Best paid people in the world!

#1 Jobs, Steven P
Apple Technology Hardware & Equipment
Rank within Industry: 1 
Pay Performance Rank: 36 
Total Compensation: $646.60 mil 
Age: 52 

More on Steven P Jobs

#2 Irani, Ray R

Occidental Petroleum Oil & Gas Operations
Rank within Industry: 1 
Pay Performance Rank: 111 
Total Compensation: $321.64 mil 
Age: 72 

More on Ray R Irani

#3 Diller, Barry

IAC/InterActiveCorp Retailing
Rank within Industry: 1 
Pay Performance Rank: 177 
Total Compensation: $295.145 mil 
Age: 65 
More on Barry Diller 

5Prior-year data.

#4 Foley II, William P
Fidelity National Finl.Insurance
Rank within Industry: 1 
Total Compensation: $179.56 mil 
Age: 62 
More on William P Foley II

#5 Semel, Terry

S

Yahoo Software & Services
Rank within Industry: 1 
Total Compensation: $174.205 mil 
Age: 64 
More on Terry S Semel 

5Prior-year data.

#6 Dell, Michael S
Dell Technology Hardware & Equipment
Rank within Industry: 2 
Total Compensation: $153.235,6 mil 
Age: 42 
More on Michael S Dell 
5Prior-year data.
6New CEO.

#7 Mozilo, Angelo R
Countrywide Financial Diversified Financials
Rank within Industry: 1 
Pay Performance Rank: 107 
Total Compensation: $141.985 mil 
Age: 68 
More on Angelo R Mozilo 

5Prior-year data.

Official statement why rapidshare was alegedly shut down.

20. January 2008 - Problems accessing RapidShare

Unfortunately, starting at 5 pm CET, one of our carriers experienced a severe technical problem with their hardware, causing a loss of 50 gigabit of bandwidth. Therefore RapidShare was unavailable for several hours. We already have taken steps to avoid this particular problem in the future.

Update: Rapidshare was not shut down! Just a DOS attack...

As several people have pointed out in the comments, RapidShare appears to be back online. The reports of a site shutdown were apparently false and everything is back to normal.

It would appear to be DOS and that they where NOT taken down by any "anti-piracy orginizations" as they have returned as of 0600 EDT

Update: Rapidshare shut down?

Currently rapidshare.com is not working but rapidshare.de is.

The site allegedly went black around 0200 GMT on the 19th and was reportedly back up again around 0730 GMT and went down again.

Users have been experiencing errors such as: "The following error was encountered: * Connection Failed The system returned: connection refused"

A Wikipedia entry was made that read: "As of 19 January 2008 16:00 GMT, Rapidshare AG’s servers were shutdown by anti-piracy authorities in Germany. More than hundreds of Rapidshare servers were seized from their offices in Berlin although no arrests were made. Sources said, authorities are contemplating pursuing legal action against users who distribute and download pirated copies of software and movies from these servers." 

It was quickly removed.

Rapidshare.com, formerly Rapidshare.de, has been widely used as a vehicle for the transfer and sharing of pornography. Site such as HCMF.com commonly used the site as a means of perpetuating the illegal sharing of pornography.

Rapidshare.com, and Filefactory.com have also been abused by spammers, says Dave Marcus, security research and communications manager for McAfee's Avert Labs.

The "official" word is that the downtime is said to have been caused by a server overload.

Rapidshare technician Steven Gircham has reportedly commented on this issue - "There are rumors concerning attacks made on the Rapidshare.com servers. There are also rumors that Rapidshare has been shut down by a court order. These rumors are false. We would like to apologize to our users and inform them that no data has been lost. There have been some hardware issues as a result of high bandwidth and server overload. We are doing our very best to resolve the hardware issues, and users should expect uptime by midnight tonight (GMT)"

you can still view the site via IP - 80.239.151.250 - But it could be just a shell.

They either got DOS attacked, and are having trouble getting there DNS working or they want it to at least appear that way. 

rapidshare.com (DNS and web) is hosted on a net block of 195.122.131.0 - 195.121.131.255 (also referred to as 195.122.131/24 CIDR) which is part of a larger block 195.122.128.0 - 195.122.191.255 owned by Level3 UK service provider.  

Level3 appears to be blocking inbound traffic destined for 195.122.131.0/24 at the edge of their network and their routers are dropping all rapidshare.com traffic such as DNS, web, etc. This is the point where they peer with other service providers.

This is highly unusual.

This is a drastic measure and one can only surmise two reasons that make any sense. 1) denial-of-service or 2) legal action. 

If the inaccessibility issue has been intermittent, (and there have been spotty reports) that's a hint it's probably a denial-of-service attack. However, if it's immediate and sustained then it's most likely legal.

File hosting site RapidShare shut down?

RapidShare, the popular file hosting site used by developers and pirates alike has apparently been shut down at least temporarily by a court order. Heise Online is reporting that GEMA, a German royalties collection agency has filed a complaint against RapidShare, claiming that the service hosts copyrighted materials, which it's fairly safe to say is true. 

GEMA wants RapidShare to provide details on how many files hosted on the site are copyrighted works of GEMA members. RapidShare has historically said that it does not inspect the files uploaded by users. We've seen companies like YouTube demonstrate in recent years that it is possible to build copyright detection software to inspect for illegally uploaded files. But we've also seen that no system so far is foolproof, so it should be interesting to see if RapidShare fights the complaint, promises to implement some sort of filters, or fades off into oblivion.

Another open question is what will happen to all the RapidShare members who have shelled out money for paid accounts? While RapidShare has provided some basic services for free, users have to pay subscription fees for access to faster downloads and and simultaneous downloads.

King of California

Out on DVD now:

http://www.amazon.com/King-California-Michael-Douglas/dp/B000WCN8PA/ref=cm_lmf_tit_33

KING OF CALIFORNIA stars Michael Douglas as a fresh-out-of-the-mental institution father, and Evan Rachel Wood as his emancipated teenage daughter, as they venture together on a quest for an ancient Spanish treasure buried beneath their local Costco in this in this darkly funny, exciting and surprisingly hopeful take on the modern family and the American dream.

The Game Plan

Out on DVD now:

http://www.amazon.com/Game-Plan-Widescreen-Dwayne-Johnson/dp/B000YGGNM4/ref=cm_lmf_tit_13

An NFL quarterback living the bachelor lifestyle discovers that he has a 8-year-old daughter from a previous relationship.

Shoot 'Em Up

Out on DVD now:

http://www.amazon.com/Shoot-Em-Up-Clive-Owen/dp/B000XA5K48/ref=cm_lmf_tit_4

Late at night, in an unnamed U.S. city, a solitary man sits at a bus stop. A pregnant woman runs by, pursued by a man with a gun. With reluctance, the man at the bus stop rescues her and assists with the baby's delivery, while additional pursuers fire at them, including the gang's particularly nasty leader, an intuitive man named Hertz. Our hero, known only as Smith, determines to save the child and find out why Hertz wants the baby dead. At a local bordello, he tries to employ a lactating hooker to watch the child, but things quickly escalate, and this makeshift family is soon on the run. Heavy metal music calms the baby. Why? A laboratory, a gun factory, and a presidential campaign all figure in Smith's search for the child's ultimate safety.

Resident Evil: Extinction

Out on DVD now:

http://www.amazon.com/Resident-Evil-Extinction-Widescreen-Special/dp/B000YPUF9W/ref=cm_lmf_tit_3

Years after the Raccoon City disaster, Alice is on her own; aware that she has become a liability and could endanger those around her, she is struggling to survive and bring down the Umbrella Corporation led by the sinister Albert Wesker and head researcher Dr. Isaacs. Meanwhile, traveling through the Nevada Desert and the ruins of Las Vegas, Carlos Olivera, L.J., and new survivors K-Mart, Claire Redfield, and Nurse Betty must fight to survive extinction against hordes of zombies, killer crows and the most terrifying creatures created as a result of the deadly T-Virus that has killed millions.

Good luck Chuck

Out on DVD now:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000Y7U93C/imdb-button/

In order to keep the woman of his dreams from falling for another guy, Charlie Logan has to break the curse that has made him wildly popular with single women: Sleep with Charlie once, and the next man you meet will be your true love.

3:10 to Yuma

Out on DVD now:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000XR9L50/imdb-button/

Here's hoping James Mangold's big, raucous, and ultrabloody remake of 3:10 to Yuma leads some moviegoers to check out Delmer Daves's beautifully lean, half-century-old original. That classic Western spun a tale of captured outlaw Ben Wade (Glenn Ford)--deadly but disarmingly affable--and the small-time rancher and family man, Dan Evans (Van Heflin), desperate enough to accept the job of helping escort the badman to Yuma prison. Wade, knowing that his gang will be along at any moment to spring him, works at persuading the ultimately lone deputy to accept a bribe, turn his back on "duty," and go home safe and rich to his family. That the outlaw has come to admire his captor intriguingly complicates the suspense. All of the above applies in the new 3:10, but it takes a lot more huffing and puffing to get Wade (Russell Crowe this time) and Evans (Christian Bale) into position for the showdown. Mostly, more is less. To Mangold's credit, his movie doesn't traffic in facile irony or postmodern detachment; it aims to be a straight-up Western and deliver the excitement and charisma the genre's fans are starved for. But recognizing that contemporary viewers might be out of touch with the bedrock simplicity and strength of the genre--not to mention its code of honor--Mangold has supplied both Evans and Wade with a plethora of backstory and "motivations." At the overblown action climax, the crossfire of personal agendas is almost as frenetic as the copious gunplay. (By that point the movie has killed more people than the Lincoln County War.) Best thing about the remake is Russell Crowe's Ben Wade, a Scripture-quoting career villain with an artist's eye and a curiously principled sense of whom and when to murder. As his second-in-command, Ben Foster fairly pirouettes at every opportunity to commit mayhem, and Peter Fonda contributes a fierce portrait of an old Wade adversary turned bounty hunter for the Pinkerton detective agency.