"A survey of the North American concert industry by trade publication Pollstar showed the top 50 acts sold a combined 10.6 million tickets in the first half of the year, down about three percent from the year-ago period (10.9 million tickets) and off 18 percent from 2000 (12.9 million tickets)....

Album sales in the United States have tumbled 10 percent year-to-date, according to data from tracking firm Nielsen SoundScan published in Billboard magazine."

Album sales are off at a steeper percentage then concerts this year. Is this proof that MP3s are cutting into album sales, or are album sales simply bottoming out more slowly...

ABCNEWS.com : Pricey Pop Concerts Keep More Music Fans at Home

"One official said he began to take it as a "compliment to be called a 'f------ Canadian' by the Americans" after resisting countless U.S. demands, including special access to Kananaskis for the White House press corps."

Personal differences between leaders can have significant 'trickle down' effects.

Ottawa says Bush 'Texans' tried to bully G8 host

A better look at the WTC rebuild proposals.

LMDC, Lower Manhattan Development Corporation: WTC rebuild

"Investors who had hoped that increased security concerns after Sept. 11 would yield an immediate bonanza in the information security sector have been sorely disappointed, according to two new analyses. "

IT security spending disappoints - Tech News - CNET.com

"The managing director of information and communications systems for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will be sworn in Monday as the new CIO of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. "

Oh, lord!

" -- Are you in the Microsoft or Open Source camp?"

"I often tell a story to address this point. I grew up on a farm in Utah. Some farmers drove a Ford pick up truck and some a Chevy, and they had a passion about one or the other. In many settings, I have said, "Is this a pickup truck issue?""

Interview with the FBI's new CIO

"Playboy magazine, which scored a hit with its "Women of Enron" pictorial in the current issue, wants women from troubled telecom WorldCom Inc. and embattled accounting firm Arthur Andersen to pose for future issues. "

Woohoo... More corporate scandal porn!

CNN.com - Playboy uncovers corporate scandal - July 15, 2002

"Yahoo has been replacing certain words in messages received by yahoo.com e-mail accounts in an apparent attempt to forestall cross-site scripting attacks."

The whack thing about this is the number of sites that show up in google with the mungled versions of the words. Its just downright strange how broad the impact of this has been.

Slashdot | A Medireview Approach To Stopping E-Mail Attacks

"In a joint missive to studio chiefs, signed by Microsoft's Steve Ballmer, Intel's Craig Barrett, Dell Computer's Michael Dell and others, technology CEOs said they were ready to sit down with movie industry representatives to discuss anti-piracy issues--but only if the studios agree that technology can't solve all their problems. "

Tech execs: Hands off P2P - Tech News - CNET.com

This is a fun paper that discusses the practical difficulties associated with building TCPA style devices without some sort of legislation that forces everyone to pretend that naked emperors are fully clothed. Lots of serious hardware hacking and crypto here.

The Xbox hack....

"Within walking distance of Stanford, where the economist who coined the term "conspicuous consumption" once taught, a dark reality is playing out. Having already gone from boom to bust, many dot-commers are coming to something worse. Unable to make payments, they are selling luxury cars, canceling home renovations and returning jewelry by the box."

Its hard to feel sorry for someone who has to sell their Lotus in order to make ends meet. Markoff could have talked about how the regional downturn has impacted the middle and lower classes, but would you care? Everyone in Silicon Valley is rich, right?

Silicon Valley Without Trimmings