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AOL has over 33 Million subscribers; MSN has over 7 (really! see: here ) Until they do it, no e-business site out there is going to want to have a non-IPv4 address, or risk not getting online business from all those customers who obviously are willing to pay way too much money (for an ISP, at least).

The Washington Post has this article about how Rep. Ed Markey is looking into Comcast's collection of personal internet usage info. Hey, this guy must read SlashDot!!

Markey, D-Mass., in a letter to Comcast President Brian Roberts, wrote that he was concerned about "the nature and extent of any transgressions of the law that may have resulted in consumer privacy being compromised."

Also, Comcast has a new press release in response to the fracas.

Here, try actual journalism Slashdotters.
The Washington Post

The Young And the Jobless
By Carrie Johnson,
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 11, 2002

It was absolutely a wuss out on the part of the FCC but as I said it is for only 5 years. They can change everything at that time. Of course none of this has anything to do with the fact that FCC Chairman Michael Powell's father (Secretary of State Colin Powell) was a chairman on the board of AOL at one point.

AOL is to make money, their objective as said by is Fouder Mr. Case is to build a unique mailbox to all the mail we get, electronic and voice, and to build a solid support for that. So they are interested in Comcast and other. I don't see RedHat here. Only if they think that RedHat is a good acquisition for network know-how.
AOL at this time is more powerfull than MS and doesn't have the same problems they have (bad publicity, DOJ, bugs and more bugs).

Had an op-ed a few days ago in the Post about this.

...through the magic of technology, the song vanishes and you hand over another $10. (For a rundown of online music services, see Page E12.)

Web users can't turn to Page E12 to find this related information, and there is no indication of how to get from the current section (C, for Style) to the "E" section (Business). It would be nice if the good folks at washingtonpost.com would make use of "the magic of technology" by linking see Page E12 to the promised content.

The online music services article appears here, in a section so different it's branded to look like a separate site through the magic of marketing.

I think that he sees them as lesser of several evils. Would you rather see an internet controlled by AOLTW? Remember, Microsoft may control a good amount of the software infrastructure but they control little (if any) of the hardware and even less of the content. Disney has tons of content but no hardware and little software.

AOLTW on the other hand has huge control over hardware, software and content. Add to that the fact that they have significant influences within the US Government (see President's Council of Advisors, Bush's appointment of AOLTW President Richard Parsons as US Trade Representative., and the fact that Colin Powell was on the AOL Board ) and you have a pretty good picture of why Microsoft is not as damaging to the internet when compared to other companies.

Here is an interesting idea that some people have on how to stop people from getting real licenses by forging SS cards and birth certificates. They suggest that when you go to get a license, the DMV will query other agency and commercial databases and present you with challenge questions that make you prove your identity. The financial industry is already doing this. I know when I requested my credit report online, I had to answer a bunch of multiple choice questions like "What is the monthly payment for your auto loan with Chase bank?" before they would authenticate me. States could make you answer questions correctly on things like your tax refund, driving history, etc. to prove you are who you say you are.

Sounds like it would be more secure than the current methods but it does create a huge Big Brother infrastructure by linking all of those databases. Also, I know how hard it was to get an error on my credit report erased. I imagine maintaining the integrity of this would be a mess. Still, the concept is interesting.

... Under the terms of the settlement plan, Microsoft agreed to provide cash, computers and software it values at more than $1 billion to public schools that poor children attend. ...

Filling our kids' classrooms with visible reminders of a company is no way to correct a monopoly any more than it's a way to keep kids from smoking.

Imagine if the tobacco companies had been allowed to settle by saying "we'll put a bunch of stuff we know you can't afford and desperately need into your schools, with our logos highly visible to impressionable young children who will grow up highly inclined to become our next generation of customers ... in exchange for being let off."

See:

• Google cache of the NAB position
• Washington Post article
• further concerns about lack of "public service" programming

Support your local non-comm radio station!

According to the Washington Post the xbox failed to sell out completely like other consoles have. Seems many people were waiting for the GameCube instead.

nds09813-050-- -- the prison identification number of Scarfo''s father.

This requires big metal because it needs big power! Nobody said the hardware was free.

If you spend megabucks on hardware, not having to pay for the software softens the blow.

On the other hand, requiring a bunch of machines running Windows to do the exact same task can be expensive too.

Linux is more cost effective because you aren't shelling out several billion in software.

I do not like the notion that my ideas, the ideas formed with my own genius and hard work, should be thrown into the public domain just because I formulated them. I should have the freedom to share my ideas, keep them secret, or sell them to the highest bidder. Taking away that freedom in the name of other freedoms not only tramples some of my liberties, but also cheapens the others.

The GPL does not require you to release your modified version. You are free to make modifications and use them privately, without ever releasing them. This applies to organizations (including companies), too; an organization can make a modified version and use it internally without ever releasing it outside the organization.

But if you release the modified version to the public in some way, the GPL requires you to make the modified source code available to the users, under the GPL.

What's disturbing is that not only you (if sincere) are buying into that FUD, but so is the Washington Post article (the following is so misconstrued it sounds almost like Craig Mundie):

That model holds that if you use open-source code, you have to put your enhancements in the public domain and offer it to others with the same privileges that you got, i.e. free.

GPL (General Public License). En premier lieu, chacun est libre de décortiquer le logiciel en accédant au code source, les lignes de programme qui en constituent les secrets de fabrication. Ensuite, chacun est libre de le modifier, de l'améliorer ou de l'adapter à ses besoins. Une condition: tous les changements doivent être rendus publics [transl: all changes must be made public] et faire l'objet des mêmes modalités d'utilisation et de diffusion.

• AOL Might Join 'Identity Service' Battle

  "AOL Time Warner Inc. is considering entering a race against Microsoft Corp. and other technology companies to establish a single Web identity for consumers, attempting to become one of the dominant Internet gatekeepers for a vast array of personal information.

  AOL's project, which it calls Magic Carpet, would allow people to store personal information online to simplify transactions on the Internet, according to an internal AOL document and industry executives. AOL Time Warner would be chasing Microsoft, which has already developed a service called Passport that has more than 160 million accounts. AOL officials declined to comment."

• "...Magic Carpet, however, is referred to in an AOL strategy document on Microsoft. And at a summit of Internet industry leaders in Carlsbad, Calif., this week, Sun Microsystems Inc. chief executive Scott McNealy said he had talked to Barry Schuler, chief executive of America Online, AOL Time Warner's online unit, about the developing technology."

It's going to be interesting to see how this all turns out...

Read the report yourself because it is funny, but here is brief coverage in the Washington Post.

And for P2P pleasure...
Gnutella clients...
http://www.bearshare.com/
http://www.limewire.com/
Not based on Gnutella protocol...
http://www.aimster.com/
http://www.edonkey2000.com/
Or just go to CNET's downloads and select from many P2P flavors :)

This article and specifically this comment was referenced in an e-zine article located here

Strange as it may seem, peta.org used to resolve to the "People Eating Tasty Animals" website.

Alex Bischoff
---

Them "civilized injuns" are now confined to "reservations", where they have alot of reservations about being confined to a piece of land so small that it forces them to reinstitute suicide, drunk driving, poverty and pestilence as means of population control; not counting the heart-breaking child sacrifices to the great white TechNoGods and their powerful magic.

There are the very few jedi hacker gurus, who came to grips with the genocide of their caste but rather than give in to the dark side of the force, chose a different route.

But to call these, "ethical hackers" seems to suggest that an adjective is needed for a distinction to which hackers never intrinsically attained.

Excerpts from Washington Post article on the re-edjucashun and domesticashun of 2600 injun:

* Welcome, to the Machine- Child Sacrifices to the Great White TechNoGod:

"Patrick thought 2600 would teach him how to hack. Instead, it taught him about job hunting, stock options and business plans."

* Injun Joe on the reservation a drunk, stoned, gambler:
"Without 2600, Patrick says he would "probably be one of those pot-smoking, crack-sniffing guys who gave up on life a long time ago." "

* Civilized Injuns:
"In many respects, the dot-com revolution of the past few years is responsible for the transformation."

A Clockwork Orange: Canned Geronimo in a Tux

It is often the case that dophins are caught in tuna nets, gorillas in monkey traps, or hackers in the wake of e-commerce...

Some of the less saavy brats though, view themselves as third world freedom fighters, trying to deflect the "imperialist dog American oppressor", but they don't complain when being paid on thursdays; still, given half a chance they would waltz right into the board rooms and usurp the corporate heads with a long shiny scimatar.

Alas, there seem no union representatives of those jedi gurus who usually work separately from the rest on the principle that all wisedom bears that lonely fate of "one hand clapping"; the sound a falling tree makes in the forrest when no one is listening.

India and Indians
It may be that the Dune-like guilding of America will ironically make it look more and more like the India for which it was initially mistaken. Castes, clear deliniations of function, purpose, status in the name of efficiency to preserve limited resources. 700+ computer languages to insure privacy, sufficient obfuscation for security. There is safety in numbers, and life is oh so slow and bureaucratic in Babylon.

http://www.washtech.com/news/telecom/8142-1.html

Basically, some Iridium creditors have formed a company for the express purpose of suing Motorola.

According to the Washington Post.

A federal appeals court ruled Monday that the music-swapping service Napster must stop trading in copyrighted material and may be held liable for "vicarious copyright infringement." Napster must prevent users from gaining access to copyrighted content through its lists of songs archived by the service's users, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said. The panel also directed the Redwood City-based company to remove links to users trading copyrighted songs stored as MP3 files.

The immediate result of AOL and Time Warner merging into one company, being the first time that an entertainment and telecommunications company have come together, was a vast termination of employees.

I really wonder first of all, how much a merger could have EVER happened in our country. The washington post ran an article a while back dicusssing how Micheal Powell (FCC commissioner) had an influence on the direction the merger was heading. Seeing that his father (Colin Powell), sits on the AOL board.

My question is, being an established expert, do you believe that the merger between AOL and Time Warner is a rare fluke of our system, or is this something that we're going to be seeing again shortly.

-- flossie
http telnet

Here's the Washington Post article.

According to this article, the Virginia Senate has passed it unanimously.