They succeed because they make everyone happy. Listeners get music for free, of course. Artists get to have their music distributed in high-quality versions with good metadata, album covers, etc. rather than crappy low-fi rips with no guarantee their name is on it. But most of all, artists and the labels build brands. The music sells the artist's live shows (if they have any), and the quality of the music found and distributed by the netlabel builds the reputation of the person behind the netlabel. And netlabels are starting to launch careers--there are a few artists, in particular a guy named Pheek who has become fairly big in the last year or two, who came entirely from netlabel releases.

O'Reilly Radar - Netlabels, Branding, Wet Fish, and The $0 Song

Ahhh - just like old times.

Illuminati Conspiracy Part One: A Precise Exegesis on the Available Evidence

Microsoft Corp. today called on Congress to enact a new federal privacy law, a move that is sure to prompt lawmakers to consider whether consumer privacy both online and offline should go further than merely requiring companies to notify people when their personal and financial data is lost, stolen, or inadvertently disclosed.

You're kidding, right? What's in it for M$?

Security Fix - Brian Krebs on Computer and Internet Security - (washingtonpost.com)

Friends, Buzz & Click 3PO is here! - Nashville Events

Anyone who doesn't have plans for this Saturday needs to come out and experience the joy and wonder that is Nashville's only annual electronic music showcase! We've given administrative duties to Buzz and Click over to Nashville's best radio station (91.1WRVU) and they've honored us with another great year of music running the gamut from melodic electronica to experimental noise and everything in between! There's a great lineup this year, including appearances from at least 2/3 of Venus Hum, Let's Say Baltimore, and Jensen Sportag. Huh? Oh, yeah - Logickal is definitely blowing it up as well.

It's all happening Saturday - Guy Fawkes Day (November 5th in case ya didn't know) and it all starts at 8pm. It can all be had for a measly $5 (for 10 acts!) that goes to benefit WRVU (That means that you might also want to think about buying CDs from the artists...). You can follow the link below to read what the Scene had to say about it, and take a gander at the full lineup.

Hope to see a bunch of ya there!

-Jeremy

The Scene Sez:
http://nashvillescene.com/Stories/Arts/Our_Critics_Picks/2005/11/03/Our_Critics_Picks/index.shtml

The Lineup (in order of appearance):

8pm Matt Hamilton
8.5 Birdfeeder
9 Let's Say Baltimore
9.5 Bluff Duo
10 Logickal
10.5 Satellite City
11 3kStatic
11.5 Athena Blue
12 Jensen Sportag
12.5 Tomorrow Ishikawa

Oh, and more info can be found here:
Buzz & Click 3PO

RE: Friends, Buzz & Click 3PO is here! - Nashville Events

The Aims of Astronautics
by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky

Via Google Print

The Aims of Astronautics - Google Print

“We did have Star Wars money — the money they had in the 1970's for the original Star Wars, that is,” he laughs. “Actually, it's true — this is a low-budget film relatively speaking, but we had the advantage of using fresh actors who did not command half our budget for salaries; a DP in Jack Green who works unbelievably fast and efficiently; a very clear understanding of what we were trying to do; and the advantage of a digital intermediate [at FotoKem, Burbank, Calif.], which helped us tremendously. That, in essence, helped us turn our small budget into a bigger one — or made it look like we did, anyway.”

Tight Ship

The CIA has been hiding and interrogating some of its most important al Qaeda captives at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe, according to U.S. and foreign officials familiar with the arrangement.

The secret facility is part of a covert prison system set up by the CIA nearly four years ago that at various times has included sites in eight countries, including Thailand, Afghanistan and several democracies in Eastern Europe, as well as a small center at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, according to current and former intelligence officials and diplomats from three continents.

Funny how news like this comes out when there's a ton of attention being brought to bear against the Office of the Veep... Who has been pushing to exclude the CIA from the McCain anti-torture legislation.
Almost sounds to me like there are still some old hands in the intel biz who aren't too keen on what they're seeing and are leaking in order to twist the dagger a little more...

CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons

1 Some electronic voting systems did not encrypt cast ballots or system audit logs, thus making it possible to alter them without detection.

2 It is easy to alter a file defining how a ballot appears, making it possible for someone to vote for one candidate and actually be recorded as voting for an entirely different candidate.

3 Falsifying election results without leaving any evidence of such an action by using altered memory cards.

4 Access to the voting network was easily compromised because not all digital recording electronic voting systems (DREs) had supervisory functions password-protected, so access to one machine provided access to the whole network.

5 Supervisory across to the voting network was also compromised by repeated use of the same user IDs combined with easily guessed passwords.

6 The locks protecting access to the system were easily picked and keys were simple to copy.

7 One DRE model was shown to have been networked in such a rudimentary fashion that a power failure on one machine would cause the entire network to fail.

8 GAO identified further problems with the security protocols and background screening practices for vendor personnel.

Overshadowed by indictments and nominations, the GAO unveils an interesting report...

Daily Kos: Nonpartisan GAO Confirms Security Flaws in Voting Machines

The Psychasthenia Society, hosted by Jon Keith Brunelle, presents programs of stories, video, and music mediated by portable electronics, featuring some of the best work by New York artists whose instruments are laptop computers.

The Psychasthenia Society: laptop stories, video, and music

This fellow has created a small, simple DIY synth that you can build (provided you have a little experience with electronics) at home.

DIY Small Synth