Total lunar eclipses happen when the earth gets between the sun and the moon. Because of the relatively low amount of particulates in the air it should look chocolate and brown.

MMmmm.... chocolate.

The eclipse starts tomorrow (thursday the 15th) at 10pm EDT and ends around 1am.

Update: Damnit. Its completely overcast. Can't see a thing..

Total Lunar Eclipse: May 15-16, 2003

] The music industry's antipiracy efforts took an
] embarrassing turn Tuesday when the Recording Industry
] Association of America acknowledged that it has
] erroneously sent dozens of copyright infringement
] notices.
]
] The RIAA said Tuesday that a temporary worker was
] responsible for firing off legal notifications last week
] that invoked the Digital Millennium Copyright Act without
] confirming that any copyrighted files were actually being
] offered for download. "We have sent two dozen withdrawal
] notices--all appear related to this particular temp," the
] RIAA said in a statement. "We apologize for any
] inconvenience this may have caused."

The RIAA better watch those stray bullets..

RIAA apologizes for erroneous letters | CNET News.com

] A couple in China have named their baby son Saddam SARS
] to mark the two important events taking place at the time
] of his birth, a news report said today.
]
] The boy was born on March 20, the day the Iraq war broke
] out and at a time when alarm over the SARS outbreak was
] spreading across China.

"Saddam Sars" has a certain ring to it. This kid is never going to have a problem with people remembering his name..

Chinese couple name their baby son 'Saddam Sars' - smh.com.au

] Actor Tommy Chong of the spaced-out dope-smoking comedy
] duo "Cheech & Chong" pleaded guilty on Tuesday to a
] federal conspiracy charge of selling drug paraphernalia
] over the Internet.
]
] Chong, 64, of Pacific Palisades, California, and his
] family-run business, Nice Dreams Enterprises, admitted to
] conspiring to sell marijuana pipes via Web site
] promotions that featured the comedian's celebrity
] endorsement.

] U.S. District Judge Arthur Schwab set a sentencing
] hearing for Sept. 11 and released him on $20,000 bond.
]
] Chong's plea represented a public relations victory
] for a local federal program called "Operation Pipe
] Dreams," which targets drug paraphernalia sales. The
] operation, which began in 2000, has 17 cases pending,
] most from the Pittsburgh area.

Free Chong!

Reuters | Chong pleeds guilty, to be sentenced on Sept 11th

Abstract: Peer-to-peer file-sharing networks are currently receiving much attention as a means of sharing and distributing information. However, as recent experience shows, the anonymous, open nature of these networks offers an almost ideal environment for the spread of self-replicating inauthentic files.

We describe an algorithm to decrease the number of downloads of inauthentic files in a peer-to-peer file-sharing network that assigns each peer a unique global trust value, based on the peer’s history of uploads. We present a distributed and secure method to compute global trust values, based on Power iteration. By having peers use these global trust values to choose the peers from whom they download, the network effectively identifies malicious peers and isolates them from the network.

In simulations, this reputation system, called EigenTrust, has been shown to significantly decrease the number of inauthentic files on the network, even under a variety of conditions where malicious peers cooperate in an attempt to deliberately subvert the system.

The EigenTrust Algorithm for Reputation Management in P2P Networks [PDF]

Abstract: The entertainment industry, facing a formidable threat from peer-to-peer piracy networks, is exploring every possible means to attack these networks.

The industry is also employing defensive strategies to protect media and media players from those who would extract and copy their content. These content protection systems depend on the computer industry’s newly announced ‘trusted computing’ technologies.

While "trusted computing" technologies may better protect media and media players from content extraction by pirates, we assert that the very same technologies can be employed to better protect pirates and their peer-to-peer distribution networks from the entertainment industry.

Trusted Computing, Peer-To-Peer Distribution, and the Economics of Pirated Entertainment [PDF]

] Cyberspace was once thought to be the modern equivalent
] of the Western Frontier, a place, where land was free for
] the taking, where explorers could roam, and communities
] could form with their own rules. It was an endless
] expanse of space: open, free, replete with possibility.
] This is true no longer. This Article argues that we are
] enclosing cyberspace, and imposing private property
] conceptions upon it. As a result, we are creating a
] digital anti-commons where sub-optimal uses of Internet
] resources is going to be the norm.

Blogging for later reading..

Cyberspace as Place, and the Tragedy of the Digital Anticommons

] When courts intervene to maintain copyright's balance,
] the inevitable consequence is that innovation is harmed.
] If every innovator with technologies affecting content
] must bear the burden of a lawsuit before his innovation
] can be allowed, there will be many fewer innovations in
] the distribution and creation of content. That in turn
] will harm artists and technologists alike. Better to let
] the innovation happen, and then consider whether the
] change caused by the innovation is so significant as to
] require new legislation by the legislature.

FT | Lessig on Morpheus/Grokster case

] The Fink project wants to bring the full world of Unix
] Open Source software to Darwin and Mac OS X. We modify
] Unix software so that it compiles and runs on Mac OS X
] ("port" it) and make it available for download as a
] coherent distribution. Fink uses Debian tools like dpkg
] and apt-get to provide powerful binary package
] management. You can choose whether you want to download
] precompiled binary packages or build everything from
] source.

Fink is great! Its basically drops a Debian based package management system down on Mac OSX. Everything lives in /sw, so it works side by side with anything Apple lays down on the system proper, and it also leaves you /usr/local for your own uses. It can install binaries or compile from source. I have had _zero_ problems with fink. Thus far, everything I have installed or compiled, has installed without a fight and run perfectly.

OSX suffers slightly from what I call "The Solaris Syndrome" (even though I know fully well its not aptly named). In short the elemental *nix commands that ship with it are grossly inferior to their GNU counterparts.. A little fink'ing will get you the good versions of fileutils, findutils, diffutils, patch, egrep, sed, gawk, etc, etc.. Fink is also not missing the other "critical" *nix progies like bash, vim, gnupg, rsync, wget, etc. Security tools are not left out either, you will find nmap, nessus, ethereal, tcpdump, etc. Both Gnome2 and KDE are fully represented.

Use the "unstable" branch, otherwize certain programs such as Evolution are not available for install. Standard Debian style..

There is a GUI frontend for Fink called FinkCommander, but its not really all that helpful. Its just a GUI wrapper for the command line tools.. And you don't get to see file transfer progress..

Fink - Unix software for your Mac

] Google is to create a search tool specifically for
] weblogs, most likely giving material generated by the
] self-publishing tools its own tab.

] "They didn't foresee a tightly-bound body of wirers,"
] reckons Stock. "They presumed that technicians at USC
] would link to the best papers from MIT, to the best
] local sites from a land trust or a river study - rather
] than a clique, a small group of people writing about
] each other constantly. They obviously bump the rankings
] system in a way for which it wasn't prepared."

] "Suppose turtle-rescue.org has authoritative
] information about turtles. And it changes every month.
] Then BoingBoing puts up a page about turtles and that
] becomes a big deal.

] "Each of us gets vote," jokes Stock. "And someone votes
] every day and I vote once every four years."

] "The blogs push up very quickly up to the top of the
] search results."

The Register | Google to fix blog noise problem