That’s what Bill Rosenplatt, a DRM “specialist,” states in this Guardian article on Apple’s plans for DRM. Discouraged by Apple’s huge market share and clout, EMI pulled their catalog from iTunes and offered it DRM-free through Amazon. This move provided statistics to determine if offering DRM-free music would increase piracy of that music. Apparently, the answer is no.

“The statistics show that there’s no effect on piracy,” says Rosenplatt. The article goes on to state “that most download stores will remove DRM on permanent music downloads” and that Apple will soon be “selling iPods preinstalled with unlimited access to music, or with a bundle to a subscription offering,” all with DRM-free music.

This means greater control for the consumer. We will have the choice of what we can do with music and what devices we can use to listen to our music.

I officially started my internship with Cox Communications, the nation’s third largest cable company, this week. I’ll be spending the summer with Cox’s strategy and product development group. Needless to say, it will be an interesting summer as I’ll be involved in numerous exciting initiatives that Cox has brewing.

As expected, I’m restricted on what I can say. However, I can tell you that the MSOs and telcos are facing some interesting hurdles and have big future plans for the consumer. I’m looking forward to helping make these plans a reality.

Stephen Fleming, a former venture capitalist and current head of Georgia Tech’s VentureLab, is writing an excellent series on raising capital on his blog. Fleming, who’s also on the investment committee of Seraph Group, has plenty of VC experience and knows the do’s and don’ts of raising venture funding. If you’re raising capital or thinking about it, you need to read this series (you can download a PDF of his presentation here):

• 01 - Introduction
• 02 - 4 ways to fund a startup
• 03 - The venture equity cycle
• 04 - Picking the right investors
• 05 - Venture capital in the southeast
• 06 - Value drivers of a successful startup
• 07 - Other attractive elements of a startup
• 08 - Writing your business plan/presentation
• 09 - Seven deadly sins of business plans
• 10 - The VC meeting
• 11 - Developing your pitch

My first computer had a 25MB hard drive that I thought was enormous. 15 years later and I now own a 32GB USB flash drive. I bought the Patriot Xporter XT 32GB flash drive for $149 (after mail-in rebate of $25) from Newegg. With write speeds of 7MB/s and read speeds of 32MB/s, the thing is reasonably fast. More importantly, it’s tiny — about the same size as my Cruzer 2GB USB drive, but with much more storage space. I can now carry large files, movies, music and more with me. The thing can store as much as my laptop!

So Lance Weatherby turned me on to this guy, Paul Stamatiou. He’s 21 years-old and has been blogging for a few years now. He’s a CS student at Georgia Tech. He blogs about web technologies and posts gadget and technology reviews. He’s built a solid following and was even in the Technorati top 100 for a while.

Basically, he blogs about cool stuff he’s interested in and he does it very well. His blog is insightful and well written and has established him as a voice in the web startup community. Marketing and ad agencies now contact him to promote their clients’ products. He was even featured in a Nike+ ad.

It’s a testament that anyone who has something good to say can establish themselves online. My favorite posts of his:

• Thoughts on Startups
• A Realistic Back to School Guide for College Students
  
• The Next Level

A U.S. Navy ship will try to shoot down a malfunctioning spy satellite in the coming days. The satellite, which malfunctioned and became uncontrollable shortly after reaching orbit in 2006, contains a toxic fuel that can be deadly if inhaled by humans. The Pentagon is worried the satellite may crash into a city or other inhabited area resulting in fatalities or injuries.

Some may see this as a response to China’s shooting down a weather satellite last year. The U.S. maintains this is just a precaution to ensure our safety.