"Just 11 years after it was born and about 6 years after it became popular, the Web has lost its luster. Many who once raved about surfing from address to address on the Web now lump site-seeing with other online chores, like checking the In box. "

As the Web Matures, Fun Is Hard to Find

"Law enforcement officials may one day use their mobile phones to help identify criminals, thanks to an application being demonstrated by Motorola, Visionics and Wirehound. "

This is the future. When you go into a mall, airport, or other public place you are constantly being scanned against a database of government offenders. Got some unpaid traffic tickets? Better not go into a public place. Look sort of like someone who comitted a murder? Have fun getting shaken down everywhere you go. Next thing that happens is that former offenders are fed into the system. No one wants a former child molester to shop at their grocery store, do they? Of course, they also add in the former shop lifters. Steal a box of candy at one store when you are 15 and you'll be locked out of stores all over the country. I hope you really DID steal something and its not just a disagreement with someone that works at the store that led to your inclusion in the database.

This stuff is going to spread like wildfire, and will only be curbed if the stores decide that the number of people they are excluding from business is actually impacting their bottom line.

infoSync : Look into the mobile phone, please

"Microsoft is making an effort to appear open, and they are hoping that this will accomplish that objective," said Mike Gilpin, an analyst with Giga Information Group.
"It's just a battle of perceptions," Gilpin said, noting that the move isn't likely to have the same kind of commercial repercussions that would come from a fuller move to open source. "\

Microsoft opens some source for a component of .NET

Microsoft makes a college try - Tech News - CNET.com

"Security experts say such inspections will be widespread within five years. Offering thumbprints, palm scans or iris checks will become "second nature" for anyone passing through an airport, said Richard Gritta, a professor of transportation and finance at University of Portland. "This isn't a pipe dream at all," Gritta said. "It's the reality of where we're going. Airlines and passengers want tighter security, and there's less room for human error with biometrics."

Can someone please email me and explain how going through a biometric checkpoint will improve the security of an airport? Are they going to forgo searching my bags simply because they can identify me? If my biometric data is stored on my card, why can't I forge it? Why can't they cross reference existing databases with their list of suspects?

Sounds like another "feel safe" rather then "be safe" measure, with the added side effect that they get to collect biometrics from all kinds of innocent people.

Biometrics may scan air travelers - Tech News - CNET.com

"This is Flo. Her job is testing our image recognition algorithms, although she might not be aware of this. She goes in and out of the house through a cat door (below)."

heh...

Flo Control

But a new ruling under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act threatens to change the playlist at SomaFM and other stations like it, if not actually shut them down altogether.
"

Congress kills Internet radio.

Salon.com Technology | Web radio's last stand

"Just when you thought the dot-com boom and bust had been safely put behind us, new studies suggest that more carnage lies ahead."

Assessing the State of Dot-Com Start-Ups

"BRUTE! responds to the attacks of September 11th.
(click the icon for a larger view of the piece):"

These are interesting.

BRUTE! Propaganda: Store: Prints

"Rosen and other panel members said that despite some support in Congress, the bill is unlikely to pass because it would give legislators too much control in the nascent copy-protection industry. "

There are a number of surprising comments from Rosen in this article. Playing good cop?

Proposed anti-piracy bill draws fire - Tech News - CNET.com

"A key senator introduced legislation yesterday that would turn electronics manufacturers and software developers into copyright police."

This Washington Post story has a decidedly PRO CBDTPA slant.

Hollings Proposes Copyright Defense (washingtonpost.com)