] The virus could wirelessly infect nearby phones.
] Susceptible devices are certain smartphones, a
] combination of a handheld computer and cell phone. The
] phones must have Bluetooth, wireless data transfer.

] Recipients would have to manually accept the infected
] file when a message appears on the phone's screen. The
] phone would then display text Caribe-VZ/29A, identifying
] the author's intended name for the virus, the author's
] initials and the hacker group.

] There's good news: So far it appears the worm hasn't
] penetrated the Big Apple.

Coming soon: "Someone in the area has a virus!" shouts coming from around you.

AND.. "Do you use protection?" jokes when transferring photos between phones.

Newsday.com - Technology

] Despite moral watchdogs lamenting Hollywood's vile
] tendencies, the studios have actually been cleaning up
] their act. R-rated films, once the studios' mainstay, are
] on the decline, both in numbers and in lure. In the last
] five years, R-rated pics have dwindled from 212 in 1999
] to just 147 last year.

Coming soon.. an even less edgy Hollywood.

Variety.com - Don't give me an 'R'

] Illegal gizmos that interfere with signals and cut off
] reception are selling like hotcakes on the streets of
] New York.
]
] "I bought one online, and I love it," said one jammer
] owner fed up with the din of dumb conversations and
] rock-and-roll ringtones.
]
] "I use it on the bus all the time. I always zap the
] idiots who discuss what they want from the Chinese
] restaurant so that everyone can hear them. Why is that
] necessary?"

Eye spy with my little eye a store on 3rd that's going to be the site of a very public bust by a federal agency tasked with allocating and protecting the radio spectrum.

New York Post: New Yorkers find new way to be forcibly inconsiderate

] Hunter S. Thompson died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound
] at his home in Woody Creek on Sunday night. He was 67.
]
] Regarded as one of the most legendary writers of the 20th
] century, Thompson is best known for the 1972 classic
] "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." He is also credited
] with pioneering gonzo journalism - a style of writing
] that breaks tradition rules of news reporting and is
] purposefully slanted.

This is shocking.. I've been hit with a wave of sadness. I wonder why he killed himself. I can't picture him offing himself without something to say about it.

Rest In Peace Hunter. July 18, 1939 -- February 20, 2005

DenverPost.com - Hunter S. Thompson commits suicide

] China has overtaken the US in the consumption of basic
] agricultural and industrial goods, a new survey says
]
] China, with its 1.3bn population and booming economy, is
] now the world's biggest consumer of grain, meat, coal and
] steel.
]
] China is well ahead of the US in the consumption of goods
] such as television sets, refrigerators and mobile phones.

As well as meat, steel, and coal... As expected.. Six and rising.

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | China emerges as global consumer

] The ASCAP license is only the tip of the iceberg: there
] are also comparable licenses for BMI and SESAC, two other
] performing rights organizations; mechanical rights from
] the Harry Fox Agency, _and_ a "master use license" to be
] negotiated with the record labels for each track. The
] latter can be under any terms the label chooses, and they
] can refuse you outright.

ASCAP only has the right to license public performance of non-dramatic works. This is outside the scope of PROs. It is not a performance in the manor a "stream" is viewed, but a mechanical copy. Someone equated the "cast" part of podcast with streaming. The more knowledgeable techies know that even a stream is technically a copy of bits, but the copy prevention (legally protected from tampering via DMCA) changes the way its viewed.

Podcasts are not broadcasts, or more specificly, not public performance. If you played a podcast for a group of people in a situation outside a normal gathering of friends/family at a location such as your house (like a bar, coffee house, restaurant, hold music, a ra stream, etc), you would need a license from the respective PRO to play the podcast, regardless of how the mechanical licensing angle is resolved. However, a PRO is not able to license the mechanical copy. If a podcast was actually a "stream", it would be different. Its a different right. (Assuming your podcast contained protected works...)

Depending on the usage of the work within the podcast, it may be fair use.

Boing Boing: Wil Wheaton: So, ASCAP to *license* podcasts? Readers respond.

] LGL is a compendium of applications for making the
] visualization of large networks and trees tractable. LGL
] was specifically motivated by the need to make the
] visualization and exploration of large biological
] networks more accessible. Essentially the network is a
] graph, which is the data that you define, and LGL is
] responsible for showing it to you.

Soon to be played with...

Large Graph Layout (LGL) - Beyond Graphviz

] According to sources at major record labels, Jobs himself
] sent top music executives a link to a blog explaining how
] to turn copy-protected songs from Apple rival Napster
] into unprotected, freely burnable music files. The story
] rippled through label circles Tuesday, as executives
] tried to understand whether any actual damage had been
] done to the service.

Steve Jobs, Napster nemesis | CNET

] SHA-1 has been broken. Not a reduced-round version. Not a
] simplified version. The real thing.

All your digital signatures are belong to us.

You have no chance to survive make new keys.

(well, not really new keys, but you get the drift)

Schneier on Security: SHA-1 Broken

] The BitTorrent hub LokiTorrent has been shut down by a
] lawsuit from the Motion Picture Association of America
] (MPAA), with the eight-hour outage earlier today turning
] out to be the prelude to a closure. The site came back
] online briefly with BitTorrent-related content, but
] within hours that had been replaced by a notice from the
] MPAA.

They had collected $25,000 in user donations prior to the lawsuit. Apparently they had also been soliciting offers for their domain on auction site Sedo at the same time. Shady.

The MPAA now has their server logs and user information.

Netcraft: LokiTorrent Shuttered by MPAA Lawsuit