Bullshit Bingo strikes back.

Hipster Bingo

] The Georgia Institute of Technology has announced that it
] has named Ralph Merkle, an inventor of the encryption
] technology that allows secure transactions over the
] Internet, as director of the Georgia Tech Information
] Security Center (GTISC). Merkle is known for his seminal
] contributions to information security and nanotechnology.

TechLinks - Merkle to run GT infosec center

] Their legislation, introduced Wednesday, would punish an
] Internet user who shares even a single file without
] permission from a copyright holder with prison terms of
] up to five years and fines of up to $250,000.

Totally asinine.

House proposal targets file swappers | CNET News.com

] Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac lets
] you connect your Mac to a Windows-based computer, and
] work with programs and files on that computer.

Kick Ass

Remote Desktop Client for Mac

Cafe Press now sells books. Fairly cheap too when you consider how much kinkos charges for this. You no longer need a book publisher as long as you can market yourself.

Publish books for Free

] A couple of weeks ago you mentioned Microsoft's
] FreedomToInnovate.com and the availability of T-Shirts.
] Intrigued, I had to check them out. The shirts say
] "Microsoft" over the front left breast and on the back is
] a rather uninspired logo of an American flag with the
] union portion of the flag replaced with a lame
] sub-PowerPoint-clipart-grade computer terminal graphic.
] The text reads "Proud to Support Microsoft's Freedom to
] Innovate / Sign up at
] www.microsoft.com/freedomtoinnovate"

Politech: Microsoft's 'Freedom to Innovate' campaign

] The new commander of U.S. forces in Iraq labeled the
] conflict there a guerrilla war for the first time
] yesterday, and said replacement troops to be sent there
] should expect year-long deployments of the type used
] during the Vietnam War.

See my post from two weeks ago on the matter.

Newsday.com - Iraqi Conflict a Guerrilla War

Jeremy wrote:
] Decius wrote:
] ]] Internet audience measurement service Nielsen Net Ratings
] ]] said traffic on Kazaa, the leading filesharing platform,
] ]] fell 15 percent in the week ended July 6 from the
] ]] previous week.
]
] This couldn't possibly have anything to do with the
] fact that it's summertime in the Northern hemisphere,
] could it? I would imagine that most teenagers think of KaZaA
] as more of an indoor sport.

Summertime has traditionally been slow for online services, going back to the BBS days. However, the last week of June is just as much summer as the first week in July. It could be argued that the 4th of July holiday would have an additional impact.

I wish MemeStreams statistics offered some insight, but unfortunately we seem to be impacted by the wax and wane of particular google searches as much as internet interest in general. For the record, the last week in June was the best week in June. The first week of July was about the same. The second week was better the first.

Having said these things, I think that it is realistic that some people will back off in face of suits. However, that will only last until P2P systems mutate into more anonymous systems, at which point they will begin to approach the sort of eternity services we were thinking about in school; capable of supporting full service data havens which charge by the kilobyte hour and as they mature will become secure against all but the most determined attackers.

Censorship is the tactic of the past. Spin is the tactic of the future.

RE: CNN.com - Traffic to filesharing sites drops - Jul. 14, 2003

] In a new dispute over interpreting intelligence data, the
] CIA and other agencies objected vigorously to a Bush
] administration assessment of the threat of Syria's
] weapons of mass destruction that was to be presented
] Tuesday on Capitol Hill.

CIA Bitch Slaps White House on Syria Intel

] Now 43, the veteran programmer is urging his 18-year-old
] nephew to stay in suburban Chicago and is discouraging
] him from pursuing degrees in computer science or
] engineering.
]
] "I told him, 'Unless you're planning to do this as a path
] to technical sales, don't do it,"' said Kerrigan, who
] lives in Oakland. "He won't be able to have a career
] designing and building stuff because all those jobs have
] moved to India."

CNN.com - Tech jobs leave U.S. for India, Russia - Jul. 14, 2003