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For those who are interested in organizing around this, please go to:

http://www.quicktopic.com/26/H/pVk3skqaGhFU

Then, hit the button to sign up for mail when posts are made.

We can do SO MUCH with this. We just need an open standard for the way computers read the data from a scanned page.

IMAGINE: You could put this on business cards, with your PGP key, your contact information, everything on it.

You could make it so that you could make fliers, with large letters, readible by humans, viewable from a distance.

But inside the "gigantic" letters (say, 24pt letters), you could have encoded a bunch of computer readable data..!

So someone could take the flier, and then scan it, and then there would be all this semantic information that the computer could read as well!

So, you get directions to something, and embedded in the human instructions themselves, are the computer interpretation information..!

You could do ALL SORTS of stuff with this..!

We just need to ACT.

So sign up for the list.

I still own a laptop for doing laptop-y things.... But when it comes to going away for a couple of days, travelling around and making notes or working on a short story, the Dana is far more portable/usable than the laptop -- and the Treo 600 is just about good enough to use for responding to email. Between them they weigh (and, if lost, cost) half as much as the laptop, not to mention having double or more the battery life.

I bid on a couple at ebay, but they were going for over $30, which I think is a bit high for a used keyboard.

Today I read a review of the Belkin's Nostromo Game Controller n52. It looks to be programmable and can emulate over 100 keys

It is going for $26 (free ship) at Buy.com at the moment: here

I'd report back here on how I like it in a few days, but I fear slashdot will have archived this story by then. I'll post my experience here, if anyone is curious how it works out.

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I have been putting my spam with full headers here, and hope that people investigating can use the info in the headers like IP addresses, gateways, aliases etc. As it is cached in Google so the results should show up for specific keywords.

If you are spam hunters, please be my guest and fry some spammers a***

.

you should check out quicktopic. It is a web-based app with email hooks. As you propose, you can tune in and out of a given thread whenever you want. Kick the tires. It is very cool.

While guest editing BoingBoing's mini-blog, Macki posted his opinion.

"Marlowe" offers up some Timothy Leary on the message boards.

What are we really feeding into here?

I also use their free bulletin boards product (check out the "discuss" links at boingboing.net to see in action) and am very pleased with their stuff. Dead simple and quite powerful.

Getting someone to organize it is the problem, as you rightly identified.

We still haven't reached the point where we could even attract support from such a small percentage of the people, but I am sure it will happen soon. We just need a few cases where the RIAA/MPAA will bully some personality that will catch the attention of the media and raise the hackles of our types, and we will respond.

But, it would be helpful if such calculations and scenarios could be evaluated - so that when the time come all we have to do is the execution.

The snowball is going to start rolling someday, though we need a good seed to get it all started.

But thanks for stepping up ... If we could even get a list started of the people willing to help organize, it would be very helpful to organize support at a moment's notice ... I have been trying to build up a case on a discussion list at http://www.quicktopic.com and once I have collected some more background material, I will post it here to seek support, and also forward you a copy.

In the latest chapter of Google protecting their trademark, they even asked the dictionary folks at Wordspy to change their definition of the word "google" to prevent it from becoming a generic word. All this has caused mixed reactions and lots of news coverage by microdocs (formerly Google Village), Search Engine Watch, and Internet.com. Their latest target seems to be the Google Web APIs-based automated search service Googlert, who changed their name to "Google Alert" and explain that they were asked "politely" and have been "sympathetic" to Google's concerns. All this recent activity might be in the spirit of shoring up the Google brand and business image before an IPO...

In the latest chapter of Google protecting their trademark, they even asked the dictionary folks at Wordspy to change their definition of the word "google" to prevent it from becoming a generic word. All this has caused mixed reactions and lots of news coverage by microdocs (formerly Google Village), Search Engine Watch, and Internet.com. Their latest target seems to be the Google Web APIs-based automated search service Googlert, who changed their name to "Google Alert" and explain that they were asked "politely" and have been "sympathetic" to Google's concerns. It's nice to see that they let them keep the word 'Google' in the name - I guess Google is trying to keep web developers on its side.

...it reminds me of my younger self as C64 owner and copyright infringer.

Back then, many game producers used DRM in different ways. There was no internet, I had very little money, no access to BBS'es and copying a single game took several minutes swapping disks. Yet I knew a couple of guys who could lend me bunches of new games for copying, DRM cracked and all. Everyone I knew had boxes stuffed with illegal games and perhaps one or two originals tops. Darknet indeed.

If that was the state of things back then, how can we reasonably expect that DRM will really limit copying today? I think we'll fare better informing people about the consequences of copyright infringement - both to themselves, but more importantly to the artists. I'd like an easy technological solution, but we don't have it, and we're not going to.

The settlement website is registered to:

Rust Consulting, Inc.
501 MARQUETTE AVE STE 700
MINNEAPOLIS, MN 55402-1208
US
612-359-2000
cmichelsen-at-rustco nsulting.com

I called their central office, which referred me to their office in Fairbough (507-333-4300), and asked them about the SSN query. They were quite helpful, and after a bit of asking around her office the receptionist told me that because the number of class members is so large, they ask for the last 4 SSN numbers to insure that if two or more people with the same name apply, they will in fact make two or more payments.

Dunno if that's the most sensible way to do that, but that's what they told me. At any rate: it's a legitimate site.

Or a very, very clever plot to steal identities, staffed by cunning actors with Minnesota accents.

• "Doesn't taking their $20 payoff constitute an agreement that they have paid their debt? If they have in fact engaged in price fixing, they owe us a hell of a lot more than $20 each. I suspect that taking the $20 in hush-money will preclude one from participating in any future, similar legal action against them."

Too bad I don't have Microsoft-level resources for lawyers, or I might end up owning the RIAA. (Yeah, right.) On second thought, I'd better be careful -- MS might get ideas...

The question of SSNs also came up, and was addressed -- it looks like they have a legitimate reason for asking.

What is Bell's Inequality?...



Cheer and seasons greetings!
oo__ don@saklad.org

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or does anyone else think it's a bit much for some of these bloggers to be comparing the hack to 9/11?

I have to wonder what kind of life someone must lead when an attack on their favorite website is as traumatic as the events of that day.

I think most people don't subscribe because they don't know what it's like to have fast internet integrated into their lives--and their houses and hardware aren't set up to have it be integrated:

It's got to be a total package that extols the value of sharing data (text, voice, pix, video), not just receiving it, and that also provides mobility with your "device(s)" at least while in your house. Who regularly creates digital files that s/he wants to share through the web? That person needs broadband.

I can't understand why all the web-based digital photo reprinters aren't cross selling broadband, not to mention the digital video hardware vendors. Actually, Circuit City is a big Broadband reseller.

To integate the web into your life, you need mobility, not a fixed PC in one room of your house. For your kids to do their homework while lying on the floor, for you to read the news while at the kitchen table, etc., you don't just need broadband, you need a wireless hub at your house, and one or more devices to go with it. You may need a server and a network.

This bundled solution of two way participative services and mobility is the marketing solution. But, it's got to be so easy you can bring it home and plug it in. It's got to be secure out of the box. It's got be spun in a way that convinces you your life is better now that you have it.

See Quicktopic, Shutterfly, MP3.com, Vonage, and more.

I have described a marketplace for media at mediagora.com. In particular, I propose that anyone can make an edited derivativce work, as long as the customers for it buy the original at full price.

more detaisl here

For those of you who really don't want to read through the license, here it is in haiku form:

Macromedia: Just like IBM / but this baby has our name / Macromedia Inc

and of course IBM's

IBM: You really wish that/ Our licenses would fit in/ merely three short lines.

More:
http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/000360
http://www.quicktopic.com/boing/H/xk9pNnpwmwRdU

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The theatre was only about 1/2 full and this was opening weekend. That was the first sign of suckness. Then, I saw that about 95% of the audience was under 16, and they were giggling a lot before the movie even started. Second clue to suckness. Then, all of the previews were for teen movies. That was the third sign of suckness. (Side note: There was a preview of American Pie 2, which looks like a jolly good teen movie. Not all teen movies suck, just most.)

The movie is full of modern music and it is just plain stupid. AC/DC, Queen, and so on, just as Katz said. I can't believe he didn't completely trash this movie! What is wrong with him. It sucked.

The jousting is boring. It is the same thing again and again. The sword fights are much worse than any Society for Creative Anachronism fight I have evr seen. My backyard light saber fights as a kid were better done. The fighting sucked! Don't see this movie expecting any reasonable fighting.

Don't see this movie as a favor to your girlfriend or wife, or friends. Don't see it is a way to burn off extra time on the weekend. Don't see it because you are drunk or high. Don't see it. Please don't see it. It sucked so bad that it isn't even worthy of a MST3000 lampoon. It wasn't stupid or funny or interesting. Avoid the sucking beyond sucking! Avoid it like the plague!

Talk about how bad a Knight's Tale is right here! Tell other people about how bad the movie was. Share your story about the sucking beyond sucking. Prevent others from suffering through this crap stick of a movie....