] Owners of the conversational websites known as weblogs
] have recently noticed that their referral logs have
] become the newest target for spam.

] Referral logs, intended to collect information on who
] visited a website and how they happened to arrive
] there, are being stuffed with bogus links. Curious
] bloggers who click on a logged link to see who
] visited their site are instead led to pornography or
] advertising sites.

MemeStreams receives lots of referral spam. This _really_ pisses me off.

Wired News: When the Spam Hits the Blogs

] AWIndex is a CGI script that generates a HTML index for
] multiple sites using AWStats. It reads AWStats config
] files and creates an index page which can be sorted by
] site name, current month's visit count, or current
] month's unique visitor count.

Its header, footer, and all strings it displays are customizable in the script's configuration section. Its written to be easy to customize by someone who does not know Perl. (Even though everyone should be forced to know Perl..)

AWIndex - HTML Index Generator for AWStats

The MapServer system now supports MapScript which allows popular scripting languages such as Perl, Python, Tk/Tcl, Guile and even Java to access the MapServer C API. MapScript provides a rich environment for developing applications that integrate disparate data. If the data has a spatial component and you can get to it via your favorite scripting enviroment then you can map it. For example, using Perl's DBI module it is possible to integrate data from just about any database vendor (eg. Oracle, Sybase, MySQL) with traditional GIS data in a single map graphics or web page. In addition, there is now a PHP/MapScript module included in the current release- thanks DMSolutions.

MapServer

Scientists and engineers like to think that the technical and scientific issues can be separated out from the social, sort of fuzzy issues. My claim is that they're heavily tied together.

A Whole New Worldview

] It is a UNIX shell script to download NJ foreclosures
] (sheriff's sales in New Jersey) from nj.com web site. It
] can be modified to download similar real estate
] foreclosure listings in other states, if URL of a web
] page with such info is available.

Angry Sheriff

] Most documents are the product of continual
] evolution. An essay may undergo dozens of revisions;
] source code for a computer program may undergo
] thousands. And as online collaboration becomes
] increasingly common, we see more and more
] ever-evolving group-authored texts. This site is a
] preliminary report on a simple visual technique, history
] flow, that provides a clear view of complex
] records of contributions and collaboration.

IBM | History Flow

] Scientists have been given the biggest ever grant to
] build a "conscious robot". The work will not only bring
] the scores of intelligent, self-aware machines that
] populate science fiction a step closer, it could also
] provide valuable clues on how human consciousness
] develops.
]
] "Consciousness is perhaps the last remaining mystery in
] understanding what it is to be human," said Owen Holland,
] who will lead the work at Essex University. "By
] attempting to build physical systems which can produce a
] form of artificial consciousness, we hope to learn more
] about the nature of consciousness."

Guardian Unlimited | Life | Scientists start work on thinking robot

] In Microsoft's research and development labs, Smith has
] spent the past several years slicing and dicing data
] about messages and message authors in an ambitious effort
] to help people make sense of the newsgroup manifold--the
] hordes of know-it-alls, flame warriors, spammers and
] neophytes who, by Smith's estimate, last year numbered
] more than 100 million in the Usenet network of e-mail
] threads, or newsgroups.

Microsoft on Reputation Systems

] "In the old days, there used to be a term, 'buying your
] gross,' " said Rick Sands, chief operating officer at
] Miramax, referring to the millions of dollars studios
] throw at a movie to ensure a big opening weekend.
]
] "You could buy your gross for the weekend and overcome
] bad word of mouth, because it took time to filter out
] into the general audience," he said. "Those days are
] over. Today, there is no fooling the public."

] Added Tom Sherak, a partner at Revolution Studios, which
] produced the doomed picture: "Remember that theory that
] any publicity is good publicity? It's not true anymore.
] Bad publicity and extended bad publicity kills the movie
] that much faster."

High-Tech Word of Mouth Maims Movies in a Flash

] A Senate panel will hold hearings on the recording
] industry's crackdown against online music swappers, the
] chairman said Thursday.
]
] Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) made the announcement in a
] letter to the Recording Industry Association of America.
] He had received information he had requested from the
] group about the campaign, which Coleman has called
] excessive.
]
] The Senate Governmental Affairs' Permanent Subcommittee
] on Investigations is reviewing the group's responses and
] declined to make them available Thursday, as did the
] industry group.
]
] The association announced plans in June to file several
] hundred lawsuits against people suspected of illegally
] sharing songs on the Internet. Copyright laws allow for
] damages of $750 to $150,000 for each song.
]
] In his letter, Coleman said he would look at not just the
] scope of that campaign but also the dangers that
] downloaders face by making their personal information
] available to others. Coleman said he would review
] legislation that would expand criminal penalties for
] downloading music.

The issue is starting to move out of the courts and into Congress.

Senator to hold hearings on recording industry's piracy crackdown