Why RIAA Keeps Getting Hacked. The Recording Industry Association of America already has a target on its back because of its take-no-prisoners stance on file sharing and piracy. That explains why its site gets hacked so much. But why does it continue to be so easy? By Michelle Delio. [Wired News]

I think this is fairly obvious. If you set yourself antagonistically toward people who want things to operate otherwise, then you are likely to generate negative impacts upon your organization precisely from those groups that you seek to antagonize. Asserting your right to property against people who have other claims toward it usually ends in bloodshed, or on the net it ends up with defacement, etc.

Coffee: Lovelier than a Thousand Kisses. The Coffee Science Information Centre. Bach once referred to coffee as “lovelier than a thousand kisses.” The writers and researchers at the Coffee Science Information Centre would agree. This site takes a scientific look at coffee, especially in regard to caffeine and health. Coffee through history is also examined. ::credit:: [MetaFilter]

hmm, coffee is ambrosia, it maintains and sustains the existence of many of lives lost souls

Make and run your own country…. NationStates.net allows you to create your own country, decide how it starts out by answering a short questionary, and then it gives you issues to solve (one per day, though you can set it to two per day). How you answer those issues determines how your country fares, the type of country it is, and many other things.
You can join the UN and elect a regional representative, create your own region that you and your friends can migrate to (all new nations start out in The Pacific, which is consequentially the largest region in NationStates, but you can move wherever you want). [MetaFilter]

This is another interesting learning game, much like the world game by buckminster fuller.

NY Times: “Copyright protection lasts only 50 years in European Union countries, compared with 95 years in the United States, even if the recordings were originally made and released in America. So recordings made in the early- to mid-1950's — by figures like Maria Callas, Elvis Presley and Ella Fitzgerald — are entering the public domain in Europe, opening the way for any European recording company to release albums that had been owned exclusively by particular labels.” [Scripting News]

this is interesting in that it will open up quite a new set of possibilities for breaking u.s. law

My 2003 Economy. My 2003 Economy
I've decided the economy belongs to me. That is, all the little things I do – the things I buy, the ideas I have about the economy, the way I think about work, the things I say about the economy — and especially how I can help other friends find work — really matter. These small things really make a difference. The economy doesn't belong to them. It belongs to me. And by the way, could everybody stop talking about women using the euphemistic term “consumers” and christ, haven't we had enough of “consumer confidence” which simply means women going shopping. [Halley's Comment]

what would baudrillard say?

Macro and script viruses dying off. New faces of malicious code for 2003 [The Register]

yeah, until the next surge occurs…

Design.

Design

I'm not going to give you all the lnks to this poem's many critics and analysts, check them out on Google. I just like it as a rather mysterious text.

Design by Robert Frost

I found a dimpled spider, fat and white,
On a white heal-all, holding up a moth
Like a white piece of rigid satin cloth –
Assorted characters of death and blight
Mixed ready to begin the morning right,
Like the ingredients of a witches' broth –
A snow-drop spider, a flower like a froth,
And dead wings carried like a paper kite.

What had that flower to do with being white,
The wayside blue and innocent heal-all?
What brought the kindred spider to that height,
Then steered the white moth thither in the night?
What but design of darkness to appall?–
If design govern in a thing so small.

[Halley's Comment]

Job Angel — Do it.

Job Angel — Do it

Pick five people you know — could be family, friends, anyone. You don't even have to tell them you picked them. Commit to helping these five people find jobs if they aren't working or finding new jobs if they're ready to make a move, or if they are freelancers, finding new projects. Help them in any way you can.

networking stratagy and helping your friends, etc. this is a great idea

How To Become An Alpha Male In 18 Easy Lessons.

How To Become An Alpha Male In 18 Easy Lessons

My new book, How To Become An Alpha Male In 18 Easy Lessons, is almost out! I'm just trying to get one more back cover blurb to assure bestseller status. I know just the guy to call.

You should have seen me in the studio with my headphones on, recording the bonus CD, “Language Lessons for The Alpha Male” The publisher just told me we'll be giving the CD away with the book and that it will be conveniently slipped into a pocket at the end of the book, right after my bio page and right before the page that talks about the anxious moments I spent choosing the font Helvetica Bold, instead of the stately but lackluster Garamond.

This CD makes the book accessible to just about any male. With a few hours listening to the language lessons, your basic Beta, Gamma and Delta Men have a chance to go for the gold. Hell, even an Omicron Man can move his game into a whole new ballfield once he takes a listen to the section called “Vocabulary Builder: Dominant Male Grunting.” [Halley's Comment]

oh this is going to be a great gag gift

More Evidence of the Power of Video Games.

I officially have guinea pigs. Our friends down the block asked me to come over and help with their computer last week. They were trying to install Sims expansion packs on their 266-Mhz machine and they didn't have enough hard drive space for even one of them. Their 14-year old daughter owns every expansion pack, but she's never been able to install them.

We talked about their various options, and I ended up doing some research to spec a cheap PC. Then Monday night they called to tell me they'd bought a computer off the floor at Best Buy. Why? Video games. Their daughter wants to play her Sims packs. Not only that, now that they have a machine that flies along, she bought The Sims Online, and they don't even have broadband.

I think that will be next for them. Broadband, a wireless network, and then they'll dump their telephone landlines because they all have cell phones. And the catalyst for all of it will have been video games and a NetGen kid. Expect to read updates periodically.

[The Shifted Librarian]

video hames are a technology driver, this is clear