Reuters reports on NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker saying it won’t offer 99-cent TV-show rentals on iTunes, mirroring Warner.

Zucker:

We do not think 99 cents is the right price point for our content. … We thought it would devalue our content.

Yes, I’m sure that’s your real concern, Zucker. It’s nothing to do with thinking that you’ll get the same amount of sales at the $1.99 price-point, which is frankly a bit of a rip-off, or that you’d ideally like to keep people buying overpriced DVDs rather than move to digital rentals. However, the likelihood is studios will gross more with low-priced rentals, and consumers will see such shows as good value for money, not ‘devalued’. (Again, see WoSBlog’s investigation into Pac-Man for iOS pricing for the reality of what happens when high-profile meets high-value in iTunes.)

I sincerely hope those who have signed up for 99-cent rentals—Fox, ABC, Disney Channel and BBC America—start making money hand over fist, at the expense of NBC and Warner. And, believe me, it pains me to say “I hope Fox makes even more money than it does now,” but something needs to give studios a reality check regarding TV rental pricing.

Stop the presses!

Qluso is an online app that allows news editors to screw over freelance journalists, paying them as little as possible, and making them BEG for ‘work’, while laughing like a fucking nutcase.

(The above isn’t entirely accurate regarding what it says on the website, but it’s pretty on the ball when it comes to what’s going to happen.)

Hat tip: Adam Banks

Update: Qluso’s Lyra McKee responds:

As a former freelance journalist myself, I worked with my team to devise a product that could help freelance journalists get paid the best price and get paid on the same day. We love newspapers and journalists: Qluso was built to help them, not screw them over. I have seen firsthand the problems freelance journalists face in their day-to-day work and I can understand why you would be sceptical given current industry conditions, but Qluso was designed to eradicate these problems and to improve the working experience of freelance journalists.

As you may have noticed, this blog got a natty new theme last week. One of the things I wanted to do was make it hugely obvious which links have been followed. I therefore decided to style visited links with text-decoration: line-through. The thing is, this didn’t work. I was baffled, and so stood up, pointed to the sky and yelled: “TO THE GOOGLETRON!”

After my dog did his “what are you on?” face, I ended up finding Apple KB article HT4196, About the security content of Safari 5.0 and Safari 4. It says this:

WebKit

Impact: A maliciously crafted website may be able to determine which sites a user has visited

Description: A design issue exists in WebKit’s handling of the CSS :visited pseudo-class. A maliciously crafted website may be able to determine which sites a user has visited. This update limits the ability of web pages to style pages based on whether links are visited.

Further testing this morning regarding :visited suggests that the limits in WebKit are now severe. As far as I can tell, this is the list of properties now available to you when styling :visited in CSS:

• color

Great, huh? (Do leave a comment if you know of any others that work.) And with a good chunk of the world being colour-blind, what’s supposedly a fix for security is in reality also a punch in the face for accessibility.

Politics in the UK remains broken, with a voting system that is dated and rubbish, and an electorate that whinges no matter the outcome. We also have people making promises that they never keep, and everyone but the upper classes is getting routinely shafted.

But at least we’re not the USA.

The Nation, among other publications, reported on the Republican Party using the filibuster to stop legislation to end the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy in the country’s military. Said policy essentially means no-one’s allowed to ask if you’re gay, lesbian, or bisexual, but you’ll be kicked out of the forces if you are and reveal that’s the case.

Given the size of the US and its military, this is a big problem. The Nation reports that 14,000 Americans have been booted out for having the shocking audacity to be gay. The bastards. Still, Republicans to the rescue! To safeguard the country (by excluding lots of people for no good reason), they derailed legislation and offered some choice quotes. John McCain, who’s seemingly decided to become an extremist since losing to Obama, accused the Obama administration and Senate Democrats of “pandering” to the gay and lesbian community with their effort to end discrimination.

That’s quite a statement to make in any kind of civilised country. It’s no wonder many people, including his daughter, reckon the fight for equal rights is this generation’s civil rights movement. After all, imagine if McCain had instead declared one of the following:

The Obama administration and Senate Democrats are “pandering” to blacks with their effort to end discrimination.

The Obama administration and Senate Democrats are “pandering” to Hispanic people with their effort to end discrimination.

The Obama administration and Senate Democrats are “pandering” to women with their effort to end discrimination.

It’s not like the UK is devoid of discrimination, and there are plenty of (mostly Tory) MPs who aim to derail equal rights legislation (especially when it comes to gay rights), but the brazen level of disrespect, decency and common sense from the Republican Party just beggars belief. Anyone would think it’s 1810, not 2010.

We live in exciting times! McAfee has just launched McAf.ee (beta, obv.), which will revolutionise the internet by… adding another URL-shortening service to all the existing URL-shortening services that shorten URLs. Wow, McAf(ee), how exciting! It’s almost as if some dolt in PR figured you could get down with the kids, without stopping to think whether or not the world needs another URL-shortening service (hint: it doesn’t).

McAfee’s effort does stand out in two ways, though. First, the site is one of the ugliest it’s possible to imagine. It’s about 80 per cent likely to make your eyes explode, so be warned. Secondly, it enables you to create a ‘safe’ short URL, unlike all those deadly ones we’ve all been using previously. I don’t know about you, but every time I’ve used bit.ly my iMac has rocketed off the desk and banged on the ceiling, so McAfee is the Best Thing Ever on the internet. Unless, of course, I’m being hugely sarcastic and wish McAfee’s service would McAf.uckoff.

*thinks*

Oh.