Geeky crap

While some might say computers are antisocial, there are many thriving communities on the internet.

The New Zealand-based Blah.net online community site was launched only a few months ago and already is a busy little place with forums covering every topic imaginable.

Blah is, according to site administrator/owner Scott, the place to voice yourself – nicely.

People from all throughout New Zealand, along with a sprinkling of Aussies and Americans, populate the forums and I’ve also spotted a Canadian.

Apart from posting in the various forums, which cover everything from pets to bad jokes, users can also take part in live chat.

The message board on the Trade Me auction site  has become a little heated lately with flame wars and Trade Me users expressing their annoyance at what they believe to be a distinct lack of customer service on the part of the site’s management.

As a result of this, many of the people who were once regular posters on the message board at Trade Me have migrated to Blah.

Following quietly in the footsteps of Napster, peer-to-peer file-sharing network Audiogalaxy has been sunk.

The popular Napster clone has agreed to filter songs that are the subject of copyright and pay an undisclosed sum of money after a court battle with the Recording Industry Association of America. 

While last week’s gagging of Audiogalaxy wasn’t as widely reported as Napster’s closing, the Texas-based site is undoubtedly among the most popular music download spots on the net. It’s user-friendly interface, high number of members and simplicity made it hard to beat.

With CD burners becoming more and more affordable and a proliferation of sites offering music downloads, particularly peer-to-peer networks, there are fears in the music industry that music fans will stop buying CDs and, in turn, profits will drop. However, those who support these sites say file-swappers often end up spending more on music than they did before the started downloading files because they can try before they buy.

Interestingly, and confusingly, there are strong cases being presented to support both sides of the argument.

A study released last month about 34 percent of those swapping files are spending more, while 14 percent say they spend less. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry says worldwide music sales dropped for the second consecutive year last year and puts the blame squarely free music swapping on the internet.

Of course, there are still sites out there where you can download music.

A popular choice seems to be WinMx (www.winmx.com), although it looks pretty clunky, and of course there’s iMesh, Filetopia, KaZaA and many more.

A quick search on your favourite search engine for music file sharing or peer-to-peer will give you plenty to choose from so it looks like the music industry has a long battle ahead.

The downside to KaZaA is its notorious spyware, internet jargon for tracking software on your system that uses your net connection to report to advertising companies about your surfing habits.

A hacked version of KaZaA, minus the spyware and called Kazaalite is now available but the site is frequently down.

Gibson Research Corporation has some interesting and detailed information on spyware in the OptOut section of its website.