] Global music sales fell 7 percent last year to $32
] billion amid rampant illegal Internet downloading and CD
] copying, according to new industry figures released on
] Wednesday.

There's also alternative information that states that the downturn in the (collective) RIAA labels promotion of new albums parallels the reduction in global sales, not in this article though.

Piracy drives down music sales

] Humanoid robots, some of which can even walk on two legs,
] dominate the world's largest robot exhibition, held this
] weekend in Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo.
]
] The show brings together more than 90 different types of
] robot from 38 companies, colleges and other
] organisations, up from last year's 72 bots.
]
] As usual, Honda's Asimo stole the limelight in a way that
] would have the other automatons hopping mad.

I want to see a robot ride a Segway. :)

Humanoid robots wow Japanese

] By Special Contributor Anthony Hicks - Posted on
] 2003-04-08 16:17:37
]
] This (quite long) article has been written by me for two
] primary reasons: One, to hopefully save someone else the
] time and hassle associated with trying out various Linux
] distributions, and two, to promote some discussion and
] feedback regarding what a modern Linux distribution
] should be, and of course to contrast this with what is
] currently available. I am exploring the offerings of MS
] Windows, BeOS and MacOSX, and then taking on a number of
] well-known Linux distributions

The Quest for the Perfect Linux System...

] Americans will be spared another rise in the price of
] stamps for three years under legislation en route to
] President Bush for signature into law. The legislation
] takes advantage of a discovery that the money-losing post
] office was paying far too much into the Civil Service
] Retirement System, a program that covers employees who
] joined the force before 1984.

Thank goodness for "Bank error in your favor, collect $200."

Postal rates frozen for three years

] DVD software firm InterVideo has scored a deal with
] Microsoft to port components of the
] Windows Media Format to run on Linux-based consumer
] devices.
]
] The deal illustrates the general shift in the digital
] media marketplace to open up codecs and formats to
] competing platforms. Rival RealNetworks
] has already gone the open-source route for its
] Helix platform. With the full-scale rollout of MPEG-4
] gaining momentum, Microsoft is clearly repositioning its
] digital media efforts by embracing Linux.
]
] The latest partnership calls for Fremont, Calif.-based
] InterVideo to take components of the Windows Media Format
] and port them over to Linux and provide them to consumer
] electronic device makers who use the Linux OS in their
] products. It clears the way for the new Windows Media 9
] series to find a home on Linux-based set-top boxes,
] personal video recorders and other hybrid multimedia
] devices.

The article later on states that Linux is becoming the platform of choice for embedded devices in consumer electronics.

Windows Media Finds a Home on Linux Devices

] Beethoven's final manuscript of the Ninth Symphony,
] marked with the composer's revisions and insults to
] the copyist who produced it, could fetch up to $4.6
] million at a sale in London next month.
]
] "THIS IS ONE
] of the greatest works ever written by man, and it
] isn't likely there will be another complete
] Beethoven manuscript up for sale ever again; the rest are
] lost or in libraries," Stephen Roe, Sotheby's
] head of manuscripts, said Tuesday.
]
] The owner, described only as a "private
] foundation," is planning to set up a charitable fund
] for musicians with the money, Roe said.

Rare Beethoven manuscript for sale

Bob Barr states:
] Some of you may think that I have always been in
] politics, but I haven't. There was a time in the
] distant past, in a land far, far ago, where I actually
] worked as a professional. Came to a job every day. Was
] held to certain standards, where I had actual job
] evaluations and had to get raises and so forth, and I
] actually enjoyed it. It was at the CIA. I spent close to
] eight years at the Agency back in the 1970's. Having
] the opportunity this weekend to visit with Jim Woolsey
] and have the honor of introducing him here today really
] is wonderful.

Woolsey, as someone else has pointed out, makes Rush Limbaugh look like a lilly-white long-haired liberal. The article makes for interesting reading, although it makes me shake my head in disbelief in places.

World War IV

] The flood of unsolicited messages sent over the Internet
] is growing so fast that spam may soon account for half of
] all U.S. e-mail traffic, making it not only a
] hair-pulling annoyance but also an increasing drain on
] corporate budgets and possibly a threat to the continued
] usefulness of the most successful tool of the computer
] age.
]
] Spam continues to defy most legal and technical efforts
] to stamp it out. The surge has spurred calls for national
] legislation, but deep divisions remain regarding what
] constitutes spam and how best to regulate it. In the
] meantime, spammers, Internet providers, company network
] administrators and anti-spam vigilantes are locked in a
] ferocious electronic arms race.
]
] Many spammers have become so adept at masking their
] tracks that they are rarely found. They are so
] technologically sophisticated that they adjust their
] systems on the fly to counter special filters and other
] barriers thrown up against them. They can even
] electronically commandeer unprotected computers, turning
] them into spam-launching weapons of mass production.
]
] "The spammers are evil folks," said Matt Korn, America
] Online Inc.'s vice president for network operations. "As
] hard as we're working, they are working 24 hours a day.
] That's the level to which this battle has escalated."

Spam's cost to business escalates

] With public attention riveted on the war in Iraq,
] politicians may be planning to launch a sneak attack
] against the American people.
]
] Their weapon: Patriot II, a piece of legislation that
] would give the government frightening new powers,
] including the ability to make secret arrests, issue
] secret subpoenas, create a vast new DNA database and even
] strip Americans of their citizenship and deport them.
]
] Formally called The Domestic Security Enhancement Act of
] 2003 (DSEA), the legislation has been shrouded in
] secrecy, prompting civil liberties groups to fear the
] government has been waiting for an opportunity -- such as
] war or another terrorist attack -- to rush it through
] Congress. That's exactly what happened with the USA
] Patriot Act, which passed the House and Senate with
] lightning speed just six weeks after the September 11
] terrorist attacks.
]
] Now with war raging in Iraq, history may be about to
] repeat itself.

Sneak attack against the American people

] FRANCIS UY, a self-described computer geek from Ellicott
] City, decided to fight back by employing a tactic
] increasingly used by a small cadre of e-mail users fed up
] with spam: Outing spammers by posting their addresses and
] phone numbers on the Internet, enabling network operators
] to block their e-mail or to sue them.
]
] But Uy's target is counterattacking,
] resulting in a court date today in one of the more
] personal and unusual spam litigation cases to date.
] George Allen Moore Jr. of Linthicum argues that Uy's
] site is harassment and wants it pulled off the Internet.

Marketer sues anti-spam crusader