get thumbs-down from buyers – The disposable DVD concept has never been a popular one with most technology-oriented folk, who generally prefer the concept of ownership of their physical property over that of continuously renting it � for example, witness the reservations many have over the DRM restrictions in the iTunes Music Store. So it should come as a relief that a test-run of throwaway discs by Buena Vista Home Entertainment has come to a premature end, according to Wired. [ "(extlink)Arstechnica":http://www.arstechnica.com ]

I think the most disappointing thing about these disks is their cost. Having worked at Blockbuster, I think a lot of people would like the idea of a DVD they could buy, take home and open that week or whenever they got around to it, and not worry about late fees because it doesn’t have to be returned. Perhaps sold from a giant vending machine that stocked thousands of titles in little sleeves.

The key issue seems to be price though. $6 is too much. $2-3 and I think people would be snapping them up like hotcakes.