] At the same time, Rheingold is worried that established
] companies could quash such nascent innovations as
] file-sharing -- and potentially put the U.S. at risk of
] falling behind the rest of the world.

My comments exactly on BinRev Radio tonight.

MSNBC - Howard Rheingold's Latest Connection

] "New Scientist reports that the semi-annual Robo-One
] contest took place last week in Kawasaki, Japan.
] Humanoid robots (2 arms, 2 legs) battled it out
] one-on-one and in multi-robot brawls.

Wow... Check out the videos.

Slashdot | Humanoid Robot Combat in Japan

] There's a rumor circulating at the Crypto conference,
] which is being held this week in Santa Barbara, that
] somebody is about to announce a partial break of the
] SHA-1 cryptographic hashfunction. If true, this will have
] a big impact, as I'll describe below. And if it's not
] true, it will have helped me trick you into learning a
] little bit about cryptography. So read on....

Freedom to Tinker: SHA-1 Break Rumored

] Comets that explode with the odor of hashish &
] radioactive charcoal--swampghouls & will-o'-the-wisps
] haunting public parks--fake St. Elmo's fire flickering
] over the architecture of the bourgeoisie--strings of
] lady-fingers falling on the Legislature
] floor--salamander-elementals attack well-known moral
] reformers.

The entire text of most of Hakin Bey's writings have been posted online. (Pirate Utopias is unfortunately missing.) Of course, his best known work is The Temporary Autonomous Zone. This short poem about fireworks is my favorite section of that book.

Pyrotechnics

I cohost Binary Revolution Radio tuesday night at 9:30PM. The show has actually already been recorded. I hope it turned out well. We shall see. I spend a lot of time talking about memes and MemeStreams. Let me know what you think. If you aren't able to catch it live, they will have MP3s available on the website for download at any time.

MemeStreams on BinRev Radio

] For me, one of the highlights of the 2004 Olympics opening
] ceremony last night was not the flying circus, nor the
] torching of the phallus, but it was General Electric's
] new TV ad. Nanotechnology was not mentioned at all, but
] the film, "Fantastic Voyage," that old reliable nanotech
] analogy, was a prominent player.

Howard Lovy's NanoBot

] The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been questioning
] political demonstrators across the country, and in rare
] cases even subpoenaing them, in an aggressive effort to
] forestall what officials say could be violent and
] disruptive protests at the Republican National Convention
] in New York.

All the seditious talk has apparently attracted some attention. Look for them to claim that their free speech rights (to disable buses and disrupt meetings) are being curtailed.

The New York Times - F.B.I. Goes Knocking for Political Troublemakers

noteworthy wrote:

] How much does he think the addition of French and German
] soldiers would have improved things?

That, btw, is a very stupid question. Countries like France, Germany, and Canada are not terribly useful in terms of the amount of actual soldiers and military hardware that they provide. The equipment and troops they do provide are not useless, and the sacrifices made by those men and women should be respected as one would respect any soldier's sacrifice. But ultimately, its about money.

Those countries provide significant amounts of financing to cover the operational costs of large U.S. troop deployments that they support. Lack of solid international support for Iraq ][ has significatly increased our national deficit. And an unlikely future scenario (which Al Q certainly hopes for) would be a rift between Europe and the US which was so deep that anti-terror efforts would loose international financial support. The U.S. would have significant difficulty paying for operations without causing major impacts on livelyhood back home. The economy would suffer. Flexibility would be limited.

RE: About That Iraq Vote

] This SWIPE tool allows you to crack a 2D barcode. Ever
] noticed the barcode on the backside of your license?

Download the program or upload a GIF or JPG of a barcode and find out whats on it. Very, Very cool.

The SWIPE Toolkit

] People who casually use the term "piracy" to refer to the
] unauthorized exchange of copyrighted music, movies,
] books, and software would gain a deeper understanding of
] the terms they use by picking up the highly readable book
] Villains of All Nations: Atlantic Pirates in the Golden
] Age by Marcus Rediker. This recently released study
] (Beacon Press, ISBN 0-8070-5024-5) describes the lives
] and political significance of pirates at the period of
] their greatest growth during the early eighteenth
] century.
]
] Pirates, in Rediker's analysis, were more than just
] thieves. They created an alternative way to regard work,
] society, and life's pleasures in an economically and
] religiously repressive age.

Pirates are an interesting subject. There are very few really good books on them. Peter Lamborn Wilson wrote a good one. This may be another. Basically they weren't just criminal gangs out for loot, like their modern South East Asian descendants, they also had an anarchist ethos which does make them sound a hell of a lot like hackers.

(Update: When you look at the book reviewed here in Amazon, and then click on some of the author's other books you find several accusations that he is a "marxist," along with recommendations for other histories about pirates. This raises some interesting questions. On the one hand, one might expect a marxist to see his subject through that lense. On the other hand, "normal" historians have a lense through which they view events as well. Who would you trust to write a history of computer hackers? Do normal objective journalists do a good job of covering the hacker scene?)

O'Reilly Network: Before you speak of information pirates