I have registered, and rarely watched, for any number of webcasts, but never so easily as Intel just made it for me. Its not easy to make me say nice things about Microsoft but this was cool.

The usual process is to register, use http://www.timezoneconverter.com/ to fix the date and time and then cut and paste the rest of the information to Outlook.

At http://www.techonline.com/static/emails/3244.html however, after registration (multiple registration for any of their future webcasts) you are presented with a link to an *.ics file for each event.

Click! Its in your Outlook, in your time zone, no muss, no fuss. That calendars aren't generally as interoperable as SMTP is still a shameful state of affairs...

They decided what services, when, and how much. They decided the platform, the speed of rotation, controlled the horizontal and the vertical. Digital, analog, when and who and how often and for what purpose.

Now remains of all those institutions exist, but they, like IBM command less and less clout. Or like railways, or the State or the Church, or Society, or broadcast channels, monopoly carriers or a plethora of once ruling classes.

Nobody knows even a working sub-set of everything, nobody is the boss of you, which means you can enter into any contract, given knowlege not the "reality" that supports their One Right Way.

But there remain those who want to live by their Status, poets, priests and politicians among many others, and maybe they can, but at least we'll know what they're doing.

Progressive societies, the movement from Status to Contract.

The coercive power of the centre is loosened, it must offer benefits, not commands, if it is to survive at all.

ObURL: http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/techbeat/archives/2005/04/the_essential_m.html
Used to be a monopoly could ram it down your throat, any surprise we are not happy?