] More and more, it seems that the entertainment content
] businesses, including Microsoft, want to make sure no
] culture can be offered anywhere in the world by anyone
] except them and only by means of their one-way paid
] pipeline. They can't achieve that goal without killing
] free/open software. Of course, they also would have to
] shut down the openness of the internet. I begin to
] suspect they may hypocritically use "security" concerns
] to do so, and the Wall Street Journal [sub req'd] reports
] they are already asking the goverment to establish
] standards for security in software:

None of these things are happening in a vacuum ... the folks
on Groklaw are being a little alarmist here but not outrageously
so.

Groklaw on Sun/M$ settlement

] The measure, VoIP Regulatory Freedom Act, also imposes
] some curbs on the Federal Communications Commission's
] ability to extend to VoIP much of the thick quilt of
] rules and requirements that govern the traditional phone
] network. For instance, it bans imposing certain "access
] charge" taxes, but does require the FCC to levy VoIP
] universal service fees that will be redirected to
] provided discounted analog phone service to low-income
] and rural Americans.

This is going to be a mixed bag. The Feds seem concious of
not wanting to kill it under regulation but at the same time
seem not to completely get it...

Feds tell states 'VoIP is ours' - News - ZDNet

] Saturn looms large in the sharpest colour image yet taken
] of the planet by the approaching Cassini-Huygens
] spacecraft, due to arrive at the Ringed Planet on 1 July.

Saturn looms large in new image

] SiLK, the System for Internet-Level Knowledge, is a
] collection of netflow tools developed by the CERT/AC to
] facilitate security analysis in large networks. SiLK
] consists of a suite of tools which collect and examine
] netflow data, allowing analysts to rapidly query large
] sets of data. SiLK was explicitly designed with a
] tradeoff in mind: while traffic summaries do not provide
] packet-by-packet (in particular, payload) information,
] they are also considerably more compact and consequently
] can be used to acquire a wider view of network traffic
] problems.

I'm being recruited to work on this project.

SiLK: System for Internet-Level Knowledge

]
] NEW YORK, April 2 (Reuters) - Sun Microsystems Inc.
] (nasdaq: SUNW - news - people) and Microsoft Corp.
] (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people) on Friday settled their
] long-running legal battle over patents and unfair
] competition, setting the stage for the arch-rivals to
] enter a new era of cooperation over their competing
] technologies.

Sun, Microsoft settle long-running disputes

] NEW YORK (Reuters) - Dow Jones & Co. (DJ.N: Quote,
] Profile, Research) on Thursday dumped three of America's
] oldest companies from its benchmark Dow Jones industrial
] average, replacing them with firms it said reflected
] growth in the financial and health care sectors.

Whoa...

Dow Index Promotes AIG, Pfizer, Verizon

] In an effort to revive the nuclear reactor construction
] industry, seven major companies plan to announce on
] Wednesday that they will apply for a license to build a
] new commercial power plant. The last time a plant was
] ordered but not later canceled was 1973.

Hopes of Building Nation's First New Nuclear Plant in Decades

] Innsbruck-based lung specialist Prof Dr Friedrich
] Bischinger said people who pick their noses with their
] fingers were healthy, happier and probably better in tune
] with their bodies.

Excellent!

Ananova - Top doc backs picking your nose and eating it

] We need honest discussion about the trade-offs between
] child quantity and quality.

Ding ding ding...

Two Is Enough - Why large families don't deserve tax breaks.

] If by the end of tomorrow, we have a way forward that can
] provide a better balance between the issues that has been
] mentioned of legitimacy and of transparency on the one
] hand without stifling innovation and creativity on the
] other hand, we will have contributed in a very positive
] way to the general direction in which we want to move
] forward.

Vint Cerf also has some comments in here -- I don't necessarily
agree with him -- he's basically saying that there isn't a problem
when there is: Verisign is suing ICANN so that they can do whatever
they want with .com/.net with no oversight!

UN Global Forum on Internet Governance