Zero to (free) shopping cart in sixty minutes

Zero to (free) shopping cart in sixty minutes: "This cycle can feasibly be completed in under an hour; most of the time is spent filling out forms over and over again.  PayPal account verification steps may take up to 5 business days, though, but that shouldn't prevent purchases from taking place."

BBC - Languages

BBC - Languages - Homepage: learn languages from the bbc!!!

John Gilmore's Search for the Mandatory ID Law

John Gilmore's Search for the Mandatory ID Law: "'John Gilmore, the millionare who cofounded the EFF, has been prohibited from travelling because he refused to show an ID while boarding an airplane. He's been under this self-imposed ban since 2002. From the article: 'The gate agent asked for his ID. Gilmore asked her why. It is the law, she said. Gilmore asked to see the law. Nobody could produce a copy. To date, nobody has. The regulation that mandates ID at airports is 'Sensitive Security Information.' The law, as it turns out, is unavailable for inspection. What started out as a weekend trip to Washington became a crawl through the courts in search of an answer to Gilmore's question: Why?'"

GUI Pioneer Jef Raskin Has Passed Away

GUI Pioneer Jef Raskin Has Passed Away: "'Jef Raskin, GUI pioneer, interface expert, Apple employee #31, and the man most credited with the creation of the Apple Macintosh, died of cancer on Saturday February 26, 2005. It was Raskin who named it after his favorite fruit, the McIntosh apple, although he said that he changed the spelling to 'Macintosh' to avoid potential copyright conflicts with McIntosh, the audio equipment manufacturer.'"

:(

Interview With Lawrence Lessig On Future Rights

Interview With Lawrence Lessig On Future Rights: "'In an interview with the O'Reilly Network Mr. Lessig discusses many current issues that may have future legal implications. He starts with MGM's request for Certiorari in the Grokster case. His conclusion is that ReplayTV was forced out of business by a legal challenge, not a legal victory. Lessig continues on to discuss, among other things, The Creative Commons and their new Sampling License and how it may affect the way that some movies and music, that contain samples from other sources, are made in the future. From the article: 'So the same act of creativity in some sense, you know, taking, creating, mixing out of what other people do, is legal in the text world and illegal in the digital media world.''"

the man speakith, pay attention!!!

DRM for 1'3" of Silence

DRM for 1'3" of Silence: "'In the latest entry in the battle over Digital Rights Management, a fellow has blatantly ripped off a 'tune' from the iTunes Store. 'Tune' is 1 minute 3 seconds of silence. To compound his crime, he has posted the tune on his web site for anyone to download. I downloaded it to iTunes, and it played just fine (but now I suppose I'm a criminal, too). I wonder what John Cage and Mike Batt would have to say about this? Will lawyers for Apple or Ciccone Youth send a C&D letter? If I were to make my own MP3 silent tune of exactly the same length and put it online, would I be infringing their copyright?'"

interesting problem this brings up...more later.

Online anonymity

Online anonymity: "My cow-orker Fred von Lohmann's latest Law.com column is a stirring call-to-arms in defense of online anonymity: '...your Internet Service Provider knows you're not a dog. And it knows your name, address and telephone number.' In one recent case, the lawsuit and subpoena were issued in response to someone opining on an online message board that the president of a corporation had 'a Napoleon complex.' In another, the lawsuit was based on a statement that the company's executives were getting rich while the stock price was in free fall. Each of these suits was dropped once it became clear that the anonymous speaker was going to court to protect his identity, suggesting that the real purpose of the litigation was to discover whether the statements were made by employees so that the company could retaliate against them. The lawsuit was mere pretext for extra-judicial punishment.
Though these two suits were dropped, there was a sad postscript: postings to both of the message boards involved dropped off dramatically once word of the lawsuit got out, and still haven't returned to their previous levels. Courts across the country are beginning to develop some basic rules about when the anonymity of an online speaker should be protected and when it should be breached. Specifically, the emerging test, best articulated in a New Jersey appellate decision called Dendrite, holds that when a court is faced with a subpoena aimed at identifying an anonymous speaker, the court should (1) provide notice to the potential defendant and an opportunity to defend his anonymity via a motion to quash; (2) require the plaintiff to specify the statements that allegedly violate its rights; (3) review the complaint to ensure that it states a cause of action based on each statement and against each defendant; (4) require the plaintiff to produce evidence supporting each element of its claims, and (5) balance the equities, weighing the strength of plaintiff's evidence and the potential harm to the plaintiff if the subpoena is quashed against the harm to the defendant from losing his right to remain anonymous."

UK tops poll for online TV pirates

UK tops poll for online TV pirates : "The UK is the largest downloader of online pirate TV programmes in the world, with more than two-thirds of all pirated videos obtained from BitTorrent networks, according to new research."

Psychedelic medicine

Psychedelic medicine: "
New Scientist has a long article about the renewed interest among scientists in the possible medical uses of psychedelic drugs like LSD, Psilocybin, DMT, and Ketamine:
Since 2001, psychiatrist Francisco Moreno of the University of Arizona in Tucson has been testing psilocybin as a treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder. Psychotherapy and antidepressants such as Prozac help many patients, but some have such severe symptoms and are so resistant to treatment that they turn to electroshock therapy and even brain surgery. As with the work on cluster headaches, Moreno's study was motivated by reports from people with OCD that psilocybin relieves their symptoms. So far, Moreno has given both sub-psychedelic and psychedelic doses of pure psilocybin to nine treatment-resistant OCD subjects, in a total of 29 therapy sessions. His preliminary findings suggest firstly that it is safe to ingest psilocybin, which was a primary concern of the trial. Beyond that, Moreno calls his results 'promising', but won't discuss them further, since he plans to submit a paper to a peer-reviewed journal this year."

Gator CPO at the Department of Homeland Security

Gator CPO at the Department of Homeland Security: "'D. Reed Freeman, the 'Chief Privacy Officer' of Claria Networks (formerly Gator), the creators of the pervasive spyware package GAIN, has been appointed to the Department of Homeland Security's 'Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee'.'"

the inventor of the drive by download, one that probably could have been brought up on violations of the computer fraud and abuse act is going to run the nations privacy office, wow!!!

BBC has Infocom's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

BBC has Infocom's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: "'At the BBC they have the Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy, Infocom game from 1984, written by Douglas Adams. Its a text based adventure game, reminiscent of games from way back when. The two episode game works pretty well even ported to flash.'"

How To Steal Wi-Fi

How To Steal Wi-Fi - And how to keep the neighbors from stealing yours. By Paul Boutin: i like steal this wifi better!!!

We'll always have Paris...

three different emails tonight. all paris' fon book!!! wow!!! but hey feeling slighted, i wasn't listed ;)

Blink-182 calls it quits, for now

Blink-182 calls it quits, for now: "California pop-punk trio Blink-182, famed for its practical jokes and disdain for clothing, has gone on 'indefinite hiatus,' with no plans to work together again, its Geffen Records label said Tuesday. Singer-guitarist Tom DeLonge, singer-bassist Mark Hoppus and drummer Travis Barker want to 'spend some time enjoying the fruits of their labors with loved ones' after a decade of working together nonstop, the statement added. 'While there is no set plan for the band to begin working together again, no one knows what tomorrow may bring,' it said. San Diego-based Blink-182, cast in the same mold as Grammy-winning punk combo Green Day, enjoyed major success with such tunes as 'What's My Age Again?' and 'All the Small Things,' winning an MTV Video Music Award for the latter tune."

1960s Brazilian pop treasure-trove

1960s Brazilian pop treasure-trove: "1960s Brazilian pop treasure-trove
This webpage of a 1960s Brazilian pop fan contains scans of dozens of LPs along with downloadable MP3s of selected tracks. They're amazing."

The Long Tail

The Long Tail: "How to Sell Your Book, CD, or DVD on Amazon Micro-niche, long-tail publishing"

Court Says FCC Out-of-Bounds With Digital TV

Court Says FCC Out-of-Bounds With Digital TV: "'A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday stated that regulators had overstepped their authority by imposing a rule designed to limit the copying of digital television programs.' From the article: 'The FCC rule aims to limit people from sending copies of digital television programs over the Internet. The FCC has said copyright protections are needed to help speed the adoption of digital television.'"

Martian Sea Discovered

Martian Sea Discovered: "'New Scientist is reporting that a large sea of frozen ice (between 800 and 900 km in size and 45 m deep) has been discovered by the ESA's Mars Express Probe. Here's the kicker: the sea of block ice is only five degrees away from the Martian equator. New Scientist also links to a PDF of a paper to be presented next month about the finding.' Update: 02/21 15:30 GMT by T: Note: that's 45 meters deep, not 45 kilometers deep."

QuickTime for cell phones in Japan

QuickTime for cell phones in Japan: "One of the world's biggest mobile phone operator's, Japan's NTT DoCoMo and Apple announced on this week series of 3G phones in Japan that use 3GPP, a mobile phone video standard based on MPEG-4. Apparently Apple's QuickTime core will act as a decoder in these phones. "

Life Enhancement Products Presents: NeoFiles

Life Enhancement Products Presents: NeoFiles: "By R.U. Sirius" wow i missed this guy, glad i found something hes working on...it's been too long. now i just have to find out what genesis is working on!!! ;)