Net's New Year resolution: Outlaw spam. Rising angst over junk e-mail has the majority of the Internet population in favor of outlawing it, a new study shows. [CNET News.com]
7:35:25 PM  #   your two cents []

From Boing Boing: Ladies' Phone from Samsung. The Samsung SGH-T700 is a "Ladies' Phone" that comes with a calorie counter and a biorhythm monitor, and looks like a compact. Link (via Schism Matrix) ...Is this depressing, ladies, or what? I'd rather have it come with a list of local dim sum restaurants and a built in mileage computer for my mountain bike. (And anyway, it looks like a toilet lid when it is shut.)
4:41:51 PM  #   your two cents []

Tomorrow's World axed after 40 years. The BBC has dropped long-running science programme Tomorrow's World from its weekly slot because of falling ratings. [Guardian Unlimited]
4:36:40 PM  #   your two cents []

From Doc Searls: Watching journalism rewrite its own story. Dig Every Last Word in the current American Journalism Review, and the background thread here. Both star Sheila Lennon, who took the liberty (which we have here in blogland) to publish the entire text of her interview with David Gallagher for his New York Times story about blogging. David's own blog is here.
4:35:57 PM  #   your two cents []

Wi-Fi by land to the sea: "A company has quietly installed $5 million worth of Wi-Fi gear pointing outwards from major coastal areas to serve private boating and the cruise ship industry. This is remarkably clever, as physics tells us that a tower not very high up on the coast can have a direct line of sight to a huge swath of sea within its range. The company, Wheat Wireless Services's TeleSea division, says that they cover the coast from Baltimore to the Florida Keys, Puget Sound, San Francisco Bay, Long Island Sound, Southern California, and Hawaii." [via TechDirt]

[80211b News]
4:33:54 PM  #   your two cents []

Clonaid: Birth of a Media Menace?. As the public awaits evidence substantiating the claim that a woman associated with an obscure religious group has given birth to a cloned baby, scientists and journalists worry that extensive media coverage of the story has hurt their professional credibility. [Wired News]
4:32:48 PM  #   your two cents []

If Irish Minister for Health Micheal Martin is looking for ways to make his popularity soar...: Thailand's health ministry will launch a troupe of specially trained bosom-enhancing dancers on Valentine's Day to show women how to boost their bust lines without resorting to ill-fitting and often expensive bras.
11:32:55 AM  #   your two cents []

Discouraging signs for IT rebound. A new survey from investment firm Goldman Sachs shows businesses will remain frugal information technology buyers in 2003. [CNET News.com]
11:09:06 AM  #   your two cents []

The critic in winter. The legendary American literary critic Leslie Fiedler talks about his encounters with Hemingway and Faulkner, his falling out with Bellow and which contemporary novelists will last. [Salon.com]
11:08:01 AM  #   your two cents []

Supreme Court enters DVD-copying case. The U.S. Supreme Court has granted Hollywood studios and electronics makers a temporary victory by stepping into a long-running dispute over software that can be used to copy DVDs. [CNET News.com]
11:07:28 AM  #   your two cents []

Books: Interview with Annie Proulx. Books: Duncan Campbell visits novelist Annie Proulx in the wilds of Wyoming. [Guardian Unlimited]
11:06:03 AM  #   your two cents []

Landlord calls time ... with JCB. Landlord allegedly demolished his own pub after bar staff refused him an after-hours drink. [Guardian Unlimited]:

Villagers in the Oxfordshire hamlet of Steventon gawped in disbelief yesterday at the remains of the historic North Star inn, a grade one listed building that had served beer straight from the barrel for more than 400 years.

11:05:25 AM  #   your two cents []

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. "The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything." [Quotes of the Day]
11:03:30 AM  #   your two cents []

AIM calls on cell phones. America Online is testing a way for AOL Instant Messenger users to send messages to a friend's cell phone--even if the recipient isn't an AOL subscriber. [CNET News.com]
11:02:35 AM  #   your two cents []

Microsoft-powered phone takes off. HTC's "Falcon," a cell phone that uses the software giant's Pocket PC Phone Edition software, gets a nod of approval from the Federal Communications Commission. [CNET News.com]
11:01:56 AM  #   your two cents []

I've just installed one of my Christmas presents, a wireless optical mouse. I never thought going wireless would be so very satisfying! On the other hand, software programs are doing odd little things -- ie Norton Internet Security decided it wasn't going to work anymore, and I've had it running on the old XP installation for a year, glitchless (did a reinstall, of course, and it seems OK). All pointing towards the need for a new harddrive, as many readers recommended in recent tribulations...
12:27:53 AM  #   your two cents []