Question... why is the new CBS yawner "First Monday" on Tuesday? Way too confusing.

Perhaps old news by now, but Ford is planning to cut 10,000 jobs and possibly close some factories.

Uh, yeah... um... I can't pay my taxes this year... I lost my checkbook... IRS missing 2,300 computers, plus some guns, badges and communications equipment.

No real commentary, just lots of news about what's going on and what's coming up on NBC. Speaking of NBC, by the slimmest of margins, people are opposed to hard liquor ads on NBC.

CBS recently stated that it has no plans to follow suit with hard liquor ads. Besides, most of its audience drinks Ensure.

Speaking of CBS, they're thinking of asking Carol Burnett to do another special. Her last one did much better than they had hoped. The article also talks about what other networks are doing in the way of nostalgia.

Speaking of other networks, ABC Family is divorcing much of its own family. But they still can't get rid of the 700 Club.

And one last one for now, this one really bugs me, but it's probably the sign of things to come. AOL is shutting down CNN/SI (the AOL competitor to ABC's ESPN). It will be replaced by a new channel called AOL Sports. I thought AOL was full of clueless dorks too stupid to get a real internet connection? I thought they preferred pretending to be teenagers of the opposite sex in darkened chatrooms. Now they get their own sports channel? What bugs me the most about this is that the NBA will own half of it. It's not going to be true reporting, it's going to be one of the biggest blurring of advertising and entertainment to date. And I suspect it's only the beginning. (Turns out that it was the CNN folks who wanted CNN/SI shut down... they didn't want to be a party to something that would shamelessly exploit and plug and advertise instead of fairly and honestly report.) From what I know if it so far, this new channel will do nothing but help ESPN and allow Disney to charge even more of the cable channels. Also, CNN/SI is basically just filling time. They would shut down now, but they want to hold on to the channel so that when they turn on AOL Sports, it's immediately available on a lot of cable systems. If I were those cable systems, I'd shut it off as soon as it became AOL Sports and put something better in its place.

I have a cold. I hate colds. I rarely get them.

On TV they were reporting on how windy it was. HOW WINDY IT WAS. And to prove it, he did what he called his "patented notebook toss". He throws the notepad up and we're supposed to ascertain from how far it flew how windy it was. Apparently not that windy.

Anyhow, Jon Lech Johansen was arrested, or at least charged in Norway recently. This guy was cool. Not just because his name was DVD-Jon, but because he made all the big movie studios look like fools. At the age of 15, he broke the copy protection that DVD's use. Well, the MPAA got mad because a 15-year-old showed them how lame they were. And they got Norway to arrest him. What, "arrest him or we withhold The Haunting from release in your country"? Y'aint missin' jack, folks. Anyhow, they should be suing the company who developed the DVD. But noooo.... go after the kid. (He's 18 now.) Here's more on MSNBC.

There's a song on the country station I listen to. It's called Riding with Private Malone. And it's lame. If you haven't heard it, here's a quick synopsis. This guy gets out of the service and is looking through the paper and comes across the ad for a Chevy for $1,000. Well, turns out it's a classic (a 'vette, I think) and it still runs. He feels guilty only giving her $1,000 for it. Even more interesting, there's a note in the glove box from the woman's son. Apparently before he went off to war, he had the foresight to write a note, just in case he didn't come back, you know. Anyhow, the guy gets the car in working order, all polished up, like brand new. He drives it around and claims that sometimes he can see the military guy sitting next to him in the seat. (huh? You mean like the ghosts at the end of The Haunted Mansion?) And does that apply when he has women in the car, too, or just when he's driving by himself (lonely?). Well, then the guy wrecks the car and blacks out in the process. People who witnessed the crash say a soldier dragged the guy to safety but they never got his name. So let me get this straight... a guy goes and rips off an old lady buying a classic car for far less than it's worth, and then said guy wrecks the car, and the car's original owner, and son of the woman ripped off -- now a ghost -- rescues the guy from the car? That makes no sense. If I were the ghost, I'd be like "Well that's what you get for ripping off my mom and then wrecking my car. Burn, sucker."

And from the lighter side...

After the Great Britain Beer Festival, in London, all the brewery presidents decided to go out for a beer. The guy from Corona sits down and says, "Hey Senor, I would like the world's best beer, a Corona."

The bartender dusted off a bottle from the shelf and gave it to him.

The head of Budweiser said, "I'd like the best beer in the world, give me 'The King Of Beers', a Budweiser."

The bartender gave him one.

The Coors chief said, "I'd like the only beer made with Rocky Mountain spring water, give me a Coors."

The bartender got it.

The Guinness man sat down and stated, "Give me a Coke."

The bartender is a little taken aback, but gave it to him.

The other brewery presidents looked at him and asked, "Why aren't you drinking a Guinness?"

The Guinness president replied, "Well, I figured if you guys aren't drinking beer, neither would I."

The other night I was watching HGTV and as the show went to commercial, the following statistic was flashed up on the screen:

When asked to choose between the two:
40% of men chose white
60% of women chose beige

Uh... doesn't that mean that 60% chose beige regardless of their gender? Guh!

And I recently heard on the radio that people who have had a change of heart often donate their fur coats to PETA. PETA's going to give them to homeless people. (1) No homeless person will get any money begging while wearing an expensive fur coat. (2) Homeless people will probably just sell them for far less than they're worth. It would be a good racket to donate a coat, get the tax write-off, buy it back from some homeless person and do it again.


You know, I'm no big fan of Bank of America myself, but I certainly wouldn't kill myself crashing a plane into it. That stupid kid left a letter supporting Osama Bin Laden.

They're introducing new technologies left and right. I'm looking forward to the home networking stuff. Moxi is a new technology that aims to replace a number of your entertainment devices. Sounds like a nice first step.

MacWorld seems like a disappointment. Granted, I've never owned a Mac, but I'd like to see them do well. I'd like to see them buy Palm, I'd like to see them do deals with car manufacturers for navigation and stuff. What did they do? Introduced a cool looking iMac that's supposedly a good price and well spec'ked that looks like a desk lamp. I think Steve Jobs is spending too much time at Pixar.

And Ford's probably going to announce some factory closures and lay off as many as 20,000 people. So much for the economy.


Argentina devalues its peso. I'm still not sure what all this really means, but hopefully it does something to help their economy.

DVD players will soon support Microsoft's Windows Media Audio. What does this mean? 22 hours of music on a single CD, or the equivalent of 250 albums' worth of music on a single DVD. Rock on.

When will AOL ever be a good deal? Perhaps never. Hey, it's in the article.


From MSNBC: AOL plays the blame game - What a disappointing effort at spin control! That seems to be about the nicest thing one can say regarding the conference call orchestrated on Monday by the crowd at AOL Time Warner, Inc. -- By Christopher Byron

DaimlerChrysler is working with Mitsubishi and Hyundai to create a world engine - a series of engines that are the same, save minor modifications that can be used in a wide variety of cars. Smart = forcing the Mercedes Benz guys with all their intelligence, style and design to create the engine, but then not putting the engine into MB's because it probably won't be powerful enough. I'm not being sarcastic. Way to marshal your forces for the task at hand.

This is cool... watch little trains drive around Southern California.

Disney's using handhelds to allow people with hearing disabilities or who don't speak English better appreciate the park. The handhelds display text in their languages, triggered by specific points during rides and attractions. Smart and cool.

Oh, guess what? Sprint PCS sucks in the Bay Area, Denver, and Los Angeles

Satellite radio's up and running and national advertisers are lining up.

Hey kids, let's get some hard liquor! If 85% of an NBC show is 21 years or older, then it qualifies. Of course, how many 16 year olds do you know with a Neilsen diary? Come to think of it, how many people -- period -- do you know with a Neilsen diary?

Dave Thomas died today. He was the spokesperson for Wendy's and the chairman. Which was kind of cool. Because he seemed like a really nice guy, not something you'd think of when you thought of the head of any large corporation. They've pulled almost all the advertising until after his funeral on Friday.

Levi's is letting you see their Superbowl ad ahead of time. In fact, they're letting you pick it. Where's the fun in that?

And my friend just traded in his Explorer for an Audi TT. Yes! One fewer SUV blocking my view on the freeway.

A news report the other morning told of a stolen truck containing drums of nitric acid. The report went on to state that they didn't believe that the theives were after the chemicals because the facility from which the truck was stolen contained better chemicals. Hold up... you've just told us that the facility has poor security and better chemicals. How do you define "better"? Easier with which to kill our persons when used by a terrorist? If that wasn't bad enough, the report ended reminding people that if they get acid on their skin to immediately wash it off. D'oh and duh.

No more SUV's! No more SUV's! *sigh* Volvo and Saab are moooving with the herd. Damn SUV's. I hate SUV's.But I'm going to have to buy one just so I can see more than 10 feet in front of me on the road. SUV's blow! Volvo plans to highlight safety while Saab, quirky. The story also mentions that Saab has been unable to reach its goal of selling 47,000 vehicles in the U.S., missing it by only 7,000. Here's a hint for Saab... quirky is not a good idea. Ugly will sell more (see Toyota Echo). Ugly and quirky? Well then you've got yourself a Pontiac Aztec. (I thought Pontiac was the sports car division?)

Wait... you're giving me $2,002 in cash? Why? Doesn't it mean that you're just going to raise the prices of your cars by at least $2,002? Yep, GM's giving you $2,002 in cash if you buy a new 2002 car. But 0% interest is gone. It's time to knock over some car dealerships if they're actually passing out real cash. Or just follow new car buyers off the lot and jack 'em for the new car and the two grand.

Jobless rates worst since 1993. And they're not even counting me since I'm not taking unemployment insurance. (I'm contracting... which is code for working part-time, making enough to pay the bills but still feeling unemployed.)

Disney to close 50 more stores and scale back internet operations. Does it need to? It's the only stock in my portfolio worth more now than when I bought it.

Echostar claims Disney is trying to bribe Echostar so that Disney won't lobby against the Echostar/DirecTV deal. Shame on you for trying to bribe them, Disney. I'd rather you just went out and lobbied against it. Not that you were that effective when you lobbied agaist the AOL Time Warner deal.

Apparently someone might or might not have been misappropriating funds within the Department of the Interior. So some judge orders its website shut down? Still not clear on why the judge did it, but apparently it's a pain for vacationers and students.

Why anyone with internet access through another ISP would want to pay to use AOHELL is beyond me. Just can't let go of that terrific @aol.com address you've had for years? Grow up! Guess what? You'll pay $5 more per month for the pleasure. Analysts say that alone could net them more money than the $1.95 increase they recently made all the people dialing in pay.

Yeah, I'd like to rent legally blonde, buy these Twizzlers.. and while you're at it, why don't you give me one of them stereos. After DVD player sales outperformed expectations, Blockbuster Video considers selling other consumer electronics. I think this is interesting. Not sure I have an opinion, but I find it interesting. I got fired from Blockbuster once (a) implying to a visiting manager that we all stole money and (b) paying for a Snapple. We weren't stealing money and if I hadn't paid for the Snapple, I wouldn't have gotten fired.

MacWorld:Apple Users::Christmas:5-year-olds... the holy grail of events have Mackies and Mackettes salivating over what new and exciting product Apple will introduce this year. Me, I'm betting it will be a new line of tatoos. But some people are saying it's a new PDA.

Greedy people run our colleges. If they had been around a few decades ago, you wouldn't be reading this now. Or it would cost you money. (Yeah, who'd pay for this? Get help.)

Is Satellite Radio:Radio::Cable TV:Broadcast TV? I don't think so. With cable TV you get crystal clear versions of the local channels. Satellite Radio just offers you the same songs over and over again without any regard to how those artists are being received in local markets. Not to mention no news, weather or traffic reports. And many of the satellite channels will still have ads, even though you're paying $10-$13.


This picture is funny. Sadly the driver died later at the hospital, but I think the picture is still humorous. Doesn't say whether or not the driver was drunk.

And now I'm feeling lazy...

For Auto sites, content might be king, Home users new targets for hackers, Engineers reconstruct final moments of WTC collapse

Professor Inch would call this "housekeeping"...

Hmmm... blogger.com is dropping its free spell-checker. And I didn't even know there was one. Oh well.

I've gotten email about my spelling of Al Quida or al-queda or whatever. (Yes! Someone's actually reading this!)

Well, I got my spelling from MSNBC. But maybe that wasn't such a good idea. Here's something they mailed me today...

U.S. bombs al-Qaida complex
U.S. warplanes attacked a Taliban compound in Afghanistan based on intelligence that....

WashPost: Allies step up Somalia watch
With members of the al Qaeda terrorist network on the run from Afghanistan and other...

So, I guess if they don't care how it's spelled, I certainly don't. No matter what, they're evil. Stupid, clueless evil people that kill dogs in training and then kill actual people once they're done training. I swear, they're like Los Angeles street gangs without the honor and the Mafia without the class and respect.

Anyhow, more new stuff later today. Why do I let it pile up? Feel free to submit articles you find interesting.

Happy New Year!

Ever listened to the radio, liked a song, but then the DJ came back, talked about how great the song was, then went into several minutes of commercials, then a new DJ came on and you never got to find out who sang the song? New technology is being unvieled that will allow you to hold your cell phone to the speaker and four seconds later, your phone tells you what the title is and who the artist is.

Greed is bad. Capitalism is bad. It's the tool of the great satan! Big corporations are the work of capitalist dogs! Uh, hello? Kettle? Al Quida, Inc. (Terrorists suck!)

So does this mean that in the movies we'll see drug dealers with suitcases full of euros? The Euro launched across the European Union in many places except Britain and two other countries. And apparently they have a bill that's worth about US$440. It'd be fun to walk around with some of those.

I knew it, I knew it, I knew it. Job sites produce few jobs. 'nuff said.

People in the bay area may no longer be able to see NBC unless they have cable or satellite. NBC just dropped its affiliateship with a big station in the number five market. Giving further credence to my friend's theory... says soon NBC will drop all of its non-owned affiliates and buy the rest of PAX that it doesn't own and basically start over with a new network where it owns all the stations.

And finally, the state AG's are doing something right. They're pushing to require opt-in instead of opt-out on giving away or selling your information. (Now if they'd just lay off Microsoft.)

And this last story was submitted by my wife. There's so many things wrong here... Nebraska... WalMart... dead people as Christmas gifts. The short version is that some woman dies. Her husband has her cremated. Then he goes to Walmart in Nebraska and buys a vase or something and pours her ashes into it. He then wraps it up and drops it in the mail to his sister-in-law. The woman gets the vase, notices it's got a crack and takes it back to Walmart. Apparently none of the ashes were leaking out because she never looks inside. Nor does Walmart. They give her a new vase or urn or whatever (can you buy an urn at Walmart?) and toss the old one in the trash. Happy with herself, she tells the guy who then tells her that her sister was inside. So then it's time to dig through the dumpster to find the dead relative. Don't believe me? How could I make something like this up?