Rays of Light

Paid Content? On the Internet?
When the Internet went commercial, folks wondered if there would ever be any money in original content, especially on the Web. As it turns out, the real money may actually be in email newsletters, several of which are definately worth paying a nominal amount for, and others which have enough advertising revenue to make them a going concern. Here's the newsletters I subscribe to, and why:
The Langa List: http://www.langa.com/
Windows, internet, Linux, networking and software are all topics tackled in Fred Langa's LangaList. The list is in large part reader-written, with items selected and annotated by the editor, Fred Langa. Langa writes The Langa Letter for InformationWeek.com as well as the Langa List. A freelance writer since 1997, Fred was previously VP/Editorial Director of WINDOWS Magazine and CMP's PC Group, where he oversaw the editorial operations of WINDOWS Magazine, Home PC Magazine, and NetGuide Magazine; he was also Editor-in-Chief of Byte Magazine for four years. It is an excellent resource for al sorts of computer resourses and would be of value to home PC users as well as IT professionals. The basic version is free but you get additional "exclusive" content in the pay version.
Lockergnome newsletters: http://www.lockergnome.com/
Chris Parillo (the "lockergnome") publishes a set of advertiser-supported newsletters, which include:

These are great publications with a lot of useful information; Lockergnome also puts on what is perhaps the most interesting IT industry show, Gnomedex, which is sort of a "gathering of the übergeeks" in (of all places) Des Moines, Iowa.
Brian's Buzz on Windows: http://briansbuzz.com/
The latest tips and tricks on Microsoft Windows in a twice-monthly newsletter (soon to be weekly). Brian Livingston is the author or co-author of 10 books, the latest of which are Windows Me Secrets and Windows 2000 Secrets; until recently his weekly columns - Window Manager and E-Business Secrets - appeared in InfoWorld. This is a well-written continuation of Brian's Window Manager column under a new name. It's free but with a paid version (you decide how much to pay) you get additional content.
Netsurfer Digest: http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/
This weekly compilation of things new and interesting on the Web is consistantly well-done and is one of the few (maybe the only) newsletters of this type worth paying for. Topics covered are very broad but invariably cover some of the most interesting material on the Web. This is a pay-only service that I think is well worth the $20/year (although it's free for libraries so maybe you could get your local library to subscribe...)

Movie Time!
While we're on the topic of movies, here are some really strange ones online (broadband recommended). Mega Happy Flash Battle is a great send-up of anime, transformers and Japanese monster movies. A Romanian pop group called the Cheeky Girls debuted with a song and video called The Cheeky Song (Touch My Bum) which is just too strange to describe, but demonstrating that there is no accounting for taste at all, apparently climbed to number 3 on the charts in Britain. Proving that there is no such thing as the concept of political correctness in Japan, the folks at Japan One Television bring us Tokyo Breakfast. Boy and girls, there is just no end to weirdness in the world. Gotta go back to grading term papers...