Hello... it's been awhile. And in the meantime, they've been piling up...

Fred's asked for a re-link... says I linked too deep and you'll miss his progress into the Peace Corps.
http://communities.msn.com/kevinspicpalace/messageboard.msnw

So funny it hurts
It's almost comical how bad it was... Enron actually had people go pretend to be power-traders so that when investors came through, they would think Enron was busier than they really were. I cannot believe that there are so many people corrupt enough ot perpetrate this.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/701439.asp

Salt Lake City from space...
Space.com's got pictures of Salt Lake City from above. Kinda cool if you're interested in the Winter Olympics.
http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/imagepump/index.php

Digital tags in the grocery store...
Wal*Mart, Target and some other big companies are sponsoring technology that would allow them to tag every item in their stores with little radio transmitters. They're passive, have only a short range, tiny battery life and only respond when the right kind of signal is sent to them. Basically, they want to better automate inventory within the store. It would allow people to checkout almost instantaneously, would deter or prevent theft, and would allow computers to automatically reorder items before they ran out of stock. (They figure that right now on any given night, 8% of what people are looking for is out of stock. Except Sundays where it's closer to 11%.) There are some people that are concerned that these tags would later be able to track them and find out where they lived or in what rooms of the house they were perusing the tagged nudie mags they had bought and such other nonsense. I say don't buy stuff that can embarass you. Or at least claim it's a gift. And why not have a "tag return" in the parking lot? Maybe get 5 cents back for each tag you turn in. Or a "tag-killer" just outside the doors of the store? Go through the doors and it fries the tags.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-833379.html?tag=dd.ne.dtx.nl-hed.0

From $100,000 a year to $10/hour...
CNET had a great story on people who got nailed by the dot com bust and are now doing stuff they haven't done since high school, just to pay the bills. It's kind of sad, but it's also nice to know it's not just me... and that it could be worse...
http://news.com.com/2100-1017-832553.html

Sign-language translation...
An 18-year old kid has invented a glove that can "read" sign-language and instantly translate it. It would allow those who don't know sign-language to instantly be able to know what the deaf person was saying by reading a little screen. Pretty cool and way to go!
http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/16164.html

Why isn't Lay in jail?
I've called before for Kenneth Lay to be jailed. I've even asked if there was anyone willing to kidnap Lay and take him to Congress. Well, last week he said he didn't feel like going before Congress. Now I guess they're making him but he's planning to take the fifth ammendment. Stupid amendments. Stupid free speech. Kenneth Lay is a bastard. (No, I own no Enron stock and don't know anyone who works at Enron. I just think that Kenneth Lay is getting away with, well, murder. At least as an accomplice in the death of that guy who killed himself even though most accounts had him as one of the good guys.)

We didn't think they were important...
Tyco spent $8 billion in the past three years buying other companies that they didn't tell their stockholders about. They said the deals (over 700 in all) were all too small to really be an impact individually. Are they the company that made the R/C car I had as a kid? That was a fun car. Anyhow, rumors now that they may need to split into multiple companies...
http://www.msnbc.com/modules/exports/ct_infobeat.asp?/news/699330.asp

But who gets the medal? Nike or the athlete?
Nike and other companies are doing some pretty cool stuff to try to make atheletes faster, more aerodynamic.
http://www.msnbc.com/modules/exports/ct_infobeat.asp?/news/693675.asp

I'm not the only one...
It turns out that analysts are starting to grumble about AOL. Time Warner used to tell how each division was doing, but AOL's trying to focus more on the health of the entire company. In some ways, I can understand why. Time Warner was more like a group of cats duct-taped together than a real horse. (Simpsons fans will hopefully get that.) Time Warner was a bunch of little companies that all cared about their performance, even if the way they did business negatively impacted other factions or 'fiefdoms'. AOL has really worked hard to build synergy, tie all the units together and make the company as a whole stronger. Time Warner execs used to get their bonuses based on how their division did, but now all bonuses are based on the larger company. (Something tells me bonuses won't be that good this year.) Anyhow, that means they aren't breaking out the individual divisions in their reports. Which is making analysts unhappy... they're saying it's harder to know if things are going well are not at AOL.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-828014.html

Is this still such a good idea?
Hmmm... two 80 story towers, standing alone on the edge of Central Park. At its base, the world headquarters of an American mega-media company, responsible for spreading the American culture to the world through its holdings in music, television, movies and all other forms of media. The design is beautiful (first saw the ads in Architectural Digest), but I don't think it's a good idea. I'm not making light of terrorism or what happened at the World Trade Centers... I just fear a repeat... and that Central Park would make a good visual approach for alignment purposes.
http://www.onecentralpark.com/

Ok, so I'm a few years too late to the party...
I wrote to Google just before Halloween suggesting they make jack o'lanterns out of the o's for Halloween. Turns out they've been having fun with their logo for years and years and years.
http://www.google.com/holidaylogos.html

When "I Hate You" means "I Love Them"
Someone bought f***generalmotors.com. It has two links on the page.
One links to Ford.com and the other links to a site about how Ford sucks. But if you don't do anything, it takes you directly to Ford. Well, Ford sued saying it violated them somehow, or gave them a bad name. So they're suing the guys responsible... the ever-fun-loving 2600. They're hackers and I have to be nice to them because otherwise they'll delete my blog. Lately it seems like they're having a lot of fun and success tweaking people from underneath the freedom of speech. It's pretty funny. They'll go after anyone.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-827182.html

We're smaller, but we're bigger...
Despite being available in fewer homes, Fox News has more viewers than CNN. Disclaimer: I still prefer MSNBC when I watch cable news, which isn't too often. I wish someone down here would start something like Northwest Cable News. Like CNN, only local. Great concept.
http://www.mediapost.com/dtls_dsp_news.cfm?newsId=106187

It's not over 'til it's over...
Office building vacancies are at the highest since they started keeping track. Apartment and retail vacancies are also coming up quicker than people had anticipated.
http://www.msnbc.com/modules/exports/ct_infobeatBIZ.asp?/news/697065.asp

It's not over...
Is the housing market next? Opinions are divided.
http://www.msnbc.com/modules/exports/ct_infobeat.asp?/news/702327.asp

Those bastards...
Terrorists were also planning to hit the Space Needle and L.A. International Airport. Those are in my two favorite cities. And the attacks were probably moved up. Apparently it could have been much, much, worse. So when we're asking God how this could have happened, let's pause and thank Him that it wasn't worse.
http://www.msnbc.com/modules/exports/ct_infobeat.asp?/news/696835.asp
http://www.msnbc.com/modules/exports/ct_infobeat.asp?/news/696825.asp