Because most of what needed to be said has already been said, I just wanted to add the following two words: Clean Sweep!
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Two Words
Monday, November 06, 2006
You Knew This Was Happening...Sooner or Later
Google decided to open up the floodgates to traditional media and will begin selling ads for newspapers.
After years of declining revenues, old media is starting to get the idea that selling ads the old fashioned way of picking up a phone and randomly dialing a number just doesn't work anymore. The Washington Post, New York Times and Boston Globe (coincidently all left-leaning newspapers) will all take part in this deal. In all the deal will encompass about 50 of the nations papers.
Interestingly enough, when asked to comment about the deal, Sergey and Larry just smiled and lit cigars with hundred dollar bills.
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
An Apple a Day Keeps Global Warming Away
I recently purchased a new piece of machinery from Apple. Two days later, I received an email from them about how I can do my part to save the environment by recycling my old computers that I have lying around.
Fantastic idea. They make it really easy. All you need to do is package up your old hardware, print out the email that they send you, drop your stuff off at Fed Ex and you're done.
I sure hope other people adopt similar approaches.
BoobTubed Redux
Earlier this week it was reported YouTube received notice from Comedy Central's parent company, Viacom, ordering them to take down clips from shows like "The Colbert Report," "The Daily Show," and others.
However, today Viacom someone had a change of heart and now there is a possible deal between the two companies.
I'm guessing someone finally was surfing hitwise and said "Holy shit, look how much traffic www.youtube.com gets!"
Somethin' Wicked This Way Comes
Someone finally got sick and tired of all their negative feedback and decided to take their aggression out on eBay this morning when a bomb went off. It shattered a few windows and gave hard working employees a small case of the heebie-jeebie's, but fortunately, everyone was alright.
Word on the street is eBay's keeping a tight lid on what happened - and only SJPD is being allowed in the area.
Earlier: ValleyWag
He'll Fight, For Your Right..Well Maybe Not
In an update from yesterday's post, John Kerry apologized to any troops, families, or ignoramous's (sp?) he may have offended.
Sorry, John, maybe next election year you will earn those cajones that I told everyone you had.
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
He'll Fight, For Your Right...
To gggeeettt elected. John Kerry, yes, THAT John Kerry, grew some cajones recently and told the "president's hacks" to cut it out.
Kerry, who has been busy campaigning in several states for fellow Democrats, called troops in Iraq "stuck" because they are unable to navigate the country's educational system. The Republican radio hacks fired back by demanding that Kerry apologize for his socio-economic comments, but he responded with this: "I apologize to no one for my criticism of the president and of his broken policy."
Uh, John, the presidential election (you know, the one where you were actually running for office) was a couple of years ago. You lost, remember? That was the one where there were a few people who challenged your manhood and you really didn't respond.
In any case, it's good to see that John still cares about politics and can even get down and dirty with the best of them. What's more, this should help a few more liberals get elected next week. But as always, time will tell.
Monday, October 30, 2006
BoobTubed
YouTube officially started removing television shows like "The Colbert Report," "The Daily Show," "South Park" and more. The move should have an effect on the number of videos
that are distributed throughout the web via MySpace, blogs, email and more.
This is an interesting move for Viacom, the parent company for Comedy Central, in part because many of the viewers of these video clips happen to be the exact market that they are targeting when such shows are produced. YouTube has been successful in working out advertising and revenue sharing deals with other major content distributors, such as Universal.
It should be interesting to see if, now that YouTube is part of a bigger, more financially lucrative company, content distributors are more aggressive in having their content removed from their site.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
An Open Letter to K-Fed:
Do people really take you seriously? You were recently quoted on People magazine's website as saying "If you want to hate me, cool, hate me."
Great quote, Fed, I bet you're high-fiving yourself after that one. Let's be clear on something, you now have, what, 4 or 5 kids (by two different mothers, no less), you're not wearing the pants in your current relationship (people actually refer to you as Mr. Britney Spears), you can't sing, you can't rap and you can't act. Have I missed anything? Oh, yes - you've resorted to appearing on WWE television (and getting the shit kicked out of you) all for the sake of promoting your debut album. In short, you're not exactly hovering at the top echelon of society. Hey man, I'm just telling you the facts. Don't shoot the messenger.
K-Fed, here's a hint: just stop what you're doing and lay-low. Stop making public appearances. Stop rolling with your crew to the latest LA hotspot. Stop wearing your hat backwards and for the love of God, stop making music. Just hang out. Your wife has made plenty of money to support you and 10 more kids for an entire lifetime. And once she does her cover for Playboy (you know it's coming), you nor your kids will ever have to worry about money again. You can roll out of bed at noon, say hi to the kids, check your email, and then call it a day. Hell, maybe you and the wifey can even mess around to top the night off.
Just promise the rest of the civilized world that you will stay out of the public limelight forever. And after Britney gets back into pre-baby #1 weight and does her obligatory Playboy shoot, she has to make the same promise.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Thank You, Sir - May I Have Another?
In "Hey, at least it didn't happen in Utah" news:
The principal of Park High School returned to school Tuesday after a
six-day suspension for giving a student a "wedgie." The Livingston School
District Board held a special meeting Monday and approved Superintendent
Hannibal Anderson's recommendation that Principal Eric Messerli be allowed to
return to work.
Good job, Montana. Maybe one day you'll catch up to the rest of the world and realize that this behavior is completely inappropriate and fire the next guy that does this.
Read More: Montana, Frankly Speaking
Monday, October 23, 2006
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Quote of the Day
Reader Lanire S. of Philadelphia wrote to ESPN's the Sports Guy with this gem:
Is it possible that George Bush is the white Art Shell? Mismanages a
defense, has no idea what the hell is going on half the time, and is in wayyy
over his head. Think about it, on 9/11, when he sat there at the school for like
5 minutes after finding out what happened, staring out into space thinking about
which Happy Meal he was going to get later, that's Art Shell every week on the
sidelines! Whether you're for or against Bush, this is funny.
Well said, Lanire. Well said.
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Show Me What You Got, Little Mama
Jay-Z's new video from his new single "Show Me What You Got". Great song, better video.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Why Mark Cuban is Crazy, Part 3
Mark wrote the following in his blog today regarding the Google/YouTube deal:
Wait a minute, who is the little guy hovering in front of me ? Dang, it
looks like a Google lawyer ! Is he using a juet propulsion pack to fly ? No, its
a floating Segway. Wow ! He is saying "No problem mark. You didnt crack any DRM,
we dont use any !.
Mark, the NBA season hasn't even started yet and you're already trippin'. Either that, or he's now thinking that he sold broadcast.com wwwwaaaayyyyy to early. (Notice the URL for broadcast.com goes to wikipedia. Because the deal was done so long ago, broadcast.com nor yahoo.broadcast.com exist).
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Still a Virgin? Come to Utah
I'm going to let everyone in on a little secret: sex is alive and well in the state of Utah. In fact, if I were a betting man (which, cough, cough, I'm not), I'd be willing to bet on as many as 50% of high-school teenagers here have had intercourse and as many as 70% have had oral sex. I have no factual evidence to back this up, but call it a hunch after living here for 20+ years. Of course, there are many reasons why teenage sex is so high here, but I will save you all the psycho-babble lectures on why, if you just accept the above premise.
Recently, the federal government gave $3 Million dollars to the Weber County School District to teach an abstinance-only cirriculum in their schools. The pregnancy rate in Weber County (which is about 25 miles north of Salt Lake City) is twice the rate of the national average. According to Gary House, director of the Weber-Morgan Health Department,
"Abstinence is best for the health and the future of the adolescents. We wantGee, thanks for making that decision for me Gary. I'm so glad that I am not free-thinking person who can make my own decisions about the well-being of my children. We are so lucky to have you in such a prestigious position in our state.
adolescents to understand the negative physical and emotional consequences of
premarital sex. We want them to understand the benefits of waiting, and we look
at this from a health perspective only.''
Here's a semi-intellectual thought: instead of using that $3 Million on a program that has a probabilty of about .002% of being effective, why not use it effectively by:
-Implementing after school programs for teenagers. Yes, give them something to do other than have sex after school.
-Funding sexual educations programs at school. Let's face it, kids are going to have sex, just like their going to smoke. With that being the case, why not teach them how to do it safely, instead of irresponsibly.
-Helping single mothers and young families. People make mistakes. Instead of telling people they're SOL when they get pregnant, set up a fund for them that will assist them in their time of need.
Abstinance is not the answer. It never has been and never will be. Once you tell a teenager to not do something, they're going to go out and do the exact opposite.
Monday, October 09, 2006
North Korea, Google and other Thoughts
There was an explosion (pun intended) of news today. Google finally put YouTube out it's misery and purchased it for a cool $1.65 Billion. Lots of analysis on the deal from ValleyWag, Crazy Mark, John Battelle, and others.
Personally, I think Google is the big winner out of the deal. They only spent $1.65 Billion on the deal, which to them (and their current market valuation $130B's), is chump change. Simply put, This deal has lots of upside for Google. Google gains and loses $1 Billion each day depending on how the market fluctuates, so even if this deal doesn't work out, there not out that much money.
The other big news was that North Korea decided to test their nuclear bomb today, which was met with pleasantries from all world leaders. President Bush reacted with his same old demands of politely asking that North Korea return to 'six-party talks', while all along, this whole situation could be prevented (as even North Korea would admit to) if the United States would deal directly with North Korea.
Why can't our president get it right? The 'reason' he went into Iraq was because he thought that they had WMD. However, we have found out, that Iraq never had WMD but instead, the 'real' country we should have been a hard-ass with, developed and tested a bonafide atomic bomb.
Now, our military is caught-up in a quagmire in BFE, meaning all we can do is make empty threats to the countries who start developing real WMD. North Korea knows that we're not going to do anything (unless they do something really moronic like attack South Korea or Japan) and Iran doesn't have to worry about anybody (except Israel) taking out their nuclear facilites. (As a side note, Robin Williams - yes, that Robin Williams, made a great point about why George H.W. Bush didn't take out Saddam in 1991 on the Bill Maher Show on Friday night. Here's a link to the transcript.)
I'm really not sure how this one will turn out. Sure, we can sanction North Korea into oblivion, but I doubt even that will get through the thick head of their leader Kim Jung Il. Japan nor South Korea have enough military firepower to pose any serious threat to North Korea. China, Russia, France and Germany are all too scared to fire a shot. That leaves the US with very few options.
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Colbert's Take on Foley
Here's Stephen Cobert's take on the whole Foley scandel.
Also, a transcript of Foley's chat logs. Can you say soooo fucked (figuratively)?
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Rambling Reading
It's been awhile since I've done a Rambling Reading post, so I thought that I would catch everybody up on what I've been reading on the Web - well, at least what I thought was worthwhile from today:
-No selling for you! eBay's banning users with private feedback from selling on the site.
-Starbucks only gives $0.05 to charity when you purchase Ethos water. And I thought I was cheap.
-The Dow reached a new all-time high today. Too bad my options at my company still aren't worth shit.
-EX-Congressman Foley says he was abused by a priest when he was a kid. He's not trying to excuse what he did, he's just sayin'.
-This is how we object to weddings in Utah.
Monday, October 02, 2006
Elvis Was Mormon
Well, at least according to the 'always credible' Deseret Morning News.
Of course, this is the same newspaper that is more concerned with what happens in Temple Square than sporadic acts of violence that occur in Utah.
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Why Mark Cuban is Crazy, Part 2
Mark Cuban continued his rant against YouTube, yesterday. However, instead of running his mouth in his blog, this time he was running his mouth in front of a group of advertisers in New York.
"They are just breaking the law," he told the crowd. "The only reason they haven't been sued yet is because there is nobody with big money to sue."
Uhm, good point, Mark. Oh, but wait, wasn't there that little issue that YouTube had with posting Saturday Night Live clips. Surely NBC, or its parent company, GE has enough money to sue, right Mark?
Cuban went on to tell the group that advertisers were wasting there money on viral marketing campaigns, but instead, should focus on opporutunites that lie with hi-def TV like his company HDNet.
Good job, Mark, way to promote your own company. But, if I heard you correctly, you just said advertisers shouldn't worry about viral marketing- but isn't self-promotion in front of an audience kind of like viral marketing?
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Holy Screech!
Thanks to TMZ.com, I wasted an entire day at work wondering not if it was true, but how could it possibly be true. Screech Powers (aka Dustin Diamond) - yes, THE Screech Powers, has gone to new lows highs to get off the F D List and onto the A List.
By teaming up with famed porn peddeler, David Hans Schmidt (think Paris Hilton, Colin Farrell), the two distributed leaked a tape with Screech hooking up in a three-way with two co-eds (Yes, they were allegedly women, but verification of this fact should come later).
Also, according to rumors floating around the Web, Screech even pulls off a Dirty Sanchez in said tape. Wow. I'm horrified, but oddly interested. I doubt that I'll ever watch the 'whole thing', but I may take a short peak - you know, just to see what everyone is talking about.
Oh, and if you saw the above picture and discovered the correlation between a Dirty Sanchez and the above goateed Screech, you get a gold star.
Monday, September 25, 2006
Even More Trouble at eBay
As noted in this blog earlier this year, eBay has found itself in a bit of hot water because of their refusal to actively police its site to prevent the listing of counterfeit items. In the past, Tiffany has sued eBay for refusing to take satisfactory action against these miscreant sellers.
Now, LVMH is taking similar action against eBay for essentially the same reason. In an interesting quote from the article:
LVMH says in its lawsuit that of 300,000 Dior-branded items and 150,000
Vuitton bags offered on eBay during the first six months of this year, 90% were
fakes. LVMH declined to comment on the eBay suit.
Hani Durzy, a spokesman for eBay told Business Week that eBay is "disappointed that it has come to this" and that the suit is "without merit". Blah, blah, blah, blah. Basically, it was anything you'd expect to hear out of the mouth of a PR guy from a company who just got sued.
As with the Tiffany case, it should be interesting to see where this one ends up (settled or otherwise). It's worth noting that in the past, eBay got out of this sticky mess by simply agreeing to remove infringing items when they are notified of their existence on its site. However, owing to the fact that this particular brand has identified 405,000 fakes (so far) this year, I think the court system may take more drastic measures this time around.
Bill Clinton Laying the Smack Down
I know that I'm a bit behid the 8-ball on this, but it's too good not to share. In case you didn't hear about it, Bill Clinton was being interviewed by Fox News Correspondent Chris Wallace and, well, see for yourself:
Thursday, September 21, 2006
An Open Letter To the Executives at Yahoo
Dear Yahoo Executives:
Facebook is not worth $1 Billion! Sure, there are a list of reasons why you would want to purchase it. Some of the reasons include:
- Page-views on the site have grown 230% YoY (second behind MySpace, and greater than Google, Craigslist, Yahoo, eBay, et. al).
- It's one of the most highly visited sites on the Web.
- It has a demographic that advertisers would kill for, but is this really worth shelling out a cool Bill?
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is only 22 years old! Do you know all the trouble you would be contributing to if you paid a 22 year old $1 Billion?
Also, do you really think that you can seriously challenge MySpace (nevermind the fact that the site is just a advertisement piece of SPAM)? And what happens when college students (especially this generation) quickly tire of the whole social networking fad? What do you do then?
In closing, I really think you need to sleep on it, better yet, take the weekend and think about it. Take a couple days off, have a mocha, listen to some more of Lloyd Braun's brilliant ideas, and just think if this deal is really going to add value to the Yahoo customer experience.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Valleywag: Your Government is Spying on You
Great article today from ValleyWag:
U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has a real porn problem. The
Washington Post reported last year that Gonzales
is fighting consensual adult porn, sometimes under the guise of fighting
child porn, sometimes not. Now the country's top cop is pushing -- hard -- for
Congress to force Internet service providers to save their users'
records.
It's a hard movement to fight -- everyone's afraid of being marked
"pro-child-porn" -- but it would give the government, fraudsters, and determined
hackers easy access to every Internet user's history. It's part of Gonzales's
effort to control what anyone can see -- whether it's library patrons using
censored Internet connections or home users unwittingly telling the government
whom they e-mailed, called, or Skyped. It's scary as hell and it's
succeeding.
Honestly, is anyone really surprised by this. Isn't this like finding out "Ice-cream is cold and tastes good in the summer." I really wouldn't be surprised if an FBI Agent sent an email around the office tomorrow with my top 10 favorite searches on the Web.
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Why Mark Cuban is Crazy, Part 1
I really don't have much to say about this post, as it pretty much speaks for itself. Basically, Mark blabs about the impending doom of YouTube. For most of you who know of, or read his blog on a regular basis, this really isn't anything new. As we all know, Mark has beef with plenty of companies, including the one I work at.
As a side note, this is part 1 of what I'm sure will be a multi-part series.
Monday, September 18, 2006
Buy It, Sell It, Trademark It!
Apparently, eBay is milking all it can out of its "It" campaign. According to Marketwatch, they are seeking trademark infringement protection from an online auction site called World Auctions Inc.
eBay is alleging that World Auctions blatently copied phrases and colors that were similar to eBay's uses of the word 'It'. eBay spokesman Hani Durzy said "There are numerous features on this site that are strikingly similar to those of our site."
In an effort to capitalize on this, I'm assuming that all users will be charged $0.05 everytime they use the word 'It' in an item description.
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Extra, Extra..Bloggers ARE Important!
Pretty good article in yesterday's WSJ (registration required) about how bloggers are becoming viewed by the fashion industry as an important medium to getting the word out about their products.
The big reason for the change in opinion about bloggers and their loyal readers, is just that, the millions of web users who turn to blogs for information. In case you've been living on Pluto (btw, it's no longer a planet), there are now over 50 million blogs being posted on the Web as we speak, and according to most people, that number is only going to grow.
Case in point, the blog SeekingAlpha struck a deal earlier this week with Yahoo! Finance, in which Yahoo! Finance will now carry content from SeekingAlpha with it's associated ticker symbols and other areas of the site.
Why is blogging so important? I think the answer is it puts more of a human face on subjects that have previously been left up to professional writers and journalists to write about in books, magazines, and Web 1.0 media. Now, anybody with access to a PC can give their two-cents about practically anything.
The benefits of this is more information is immediately available to everyone, and people can make better, more informed decisions on any subject they desire.
A drawback of this is now everyone considers himself (or herself) an expert in something - including yours truly. The readers, then, will have the ultimate say on who or who is not and expert, and they will demonstrate this decision by visiting the 'experts' blogs more.
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Thanks, Mom...You're the Best!
A mother in Pennsylvania is facing misdemeanor drug charges after she admitted that she smoked pot with her son to reward him for doing his homework.
I say, good for her. Why don't all parents do this? I remember when I was growing up, all we received for a good report card was cash. And, invariably, some of that cash eventually made its way to purchasing drugs and alcohol (come on, like YOU didn't do this).
All she did was simply cut out the middle man, whereas if she just gave him cash, it's just as likely that he would have went out and purchased the drugs himself. And instead of the child buying his weed from a shady drug dealer (who could of laced the drug with X, LSD, or some other scary substance) she went out and probably purchased it from the nice 23 year old who lives down the street.
Read More: Weed, Frankly Speaking
Monday, September 11, 2006
Did it Really Happen?
I really didn't want to write this. In fact, I wanted to avoid blogging about this at all - which is why earlier I posted that very humorous YouTube clip of Matt Leinart getting Punk'd.
But, I believe the dis-service I would be doing by not posting, would be greater than if I did post, thus I am taking the time to write a couple thoughts about 9/11 and were we are as a country, five years after.
I'll be honest, when 9/11 first happened, I thought it was a joke - at best, a new movie opening up in theaters nationwide soon. At worst, it was someone sick imagination. I was in an Accounting class in school, when I happened to overhear a couple high-level details about what happened that day. The professor came in the class and announce (with little sadness) that "the events in New York are tragic, but we still have a class to go through".
At first, I didn't think it was a big deal - some moron flew their Cessna into the WTC. I had no idea about the Pentagon, or United 93. I thought that Osama bin Laden was dessert dwelling bedouin, who had nothing better to do with his time other than to make empty threats of war against Westerners.
And then I saw the damage. The people jumping 80 floors and more in a hope to avoid their fate. I saw fear. It was the first time in my life that I looked at another citizen in this country and could tell they were scared.
We all know what has happened since then. The saddest thing (and in my opinion, the scariest thing) is that five years later, we are by far no safer today than we were than. Sure, we really don't have to worry about terrorist taking over planes and crashing them into buildings (honestly, Al Qaeda isn't likely to pull that one again, though 'copycats' will surely try). But the fear persists in this country and in others.
Buy why are we here, why are we not safer. That's not an easy question to answer, but I think the answer clearly starts at the top. I understand that in order to move on from tragedy, it's not efficient to sit around pointing fingers, but in this case, I don't think there's anything else we can do.
In the days after 9/11, President Bush seemed like a real leader (it should be noted that in those days, I was a bleeding heart Republican, I digress). He was going to get the people that did this to us. He was going to deliver Osama's head to the American people on a silver platter, if need be. In the words of Senator Orrin Hatch, we were going to get the bastards that did this to us.
Now, five years later, let's measure our results:
- Osama bin Laden still roams free in Pakistan and criss-crosses the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan with relative ease. He and his henchmen frequently release videotapes taunting us of our failure to capture or kill him.
- Al Qaeda is still alive and well. Thanks to the contstant disrespect offered up by this and other countries, it takes little more than a telephone call to a disenfranchised young Muslim to get them to join the group.
-The United States and Britian are heavily involved in an Iraqi Civil War. In 2003, after deposing of Saddam Hussein, the US dropped the ball on how to maintain basic law and order in a country and as a result growing tension between different Muslim sects grew out of control.
- Iran learned that they can mess with the head of top political leaders by threatening them with mythical nuclear weapons. In the past, the US would have simply cut them off, econimically, and the situation would be resolved. However, with Oil at record prices and the military busy babysitting next door, the adminstration has its hands tied.
- Most civil liberties in the United States are essentially gone. The government regularly requests private records of ordinary citizens from the Web Searches to a list of telephone calls the make from phone companies. Cameras are everywhere- on traffic lights, in ATM's, Library entrances, and in police cars. Hell, I don't even trust the camera in my macbook.
I won't go through all of the things that changed, as I believe the list above will suffice. However, I would like to share an article that I came across today in Newsweek. It basically presents a scenario of the world that would have happened had our goverment done what it should have done in a post-9/11 world.
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Do You Eat What Britney's Eating?
From MSNBC:
Who says Britney Spears’ star has faded? Someone cares enough about the preggers pop star to pay more than $500 for her allegedly half-eaten egg salad sandwich.
The eBay sale also came with a corn dog that was supposedly mostly eaten by her hubby Kevin Federline — but that Spears also took a chomp out of.
The seller claims that he works part time at a “fancy schmancy” hotel and was serving Spears and Federline during a catered affair where the food ranged from fine gourmet cuisine to deep-fried eats. “As you can see, they weren't eating high class that night,” notes the seller.
Spears ate half her sandwich, claims the seller, then a few bites from the second half. K-Fed ate a few things, “but the only leftover item I managed to pick up from him was this corn dog,” notes the seller. “Later I went to clear their plates with it, and as I was picking up the plate Britney picked [the corn dog] up really quick giggled and said ‘I can't let that go to waste’ and quickly took a big bite off of the stick end of the corn dog. I was still standing there holding the plate, not quite sure what to do because Britney Spears was stealing corn dogs off the plate I was pulling away. She finished her bite and put it back on the plate I was holding and said ‘thanks!’ ”
Realizing the celeb treasures he had in his possession, the waiter took the leftovers home, photographed them, had them vacuum sealed, and put them for sale on Australian eBay.
Forty-three bids were placed before a buyer paid $520 for the goodies. The winning bidder was identified as GoldenPalaceCasino, which in the past has engaged in publicity stunts such as paying a woman to tattoo her forehead with their company logo.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Slumping Sox
In case you've been wondering how I've been getting through the last month of the Red Sox disasterous decline, I give you this:
Brokeback to the Future
I know most of you will consider this old, but for some reason I love it and can't stop watching it. You should be aware that I loved the "Back to the Future" films, and I always thought there was a really odd relationship between the two main characters. In any case, I hope you enjoy.
Monday, August 28, 2006
eBay's Three-Way
Many of you may have heard earlier this year about eBay's deal with Yahoo in which Yahoo will be the main supplier of text based ads in the United States.
Well, today eBay decided to take it one step further and signed a deal with Google. Google will now essentially serve ads to eBay users who search for something on the Auction's Giant website. For example if you do a search for hardware stores on eBay, and your search returns zero results, you will be served (a la Google) some ads that match your query, thus enabling to click on these ads.
The service will be rolled out internationally, to eBay's non-US sites. It will also allow localized ads served, which is done pretty easily considering all the information eBay requires from its users when they register.
Oh and as a nice supplement to the deal, eBay and Google will also be working together in order to help build Skype as well as VOIP. Users will be able to click on text-based ads on Google, and immediately be connected to the merchants who are selling their wares online, and speak to them via Skype.
Wow. Unbelievable deal for both eBay and Google. Oh yeah, and congratulations to Yahoo too. It should be interesting to see what happens when one of these parties eventually gets sick of the three-way deal and demands that eBay choose one loyal partner (Come on, you know this is bound to happen).
One last thought - where is Microsoft in all of this? Does their search suck that bad that after years of working with them (reasearch eBay and MSFT Passport deal in early 2000-2001) eBay just gave them the finger and turned to the current champions of search?
Saturday, August 26, 2006
Does Porn Lead to Crime?
Interesting article in this week's Salt Lake City Weekly (strangely, Utah's most credible news source, though it does lean a bit left. I digress.). It's about the myth regarding whether or not pornography causes criminal acts.
A lot of ignorant folks (read: conservatives) feel it does, though, as usual, they lack the scientific proof to proove their point. To perpetuate this perspective, recently, there was a murder a five year old girl here about a month and a half ago. The accused killer of the girl blamed pornography for driving him to commit this crime.
As the article mentions, instead of taking responsibility for the crimes they committed, these people often look for something to blame. In this case, (and strangely enough, in lots of cases) they blame pornography for causing their shortfall.
Right, just like the time I received a speeding ticket - it wasn't my fault, I told the police officer, I just finished playing Grand Theft Auto and couldn't separate virtual reality from the real thing.
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Apple's Buyin' You Off....Bitch
Apple pulled a Blackberry today and and paid off Creative in an effort to resolve a patent lawsuit.
The suit resulted from Apple's iPod music player and the fact that the navigation click-wheel was infringing on Creative's music navigation wheel on it's Zen .mp3 player. The settlement effectively ends all lawuits the two companies with each other. Interestingly, if other companies license Creative's technology, Apple will get a cut of its settlement returned.
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Racist Utah Senators
This won't be a long post because the article pretty much speaks for itself. One of the State Senators of Utah commented today that the Supreme Court was "wrong" when it decided Brown v. Board. Here's a quote:
"Well, I think Brown v. Board of Education is wrong to begin with."
And here's a link to the article.
Monday, August 21, 2006
Is it Time to Say Goodbye?
Let's face it, if running eBay were a beauty contest, Meg Whitman would, under no circumstances, be the CEO. Fortunately for her, (and many CEO's) running companies is all about smarts and has almost nothing to do with looks. Running any company is a difficult job, and growing a company at break-neck speed is even more of a difficult job. Meg has done a great job in the almost 10 years she has been running at eBay. She has taken it from a one room office to a multi-continent online powerhouse.
But, as with all companies, things change. Companies grow, people leave, investors demand supersonic growth, and simply put, everybody gets sick of the same old same.
For years everybody has been satisfied with eBay. The growth was there, the expansion was there, and most importantly, there was always a profit and a huge stock price at the end of the day. However, recently, eBay has experienced some challenges. Key people are leaving, the stock price is dropping, Skype isn't bringing in money, and today, some sellers on the site started wondering publicly if it was time for Meg to go.
Fortunately for Meg, she has proven herself time and time again as a very capable CEO. She has been able to meet the expectations of customers, Analysts and stockholders, quarter after quarter and year after year.
Also, she has the backing of many Wall Street Analysts and bankers. Most of the projections that they hold for eBay are under the assumption that she will be running the company. Should she decide to leave (or should the company merge), lots of those rosy projections may be revised downward.
That said, there is a lot to be said for getting new blood into the mix. Last year, Meg briefly flirted with Disney for an opportunity to be the head person over there. Her interest in that job may reflect waning interest in eBay. Also, eBay's growth in it's core domestic business is slowing, perhaps someone new would be able to revitalize interest in the Auction giant both here and abroad.
Whatever happens, nobody can dispute what she did for eBay. She not only managed the company through one of the worst economic periods in our history, but she continues to succeed in managing one of the top retail sites in the world.
Read More: eBay, Meg Whitman
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
How To Upset Your Neighbors in Utah
This is how we roll in Utah..well at least according the Salt Lake Tribune.
Read More: Utah, Salt Lake Tribune
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Google's New Coupons
In a not-so-surprising move, Google will now offer coupons from local merchants so users can physically print them out and redeem them at their respective merchants.
The good part about this new program is that local merchants will be able to increasingly move from traditional advertising to the online realm by giving searchers more relevant, local discounts. For example a local hair salon will be able to display a coupon offering $5 off your next haircut when you redeem this ad, when a user searches for "hair salon's" in a given area/zip code.
The bad part about this is Affiliate Markerters probably will not see much much in the way another revenue stream. This deal appears to only involve Google (and their project partner Valpak) and the merchants who will be offering the coupons. Which isn't surprising given Google's recent changes to it's adwords policy.
Read More: Advertising, Google
Monday, August 14, 2006
New Ideas for Unemployment
The WSJ had a great article today about how a French Telecom is helping battle unemployment. Instead of giving people notice that they will be laid off with severance packages and a big middle finger for their trouble, the Telecom is helping employees do something useful by helping them start small businesses.
They do everything from helping to draft business plans, and helping entrepreneurs secure funding for their small business. It will also help employees get more education if they need it, and they have worked with other public-sector employers to take in its workers. If the project fails within three years, the employee can return to the company. The most amazing thing to me about the experiment so far is that one in six of the new projects have failed.
This is a great idea and I'm unsure as to why this hasn't caught on with companies like Ford, GM, and other companies who from time to time have to dump several thousands of employees (Answer: because they're dumb ). Obviously, it would take time and money but the investment would be miniscule to what could be a potential boon for the new small business owner, the company, and the economy.
Friday, August 11, 2006
Quote of the Day
The following is taken from the blog dooce.com:
If you haven’t ever heard a Utah accent all you need to know is that if you
had to listen to 30 seconds of a local newscast you’d offer a blow job to the
first person who volunteered to stab you in the ears.
Couldn't agree more.
Read More: Quote of the Day, Utah Press, Dooce
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Uncovering a Plot, and Our Response
Lots of thoughts raced through my mind this morning as all of us discovered the latest terrorism plot that started in Heathrow today. A plot that if properly carried out, would have cost (possibly) thousands of people their lives.
I was really disappointed in President Bush's 'lack' of response to the 'news' of the day (he actually knew what was going on as early as three days ago).
By far, the best article analyzing our response the plot (so far) has been from Newsweek columnist Christopher Dickey. He counters Bush's assertion that we are now "safer than we were pre-9/11" by saying:
But the long list of horrific attacks around the world since 9/11, from
Bali to Madrid, Casablanca to London, Amman to Istanbul, should make anyone
think again about such claims. So should the near misses. “Shoe bomber” Richard
Reid fumbled his matches when he tried to blow himself up aboard an American
Airlines flight in December 2001. But he came close, and if he’d
succeeded, hundreds of people would have died with all traces of evidence lost
in the wintry Atlantic. The plot revealed today would have killed more than
1,000 people. By some accounts there would have been three terrible waves of
carnage: first three planes, then three more, then three more. Again, over the
high seas.
I really couldn't have said it better myself. I could really go on and on ad naseaum about the many things that we could have proactively done, but for the sake of time, I'll close with this: the fact of the matter is, today clearly showed that we still have a lot of room to improve as far as our national security is concerned. It's been five years since the United States was violently and verociously attacked, and this administration has failed to deliver on its promise to capture those responsible. Instead, they decided to invade a country that had NOTHING to do with 9/11. Ask yourself this question: does that make sense?
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Prostituting Craigslist
It looks like our crack law enforcement officials have finally figured out how prostitution works in the 21st century. Four women got busted near DWI in Maryland after a bunch of hard working (read: lazy) officers found their ads on the monster classified ad site.
Frankly speaking, in these perilous times of terrorism, students on the loose, and the recent DC crime wave, it's good to see that time is still being made to clamp down on the world's oldest profession.
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
eBay's Dropping Stock Price
Has anybody noticed eBay's stock price lately? This thing is dropping like a rock. As mentioned in this blog earlier, it really hasn't been good for shareholders (not to mention option holders) of eBay.
The question that comes to everybody's mind is why? Well, there's no short answer to that question, but, I'll try to give a reasonable explanation:
- First, word on the street is the core Auction business for eBay is slowing. Unfortunately, I don't have a link to share about this, only an 'insider' who happens to work at the online giant.
-Executives are jumping ship left and right. First, Jeff Jordan bounced and then, there was an announcement that Maynard Webb would be leaving before the end of the year. When asked if she was leaving by Maria Bartiromo on a recent edition of Wall Street Week, CEO Meg Whitman simply shrugged her shoulders, smiled and said "I'm in it for the long-haul".
- eBay's recent snub of Google and refusing to allow sellers to use Google Checkout as an online payment method didn't score any points for it with people outside the company.
- Lastly, eBay recently raised prices for users of its online stores program.
All of these issues (at least IMHO) seem to contribute to a dropping stock prices. It should be intersting to see how low it will go.
Monday, August 07, 2006
Google Thinks MySpace is Hot...or Something..
Google dropped $900 Million today for in an advertising deal and to become the sole search provider for MySpace. Somewhere, Rupert Murdoch is sitting back in a chair, lighting a Cuban, and saying to himself, "Suckers."
So what does Google get out this deal? Sure, they get to add their logo to MySpace search boxes and they get to serve PPC ads when Fox runs out of ads to serve, but is the deal worth nearly a Bill? Currently, MySpace is the second most trafficked website on the Web (trailing only Yahoo) in the United States, but who's to say that will stay that way?
Call me a cynic, but I'm not sure I agree with Google's logic on this one. Sure, MySpace is a great site, and lots of people use it, but how is it sustainable, and more importantly, how are they going to grow it? Not only that, but what happens if a few state governments decide to start regulating how MySpace is used.
Eric, Sergei and Co. were fortunate (i.e. smart enough) to make sure that Fox's MySpace meet certain traffic goals along the way in order to get paid.
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Rambling Reading
A couple thoughts about what I've been reading lately:
- Jigga's got a new album dropping this winter .
- eBay's stock price is blowing chunks (more to come on this next week).
- Israel still denies it's collaborating with the US to take over the world.
- News flash: Home sales are down. Someone clue in the Salt Lake Tribune.
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Republish Humpday: MySpace Tom's Porno Past
This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.
Monday, July 17, 2006
WWIII
I spent a lot of time over the weekend contemplating the latest drama in the Middle East involving Israel, Hezbollah, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, et al. Some of the questions that I've been asking myself are mostly rhetorical in nature, however I think they are valid. Some examples:
-Why is Israel reacting the way it is? Sure, initially it had two soldiers brutally kidnapped and seven soldiers killed, never a good thing, but is right for them to retaliate in the manner that it did? I put my country in its shoes - if the US had two soldiers kidnapped by Iran (which it had), would the United States respond by bombing them? I can honestly answer that question no. Granted, bombing Iran in such a scenario would definitely be an option, but I think that we (the US) would respond with more diplomatic measures before becoming so hostile.
-What are the long-term implications of the Israeli action? There was an interesting interview on NPR this morning (sorry no link) that asked a similar question. And the respondont answered that because of Israel's action, the status quo in Israel could never return. I disagree. Although Israel's retaliation in this situation is a bit harsh, I think that the situation could be quickly diffused Israel stopped the bombing, and the hostages were immediately returned.
One of the most interesting questions that was asked over the weekend was asked on a Sunday morning talk show to Senator John McCain. The question was whether or not Sen. McCain believed we were in the middle of World War III. He answered that given the number of countries involved in conflict, and the fact that there is no end in sight, that yes, history will ultimately refer to this as WWIII.
In my opinion, this 'war' is small potatoes compared to WWI and WWII. Essentially you, there are no more than 10 countries that have actually exchanged gunfire (though the words Cold World War, would be very applicable). Could the violence in the Middle East explode into a legitimate World War? No question. The reference to the Middle East as a powder keg is no coincidence.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
No Surfing For You!
In Boston, cafe owners are getting quite upset at the locals who are taking advantage of WiFi access in coffee shops, but not purchasing much while they surf the web. Some have even gone to the point of shutting off their WiFi or kicking web surfers out of their shops.
I understand that nerds taking bandwith from legitimate (read: paying) customers is cause for concern, but owners shouldn't get their panties in a bunch over the issue. I'm fine with the fact that customers much purchase something in order to use the WiFi that's available, but I think they're going a little overboard if they're kicking customers out of the store who spend a couple hours surfing the Web.
The fact that people are at your store (instead of say, Starbucks) should be a cause for celebration for you - and give you some sort of sense of entitlement. Let's face it, people in your stores are a hundred times more likely to buy something from you than someone who is not in your store.
Monday, July 10, 2006
Einstein the Player...Not the Hater
Today it was revealed that Einstein was not quite the loner that he made himself out to be. Besides providing us with all of our modern wisdom on relativity, and space, time and matter as we now currently understand it,he was also busy hooking up with some of Europe's finest ladies.
Good for him. Until this came out, I thought all he did was sit around trying to figure out ways to make our society better.
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Cha Cha Changes...
A story that received far too little attention today was the fact that Jeff Jordan walked away from eBa -- err PayPal --err one big online marketing company today. Jordan was with eBay since 1999 and recently was given the task as President of the PayPal unit.
There is rampant speculation as to why Jordan is leaving. Could he not handle the heat from Google's new payment/checkout feature (along those lines, great story today from AuctionBytes about how eBay won't allow sellers to use Google Checkout)? Is he really leaving to spend "more time with his family." Jordan was speculated to have be CEO-in-training for the time when Meg Whitman decides to call it today.
ex-CFO Rajiv Dutta takes over for Jordan at PayPal (interestingly, after only 2 months as president at lackluster Skype).
After approximately one week of having a legitimate threat to it's (cough, cough monopolistic) online payment system, two words describe how eBay is taking it's new-found competition: not well.
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Who Killed Kenny? Enron
As to be expected, Enron frontman Kenneth Lay had a major heart-attack today. Why this was a big surprise in the news is very curious to me. This guy was facing life in prison, was convicted of several felonies, and is only five years removed from fumbeling away almost $60 Billion dollars and destroying thousands of lives in the process. A heart attack in this case should have been expected.
Looking back at Enron, it's kind of amazing that the whole thing unfolded under all of our noses the way that it did, without anyone doing much about it. Sure people knew about it, but ultimately money kept them quiet. I'm not trying to sound naive - I understand that money makes the World go 'round - all I'm saying is that it's unfortunate that we as a society have sucommed to sacraficing our ethics in exchange for a few extra zero's in our pay check.
Forgive me as I am in a bit of a philisophical, cynical and fatalistic mood tonight. I would be interested in hearing the comments of Plato, Socrates and others on the current plight of our society. We pay athletes millions of dollars, all so we can be entertained for a couple hours. Yet, at the same time, a teacher somewhere in America just finished spending 11 hours trying to teach American Civics to a bunch of unappreciative high-school students, and is trying to figure out how in the hell he's going to pay for the Prada bag his wife just purchased on a whim.
Don't get me wrong, normally I'm a capitalist who whole-heartedly believes in every last word that Adam Smith wrote, however, I believe that somewhere along the lines we may have missed the point when it comes to who gets paid what in our society, and those who pirate money shouldn't always get away with it.
Monday, June 26, 2006
Rambling Reading
Didn't post for a week because I was on a business trip and my WiFi connection was spotty at best. In any case, here's what I've been reading
-A conservative gone limp.
-Sports Guy loves YouTube.
-The New York Times has a drug problem.
-The New York Times should be criminally prosecuted. (Note: I love the NYT)
-Another pro for drinking coffee.
-Warren Buffet is giving his money away (to charity).
-You can't ask Ask.com about everything.
That's it for now.
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Republish Thursday II: Memo to the RIAA: Don't Screw This One Up Too
From John Battelle:
According to this report, which is light on confirming details, the RIAA is considering action against the YouTubes of the world, because there are so many videos of kids hamming it up to songs where rights have not been cleared. Like this one, for example, on Google Video.
Good f'ing lord, RIAA. Wake up. This is how we use music in the real world. Get over yourselves.
Well said, John. Couldn't have said it better myself.
Republish Thursday: Don't Fuck withy MySpace Tom - Literally
Today from ValleyWag:
If earlier reports are true, that Tom Anderson sure
loves the ladies. But the co-founder and public face of MySpace doesn't always impress, according to an acquaintance.
One of Tom's lovely ladies, says the tipster, left a between-the-sheets romp
unsatisfied. And she was anything but quiet about it. And Tom wouldn't take that
lying down. He cock-blocked her the hard way -- every time she built a MySpace
profile, Mr. Humps-a-lot kicked her off the site. Deleted her whole profile.
"You'll never sleep in this town again!"
It might be a harsh punishment, but
hey, the guy has a reputation to keep. It's not so bad -- who hasn't locked an
ex-lover out of the house?
Hmm..Seems like a great guy.
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Another Day, Another Thinking Liberal Fired in Utah
Jeffrey Neilsen, a non-tenured professor at BYU was recently told that his contract would not be renewed (read: fired) because he recently wrote an op-ed piece in the Salt Lake Tribune that spoke out against the LDS Church's position on Gay Marriage.
For those of you that live outside this bubble called Salt Lake, let me bring you up to speed: a few weeks ago, the LDS Church demanded that all Bishops (think: pastors, priests) read the following statement during Sunday services:
Because BYU is a privately owned institution of the LDS Church, it is generally expected of its faculty and staff that they will not have any opinions that differ from the 'Official' position of the LDS Church, and if they do have a different opinion, they are expected to hold those opinions silent. Unfortunately, for this professor, he will no longer be teaching philosophy at the tremendous institution that is called by some "The Harvard of the East"We are informed that the United States Senate will on June 6, 2006, vote on an amendment to the Federal constitution designed to protect the traditional institution of marriage.
We, as the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, have repeatedly set forth our position that the marriage of a man and a woman is the only acceptable marriage relationship.
In 1995 we issued a Proclamation to the World on this matter, and have repeatedly reaffirmed that position.
In that proclamation we said: "We call upon responsible citizens and officers of government everywhere to promote those measures designed to maintain and strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society."
We urge our members to express themselves on this urgent matter to their elected representatives in the Senate.
Folks (specifically, morons in Utah), people in life will occassionally not agree with the LDS Church 100% of the time. When they do, that does NOT give you the right to dissassociate with them, nor does that give you the right to end their employment.
I empathize with Mr. Neilsen; however, I'm sure he realizes that better days are ahead of him. Perhaps a real school that allows the free flow of ideas and idealogical thought to flow freely will offer him a tenured position.
eBay Getting Wiki wit' It
eBay announced they will start promoting more UGC (User Generated Content) by announcing the use of a Wiki.
This is a great idea, and actually one that I discussed a couple months ago with former eBay executive.
The purpose of the Wiki will allow buyers and sellers to describe more about what their purpose is on eBay (which I have no doubt that it will replace the lame 'About Me' pages) and will allow eBay to seamlessly generate more content that will get picked up by Google and Yahoo more easily.
Click here to check out the article in Forbes.
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Bye Bye to Net Neutrality
The House of Representatives yesterday passed up the opportunity to keep the Web neutral, essentially giving cable and phone companies the green light to charge users of their broadband services more depending on how many users are coming to their website.
This is kind of a big deal as phone companies will now be able to give certain favored (read "high-paying customers") versus those who don't pay quite as much (and thus causing them 'access problems').
Google, eBay, Amazon, IAC, etc all teamed up and lobbied Congressmen in the Nation's Capitol to try and get them to keep the Web neutral. Unforutnately, it didn't work. The phone/cable companies (i.e. AT&T, Comcast, PacBell, etc) essentially now control who sees what on the Web and at what price.
Our trip down the slippery slope continues.
Monday, June 12, 2006
Stock Market Doldrums
Anybody notice the hhhoorrriiibbbllleee market performance lately? Just in case you've been living in cave for the last month and a half our so, the Market is down approximately 800 points.
Lots of reasons one could assume as towhy the market is down, for example:
-Iran's on again, off again decision to suspend nuclear enrichment
-Interest Rate worries
-High Oil Prices (currently hovering on $70)
- Continuing uncertainty in Iraq.
Etc, etc, etc. It's pretty east to say that the market was overdue for a correction, following a torrid rise above the 11,000 mark to 11,600. However, there doesn't seem to be a particular sticking point as to what's causing the downturn.
The WSJ offered some helpful suggestions as to what to invest in while the market continues it's spiral downwards. They were traditional products - toothpaste, oil, food, utilities, clothing companies - the basic necessities that everyone still needs, even in market downturns. Of course most investors should already have these stocks if they're fully diversified.
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Rambling Reading
Because today was such a slow news day (and because it's something that I'm going to start doing more often), I thought that I'd pass along a few news articles that I found interesting:
-The NBA Finals start on June 8, with two newbies to the Finals, the Dallas Mavericks and the Miami Heat. Yahoo had a story with five reasons that you should care.
-A 15-year old qualified for the U.S. Open next week.
-Mitt Romney promises that polygamy won't be legalized, but universal health care might become mandatory, if/when he becomes president.
-Just in case you hadn't heard by now, today was 6/6/06 and a good day if you were in the marketing profession.
-A 22 year old New York kid robbed (read: scammed, punked) investors out of $7 Million.
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Republish Thursday: Big Brother is Still Watching
Incredible story from USA Today:
Top law enforcement officials have asked leading Internet companies to keep histories of the activities of Web users for up to two years to assist in criminal investigations of child pornography and terrorism, the Justice Department said Wednesday.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller outlined their request to executives from Google, Microsoft, AOL, Comcast, Verizon and others Friday in a private meeting at the Justice Department. The department has scheduled more discussions as early as Friday. Last week's meeting was first reported by CNET, an online news service.
Wow. I really can't say anything to that, except, happy web-browsing!
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
AIDS
There's currently a fantastic edition of Frontline running right now regarding AIDS. It's gone to great lengths at describing the history of AIDS and the many problems that it causes around the world.
Growing up where I did, AIDS wasn't generally a problem we concerned ourselves with in social conversation. I recall hearing a little bit about it when I was in 6th Grade, but still didn't fully grasp what the disease really meant.
Even in the mid and late 1990s, I understood how AIDS was passed person to person, but again, owing to the fact that I lived in Theological State, I didn't have to spend much time worrying about contracting it.
The Frontline Documentry has really opened my eyes about the problem that AIDS caused people here in the US as well as people in Africa, Europe and Asia. The truly sad thing is I'm sure there are hundreds of thousands of other people who like me, will never believe that AIDS will affect them.
What do we do about this disease? For the last twenty years, scientists have been promising a vaccine for AIDS, only to fail us time and time again. Billions of dollars have been spent in research in trying to find a cure. However, nothing has been very successful.
And what about the drugs that are 'somewhat' effective in fighting against HIV (the virus that causes AIDS)? Usually any drugs that are effective come at an extreme price - only people with money can afford them. Case in point: Magic Johnson.
In 1991, Johnson announced that he had to retire from the NBA owing to his acquiring of HIV. 15 years after announcing this, he looks a live and very well week after week while working as an Television announcer for the NBA. What's more, he is a very successful businessman.
Is it right that only people with money can live?
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