[m i a o w] the cat

I thought it was pretty weird when The Age started making me login to read the news that I’d been reading for the past five years without logging in. And I alwasy find it incredibly irritating when someone links to something interesting on the NYTimes site, and I can’t read it without becoming a (free - but so what?) member. So I found this interesting;

Wired News: We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Login
“BugMeNot.com is a site that generates login names and passwords for registration sites. The site is a boon to those who want to keep online anonymity or stamp out spam. According to the site’s homepage, 14,000 websites have been “liberated” from registration bondage, and it’s clear many people are doing whatever they can to avoid really logging in.

According to the site’s creator, an Australian who wants to remain anonymous for fear of lawsuits, the site is getting about 10,000 hits each day. In an e-mail interview, BugMeNot’s creator said he started the site in November 2003 after being annoyed for some time with forced registration on some sites.”