Christopher Tarnovsky, smartcard programmer, gives a fascinating insider account of his years in the cloak-and-dagger world of satellite TV piracy. Tarnovsky began as a satellite pirate himself before being hired by a DirecTV contractor to develop anti-piracy electronic countermeasures; he was allegedly responsible for the "Black Sunday" attack on DirecTV pirates. [more inside]
posted by whir on May 31, 2008 - 13 comments

What'll you find at rum.com, van.com, war.com or cat.com? A more-fun-than-most web quiz from the Mental Flossers about some of the best domain names and who owns them. [more inside]
posted by wendell on Mar 20, 2008 - 15 comments

Brain in a Dish Flies Plane. Hallowe'en-esque research conducted at the University of Florida.
posted by grabbingsand on Oct 29, 2004 - 3 comments

Dish Network drops Viacom. Dish Network dropped Viacom-distributed channels last night, and CBS channels in 16 metropolitan areas. I can't see how alienating 1.6 million subscribers is going to be good for business, no matter what it does to their bottom line.
posted by pizzasub on Mar 9, 2004 - 43 comments

The Dish [official site/trailer] is the thoroughly charming, (mostly) true story of the crew at Australia's Parkes Observatory and their unique role in relaying telemetry, biometrics and -- most importantly for posterity -- television pictures from the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission. [more inside]
posted by bradlands on Apr 22, 2001 - 9 comments