Teen Hacker's Home Raided
DVD & DeCSS
5/2/2000; 4:05:53 PM Jan 25, 2000: A full story from Wired on the Norwegian teen who is responsible for DeCSS's arrest.

Liars, Damn Liars, and Marketers
Privacy from Companies
5/2/2000; 4:04:37 PM Jan. 25, 2000: DoubleClick, one of the largest providers of banner ads on the net, having merged with a company with a large database about people's activities, appear to have decided that there's too much money to be made doing the obvious. "This is a blatant bait-and-switch trick," says Jason Catlett of Junkbusters Inc., an Internet-privacy consultancy. "For four years they have said (their services) don’t identify you personally, and now they're admitting they are going to identify you."

OpenDVD.org
DVD & DeCSS
5/2/2000; 4:03:36 PM Jan 24, 2000: For direct-from-the-source updates on the DVD trial(s) going on, go to OpenDVD.org.

OpenDVD.org
DVD & DeCSS
5/2/2000; 4:01:19 PM Jan 24, 2000: For direct-from-the-source updates on the DVD trial(s) going on, go to OpenDVD.org.

Free Thinkers in the Digital Age Personal Commentary5/2/2000; 4:00:10 PM Jan 24, 2000: I know at first blush this article seems crazy, but think about it for a moment. There are two reasons it seems wacko: First, it talks about the future of cognition and how it will change the world, and second, it advocates complete freedom of cognition.Only the "complete freedom" is a candidate for "wacko-ness". After the Internet enables every possible non-mind-to-mind communication mode, the only place left to go is into the mind itself. The abuses possible in that form of communication boggle the mind. Wondering about cognition and the effects of new modes of communication that result are right in line with what this site is concerned with.The article shows the completion of the pattern I see: With each new generation of technology, from writing to print to the Internet to direct mental communication, the issues get correspondingly more complex, and the potential damage done by abuse gets higher and higher. Internet abuse "merely" means that your rights are infringed... in that era, it could mean your mind being trapped or re-written.It's too early to worry much about. Our job today is to solve the problems posed by the Internet, and there isn't much evidence that we as a species are capable of even that.

"The interface between bodies, brains, and technology is an area of daunting theoretical and practical possibilities," said Sententia, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in Utopian literature and theory.

Killer Patents
Patents
5/2/2000; 3:57:57 PM Jan 24, 2000: "Fink believes that patents are useless as an offensive weapon, when consumers find out what they lose, they'll penalize any vendor that uses them." I wish I could be that optimistic... that statement tends to assume an informed customer... a novelty on today's internet.

More bad news for DVD defendents
DVD & DeCSS
5/2/2000; 3:53:04 PM Jan 24, 2000: The 21 defendants have to take the code in contention down from their sites. Meanwhile, the rest of us aren't under the order. Of course, I don't have a copy...

Heather On Mitnick's Punishment
Personal Commentary
5/2/2000; 3:51:47 PM Jan 24, 2000: Kevin Mitnick is banned from using computers for three years. I think my fiance (who's not even a computer person) summed it up the best: "You know, murderers get to hang out with people."

Upstart Says Hello to AOL's ICQ
Website Annotation
5/2/2000; 3:51:10 PM Jan 24, 2000: Odigo has been extended to work with ICQ's network. Odigo has earned a "Boundary Breaker" entry, which is pending my completion of my discussion of web pages, and my use of the software. Stay tuned!