We're happy to announce our new guest reblogger. Tom Moody is a New York-based artist. His weblog documents his studio practice, and also features rants on art, music, film, politics, and low-tech cyberculture. suite! Take it away Tom...

And many thanks to our previous guest reblogger, Bev Tang. She was great this last month. Keep in touch with her over at the btang phlog.

Ok I know I've been hogging the reblog all summer. So now I pass it off to Bev Tang, of Rhizome.LA and blogging fame. take it away, Bev! --AG

Nice work of compiled, handwritten letters.

O`Reilly is launching Make Magazine for tech enthusiasts who want to build and hack, as opposed to buy the latest gadgets. This looks incredibly cool. I want a subscription.

"Coming early in 2005, Make is a hybrid magazine/book (known as a mook in Japan). Make comes from O'Reilly, the Publisher of Record for geeks and tech enthusiasts everywhere. It follows in line with the Hacks books and Hardware Hacking Projects, but it takes a highly visual and personal approach."

An interview with Google's co-founders due out in the current issue of Playboy may delay the company's IPO. Securities regulations restrict what executives can say while preparing to sell stock for the first time.

[hahahah --AG]

has a videogame ever made you cry?  

[i watched this again about a month ago. noam is my hero. --AG]

Apple has apparently filed for a design trademark on a handheld computer resembling an iBook without the keyboard. From The Register:

"Hints that Apple might be working on such a product emerged in 2003 when a source close to Taiwanese contract manufacturer Quanta claimed that the company had been hired by Apple to build what was dubbed a 'wireless display...

The device is certainly a logical extension of what it's been doing with iTunes and AirPort Express. While its mini wireless access point is good for streaming audio from a host Mac to a hi-fi, it lacks a local control unit. It's tempting to view this latest design filing as the basis for just such a device.'"

Link

Why didn't Wordsworth tell us about this when he came to visit? Superb. The funny thing is, according to the orthodoxy some of y'all uphold, George Bush is the winner of that battle because Words kicked a written....

By way of Defamer... I have always said that you can find anything you'd ever want on ebay, including severed limbs. I'd rather buy an arm than the Tom Cruise 11.5 x 8 in. drawing of a car that's currently up for auction - with a starting bid at $350...it's a steal.

[via] 

prostoalex writes "Wireless LANs seem to be enjoying the tremendous amount of interest lately, if you judge by the number of book covers and articles written on the topic. It's no wonder that this year the sales of WLAN equipment will grow 20% and generate $2.1 billion - everyone seems to be installing a wireless network in their office, their apartment complex or their own backyard. With extending the network into the radio world one is always extending the opportunities for unwelcome visitors to become part of the network. This book is a hands-on guide on hacking wireless networks followed by the recipes and principles to protect WLANs." Read on for the rest of prostoalex's review of Wi-Foo.

Ron Fedkiw's physics simulation movies

imdb

I'm trying out imageshack.us to host my photos, instead of filling up space on my own servers.. All these pieces are in a magical graffiti wonderland I found after walking through this little alley on St. Catherine and Rue de...

Political protestors are using a new tool that lets a person send a single text message to hundreds of mobile-phone users at the press of a button. By Daniel Terdiman.

Doom 3 puts the player on a Martian base that is overrun by monsters. Also, Spider-Man 2 gives players free access to an entire city.

Chris Burkhardt writes "iDevGames officially announced the start of the uDevGames Game Development Contest yesterday. The contest challenges participants to create a Mac OS X game in three months time, which will then be subjected to public vote, peer vote, and a panel of judges, with the best in a variety of categories receiving prizes. iDevGames has issued a press release." Previous winners of the competition include the rather smart Argonaut 2149.

STAIRWAY 2 HEAVEN, by Glenn Miller, Schbert????????????

A new wave of video games underscores what some critics consider a disturbing trend: games that play on racial stereotypes.

I use MSN Instant Messenger, AIM, Yahoo, ICQ and Jabber and generally tried to keep groups of friends distributed across the different networks so that I wouldn't run into the buddy list limit. Today I hit my AIM buddy list limit. I think the limit is 150. For some reason, people aren't supposed to have more than 150 friends. Now, every time I want to add a friend on AIM, I have to delete someone else. I guess this might be good discipline, but I think this is a stupid feature/bug.

Comment - TrackBack

[like in the movie Charade when Audrey Hepburn says "I already know an awful lot of people and until one of them dies I couldn't possibly meet anyone else" --AG]

A photographer's journal of moments from the past few Presidential campaigns

Another excellent article by Henry Jenkins at MIT Technology Review, on the fan-driven grey-market spread of anime. Copyright cartels take note:

Japanese corporations have sought to collaborate with fan clubs, subcultures, and other consumption communities, seeing them as important allies in developing compelling new content or broadening markets. In courting such fans, the companies helped to construct a "moral economy" that aligned their interests in reaching a market with the American fans' desires to access more content.

Many have argued that cultural rather than legal, technological, or economic solutions are crucial in resolving the bootlegging crisis hitting American media companies. Rather than suing their fan base, perhaps they should study how their Japanese counterparts profited from this first wave of underground circulation, seeing it as promotion rather than piracy.

and one with politically-themed torrents [via] 

vansau writes "Ben Kingsley, the Oscar-winning actor for his role in Gandhi, has signed on to star in the upcoming BloodRayne movie alongside Kristanna Loken (the T-X in Terminator 3.) Kingsley will play Rayne's (Loken) vampiric father, Kagan." We've previously covered director Uwe Boll's inspiring words on this movie, and Metafilter has plenty of comments on Boll's newly released Alone In The Dark trailer.

Must-download TV

These guys deserve some serious exposure - now! Check out the video link, fucknewyork. [link thanks to Dennis Kane]...

[HAHAHAHAHAH --AG]

Inside Al-Qaeda's Hard Drive:

This was the man who that December would take $1,100 from me in exchange for two of al-Qaeda's most valuable computers -- a 40-gigabyte IBM desktop and a Compaq laptop. He had stolen them from al-Qaeda's central office in Kabul on November 12, the night before the city fell to the Northern Alliance. He wanted the money, he said, so that he could travel to the United States and meet some American girls. [...]

Messages were usually encrypted and often couched in language mimicking that of a multinational corporation; thus Osama bin Laden was sometimes "the contractor," acts of terrorism became "trade," Mullah Omar and the Taliban became "the Omar Brothers Company," the security services of the United States and Great Britain became "foreign competitors," and so on. [...]

From: Ayman al-Zawahiri
Folder: Outgoing Mail -- To Yemen
Date: February 11, 1999

Noble brother Ezzat ...

Following are my comments on the summary accounting I received:

... With all due respect, this is not an accounting. It's a summary accounting. For example, you didn't write any dates, and many of the items are vague.

The analysis of the summary shows the following:

1. You received a total of $22,301. Of course, you didn't mention the period over which this sum was received. Our activities only benefited from a negligible portion of the money. This means that you received and distributed the money as you please ...

2. Salaries amounted to $10,085 -- 45 percent of the money. I had told you in my fax that we've been receiving only half salaries for five months. What is your reaction or response to this?

3. Loans amounted to $2,190. Why did you give out loans? Didn't I give clear orders to Muhammad Saleh to refer any loan requests to me? We have already had long discussions on this topic...

"What's this I hear about you having trouble with your TPS reports?" he did not go on to say.

Extreme Democracy is a book being edited by Jon Lebkowsky and Mitch Ratcliffe. They've just put the book online in a blog format. The book will included a version of my Emergent Democracy paper edited by Jon. I really need to write another version of this paper that incorporates all of the new stuff and feedback that I've received...

Adina has put up a wiki page with additional thoughts on the book.

Comment - TrackBack

Imagine showing up for work and discovering you've got 457 voice-mail messages. Almost all of them are telemarketing junk -- but somewhere in the mess, there's probably a few important voice-mails from actual co-workers. How long would it take you to listen to them? That may soon become a reality for many people, because of "voice over IP" phone numbers. Why? Well, as you probably know, VOIP routes phone calls over the Internet as packets of data, instead of using normal phone switches. That means VOIP phone companies can offer steep discounts on long distance. Indeed, that's why many corporations are turning to VOIP -- to cut costs! Even better, because the phone number is entirely, VOIP can do some cool tricks: Your number can be directed to any VOIP number in the world, so it can travel with you. And you can access your voice mail by checking a...

Computer games can promote problem-solving and team-building in children, say games industry experts.

[hahaha i love it when studies like this come out --AG]

Dan Gillmor argues in his new book We the Media that journalism is stronger than ever because of the Web. But Hollywood is strengthening its grasp on copyrights, threatening speech and freedom. Xeni Jardin interviews the author.

BAE Systems,a British defence contractor,has developed "a type of wallpaper that prevents Wi-Fi signals escaping from a building without blocking mobile phone signals",New Scientist reports."The technology is designed to stop outsiders gaining access to a secure network by using Wi-Fi networks casually set up by workers at the office",the article says.
Stealth wallpaper keeps company secrets safe

my two favorites [via] 

[woah. people with lots of free time. --AG]

Flash radiojacking, Bikes Against Bush, Backpack broadcast, and WiFi on Wheels are some of the geek power tools that protesters plan to use at the upcoming Republican convention in NYC.

sharkdba writes "CNN has an article about Olympic digital security. This should be of interest to /. readers since it's a supposedly largest surveillance network ever. Thousands of cameras are combined with software (AI agents?) to look for anomalies. Also words are parsed (scan equivalent to OCR). I understand the idea that if you're in public expect no privacy, but even CNN says: 'Although the state's right to take all necessary measures that it deems necessary is recognized, there is fear that these measures will have a negative impact on basic human rights.'"

peace and goodness in the park before 9/11 - and after 8/29 I'm not going to any rally on the West Side Highway. I am not a car. After marching past Madison Square Garden I'll be in our great...

beautiful agricultural aerial photos

Return of the Living Dead 4: Necropolis is being filmed at Chernobyl. And apparently Return of the Living Dead 5: Rave from the Grave is being filmed simultaniously.


[see also STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl --AG]

This suit makes you feel old. “The Third Age Suit restricts the mobility of the wearer to give them an appreciation of what it is like for patients getting around the hospital….The suit has splints and restrictors that limit the movement of joints such as the hand, wrists, elbows, neck, upper and lower torso, knees and ankles to simulate the loss of mobility caused by ageing and arthritis.Yellow goggles mimic the declining vision, increased sensitivity to glare and reduced sensitivity to blue light experienced by many people as they age. Surgical style gloves are also provided to mimic the reduction in tactile sensitivity that occurs as a result of changes in the skin and sensory receptors. The architects found the simplest of tasks, such as sitting down, standing up and reaching out the arm became laboured and difficult when wearing the suit.” I wonder if it makes you grumpy and increases your fashion sense too (old people are the most stylish people around)? I would say the next version should come with a spedometer and a knob to maybe make you get younger too?

Sean Bonner says, "Stamps.com has launched Photo.Stamps.com where you can upload your own images and print real stamps. Here's some I'd like to see:

Let's check out the Terms and Conditions...

3. Content Restrictions:
You further agree not to use the PhotoStamps website or service:
B. To upload, order for print, or otherwise transmit or communicate any material that is obscene, offensive, blasphemous, pornographic, unlawful, deceptive, threatening, menacing, abusive, harmful, an invasion of privacy or publicity rights, supportive of unlawful action, defamatory, libelous, vulgar, illegal or otherwise objectionable;

Aw, Crap. Otherwise Objectionable? That's a catch-all if I ever read one." Link

The resemblance is uncanny:

• Bart's book report
• George's press conference

Too bad George didn't even have a book cover to work off of..

Visual History Of Gaming

Does Big Media have a vested interest in protecting Bush? You betcha. By Lawrence Lessig from Wired magazine.

takes into account population density [via] 

So here's today's architectual design. It's for an effort we're calling Open-Media.org which would enable folks to access the HUGE repositories of public domain and Creative Commons content - that's out there.

And to help build our own huge repository of CC content.

First we'll start off with upload sites - which will enable folks to start getting their stuff into the 'archives'. Then we'll provide Jukeboxes and Image Albums (much like what's in the gutter of my blog) that have built into them these huge repositories.

Bascially we're making sure to make it REAL easy for folks to utilize media in their everyday lives, school and work.

The idea is that common APIs and Schemas get established that are then supported by the notion of a 'personal media server'. This code gets baked into all sorts of existing platforms, devices, etc. - while also being given away - in multiple languages.

We'll make sure that these 'media servers' are supported by several major, large scale systems - and then sprinkle the pixie dust to the wind - and see where it lands.

Anyone interested in getting involved in this effort - should contact me at marc at broadbandmechanics.com.

(Continued at Marc's Voice)

(Hey guys, sound errily familiar? Maybe it's time for some citizens media consolidation. -kc.)

reads magstripe cards

New eboy website - yum

This is horribly addicting.

The nation's defenses need a major rethink. Here are four ways we must protect the electronic frontier. By Bruce Sterling from Wired magazine.

Let Them Sing It For You

All Things Considered
http://www.npr.org/rss/rss.php?prgCode=ATC

Morning Edition
http://www.npr.org/rss/rss.php?prgCode=ME

Day to Day
http://www.npr.org/rss/rss.php?prgCode=DAY

Tavis Smiley
http://www.npr.org/rss/rss.php?prgCode=TAVIS

Motley Fool
http://www.npr.org/rss/rss.php?prgCode=FOOL

Weekend Edition Sunday
http://www.npr.org/rss/rss.php?prgCode=WESUN

Weekend Edition Saturday
http://www.npr.org/rss/rss.php?prgCode=WESAT

Talk of the Nation
http://www.npr.org/rss/rss.php?prgCode=TOTN

Fresh Air
http://www.npr.org/rss/rss.php?prgCode=FA

i just came back from siggraph where i finally got to see the Tickle Salon in person. besides being a tickle machine, it can map the body it is tickling when the probe moves along its contours. the probe is suspended by fishing line and the more time it spends on the body, the better it learns about the subtle contours which results in a more detail image of the body.

imdb

Welcome to the Ars Electronica t+25 timeline. You are welcome to post a prediction for the next 25 years here, year by year. Or you may vote on the predictions already posted. Anyone can write. Anyone can vote.

The t+25 timleline is part of the Ars Electronica Festival, 2-7 September 2004, held every year in Linz, Austria. Ars is the oldest and largest art and technology festival in the world, and this year is Ars' 25th anniversary, with the special theme "TIMESHIFT: the World in 25 Years."

The t+25 is online as a Beta Version. Registration is not required. Voting is based on a simple one vote per computer entry per day basis. We will be monitoring activity and may exercise the option of filtering entries (we don't intend any editorial filtering beyond keeping it readable by a general audience). Please report any bugs or comments to t25admin@aec.at.

We strongly encourage you, while you're reading entries, to rate them. Your vote counts!

During the Ars Electronica Festival, t+25 will exhibit as a public installation, where attendees can participate. It will remain accessible online during this time. When the Festival ends on 7 September 2004, t+25 freezes.

The t+25 timeline is a cultural experiment. Please join in!

I remember playing Half-Life and thinking it was pure magic when one of those head-sucking aliens dropped from ceiling tiles behind me just after I'd walked past, like the level had some pulse to it. I couldn't just simply walk through and blast everything, there were layers I didn't see, and didn't understand.

Then months later, playing System Shock 2, I saw an opening sequence where a mutant chases a human survivor with a wrench, muttering insanely as she screamed. It was horror shlock, but it sent a shiver up my spine - I was wandering through a gameworld that was fucked beyond my control. Of course I was picking up guns and grenades to try to make a difference. But there was some drama in all of this!

I was arguing with some game designers, suggesting that more of these scripted sequences would make shooters and adventure games more exciting. And they were arguing in favor of emergent gameplay - give the units real brains and elaborate behaviors, and let unscripted things happen. Otherwise, they argued, the gameplay can seem too contrived.

In his Doom 3 review on Firing Squad, Jakub Wojnarowicz illustrates the perils of too much scripting:

It's not even like Half-Life where a scripted event was a rare, pleasant bonus. The levels and action in Doom III feel very alive because the scripting isn't a big deal.

Of course, all that simply highlights the fact how poorly the action is really done. It's almost beyond belief that at no time during development the team didn't stop and say "Wait, are we actually having monsters pop out from behind secret doors in walls? Wasn't this one of the lamer decisions back when we developed the original Doom?" It's not that the enemies come through the ventilation system - which they sometimes do - or are climbing above you and then drop down.

They're quite literally waiting for the player to pass by, setting off a scripted trigger, then their door opens automagically without noise and they shoot you in the back. OK, fine, you got me id, that was sneaky. Made me jump back in the seat and I needed to take a break just two hours into the game. After eight hours of that, however, the feeling of fear is replaced with irritation.

So scripting that much "interaction" is like more elaborate hand-holding - the player must walk through that tunnel to trigger those two baddies who will try to flank. To build a game that feels like it has any player choice, like Deus Ex tried to do, requires more and more elaborate scripting, to cover all possible paths. The alternative is to build a rich gameworld with a few scripted events maybe, and allow combinations of physics and artificial intelligence make nearly unreproducable combinations of fun and frustration.

The upcoming Half-Life 2 seems to offer both rich physics, and some scripted events. From the technology demonstrations, it looked awesome - "Hey! You can shoot out that crane holding up that beam which knocks over those barrels, killing those dudes!" My third time watching it, I wondered whether that wasn't just a more elaborate form of a script, choreographed hot physics action. A sort of Buster Keaton moment where the ladder, the Model T car and the falling piano miraculously come together into hilarity.

I enjoy Buster Keaton as much as the next undergraduate film student, maybe even more. Beautiful scripting is a high form of design. Jackie Chan keeps this tradition alive - unnatural physical acting, choreography. Maybe Doom 3 didn't have too much scripting, but rather scripting that was not subtle enough, balanced by different flavors. Something else besides "Boo!"

political art, cruising Savannah streets Crazy about bikes, but just can't get those Hummers out of your mind? Check out these guys and their wonderful full-size Green Hummer.This bicycle is an attempt to make large numbers of people reconsider...

In 1992, one of rock's most influential bands broke up via fax. Twelve long years later, they talk about life as the hit act of the summer.

Thanks to Armchair Arcade for its article discussing why new game composers should look to classic game audio for pointers and inspiration. The author argues that classic Commodore 64 composer Rob Hubbard's work "is innovative precisely because he isn t trying to mimic 'real' music or make his computer sound like something besides a computer", before arguing of newer game audio: "How did game audio composers respond to this sudden technological boon? They began to imitate. Rather than innovate, they only did what had been done so many times before." The author concludes: "What concerns me is when they ignore the abilities unique to the electronic medium. It makes no more sense for a game audio programmer to mimic a string quartet as it does for a flutist to make his instrument sound like a kazoo."

A movie by Salvador Dali

More photos of QR-codes found on everyday items in Japan.
Starting with 2 magazine adverts for mobile phones featuring barcodes linking to the mobile site of the maker; a graphics-softwares tutorial book that has a barcode on its cover including all the details about the book so you can come back later and ask for it precisely for example; a mini-guide to Tokyo areas and streets featuring a different barcode on each spread that if scanned takes you to a mobile site page giving you more precise information on Gourmet or Lodging informations for that very area delimited by the spread's contour; and finally an ink-stamp made by Sachihata with a barcode that could include all your contact details to then be printable on some of your belongings, letters, business cards.
I think that it is safe to say that more than 60% of all new mobile camera phones sold in Japan now have a QR barcode reader included in their system. I will get back to you as soon as I can get more precise numbers for the 3 main makers AU, DoCoMo and Vodafone.

[more images --AG]

As Doom 3 arrives, John Carmack, the enigmatic creator of the game, looks to new creative challenges.

imdb

An anonymous reader writes "While there's been a few postings on events happening at DefCon 12, one event seems to have been overlooked. A new wireless packet injection tool was quietly released (unleashed?) during DefCon: AirPwn. Here's a write-up of the tool as deployed by its author and crew at DefCon 12."

[warning: majorly explicit images. --AG]

There's a bill currently being debated in the US Senate, called the INDUCE act (here's a good background on it), that aims to criminalize P2P networks, programmers, software compnaies, and anyone else that can be shown to help "induce copyright infringement."

Many law observers have criticized the act's broad language, but the Future of Music Coalition surveyed musicians to get their opinions on the target of the act, P2P networks. The final product of the survey is a letter to the senate committee debating the bill. The key points are illuminating and worth restating here: artists don't feature in discussions of the bill (just large music labels and technology companies), the bill assumes all copyright owners do not want their works shared on P2P networks (35% of musicians they surveyed saw value in P2P sharing for them), and the bill doesn't allow market-based (like licensing) solutions to occur. Former Creative Commons featured commoner Scott Andrew highlights the survey, the letter, and his problems with the bill in this post.

KD5YPT writes "According to a story on Wired, Adam Laurie and Martin Herfurt demonstrated that they can hack a Bluetooth enabled phone from up to a mile away using a sniper rifle with yagi antenna. Kinda gives a new meaning to '1337 hAx0r2'."

desjerlaih writes "DevMaster.net is reporting that it has developed a comprehensive 3D Engines Database that provides detailed and organized information on current game engines. According to the site, the engine database is committed to providing the most accurate and up-to-date information on today’s engines. Source (Half-life 2’s engine), and Unreal 3 are already on the list, and their listed features are pretty impressive."

"Drag Race NYC" is a suicidal ride through NYC traffic  

[mirror --AG]

Woohoo! Lots of Machinima, speed runs and other goodies! Go, enjoy! Internet Archive: Game Videos Archive Note: This isn't the Videogame Archive, this is the Game Video archive. A new art form of which I am a fan.

The London collective, Greyworld, have just completed their latest public display project called The Source. The Source is an eight storey high kinetic sculpture that relays information about the London Stock Exchange. “The Source is formed from a grid of cables arranged in a square, 162 cables in all, reaching eight stories to the glass roof. Nine spheres are mounted on each cable and are free to move independently up and down its length. In essence the spheres act like animated pixels, able to model any shape in three dimensions ? a fluid, dynamic, three dimensional television.” Really nice use of “physical pixels” ala Kelly Heaton’s Nami orbs and Daniel Hirschmann’s GlowBits! Can’t wait to see it in action next time I make it to the UK. (thanks to Chris for the link)

[New book @ Amazon.com] Rachel Greene is Editorial Coordinator and a director of Rhizome.org, an online resource and platform for new media art, and a curatorial fellow at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York.
The diverse forms of Internet art and the tools and equipment used to create them are discussed and placed within the wider cultural context.

When the Internet emerged as a mass global communication network in the mid-1990s, artists immediately recognized the exciting possibilities for creative innovation that came with it. After a century of unprecedented artistic experimentation, individuals and groups were quick to use the new technologies to question and radically redefine the conventions of art, and to tackle some of the most pressing social, political, and ethical issues of the day. Covering email art, Web sites, artist-designed software, and projects that blur the boundaries between art and design, product development, political activism, and communication, Internet Art shows how artists have employed online technologies to engage with the traditions of art history, to create new forms of art, and to move into fields of activity normally beyond the artistic realm. The book investigates the ways Internet art resists and shifts assumptions about authorship, originality, and intellectual property; the social role of the artist; issues of identity, sexuality, economics, and power; and the place of the individual in the virtual, networked age. Throughout, the views of artists, curators, and critics offer an insider's perspective on the subject, while a timeline and glossary provide easy-to-follow guides to the key works, events, and technological developments that have taken art into the twenty-first century. 200 illustrations, 100 in color.

Note: I haven't yet read this book, it is on my list. If you own this book, please let us know what you think of it.

Some press in the New York Times on the “Infinite Fill” show in NYC that I have a small piece in. Way to to go Cory and Jamie!

[except that roberta smith thinks jamie is a boy. hmm... --AG]

Paranoia, the classic role-playing game in which players battle a mad, totalitarian computer for their freedom ("a light-hearted game of terror, death, bureaucracy, mad scientists, mutants, dangerous weapons, insane robots, and technological satire that encourages players to lie, cheat, and backstab each other at every turn") has just re-launched with a new version that was collaboratively developed with players via a Wiki, borrowing "the tools and methods of open-source software development for a paper game."

To a large degree, the game was developed online, in public. Fans of the game contributed enthusiastically via blog, wiki, and online forum. They wrote text, debated rules, proofread, ran statistical analyses, and even wrote a computer simulator to test the game's paper-and-pencil rules.

"Online collaboration made this edition of Paranoia the best yet," said Allen Varney (www.allenvarney.com), the game's designer. "We borrowed the tools and methods of open-source software development for a paper game, and it worked brilliantly. I plan to create future games the same way, and other designers should consider it too."

Link

del.icio.us Mind

The File Sharing Experiment is a project with the goal of demonstrating how file sharing actually helps the music, movie, and software industry. Folks are encouraged to post purchases they've made and a short explanation of how they learned about the band/movie/game and why they ended up buying something for it. All the evidence is anectdotal, but when taken together, it's already over a quarter million dollars in reported sales and the site has been up for one week.

Personally, this was the point I tried to make in the heyday of Napster. You could find anything on Napster, but rarely could you find complete albums, so the service had the effect of promoting CD sales. I would often surf others' music lists whenever I noticed things I liked, download the things I hadn't ever heard of, then I'd end up buying CDs from Amazon.

Tor: an anonymizing overlay network for TCP

A link between the murder of a 14-year-old boy and a violent computer game is rejected by police.

Tangmonkey brings us "The Chipmunk Song [slowed down]". "Yes, hear Simon, Theodore and Alvin at their true speed, sounding respectively like an accountant, a hot-dog vendor, and a lunatic. Put it on repeat and you'll drift gradually into madness - it's like an acid flashback to fetal languor, the surreal sounds that filtered through the uterine wall."

Zebbers writes "Disney announced today from NYC that they are entering the personal computer market. With a childish design, built in content control and other kid-friendly features, it could be a breakthrough or just another specialized device flop. Do children really need their own specialized computer?"