Culture and Society

The great punk/funk pioneer bassist Dave Allen has not been idle since veering from the public eye, founding the terrific but overlooked World Domination label, and now pushing the cutting edge artist development-marketing monster, Overland Entertainment. Allen was a founder and the rhythmic heart of one of the most important …

Microsoft’s Internet service is shifting marketing efforts toward broadband and away from dial-up: After launching a $300 million marketing campaign last year to promote its Internet service and take market share from AOL, a unit of AOL Time Warner Inc., MSN is shifting its focus to the fast-growing high-speed, or …

She must be on her way out: listen to the new Hilary Rosen: RIAA chairman/CEO Hilary Rosen’s keynote address reflected the need to focus on buyers. “It’s time to come together. Now is our opportunity to put [consumers’] interests first,” she said. In what was likely her last speech at …

The RIAA going peer-to-peer with 300 corporations, informing them by letter that their computer networks are being used for file sharing: The music industry’s leading trade group has sent letters to 300 U.S. companies complaining about alleged acts of piracy and copyright infringement in their corporate computer networks and warning …

New phones introduced at the CTIA Wireless industry confab in New Orleans: These data-centric handhelds, more closely resembling PDAs than phones, reflect Microsoft’s continued push into the wireless market with both the Pocket PC and Smartphone operating systems. They use the CDMA version of Pocket PC software and operate on …

PBS’ Frontline has cobbled together an interesting backgrounder on the developments over the last 12 years leading to the impending military action against Saddam, called “The Long Road to War.” From the intro: With the United States apparently within days — if not hours — of launching a war against …

Research conducted by Procter & Gamble indicates viewers retain fast-forwarded commercials at about the same rate as normal speed: The surprising research has led at least some P&G marketing executives to conclude that TiVo may not pose the threat to TV advertising that many predict, according to executives close to …

So war it is. Despite all the protests, Security Council machinations, negotiations and pundit clucking, predictions from six months ago that the US and Britain would invade Iraq in March will have been borne out within about 48 hours. Given the intractable arrogance of Saddam, and the mission George W. …

Arik Hesseldahl, the e-business columnist for Forbes.com is doing a a killer series on the best blogs out there in the land of blogatry. If Google’s recent acquisition of Pyra Labs, creator of the Blogger.com service, didn’t drive the point home, then we’ll spell it out. Blogging–the term is a …

Much has happened since the last Gulf War: Hurtling over hostile, unfamiliar landscapes at speeds exceeding 500 miles per hour, today’s combat pilots have just seconds to identify their targets. “When you’re going a mile every six seconds you don’t really have a lot of time. You need to rapidly …