Aha, so THAT's what's up...: MSN Messenger goes dark. Microsoft's Instant Messenger service went down early Monday, affecting up to 75 million users worldwide. While some had their access restored earlier, others are still in the dark. [CNET News.com]
8:57:32 PM  #   your two cents []

Help Wanted: Steal This Database. A public relations firm accidentally posts server login information in an online job ad, exposing scads of clients' customer data. [Wired News]
1:31:53 PM  #   your two cents []

Hey, don't I give you all the most important news?!: Axe Blind Date, says Cilla. Cilla Black, who sensationally quit Blind Date live on air on Saturday, has said it is time for the show to be dropped. [Guardian Unlimited]
1:30:51 PM  #   your two cents []

Transmeta climbs into embedded market. Transmeta is set to release its first line of chips for cash registers, industrial equipment and other embedded applications in an attempt to diversify its business. [CNET News.com]
1:29:29 PM  #   your two cents []

California: a tale of two economies [NY Times].

But in Silicon Valley the news is bleak. The technology industries in the Bay Area continue to shed jobs, with employment falling by 87,000 people last year. An estimated 40,000 people have left Silicon Valley in the past year in search of work elsewhere. Unemployment in precincts once seen as a model of the new, technological future, has jumped from less than 2 percent in 2000 to nearly 7 percent at the end of this year. In some areas, it is much worse...

... No one knows when — or if — the turnaround will begin. "The Bay Area is waiting patiently for that tech bounce-back that may never come," said Edward Leamer, director of the Anderson Forecast at the University of California at Los Angeles. "It has priced itself out of virtually any other economic function."

He noted that technology operates in decade-long cycles and that the current slump could last until an innovation comes along to spark another boom — perhaps in biotechnology or wireless communications. The personal computer, software and the Internet are now mature technologies, unlikely to reignite the region.

Words for Ireland to worry about too -- especially the comment that the Bay Area has priced itself out of any other economic function besides technology. Anyone living here, especially in Dublin with its rapid housing price rises, high inflation and high cost of living, may well worry that 1) the Irish economy expanded very quickly on the back of tech; and 2) the Irish state is doing little now to support its tech-heavy economy -- or its citizens -- with adequate infrastructure, such as broadband and supportive tax and entrpreneurial structures. I don't believe we are too tech dependent, but I think the govt failed to see the ways in which a successful tech industry, with its high-paying jobs and young workforce, would so profoundly change what might be called the Irish way of life -- slow-paced, inexpensive, high home ownership.

10:41:05 AM  #   your two cents []

SJ Mercury: Tech industry to take on Hollywood over digital rules. The Business Software Alliance and Computer Systems Policy Project -- two prominent high-tech trade groups representing Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft and other industry heavyweights -- are forming a new coalition and working to enlist support from consumer and business groups. [Tomalak's Realm]
10:00:55 AM  #   your two cents []

Phone Calling Over Internet Is Attracting More Interest. The technology is showing signs of gradually expanding to a broad audience, a step that could mean wide-reaching changes in the telecommunications industry. [New York Times: Technology]
10:00:04 AM  #   your two cents []

More Cities Set Up Wireless Networks. Long Beach, Calif., is one of a growing number of cities and community groups that are considering free wireless Internet access. [New York Times: Technology]
9:59:17 AM  #   your two cents []

Alfred Korzybski. "There are two ways to slide easily through life; to believe everything or to doubt everything. Both ways save us from thinking." [Quotes of the Day]
9:57:32 AM  #   your two cents []

Nicotine, Too, May Promote Cancer [Scientific American]
9:56:30 AM  #   your two cents []

This piece is being widely blogged and highlights a disturbing truth -- that people just do not seem to care that the most basic rights and principles, those which underlie the foundation of the world's democracies and are deeply interwoven into the US constitution, are being thrown out the door in the vague intention of 'fighting terrorism'.

Today, people of the United States have given up their rights through the "Patriot Act," the "Homeland Security Act" and the Pentagon's new system of "Total Information Awareness." The astonishing thing about this "land of the free" is that most Americans now have no effective rights and do not care.

...The government now has the power to enter your home or your computer and secretly record whatever they find without ever having to notify you. They do not even have to obtain a warrant from a publicly accountable judge showing reasonable suspicion that a crime is being committed.

Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold spoke the following words from the Senate floor on Oct. 11, 2001, when he was the only senator to vote against Attorney General John Ashcroft's USA Patriot Act: "There is no doubt that if we lived in a police state, it would be easier to catch terrorists. If we lived in a country where police were allowed to search your home at any time for any reason; if we lived in a country where the government is entitled to open your mail, eavesdrop on your phone conversations, or intercept your e-mail communications; if we lived in a country where people could be held in jail indefinitely based on what they write or think, or based on mere suspicion that they are up to no good, the government would probably discover more terrorists or would-be terrorists! But that wouldn't be a country in which we would want to live."

This is an important article and lists exactly what has been done and what rights have been lost. Before anyone in Ireland or Britain starts feeling smugly that this is a case of the Yanks being duped into compliance as the drums of war begin to beat, read up on the UK's RIP Act (passed well before 9/11), the UK government's more recent attempts to introduce data retention and enhanced surveillance, (and see what two quite different-leaning papers had to say at this attempt, the liberal Guardian here and the conservative Daily Telegraph here),  and the Irish government's current plans to introduce a similarly appalling data retention bill that surpasses anything proposed elsewhere in the EU and anything allowed at the moment in the US. The time to speak out is now (Irish minister and TD addresses, emails, fax and phone numbers here).

Unfortunately Ireland still has no dedicated digital rights and freedoms watchdog group (just a small section of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties). There's no one to inform the public or raise awareness or speak to the media or organise a campaign on issues that increasignly will get written into law with absolutely no citizen input and little or no Dail (parliamentary) discussion. This would be a very good time for concerned individuals to re-launch the long-defunct Irish branch of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Any takers?

9:49:53 AM  #   your two cents []

Textism's predictions for 2003:

AUGUST: Two people, heading back to their offices following a presentation by the VP of Marketing, (in town for the day from head office), will smirk after one of them says, ‘What a waste of PowerPoint’.

9:30:46 AM  #   your two cents []

The End of the IMac? Not Likely.  [Wired News]
9:28:27 AM  #   your two cents []

Tiny Cell Phone or Big Brother?. The latest wireless phones offer everything from digital video to location tracking. Cool factor aside, such gadgets and their accompanying 'services' will do more than just fuel consumers' tech savvy. [Wired News]
9:27:46 AM  #   your two cents []

From Boing Boing Blog: Solar eclipse photo gallery from Dec. 2002 total eclipse. Stuart Dimond writes: "Wendy Carlos is a solar eclipse fan and she has just posted images from a total eclipse that occured in December. This link takes you directly to the page about this eclipse." More photos from other eclipse events at Wendy's website here.
9:26:17 AM  #   your two cents []

Let's not do lunch.... Media: The Financial Times is hoping the new year will bring an upturn. John Cassy on tough times at the pink 'un. [Guardian Unlimited]
9:24:18 AM  #   your two cents []

Minister labelled racist after attack on rap 'idiots': The UK culture minister, Kim Howells, last night found himself at the centre of a race row over comments about rap culture. [Guardian Unlimited]
9:23:29 AM  #   your two cents []