A bunch of Net Heavyweights tried to explain to the US government this week how its lack of understanding of the Internet is going to kill it.

Stupid network, yes! Stupid government, no!

World of Ends, yes! End of the e-World, no!

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It was disappointing to hear Terry Gross let Karen Hughes off the hook in her Fresh Air interview. Hughes said something like, “When people talk about this administration being secretive, I think they actually mean that there aren’t many leaks.” Then Hughes gave an example of a leak that did damage. “No,” Terry didn’t say, “That’s not what we mean. We mean that Cheney won’t release the names of the people he consulted with about energy policy…” and then she didn’t go on from there.

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Apparently, April 3 has been Cheese Weasel Day since at least 1992. According to Big Wide Logic, the custom is to leave a piece of cheese under the keyboard of techies.

Ironically, because Cheese Weasel Day this year occurred on the first Saturday in April, it coincided with Vermin Attraction Day .

[Thanks to Mike O’Dell for the link.]

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CNN/Money reports that Microsoft and Sun have dropped their lawsuits, although the terms make it sound more like they settled out of court and Sun won: Microsoft has agreed to pay Sun a total of $1.950 billion, while Sun agreed to pay Microsoft royalties for any technology it incorporates into its products. (The Times of India has a franker and more helpful article.)

Yes, Scott McNealy apparently wore
a Trekkie outfit to the press conference

In addition, CEO’s Bill Gates and Scott McNealy announced that they are producing the feature film “Star Trek: Unholy Alliance” in which Captain McNealy of the Starship USS Solaris teams up with The Chairman of the Borg to defeat their common enemy, the Torvaldians from Planet Linooks.

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You want to see what Jews are like when we’re not dominating Hollywood, cheering crucifixions, and plotting the takeover of the global economy? Take a look Mark Federman’s Passover blog where he thinks out loud about his annual wrestling with the holiday’s story and traditions. (Mark is more familiar to most of us as the author of a McLuhan-themed blog.)

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As you’ve undoubtedly heard, a Canadian judge has made, in a nutshell, all the right decisions about file sharing and copyright, and then added in a defense of customer privacy as well. David Akin of the Canada’s Globe and Mail blogs about this here, but you should check his overall blog for updates.

I was so happy that in a fit of completely irrational exuberance, I was on the verge of paying Prince $9.99 to download his new CD, but the DRM restrictions are too high – you can’t copy it onto a second computer even if it’s your own.

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I just posted a recording of Chapter 14 of Larry Lessig’s Free Culture, as per AKMA‘s publishing-changing idea. Chapter 14 is 17MB, and it’s filled with explosive P’s (damn amateurs!), but it’s up and it’s free.

I started reading Steve Johnson‘s amazing new book, Mind Wide Open, to our son the other day. Reading to a kid flips reading – our paradigm of what you do when alone – into a social act. And it opens the book up in a new way. But reading into a microphone for public consumption is something else again. It’s like taking the book out for a spin: You’re always looking ahead for dangerous curves.

Fun to do. Let’s do another!

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