"We haven't received one e-mail in support of the Hollings bill," said Judiciary Committee spokeswoman Mimi Devlin. "It seems like there's a groundswell of support from regular users."

Interesting to see the word "users" where often the word "consumers" or formerly "citizens" might have been placed. :)
How very "TRON."

Hollings bill strongly opposed by voters

"'We do not get that large a percentage of our oil from the Middle East... And one of the reasons that we are sort of assuming this role of policeman of the Middle East has more to do with making Japan and some other countries feel that their oil flow
is assured... so that they don't then feel more need to create a great power, armed forces, and security doctrine, and you don't start getting a lot of great powers with conflicting interests sending their militaries all over the world.'"

This perspective offers a rational explanation for things like "North Korea" that have had me scratching my head. I'd like to see a counter point, but I think this might be somewhat close to the truth.

IP: With a friend like this...

April 11, 2002 | The thing that amazes me isn't that I
lost a million dollars, but that I had it to begin with. My career
path looked more likely to lead to a night manager's job at
Border's than to financial success. I racked up a solid C
average as an English major, then temped at law firms,
proofread, taught English in Prague and reported for a small
newswire service.

Salon.com Technology | Make a million, lose a million, who cares?

"The provision that you say I violated is unconstitutional"? This claim, of course, can always be made, but it is rarely if ever made and if it's made, it's almost always thrown out because it's the last refuge of a scoundrel.

I hope the court doesn't find this guys arguements any more compelling then I do. He contradicts himself on the subject of whether stronger copyrights incent or disincent the creation of derivative works, and seems to be of the opinion that there is no such thing as checks and balances. Every 3rd grader knows that the supreme court has the right to strike down congressional decisions when congress breaks the law.

Salon.com Technology | In defense of copyright

A 5 page article in the April 2002 issue of Harvard Business Review explains it all:

The basic inequality in wealth distribution seen in most societies may have little to do with differences in the backgrounds and talents of their citizens. Instead, the disparity appears to be something akin to a law of economic life that emerges naturally as an organizational feature of a network. Bouchaud and Mezard found that if investment returns grow sufficiently volatile, they can completely overwhelm the natural diffusion of wealth generated by transactions. In such a case, an economy can suddenly reach a tipping point, and wealth, instead of being held by a small minority, will condense into the pockets of a mere handful of super-rich robber barons.

If we are not yet at the End of History, are we at least approaching the End of Economics?

HBS Publishing: Harvard Business Review - April 2002 HBR Abstract : Wealth Happens

Cyan and her cellphone...

deviantART; Urban Angel 2 by jasinski

"(CNN) -- Computer security expert Chad Harrington regularly surfs Internet Relay Chat (IRC), one of the oldest chat technologies on the Web. The IRC networks have names like Dalnet and EFnet, but he agrees that another name works just as well: eBay for hackers. "

A call to bring the law into IRC. What I find interesting is the idea the jurisdictional problems will require federal law enforcement to get involved with crimes that are "petty." Usually the feds deal with major crime and the local cops deal with unruly kids. On the net, the FBI has to handle everything. That will probably require major changes over there. (So far, they seem to just ignore "petty" internet crime. A serious law enforcement effort concerning SMTP relay abuse is needed, but its too lame for an FBI thats designed to fight bank robbers.)

CNN.com - Experts: Chat rooms a haven for hackers - April 10, 2002

The telecoms sector continued to get slammed as investors worry that the slowdown may have more to do with industry fundamentals than with the economy. ... "People were thinking that the slowdown in the revenues and the lines were recession-related. (But) upon closer [inspection], they're starting to focus in on the likely secular declines in the revenue growth coming out of the basic local services companies. It really shouldn't come as a big surprise. The basic telecommunications service companies are facing some very challenging fundamentals."

Telecoms Stocks Fall as Hopes Dashed

This essay resounds profoundly with a lot of my recent thoughts on music. Lanier has some really sharp insite here. Read this!

Where did the music go?

"You have to be careful if you start to smoke your own stuff and believe you are the only one who can build a great search engine."

Google's Toughest Search Is for a Business Model