Gotta love that..

Raver Porn Perl

] Pound for pound, who's the biggest, richest media mogul
] on the Web? Terry Semel? Nope. Sumner Redstone? Not
] exactly. Try Matt Drudge. Years after his big "scoop" --
] leaking that Newsweek was sitting on a story about the
] tryst between President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky --
] Drudge's website is bigger than ever. Run on a
] shoestring, the Drudge Report, a plain-Jane page of news
] links and occasional scoops, clears, by our
] back-of-the-envelope estimate, a cool $800,000 a year.
]
] While other news sites make money, they don't mint it
] Drudge-style. New York Times Digital scored an operating
] profit of $8.3 million last year. But it has 237
] full-time employees, meaning that each worker accounts
] for about $35,000 in profit. (And that doesn't take into
] consideration the fact that the site's reports are
] actually generated by the newspaper staff, a cost
] allocated to the paper side only.) By any calculus,
] Drudge's site might be the most efficiently run on the
] Web; it makes the Times site look bloated. Drudge's is a
] two-person operation (although he never mentions his
] right-hand man); that means it makes $400,000 per
] employee. And he never has to leave the comfort of his
] Miami condo.

Business 2.0 - Magazine Article - Printable Version - The Secrets of Drudge Inc.

] It has been stated by your office that this is "a bump in
] the road" between the RIAA and Michigan Tech, and that we
] will move on from here. It is unfortunate that you choose
] to trivialize the problem in this manner. It is not a
] bump in the road for Joe Nievelt or Michigan
] Technological University.
]
] Taking all of this into consideration, we realize the
] seriousness of the allegations against Mr. Nievelt and
] will cooperate fully in resolving this matter.

(Decius's Comments)

This is from a day ago, but I think its really important.

1. The RIAA must be laughing its ass off about this letter. He says "this is not a bump in the road" and then he agrees to cooperate fully. Obviously MTU is either unable or unwilling to create any real pain for the RIAA. I would have provided my legal department for the defense and stopped all the measures that I had taken on their behest.

2. The RIAA has no moral character. I've said this before, and I'll say it again. (People seem have forgotten much of this in the past few years, but trust is the basis of business, and strong moral character is a pre-requisite for trust.) These are not good people, do not trust them.

3. What the RIAA is sueing here are campus SEARCH ENGINES. They are not just for MP3s. They weren't built with MP3s in mind. These are for anyfile. There are lots and lots of non-infringing uses. With the proper legal defense, the RIAA will loose these cases. Much like Felton, they may have stepped on another grenade. (Without proper legal defense it will be ILLEGAL to run a search engine on a campus, which is an intolerable result, frankly.)

Michigan Tech Media Relations Story#95 - President Responds to RIAA Suit

] A group of open-source advocates and critics will meet
] behind closed doors Wednesday afternoon, in the first of
] at least two meetings in search of a compromise on what
] could be the first bill in the United States to encourage
] the use of open-source software by a state government.
]
] The bill, introduced by Oregon Rep. Phil Barnhart,
] D-Eugene, last month, would require the state to consider
] using open-source software when buying new programs.
] Although the bill does not specifically mandate
] open-source software over proprietary software, the bill
] does say it cannot be excluded from the selection
] process. The bill, HB 2892, also says open-source options
] can "significantly reduce the state's costs of obtaining
] and maintaining software."

ZDNet: Open-source battle rages in Oregon

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said on Wednesday the Iraq war's full impact on the U.S. economy would not become clear until the conflict is over.

"We will not know what the full impact of this war will be until it's over," Greenspan said in answer to audience questions after a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, adding that the U.S. economy is "more prone to economic growth than stagnation."

----

Now you think they would have modeled what would happen to US economy and world economy.

Greenspan: War's Economic Impact Not Clear

] At Macworld, out-of-work dot-commers pose as marauding
] clowns. The authorities are not amused.

Salon.com Technology | Send in the iKlowns

] With the burgeoning Sars epidemic spreading fear among
] travellers worldwide, the Hong Kong tourist board must be
] ruing the day it commissioned a series of magazine ads
] telling readers a visit to the city will "take your
] breath away".

MediaGuardian.co.uk | Advertising | Hong Kong in hot flush over ad blunder

I keep thinking of this song when I'm reading SARS news:

NOFX - Just the Flu

Looking back to the past,
predictions of the end
Unseen ultra violet rays
are beating on my head
Nuclear threat wanna bet will be our demise
The day will come when we'll look to apocalyptic skies

When the news had spread, that soon we'd all be dead
Well it just blew our minds
No one could have guessed that our worst fears at best
Figments of our time

So it seems that our dreams will never come to be
How could such a stupid thing destroy humanity?
A few weeks till extinction and there's nothing we can do
A message sent to other worlds will say, "It was just the flu"

There's no lesson to be learned
There's no one left to learn it

The Spread of SARS: History of the Outbreak (3/17/03 - Present)

] The new Department of Homeland Security lacks the
] resources and expertise to execute the core elements of
] the Bush administration's cybersecurity plan, the
] president's former cybersecurity adviser told Congress
] yesterday.
]
] In his first appearance on Capitol Hill since leaving the
] White House in February, Richard A. Clarke warned
] lawmakers against the "dangerous" tendency to dismiss the
] consequences of an attack on the nation's computer
] networks.

Ex-Officials Urge U.S. To Boost Cybersecurity (TechNews.com)

] Japanese PC Watch Site has tons of cool new photos from
] robots featured at this years Robodex 2003 Trade-Show.

I would love to go to one of these robot trade shows..

I4U :: Future Technology News - More Amazing Photos From Robodex 2003