Slashback: Lamo, Trilogy, Searching

Slashback tonight brings updates on the recent Google hiccup, LookSmart and the FBI's note-snooping in the Adrian Lamo case, as well as (at long last!) a list of the theaters whose seats will soon be smooshed for far longer than usual under the weight of those dedicated enough to sit through 10 hours of Lord of the Rings. Read on below for the details.

Microsoft thinks LookSmart looks less smart. securitas writes "Internet search company LookSmart was dropped by Microsoft's MSN service today. MSN has decided not to extend its licensing contract with LookSmart beyond January 2004. The news is devastating for LookSmart since, 'Microsoft accounted for approximately 65 percent of listings revenues, and all of LookSmart's licensing revenue in the second quarter of 2003,' according to a company press release not listed on LookSmart's site. The move comes after LookSmart recently launched its own Overture-style pay-per-click service and indicates Microsoft is close to launching its new search engine technology designed to unseat Google for the search crown. All of this is against the backdrop of acquisitions by rival Yahoo. More coverage at SearchEngineWatch and a Reuters mirror at CNN Money."

They could have fixed this if they'd googled for an answer ... powerg3 writes "This follow-up, explains the Google wackiness posted yesterday. Here's the quote from the Google Weblog: '...when a spam result comes up in a search, Google not only blocks the spam, but every result after it. This means that for searches where spam results manage to rise to the top, very few -- sometimes zero -- results will be returned....It's pretty amazing that such a serious bug made it past Google's tests. It will be interesting to see how quickly it's fixed.'"

Pardon me, mum, can I borrow your hard drive? AndreL writes "The Guardian has an update about the BBC's digital archive plans. They're considering using P2P technology to avoid bandwidth bottlenecks. The bad news: because of technical, financial, and legal problems nothing will happen until 2006 at the earliest."

Please arrive in costume if at all. KTecumseh writes "The list of theaters showing the extended editions of LOTR as been revealed. You can check out the list at the official website, and before you look, pray that you live somewhere close by to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime experience. For those that can not make the full 10-hour saga, they are also showing the first two extended additions on different dates, but who wants to miss out on an entire theater of sweaty LOTR fans."

Shamus Arrigan asks plaintively "There is no mention of these ticket sales in any other country. Does anyone know when and where these tickets will be sold at? (Canada especially)"

Wait, are you fellas press? Dangnabbit! ccnull writes "Good news from the inquest against hacker Adrian Lamo. According to a paragraph in a Washington Post column (buried about 3/4 of the way down the story), the FBI appears to be backing off from pursuing reporters' notes in the case. Relevant quote: 'A Justice Department official says the FBI agent "acted out of turn" by not seeking approval from the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan and Attorney General John Ashcroft's press office. "The agent did not follow standard procedures," the official says. "We're just not going to pursue it. It is the policy of the Justice Department to exhaust all other means before seeking information from members of the media."'"

Eh, what's a few orders of magnitude? Grant hayes writes: "It seems the decimal point in the Mono story you ran is being a bit ambitious. We should be reading Mono 0.28, not Mono 2.8. Check the link below as well as links there to other Mono resources; I see 0.28 throughout." Here's the Mono site -- guilty as charged. Thanks for the correction.

Comments

Only one theater in Silicon Valley?

[imcleod]

The list only shows one theater in Silicon Valley that's doing the screenings, and two others in the SF Bay Area (Dublin, San Francisco). Get your tickets early, folks...

Not just with Lamo

[phorm]

Good news from the inquest against hacker Adrian Lamo

For those that don't really like Lamo, consider this in the large scope that it is, overall, a victory for everbody's rights against rampant abuse-of-power.

Never understood why the "extra" footage...

[Hamster Lover]

wasn't added to the movie to begin with.

If you're in for a penny you're in for pound, as the saying goes. What difference is 20-30 minutes going to make on a 3 hour movie? Are people simply going to walk out at exactly 3 hours?

The extra footage added to Fellowship really fleshed out the story and brought it closer to the book.

Just my 2 cents.

Re:Never understood why the "extra" footage...

[Texas Rose on Lava L]

The shorter the movie is, the more times the theater can show it. The more times the theater shows the movie, the more tickets they can sell. The more tickets they sell, the more money the studio makes. Movie studios tend to do things that they think will make them money.

Definition of insanity

[bstadil]

The old story about insanity defined as "doing the same thing over and over expecting different results", pretty much sums up anyone entering into a close relations with Microsoft.

The list of companies being f****d is legio,can anyone come up with a company that did well?

Not being bought by MS but working as a close partner with MS, and lived to tell the tale.

To Paraphrase Tom Waits

[Greyfox]

Now a man figures it's his relationship with Microsoft, so he'll take what he wants from it. Yeah... well it don't always work out that way...

You'd think that before a company entered into a relationship with a company like Microsoft (Or SCO... whoever...) the aforementioned company might... you know... look at Microsoft's past history or something? It's like marrying a woman with 7 divorces. She might not divorce you, but that's not where I'd put my money. What are these people thinking "Oh, the past is littered with the corpses of companies they partnered with and then sucked dry and then abandoned as dry husks of their former selves... but I'm sure they've turned over a new leaf and won't do that to us! They've said they like us!"

UK Cinemas?

[Jobby]

Anyone know which UK cinemas this is going to be showing at (if any) ?