No news is ________ news.

No big news today; Mr. Bernhard just wanted to sit in at our meeting and hear our story lists. They're really trying to shift our coverage of "hard news," or at least their very narrow definition of the term. Typically, that means news not found anywhere else -- even if that's because it wasn't a big enough deal to warrant coverage in competing publications. Needless to say, this is not the sort of thing that gets me excited -- and contradicts just about everything our editors have been telling us since we got here.

But if that's what they want, that's what I'll have to do. That sort of news is a lot easier to do, but is completely irrelevant in this market.

Dia dos Namorados

For those of you who don't know, today is Dia dos Namorados, or the Brazilian version of Valentines Day. and if you're dating a Brazilian, that pretty much makes it Valentines Day for you, too.

Closure?

Here's an excerpt from an e-mail everyone in the newsroom received this morning:

Wanted to let you know that Kent Bernhard plans to sit in on our staff
meeting tomorrow morning, via conference call.

I'd like to please ask that everyone make a special effort to get here
for a 9 a.m. sharp start time.

Kent is vice president for editorial forparent company American City Business Journals and almost never sits in on a newsroom-only meetings -- at least, he hasn't during my time here or at the Phoenix business journal.

Even if this doesn't mean layoffs or salary cuts, his presence augurs big changes for the job. On the bright side, at least we'll end the agonizing uncertainty. I'll keep you posted.

Damn dirty apes

Police hunt 'criminal' chimp
World domination always begins with a few minor burglaries.

Perhaps I was a bit too hasty...

It turns out the parking snafu was an adminstrative mistake brought on by our accounting system going down last week. It's fixed now, but that doesn't mean we're out of the woods yet. Stay tuned...

More photos

These are from our trip to Napa last weekend.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

It may be worse than we thought. Today when I left the parking garage, I and other Business Journal employers discovered that our employer has not paid the monthly parking garage fee.

Sarah L. had to complain loudly to get her reimbursement check, which hadn't been paid in nearly three weeks.

And Andrea overheard an editor asking our payroll department why a freelancer hasn't been paid.

Those are the types of things business reporters look for when trying to determine whether a company is about to go under.

Trillian is back!

Trillian has finally fixed a minor but annoying bug with Yahoo Messenger, which means I'm once again universally connected to all the IM services at once. Woo-hoo!

(Yes, I am a geek.)

Suit filed over ReplayTV features

Well it's nice to know that someone is looking after my rights as a consumer.

Six months...

It's official -- Andrea and I have been dating for six months now. Happy semi-anniversary, sweetie!

Apple bites

I've never really been a big partisan when it comes to operating systems; I championed the Mac operating system in the 1980s and still use one regularly at work. At the same time, I have the lastest versions of Windows XP in my laptop and home PCs. As far as I'm concerned, people should use whichever operating system feels right for them and lets them do the things they want to do.

But it really irks me when some igorant Mac user -- particularly one who doesn't know much about computers to begin with -- starts popping off about how superior his beloved Apple is. I'm talking about the little smirks when a Windows machine crashes (because as we all know, Apples NEVER crash -- I reboot my iMac twice a day for the fun of it), the snarky comment when a Web news outlet issues a new Windows virus alert (like most software developers, virus writers ignore the Macintosh) and the clicking tongues when Microsoft attracts more antiturst scrutiny (Steve Jobs, apparently, is not a control freak who wants to control every aspect of computer from hardware to software to retail experience).

Every system has its strengths and weaknesses, and people will naturally have different opinions about the best system for them. But why do Apple users have a fervor unmatched in the Windows world? Because when you're in the majority, you don't have to be so defensive.

Buying a Mac doesn't just mean paying more for your computer. Buying a Mac means you're stuck with one vendor for your machine, the operating system, nearly all of the software and most connected peripherals. So this is freedom from a monoploy? Buying a Mac means having to adjust the memory allocation for each application separately. This is user friendliness? Buying a Mac means having to make sure your printer fonts match the ones installed on your computer. This is simplicity?

Don't get me wrong. Apple makes some elegant, brilliant computers and software. That's something that no single company in the Windows world has yet duplicated, simply because of the split hardware/software nature of the PC arena. And OS X is a nice operating system, pretty to look at and rock solid to use. But I, like 97 percent of computer buyers, want choice. I like choosing from dozens upon dozens of different computer systems, made possible becuse Microsoft embraced the concept of licensing the operating system. I like being able to find software for almost every whim, made possible because users flocked to the idea of a low-cost PC and created a wide audience for Windows developers -- who in turn created a vast array of software. I like having a wide array of peripherals that extend the life of my machine and make it more useful over time.

So you like your new Apple iBook? Good for you. It's a well-designed machine, and is probably worth its premium price.

But for most of us, the world is a lot bigger than four computer models, or for that matter, a single PC manufacturer. Isn't that what Thinking Different is all about?

Crap, crap crap

Well, the bad news is filtering in. Both of the editors in that videoconference look extremely upset, and I just heard that our sunscription levels have fallen nearly 30 percent in the last year. This is not good.

Dun-dun-dunnnnnn.

Our publisher and all of our editors are meeting with one of the corporate guys from our Charlotte headquarters. This can't be good.

Reading tea leaves

Our publisher announced some mid-year "budget revisions" yesterday that everyone here is interpreting as "layoffs." I'm not worried about getting let go myself, but I do worry about Andrea for a variety of reasons. Sure, she's among the most talented graphics people here, but this office isn't exactly run in a logical way.

I'm more worried about having to take a salary cut, which would really stink in this area. At any rate, I'm posting my resume on HotJobs this weekend to see whetherI get any bites.

Will game makers' universe expand as prices contract?

How cool is this? My video game story appeared on the regular business news section of MSNBC. Woo-hoo

It's a small world...

Here are the Disneyland photos!

That was easy...too easy.

OK, comments appear to be working again...

Comment system upgrade

YACCS has upgraded its comment system, rendering my old code dysfunctional. (One of the major drawbacks of Web services). I'm working on some fixes and hope to have comments back online soon.

Top story again!

My video game story made it to the top of the MSNBC local news page this week... Woo-hoo!

Happiest place on earth?

Well, here I am in Orange County. Yesterday we went to Disneyland. We meant to go the entire 14 hours, but were so exhausted by 10 p.m. that we had to go back to the hotel. I guess we're all just getting old. We'll have some "before and after" pictures up on the Web site soon.

Today, Chad and Susan are going to Magic Mountain while Andrea and I go to California Adventure. Chad is more gung-ho on the rides at Magic Mountain, but Andrea's not much of a roller coaster person, so we figured it would be easier to split up for the day. I actually like the complete Disneyland experience -- the shops, the thematic details, etc. -- so the idea of Magic Mountain never really thrilled me. (I did want to ride that new roller coaster, The Goliath, though.) We're planning to take today a lot slower, meandering around the park rather than going from ride to ride. Hopefully we won't be as tired. California Adventure is a much smaller park, too, so we'll probably be able to see more of it.

I think this trip is going to hot my wallet pretty hard. I forgot how quickly everything adds up. But I'd say the experience is well worth the money.