One of the best uses of the Internet is the ability to download copyrighted stuff - sorry DMCA, but that's the truth. Can you imagine the Internet without being able to download Movies, MP3s, Softwaes , etc. I don't think so.
There are currently many ways to download such stuff, one of the most popular means it P2P where each one can share some files from his own Disk. People simply download some softwares like Kazaa, Shareaza, BitTorrent, etc and they can then download files from others, and for sure upload files to them as well. The problem with P2P is availability, the point is you can find a file with someone, but these are zillions of people downloading the file from him. So you have to be put in a queue since that user has limited resources and cannot just send it to everyone at the same time. You may wait for ages in the queue, and this user may go offline just before you finish downloading the file you want.
One other method of sharing stuff is by uploading them to sites like RapidShare, YouSendIt, you name them. And people can go there and download the files. The problem with such sites, that you cannot simply search there to find the file you want. What happens there is the the file uploader send a link to his file there to some Web Forum or Mailing List, which are normally limited to few users only.
So, where there is no Hybrid-Solution that can have the pros. of each of the above mothods. Imagine a method having the Searching capabilities of P2P, and the reliable resources of Web Servers. What I am thinking of is a P2P that shares URLs instead of files. So people just upload their files to RapidShare, and then post the URL to a P2P network, this may be an ordinary P2P like Gnutella or Fast Track, or some new P2P networkd with its own programs that are optimized to URL sharing. Users can also tag files with some tags like "Unavailable", "Fake", "High Quality", "Low Quality", etc. They can even tag it with it's genre, artists names, etc. just to improve the searching there. Also users are not supposed to be limited to RapidShare, et al. but they can use their own FTP servers or anything equivalent. However using Free file sharing servers keep them away from piracy laws.
Finally, this article is for educational reasons only, and I really ask you not to break your country's laws. Actually I think this solution must be used to share non copyrighted stuff only, as you can buy copyrighted CD from stores.
http://gr33ndata.blogspot.com/2006/03/peer2web.html

Paul Graham has published an article about fighting spam in August 2002. I his article "A Plan for Spam", he used to differentiate between Spam and Ham - nonSpam - using a statistical approach.

"I think we will be able to solve the problem with fairly simple algorithms. In fact, I've found that you can filter present-day spam acceptably well using nothing more than a Bayesian combination of the spam probabilities of individual words. Using a slightly tweaked Bayesian filter, we now miss less than 5 per 1000 spams, with 0 false positives", Paul Graham

The point is that do I really need all these mathematical calculations in order to decide whether that email is Spam or not? Most of the time I can tell if an email is spam using the sender's email address. I know that email addresses can be forged using open SMTP relays etc. So what I am thinking of is that we can use the PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) combined with the Email Servers in order to differentiate between Spam anb Ham.
Organizations as well as ordinary users are supposed to get a Digitical Certificate stating that they are not spammers. These certificates can be obtained from the current CAs (Certificate Authorities) such as VeriSign, Thawte, etc or new entities can be formed for such purpose. These CAs has to be supervise by some organization to decide if they really give Digitat Certificate to non spammers only or not. Users shall sign their Emails with their own Private Keys and Mail Servers are supposed to accept mails that are signed only.
Source:
http://gr33ndata.blogspot.com/2006/03/plan-for-ham.html

Tags: Email, Spam, Internet, PKI, Technology, Gr33n Data

"Digg is a technology news website that combines social bookmarking, blogging, RSS, and non-hierarchical editorial control. With digg, users submit stories for review, but rather than allow an editor to decide which stories go on the homepage, the users do", Digg
So, if you've written an article, that you think other may be interested in. Just submit it there and it will be instantly posted in the digg area queue. Later on, others will visit the digg area and digg stories they think are cool. Once a story has received enough diggs, it is instantly promoted. Should the story not receive enough diggs, or is reported, it eventually falls out of the digg area queue.
You may also add the recent submitted stories to your own web pages or blog, or even add a specific user's diggs.
Source: http://gr33ndata.blogspot.com/

Tags: Digg, Blog, Technology, Gr33n Data

An international group of lifelong James Bond fans announced the publication of a new website, www.craignotbond.com, in order to launch a boycott of the upcoming Bond film, Casino Royale.

"Take a look past the hype to find out who actor Daniel Craig really is. How can a short, blond actor with the rough face of a professional boxer and a penchant for playing killers, cranks, cads and gigolos pull off the role of a tall, dark, handsome and suave secret agent?"

So, it is not only Arabs who boycott stuff.

I can't really get the audience and sources thing. Is it when someone adds a link or post a comment on one of my posts here she is added to my audience, and vice versa or what ?

MemeStreams is yet anothe blog hosting server. It may not be as feature rich as Blogspot. But what I liked most there is their categorization, as well as the ability to see the posts in a specific category from all the members there. Here you are how they define themselves.

MemeStreams is a social web surfing tool that helps communities of people work together to find interesting content on the Internet. It allows you to maintain collections of recommendations for Internet content, and it employs state of the art content rating technology to sort through your friends' and colleagues' recommendations in search of information that matters to you.
URL: http://www.memestreams.net/

As you may have noticed, they have a social network as well. Finally it is really interesting that people like Michael Lynn (Abaddon) and Billy Hoffman (Acidus) are having their blogs hosted there.

http://gr33ndata.blogspot.com/2006/02/memestreams.html

Joint raids by police in Belgium and Switzerland have shut down a popular file-sharing server. The Razorback2 server was part of the Edonkey file-sharing network and was used by a third of the system's users. The server held an index of 170 million pirated files, said the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).
In the raids, the server's Swiss owner was arrested and the Razorback2 machines were seized from a Brussels-based hosting firm.
It is unclear what effect the shutting down of the Razorback2 server will have on overall file-sharing figures. Studies of the different file-sharing networks show that the numbers of people using Edonkey is on the increase. It has become the dominant network in South Korea, Italy, Germany and Spain. However notes posted on discussion groups by Edonkey users following the raid show that the number of people on the Edonkey network was back to normal a few hours after the server was shut down.
The following raids and shutdowns made many file-sharers simply move to other networks such as BitTorrent or have turned to older systems such as Usenet.
Source: BBC News

http://gr33ndata.blogspot.com/