It's about time,

Senators members seek spying probe.

Time Warner to Sell 5% AOL Stake to Google for $1 Billion - New York Times

Microsoft more ethical than Google?

From the NY Times:

Google will also make a special effort to incorporate AOL video programming in its expanding video search section and it will feature links to AOL videos on the video search home page. These links will not be marked as advertising.

An executive involved in the talks said Time Warner asked Microsoft to give AOL similar preferred placement in advertising and in its Web index and that Microsoft refused, calling the request unethical.

The article doesn't say whether Google does this in other cases, but if money is being exchanged for links, clearly those links should be labled as advertising. Google is a media company, after all, and transparency with users is a hallmark of media ethics. You'd think that Google would have more appreciation for the value of user trust.

Another sign of the coming apocalypse

There's something seriously unbalanced in the global economy when the U.S. can afford to outsource video game-playing.

Coolest Christmas lights display ever

This guy obviously has a lot of time on his hands and perhaps a very understanding wife.

Skype has video!

Nice. This may be the feature I need to start using this nice little service as my primary instant messaging client. If only it had Yahoo interoperability.

Update: With video, Skype's memory usage has shot way up on my machine (to about 25K). Now I see why Yahoo Messenger hogged up so much memory compared with the old Skype. Of course, Skype 2.0 is still in beta, so we'll see.

A Recipe for Newspaper Survival in the Internet Age

A pretty interesting discussion on Slashdot about the future of my industry.

Poynter had a similar piece a few days ago.

I've been saying this for a few months now, but the problem isn't journalism, blogs or the Web. It's newspapers' inability to adapt its advertising model to the Web.

They've been too worried about how to get people to pay for the product rather than looking at how to capitalize on readers' migration to the Web. Google and Yahoo don't charge subscription fees for their basic services and still manage to make a bundle. Why can't newspapers?

The Poynter piece has two suggestions (among several) that I think are particularly on-point:

- Install Web analytics and ad-management systems that enable advertising managers to identify clusters of content (or clusters of users) that can attract the highest possible prices on a CPM basis.

- Hire people who can sell online advertising effectively -- as a separate buy, rather than bundled with print ads.

Free online backups

I'm not sure how the folks at Mozy are going to make any money at this, but it's a wonderful, easy-to-use service. Automatic continuous backups of up to 2 gigabytes of data. It's not something you'd use to mirror your hard drive, but it's great for your most important data -- in my case, OneNote interviews and Word documents.

I have yet to see any backup system -- paid or free -- that's so easy to use. I hope they stay in business.

Maybe they'll come up with a paid option. Or better yet, maybe Google will buy them.

Bad TV news

It looks like there won't be a fourth season for Arrested Development, the best comedy on television now and possibly one of the best in the last 10 years. Sigh.

(The Arrested Development news is at the end of the story.)

Visual Studio Express -- for free!

Microsoft is wooing developers with this one-year promo. This limited-functionality "express" version is perfect for beginners like me.

Yahoo Maps pranks Google

Funny.

Porn ads are showing up on my site!

Tripod apparently has no problem putting up links to "Jessica Alba naked" on my site, just because the site mentions her. And this is on top of the annoying popups and the sidebar stunt in IE.

I need a new Web host. Any good free ones out there?

Web site goodness

For you Firefox users, here is a very handy extension that lets you load IE-optimized sites in a Firefox tab. Nice for sites with ActiveX controls you need or for clueless designers that insist on making their pages IE-only.

And for all browsers, Yahoo has updated its map service to better compete with Google. Unlike Google, Yahoo uses Flash. It's a little slower, but has some nice features that make it easier to plan routes and find nearby points of interest.

One thing I don't like is that printed-out routes aren't as easy to read now (the old style had giant L and R circles that made it easier to see turns while driving -- I know you're not supposed to do that, but still!). It's still in beta, so maybe they're still working on the speed issue and route printout style.

I use my TomTom GPS software for that kind of thing now, but Yahoo Maps is still nice for pre-planning and finding places not in TomTom's database. And since TomTom updates its maps only when upgrading the software, Yahoo and Google are sometimes more accurate.

Tulsa Newspaper Carrier Admits to Killing Two Customers

As a former carrier for (now-defunct) rival Tulsa Tribune, I always knew those Tulsa World delivery boys were no good.

I want, I want

Assuming that the volume control is a real knob and not just a rotating disc like Logitech's past models, this might be the coolest keyboard ever.

Programming in the key of C

Well, I'm killing time in the DeAnza computer lab. My presence is required by my C Programming class even though I finished the lab assignment last week. I suspect the assignments are going to get harder later on in the semester.

I must say, I really like structured languages over the old version of BASIC I used in high school. I'm told more recent versions, such as Visual BASIC, are more structured.

Anyway, I'm wondering how long it would take to get a computer science degree, or at least enough of a background to get admitted into a CS-related master's program.

Looks like Google is up to something big.

Google Secure Access Installer

Earthquake!

But not the Big One.

Doubletalk

Interesting feature of Google Talk: you can be logged in from two machines simutaneously. If someone sends a message, you'll get it on both machines. Not sure how useful this is, but it's interesting, perhaps a feature of the Jabber protocol it uses.

Google fixed the bridge!

Apparently, Google Maps and Google Earth are using separate satellite databases.

The new Mill Avenue (Tempe, AZ) bridge (according to Google Earth):




The "old" bridge (according to Google Maps):


Speaking of Google Earth, the firm has posted some overlay imports showing Hurricane Katrina damage. Maybe this will get somebody in Washington off his butt.

How cool is this?

Skype now forwards incoming Intenret calls to a regular phone. You have to pay SkypeOut rates for the forwarded calls, but still -- very cool.