From the 'Wag:
Men with a net worth of more than $30m, tech entrepreneurs among them, claiming that their wealth had brought "better sex" -- defined as more frequent sex with more partners. The survey, by Prince & Associates and reported by Robert Frank, showed wealthy women were even more libidinous.
In my opinion, I'm not sure eBay's going to be able to pull this one off - just relieving the headache that the current eBay feedback system causes all involved (including the eBay employees who have to put up with the bitching from various people wanting feedback removed) is a project in and of itself. Allowing buyers to rate sellers in everything from communication to shipping is a nightmare waiting to happen.
From Auctionbytes:
eBay users can now view sample screenshots of eBay's recently announced "Feedback 2.0" system on the eBay UK website. The new system will allow buyers to rate transactions on item description, communication, shipping time, and shipping & handling charges. In late February, eBay will pilot Feedback 2.0 on eBay.co.uk, eBay.ie and in Australia, Belgium, France, India, Italy and Poland. If all goes well, eBay will launch the new system globally in late spring or early summer.eBay UK announced the forthcoming system to users on Monday on its Announcement Board, with links to screenshots and details. Once buyers leave a rating of positive, negative or neutral along with a comment, they will have the chance to rate sellers on the following four questions:
- How accurate was the item description?
- How satisfied were you with the seller's communication?
- How quickly did the seller deliver the item?
- How reasonable were the postage and packaging charges?
Buyers can give sellers up to five stars on each of the rating criteria. For instance, five stars on the first question indicates the seller's item description was "very accurate," while two stars on the last question indicates the postage and packaging charges were "unreasonable." eBay will include a thumbnail image of the item underneath the auction title to make it easier for the buyer to remember the item.
On the Feedback Profile page, called Member Profile page under the original feedback rating system, eBay has added a new module that provides the average of each Detailed Sellers Rating left by buyers for the seller in the past 12 months. A seller must have at least 10 Detailed Seller Ratings to have an average displayed. In addition to the average, eBay displays the total number of ratings left for each Detailed Seller Rating in the past 12 months.
As usual, the following are some random articles of stuff that I've found interesting on the series of tubes known as the internets:
- Now you don't have an excuse for drinking alone.
- "I promise judge, I was alert the whole time."
- Paris Hilton admits she did it, kind of (no, not that).
- Cutting up your mom only gets you six months in New York. I understand he was under undue influence, but still, this is your mother.
- Don't leave home without your passport. Pretty soon, it will be required to go anywhere (I'm sure it's buried in the Patriot Act somewhere).
- $335,000 for 77 square feet, sign me up!
Below is a short clip from SNL this past weekend. Is this the new way of marketing your product? Granted, in and of itself, the iPhone was bound to be pretty popular, but to have your product parodied on a show like SNL with its initial reach on Saturday night, and then to have it played over and over again on sites like YouTube...Steve Jobs must be sitting somewhere lighting his cigars with $100 dollar bills.
Great weekend of Playoff football over the weekend. The Most interesting games by far were the Bears game and the Chargers game. Congratulations to all the winners.
I couldn't believe the hit Reggie Bush took in the Eagles game - unbelievable! Here's the YouTube clip:
At this time last year, I made some predictions about what I thought would happen during the new year. Let's rehash that blog and see what happened, and what didn't happen:
I've been tagged. I didn't tag myself. One of my buddies, Shmuly, did it. This tagging game that's going on in blogosphere has been quite entertaining. The concept is simple, someone with a blog tags you, you write five things that nobody knew about you, and then you tag more people. It's kind of like a blog-chain-letter.
So, without further ado, here's five things you probably did not know about me:
-I currently work at the big O (which is why I don't comment them much), but before that I spent some time at eBay. You can read some of my random thoughts about eBay here, here and here.
-I live in Utah, which is more boring than it sounds.
-In high school, I played football and basketball.
-I spend more time on this site, than I probably should.
-I'm addicted to blackjack. This means when Affiliate Summit 2007 rolls around next month, you'll know where to find me.
So, yeah, that's it. I'm now tagging Noah, Danny, Heather, Mark Cuban (even though I'm not a fan), and Bill Simmons (aka The Sports Guy).
I found the fight amusing between the Knicks and the Nuggets amusing on many levels, but a couple thoughts stood out in my mind:
1) It would have been much, much better had Kenyon Martin somehow been involved.
2) Why didn't Nate Robinson pick on someone his on size, like Earl Boykins?
Finally, not that it matters much but somehow, the Knicks ended up beating the Jazz tonight, sans their suspended players.
The Boston Red Sox got their man, today, well at least it looks that way. The Sox agreed to terms with Japanese Pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka (aka 'Dice').
The deal hinges on Dice passing a physical and actually signing the contract. Terms of the contract call for the Red Sox to shell out $52 Million over 6 years to the 26 year old pitcher. Combine that with the $51 Million that the Sox offered just for the right to talk to the guy, and you're looking at $100 Million out the door.
Is it worth the price? Considering that the Dice will be added to a starting rotation of an aged Curt Schilling, a quasi-effective Josh Beckett and a new to the starting rotation Jonathon Papelbon, this move can't hurt.
In the last two seasons, Dice has 24 wins and 19 loses, with a 2.60 ERA. He had 99 more strikeouts in 2005 than he had in 2004 (playing in only 5 more games, year over year).
All in all, it shouldn't be a bad deal for the Sox. Hopefully he can help out where they need it most.
A few articles that I've found interesting while perusing the series of tubes, also known as the internet:
-In Texas, it's apparently not a good idea to hug your teacher, even if you're only in preschool.
-Big condoms are a big headache (pun intended).
-Paul found, Peter and James up next.
-From the 'No shit' department, Google promotes themselves in AdWords.
-In Utah, you do not have to know anything about a newspaper in order to be put in charge of one.
Paris Hilton ruined every male's fantasy today when her rep told MSNBC News that she and gal pal Britney Spears are 'just friends'.
The two have been out on the town with many sites reporting they have been so comfortable with each other that Paris was spotted rubbing Brit's 'upper thigh'. The two have also been caught hanging out at popular LA nightspots, where photographers caught Brit sans panties.
Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.
Is Ashlee Simpson getting desperate? She's auctioning off her Uggly boots on eBay. She can't seem to get her show back on MTV, and her ex was recently spotted making out with The King's granddaughter.
Damn, Ash, I guess you always have that singing career to fall back on. Oh, wait, your last CD didn't do so hot, did it?
Looks like yesterday's post about Yahoo's CEO Terry Semel was a bit premature. I guess it helps to pay attention to the details.
As per Valleywag, Yahoo's CEO Terry Semel is out. The company's CFO, Sue Decker, is Wall Street's early favorite to take over.
I'm sure this won't be the last you hear about this.
MySpace announced today that through a joint partnership with a company called Sentinal Tech Holdings, they will begin to match users identities with known sex offenders. The company is taking the step with the hopes of curbing the number of attacks that have happened that authorities claim occurred as a result of the perpetrator meeting their victim through the Social Networking site.
Kudos to MySpace for starting to develop such a feature. However, any convicted criminal with any ounce of street smarts should be well aware that it probably wouldn't be a good idea for him (or her) to post actual photos of themselves on the website. I mean, let's face it, if you were an offender of this nature, wouldn't you naturally assume that your parole officer is probably searching MySpace (and other websites) making sure that you are adhering to the terms of your probation.
Also, why is it that in this day and age, that parents still don't actively monitor what their kids are doing and who they are talking to online. Parents, your kids do not need a computer, digital camera, or a camera phone. Take it away. They will still grow up to be perfectly functioning adults without these toys. Every time you allow them to use a computer alone (i.e. in a non-public area) and chat with random people online, the chances of something bad happening to them increases dramatically.
LL Cool J is mad at his boss. There's nothing wrong with that, other than the fact that his boss happens to be Jay-Z. Jigga-man recently came out of retirement with his new album "Kingdom Come" (which by the way is available at all retail outlets near you).
LL was quoted as saying, "How am I going to re-sign with competition? I can't depend on that man to promote my record while he's somewhere writing rhymes."
Uhm, LL, James, a couple things before you go off any further on your boss: First, Jay is an artist just like you. He can drop an album whenever he damn well feels like it. Just because your last few albums have been dogshit, don't get all bitchy when a colleague and fellow label artist decides to make another album.
Second, and most important, Jay is your boss. He's the CEO of Def Jam. This means that someone at your label thought he was more intelligent than you at running a record company. This also means that he has to keep Def Jam competitive with all the other labels out there, so it may have been a business decision by him to do another album to drive sales at the label. In other words LL, it was for the greater good of the label.
Now be a good boy and go finish your next piece of garbage.
Has anyone bothered to take a look at Research in Motion (RIM) lately? In the last three months, this stock has gone from $80 to today's close of $135. For you math majors out there, that's an increase of more than 50%!
The next question is why has it gone up so much? Well, young grasshopper, I will tell you. Analysts seem to be pretty happy with this little thing called the Blackberry Pearl. It's the smallest, lightest and easiest to use Blackberry currently on the market. With 18 wireless companies currently pushing the Pearl, it has the potential for a wide user base. What's more, word on the street is Cingular is going to start pushing this baby any day now.
My, oh my have fortunes can change. It seemed like just yesterday that RIM was on the verge of shutting down for good. Now, the sky is the limit for this company and their addicting little devices.
Earlier: Thoughts on Blackberry's Settlement
The Street: Research In Motion Keeps Rocking
Well, the Juice is loose, again. Fox, yes, that same News Corporation decided to pull the plug on the Juice's get out of debt card and canceled his much maligned book about how he killed err, hypothetically would have killed Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman.
Kudos to Fox for realizing that this was a bad idea to begin with. Not only would it have made News Corp. look even more ridiculous than it already does, but the would be essentially aiding and abetting a person who by all conventional wisdom killed those two people.
How much lower can the Juice sink? Well, don't be surprised if sometime when he's really desperate for money, he sells the rights to the Fox Interview to a Pay-Per-View Cable/Satellite dealer.
A few articles that I've been reading on the web lately:
- Apparently it's illegal to breast feed on Delta Airlines.
- The Red Sox just spent more money than most of us will see in 50 lifetimes, just to 'talk' to a Japanese pitcher.
- You "can't hear me now" in NYC schools.
- What Billionaires really do in their spare time.
- A real life Billionaire Boys Club.
