I've been knocking out Freeloader Friday episodes for more than 2 years now. In fact, next month will see Freeloader's 100th episode. As part of that, ThinkFree and MacMerc are giving away a couple copies of ThinkFree Office to two lucky readers.

What to you have to do? Well, link to Freeloader (you can use the Freeloader badge I have to the right) and email me with your home page's address (brian AT macmerc DOT com). The winner will be announced on the 11th of June.

Yeah, cool, I know.

I always knew Jon was going places. I just never knew he'd be on CNN at 19. There are a few critics of his story, but the ability to generate buzz-worthy news is the reason this story has made its rounds.

You could learn a lot from Jon, and how he breaks stories. One of the key elements is timing and precision. This article could not have come right on time, complete with thorough diagrams. The idea itself isn't rocket science, but it nailed an audience and blew open a story that Pepsi should never have allowed to happen.

Being at the right place at the right time and having something interesting to say is more than just luck, it’s marketing. This Friday belongs to Jon. Nice one.

If you've been following my MP3 player antics, you'll know I've been reviewing flash MP3 players. I've posted reviews of the Rio Fuse and irock 860. The latter is really one nice piece of work. You can read my review for details, but suffice to say, I liked it a lot. If you're looking for a flash MP3 player in the $100-$150 range, consider the irock 840 or 860.

I noticed a new outfit called MacXware has come out with some pro-sumer applications for video and photo editing, fonts and more. In record time, I received a confirmation to my request to review the new apps. So, look for reviews of these new apps at MacMerc soon.

It’s good being a reviewer. In fact, I’d even say it rocks.

If you didn't know, one of my self-assigned responsibilities at MacMerc is to review computer software and hardware. Friday, I got a spiffy mp3 player from Rio, called the Fuse. It's cool, and much less than an iPod. It worked as expected - until I upgraded the firmware.

In blatant disregard of the old axiom, "if it's not broken, don't fix it" I gave in to the geek credo "upgrade, upgrade, upgrade". That is where my Fuse burned out, or without the colorful analogy, it stopped working.

Now, I didn't do anything some poor hapless customer wouldn't do. But since I am not a poor hapless customer, and instead a reviewer for the [blatant self-promotion] greatest pro Mac site on the 'net [/blatant self-promotion] I have a decision to make. I could:

A: Blast the product in my review, gratifying myself with my own unabashed and sinister gall.

B: Destroy the Fuse, as a way of compensating myself for several wasted hours of troubleshooting.

C: Pretend I am a mortal in the world of computer peripherals and call tech support.

D: Perpetrate a diabolical crime, leaving only the dysfunction gadget at the scene.

Well, I wouldn't be a self-respecting writer without choosing "C", but I wouldn't be any fun if I didn't daydream a little about "A", "B" and "D". For now you citizens of metropolis are safe, unless you work at Rio...

I've reviewed some pretty cool USB toys for MacMerc this month. Among them was Edge Memory's DiskGo! USB Watch. This thing is pretty cool, though it took some digging around the web site to find Jaguar and Panther drivers. For some reason, the onboard flash drive can't be mounted in 10.2+ without help.

It is one great spy gadget. It sells for just under $100, which is more or less fair, given the 128 MB capacity, physical size and watch functionality. Once the drivers are installed, it works great. The watch isn't any thicker than your average analog. The USB cable is the most obvious thing about the watch, but it tucks away nicely into the band.

That's it for my celebrity endorsement. In other MacMerc news, I'm putting together my year-end "best of" special for Freeloader Friday. Last year's was one of the most popular episodes of 2002. You can message me here with any nominations for best freeware of the year. I'll be sticking with last year's categories: Best on the Web, Freeware Classic, System Extension, Menu Item and Plug-in with the addition of two new categories: best PC App and Best New App.

Hey, of Oprah can do it, then I can too.

This week's episode of Freeloader Friday features a bunch of free apps that access services or websites directly, sans-browser. The trend towards cutting out the browser as a middle-man is growing. Feeding the fire are RSS readers and a growing number of services offering syndication.

For those of us who have been waiting for XML to amount to something can feel confident that the standard has grown up. I think we'll only see more of these kinds of apps as more standards emerge. For Apple, it's belated evidence they are on the right track with Sherlock. But then, Apple's used to being way out in front.

What to look for is how revenue streams will fit into these standards. With text-based contextual Google-type ads catching on, we may see ads sooner than you think popping up in data feeds (remember Google owns Blogger).

Look for more Freeloader Friday after-show specials on this blog

As I noted on MacMerc.com, I have looked into Macromedia's new activation system, and found many of my fears laid to rest.


Fear number 1


If I upgrade to a newer Mac, I won't be able to install Studio again


According to the FAQ, you can "transfer your activation" from your machine to install again on a new Mac. Very cool.


Fear number 2


What about my iBook? Will I be able to use my activated software on the road when I have it installed already on my desktop?


Macromedia beat you there too. You get 2 activations per license. One for your desktop, one for the road.


Fear number 3


What about my brother-in-law's friend's neighbor?


He gets to buy it himself.


Is it unfair for Macromedia to implement this kind of policy? I don't think so; in fact I think it provides clarification. Did you know that the End Users License on previous Macromedia products forbade installation on more than one machine?


So, while Macromedia is tightening up on software piracy, it is actually loosening it's policy at the same time.


With one of the largest educational discounts in the business, Macromedia has been very generous with its users. All I think they are asking for now is that we be fair in how we use their software.

I recently published a review of Contribute 2 for OS X. I'd have to say I was very pleased. Contribute isn't a very complex program, but that is by design. It fills an important spot in Macromedia's lineup.

Anyway, you can read the review. The point is, 2 days after I published the review we received an email from Erik over at the IT Enquirer citing his own lengthy review of Contribute.

He discredited the review right off when he mentioned personal experience with the application. His review was very negative, and did not cover anything but performance.

After reading his review, I specifically revisited the parts of the program he had a hard time with, and I was unable to reproduce his complaints. As you may know, my test machine is a 400 MHz G3 iMac on a "dirty" phone line that averages 20 bps connection. If Contribute had any speed problems, I have a feeling my system would have revealed them.

The other thing I noticed was the author's mention that he himself uses BBEdit to edit HTML (yikes). Contribute is obviously intended for users on the complete other end of the spectrum. When writing, audience should always be a key concern.

If anything, this proves that reviews of a given product can differ greatly based on the reviewer's experience with it. I politely declined Erik's request for a link from our site, and I'm glad. I don't think Macromedia deserves that kind of bad press.