] Heavy-metal band Metallica, a vociferous opponent of
] Internet song-swapping sites, is turning to the Web as a
] way to encourage fans to buy the band's new music.
]
] Metallica, whose first album in six years is scheduled to
] be released on June 5, is offering exclusive music tracks
] online as well through a partnership with Speakeasy, the
] Seattle-based high-speed Internet access provider said.
]
] Customers who buy Metallica's new compact disc, St.
] Anger, will find a code inside the packaging allowing
] them to view, listen to and download exclusive,
] unreleased music tracks from a Metallica Web site.

What I've been saying for years... want to encourage people to BUY your CD vs. download the tracks online? You have to give some "value added" as incentive. Granted, these "exclusive, unreleased music tracks" will appear soon on a P2P network near you, but this is a step in the right direction.

Now start adding some "VA" that can not be pirated. Ideas off the top of my head... random drawings for concert tix, back stage passes, t-shirts and other swag, etc...

Laughing Boy

'Anger' leads Metallica to the Internet

] When June Medford came up with the idea to use tiny weeds
] as weapons in the war against terrorism, she figured most
] people would call it a joke. But the federal government
] didn't laugh.
]
] Now, armed with a half million-dollar grant from the
] Pentagon, the Colorado State University plant biologist
] is trying to genetically engineer Arabidopsis plants to
] change color rapidly if they sense a biological or
] chemical agent.
]
] If her plan works, the technology could be used to turn
] forest evergreens, backyard shrubs or even pond algae
] into sentinels for scientists. One day, everyone in
] America might be able to use a cheap houseplant as an
] early-warning system. It could be the proverbial canary
] in a coal mine for the post-Sept. 11 age.

Bugs, weeds, houseplants could join the war on terror

A nice little piece by Cory Doctorow, even if it is
archival and a littledated. Here's an excerpt which --while not really representative-- I found to be keenly observant.

,----
| Take eBay: every seller there has a damned good reason for
| double-checking their listings for typos and misspellings. Try
| searching for "plam" on eBay. Right now, that turns up nine typoed
| listings for "Plam Pilots." Misspelled listings don't show up in
| correctly-spelled searches and hence garner fewer bids and lower
| sale-prices. You can almost always get a bargain on a Plam Pilot at
| eBay.
`----

Metacrap

I just discovered a rather interesting tool. This appears to be a site devoted to allowing wireless carriers the ability to colocate equipment at existing cell tower sites. But it's also a handy tool for locating the towers and mapping out coverage.

http://www.sprintsites.com/?

Not only will the database give you lat and long for each tower, but there are actually pictures of both the tower and the enclosures. That's pretty kick ass if you ask me.

Find your cell tower

A fairly accurate timeline, er, from some points of view, of the progression that the internet has taken over time.

Enjoy!

The Lemon: History Of The Internet

] This VisualRoute Server provides a graphical traceroute
] from this server to any other network device you choose,
] useful for pinpointing network connectivity problems and
] identifying IP addresses. To trace back to your computer,
] just press the button with your IP address below. To
] trace to any other network device, enter the host name or
] URL below and press Enter.

Requires Java. Watch a visual trace route appear, overlaid against a map of the world, as it runs a tracert to far away domains (for example, try bbc.co.uk for England, or yellowpages.com.au for Australia).

Visual Trace Route

What could be greater entertainment than six monkeys and a computer?

Typing Monkeys Don't Write Shakespeare

] Eleven years before that, two cosmonauts overshot their
] touchdown site by 2,000 miles and found themselves deep
] in a forest with hungry wolves. That's when Russian space
] officials decided to pack a sawed-off shotgun aboard
] every spacecraft.

So we've all heard about the 300 mile mistake now. But I couldn't pass up this "low-tech" bit. It should be titled "When technology just isn't good enough, there's always a shotgun".

Returned space crew lucky, others faced wolves

This would be funny if it wasn't so serious. These things are just so sensitive.

Turtle with beacon causes major sea search - Apr. 18, 2003

] This ad is most definitely a nod to the filmmakers Peter
] Fischli and David Weiss. Their 1987 film, "The Way Things
] Go" is a 30-minute-long showing of a contraption they
] built out of household items.

VERY cool. I want to see the whole movie, not just the car commercial.

Honda's New Accord