This is one I'm kind of interested in... See, AOL Time Warner owns some cable companies. It also owns most of a company called Time Warner Entertainment. That company is also partially owned by AT&T, who owns a lot of cable companies. Well TWE owns more cable companies, along with Warner Bros. and HBO. But A&T is merging its cable companies with Comcast's cable companies to create a new cable company, AT&T Comcast. But the government says that AT&T has to get rid of its stake in TWE. But the price it's offering AOL Time Warner wants is less than AOL Time Warner thinks it's worth. AOL Time Warner has no urgency, it's in AT&T's court. But, there are other cable companies that AOL Time Warner only owns part of. The people that own the other part of those cable systems are upset with AOL Time Warner's stock price. What's worse, if AT&T can't get a price they're happy with for their share in TWE, they're threatening to take the shares public and let anyone buy them. AOL Time Warner really doesn't want that. So, it's thinking about taking Warner Bros. and HBO and moving them to AOL Time Warner and taking the non-TWE cable systems and moving them to TWE. Then they want to make TWE its own company (made up entirely of cable companies) and that would make everyone happy. But the hard part is understanding how much all that's worth for all the people who own little private pieces of it. Confused? It's like a bad soap opera.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/783813.asp

"Feature by Sony" rejected by CBS Marketwatch after being rejected by NYTimes.com recently...
http://www.mediapost.com/dtls_dsp_news.cfm?newsId=162769

AOL backing away from IM interoperability pledges
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-945909.html

Don't dump AOL yet.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/02_30/b3793062.htm

Yeah, AOL made a profit. But, in order to keep my stock options from ever being worth anything, they quickly added that they're being investigated by the SEC.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-946145.html

WorldCom Executives will probably be arrested.
http://www.crn.com/sections/BreakingNews/breakingnews.asp?ArticleID=36549

Broadband by plane... this is interesting, using a circling plane to provide internet connectivity...
http://www.electricnews.net/news.html?code=8261275

Also interesting... a device that will help you remember people's names by recording snippets of your conversations with them...
http://www.msnbc.com/news/784071.asp

Stop letting baseball be a monopoly!
http://www.msnbc.com/news/782826.asp

Sprint PCS sucks in Houston
http://www.epinions.com/content_70300438148

Woo hoo! AOL lawsuits. Go get 'em. And get me some money!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32454-2002Jul19.html

Who would want to run AOL? I'll do it. Of course, they wouldn't like my style. First thing I'd do is make nice with Microsoft. Then Apple. And THEN I'd go back and start kissing some Time Warner cable butts. Then I would start calling it America Online again and try to get as many people to connect to it as possible, even through their own dialups elsewhere. Kind of do sort of a cable TV model like Real's done. No one's accusing Real of a monopoly despite having content only available there. And I'd get rid of the horid "Welcome" and "AOL Today" screens.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-945203.html

Now this is cool... I've posted links about this before, but they're getting closer and closer to TV's and computer monitors printed on pieces of plastic only millionths of an inch thick. They say 2004-2005ish...
http://msnbc.com/news/782800.asp

And maybe you want a camera to go along with that? Check out Sony's new digital camera... smaller than a credit card.
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-945074.html

What's the future hold for Yahoo! And how's it doing? An interesting piece from someone at the Washington Posts who asks questions like these.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21833-2002Jul17.html

Yellow no more.. ABC goes blue... and red... and green... kinda peacock like? Maybe. Expect lots of circles.
http://www.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/TV/07/17/television.abc.reut/index.html

This morning... Apparently AOL's been using questionable methods to keep its stock up. And Pittman's in the middle of it. I'm not surprised (though bummed considering all the underwater options I own)... basically recording all kinds of stuff as ad sales that really shouldn't have been.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21983-2002Jul17.html

This afternoon... and Pittman resigns.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/782119.asp

Lame! Yahoo! Turns out they're doing a really crappy job of filtering out scripts from people's emails. They mean well, they want to prevent someone from emailing you a virus. But they do a dumb job, changing entire words in the process. I had a lot safer and more elegant solution four years ago when I was trying to ban certain words (and/or still let myself post them) on a bulletin board I was running.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-944315.html

Wooly bully... A giant tusk found in Colorado. Neat. Good picture. (Know what is also fun? The Dinosaur Digs expansion pack for Zoo Tycoon. Lets you add Wooly Mammoths and other prehistoric creatures to your zoos. (Though I'm still a little annoyed that one of the prehistoric cats jumped out of its cage and ate one of my maintenance workers recently.)
http://www.msnbc.com/news/781306.asp
http://www.zootycoon.com/

This is a great article on why the bill the Senate passed (which will ultimately be combined with a similar bill passed by the house and eventually signed by the president into law) is worthless: Stock options. Stock options cost the company something, but they don't have to report anything. Coke is the only company that's stepped up to fence and said they will start reporting stock options. That should make them more stable and make their numbers more realistic than anyone else's. Which is why I'm considering buying some Coke stock.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/781188.asp

We still can't get Sledgehammer on TV, but now they're coming up with shows for cats? Yes, that's right... Meow TV... http://www.adage.com/news.cms?newsId=35473

The Horror! Sprint PCS sucks in Detroit... http://www.epinions.com/content_69724769924

Lower Manhattan Development Corporation... this is pretty cool... six presented plans on how to redo the WTC site... http://www.renewnyc.com/index.shtml

NY Times reports Intel, Verizon, AT&T, IBM and Cingular contemplating a joint venture to create wireless hotspots... http://news.com.com/2100-1040-944125.html

The Missing Piece... Pentagon with damage section excised: http://www.msnbc.com/c/0/35/672/10x7/011214wtc_cleanup_01.jpg

The WTC Cross: http://www.msnbc.com/c/0/35/672/10x7/011031wtc_cleanup_02.jpg

AOL Watch: Robert Pittman might not return to New York when his tour of duty in Dulles is complete.

Interesting: Hobo Signs, Warchalking, Pubchalking, Chalkchalking

The Suck of Sprint: Sprint (not PCS) drops 1,100 employees, turns off DSL in some cities

Sorry, it's been a long time since I've posted. I'm sure you're really sad. All two of you. Or none since one of you is in Kazakhstan and the other one never reads my blog.

This is an interesting article on the Chineses' space ambitions (http://www.msnbc.com/news/723642.asp). I thought it was an interesting examination of China's potential motives. Hey, I wish them well. Space travel is pretty cool.

The stupid Feds probably will keep rates low (http://www.msnbc.com/news/777691.asp) into 2003. Thanks for nothing. Jerks.

Kylie Minogue's the latest one to make a music video/commercial for Bally's. (http://www.mediapost.com/dtls_dsp_news.cfm?newsId=137540)

Uh... ok... these are semi-funny. But the author shouldn't be described as a "Fireworks pro."
http://www.valleyofthegeeks.com/Features/BannerAds.html and http://www.valleyofthegeeks.com/Features/BannerAds2.html

I'm no Fireworks pro and I think mine are better: http://www.lakeave.org/tools/test/james/ads.html

I'm so glad I cancelled my NextCard last year... NextBank was found to be insolvent and the Feds tried to sell the NextCard accounts the bank held but no one wanted to buy the accounts. Probably too many people ran too much money up on their cards and are gonna file bankruptcy. So, people still have to pay their balances, but their cards stopped working today. (http://news.com.com/2100-1017-942675.html)


The stupidest thing I've heard in a long time... House OKs guns in cockpits (http://www.msnbc.com/news/778680.asp) Isn't the cockpit one of the most dangerous places to have a gun? I mean, in general, a pressurized plane isn't the best environment for one, but with all those windows, it seems like an even worse place. I can see it now... a group takes over a plane by making its air supply system pump in a gas that disables everyone. Then they gain access to the cockpit and have guns conveniently waiting for them to keep the passengers in line when they wake up. We have way too many guns in this country and airplanes is not another great place to have them. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Speaking of...

Sprint PCS sucks in Detroit

sprint PCS sucks in Denver

Here's how your perfectly safe email address gets into the hands of the spammers, even if you're very careful about who you give it to... Clueless spammers has created a map... it's insane and huge. (And is 800k so it will take awhile to download...)