] RATE radio is a collaborative filtering client/server mp3
] player/downloader. The iRATE server has a large database
] of music. You rate the tracks and it uses your ratings
] and other peoples to guess what you'll like. The tracks
] are downloaded from websites which allow free and legal
] downloads of their music.

I've been playing with this for a few hours... doesn't take it long to start pulling reasonable tracks. There is a lot I wish this software did that it doesn't do, but I have to say its pretty close to what I want from internet music...

iRATE radio home

] The American Teleservices Association isn't laughing at
] Dave Barry, not after the Pulitzer Prize-winning humor
] columnist for The Miami Herald listed the group's
] telephone number in his Aug. 31 column and sparked a
] flood of phone calls to the group's offices.

Yahoo! News - Barry Column Turns Table on Telemarketers

] Using this very web site, you can very easily send Lover Spy
] as an e-greeting card.
]
] The e-card looks just like a normal e-greeting card sent
] via e-mail. When opened, it will display a graphic
] of your choice, whether it be romantic flowers, a funny
] e-joke, or kittens.
]
] But silently, this e-card will secretly install our
] award-winning spy software on their PC !
]
] Immediately, an exact copy of all their e-mails, Hotmail,
] Yahoo, AOL, Outlook, Excite, all their actual Passwords (not
] just what they type), and passwords typed into the web
] browser, everything they Type in all programs,
] all their Chat Conversations on-line, every Web Site they
] visit, and much more, is forwarded to your
] e-mail address

U: Every few weeks I get an email from someone
who is looking for this software, found this link via a Google
search, and wants to know if I know where to find it.

A few thoughts:

1. As far as I know, you are getting this link instead of the original
company because the original company is gone.

2. Given the illegal nature of this company's product (delivering
software via an ecard without the consent of the user is illegal),
and the illegal way that they marketed it (on URLS that
are misspellings of trademarks like Google), I would be surprised
if it actually worked as advertised (why sell what you claim to be
selling when everything else is illegal anyway?).

3. In any event, given the nature of this business, and the amount
of press coverage this product received, it is almost certain
that these folks were the subject of legal action from multiple
sources, both civil and criminal.

4. If you are interested in using such a product you might want to
consider whether the course of action that your are pursuing is
really going to be the best way to get the things that you ultimately
seek in life.

Lover Spy Software - Send someone a key logging ecard...

] DIEBOLD ALERT
]
] All files yanked by webhost at request of Diebold,
] Inc.
] A copy of the email is below. I received this 28 hours
] after the now-vanished files went live.
] While I am not a legal professional in any way, I firmly
] believe that these files, while copyrighted, carry
] credible evidence of illegal vote-accessing activity
] and thus are not covered under the DCMA due to the "dirty
] hands" defense, which disallows an entity seeking
] damages in cases involving illegal activities
] connected to that which is being protected.

Diebold sueing away the truth...

] Looking at simple flickering images, or conjuring up
] mental pictures, can help stop cigarette cravings,
] researchers have discovered.
]
] The team, at the University of Sheffield, UK, hope the
] trick could assist people in stopping smoking. If so,
] they plan to develop a palm-top computer application for
] would-be quitters to look at whenever they are struck by
] a craving.

New Scientist: Flickering images help reduce nicotine cravings

This is the 3d file browser that won the NSF grant... This looks absolutely amazing. I'm going to fire it up on Monday...

3d file browser for linux

] The three-dimensional interface organizes computer
] contents by their relationships rather than their
] physical position on a hard drive. Each spider-web thread
] marks the ties between folders holding contents related
] to the open file folder (in the center in purple). Colors
] show how the other folders are related: The red folder is
] the parent one, blue folders are subdirectories, and the
] yellow and gray folders are located elsewhere but relate
] somehow to the central folder.

Science -- 3D file broswer wins NSF contest...

"Johnny died due to complications from diabetes, which resulted in respiratory failure," Cash's manager, Lou Robin, said in a statement issued by Baptist Hospital in Nashville.

Thursday was a crappy day, as John Ritter also passed away unexpectedly while working on his TV show.

One very interesting tidbit that was on NPR this morning, but I can't find references of on Google yet, is the statement that while in the Air Force, Johnny Cash was a codebreaker. This would make Johnny the Alpha-Geek, and most beloved, as the original codebreaking Man in Black.

Music Legend Johnny Cash Dies at 71

] SQL4X Manager J is a comprehensive graphical Interface
] for web and database developers to access any JDBC
] compliant database server. You can choose between a
] terminal-like graphical SQL Console with SQL syntax
] coloring and table name auto-completion to execute your
] own SQL commands and a fully graphical schema and table
] browser.

ahh.... finally.

SQL Manager for Mac OS X

] In April, the legendary Pixies will reunite for the first
] time in over a decade. The notoriously quarrelsome
] quartet have buried the hatchet, clearing the way for all
] four original members to hop onstage together for a world
] tour, according to a spokesperson for the band.

Part of me doesn't want to recommend this. 4ad is an RIAA label. We'll see, in April, if I really want to give these people money. I'm already having misgivings about having bought RadioHead tickets....

MTV.com - News -Legendary Pixies To Reunite For Tour, Album