5 chapters across the catalog
John Dvorak shares an anecdote about a failed product called "DOS in a Can" to illustrate why creators often complain about marketing support. The hosts apply this lesson to the failure of podcast networks like Mevio and Spotify's billion-dollar investment, arguing that the network model is fundamentally incompatible with the medium's strengths.
Dodd-Frank Act, Ratings Agency Regulation Conflict
Standard & Poor's president Devin Sharma reportedly authored an op-ed criticizing government regulation of ratings agencies. The Dodd-Frank Act contains provisions that would allow the government to regulate and test employees of these agencies. Ratings firms like Moody's and Fitch are reportedly resistant to these new federal oversight requirements.
In 1994, the "Official Internet Yellow Pages" was published as a massive physical directory containing over 10,000 entries for the burgeoning World Wide Web. Published by New Riders and Osborne McGraw-Hill, these books attempted to categorize the internet in a format similar to a telephone directory. Today, these volumes serve as collector's items that document the early command-line and newsgroup era of online culture.
Who's Who Directories, Early Internet Reference Guides
The "Who's Who" series of books is described as a vanity publishing business model where individuals are encouraged to purchase expensive copies of directories in which they are featured. Alongside these are early internet reference guides, such as the "Internet Complete Reference," which cataloged fewer than 750 resources and focused heavily on Usenet groups. These publications highlight the rapid expansion of digital information compared to the mid-1990s.
Under United States law, book titles are not eligible for copyright protection, leading to frequent market confusion when multiple publishers release works with identical names. This was notably seen with competing "Internet Yellow Pages" editions in the 1990s, where publishers like McGraw-Hill expressed frustration over rivals using the same title. Despite industry complaints, the lack of legal protection for titles remains a standard aspect of the publishing business.
