aka Amazon Web Services

Julian Assange, head of WikiLeaks, was charged with multiple counts of rape, then the charges were withdrawn. (more)

Venkatesh Rao thinks about the definition of work, apart from standard DayJob/Make Money thoughts. (more)

The "ShadowScholar" explains his way to Make Money: write papers for College Education (and High School) students. I've written toward a master's degree in cognitive psychology, a Ph.D. in sociology, and a handful of postgraduate credits in international diplomacy. I've worked on bachelor's degrees in hospitality, business administration, and accounting. I've written for courses in history, cinema, labor relations, pharmacology, theology, sports management, maritime security, airline services, sustainability, municipal budgeting, marketing, philosophy, ethics, Eastern religion, postmodern architecture, anthropology, literature, and public administration. I've attended three dozen online universities. I've completed 12 graduate theses of 50 pages or more. All for someone else. (Cheating) (more)

In case Bottled Water wasn't stupid enough already, Fiji Water ups the ante. My Lonely Planet guide warned that Rakiraki water "has been deemed unfit for human consumption," and groceries were stocked with Fiji Water going for 90 cents a pint--almost as much as it costs in the US... What Mooney didn't say is that though Fiji Water may fill a void in the impoverished nation, it also reaps a priceless benefit: tax-free status, granted when the company was founded in 1995. The rationale at the time, according to the company: Bottled water was a risky business with uncertain chances of success. In 2003, David Gilmour said that his ambition for Fiji Water was "to become the biggest taxpayer in the country." Yet the tax break, originally scheduled to expire in 2008, remains in effect, and neither the company nor the government will say whether or when it might end. And when Fiji has tried to wring a bit of extra revenue from the company, the response has been less than cooperative. (more)

getting caught at Game Playing?

Search Engine that tries to index "all" of the World Wide Web.

As people start to argue that Social Search can work better than generic Web Search, it makes a case for reviving the P2P model, as a way to avoid giving up your personal search history data to WebAd-based businesses like Google. The Seeks Project is working on this.

*For 16 consecutive years, however, the House and Senate under both Republican and Democratic leadership have failed to pass all spending bills on time. This year, Congress hasn't passed a single appropriations bill. (more)

ACCION International is a non-profit organization founded in 1961 whose mission it is to provide small loans and technical assistance to those around the world who are under-serviced by local banks. As a microfinance organization, ACCION's provides loans, sometimes as small as $75, to help small business owners start or maintain their companies when traditional banks won't offer them a loan. ACCION originally operated solely in South America, and has now expanded into Africa, the United States, India and China. (more)

PayPal is launch a Mobile Send Money feature that uses "Bump" technology. For IPhone only for now. (more)

Twitter is frustrating people building on its "PlatForm" again by adding limits, shutting down OAuth, etc., without notice or explanation. (more)

The coming Gingerbread version of Android will support NFC. Bad news for Bump (2010-03-30-PaypalSendmoneyBumpMobile) and SquareUp? (more)

Twitter shut down BasicAuth to exclusively support OAuth. They started warning about this back in April. (more)

India's MicroLending activity is facing challenges: almost all borrowers in one of India’s largest states have stopped repaying their loans, egged on by politicians who accuse the industry of earning outsize profits on the backs of the poor... Microfinance in pursuit of profits has led some microcredit companies around the world to extend loans to poor villagers at exorbitant interest rates and without enough regard for their ability to repay. (The article has frustratingly little hard data - anecdotes are a dangerous basis for balanced discussion, though they're a good basis for raising questions.) (more)

Self Ownership? Civil Liberty/CivilLiberties/Civil Rights... (more)

Charlie Stross ponders alternative models of Obesity (aka AD36 adenovirus) and how Moral-izing tends to codify a simple causal Model for a Complex System. It would be unpleasantly ironic if it turns out that our culture's moralizing fixation on the association between obesity and sinfullness — painting it as the just the reward of sloth and gluttony, and only legitimately to be avoided by drudgery and self-denial — has allowed a dangerous viral pandemic to rage undetected for decades.

PaulChambers used Twitter to rant about a closed (UK) airport: ****! Robin Hood airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get your **** together otherwise I'm blowing the airport skyhigh!! (more)

The BBC has been playing with PubSub using XMPP and StropheJs. Because the basic setup we experimented with was so straight forward, and all the software is free and available, I thought it would be useful to show you how to get up and running with your own little PubSub system, so you can experiment with these technologies. Over on the github website I have created a repository that gives you everything you will need. This includes a simple publisher and client, as well as installation instructions for getting you up and running with Ejabberd on the CentOS Linux distribution.

Google's music service is being derailed by music labels (Music Industry) who aren't comfortable with its plan to offer music in a web-based "locker," the New York Post reports. Reminds me of Mp3Com.