The leading corporations divest themselves of their productive capacity, as this is no longer a source of power. Their power lies in monopolising intellectual property - patents and brands - and the means of reproducing their value - the vectors of communication.

This is very interesting. Rare is it that I find someone who understands the distinction between scarce resources and resources that are not scarce and can consider whether resources that are not scarce ought to be treated as if they were. In addition, this author manages to unify the interest of creators in "open source" and remixable work with their simultaneous conflicts over intellectual property rights with their employers.

Unfortunately, all of this gets cast in a marxist light. The idea of classes is discredited in America. Artificial scarcity is inefficient, and that is where the arguments ought to hinge. Silicon Valley works better because its non-competes are unenforceable and its IP agreements don't stretch into the garage.

In any event, the language is not really relevant. There IS a group of people in this country who mostly create and another group of people who mostly own, and they are quite at odds with eachother over questions such as what sort of copyright system actually benefits innovation. So much can be read directly from Lessig's most recent court case.

Apparently the author has written a book on this subject. There may be things to learn here. I'll post more later...

A(nother) Hacker's Manifesto[PDF]

] Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said yesterday that
] the search for Osama bin Laden has gone completely cold,
] with no recent intelligence indicating where he and his
] top lieutenants are hiding.

Pakistan, Pakistan, Pakistan, Paki.... wait... holdon... So, no BL in PK? Maybe they just want BL to think that they don't know where he is. Maybe they just want US to think they don't know where he is. Hell, you couldn't have possibly given him more notice that you were planning to do something there could you? Why don't you give him another year or two to locate a suitable hiding spot? It won't be hard to figure out where he went. I mean, seriously, how many places on this planet could someone with unfathomable wealth and the sympathy of a large minority of the planet hide?

Venezuela, Venezuela, Venezuela, Venezuela, Venezuela, Venezuela, Venezuela,
Venezuela, Venezuela, Venezuela, Venezuela, Venezuela, Venezuela, Venezuela,
Venezuela, Venezuela, Venezuela, Venezuela, Venezuela, Venezuela, Venezuela,
Venezuela, Venezuela...

Musharraf: Bin Laden's Location Is Unknown (washingtonpost.com)

Adventures of the playmobile hazmat team. The first one is the best one.

monochrom / Loka Daun / Spezialeinheit / Special Forces

] This photo is of the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station
] taken every 15 minutes (if a relay satellite is available
] for transmission) from the roof of the Atmospheric
] Research Observatory which houses NOAA/CMDL's Clean Air
] Facility. In order to preserve the life of the camera, it
] is tilted down onto the snow when the sun is in the field
] of view, which occurs for several weeks around sunset
] (March) and sunrise (September) when the sun marches in a
] circle above the horizon. From mid-April until mid-August
] the moon and the aurora australis provide the only
] natural lighting.
]
] The new station, presently under construction, can be
] seen to the right in the photo; the old (circa 1973)
] domed station is to the left. The new station is elevated
] above the snow to prevent it being buried by the drifting
] snow (the present fate of the old domed station). When
] the new station is finished in about 2006, the old dome
] and buildings inside will be removed. The new galley
] (with windows!) is now being used for meals. The
] cylindrical object at the end of the station, fondly
] called the "beer can," is the entrance to the station.

Telecommunications is so damn cool.

South Pole Live Camera

] Americans do not believe that humans evolved, and the
] vast majority says that even if they evolved, God guided
] the process. Just 13 percent say that God was not
] involved. But most would not substitute the teaching of
] creationism for the teaching of evolution in public
] schools.

CBS News | Poll: Creationism Trumps Evolution | November 23, 2004 21:02:35

] Lycos Europe has started to distribute a special
] screensaver in a controversial bid to battle spam. The
] program - titled Make Love Not Spam, and available for
] Windows and the Mac OS - sends a request to view a spam
] source site. When a large number of screensavers send
] their requests at the same time the spam web page becomes
] overloaded and slow.

"Legitimate" DDOS screen saver. I never thought I'd see this. Its the kind of thing that has "bad idea" written all over it, but its also kind of interesting.

Lycos screensaver to blitz spam servers | The Register

Someone predicts that Microsoft will invent MemeStreams in 2008 and then it will be replaced by Google/Amazon in 2010.

So, who wants to alter this future by helping us write code? I'm serious.

EPIC 2014

] Increasingly, though, Russia and the West seem to be
] talking past each other. "I think there could be a new
] cold war," Mr. Markov said, "not a result of competition
] of interests, but because of miscommunication."

We have a President that respects and likes a fascist dictator, and a press that has the balls to refer to the differences between foriegn policies of American and Russian "democracy" as being the result of "miscommunication." Talking past each other!?

A Tug of War Over Ukraine

] The Thames Valley District school board is asking the
] province to consider a surtax on violent media, with
] revenue directed toward anti-violence programs in schools
] and communities.
]
] He said the surtax could be applied to anything from
] admission to NHL games to price tags for video games.
]
] But Jaffe stressed the surtax shouldn't be "hidden."
]
] He said an explanatory note should accompany the purchase
] of violent media, detailing the reasons for the extra
] expense.
]
] "At the cash register, parents and adolescents would
] certainly see the difference."
]
] "It's one fresh idea in terms of raising new revenue,
] which I think the vast majority of the public would
] accept."

The stamp act. Over 200 years and they still don't get it.

London Free Press: News Section - Board pushes surtax for violent media

] Perhaps people complaining about shooting JFK in a video
] game should concentrate more on "tasteless" violence in
] the real world. For example prisoner abuses in Iraq, the
] mass murder being committed in Sudan...
] anonymous, London
]
]
] Let's have a game where we go on the hunt for Saddam!
] Gail , Surrey, UK

The outrage is political of course. A game where you represent a CIA assassin killing someone politically opposed in the west would hardly garner a comment, even if the "victim" was still alive.

BBC NEWS | Have Your Say | JFK computer game: Your views