] The idea is a simple one: Fifty years after a work has
] been published, the copyright owner must pay a $1
] maintanence fee. If the copyright owner pays the fee,
] then the copyright continues. If the owner fails to pay
] the fee, the work passes into the public domain. Based on
] historical precedent, we expect 98% of copyrighted works
] would pass into the public domain after just 50 years.
] They could keep Mickey for as long as Congress lets them.
] But we would get a public domain.

Help Lawrence Lessig save the public domain

] North Korea is training around 100 computer hackers each
] year to boost its cyber-warfare capabilities, pushing the
] South to fortify its own computer security, a South
] Korean military official said on Friday.

hrm...

CNN.com - N. Korean training hackers, Seoul says - May. 16, 2003

] We make stuffed animals that look like tiny microbes...
] Now available: The Common Cold, The Flu, Sore Throat, and
] Stomach Ache.

Kick Ass...

Welcome to GIANTmicrobes!

] I was sure we'd see a silly "Hackers"-esque 3D animated
] "hacking scene".
] Not so! Trinity is as smart as she is seductive! She
] whips out Nmap (!!!), scans her target, finds 22/tcp open,
] and proceeds with an über ssh technique! I was so surprised,
] I almost jumped out of my seat and did the "r00t dance"
] right there in the theatre!
]
] There can be only one explanation: Carie-Anne has the
] hots for me!

OK, if Fyodor gets Carie-Anne can I have her Ducati?

Nmap Hackers: Whoa!

] Commercial users and distributors of the Linux operating
] system could face legal action from the key patent holder
] of Unix, which said Wednesday it will suspend sales of
] its own Linux products.
]
] SCO Group, formerly known as Caldera International,
] claims its intellectual property has been illegally
] included in all distributions of the Linux operating
] system.

OK, I'm now officially declaring Caldera the North Korea of Linux Distributions. SCO has to figure out if it can offer itself up for less money then these legal wranglings are going to cost the major players in terms of slower adoption rates. There are a number of companies that have made a significant investment in Linux who have a lot of cash in the bank. The big IF is whether the market will beleive that there are real risks. Ultimately, this will be bad for the Linux Business any way you cut it. No one is going to pony up for Caldera until they bleed a bit, and Caldera has absolutely nothing to loose.

Wired News: Unix Developer Stops Linux Sales

] 'Salam Pax" is rising as one of the media stars in
] postwar Iraq. He began blogging from Baghdad well before
] the war, and has come back sporadically since. (He calls
] his blog "Where is Raed?") He is the darling of fellow
] bloggers in the West, who light up with links whenever he
] appears on the Web. He has been written about in the New
] Yorker magazine and elsewhere, and his jottings copied
] into the Guardian in the Britain. Not bad for a person
] whose very existence has been skeptically queried. And
] who does a superb job of covering his traces, creating
] fresh firewalls around himself in the very moments when
] he appears to be giving his identity away.

Here is another take on Salam Pax..

canada.com | 'Salam Pax' plays Americans for fools in Iraq

Total lunar eclipses happen when the earth gets between the sun and the moon. Because of the relatively low amount of particulates in the air it should look chocolate and brown.

MMmmm.... chocolate.

The eclipse starts tomorrow (thursday the 15th) at 10pm EDT and ends around 1am.

Total Lunar Eclipse: May 15-16, 2003

] In a step toward electronic newspapers and wearable
] computer screens, scientists have created an ultra-thin
] screen that can be bent, twisted and even rolled up and
] still display crisp text.
]
] The material, only as thick as three human hairs,
] displays black text on a whitish-gray background with a
] resolution similar to that of a typical laptop computer
] screen.
]
] The screen is so flexible it can be rolled into a
] cylinder about a half-inch wide without losing its image
] quality.
]
] Although it's not quite the dream of single-sheet,
] electronic newspapers or books that can display hundreds
] of pages of text, its creators said it's the first
] flexible computer screen of its kind.

Cool! Where do I get one?

Laughing Boy

Paper-thin screen created

] So far, information technology has thrived on
] exponentials. Now it has to get back to earth

Its over. Go home.

IT Growth: Exponential No More

] Last August, Microsoft signed a consent decree promising
] the Federal Trade Commission that it would not make false
] statements about the security and privacy protections in
] its Passport service and that it would improve those
] protections.

Microsoft could face fines!

Passport problems could cost Microsoft | CNET News.com