] RATE radio is a collaborative filtering client/server mp3
] player/downloader. The iRATE server has a large database
] of music. You rate the tracks and it uses your ratings
] and other peoples to guess what you'll like. The tracks
] are downloaded from websites which allow free and legal
] downloads of their music.

Hmm..

iRATE radio home

] 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

] MANCHESTER, New Hampshire -- A security flaw at a website
] operated by the purveyors of penis-enlargement pills has
] provided the world with a depressing answer to the
] question: Who in their right mind would buy something
] from a spammer?

Wired News: Swollen Orders Show Spam's Allure

] A widely publicized project to transform a man-made
] platform off the coast of England into a haven for
] controversial Web businesses has failed due to political,
] technical and management problems, one of the project's
] founders said.

Has 'haven' for questionable sites sunk? | CNET News.com

] However, there have also been a number of people who
] claim I'm overstating the case and that it's not possible
] to build a real cruise missile without access to
] sophisticated gear, specialist tools and information not
] readily available outside the military.
]
] So, in order to prove my case, I decided to put my money
] where my mouth is and build a cruise missile in my own
] garage, on a budget of just US$5,000.

Fux0ring 3133t Cruise Missile d00d3s

] I know this whole SCO/Linux thing can be very confusing,
] so I created this summary page to explain what's going
] on.
]
] To make it easier to understand, I put it in familiar
] terms.
]
]
] Cast:
]
] Daisy - Linux
]
] Roscoe P. Coltrane - SCO
]
] Boss Hogg - Microsoft
]
] Bo - Free Software Foundation
]
] Luke - Open Source Initiative
]
] Cooter - Bruce Perens
]
] Uncle Jesse - Novell

Someday the mountain might get 'em, but the law never will.

] Here's the idea: you promise a voter 50 euros (31 pounds)
] to cast their ballot for your candidate, send them into
] the booth with a 3G phone, they send a picture via the
] phone proving that they have voted as instructed and then
] they get the cash.

The T-Mobile Election Rigger

Decentralized anonymity systems tend to be unreliable, because users must choose paths through the network without knowing the entire state of the network. Reputation systems can improve reliability by predicting the state of the network. In this paper we focus on anonymous remailers and anonymous publishing, explain why the systems can benefit from reputation, and describe our experiences designing reputation systems for them while still ensuring anonymity. We find that in each example we first must redesign the underlying anonymity system to support verifiable transactions.

Reputation in P2P Anonymity Systems [PDF]

] Employees at Al Jazeera headquarters in Doha, Qatar, said
] they were frustrated by the decision, though not entirely
] surprised. "It has nothing to do with technical issues,"
] said Joanne Tucker, the managing editor of the
] English-language site. "It's nonstop political pressure
] on these companies not to deal with us."

Its not clear to me how much actions like this are driven by irrational thinking. Both the NYSE and Akamai took personal losses in 911. If for any reason they preceive Al'J as an enemy they are going to cut them out.

If its really external political pressure then thats something else, and in that case I oppose it. They are an ARAB news network. Their perspective is going to be different then yours (duh). If all you can do in response to that is to try to prevent people from having access to their content then this is almost PROOF that you are in the WRONG. The righeous don't NEED censorship.

Akamai Cancels a Contract for Al Jazeera's Site