"A new buzzword has been added to the networking industry, one with a meaning far less technical than most: "CFN," an abbreviation for "Cisco-Free Network." "

Cisco gets theirs...

Cracks in Cisco's empire - Tech News - CNET.com

"The president proposes that leaders lose any bonuses or other compensation based on incentives if they are found to be profiting from "erroneous financial statements," the White House fact sheet says."

He didn't say fraudulent. He said erroneous. I think this is much more significant then it sounds. I don't really disagree with it, however.

Bush to put CEOs on notice after Enron collapse - Mar. 7, 2002

"Music CDs equipped with copy protection will, if Rick Boucher gets his wish, soon be as obsolete as eight-track cassettes."

So if we know Hollywood is paying Hollings to play bad cop, who is paying Boucher to play good cop? The press, of course, never mentions funding sources when they agree with the position someone is taking.

House Rep's Rap: Unshackle the CD

This person has decided to live life as a Neal Stevenson character. Kind of cool if you don't have anything to loose.

He Hacks by Day, Squats by Night

This is a cool paper. Various devices, including modems, routers, disk drives and printers leak the data they are transmitting through their LEDs. This is much easier then "Tempest." The hardware required to recover this information costs like $10.

Data Leaking from LEDS

"Lesbian GNU/Linux provides more than a pure OS: it comes with more than 10000 packages, precompiled software bundled up in a nice format for easy installation on your machine."

Lesbian GNU/Linux

"It may seem strange to imagine the blogging community as a force that will shape the information environment almost as powerfully as corporate media. We learn in the history books about Samuel Morse’s invention of the telegraph but not about the thousands of operators who shaped the circulation of messages, about Thomas Paine’s Common Sense but less about the “committees of correspondence” through which citizens copied and redistributed letters across the colonies, about the publication of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s abolitionist blockbuster Uncle Tom’s Cabin but not about the teenagers who used toy printing presses to publish nationally circulated newsletters debating the pros and cons of slavery. In practice, the evolution of most media has been shaped through the interactions between the distributed power of grass-roots participatory media and the concentrated power of corporate/governmental media."

Online diarists rule an Internet strewn with failed dot-coms

Listening to such artists isn’t just about the music: it’s the smart people’s secret handshake.

This is what happens when corporations forget that there is more to what they do then "self interest." They consume themselves.

Looking Grim at the Grammys

This is a reasonable article on the SSSCA hearing. A few thoughts not seen here. First, the Republican representatives who've raised their voices in opposition to this have also referenced the V-Chip. Its a subtle nod that says "we CAN do something like this" even though the representatives in question don't think that it SHOULD be done. This nod is not just subtle, its also grossly inaccurate. The v-chip is technically feasable idea that customers "opt-in" to using. The SSSCA is not technically feasable and its not voluntary. There is a huge difference between forcing the hand of manufacturers and forcing the hand of consumers or indeed the laws of physics. Congress forgets the limits of its power at its own peril.

However, the mess that this is already creating is an opportunity for the right people. The traditional music industry's failure to "get" music videos led to the popularity of European pop acts like Devo in the USA in the early 80's despite the fact that these acts were not a close fit for the marketplace. I think you might see something similar here, as avantguard acts take advantage of the new scene where the traditional industry falters. Radiohead's releases last year are good examples.

The Customer Is Always Wrong

The SSSCA is back. If this law passes you will not be allowed to run Linux anymore. This is one of those things, like the CDA, which is a turning point. If this effort succeeds then the Internet simply won't work as a medium for many to many communications.

Digital Security Fomenting a Feud