Due to the Department of Homeland Security sending some operatives to The Next HOPE to question Julian Assange of Wikileaks about the release of a certain piece of video footage from Iraq he did not come to the con to give the keynote address this afternoon. The guy who was spotted here and there around the con yesterday afternoon was, in fact, not Julian Assange (a few other people made the same mistake, I'm given to understand). In his stead a man with balls made of pure neutronium, Jacob Appelbaum of the Tor Project gave the keynote address. I've only …

Long-time readers of my website know that I've been a fan of the band Information Society for years on end - ever since their first big single (What's On Your Mind? (Pure Energy) hit the airwaves. The band has been through this, that, and the other thing over the years, and now they're back together and have a new album coming out. Last week the first single from their upcoming album (entitled Oscillator) was released on the Net only to downloadable online music stores like iTunes.

Now, I've got a pretty big chip on my shoulder about downloadable music stores because …