Saturday, October 21, 2000

ZDNet: News: Chuck D: Music wants to be free "The Beatles were big, but the Internet is the biggest thing to happen to music ever, Chuck D tells a crowd at CMJ Music Marathon."

Monday, October 16, 2000

The Register "...the clear message is that if you don't pay as you play your music will erase itself, and maybe even mail your details to the FBI while it's about it."

Tuesday, October 03, 2000

Salon.com Technology | Courtney Love does the math Courtney Love does the math

Monday, July 31, 2000

ZDNet: eWEEK: Microsoft cookie tool stirs controversy "Today's invasion of privacy is tomorrow's convenience." This is my pick for quote of the day. Only a marketing guy could come up with one like this (and he probably believes it too).

Saturday, July 22, 2000

The FBI's Plan for Digital Wiretaps Raises More Questions Than It Answers

Monday, July 17, 2000

ACLU pans FBI e-mail scanning "THE AMERICAN CIVIL Liberties Union (ACLU) is calling on Congress to update federal privacy laws to ban what it says is the potential large-scale scanning and analysis of e-mail messages by the FBI's Carnivore e-mail interception program. ...critics say the potential for abuse is high because the system is attached to an ISP's network and can analyze all data traffic as it passes through the service."    Oh lovely, the FBI is reading our e-mail.

Tuesday, May 23, 2000

Proposal to curb fair use of digital data is bad news (5/18/2000) " The barons of the entertainment and software industries, who bludgeoned Congress into passing this law, don't want to admit it, but they're ultimately moving us all toward a regime in which we'll have to pay each time we look at, listen to or otherwise use any copyrighted material. "

Tuesday, May 16, 2000

John Perry Barlow: Napster.com and the Death of the Music Industry For over a century, [the traditional music business] has exploited both musicians and audiences. By its proprietary practices and crass insistence on mass appeal, it has desertified the ecology of auditory epiphany, impoverished genius, fattened lawyers, turned plastic into gold, and offered gilded plastic in return.

Sunday, May 14, 2000

THE REGISTER: Napster Metallica ban proving too hard to enforce Napster's attempts to block over 300,000 alleged Metallica pirates are proving rather difficult to enforce.

CNET.com - News - Enterprise Computing - Virus investigators name four "possible suspects" Caabay said NBI technicians were completing their investigation of 17 computer diskettes seized Monday from an apartment where de Guzman lived with his sister, Irene de Guzman, and her boyfriend, Reonel Ramones, who was arrested but released for lack of evidence.

ZDNet: eWEEK: Microsoft's Outlook: Cloudy security IT managers and security experts, increasingly cynical and sharply critical over virus assaults through Microsoft Corp.'s Outlook e-mail client, are questioning not only Microsoft's technology but also its reaction to the latest attacks.

Hey, Billy G. and Co. We need more than ease of use out here. You've made some things too easy. It's too easy for anybody and their sister to do nasty things on our computers behind the Windows facade.

Friday, May 12, 2000

ZDNet: News: Banned Napster users strike back Napster announced Wednesday that it was preventing access to users identified by the heavy metal ban Metallica as trading in unauthorized copies of their songs.

Friday, May 05, 2000

CNN.com - Technology - Internet provider in Philippines homes in on virus author - May 4, 2000 The two e-mail addresses, spyder@super.net.ph and mailme@super.net.ph were the source of the virus, according Manuel Bong, a spokesperson for Access Net, which owns Super Net. - I love you - NOT!

Tuesday, May 02, 2000

ABCNEWS.com : PKZip Creator Dies This is sad.

Monday, April 10, 2000

ZDNet: PC Week: Back to the future of PC storage Public machines, private data and portable preference sets were a good approach to distributed computing.

Saturday, April 08, 2000

Battling Censorware Lawyers for Mattel then e-mailed a slew of subpoenas to site administrators around the world, demanding that they reveal the identity of everyone who had downloaded a copy of CPHack.

Friday, March 17, 2000

League for Programming Freedom - Against Software Patents Software patents threaten to devastate America's computer industry.

Saturday, March 11, 2000

Patent Problems This a problem, because patents impose costs on the creative process, even if they also create benefits. They will move cyberspace from Nike-land ("Just do it") to lawyer-land ("Have you passed that by the lawyers").

THE REGISTER: US preacher finds demon-possessed PCs The minister estimates that one in ten computers in America now hosts some type of evil spirit. The Reverend advises anyone suspecting that their computer is possessed to consult a clergyman, or, if the computer is still under warranty, to take it in for servicing. "Technicians can replace the hard drive and reinstall the software, getting rid of the wicked spirit permanently," he says.

Sunday, March 05, 2000

ps2.ign.com: PS2 Launch: Thousands Clamber in the Streets for PlayStation2 According to one newspaper, more than 10,000 people were in line for a PS2, some having come as early as four days ago.

Wednesday, March 01, 2000

Story: How Patent Attorneys Are Stealing Our Future I've had it with these dumb claims from CEOs and their greedy attorneys. The problem is simple: The #%@$# Patent Office is handing out exclusive rights so broad and general they cover everything. And greedy attorneys are in a frenzy. If the trend continues, innovation will be halted.

Tuesday, February 29, 2000

Free ISP Database - If you're paying a monthly fee for dial-up Internet access you may not have to. This site lists free Internet Service Providers by area code. All you have to do to get free internet access is put up with some advertising (like you don't already).

Powell's Books is another fine alternative to those patent-system-abusing bastards.

Saturday, February 26, 2000

The Samsung Yepp is a portable MP3 player that also has a phone directory and voice recording.