"The times have changed so much, with women in control," Ms. Fleiss, 40, said in a telephone interview from Nevada on Thursday. "Women make more money. They are more powerful. And it's a lonely world. People are tired of Internet dating. It's easier to go to a place where you know you'll have your dream man."

Ms. F says: F Myspace! Or, more directly: Don't F around with Myspace losers; come F my dream guys!

The West Gets Wilder

David Brooks writes about Myspace in today's NYT, decrying the upbeat whitewashing that takes place in the lovefest that is the Myspace social network. He characterizes its core demographic as "half-teen/half-adult." It's no surprise that, as a writer, he would lament the apparent fact that Myspace users are not avid readers, particularly of the kind of books he would write.

Brooks argues that the social dynamic of Myspace puts women squarely in charge, and he seems to find this arrangement a positive development. (So does Ms. Fleiss, apparently. See next.)

Ultimately, though, he seems to be reaching out for a highbrow Myspace -- a social networking site that is upstanding, intelligent, and compelling.

Interesting.

Decius wrote:

Cell Phone Call Record $110

Give us the cell phone number and we will send you the calls made from the cell phone number.

I like this part:

This report is for informational purposes only. This is not for use in court. If you need the records for court, you will need to subpoena the records directly from the carrier.

The whois records are pretty opaque:

Registrant:
Ist Source Information
ATTN: LOCATECELL.COM
c/o Network Solutions
P.O. Box 447
Herndon, VA 20172-0447

The site appears to be fairly new; the record was created on September 26 of last year.

UPDATE: You can read a recent Chicago Sun-Times article, "Your phone records are for sale", about Locatecell. This article was posted to the cryptography mailing list, which is probably what prompted the MemeStreams thread.

This was covered in the Washington Post more than six months ago, "Online Data Gets Personal: Cell Phone Records for Sale."

"This is a person's associations," said Daniel J. Solove, a George Washington University Law School professor who specializes in privacy issues. "... It's a real wealth of data to find out the people that a person interacts with."

The company that operates Locatecell is Data Find Solutions, and they are located in Knoxville, TN.

I like this part of the Locatecell order form:

Phone searches are provided by third party, independent search experts. These experts are independent researchers and Data Find Solutions Inc does not know how they do the research or what databases they access.

As the news articles explain, EPIC has asked the FCC to investigate. EPIC offers a compendium of 40 Websites Offering Telephone Calling Records and Other Confidential Information (PDF).

Looking for startup capital -- or a business model? MemeStreams could put the social network information behind a walled garden. But would anyone want in?

UPDATE #2: Politicians call for better phone record privacy

Cell Phone Number Research

Today's Wall Street Journal has a feature article about emerging plans by BellSouth, AT&T, and Verizon to start charging fees to major content providers in order to guarantee "fast" access to/for their customers. There are no exclusives in this particular article, but the mainstream attention is itself noteworthy.

Given the paradox of the best network, I guess this is how Capitalism designs Quality of Service, but it sounds more like extortion to me.

In the article, a BellSouth spokesman whines about the fact that Google didn't ante up for the restoration of DSL service in the aftermath of Katrina and Rita. Give me a break.

Did Wal-Mart and Target pay fees to have debris cleared from the local roads leading to their storefronts? Perhaps; I don't know.

But if there is a silver lining in these pricy network clouds, it may be that the telcos' egos end up energizing the movement toward asset-based telecom.

With combat deaths mounting in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Guard's traditional recruiters are running into resistance from people increasingly wary of slick sells and star-spangled television ads, Guard officials say. But a soldier talking to a friend, co-worker, or cousin can offer a credible, powerful, and personally tailored message, soldiers say.

"Word of mouth is the holy grail of marketing," Major Winfield S. Danielson III, a spokesman for the Massachusetts National Guard, said yesterday. "It's like when your friend says, 'Hey, that was a really cool movie.' There's a lot of believability in that. You look at it as an unbiased source, or at least biased to what your friend likes or your friend's interests are."

Maybe MemeStreams should go into MLM.

Uncle Sam Needs Memestreams | The Boston Globe

Escape the rat race.

ashes and snow

McSweeney's is awesome. Be sure to check out The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2005, as well.

7 Habits of
Highly Successful
People.

BY BRENDON LLOYD

- - - -

1. Skiing
2. Yachting
3. Snorkeling
4. Golf
5. Polo
6. Dinner parties
7. Shopping

McSweeney's Internet Tendency: 7 Habits of Highly Successful People.

It's over, isn't it?

Thanks in advance.

The pace and scope of attrition in the ranks of the FBI's analysts suggest root causes that are more serious in nature and more systemic in effect than the inspector general and the bureau realize. It wasn't the photocopying or the lack of promotion potential that compelled me to leave my job as an FBI analyst this year -- it was the frustration of working in a system that does not yet recognize analysis as a full partner in the FBI's national security mission.

For example, not all the people carrying the title "All Source Analyst" in the division for which I worked even had desktop access to the Internet or to intelligence community e-mail and intranet servers.

The analyst's access to investigative data becomes almost entirely a function of personal relationships cultivated with agents in the field -- a difficult task for those whose work it is to assess threats emerging across the nation and overseas.

The FBI needs MemeStreams, period.

The FBI's 2nd-Class Citizens

Happy New Year, everyone!

Want some advice for 2006? Well, look no further. Illegal Art placed suggestion boxes in California and New York and invited passers-by to offer a word (or two) of guidance.

A selection:

NEVER give a gun to a duck

Fish closer to the shore

Listen to some old school PUNK ROCK

Your Suggestion Here