Okay. So now I have heard/seen it all. Someone, is actually going to make a low-cost Satellite using an old space suit.  Absolutely hilarious. Pretty cool too!

I guess it's just simply someones interesting idea, to see if it's even possible; turned into reality. Man, those crazy rocket scientists! They do the damnedest things with their toys.... Here's some more details.

Any way, check out suitsat.org for updates and schedules. If you want to try and listen in, use the J-Pass utility to figure out when suitsat will be in an orbit near you and tune your radio to 145.990 MHz FM. It's only expected to have a battery lifetime of 2 to 4 days - so now is not the time to be indecisive.

I'm gonna try it. I just have to figure out if I can get that frequency on anything I own. They are going to launch it on Feb. 3rd from the Space Station.

It's nice to see a company that is willing to stand up for what they believe in, even in the face of the very self-righteous administration currently governing our nation. Rebuffing the Bush administration's demands for information gathered from Google users, and sticking their own necks out for what they believe in; do no evil. A struggle already dating back 6 months, Google Inc. continues to hold fast to the ideal that our (your) information is private, and should not be exploited by the government. A stance which none of the other search engines have held to. Yahoo has confirmed they released the information, and Microsoft is simply in a "neither confirm nor deny" stance. This right there is a reason to not use Yahoo and MSN.

Maintaining that they are just "trying to fight he good fight", the Bush knuckleheads insist that this information is critical, especially since they want to, at least in part, find out more about how folks search for porn. Yeah, right... essential. The "W" prolly just needs some help gettin' his presidential wanker charged up for a night of.... okay. I'm stoppin' right there. Ewwwww. Ew ew ewewew ewewww!

Any way you slice it. It's crap. Give em' hell guys!

I have been waiting for this crop up, and quite frankly I'm surprised it hasn't. Well, maybe it has, but in true journalistic disregard I will forge ahead. I mean, come on - if I haven't heard about it means it ain't true right?

Oops. Gettin' off track. A group of students from UMass are threatening litigation against the knucklehead turned drop out turned enabler who founded i2hub. For those who tend to fly the straight and narrow, Wayne Chang created i2hub two years ago while a sophomore at UMass, then dropped out to work for a software company while he ran the service on the side. The service relied on an ultra-speedy network that links more than 240 universities, corporations and government organizations that belong to a consortium called Internet2. Chang promptly caved to what would appear to be a lapse to common sense and took one for the team last November and killed the server. (they have a nice wittle rest in peace photo - brings a tear to my eye) for more info on that tragedy, read this article.

So how is that these jerks get to enable other jerks to steal music and get away with it? If it's perfectly legal, then why do they all immediately bend over and grab their heels when they see the RIAA on the caller ID? Because it's not, you thumb twiddling, keyboard pounding nerd cakes! As quoted from lawyers.com (not a word either...):

Aiding and abetting is a theory of criminal liability. You can be guilty of a crime either as a principal perpetrator or as an aider and abettor.

Aiding and abetting applies to someone who assists in or facilitates the doing of a crime. To be held accountable as an aider and abettor, you must know of the criminal objective and do something to make it succeed. For example, if you drive your friend to a meeting where you know your friend is going to buy drugs, you may be an aider and abettor in the drug transaction.

The key here is knowledge. While the level of participation of the aider and abettor may be relatively minor, the prosecution must show more than presence in a vehicle carrying drugs or association with conspirators known to be involved in a crime.

In other words, mere presence at the scene of a crime, even with guilty knowledge that a crime is being committed, isn’t enough to make you liable for the crime itself, unless and until you do something to help the crime succeed.

Under federal law, the punishment for someone who aids and abets a crime is the same as the punishment for the person who principally committed the crime. In some states, the punishment may be less.

The RIAA should spend just as much time harassing these idiots as they do trying to squeeze a few duckettes out of various 12 year olds and women without computers. If there were a more harsh response to those who make this crap possible, then it would be harder to get away with. It's simple as hell to write software that would disallow mp3's or m4p's or whatever p's to be shared over the net. I've seen it in action - it's not hard. And that's dumb software too, nothing like what someone could write if they put some serious thought into the code.

If you use a P2P network, chances are good that you are stealing some sort of media from someone. Probably better than 80%, and I'm trying to be nice - realistically it's probably better than 95%. I don't know a single person, nor have I ever heard of anyone using any of the P2P apps out there for anything other than scoring music or videos. Why? Because it's easy to get away with, and the folks who develop the stuff are virtually untouchable, they just stop making the app  - so it morphs and becomes share... err.. slackware... err more like hackware.

I'm sorry, but if you start-up some random company, especially now, and expect that you can get away with just allowing folks to do illegal things with it - wake up and smell the shite you're shoveling. It seems to me that P2P tends to help people do illegal things, sure you could still do it without them - but then you wouldn't have the illusion on anonymity.

It's not like I'm in favor of the RIAA either, as far as I am concerned the RIAA can burn in hell. I hope they never get a red cent. It's the music industry in general who started this crap. Through their ineptitude and inability to react to the changing landscape of music and how they could play a defining role in digital music distribution. They deserve to lose the money they are currently watching pass to iTunes and others.

The torch between my toes is the fact that ultimately, I pay more for music. And it pisses me off. So there.

I'm not exactly sure how something like this happens... Wouldn't you think that the Mints would have rules and safe guards against the goony operators eating food and the like around the presses? It's pretty impressive that it happened.

What's more, the fact that it recently sold at auction (eBay naturally) for $10,000. Here is a link to Heritage Galleries & Auctioneers where the note sold for $25,300! They more than doubled their money! Holy freakin' cow! Here is some more info on it...

Crazy. Man, I wonder if the Mints do this crap on purpose - just to drive up interest and purchasing of bills from them? This sort of thing has to positively impact sales of proofs sets and such....

Preface:

1. turn speakers on.
2. increase volume to maximum.
3. click this link.

I know, I couldn't resist. Hate mail welcome....

OMG! The keyboard is coming! The keyboard is coming! I don't know what I am going to have to sell in order to buy this keyboard, but rest assured I will be having mine!

I originally posted this a while ago, but I have found the update to the actual release date now _ and I have to quell my enthusiasms a wee bit - but.... Ahhhh screw it! I'm freakin' buyin' one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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