] Here's the idea: you promise a voter 50 euros (31 pounds)
] to cast their ballot for your candidate, send them into
] the booth with a 3G phone, they send a picture via the
] phone proving that they have voted as instructed and then
] they get the cash.

The T-Mobile Election Rigger

] SAN FRANCISCO -- DVD-copying software maker 321 Studios
] is defending the legality of its products in court here,
] possibly facing an uphill battle before a judge who
] opened the hearing by saying she leans toward siding with
] Hollywood.
]
] U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston said she is
] "substantially persuaded" by the opinions of other judges
] in earlier cases involving the 1998 Digital Millennium
] Copyright Act, which makes it illegal to distribute tools
] that circumvent copy prevention technologies. Those
] opinions were in favor of copyright holders.
]
] Several of Hollywood's largest movie studios are opposing
] 321 Studios, which markets several tools to make copies
] of movies on DVD. Initial hearings were held on Thursday
] in the request for an injunction barring the software
] vendor from selling its product. 321 Studios is facing
] complaints form Columbia Pictures, Disney, MGM Studios,
] The Saul Zaentz Company, Time Warner Entertainment,
] Tristar Pictures, and Universal City Studios.

DVD Copying Goes to Court

"...To the plaaaaanet core!" Boss Nass

] A Hollywood-like proposal to explore the center of the
] Earth calls for exploding a crack in the planet's surface
] and dropping a probe in behind tons of molten iron, which
] would sink and forge a path to the core.
]
] The plan is not ready for primetime, its creator told
] SPACE.com, but neither is it pie-in-the-sky.
]
] Exploring Earth's belly is ambitious in a scientific
] sense and could yield valuable data. The solid inner core
] rotates faster than the outer core, which is fluid and is
] responsible for Earth's magnetic field. But scientists
] don't know exactly why all this is so, nor do they know
] the exact composition or temperature of the core.
]
] A schematic shows how the probe would descend with molten
] iron, all in a crack that closes up behind the mission.
]
] If further research showed the core mission could
] actually work, it would be comparable in dollar terms
] with many space projects, says David Stevenson, a Caltech
] planetary scientist who has worked on several missions
] for NASA. Stevenson explains his idea in an article
] titled "A Modest Proposal" for the May

SNIP

NASA Meets Hollywood: Real Mission Proposed to Earth's Core

] WASHINGTON Few Americans give the money in their
] wallets more than a glance, but maybe they should. More
] than $130 million in counterfeit U.S. money is estimated
] to be circulating around the globe.
]
] If you put all the counterfeit U.S. bills end-to-end,
] they would stretch more than 260 miles, about the
] distance between Las Vegas and Los Angeles. (More
] details: $20 bill's features, new and old)
]
] In an effort to stay ahead of counterfeiters, the
] government on Tuesday announced changes to the $20 bill
] %u2014 the most commonly copied currency domestically.
] The bill, which will enter circulation in the fall, will
] include colors other than green for the first time in
] modern history. Currency was last redesigned in 1996, and
] the most recent $20 has been in circulation for 4½ years.
]
] The redesign in part is in response to the proliferation
] of inexpensive, high-quality home computers, scanners and
] printers that have made it easier for counterfeiters to
] fake money.

It's too easy being green

] 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

From the "so stupid it just might catch on" category...

] MSN U.K. has taken roaming (and communal hygiene) to a
] new level with the "iLoo", an Internet-enabled toilet
] that the software giant hopes will debut at various
] concerts in the U.K. this summer.
]
] Users will be able to access the "WWW.C." using a
] wireless keyboard and a built-in plasma screen. MSN U.K.
] is encouraging advertisers to come up with their own
] custom-designed toilet paper to prompt users to visit web
] sites.
]
] The iLoo will be mobile and is part of MSN's mission to
] allow instant logging on "anytime and any place", the
] company said. Users will be able to sit down, undock a
] wireless keyboard and conveniently access the Internet.
]
] A plasma screen will be located directly in front of them
] which can be adjusted to a desired height level. MSN is
] also in talks with toilet paper manufacturers to produce
] special web paper for those in need of URL inspiration,
] the company said.
]
] The iLoo will be broadband enabled using WiFi technology.
] There will also be a six channel surround sound speaker
] system under the sink unit for use with listening to
] music from the Internet.

Now does anyone REALLY want to be touching a keyboard in a crapper stall? Pornography? Bathroom stall?? Think about it.

One would hope there is at least a packet of sterilized keyboard wipes provided!

Laughing Boy

MSN Crafts Web-Enabled Toilet

] Hiring in the information technology field is expected to
] remain soft through 2003--despite any recovery waiting in
] the wings, according to a survey released Monday by an IT
] trade group.
]
] Sixty-seven percent of hiring managers surveyed
] anticipate hiring demands to remain the same or decline
] during the next 12 months, according to the Information
] Technology Association of America. The ITAA surveyed 400
] hiring managers from technology and nontechnology
] companies between March 27 and April 14.
]
] The managers surveyed are expecting to hire a cumulative
] total of 493,000 IT workers over the next 12 months,
] compared with 1.1 million positions anticipated over the
] same period when the survey was conducted early last
] year.
]
]
] Of the IT positions that companies plan to fill, a number
] will be for jobs overseas, according to the survey. An
] increasing number of companies, including Hewlett-Packard
] and IBM, are moving work offshore, where labor is
] cheaper.

I love my job... I love my job... I love my job... Just gotta keep saying it, and maybe I'll believe it...

IT hiring lackluster through 2003 | CNET News.com

] Eleven years before that, two cosmonauts overshot their
] touchdown site by 2,000 miles and found themselves deep
] in a forest with hungry wolves. That's when Russian space
] officials decided to pack a sawed-off shotgun aboard
] every spacecraft.

So we've all heard about the 300 mile mistake now. But I couldn't pass up this "low-tech" bit. It should be titled "When technology just isn't good enough, there's always a shotgun".

Returned space crew lucky, others faced wolves

] "The record companies are history," says James Hetfield
] of Metallica, the band that stood up to file-swapping
] juggernaut Napster. "They won't be around much longer
] unless they get with it and morph into something new
] that's going to help get music directly to the masses.
] The Internet is about as direct as it gets. Putting a CD
] in a store is like putting a rotary-dial phone in front
] of a kid: 'What's that? There's no antenna.' Downloading
] is a sobering change."

So James, you and Lars FINALLY got cracked upside the head with the clue stick? Ironic - had you let Napster move to a subscription model, Kazza, Bearshare and other decentralized P2P networks wouldn't have blossomed and you COULD be getting revenue for your songs today.

Stupidity is painful, isn't it?

Laughing Boy

Piracy has its hooks in

] Earlier this month, I described a friend of mine who was
] responsible for a corporate network notable for its aging
] applications infrastructure. At the end of the column
] I proposed a contest and asked you all to send in your
] own entries to qualify for the "oldest living software"
] application. Needless to say, I got some great entries.

classic.

Winners Of The 'Oldest Software' Contest