The Place To Go To Find The Place To Go From Your Chair, fucking finally!!!

Just in case. Flight #2004 on southwest can be reached by usual methods to get at my mobile. Be with sunny ht and d if mine is not functioning.

Napster

Napster bits, fucking briliant!!!

pictures of you has been licenced by hp. here's to you robert!!!

a little catch up on the last few days. jeremy appears from the past. cat visits. radiohead is no longer in the worst live act ever category. started at wonderland. anna christina eric thank you your all bomb! having really good time learning tons. meeting dope new kids. school good. kids good. interviewing at lions gate next week for spring internship and cred. digital rights and tunes con with passman!

New Solar Cells 20 Times Cheaper: "STMicroelectronics has announced a new generation of photocells made from organic plastics. Over a typical 20-year life span of a solar cell, a single produced watt should cost as little as $0.20, compared with the current $4. See also article @ cnn.com. On a related note, this article @ IEEE discusses new improved LED technology by the same team."

this ones for paul, very cool!!!

Innocent File-Sharers Could Appear Guilty?, "New Scientist has an article about what could be a promising defense strategy for people targeted by the RIAA. Basically, anyone on the Gnutella network can frame other users by making it look like someone is hosting RIAA music, even though they're not. Therefore, the RIAA's 'evidence' against file sharers is theoretically unreliable and wouldn't stand as good a chance of holding up in court. No mention of whether this has anything to do with the RIAA's eagerness to settle the lawsuits out of court. The article is based on a research paper posted anonymously to a web hosting service in Australia."

interesting!!!

pure design, dope design, thx tree!!!

In The Trenches, dope blog with some really cool fotogs!!!

RIAA's case of mistaken identity?, "The trade association confirmed Wednesday that it had withdrawn its suit against Boston-area senior citizen Sarah Ward, who claimed that she could not possibly have been involved in the file-swapping incident attributed to her. Among other objections, Ward is a Macintosh computer user, and there is no Apple version of the Kazaa file-trading software she is supposed to have used, according to attorneys who have spoken to the woman."

wow glad that the dmca and Comcast are requiring probable cause!!! :(

MS Psychologist on How We Read, "In another follow-up to Can You Raed Tihs? Microsoft's Kevin Larson, a cognitive psychologist, dissected the main hypotheses on how we read at ATypI's Vancouver Typography conference. 'Kevin supports the 'parallel letter recognition' model. People don't he says, recognise whole-word shapes. Instead the recognise each of the letter components and then make a series of best-guesses on the information returned to assemble, first, phonemes and then words.' So what about the case of patterned re-ordering, aka the counter example to Can You Raed Tihs?"

this explains why people can understand me when i type!!! :)

Ultra High Definition Video, "Engineers at the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) have developed a prototype ultra high definition video (UHDV) system. How good is it? When it was shown to the public, some viewers experienced nausea because of the ultra realistic visual effect of speed without the usual physical sensation of movement. 18 minutes of UHDV takes up 3.5 terabytes. 4,000 horizontal scanlines. Excellent."

Can you say dope!!!

Magnatune: try before you buy MP3 music, "We're a record label. But we're not evil.

We call it 'try before you buy.' It's the shareware model applied to music. Listen to hundreds of MP3'd albums from our artists. Or try our genre-based radio stations. If you like what you hear, buy our music online for as little as $5 an album or license our music for commercial use. Artists get a full 50% of the purchase price. And unlike most record labels, our artists keep their rights to their music.

Founded by musicians, for musicians.

No major label connections.

We are not evil. "

sounds very very interesting!!!

British rock star Robert Palmer dies at 54

British rock star Robert Palmer dies at 54, :(

Kazaa Sues Record Labels, CNN is reporting that Kazaa is suing the record companies, claiming that they used an illegal client to log in to the P2P network - an interesting twist." The lawsuit also claims "...efforts to combat piracy on Kazaa violated terms for using the network!!!

see i knew some one would bring up misuse of the network, they have to be violating some licence or computer intrusion statute. just haven't had time to think it out yet!!!

Mac Viruses By The Numbers, Word Macro: 553, Classic Mac: 26, OS X: Zero. Now the methodology has a few flaws but the point is well taken and one people should heed. Even if the math is off by a 30% there is still such a difference, makes one wonder why we have a gov't that until recently used m$ in place of mac on desktops, in the battle field, on battles ships (see earlier posts), and looks like they closed down the m$ driven visa application system this week too. hummm interesting!!!

BigChampagne, Online Media Measurement, they are watching! But most importantly, they are monitizing!!!

Rotation Archive

Rotation Archive:
D4
Friendster
HeadPhoneRecord
Hüsker Dü
Sigur Rós
The Beach Boys
The Clash
Trail Of Dead
Transistor Lounge

tonight, emily, ht, brian, the yeah yeah yeahs (think '78 cbgb), the greek and the stripes! and they are getting better!!!

oops forgot to mention, and not for lack of impact. psych furs were great on sat!!!

The Origin of Murphy's Law, was just talking about this!!!

the violent femmes fun as ever. havven't seen jenn and tree that happy and bouncy in quite some time. very nice!!!

hot hot heat as promised and give em and album or two. the performance was great and the ideas really good. very british sounding to me ala pulp, eventhough they are canadian. biran says phrasing reminds him of oingo boingo. definitely a unique pop sound. they grow to be fine kids.

echo was well FUCKING AMAZING!!!! seen footage, heard tapes but oh my god!!! despight the years and shake ups that band still top!!! i absolutely will kill to see them again so please don't take a ticket that might be mine or have to hit you in the tooth with a spoon!

duran duran, what can you say they are duran fucking duran! i have been listening to them since their debut album, it was the first vinal album (i had 8-tracks before that) i ever owned. i won it in a limo contest at a b-day party when i was a wee lad. despight a few tech problems, they were increadible. nothing quite feels like seeing a band of that influence after such a long time playing together and looking like they just love it and each other. they are cool. as in definition of.

and last up, the cure with one of the coolest set of obscure great album tracks in a long time. every time i see them its the hits and a couple hear and there not predicted but wow!!! made brians day, his fav played. i am still waiting to hear push live but who knows. so robert if you reading this next time you in la...hook a brother up. and thank you mr. smith for a wonderful show, they just get better evertime they come. age don't got nothin, crazy too, cuz i remeber when robert turned 30. i thought holy shit man, that guys old hows he gona make music still thats relevant to me, things i'll wana hear. well i'm 30 now he's 44, the cure is still the shit and i will probably always feel that way about tunes. somethings are timeless. they're comming round next year, can i reserve a ticket now?!!!

more tomorrow. burnt. left at 9am home now 520am.

big up to mouse! big up to mr markman, tree, and jenn!

big up to all the bands dope dope show all around good fun for the kids!!!

Food and drink. Thx mouse! Sean hanson. Mark almond eh. Bothers jenn. General public. Word. Dashboard! Again i say VAGRANT!!! Interpol wow can they channel. Ups to barney hooky steven and of course ian! Look for good stuff from the rain coats.

Dramarama just fucking rocked shit like it was 1989! Never to old to rock! Dashboard thank you vagrant!!! Now bow wow wow! Oh shit! Energy!!!

Hanging with mouse and pete. They hooked it up! Big ups! Jet sounding good but need to want it. But potential in a smaller venue. Jenn says acdc. Thats australia. Give em a small smoky venue and a crowd up for it. Expect good tings.

today is the big day!!! inland invasion :) if i have connectivity at the venue, the will be live updates!!!

Astronomer Tips Major Tokyo Quake - Sep. 15, 2003 and guess what Strong Earthquake Rocks Tokyo - Sep. 20, 2003!!! um ok, thats fukin crazy!!!

FilmWise

FilmWise, film geek heaven. think you know your shit, try their "invisibles" quizes. these guys got seriously way way to much time on their hands, but i am glad!!!

Neuron News from DPRI

Neuron News from DPRI, new site to me. current news, references and realistic commentary related to brain science and neurotechnology. looks dope!!!

Upgrade the Human out of Existence, an extension of my recent fascination with who owns that created by a machine. most i have talked to believe it should be owned by the human who owns the machine. but what happens when the human who owns the machine is no longer human but machine?!!!

kiss100, looking like it may have better programing than radio1 these days, adam f, hype, digweed. also check the new 1xtra looks good!!!

BlogSnob, re-added. BlogSnob™ is an experimental service for members of the blogging community. It enables you to tell everyone Out There about your blog, thru simple textbased ads. It's FREE, it's fast, and it's downright simple. Besides, it's a great way to get to know about new blogs! How this works, is quite simple. You have a  personal website. You insert a simple piece of code into your page. Everytime someone views your site, a small text ad of another blog shows up on your page.

Inland Invasion, i am headed back to high school!!!

ATP, its back! LA2003 Curated by Matt Groening. All Tomorrow's Parties Festival is rescheduled for Nov. 8 and 9 at the Queen Mary!!!

Rotation Archive

Rotation Archive:
Friendster
HeadPhoneRecord
Hüsker Dü
Sigur Rós
The Beach Boys
The Clash
Trail Of Dead
Transistor Lounge

Buffalo Wild Wings Sauces, some of the worlds best. Right up there with Arby's Sauce, Freebirds BBQ and Rooster! Now i don't have to travel all the way to Vegas!!!

if anyone is looking, here is my schedual. all flights are jet blue. i am reachable by usual mobile methods. :)

12 Sep 03
248
Long Beach, CA 3:00pm
Oakland, CA 4:20pm

15 Sep 03
241
Oakland, CA 06:45am
Long Beach, CA 08:05am

new idea about the new pending apple laptops. they have this cool feature on the 17 inch that illuminates the keyboard when ambient light is low.

why not extend that technology. here is what i propose.

change the lcd from a transmission (light from back) to a transflexive (light from back and front) or reflexive (light from front). this would allow increased visibility in high light situations, near a window or outside. at the same time it would conserve battery life. the sensors currently in use to light the keys could be used to light the back in the transflexive or the sides of the display in the reflexive model.

anyway just a thought!!! any takers?

Back after a long hiatus. School's taking up a lot of time. Lots of little side projects going on too. But all is well and much fun is being had.

Big ups to all who came out for my big b-day! Thank you too all of you! My friends rock!!!

Here are some pictures and movies of the big big super happy super happy fun time. :) Enjoy!!!

Rotation Archive

Rotation Archive:
Friendster
HeadPhoneRecord
Hüsker Dü
The Beach Boys
The Clash
Trail Of Dead

The Antigravity Underground, The fantastic floating device called a lifter has no moving parts, no onboard fuel, and no shortage of wide-eyed admirers. Even inside NASA.

WOW, my very own UFO!!!

Maybe everyone knew this already but it occured to me just yesterday. Sorry i'm a little slow.

Anyway i have a new theory about the Green Flash, at least its new to me. You know how everyone is always looking for that elusive green flash just as the sun sets. i think it is an after image on your retna. you don't notice the green because it is mixed with the orange from the sun. but as soon as the sun leaves the field the green becomes most apparent and then slowly fades.

anyway, my new theory!!!

Machinima Invade Hollywood's Turf?, "Thanks to Wired News for posting an article discussing the rise of machinima, which are "animated movies.. utilizing the [real-time] 3-D graphics engines of games like Quake or Unreal." The article cites prominent machinima such as Jake Hughes' Anachronox: The Movie and the machinima-created music video for Zero 7's 'In The Waiting Line', and according to Bill Rehbock of Nvidia, "..machinima methods, in addition to providing a hobby for aspiring filmmakers, are starting to be used in the creative industries far more than is apparent. For example, George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic is using the Unreal engine to storyboard Star Wars movies." There's also a significant cash prize for machinima makers as part of Epic's Make Something Unreal competition we mentioned a few weeks back."

Distributed Computing Economics, "In a ClusterComputing.org article, Jim Gray, director of Microsoft's Bay Area Research Lab, provides an interesting economic analysis for building distributed systems. When do you choose a grid over a cluster or a supercomputer? When does it pay off to move a task to the data vs moving the data to the task? He takes current hardware and networking costs into account to answer those questions."

i had an idea a few years ago after reading "Peer-to-Peer", why not have a company sell computers at a discounted rate with a future allowance for the use of spare cycles. The company fronts part of the cost of the computer and the consumer pays them back the loan in resources. You could also say "donate" resources as many do today to organizations like seti@home, or even sell them to corporations who could use them. There could be an interface between the distributed client and server which tracked the available jobs. The user then could select which jobs it wanted to work on and the server would get the work units and credit the users account for futre payment.

Just an idea!!!

Apple gets Exclusive Distribution of Soundtrack, "MacCentral reports that Apple has obtained exclusive distribution rights to the soundtrack for "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen". The album is on sale for $9.99 through Apple's iTunes Music Store -- and will not be available in traditional music stores and no physical CDs are being made for the U.S. market."

Well i guess the music world is changing!!! ;)

Hi-Tech Babble Baffles Many, AMD just did a study of what high tech terms consumers understood. According to this write up "the word megahertz...mystified many". Looks like trouble since new 64 bit chips are in the pipe and multi-prossesors with multiple cores are becoming more common. Whats a marketer to do!!!

9th Circuit Court Finds 'Thumbnailing' Fair Use, "A photographer named Leslie Kelly had sued Arriba Soft Corporation for infringing his copyrights to photos when they made thumbnails of his pictures and stored them in a public image search engine. Today the federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court's ruling that making these thumbnail copies of images for the search engine was 'fair use.' Since the applicability of fair-use defenses to copyright infringement touches on all kinds of common uses of the Internet as well as rulemaking related to the scope of the DMCA, this decision will probably have an effect on the discussion. (Note that this case was decided by a 3-judge panel and thus isn't binding precedent.)" Note that the court also reversed in part the lower court's ruling, specifically saying that the lower court should not have ruled on "whether the display of the larger image is a violation of Kelly's exclusive right to publically display his works."

This is a nice holding but the DMCA is a terribly written law. The '76 Act covers almost everything necessary for copyright protection without the need for a new and confusing addendum. Learn the DMCA well so you can toss it out!!!

Piracy and peer-to-peer, which would better read "Privacy and P2P" is a somewhat coherent if slightly inacurate look at the current state of affairs in the high technology copyright battle. The article is defintely worth a read howerver as the latter half is a debate between Ian Clarke, Freenet creator and Matt Oppenheim, RIAA's senior vice president of business and legal affairs. Their perspectives are very interesting. And if you have an interest in keeping any part of the world free you might want to take a read!!!

The Semi-Blog "Greetings Earthlings", While he's living aboard the International Space Station, Expedition Seven NASA ISS Science Officer Ed Lu is writing about his experiences. You can also ask Ed or Commander Yuri Malenchenko a question. Pretty cool!!!

oh yeah another little personal bit, my t250 has been retired. :) by and thanks for all the hard work my little (ok not so little) blue friend.

in comming a bright shiny new nokia with an xhtml and wap 2.0 browser :)

i love toys!!!

Big ups to all the kids on the adventures this weekend. Much fun and love to all, cars, boats, kegs, boards, friends, speakers!!! Oh my!!!

Nobel Prize Winners on Sci-Fi Flicks, In case you missed it, Harold Varmus, Nobel prize winning retrovirologist and cancer biologist, former NIH director, and current head of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, has written a review of 28 Days Later in this weekend's New York Times. One would think that his time is more valuably spent running important medical institutions, searching for new cancer insights/cures, etc, but the dude's also an English lit major and has a penchant for sci-fi. 28 Days Later is the new flick from director Danny Boyle (Shallow Grave, Trainspotting, etc.) about a virus termed rage that is advertently released from a Cambridge primate research facility and goes on to devastate much of merry old England more rapidly than the dragons did in Reign of Fire. Although Varmus appears to go out of his way to be even handed, it's clear that he has a problem suspending disbelief on a topic (virology) that is near and dear to him. Reviews from professional movie critics on 28 Days Later have been mixed, but Ebert and another NY Times reviewer were into it. Good, clean summer fun - aside from 'the scenes of maiming, dismemberment, clubbing, shooting, bayoneting and shoplifting'."

Btw run! Do not walk, to see 28 Days Later. I had been trying to see it since the first week in Jan!!! It was worth every minute of the wait.

Also a big up to Brian who knew on spec it was gona be a classic and i thought people wouldn't get it. Looks like you were right my man.

Only one bit of caution. Do NOT watch it alone, and do watch it durring the day. :) Enjoy!!!

Court Says Gator-style Ads Are Legal, "A federal court has ruled that pop-up ads for rivals of U-Haul International, placed atop the moving company's own site by a third-party software application, are legal."

"The summary decision", came out last week. Not sure what type it was or the rational. Full decision will be available next week.

Hopefully more analysis then. As for now note this is not a decision about "drive by downloads" but is probably really an issue of "palming off".

I can't really see how any court would not think this was palming off or some other form of unfair competition but only time will tell!!!

Filesharing Up 10% After RIAA Threatens Users, "Technews says filesharing has gone up 10% on some sites such as Grokster since the Recording Industry Association of America's announcement on June 25 that it will start tracking down and suing users of file-sharing programs. Wayne Rosso, president of Grokster, commented 'even genocidal litigation can't stop file sharers'."

Maybe its uh time for a new plan?!?

Science Faction, "Imagine a gun that uses fingerprint scanning to prevent you firing a shot, brain implants that let you tap into people's memories and a newspaper that updates itself when a big story breaks. It's not science fiction, it's science fact, as technologists catch up with - and surpass - the benchmarks set by sci-fi writers and filmmakers."

Welcome to your present!!!

Anti-Patriot Act Movement Expands, "Mount Shasta, California has become the latest city where the USA PATRIOT act is creating a controversy. This story at the Record-Searchlight describes petitioning by a local citizens' rights committee to order police to defy the PATRIOT act. To date, 3 states and 130 cities have passed legislation forbidding local authorities from cooperating with federal PATRIOT requests, not to mention the numerous businesses who are taking pains to hamper the Act's coverage."

Let the revolution begin!!!

GPL May Not Work In German Legal System, "It may be that the (L)GPL can not be (fully) enforced under German jurisdiction. This is at least the conclusion professor Gerald Spindler of the jurisprudential faculty of the University of Goettingen came to when he examines the Legal questions of the open source software (It's long, it's complex and it's in German and it's written by a professor, so don't expect to understand anything, if you are not a German lawyer). Heise News has the article in German, however, the fish may be with you. IANAL, however, as one can put some of the legal problems aside, most of the concerns mentioned in there should provoke at least some thought by brave men around RMS."

Solar Sailing and Physics, the New Scientist writes that the next generation of spacecraft might be propelled with the help of the sun. "Both NASA and the European Space Agency are developing solar sails and, although never tested, the concept is quite simple. A solar sail is essentially a giant mirror that reflects photons of sunlight back in the direction they came from." But Thomas Gold from Cornell University in New York says the proponents of solar sailing have forgotten about thermodynamics, the branch of physics governing heat transfer." And this is where it's becoming interesting. Gold's paper, "The solar sail and the mirror," states that "either Carnot's accepted rule is in error, or the solar sail proposal will not work at all." So, as this illustration from New Scientist shows, the real question is: "Can it really sail away?" We'll know it in September when the first tests are done.

Digital Shoplifting From Bookstores?, "According to a report from Tokyo via IOL, Japanese publishers have launched a campaign to stop 'digital shoplifters.' These 'digital shoplifters' are using cellphones to photograph magazine pages in bookstores, rather than buying them. 'Digital shoplifting is becoming a big problem as camera-equipped mobile handsets are spreading fast and their quality is improving greatly,' said Kenji Takahashi, an official at the Japan Magazine Publishers Association. Will entry into a bookstore soon include a 'cell-phone patdown?'"

What about mp3 players, that have reording functions, or cell phones that do video too? Will all stores and events take away all our gear?!?

Anonymous P2P No Defense, "Operators of peer-to-peer networks cannot escape copyright infringement claims by giving their members the ability to mask the content that changes hands on their networks, a federal appeals court ruled Monday."

Watch this case closely i believe some very seriously bad law is about to be made!!! :(

World Front Pages, see whats going on around the world!!!

EMI and Sony Lose Lawsuit Over Crippled Music Disks, "A brazilian consumer has sued EMI and Sony, and won! The reason was a copy protection technology in the best seller album "Tribalistas" that didn't play in his car. You can read about it in Folha de São Paulo (babelfish translation here), brazilian biggest newspaper. They must be very afraid, since EMI vice-president defended the company himself in a lawsuit involving less than US$ 350,00. A more detailed report is in my music site Agenda do Samba & Choro (babelfish here), where we release some of the lawsuit files to make it easier for others to sue them. Since last year, we are calling for a boycott (babelfish) of copy protected albums. The companies appealed, and said that they will take the case to the Supreme Court, because it is a 'question of principles'. The consumer is sueing them again, because all new EMI albums in Brazil are being released with copy protection and won't work in his car."

About time! And if you bring that shit here, aqnd it fuckes me up i'll sue your ass too!!! ;)

oh and hatch fuck you too!!!

How Labels And Artists Divvy Up Your Dollar Online, "Business 2.0 has an article that breaks down where that $1 goes when you buy a song from iTunes or other online music services. Key figures: the site takes .40, the labels take .30 and the artists get a measly 12 cents for each download."

Your Brain May Have Amazing Powers, "I've never given much credence to the "only use 10% of our brains" urban legend, but this article, Savant for a Day, is making me reconsider. I'd like to see controlled, double-blind studies, but Snyder's machine already sounds very interesting -- hey, anyone can learn to draw, but I want to flip a switch to put my brain into calculator mode. EM-brain experimentation has taken off since Michael Persinger's work and other recent research."

two thoughts about the recent apple announcements...

the first is inspired by this thread at macslash. what would be required to take an isight and attach it to an ipod? this seems like a very powerful and fun combo. isight requires only one connect, and the ipod has it. it could then be quite a powerful portable video/still camera, capable of storing huge amounts of footage and stills. granted it would not have all the capabilities of other more sophisticated cameras (display screen, zoom, higher resolution, etc...) but for $150 to get hours upon hours of 640x480 video that fits in your pocket, i bet every single ipod owner would buy one no questions asked! now i am not sure what technical hurdles there would be but i am pretty sure there are few and they are easily overcome.

next there has been a lot of talk of the design of thermal zones into the new g5 boxes. here is my question, if heat rises why not put the cpu it on top? now this assumes that the cpu is the greatest source of heat and if i am wrong then thats just one more reason i am not an engineer. but it seems to me that that could wipe out a great deal of heat dissipation problems very quickly.

anyway just some thoughts...

Make Max Your Puppet, Put words into Max Headroom's mouth with this nifty Flash soundboard. Thx for the toy Tree!!!

Niue Gets Island-Wide WiFi, "Business Wire is running a story about the polynesian island of Niue. Niue has just completed an island-wide wifi network, making it the first country with nationwide free wifi access. This comes after countrywide email was started in 1997, dialup access in 1999, and broadband this Spring, all free for anyone." Looks like someone is getting it right!!!

Netflix Granted Patent on DVD Subscription Rentals, "A few folks noted a new patent showing up from netflix. They apparently now have a patent on their model of subscribing to rentals- where instead of being charged per disc, you are charged a monthly fee and can keep the rentals indefinitely without late fees. You can patent anything! Get on the bus!"

This is getting ridiculous! Why not just give away a licence to be litigious about rights you were granted questionably?!? BTW i think i am gona pattent a method for talking shit. Think there is prior art? Patent office probably wouldn't care, i am sure they would find my methods novel and unique!!!

Um yeah. Thoes apple guys ... wow ... glad i have friends in Cupertino.

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Rotation Archive:
Creation Records Story
Dancing Wu Li Masters
Donnie Darko
Friendster
Giant Steps Boo!
HeadPhoneRecord
Hüsker Dü
Libertines
Moonshadows
Secretary
Trail Of Dead

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Rotation Archive:
Creation Records Story
Dancing Wu Li Masters
Friendster
Giant Steps Boo!
HeadPhoneRecord
Libertines
Moonshadows
Rooney
Secretary
Trail Of Dead

Hatch Takes Aim at Illegal Downloading, The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Tuesday he favors developing new technology to remotely destroy the computers of people who illegally download music from the Internet. Fear this man! And consider whether or not he should be an elected official!!!

Steve Jobs And Jeff Bezos Meet The Segway, "Ever wanted to know what Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos really thought about the Segway the first time he saw it? At the Harvard Business School site, there's an excerpt from the new book 'Code Name Ginger', giving a recounting of the Apple and Amazon bosses' first impressions of the device. Steve Jobs' gut reaction, quoted in the article: 'I think it sucks!'"

i have seen a lot of shows in my life, but last night....

CD Price-Fixing Suit Ruling, "As the AP reported Friday, if you filed a claim before March 3, 2003 online or otherwise you'll be getting a gift in the mail from those monopolistic music companies in the form of a check for about $13!" Want to hurt them, here is your chance to take somethingh back. Can you imagine what would actually happen if all consumers mad a claim tomorrow?!?

AOL Dropping RIM for Danger Sidekick, "After trying to cut the cord for wireless e-mail with RIM, AOL is pulling the plug on its mobile communicator, citing a move away from its older wireless technology. The disgruntled can get a discount on a shiny new T-Mobile color Sidekick." Wireless email is a rather small niche, and it's cool that current users won't be left high and dry, but it looks like they'll have to pay some money to continue using the service. i said one day the end of the BB would come! Die BB die! Viva la Sidekick!!!

Microsoft Kills Off Mac IE, Blames Safari, "CNet reports that Microsoft will not release any more major upgrades for Internet Explorer on MacOS. They cite competition from Safari as the reason for this decision, and say that Safari is a better browser for Macintosh systems. Ironically, they also say that they can't compete with Apple, because Apple has better access to the underlying operating system." Yeah, that must be rough. Today's SlashDotFunQuiz is to predict the order in which, impact when, and years until these other Mac products get the axe: Media Player, MSN Messenger, Office, Outlook, and Virtual PC. Looks like round two is here. Lawyers get your rens and pencils ready. Let the games begin!!!

Shuttle Set for Launch on Dec 18th, Says NASA, "Just a quick note for you guys - According to space.com, NASA's target date for the next shuttle launch is Dec. 18th, with a whole bunch of new guidelines." i was beging to wonder, i mean i gota get up there soon!!!

Online Newshour Tackling Digital Copyright, "The online version of the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer is tackling copyright in the digital age. They are sponsoring a forum where Lawrence Lessig will square off against RIAA executive Matt Oppenheim. Anyone can submit questions, and the best questions or comments will be posted to Lessig and Oppenheim for debate and discussion. I know that the producers understand the importance of this debate, and would love insightful questions." Looks worth tuning in for.

Los Angeles Gets Own TLD, "On June 9th, Los Angeles officially becomes the world's first city to have its own Internet domain.Great to hear since one day I hope to be an owner of my own TLD and this is a step in the right direction. ;) The registry is located at www.la and further details at DMnews.com" Looks like an Irish firm made a deal with Laos to use the .la TLD. Looks to be on the pricier side of domains, though. i have been saying for years LA is a big city, no one believed me!!!

Lessig And RIAA Answer NewsHour Questions, "Is downloading copyrighted music tantamount to stealing? Lawrence Lessig, an expert on Internet law from Stanford University's Law School, and Matt Oppenheim, senior vice president of business and legal affairs for the Recording Industry Association of America, answer your questions about this heated debate."

Hand-Held Scanner Designed To Detect Cancer, Italian scientists have developed and are testing a hand-held scanner, similar to metal detectors used in airports, to diagnose cancerous tumours. Its like a real life Tricorder!!! Thx dad!!!

See Ads Can Rock, check this one by Honda!!! Thx Tree!!! (Flash 6 req)

Ask The DJ, is a sophisticated mix engine which analyses the music's rhythm to perform DJ-like transitions between tracks... automatically! Crazy, hope this isn't putting any of my friends out of work any time soon!

The demo song is interesting and definitely worth a listen. Good proof of concept. Now if you can teach the program to distinguish between breaks and different types of music then they might be really on to something. But i guess one step at a time. Wonder how it does with really syncopated break beats!?!

"V" Sequel Coming to NBC, "According to CNN, twenty years after NBC's hit sci-fi miniseries "V" invaded the small screen, the network is bringing the aliens back with "V: The Second Generation," a three-hour TV movie from the original creator Kenneth Johnson."

The Body Behind Vice City's Tommy Vercetti, "Vice City antihero Tommy Vercetti snarls with the voice of Ray Liotta, but that’s only half of what brings the character to life. Meet the body: Jonathan Sale is a 29-year-old New York-based actor; you’ve seen him on everything from Law and Order and Ed to the soaps Guiding Light and As the World Turns. He’s also acted in independent films, off-Broadway shows and TV commercials. Jonathan graciously answered some of our e-mail questions about what it’s like to be Tommy Vercetti’s body."

Just go see it. (Quicktime req.) Thanks Jenn!!!

43 Million Americans Use P2P Software, "If the NYTimes article is correct then somewhere around 1 in 6 Americans apparently are unindicted felons. In the eyes of the public file swapping is as morally wrong as speeding on the NJ Turnpike. The rest of the article talks about the RIAA's carrot/stick/education approach and how they may find themselves entering into negotiations for some forms of file sharing. Also the EFF will be running ads in Rolling Stone next month asking if enthusiasts are tired of being treated like criminals." Thoes are some big numbers. Maybe its time to do some changing of the copyright laws!!!

RIAA Grabs Student's Life's Savings, "ABCNews is reporting on a 19-year-old college student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. He created a site named ChewPlastic.com where students could search for files on the university network. Mind you, this is not a music file sharing software, this is just a search engine. Presumably, the search engine was being used to search for music files as well. The folks over at the RIAA did not take too kindly to the idea, and sued the student. He settled but denies any wrongdoing. What was settlement, you ask? His life's savings." This has got to fucking stop!!!

Are we gona sue, google for making a search engine that lets people find copyrighted materials that have been misapropriated? How about m$ for making a server and a browser that that let you download them, or aol for that matter? Maybe apple? What the fuck is goin on here!!!

BTW if your reading this and you work for the RIAA, FUCK YOU!!!

Been picking up a bunch of new tunes. Actually more than i have had time to listen to, as of late. Anyway man just listened to Cat Power, Moon Pix album. WOW, this girls got it!!!

Cell Phone Number Portability Ruling, "Checking the Court's Opinion site every day has paid off. Verizon's action on the FCC's number portability ruling was dismissed by the D.C. Court of Appeals. The court found that Verizon had waited far too long to bring the challenge and it also sided with the FCC's interpretation of the Law rather than Verizon. Barring any other action we may see number portability this year. Unfortunately, Verizon is already lobbying to have the law changed. But it was also nice to see Cingular was on the FCC's side of the case." Looks like i might actually be able to a get a real phone and service soon!!!

T-Mobile Introduces Color T-Mobile Sidekick, "Customers who want to use just the device's powerful data functionality can get a stand-alone plan that includes unlimited email, Web browsing, AIM and text messaging for $29.99 a month...." Time to move over bb. Your time is done here!!!

i got a new TOY!!! err, uh i meant tool. for school that is. i got a new IBOOK!!! :)

Microsoft's Browser Play, "Purveyors and consumers of Web content and software, already unsettled by the pact between archrivals Microsoft and AOL Time Warner, may be in store for an even more radical upset: the end of Microsoft's standalone Internet Explorer browser." Looks like they are at it again!!!

Palm To Buy Handspring In Stock Swap, Palm said Wednesday that it will buy rival Handspring for approximately $169 million in an effort to strengthen its grip on the market for handheld devices. Bummer! Its the end of an era and possibly handheld innovation for a while!!!

Quick update. For thoes who do not know, i just started school. It is a one year LL.M. program in entertainment and media. An LL.M. is like a masters, kind of. You can get one after you get your JD, what i got on my first trip to law school. Anyway the program is in LA at Southwestern. The program is the only one of its kind and it just started. So i'm a beta tester once again! :) Anyway this semesters (summer) classes are Entertainment Law (my third time taking it), Entertainment Labor Law, and Music Publishing (the understanding of which has some how always alluded me, but now it's nailed). In any case school is cool and i am happy to be back!!!

TiVo To Sell Data On Viewing Habits Of Subscribers, TiVo, known for re-inventing television viewing through digital video recording, will begin selling advertisers data it collects on the viewing habits of its subscribers. Bummer! Maybe it is time to hack your tivo and become a blank!!!

Nextel To Up U.S. 'Push To Talk' Range, Nextel subscribers will soon be able to use Nationwide Direct Connect, which the company plans to introduce Monday, to "push to talk" (PTT), which creates a direct connection between cell phones, walkie-talkie style. (wow nice sentence!) PTT conversations to travel on Nextel's Internet protocol backbone! More reason for me to switch providers!!!

Stem Cell "Master Gene" Found, From the Washington Post (via /.), "'Scientists yesterday said they have discovered a long-sought "master gene" in embryonic stem cells that is largely responsible for giving those cells their unique regenerative and therapeutic potential.' The report summarizes an article in the newest issue of the scientific journal, Cell"!!!