Culture and Society

There's Patriot Act 1, which I was willing to live with until Justice refused to reveal what actions have been taken under it, and now they want to make its provisions permanent. There's the dreaded Patriot Act 2 in the works, and now Justice has sided with the RIAA in the Verizon case. Ashcroft seems to be engaged in a War on Civil Liberties.

Remember the old Sergio Valente jeans jingle? “Oh oh, Ser-gi-oh-oh.” I think Audio-Oh should adapt the jingle to their own uses: “Oh oh, Au-di-oh-oh,” and people who are using it can discreetly signal to their fellow stimulatees, like an auditory wink. I also had a hard time figuring out which …

We appreciate all of the passionate feeback regarding the new design very much – it’s very gratifying to see how much people care. Besides a steady stream of suggestions since the site went that we move to a horizontal format, the immediate catalyst for the switch was the addition of …

We all owe a huge debt of thanks to Phillip Winn for redesigning Blogcritics.org. We have moved to a horizontal format with jump links to the various sections from the top for easier reading, which many of you have asked for. The new design also loads much more quickly. We …

In an effort to combat the exponential growth of Internet junk email (about 8 percent of all e-mail traffic in late 2001, about 40 percent today) AOL, congress, state courts have all taken strong anti-spam action of late. Now the FTC has filed suit against prolific porn spammer: The lawsuit, …

First, Cory Doctorow presented comments to the FCC (on behalf of the EFF) asking it to allocate unused TV frequencies to unlicensed use under the same terms as the 2.4GHz spectrum in which WiFi runs: The First Amendment calls on government to eschew regulation of who may speak and how …

Dr. Robert C. Atkins, 72, the low-carbohydrate, high-protein diet guru, died several days after suffering a severe head injury during a fall: Atkins died Thursday at the New York Weill-Cornell Medical Center after falling on an icy sidewalk April 8, said his spokesman, Richard Rothstein. He underwent surgery to remove …

Interesting Slashdot interview with Fast Eddie Felten, Princeton computer science prof, purveyor of the Freedom to Tinker blog, DRM cracker, and pro-tech/information freedom gadfly: Some legal issues, some technical issues, a little personal insight… This is what Professor Felten gives us here. Some excellent questions rose to the top in …

New study finds surprising number still in another century: More than half of nonusers said they don’t want Internet access or don’t need it, a study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found. It’s not just a matter of not being able to afford a computer or a …

Madonna’s disembodied voice enquires of file sharers, “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” as they try to download a copy of her “American Life” single via Kazaa or other sharing services. But Madonna isn’t only thwarting file sharers: companies trying to launch legitimate online music services are asking …