] "This is something you have on the shelf," said
] Hoofnagle. "You wait for an opportune moment, like going
] to war, to introduce it. They call this a draft, but this
] bill is definitely close to final and gives a good road
] map of what the Justice Department wants."

I wonder how long the patriot act was on the shelf before September 11th. This is fairly reasonable evidence that these acts are a general effort at widening powers rather then a specific effort to enable the investigation of specific crimes.

Wired News: A Chilly Response to 'Patriot II'

] The net fund-raising total of $1.9 billion represented
] the smallest inflow of venture capital since $1.6 billion
] entered the industry in 1981.

Now, adjust this for inflation...

VC Funding Slows to a Trickle

] A bacterial infection that overpowers most antibiotics
] has escaped the confines of hospitals and is showing up
] in alarming numbers among the general public in
] California, according to health officials.

The super-bugs have arrived!

] This is a video taken in 6000 feet of water. An undersea
] robot is sawing a 3mm wide slit (1/10th of an inch ...
] remember that width) in a pipeline. The pressure inside
] the pipeline is 0 psig, while the pressure outside is
] 2700 psi, or 1.3 tons per square inch. Then a crab comes
] along....

This is what it looks like to get sucked through a 3mm hole in the wall of your space craft.

Crab vs. Pipe

] Mitnick said Monday that the hackers apparently exploited
] separate flaws in Internet server software from
] Microsoft. The person responsible for the company's
] website failed to apply the repairing patches available
] from Microsoft, Mitnick said.

Mitnick's site is on a shared hosting provider who runs IIS. Where has this guy been?! Oh... Yeah... Nevermind...

Wired News: Mitnick Amused By Website Hacks

An interesting story about Hockey's financial woes.

I think the big problem here is that hockey isn't tied into the culture in most of the US in the way that other sports are. People play basketball in their driveways. They are fed baseball as young kids, and then they go to high schools that orient student social activities around football. Hockey just isn't as easy as football to go out and play in the street.

There is no easy answer to this problem for the NHL. It will take a generation to fix these numbers, and they will have to make salary cuts in the mean time in order to handle it. They need to promote street hockey and youth hockey leagues.

NHL at the Brink

] Benjamin Curtis, better known as "Steven," the Dell
] Computer pitchman, was arrested Sunday night for
] marijuana possession, a misdemeanor, according to New
] York City police.

Dell Dude Busted for Pot

] HEN Ronald L. Jones, an engineer and inventor, traveled
] from his home in Los Angeles to the Consumer Electronics
] Show in Las Vegas three years ago to seek backers for his
] product ideas, he was down to his last $800, and
] determined to make the trip fruitful.
] A mutual acquaintance set up a meeting with a business
] developer, Mark A. Bush, that turned into an all-night
] conversation about technology and opportunity. "I saw
] this brilliant guy with this big heart," Mr. Bush said.
] But while Mr. Jones was a whiz with printed circuits, he
] had made less time for business plans or legal documents.
] "A lot of people took advantage of Ron's ideas," Mr. Bush
] said. "I said, man, we've got to get your paperwork so no
] one can steal your stuff."

I always enjoy stories about successful entrepreneurs. I wish I didn't know that there are 100 guys like Mr. Jones who have never made it.

Getting Game Boy to Play Their Tune

] French Police in Rouen found two lethal mobile phones,
] capable of shooting four bullets with digital touch pads
] as triggers February 7, 2003. Police seized the phones
] which featured a four-chamber secret compartment for 22
] caliber bullets.

Buck'em Buck'em down with your Nokia. (I shoot the Nokia.)

] Hi, I'm Kelly, and this is my scream-body. Do you ever
] find yourself in a situation where you really have to
] scream, but you can't? Because you're at work, or you're
] in a classroom, or you're watching your children, or you
] are in any number of situations where it's just not
] permitted? Well, scream-body is a portable space for
] screaming. When the user screams into the scream-body
] their scream is silenced...but is also recorded, for
] later release where, when and how the user chooses."
] (screaming noises)]

] Now you laugh, which is great, but
] think about it: she designed a circuit board, she
] designed in a micro-controller, she programmed the
] micro-controller, she made the board herself, she
] developed PA-resistive squeeze sensors to control it,
] advanced engineering phones. You know, in a normal
] company there would be a team of engineers (a normal
] company wouldn't even do this anyway), and for her it's
] not product development, it's really kind of post-digital
] literacy, it's just mastering the means of expression.
] Design increasingly really can, and does, mean designers
] are crossing all these levels of description.

A really interesting article that goes from what to do with net connected microcontrollers to the idea of programming as basic literacy. Also happens to have the most annoying web page background I have ever seen in my life.

About Flow: Doors of Perception 7 on Flow