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But... but... that's not what it said in yesterday's Hilary Rosen interview:

Q: Taping songs off the radio.
A: The copyright law is a fairly strict model, so all that stuff is technically illegal

IMB's Press Release, as well as a neat article at USA Today (believe it or not) and, finally, a very informative article at TechReview.com.

Why does this sound like rat in the maze sort of psychiatric mind control thought experiment? As a business plan for the marketing types?

CueHack "hacks" (opens up) this closed system by using it another way. It allows you, the consumer, to experience the same wholesome scanning pleasure as you do with the normal CueCat software, but displays other kinds of information about the companies - information that you would likely have run across if you had done a web search about the company, but that the company might prefer that you, the consumer, not see. This could be information about corporate abuse, boycotts against the company., even how much money the company is making, their corporate image as presented to shareholders, etc.

Freedom, now that is a dangerous option for the consumer. Looks like marketing is trying harder and harder to take it away from the rats in the cage.

Heck we even have folks promoting the model of life as "We are Mice in a Maze" (not the real title, but the book referanced is reviewed here, webpage here, parodied here.)

That's a nice little mouse. Enjoy your life in the maze. Nothing outside the maze is important. Learn to love the maze. The maze is your friend. Here, have some cheese.

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

Why does this sound like rat in the maze sort of psychiatric mind control thought experiment? As a business plan for the marketing types?

CueHack "hacks" (opens up) this closed system by using it another way. It allows you, the consumer, to experience the same wholesome scanning pleasure as you do with the normal CueCat software, but displays other kinds of information about the companies - information that you would likely have run across if you had done a web search about the company, but that the company might prefer that you, the consumer, not see. This could be information about corporate abuse, boycotts against the company., even how much money the company is making, their corporate image as presented to shareholders, etc.

Freedom, now that is a dangerous option for the consumer. Looks like marketing is trying harder and harder to take it away from the rats in the cage.

Heck we even have folks promoting the model of life as "We are Mice in a Maze" (not the real title, but the book referanced is reviewed here, webpage here, parodied here.)

That's a nice little mouse. Enjoy your life in the maze. Nothing outside the maze is important. Learn to love the maze. The maze is your friend. Here, have some cheese.

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

Indeed -- in fact, IBMers were considered so important to the US war effort that the War Department had a separate hierarchy of ranks for servicemen who maintained and supported the IBM systems that drove artillery and other ballistic weapons. So, for example, a Private First Class who worked in this capacity would carry the official rank of PFCI (Private First Class, IBM), and his rank insignia were marked with an "I" to denote his special status.

USA Today ran a good column about Tom Watson Sr. and the way the whole IBM-backed-the-Holocaust group is misrepresenting him and his actions. The whole thing is a mess, and does a disservice to Watson and the other IBMers who did so much to help the Allies win WW2.

No no, it's *really* not new. Xerox has had this technology out in the public at least two years.

This for example is dated over two years ago.

It's cool stuff, but available technology.

And dammit people read the entire ruling before commenting on the summary posted on /.

Personally, I'm all for a little more diversity, new thinking, and imagination out there...but there should always be a place for cartoony violent fun.

Violent conflict is the easiest form of gameplay to represent. It's immediate, doesn't require a rule book to understand, and is damn fun. Shoot blocks, shoot aliens, shoot zombies, throw dodgeball at face. Kids know this. Take, for example, X-Entertainment's funny breakdown of games we used to play. I mean, just because a kid makes a gun out of paper doesn't mean he's the next Charles Starkweather.

If you are of the unbelievably silly belief that a ban of this sort would in any way reduce the number of violent acts...well I don't know what to say to you...It seems pretty obvious that if people are given more reasons to live and let live through attentive/positive parenting, access to education, as well freedom from poverty and a host of persistent social ills we'll see a dramatic increase in the quality of life.

Remember school violence has actually gone down since 1990. Remember that politicians and media ideologues despise confronting the real issues of society...mainly because the solutions require folks to give up some of their self-serving attitudes and resources (time, money).

This Judge is the first to actually present a reasonable mainstream argument against the ignorant, do-nothing, "I'm not responsible for anything" crowd who likes their solutions quick and stupid. Although describing Mortal Kombat as a feminist game is a tad hilarious, it at least shows someone willing to waste several cycles thinking about as many aspects of the big picture as they are paid to.

Now I have to play some Counterstrike to prepare myself for the reckoning that is to come.

Well of course they are going to collect as many pr0n sites as possible

They need to find those encrypted messages from terrorists

See this article in USA Today, dated last November. Contains a nice photo of the robot that will be actually doing the job.

Depending on which dictionary you go to, monopoly is either held exclusively by one company, or by a group. (Dictionary.com uses the word "group", while Merriam-Webster just refers to a single company.) The definition of "group" is what's important here. There are many instances in business history where competitors in one field got together to agree not to compete in certain ways -- most notably by price-fixing.

Free-market economic theory would indicate that CEOs would never do this, that they would decide to compete in any way possible to eke out more market share. Yet this does happen. We have documented cases of price-fixing across all sorts of industries: legal research, oil firms, even vitamin manufacturers. There are plenty of theories as to why it happens, though my personal favorite is psychological. I think that CEOs, when they're placed in charge of vast corporations they cannot entirely control or understand, become extremely risk-averse. This is why large corporations rarely innovate; it's also why a CEO might enter into a price-fixing agreement. It's just one less thing to worry about. At least for the CEO; everybody else usually suffers, in higher prices and poorer quality.

Advertisers are very interested in connecting those anonymous statistics to real people. DoubleClick actually did so, but stopped after a public backlash. But they will try again, it's just a matter of time. In the meantime, whenever you enter contact information for a web site, that site may decide to sell that information to someone like DoubleClick. Advertisers really want this information, and they'll keep trying until they get it.

Another popular science compu-worship tome.

What it's not
If you're looking for hard-core information on early circuit designs, or code snippets from the programs which launched the rise of the PC, this is probably the wrong book -- though there is a satisfyingly large reproduction of the circuit board of the Apple I. The infectuous spirit of invention and a strange ort of aggressive computer-based fun comes through clearly, because Freiberger and Swaine concentrate on the personalities and business realities of the early days of the PC more than they do the technological advances which made it possible. Whether you find this more engaging or annoying is of course up to you; I found the stories and interactions of the early PC pioneers fascinating, less so the business machinations of the 80s and 90s.

I think that the stories of the 1950s, when science was very important to nearly everybody in the government and intellectual life for the purpose of competint with the Societs, will only be tantalizing and painful to modern inventors who battle in todays world of tanking dot-coms.

I do however think that it would be instructive to see how people write code on machines with the limitations these machines had... what kind of code is written for machines which were, for all their great size and expense, orders of magnitude less powerful than today's machines?

Furthermore, any real tale of Silicon Valley should be as much a tale of poverty as a tale of success and prosperity. The place changed from a place of farms to a place of silicon factories to a place of dot coms, and the descendants of the "original" inhabitants of Silicon Valley (well, the original inhabitants were Indians but never mind that), Mexican-American families that settled there in the 16th and 17th centuries, now have jobs as janitors, gardeners, mainentance people and construction workers in the new economy buildings, and they live in converted U-Stor garages 'cause they can't afford the rent.

In fact, the dot com economy is now beginning to displace people in San Francisco, as the high rent spiral they created further south forces growth north, where dot-coms have begun to gentrify the Mission District.

Just did my part. BTW:

CNN.com for us lazy bastards who dont like to type ( =
FoxNews (mailto)
MSNBC.com World News (mailto)
MSNBC.com Technology News (mailto)
USA Today Technology Feedback

Just to name a few

If the music industry is losing sooooo much money to people pirating music, then why do all the big newspapers GIVE AWAY their news stories on their websites?

Ever heard of:
The Detroit News (My hometown rag)
The London Times
The New York Times
USA Today
The L.A. Times
The Boston Globe

The list goes on and on.

It's obvious to me that these newspapers are generating their own revenue by advertising themselves. Music artists have it easy because the LISTENERS do most of the promotions when they rip/encode to MP3!!!

IMHO, this whole napster thing looks like one ingenious publicity stunt to sell MORE records.

I'm not sure what has been done lately if anyone has some more recent links let us know.

. . . end of story . . really. examples you ask?

Let's start with the Jim Lehrer interview with Bush. He (George) states clearly that he favors Microsoft and what they have done for the technology movmement.

George W. Bush: I hope, though, that whatever settlement is done it won't ruin this company because this company has been a very interesting innovator, and so I hope the judge would keep in mind that this company is an important part of the technological revolution taking place in America.

yawn . . the interview then turns to Bush advisor Ralph Reed - who was on the Microsoft payroll. Bush tries to wiggle out the issue, etc. . but the damage is done there. What do we learn from this encounter? Bush likes Microsoft, would prefer to not see the company broken up, and has a close advisor who is paid by Microsoft. Brilliant.

This quote from Salon.com:

Texas governor has gone on record strongly defending the software giant against the federal suit. "What I am worried about is if this company were to be broken up, this engine of change and this engine of growth," Bush said in February. "I am not sympathetic to lawsuits. Write that down."

Next,we have this article and this one and this one (which states Bush owns sares of Microsoft . . . ugh.

Of course the deal closer is the fact the www.georgewbush.com is running Windows 2000 (According to NetCraft). Heh,heh.

ok so what is my point (i have the flu . . just hold on for a second) . . Bush clearly has postive feelings towards Microsoft. I think Aschroft does too . . in the end these two hold enough strings to probably pull the case in their favor.

Maybe I should have been a bit more specific... I was referring to this Matrix-like thing, not the one in the commercial. (Since I don't live in the U.S., I didn't see the E*Trade Matrix commercial. I'll have to check them out on AdCritic later)

Bush has to pick his stuff very carefully.

Such as, for example, issuing executive orders instituting abortion restrictions as his first major policy action as president?

Here is the current URL:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/ccarch/cckev000 .htm

Namely, if this cases wins and is upheld, then look next for a lawsuit seeking to shut down the SEC 'FraudCrawler' and any other government owned or contracted law enforcement crawlers that come along after it.

Here's why.

If Register.com wins, then the courts will have recognized bandwidth as an asset on an equal legal footing to money or physical property. Once bandwidth has gained this legal stature, then suddenly the fourth admendment of the constitution kicks in:

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures , shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

Because unauthorized consumtion of bandwidth would then be legally equivalent to a seizure, the government would have to obtain and serve a search warrant on the owner of any server that they wish to examine the contents of!

"A microprocessor... is a terrible thing to waste." --

What about the eToys mess reported earlier by USA Today.

Goes right along with all the other "Dot-Com Desperation" reported in this article...just as sad! :P

Here is the USAToday article on the EarthLink crash caused by Carnivore.

ATLANTA (AP) - EarthLink Inc. said Friday it has reached an agreement with the FBI to avoid future use of an electronic surveillance device called Carnivore that disrupted Internet access for some EarthLink customers earlier this year.

The Atlanta-based company, which has about 4.2 million subscribers nationwide, said it had installed the snooping software for the FBI at a data center in Pasadena, Calif., earlier this year after it lost a decision on the matter in federal court.

When Carnivore wouldn't work with an operating system on the company's machines, an older system was installed for the device, which then led some servers to crash, EarthLink's director of technology acquisition told The Wall Street Journal for a story in Friday's editions.

''Many'' people were affected, Steve Dougherty told the newspaper, although the company declined to say how many or where.

Dougherty did not return messages left at his office Friday.

Carnivore, which an FBI spokesman said was first used in the spring of 1999, scans all incoming and outgoing e-mails for messages associated with the target of a criminal investigation.

FBI spokesman Steven Berry said the device gives the agency ''a surgical ability to intercept and collect the communications which are the subject of a court order'' and ignores everything else.

EarthLink spokesman Kurt Rahn said the company and FBI officials had agreed that EarthLink would collect such data in the future when investigators obtain a court order.

''Basically, we reached a mutual agreement with the FBI that we would be able to monitor and gather the information that they needed ourselves,'' Rahn said. ''That way, they got what they wanted and we were able to maintain the integrity of our network.''

Berry declined to confirm any such agreement or discuss at which Internet service providers the agency has installed Carnivore. Berry said the bureau is currently using the device, but he declined to say in how many cases or where.

He said all Carnivore installations are done ''in close cooperation'' with the ISP, but he said that the FBI collects the data itself.

Rahn said the company has no dispute about following court orders to provide customer information to law enforcement, but is concerned when doing so compromises its operations.

''It wasn't necessarily anything that was terribly disruptive, but it was more sort of the potential that it could have been worse,'' Rahn said of the outage Carnivore caused.

''And basically since delivering e-mail and delivering the Internet to our members is what we do, having that threatened is not going to work for us,'' he said.

This map summarizes perfectly the need for the electoral college.
---------------------------------
Only in America will someone order a
Big Mac, large fries, and a Diet Coke.

The Bush team apparently is still going after uncounted overseas votes.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/vote 200 0/legal3.htm

For a man who just announced he's president, I wonder why he's not confident?

My guess is he knows he's still standing on shaky ground, and hopes acting like he's won will make the challenges go away. I don't think that bodes well for his confidence in the process.

> it was thought that Bush may win the popular vote, but Gore win the
> electoral vote. Gore didn't complain about that possibility. Now we come
> to the interesting proposition that Gore may have won the popular vote
> but lost the electoral vote. Now (gasp!) Gore doesn't think that the
> electoral system is fair.

Yes, and the Republicans were ready to protest that possibility: Republican Representative Ray LaHood introduced a resolution to abolish the Electoral College back when it looked like the reverse. So the politics go both ways.

But Gore did explicately state that he wanted no electoral votes to be "unfaithful", so I don't think he's against the system; he's just asking for a full count of the votes.

There's still the issue of some 10,000 uncounted ballots in Miami Beach County that couldn't be counted due to the time constraints. Not questionable, may-not-be-filled-out-legally ballots -- but ballots that people filled out but were not read by the machines. I'm having a hard time believing the excuse that people chose not to vote for president. Most people vote for president and forget about the lesser offices because they're not interested. I find it hard to believe the reverse wouldn't happen. So it makes sense to actually count the votes (with representatives from both organizations there), rather than explain them away.

A good map of the US by who won the electorial college votes by state is at http://www.usatoday.com/news/ vot e2000/electfront.htm. An even better map is the one that shows who won each county. This map is at http://www.usatoday.com/news/vot e20 00/cbc/map.htm There are several states where Gore only won a handful of counties and three where he didn't win any.

I also wonder how many people in the Western states didn't vote because the networks called Florida prematurely and started predicting that Gore had it wrapped up. I've heard of several reports that when people at the polls in Western Florida heard that FL had been called for Gore, they just turned around and left. You also have to wonder how many Gore votes are due to the fiasco in St. Louis.

A good map of the US by who won the electorial college votes by state is at http://www.usatoday.com/news/ vot e2000/electfront.htm. An even better map is the one that shows who won each county. This map is at http://www.usatoday.com/news/vot e20 00/cbc/map.htm There are several states where Gore only won a handful of counties and three where he didn't win any.

I also wonder how many people in the Western states didn't vote because the networks called Florida prematurely and started predicting that Gore had it wrapped up. I've heard of several reports that when people at the polls in Western Florida heard that FL had been called for Gore, they just turned around and left. You also have to wonder how many Gore votes are due to the fiasco in St. Louis.

can be found here. Article, too.

Most states actually have a fine/jail time system built up for delegates who do not vote as they have been elected to.

Actually, according to Thursday's USA Today only four states have penalties, and the worst penalty is a $1,000 fine. There is also some question as to the constitutionality of laws restricting the electors...
--
You think being a MIB is all voodoo mind control? You should see the paperwork!

He loves some big corporations, but he doesn't love big tobacco (IMO, this ciggies for votes thing sounds like a setup) and he doesn't love Microsoft. In fact, on a campaign trip to Redmond last year, he got right in their faces and said that antitrust law should be applied to the software industry.

• story at Salon.com
• story at USA Today
• story at Seattle Times

However, the question is, are you really willing to let people who cannot afford medical care die?

I don't believe anyone with a conscience or a sense of moral duty would. But another 'the question' is, how do you want to help them?

USA Today had a good article yesterday about this issue. Most seniors today are -not- being weighed down by 'budget-busting prescription-drug bills', despite the rhetoric that's being bantered back and forth betwen the candidates, and the plans of both Bush and Gore would, in all likelyhood, simply increase the burden on an already strained Medicare system.

If the only way to provide that care is through government, would you still say no?

If it were the only way in the universe, perhaps I would say yes. But I do not believe that to be the case. There are thousands of charities out there, many of them with the sole purpose of providing medical aid, whether the case be 'hopeless' or 'reasonable'. IMHO, a private, non-profit charity is, 9 times out of 10, if not more, going to be much more efficient than a bueaurocratic government could ever be. If I could've given the money the government took out of my last paycheck for Medicare to a charity of my choosing, I'd be a lot more confident that it might be used well. And if I could've invested the money the government took for Social Security... well, that would be a nice boost for not only my own retirement, but also taking care of my parents someday, I'm sure. But then, that's another topic....

Me, I'm voting for Browne. Whether he wins or loses, I'm sick of all this 'lesser of two evils' nonsense.

---

However, the question is, are you really willing to let people who cannot afford medical care die?

I don't believe anyone with a conscience or a sense of moral duty would. But another 'the question' is, how do you want to help them?

USA Today had a good article yesterday about this issue. Most seniors today are -not- being weighed down by 'budget-busting prescription-drug bills', despite the rhetoric that's being bantered back and forth betwen the candidates, and the plans of both Bush and Gore would, in all likelyhood, simply increase the burden on an already strained Medicare system.

If the only way to provide that care is through government, would you still say no?

If it were the only way in the universe, perhaps I would say yes. But I do not believe that to be the case. There are thousands of charities out there, many of them with the sole purpose of providing medical aid, whether the case be 'hopeless' or 'reasonable'. IMHO, a private, non-profit charity is, 9 times out of 10, if not more, going to be much more efficient than a bueaurocratic government could ever be. If I could've given the money the government took out of my last paycheck for Medicare to a charity of my choosing, I'd be a lot more confident that it might be used well. And if I could've invested the money the government took for Social Security... well, that would be a nice boost for not only my own retirement, but also taking care of my parents someday, I'm sure. But then, that's another topic....

Me, I'm voting for Browne. Whether he wins or loses, I'm sick of all this 'lesser of two evils' nonsense.

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Microsoft is now backing the GOP. This after the GOP's shameless Microsoft butt kissing.

Microsoft is now backing the GOP. This after the GOP's shameless Microsoft butt kissing.

extinction temporary. Because then when that happens extinction happens all over again as the earth gets showered with lethal doses of gamma radiation. Then all the furry little mammals that live underground in moutainess areas are the only ones left. See here.

The kinds of bands that will suffer from this are the corporatized bands that don't really have any talent anyway -- bands that cannot put on a live show without a "sync" track (pun intended) and a bunch of hired help.

That is incorrect. The Integrated Circuit was most definitely patented. And I quote:

"Robert Noyce took the helm of the new enterprise and it was his invention of the integrated circuit that same year (along with Jack Kilby of TI who shared the patents) that would make Fairchild's fortune"

Taken from this article.

Here are a few other references:

http://inv entors.about.com/science/inventors/library/weekly/ aa080498.htm

http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyb er/tech/ctb218.htm

Poor SOBs. Their patents ran out in 81. But it looks like they got to have a good run of it with the screwed up Japanese patent system!

I've read several posts about how people find it hard to explain the current crop of RIAA/MPAA lawsuits to people (non-geeks). Maybe it's easiest if you just tell people:

"The record and movie companies want to take away our tape recorders and VCRs."

Ultimately, that's what it comes down to. The digital equivalents of tape recorders and VCRs are the "Boston strangler" to the RIAA/MPAA in their view of the world.

Last month Wired ran an article about watermarks in DVD video, which focused basically on DVD-writable based recorders. Entirely missing the point of once watermark rules can be placed in DVD content to prevent perfect digital copies, they can also be placed in broadcast content to do whatever the broadcasters want!

This could include making broadcast content non-recordable (ie, a network decides you can't make your own copy of it's latest miniseries; if you want a copy you have to pay for it on DVD) or forcing you to record commercials (and not fast-forward through them on playback) or imposing a window (recorded program must be viewed within a week of recording) or imposing a limit on the number of playbacks.

My jaw dropped to the floor when I read the link to the article in the Motley Fool about the FCC To Rule On Copy Protection
Technology Dispute.

Wired has a link to a current article in USA Today, it seems it is a done deal now.

How much more popular are VCR's than Napster? What's going to happen if the old line media companies are stupid enough to use technological means to circumvent legal rulings that didn't exactly go their way, even if they've been enriched by the results? Is war coming, are are the sheep lining up to be sheared even as I write?

There is one thing I am fairly sure of though: DeCSS is the tip of the iceberg. Those hackers who have the knowledge, skill and motivation will create software that will ignore watermarks and cut through "copy protection devices". Maybe this time it will be anonymously as well as open source. What the industry execs fear will come to pass despite anything they can do.

It is still depressing to read about how the powerful are steamrolling the rights of everyone else.

"You may stop this individual, but you can't stop us all... after all, we're all alike."

I really hope so.

Quoted from USA Today:

Thank God Kansas Republicans are here to help us all with common sense. After all, between saving our kids from both video games and Darwinian theory, we owe a debt of gratitude to the forward-thinking minds of Kansas conservatives.

I am also not a lawyer, but I thought it was a little confusing at first. It seemed as though an unrelated company was being sued for the perceived sins of another. However, as another USA Today article points out:

"Gnutella was developed by rogue programmers at Nullsoft Inc., a subsidiary of America Online Inc., who briefly posted the program on its Web site on March 14."

That makes much more sense doesn't it? If AOL is the parent of Nullsoft, the 'offending' company, then of course they got sued.

peas,
Kabloona

You can simply give them false names or start swapping cards with your friends. See this article.

But beyond amusement, this wouldn't serve much purpose IF you could pull it off. On a large enough scale, it might amount to a form of protest, but why? Okay...Doubleclick has become the poster child of the profiling evil empire. And now Coremetrics has received the brunt of the privacy policy ignorance of its clients, putting the spotlight on third party data-mining. In either case, cookies represent an essential tool to get their jobs done. If you don't like it...your options are simple:

• Configure your browser.
• Use a local proxy or filter. Adsubtract is a good one. I like Proxomitron.
• Use a browser "companion". IDcide works well. It's free.
• Use a proxy service that manages cookies like Privada or Freedom (yep, sneaking my affiliate ID in that URL). Zapada is a clever Java applet approach to keeping Doubleclick et.al. out.
• Periodically clean out your cookie files, either manually or using any number of file tools like Webroot's WindowWasher.
• Just install Doubleclick's opt-out cookie. I've assembled the URLs in one convenient location at http://webveil.com/optout.html.
• Or physically edit your cookie file/directory to be read only...after installing the cookies you want in order to get personalized service...like here at Slashdot.

If you take a look at some american gov't books
you might be able to figure that out for yourself. If you aren't making millions of dollars, if you aren't catholic, don't like school prayer, don't care about woman's rights, education, non big bisness then why the hell do you want to vote republican? We have a republican senate and house, the judges are 4 conservative 5 liberal and you want to through in a republican president with an ultra conservative vp? Are you some sort of priest that owns a big buisness and makes lot of money? Here is some evidence.


http://www.usatoday.com/news/e98/e1296.htm
At last time I checked I wasn't for letting people go that are breaking antitrust laws.

http://www.democrats.org/recor d/positions/index.htmlThis is the democratic issues yes they are from the democratic site but I couldn't find an American Gov't book online to give me the details needed.

This is from the rnc and isn't nearly as good about talking about the issues at hand. They just talk about al gore and not them selves except that bit about the epa.
http://www.rnc.org/newsroom/issues
The following link is for the primary campaining
http://www.adaction.org/voting.html

Nearly 50 fresh-faced engineers and entrepreneurs in San Jose and Cambridge work alongside IBM's sharpest minds on newfangled products and services, such as Linux systems management and pervasive computing devices. IBM employees manage the youthful groups.

Okay, so we probably wouldn't call Linux "newfangled", but it's food for thought for all you college seniors who want to work on open-source, and get paid.

YEP - it's pretty cool, but it is a very small car - not one I would like to drive far away in.

IMHO the Lupo is actually more cool, because it only uses normal fuel.

There is a little review (for you Americans) of the car here.

In Denmark 1 litre of gas now costs more than 1$ - which makes this a very attractive car - problem is that you simply can't get in Denmark (you can't even order it!). VW produce very few each day and can't follow the demand at all.

but you can get its cousin, the Golf, which is an awesome car for its price.

Hmm...it is absolutely not one of the cheapest cars you can get in Denmark (all cars in Denmark are *very* expensive because of the "taxes you have to pay).
Generally VW cars is somewhat more expensive than most of the others in the same class. A Passat costs maybe 7000$ more than a similar Pegeout 406 or Ford Mondeo, and I don't think a Passat is that much better.

It's not like splicing is anything new - hell we've been making corn that poisons butterflys for a while now - it's not new. Why is this news? What is the nature of the chromosome, is that what makes it so special? What does it do? Anything?

I've got one of those Intellimouse Explorers (the huge silver ones with the superfluous tail light and like three extra buttons; well, what the hell, here's a http://www.microsoft.com/Mouse/explorer.htm link) and sites that won't let you back out are an incredible annoyance. See, two of the buttons on there serve as Forward/Back (respectively) while browsing the web, and after about 20 minutes of using them, I was hooked. You wouldn't believe how simple (and remarkably intuitive) to navigate with your thumb. Now if I could just find a good use for those buttons in Half-Life... I mean, sure, it's easy enough to hold down the back button and select the page before the offending site, but that would require moving my cursor over six or so linear inches of desktop space. Isn't that just a little bit unreasonable? No? Ah well.

I like batteries... a lot.

Double Click, aka "Cookie Monster", is infamous for getting into trouble with placing cookies in their banners. Intuit is being sued by users of its Quicken.com website right now because people clicked banners on their website placed by Double Click and this lead to personal data, "including tax preparation and bill paying tools" were sold to third parties. More info on that lawsuit here.

Cookies can, and often do, store very personal information and can be a breach of security in some cases, but they're not all evil. For the casual browser, cookies can be useful to say the least.

I know for sure though, I don't want to be caught on Double Click's bad side. (1 2 3)

the guy in philipines that have been arrested because of the ILOVEYOU virus said that MS should be investigated because it's their fault if there's virus 'cause MS apps are too buggy.
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