The Net has caught up with the traditional. Legal music downloads in the UK have outsold traditional physical formats such as DVDs and CDs for the first time, according to research from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).

“The organisation found that over 150,000 downloads were sold in January 2004. Some 50,000 of these sales came in one week alone, with the launch of legal download site MyCokeMusic.”

It was produced last year, but this report from the US-based Center for Democracy & Technology is an excellent plain English explanation of why you get spam; how the spammers acquire your email address; and how to reduce the chance of receiving unsolicited email.

“In the summer of 2002, CDT embarked on a project to attempt to determine the source of spam. To do so, we set up hundreds of different e-mail addresses, used them for a single purpose, and then waited six months to see what kind of mail those addresses were receiving. It should come as no surprise to most e-mail users that many of the addresses CDT created for this study attracted spam, but it is very interesting to see the different ways that e-mail addresses attracted spam — and the different volumes — depending on where the e-mail addresses were used. “

Well the boffins have figured out why their billion dollar remote control toy on Mars stopped working. It ran out of memory. These days it’s not a problem most of us encounter. But those of us with a few years experience of computers remember the days when we had to make sure we deleted unwanted files, otherwise our steam-driven pre-pentium beige boxes would grind to a halt.

Same thing happened on Mars. The NASA scientists knew about memory management, but, read between the lines of this article, and you’d be forgiven for thinking that what stopped the Rover was too many drinks:

“But with all the excitement after the Mars landing on Jan. 3, and with data being returned to Earth by the rover, that step was not performed quickly enough by mission technicians. “

By which I think they mean ‘we all partied late, were a bit hungover, and someone forgot to clear out the memory’.

Couldn’t resist this one, even only for the headline. A Scottish internet company has done a deal to run broadband cable through sewer systems, as a way of quickly cabling an area.

Some company in the UK has come up with a massive dollar cost of the myDoom virus. Which put me onto a fabulous site I’m sorry I didn’t find before. VMyths:

“Learn about com計uter virus myths, hoaxes, urban legends, hys負eria, and the impli苞a負ions if you be衍ieve in them. You can also search a list of com計uter virus hoaxes & virus hys負eria from A to Z. “

I’ve long held a suspicion that interested parties are not backward in ramping up the supposed scale and impact of virus alerts, terrorist attacks on the Internet and other mass media hysteria. VMyths is all about popping the ballon of hyperpole, with plenty of sarcasm, wit and humour.

Two transaction processing companies say between them they handled nearly $US100 million of donations made online to not for profit organisations. The article in Wired makes the point:

“the fastest-growing segment of Internet users is the 55-and-older crowd, a group that traditionally donates the most.”

The CEO of one of the beneficiaries is emphatic:

“To not have a Web presence in today’s world is ridiculous. Our website has helped us reach 57,000 new donors over the past two or three years. We had no idea who these people were until then.”

Nice little comment in Red Herring:

“What we’re seeing in this battle of wills is a natural result of technological change, one that will eventually be settled amicably because the price of music and movies and television programming will be adjusted to meet the realities of easy reproduction and redistribution. The question may be “Will you pay 99 cents for a song today?” but tomorrow someone will find the price where a song simply can’t be delivered for any less. The music companies may not be included in the music-delivery profit equation, though we suspect that as long as A&R and marketing are important to manufacturing the next Britney or Beyonce, there is a future for music labels. Who, besides music producers, will keep the Beverly Hills Armani store in business? “

It says a lot about the USA. Janet Jackson exposed her breast, for about a nano-second, on national TV during the superbowel. I read someplace today that 200,000 complaints have been made, and at least one person is suing Jackson for corrupting the viewer’s children. This from the country which brought us Sex in the City. Well Janet has made it to number 1 in another chart – internet searches. Yup, Janet’s breast exposure made it to the top of the list of most sought out things on the internet.

“Janet Jackson exposing her breast during the Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday night has proved to be the most-searched event in the history of the Internet.”

Janet’s breast equalled the previous record held by the September 11 attacks. Which also says a lot about the USA.

Happens to us all. The Washington Post email system stopped working the other day… because they forgot to renew their domain.

Proving that the music industry just isn’t going to give up, Music Industry Privacy Investigations (MIPI) has launched a series of raids targeting Kazaa, several universities, and internet providers including Big Pond, seeking to gather evidence about ‘illegal’ fileswapping.

Kazaa’s pleas that it has re-shaped itself into a ‘legitimate’ business appear to have fallen on deaf ears.

“There is no doubt this is a cynical attempt by the industry to disrupt our business, regain lost momentum, and garner publicity. The assertions by plaintiffs are hackneyed and worn out. It is a gross misrepresentation of Sharman’s business to suggest that the company in any way facilitates or encourages copyright infringement.” says Sharman Networks, the owners of Kazaa.