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It works for Second Life. Almost too well. In 2007, Ginko Financial, an in-game bank, went bust. Then Midas Bank went bust. This drew the attention of The Wall Street Journal. In 2008, Linden Labs introduced bank regulation. Most of the Second Life banks were actually Ponzi schemes, with huge interest rates. It's still possible for a real-world bank to open branches in Second Life, but nobody has bothered.

I don't know. How many lawyers does Scientology have in the Department of Justice? The RIAA five.

Come to think of it, this might explain why they think the can get away with the shenanigans that Ray just uncovered.

I think this is what the story refers to:

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/03/researchers-cre

OMFG I still have a scar from my swine flu vacination that I was forced to have when I was in the Army in 1976. My arm swelled up with pus as if I had a boil. I was sick for days but at least I was not hospitalized like some of my friends. Wired has an article about those days. 1 person died from the actual flu while 30+ people died from the vacination. The nation wide vacination program cost $135 mil($500 mil in todays dollars). I hope they improved the vacine from those days because mine hurt like a bitch.

Their research on "non-lethal" weapons seems to been of not much use: Report Slams Pentagon's 'Non-Lethal' Arms Shop: $387 Million Spent, No Weapons

You really don't get why they bother? If it became legal to move DVD images around -- even if restricted by CSS licenses, $30K jukeboxes that was introduced as new, high-end consumer "tech" and discussed, here, on /. OVER 4 years ago.

If the content-control mafia doesn't go on the warpath against every possible consumer aid, then consumers might get "convenient" access to the videos they purchase. It has nothing to do with piracy -- since that's done on a massive scale across the world where DVD's are duplicated and sold for a few-bucks -- it has everything with consumer control -- especially control of the lucrative US-consumer market. If they don't keep up the legal pressure to block all technical progress, you'd start seeing low-end, non-Windows (or non-Vista) based jukeboxes selling at Walmart for $200. The content industry didn't invest millions in getting Vista to have all their layers of protection and licensing only to let stupid consumers get devices that actually allow them to DO things with their purchased videos. The only way the content-mafia can continue to make higher and higher profits off of fewer and fewer hits, is by changing the way they do business -- instead of selling DVD's, they really would prefer to sell pay-per-view-per-viewer. That would be their "ideal", though to get there, they have to move very slowly and indirectly. If they bring the consumers to a boil too quickly then the consumers get upset and balk (DIVX), or complain to congress-critters who occasionally threaten to do things when these content-kings try step up their charges for content viewing too quickly.

Just like Kaleidescape got nailed because they were a bunch of engineers and not part of the 'content-mafia', and thought consumers (even though they'd pay dearly for the cutting edge) might enjoy increased convenience. It's very likely, that Real Networks, being a competitor of Microsoft, hasn't been given the green light to develop a sufficiently onerous DRM (their RealDVD product probably isn't restricted to Vista) that's tied in with the OS, and designed to work with content-controlled hardware on the user's PC (the TPM chip being installed in every consumer computer that will be able to hold appropriately blessed, time limited, or location limited, or view-limited licenses that can be easily 'lost', or remotely deactivated over the network connection that's required for these devices to 'verify' your 'license' every time you view content.

Of course knowing what you are watching, where and how many times you watch an old DVD will given them useful marketing and taste information about the consumers who will be monitored.

Allowing a 'rogue' program that just lets consumers 'view' their own video (DVD/BluRay) without all the content-restriction and obfuscation software might allow a user to view a video through a unlicensed or non-approved video playback device. Recently I needed to replace a simple DVD player in my bedroom -- only needed an inexpensive playback device, but the device, of course has up-sampling and high-end digital-output for digital screens (LCD/plasma, virtually all modern viewers) that is only available through the HDMI connector. The instruction book tells you that unless your HDMI monitor is also HDCP-secure, that 'snow' or 'noise' in the output picture is "normal".

If the content-mafia allowed even the smallest bit of 'freedom' in video viewing, it could undo all their plans to shift to a completely controlled digital experience.

Nightmare scenario for them. Customer could buy their video *once*, DVD/BluRay, then load it on their home media center. But that same media center could show the vid

Although it's become trendy to blame the Gaussian Copula function for the collapse of the bond market, I wouldn't be so quick to judge.

The function appears to have allowed investors to "re-package" risky debts to appear less risky by the system that was used to rate the bonds, which (very predictably) blew up in everybody's face when it came time to pay off the loans.

However, the "white-hat/black-hat" argument comes to mind. Although the exploit was bad, it seems as though somebody should have stepped in and fixed the bond rating system so that it could no longer be abused and manipulated.

US taxpayers paid for $200 billion in infrastructure so there should be limits on what Time Warner can do.
http://blog.wired.com/business/2009/04/congressman-to.html
Write your congressman to support this bill
https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2009/03/dayintech_0319 Here is one that happened during the shuttle program. Maybe I was wrong about the Saturn rocket test, but I believe that something similar happened then.

And another word of warning: with the Systemax purchase of CompUSA, consumers will be exposed to the same sourced inventory, but not realize that it is the same entity as TigerDirect.

So if you're not happy with TigerDirect, don't consider the re-formed CompUSA as an alternative... it isn't.

The moon is abundant in Helium 3. If we had fusion generators, a single shuttle load of helium 3 could supply the entire energy demands of the US for an entire year. Helium 3 is incredibly rare on Earth. Maybe in 50-75 years, we'll have a working fusion generator that can take advantage of it. In the meantime, it makes sense

One of many sources: http://www.wired.com/science/space/news/2006/12/72276

Hell with that pussy gun. Big rocket launchers and 4 of these on every boat....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phalanx_CIWS

arm your crew with these....

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/02/aa-12-automatic.html

High sea pirates need to be turned into hamburger floating on the waves to feed the fishes.

ISPs and cable companies have a history of trying to avoid competition like this. A similar municipal wi-fi initiative was stifled in Pennsylvania a few years ago.

The result of the duopoly that currently defines "competition" is that prices and service suck.

Amen to that.

And below for a summary from wired less than year ago:

U.S. lawmakers approved the creation of a cabinet-level position of copyright czar as part of sweeping intellectual property enforcement legislation that sailed through the Senate on Friday.
However, a controversial measure granting the Justice Department the authority to sue copyright infringers on behalf of Hollywood and the music industry was removed after the White House lobbied against assuming those new powers.
The legislation's passage underscores the importance lawmakers place on protecting intellectual property. The entertainment industry says it loses billions of sales a year to piracy.
The legislation, unanimously approved on a consent vote, came as lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are scrambling to hammer out a $700 billion Wall Street bailout.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said he expected the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights Act "will aid federal efforts to protect American producers and American jobs."
The measure (.pdf) creates an executive-level "Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator" -- a copyright czar requiring Senate confirmation.
The executive and its office would be charged with creating a nationwide plan to combat piracy and "report directly to the president and Congress regarding domestic international intellectual property enforcement programs."
The nation's drug czar, a position created by Congress in 1982 to wage the War on Drugs, also requires Senate confirmation. The new copyright czar will oversee government anti-piracy crackdowns and, among other things, train other countries about IP enforcement. The legislation also creates an FBI piracy unit and allows for the forfeiture of equipment used in large pirating operations.
The intellectual property measure approved Friday was strongly backed by Hollywood, the recording industry, unions, manufacturers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
"This is a win for both parties and, more importantly, for America's innovators, workers whose jobs rely on intellectual property, and consumers who depend on safe and effective products," said Tom Donohue, the chamber's president and CEO.
Digital rights groups, including Public Knowledge, opposed the measure.
Gigi Sohn, the group's president, said the bill goes too far but she was nonetheless pleased that the Justice Department won't be suing copyright infringers on behalf of the entertainment industry.
"We are pleased that the Senate bill as passed does not include the egregious provision allowing the Justice Department to file civil suits against alleged copyright violators on behalf of copyright holders," she said.
The White House, in successfully pressuring for a rewrite to the legislation, said the original proposal requiring the attorney general to sue copyright infringers "could result in Department of Justice prosecutors serving as pro bono lawyers for private copyright holders regardless of their resources. In effect, taxpayer-supported department lawyers would pursue lawsuits for copyright holders, with monetary recovery going to industry."
The House of Representatives is expected to take up the measure as early as Saturday.
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/09/senate-passes-b.html

And below for a summary from wired less than year ago:

U.S. lawmakers approved the creation of a cabinet-level position of copyright czar as part of sweeping intellectual property enforcement legislation that sailed through the Senate on Friday.
However, a controversial measure granting the Justice Department the authority to sue copyright infringers on behalf of Hollywood and the music industry was removed after the White House lobbied against assuming those new powers.
The legislation's passage underscores the importance lawmakers place on protecting intellectual property. The entertainment industry says it loses billions of sales a year to piracy.
The legislation, unanimously approved on a consent vote, came as lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are scrambling to hammer out a $700 billion Wall Street bailout.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said he expected the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights Act "will aid federal efforts to protect American producers and American jobs."
The measure (.pdf) creates an executive-level "Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator" -- a copyright czar requiring Senate confirmation.
The executive and its office would be charged with creating a nationwide plan to combat piracy and "report directly to the president and Congress regarding domestic international intellectual property enforcement programs."
The nation's drug czar, a position created by Congress in 1982 to wage the War on Drugs, also requires Senate confirmation. The new copyright czar will oversee government anti-piracy crackdowns and, among other things, train other countries about IP enforcement. The legislation also creates an FBI piracy unit and allows for the forfeiture of equipment used in large pirating operations.
The intellectual property measure approved Friday was strongly backed by Hollywood, the recording industry, unions, manufacturers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
"This is a win for both parties and, more importantly, for America's innovators, workers whose jobs rely on intellectual property, and consumers who depend on safe and effective products," said Tom Donohue, the chamber's president and CEO.
Digital rights groups, including Public Knowledge, opposed the measure.
Gigi Sohn, the group's president, said the bill goes too far but she was nonetheless pleased that the Justice Department won't be suing copyright infringers on behalf of the entertainment industry.
"We are pleased that the Senate bill as passed does not include the egregious provision allowing the Justice Department to file civil suits against alleged copyright violators on behalf of copyright holders," she said.
The White House, in successfully pressuring for a rewrite to the legislation, said the original proposal requiring the attorney general to sue copyright infringers "could result in Department of Justice prosecutors serving as pro bono lawyers for private copyright holders regardless of their resources. In effect, taxpayer-supported department lawyers would pursue lawsuits for copyright holders, with monetary recovery going to industry."
The House of Representatives is expected to take up the measure as early as Saturday.
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/09/senate-passes-b.html

Umm, why is it a job for the Air Force, as opposed to the Navy, Army or some other Governmental agency? Offensive cyber-warfare may be a role for the air force, as in blowing up the computers of our adversaries by dropping bombs on them.....

The parent was trying to troll, but the Air Force DID try to hog the "cyber warfare" mission, and SecDef Gates slapped them down for it. The Army and Navy protested, and they had a valid point: since all the services rely on computer networks, why should one service have a monopoly on "computer warfare"?

Shai's plan for electric cars was featured in Wired last year. The idea only sounds crazy until you learn more about it, and then starts to take on the air of inevitability. It makes so much sense and is so practical (and profitable!) that someone is bound to do it. Israel and San Francisco signed on to the plan, anyway.

Surprisingly, as time goes by, the amount of ancient material available INCREASES every year. Old texts that are found and discovered are digitized and released to the world, rather than being lost in obscurity, readable by a small handful until the ultimate demise of the original work.

I see this every day.

For example, years back, when I was in High School, I was a big fan of "alternative" music. Bands like Depeche Mode, Erasure, Bauhaus, and others were my meat and potatoes, but being raised in small-town, USA, I had to work like the pretty hard to find stuff to listen to. My specialty was rare concert mixes and exploratory remixes - in many cases, I resigned to dubbing cassettes in order to get my fix.

Today, it's much easier for me to find rare, concert remixes! Many (most?) are available in mere seconds a la YouTube, as well as MP3s by LimeWire! And it seems that with each year, more and more and more obscure stuff is available - from Jerry Lee Lewis concerts to Arlo Guthrie live to early stage mixes of Yaz (then "Yazoo") ...

Why is this so?

Take a look at the Long Tail Economics principle made possible by the network effect of the Internet. This is one of the most insightful articles that exists on the Internet!

Five of their lawyers are now placed in high-level positions within the Department of Justice?

I dunno. It could be something else, or just a coincidence, but this does seem to be the simplest explanation among those them...

Speaking abstractly, it's not a bad national strategy in a way. We're fucked economically, and have no manufacturing base to speak of. There's not much we can do except enforce "intellectual property" overseas. The downside is the implicit effect that this will have on domestic freedom and true innovation. I suspect we (as knowledge workers) will be learning some hard lessons in the next few years. I would not be surprised if the FSF and EFF (among others) are forcibly nationalized and destroyed/reorganized within four years.

In the mean time, support Massa get his bill passed. If we wait, TWC will just come up with something else equally bad and US taxpayers paid for $200 billion in infrastructure so there should be limits on what Time Warner can do.
http://blog.wired.com/business/2009/04/congressman-to.html
Write your congressman to support this bill
https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml
Get it passed.

It would seem that way These Toes Were Made for Running

Some more info and other applications can be found here. Linked in that article are 150 pages of documents involving CIPAV, just take a look here. Kinda makes you wonder exactly how some of these things happen, perhaps some cross-site scripting with the company requesting FBI help. It's worth noting that in order to use CIPAV, the FBI has to get court approval after explaining how the software can help stop a crime.

Some more info and other applications can be found here. Linked in that article are 150 pages of documents involving CIPAV, just take a look here. Kinda makes you wonder exactly how some of these things happen, perhaps some cross-site scripting with the company requesting FBI help. It's worth noting that in order to use CIPAV, the FBI has to get court approval after explaining how the software can help stop a crime.

See this for the hilarious incident where Kluger contacted the anti-advertising agency in what was, shall we say, a lapse in judgment.

It was certainly a lapse in judgment, but actually I don't see a problem whatsoever with that model of advertising in principle. It's how performing artists got started in the first place. Paying an artist to promote you -- art on commission -- think of praise poems. Here's a small sample from an ancient Greek poet, Pindar, in a poem commissioned to celebrate someone's victory at the Olympian games:

... Know this, son of Archestratos:
it is because of your boxing, Hagesidamos,
that as an ornament to your golden olive garland
I shall cry aloud sweet songs,
celebrating the race of the western Lokrians.
And now, party on! I'll guarantee,
Muses, that he will return home to a people who are not hostile to visitors,
not oblivious to fine things,
but they possess the height of wisdom, and skill in the spear.
For neither the fiery fox
nor loud-roaring lions would go and change their own innate character.

Now, this was probably commissioned by the athlete's native city, rather than his family: Pindar spends more time advertising the city than the athlete. And now? Pindar's victory odes are now among the most highly regarded poetry of all time (not widely read, though, since he's pretty hard going, and he does a lot of very fancy stuff with rhythm and pacing that don't come across in translation).

As an advertising model, I really have no problem with it. There's a safety measure built in: the advertiser isn't the one deciding how to do the advertising. That's the artist's job. I reckon that -- within limits -- it's a perfectly decent and moral way for an artist to make a living.

Funny thing, heating a house is actually worse for the environment than cooling one.

"In the end, we'll have advertisements embedded into the hit singles, as part of the music and lyrics."

Already available: Just talk to your fine friends at http://klugeragency.com/ (warning flash, music, and a black hole of tastelessness). See this for the hilarious incident where Kluger contacted the anti-advertising agency in what was, shall we say, a lapse in judgment.

http://blog.wired.com/business/2009/04/congressman-to.html

Support his bill to "encourage" what Time Warner can do with the $200 billion in infrastructure that was paid for by taxpayers.
http://blog.wired.com/business/2009/04/congressman
Write your congressman to support this bill
https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml
Get it passed.

A California judge has ordered Microsoft to help a Colorado company revise its Internet greeting cards so they aren't blocked by the software giant's spam filter ..

.. the company also offers free electronic greeting cards through a site that has become one of the 15 most popular on the World Wide Web, according to Media Metrix. Schutz said there were no problems with the free electronic greetings until last month, when Microsoft set up a competing service as part of its MSN.com portal

A California judge has ordered Microsoft to help a Colorado company revise its Internet greeting cards so they aren't blocked by the software giant's spam filter ..

.. the company also offers free electronic greeting cards through a site that has become one of the 15 most popular on the World Wide Web, according to Media Metrix. Schutz said there were no problems with the free electronic greetings until last month, when Microsoft set up a competing service as part of its MSN.com portal

And I think the verdict stinks and here's why...

Standard reading list:

http://www.ornery.org/essays/warwatch/2003-09-07-1.html "MP3s are not the Devil"
http://www.ornery.org/essays/warwatch/2003-09-14-1.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting "Hollywood Accounting"
http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/1999/01/17327 "Mickey Mouse Copyright Extension Act"

These guys have been stealing your rights for ages, thanks to cash hungry congressmen and presidential candidates. Make that presidents. Obama has stacked the Justice department with his RIAA donors. And as Orson Scott Card points out, these guys suck.

The ipod and OSX were both released in 2001. I think there is a bit of causation there. OS9 sucked hard compared to W2k; even 10.0 was pretty terrible (buggy as hell). The press had just about every reason to hate Macs in the late 90's and through the release of 10.1 (also in 2001, but you got a freebie upgrade on that one, IIRC... again cuz 10.0 sucked).

Yup, what really hurt Apple was their belief that Windows was only just catching up. What ended up happening is that Apple did not innovate in the right places and let Microsoft pass by. The product line was equally confusing with model numbers that didn't mean anything to anyone.

In many ways I feel Gil Amelio made the right choice of purchasing NeXT instead of Be, since I suspect this would have caused Apple to become a software only company. In purchasing NeXT Apple got Steve Jobs, someone who IMHO, who had a vision (not the spiritual one) of where things should be going. When Steve Jobs came on board he brought OpenStep, a system that was ahead of it time, but not really finding itself a market until it became the core of MacOS X. He also simplified the product line into a range that people could understand. This is something I don't see with companies like Dell, who offer such a large range of computers and models that you are left scratching your head as to which is the right for you.

For me what really made me understand Steve Jobs was a Wired Interview which was done back in the 1990s, and I believe is a must read. He believed in simplicity and the fact the computers should be present but not visible, to the point where you don't even think of what you are using as a computer.

Do what ATT does for cell phones

Dunno, might be kinda bandwidth intensive to run all their ISP traffic through the 6th floor too.

Corrected URL: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/files/Steel-tcs06.pdf

Many /. posters have described various aspects of this issue. The paper by Graham Steel: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/files/Steel-tcs06.pdf/ provides a more thorough explanation of how the scheme works. This is a relatively new attack, so I expect we will see efforts to harden this network, but there are obstacles, as Steel describes. It's not that banks are just careless. For example, there is a business analytics software company with over $2 billion in annual revenue. One of their largest customers is a (big) bank, who retains them to run massive, nonstop analytical scans looking for suspicious transactions. It's a very costly effort. There is security on many layers, some will inevitably be compromised, and the bad guys are relentless.

Really? Care to link to the ruling?

There was a link to one such ruling in TFA. I'm sure the EFF will happily supply you with many more.

Any of them been found guilty in a court of law?

No, and here's a small newsflash for you -- that's the whole problem . If our current legal system wasn't severely flawed in the area of copyright, then the EFF wouldn't exist.

Third: Nothing I have seen indicates that any of these "RIAA lawyers" are going to have anything to do with the more unsavory aspects of copyright law. The DOJ does not have the time or the inclination to go after 13 year old children downloading Britteny Spears. The DOJ is only after the big boys. Is it really a problem if the DOJ goes after the more notorious pirates? (those making a profit off piracy).

Sadly, Obama's administration does take time to go after the little guys (in this case, siding against a former Boston U. student in support of $15k damages per song).

People aren't just concerned about him hiring lawyers that chase dollars rather than justice -- people are concerned that he's continuing in an established precedent that is selling its copyright ethical soul to the highest bidder. If this were "just an standard top-of-the-class lawyer who worked on questionable cases", that would be one thing. The problem is that a lot of Obama voters are extremely disappointed in the way that they feel he's not giving "change" at all, but rather more of the same pro-exploitative-business and anti-citizen policies that they've been so frustrated for years past.

It's only been 12 weeks, and he's already made an extremely disappointing track record of appointments. Let's try to remain hopeful, and continue asking for change.

Well put Dave. And precisely to prove your point on the irrelevancy of their prior work experience, you can point to the very first decisions that the new team has made a few short weeks after being placed into office: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2009/03/obama-sides-wit.html#previouspost "The government said the damages range of $750 to $150,000 per violation of the Copyright Act was warranted." This argument clearly reveals how the former RIAA lawyers are untainted by their former activities. I don't mean to over-dramatize this, but let's also not be naive about it. This is as pro-big business as it gets - I can only speculate as to the back-room dealings that have led to this outcome.

He must have gotten word from Karl Rove. Those guys love anonymous web comments.

By the way, have you guys seen this one? Clumsy British Centipede Stings Itself To Death In Public

The 1.9L 2006 VW Golf TDI has a 12.5 gal tank. Here are the numbers. Please notice the EPA ratings barely break 40MPG for the 2006 (newest) and about the same with older models.

The TDI Golf has a 12.5 UK gallon fuel tank, this equates to a ~15 US gallons (the fuel economy site you linked to gives 14.5 US gallons capacity.

While I'm sure the mileage is great, I'm skeptical of the claim that fnj can 'go over 600 miles without coming close to empty' though. With a 'best fillup' of 781 miles, one would be breaking 60MPG. That's barely achievable even with VW's diesel hybrid. fnj must do a lot of modestly paced highway hypermiling down a 700 mile slope or something... heh. Just a quick search around shows anecdotal evidence that people typically get about 45 highway with their Gold TDIs... that's probably more like it. But yeah, diesel engines are just more efficient than their gasoline counterparts.

With a full tank at 12.5 UK gallons and a best fill up of 781 that would give a fuel efficiency of 62.48 miles per UK gallon (53.86 miles per US gallon), which is achievable. I have a 2000 1.9 90bhp TDI Golf and I often get between 55 and 60 miles per UK gallon (46 - 50 miles per US gallon) so I wouldn't find the idea of 62.5 miles per UK gallon (52 miles per US gallon) that far out. Driving style and reading road conditions can have dramatic effects on fuel efficiency especially when driving long distances

what is so groundbreaking about a 750 mile range if your car has a 100 gallon tank in the back seat?

The 1.9L 2006 VW Golf TDI has a 12.5 gal tank. Here are the numbers. Please notice the EPA ratings barely break 40MPG for the 2006 (newest) and about the same with older models.

While I'm sure the mileage is great, I'm skeptical of the claim that fnj can 'go over 600 miles without coming close to empty' though. With a 'best fillup' of 781 miles, one would be breaking 60MPG. That's barely achievable even with VW's diesel hybrid. fnj must do a lot of modestly paced highway hypermiling down a 700 mile slope or something... heh. Just a quick search around shows anecdotal evidence that people typically get about 45 highway with their Gold TDIs... that's probably more like it.

But yeah, diesel engines are just more efficient than their gasoline counterparts.

I assume you know that Top Gear *admitted* to faking the ep -- not that this is something new for them. They're an entertainment show. They never ran out of electricity and were never without a working car. The only thing that actually did go wrong was with the brakes -- but it was merely a blown fuse from the abusive track duty they put it through, and the replacement was a nothing task. Their charge time statements were horribly misleading, too.

Clarkson stated that even if the Roadster had performed flawlessly, he still would have been hard on it because he believes that hydrogen is the future.
 

Everybody complains about how ISPs aren't being upfront about their usage caps. So now they're being upfront.

People aren't complaining about the tiered plan idea, they are complaining about the absurdly low bandwidth caps on the tiers. In a real competitive market I would laugh at TW and switch to a different competitor, and they would in time be forced to adjust their tiers to a more reasonable level. However they don't operate in a competitive market, in many parts of the country they operate as part of a duopoly, in which their DSL competitors are doing the exact same thing (uhh antitrust anyone?).

Bear in mind these are the same type of people who charge 10-20cents per SMS message (both ways send and receive, which by the way works out to $1310 per MB) when it costs absolutely nothing to transmit them.

All of this is a complete scam however. The problem that TW and others have with bandwidth isn't infrastructure costs or other BS, it has to do with content control. On an unlimited bandwidth connection I can drop TW cable and get all my TV through the net. However if I do that it completely cuts TW out of the picture, so now they can't sell their advertising, PPV, or other crap. Remember all the network neutrality controversy, whereby ISPs wanted to charge for content? Now they have found a way to indirectly "tax" whatever content flows across their connections by setting the caps ridiculously low and charging overage fees.

I am so not comfortable with Oracle being in charge of one of the remaining UNIX vendors... Better to see another UNIX license holder get them than that.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/05/magazine/05FREAK.html
http://scienceblogs.com/purepedantry/2007/05/monkey_economics.php
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/07/monkeys-practic.html

These links all point to the story, but not to any sort of brief from the research conducted by Keith Chen
http://www.som.yale.edu/faculty/keith.chen/

Anybody know where that is?

The upside to this (if there is to be one) is that most people can die in their sleep in a fire. Smoke inhalation can kill you without you waking up. Let's all hope he never awoke.

On the utter downside, we all seem to be losing bright minds. We lost Hans Reiser, Rick752, PCLinuxOS lost N1PTT (Robert Green) just to name a few more.

It just goes to show you how fragile life really is. Some chose to celebrate it with us other geeks and share some code and what not. I thank you all that do!

Shitty year for us all I guess?

Why do artists continue to fall into the "label" trap and sign contracts guaranteeing a lopsided pay schedule? Is there not enough evidence, documentation, and common knowledge that the labels are evil and their business model is dead? Do they not know about the Courtney Love manifesto? Reznor hosts a version of it as well, and has interesting comments of his own.

Any new artist (or existing artist exiting a contract) that doesn't at least try to leverage the internet is helping perpetuate the label problem. I'm sorry to say, those folks deserve what they get.

I'm not going to support labels or their artists with my money. Right, wrong, or indifferent, thats just a fact of life.

"The amount being paid to the music industry, even though [these] games are entirely dependent on the content we own and control, is far too small," Warner Music Group CEO Edgar Bronfman told analysts last summer.

Guitar Hero drives much more sales than your ad agencies and your lawsuits, assholes. The funny thing is that the recording industry are beginning to attack their own kin, MTV Games!

Obama took out of his Presidential campaign to vote in favor of spying on innocent Americans.

What did you expect?

It's been done

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/02/nations-spies-w.html