And in the continuing goal of fairness... AT&T posts higher than expected loss

A senator recently introduced several bills that would pay to protect government computers by establishing new groups dedicated to security and privacy.

And I thought Sprint PCS sucked. This guy's cell company sucks so bad he can't even figure out which company he's with.

This is cool... 10 things you should know or do when dealing with real estate brokers.

It looks like there won't be another rate cut. Or there wasn't another rate cut. I'm not sure. But that seems to indicate that things are looking up, even if not yet improving.

Cheney is an ass. I just know we're going to have a Democrat after GWB's 8 years are up. I wouldn't vote for Cheney.

I missed the state of the union speech, but he got interrupted by applause 70 times in a 48 minute speech. So how long was the speech? 4 hours?

Are you on crack? Someone asked that at an Enron staff meeting. I don't understand how that made it on to the tape, but it's funny.

I never liked Motley Fool. My dad said they had a lot of great content, but I was never interested in being part of a site that labelled me a fool. I do own two "Dummies" books, but that's a little different, in my opinion. Motley Fool should offer a second, identical site with a better name. I'd use it. But if you are a "fool", you'll soon be paying $5 a month to access their message boards. That should cut down on the fake press releases, right?

Two stories in one... Conan will stay with NBC and The WB will add two hours to its weekly schedule by repeating shows on early Sunday evenings.

What's the most annoying thing about your co-workers? Their stupid "Who Let the Dogs Out" ringtone.

And if you're really bored, here's a dumb new game... Googlewhack.

I just have to share... I thought this was too funny...

"Dear Colleague:

We asked architects, engineers and builders what they need to know about building with wood."

* 'I want an up-to-date publication that will inspire me and my clients.'

* 'one with lots of technical drawings and information about wood.'"

It goes on to say...

"Recent articles include 'Wood I-joist floors - tips for best use'"

and

"As a subscriber, you'll have access to (on their website):

* links to other helpful wood-related sites"

"Recent technical advances in laminating, preserving and building with wood."

I know to some people, building is a serious business. I someday want to build my own home (or at least have input on the design and let someone else do the actual construction). But I think it's funny some of the marketing people use... but it just hooked me on "One with lots of technical drawings and information about wood." In case you're interested, it was an ad for Wood Design & Building Magazine.

Whelp, gotta go to Lowes to buy some wooden chairs to assemble.

Ok, I just have to ask... who can watch this many basketball games? The new schedule's out and I don't even think my friend Steve can watch that many games.

A cigarette company is whining because it says those anti-smoking commercials make cigarette companies look bad.

Here's an interesting story on how gas prices are destined to be less and less consistent and how smaller independent gas companies will cease to exist if big companies get their way.

Opinion: Michael Graves killed KMart. An interesting article on how Target's success sped KMart's fall. My favorite part is where they say they don't feel "cheap" and "poor" when they go into Target. In elementary school, it was a big insult to say "I saw you at KMart." Of course, no one ever asked "How did you see them? Were you there too?"

A sign that the economy might be getting better, especially as it relates to online advertising... Offline companies are increasing their web ad buys.

Microsoft says Netscape failed by AOL mismanaged it.

And Business2.0, an AOL company questions why Netscape even still exists.

As of Friday, the Superbowl was still only 80% sold. And only 3 of them are dot-coms.

Gone: Roswell (at least temporarily) and Ellen (production shut down... why do people keep giving this woman tv shows?)

I may have posted about this before, but I feel sorry for this guy... installs Seti@Home, gets sued for $415k.

And one last story... some guy got kidnapped. Of course, he and his wife are expecting their first child. Isn't that always the way? And the terrorists/kidnappers managed to snap up "kidnapperguy@hotmail.com" Time for some spamming!

And Kevin says I'm too hard on AOL. I think that's what he's saying. Of course, I think it was just an opportunity to send me an email that contained "bastards at Dick Clark" twice in one sentance.

Greetings, all. Before I begin, let me give a nod to a friend. He also makes observations, but with less news, more opinion.

Now, let's dive in. So, what Simpson's character are you?

It turns out that if you have a hearing aid, you probably can't use a cell phone. What's worse, if someone uses one near you, you hear loud noises as a result. That sucks.

Some lame-oid actually got a patent for downloading a piece of a song. Lame lame lame. On the other hand, they're suing my former and now defunct employer, among others. Amazon already paid them hush money to go away. To quote Nelson, ^ha _ha!

In the interest of fairness, I have to report that Cingular also added fewer subscribers than they expected in the fourth quarter.

Attention all geeks! You can now buy a Gateway PC customized especially for playing Sony's online game Everquest. Geek

In the "if it weren't Microsoft it'd be news" department... Microsoft reorgs MSN and UltimateTV and stuff and someone sues Microsoft.

Actually, in that last one, I want to delve a little deeper. AOL is suing Microsoft because it says unfair business practices deprived Netscape of lots of revenue. Ok, first off, there are plenty of free and shareware programs out there that do the same thing as other programs that you can buy at Best Buy. But they aren't made by Microsoft, so they don't get noticed. Secondly, anyone who wanted to could get Netscape for free. Only stupid people paid for Netscape. Third, Netscape has gotten progressively worse as a program. You can't blame your own lameness on Microsoft. And if that weren't enough, AOL put its own gain ahead of all by bundling Microsoft's Internet Explorer with AOL. Because AOL's sheer size, that led to a lot higher adoption rates of IE. Which in turn depressed Netscape, even after AOL owned Netscape. Which seems to make AOHELL partially to blame for Netscape's demise. That and the use of Java. Ugh! So for AOL to now sue Microsoft is lame. But they'll win because they're on the east coast and skilled whiners. Did I mention that NETSCAPE SUCKS? Netscape always sucked. Ever since version 3. It got bigger and bigger and bigger. It moved slower and slower. I can't even run Netscape 6 on my old computer because it uses frigging Java and is slower than a dog. Repeat after me. Microsoft is evil but Netscape is dumb and AOL is eviler. I remember clearly the day that I said to my then co-workers "Wouldn't it suck if someday I actually tried Internet Explorer and liked it? That would suck. I'll always use Netscape. I'll never switch to the dark side." Of course, we now know that there's a place darker than the dark side. And its name is AOHELL.

This is kind of interesting... they took a town in Sweden and wired it to work like the next generation of cell phones would and invited companies to advertise on the phones. Lots of people took the bait.

I don't understand all the network swapping that's going on. Nor do I really care all that much. Except that I can't believe anyone would hire that Gretchen chick (why the long face?) and I guess this is kinda big, because it's Connie Chung. (Leaving ABC for CNN.) Now it's just like big companies kicking sand at one another.

And an interesting article on how the Israelis are picking the wrong targets and how they should go after the propagandizing Palestinian media outlets.

Speaking of sucks to be you... stand up before you flush the toilet on a plane. (submitted by Fady)

And lastly... XXXChurch... the #1 Christian Porn website. (submitted by Tim)

I think spacemonkeymafia.com might just be cooler than Disney's Californa Adventure, which said I was stupid "Cogsworth" from Beauty and the Beast.

You are ... Scorpio

Take the Simpsons Quiz @ Space Monkey Mafia dot com

First, I need to clear a few things up.

First off, I admit it. I let the dogs out. I'm sorry. Stop asking.

Secondly, Amy, sorry I got your birthday wrong. I blame Microsoft. Outlook kept saying it was your birthday.

Third, we're hoping to get a house. If you don't like the news, maybe the trials and tribulations involved in that will be of interest to you.

And now, the news.

MGM has announced it's putting itself up for sale. Yeah, because we need more consolidation. I thought AOL Time Warner already owned most of it. I expect that it won't take long for someone to come along and buy MGM. They're only asking for 7 billion. (Even I don't know if I'm being sarcastic.)

Soon, you'll be able to do more at the ATM. Buy tickets, watch ads (yay!) and more.

Why aren't more people outraged over what happened at Enron asks this pretty good opinion piece on MSNBC.

It's like a shining light at the end of the tunnel... Will wonders never cease? Happy happy joy joy. Hear ye, hear ye... Sprint PCS announces fourth quarter led to fewer new customers and less revenue than expected. (By the way, Sprint PCS sucks in Detroit and San Diego.)

While we'll never get our flying cars, this guy thinks we're going to get jet packets. Or personal helicopters. His invention flew for 19 seconds. And looks neat.

And my good man Jon Stewart is going to host the grammys again. I used to not be able to stand Stewart, but now my wife turns on The Daily Show on Comedy Central all the time and I'm able to appreciate his comic timing as well as a really well done show.

WOO HOO! New Wallace and Gromit mini-eps to hit the internet. Would you like some cheese?

And in the funnier side of things... The inventor of the CD says that if you put copy-protection on it, you shouldn't be able to put the Compact Disc logo on it.

Kmart today filed for chapter 11. Martha Stewart might also pull her line, a contract clause would allow her to do so. And it recently got removed from the S&P 500. I never liked K-Mart. It always felt dirty. And the people who worked there were rude. One time we went there and we got to the register and tried to use our credit card and suddenly something happened. Their computer system went down and the cashier (probably 12 years old, chewing gum) asks "So are you going to pay with cash or a check?" We vowed never to return. (I snuck back the next day because I needed that red shirt for my Gilligan costume for a party, but after that, never again.) Interesting note... K-Mart, Wal-Mart and TargetMart, er, Target, were all founded in the same year.

And in sad news... Talk Magazine to shut down. Can't say as that I ever cared or read the magazine, but it's a bummer when things get pulled after such short runs. Was it a bad idea, bad timing, bad execution or bad marketing?

Regis won't host daytime "Millionaire". Will he be out of a millionaire job completely?

And Doritos won't advertise in superbowl. They said they're going to spend more on internet advertising instead. I dunno... is that wise? Is an animated character named Clive better for selling Doritos than that Ally chick getting knocked over by flying chips?

Speaking of Superbowl, Fox is about to have a fire sale. Or we'll be seeing a bunch of ads for "That 80's Show"...

The Golden Globes were held recently. Usually I say these awards are more bogus than most awards because the foreign journalists love gifts, but Moulin Rouge picked up 3. Hooray.

Speaking of awards shows... Nokia has just announced a new line of $20k phones. Why are these two relevant? Because these phones will probably be the newest thing sported by phony celebrities who talk about helping the less fortunate and giving to charity while they wear $20k phones around their necks on little chains that Nokia will no doubt offer. (Or maybe I should beat them to the punch and design some.)

Amazon.com posted a profit. I don't know if that's a real profit or a made-up one, but it's great news for those of us who had driving to the mall.

And lastly... another opinion piece from MSNBC. A great job of disecting what happened in "Black Hawk Down" and in Somalia originally.

Heather, I don't consider your RAV4 one of those evil SUV's I hate so much. I can pretty much see around a RAV4 in most circumstances. Plus, I'd have to give you a waiver anyway as a friend.

There's a company in England that's been pretty successful at getting partnering with existing grocery stores to deliver groceries. They're about to launch in Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington. I totally miss home delivery of groceries. Stupid Webvan. Had to go and ruin HomeGrocer. So sad. Boycott Borders Books, the same guy that started it started Webvan. Anyhow, you can write to that company in England at this address: online@tesco.co.uk and beg them to come to delivery down here with Ralph's. That is, I mean you should write to them!

The Postal service reports that they are testing out the Segway scooter-things.

What really happened at Enron? I think this article does a good job of laying out how many people screwed up and how it may result in the downfall of other companies as well.

Finally... airlines have agreed to match luggage to people. Was that really so difficult? They claim it could lead to delays. I have another suggestion... start making the checkin areas secure. You check in, end up in a lounge. You can't leave. It has its own bathrooms and everything. Once you go in there, your luggage goes on the plane. Then you wait in comfort until your plane is ready for you to board. Then you hop on and take off.

And this is kinda cool.... Control your home remotely... on the other hand, think of the hacker possibilities. (My friend says that it would be very easy to hack the OnStar thing that unlocks your car doors remotely, so this sounds like a piece of cake to crack.)

Survivor audiences down, yeah, it's not flashy and new. But for those of us watching, it's still a lot of fun. It amazes me that they hadn't yet started shooting on September 11 (they were ready to go to Jordan) and yet they're launching the fourth season on February 28th. Is it just me, or is that too soon? And how soon until Weakest Link has a Survivor-losers edition? Well, besides the one they already had with just the first-season cast? And did anyone see "The Chamber"? That show is nuts.

I recently read an article that claims that the war will be between Apple and Microsoft. I disagree. I think Apple is a non-starter. Sure they're the only consumer alternative to Microsoft and sure they're a company you are evil if you don't love (according to rabid Mac fans... wait... that's redundant). But I really don't see Apple as a competitor to Microsoft. AOHELL, now they're a competitor.

And lots of people are leaving Nintendo. It's a pretty big Changing of the guard. Should be interesting to see how the future plays out for that company, now that Microsoft has decided to go after them as well. (Why didn't Microsoft just buy Nintendo, keep it the same, but shape its future towards compatibility? If they had just kept their name off it, it seems like it would have been well-embraced by the gaming community. I know the XBox is apparently being well received, but there will always be anti-Microsoft folks.)

New Napster launches... Yawn.

And half of all online shopping is done from work. I can believe that. I pretty much shop at work. That's where I am when I'm thinking about buying stuff, the connection is fast and I'm usually in a buying mood after lunch.

The amount of hacking has decreased lately. A lot of people had been expecting a hacking war against Afghanistan and the Taliban, similar to the U.S.-China hacking wars, but I guess the technology just isn't there to attack.

This is an article about a California company helping the Federated States of Micronesia (607 islands) go from 8 phones per every 100 people to advanced cell phones (internet, etc.) for everyone. More importantly, it talks about how some islands have as few as 50 people. I think I want to live there. Once they get cell phones.

A big "DUH"... Phones and handhelds converging.

And lastly, funny ads are back. Subway ads don't count. Henry, Clay Henry. Catchy. But lame. But also effective, been craving Subway more lately. Almost ready to even try the Veggie Delight to see if I can actually lose weight. Not that I can afford to eat there as often as Jared.

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?