currently on deep thought

Saying Is Believing

By shempzilla, May 5, 2008

About a year ago, I wrote an article here on DT analyzing the high-def DVD war and predicting an eventual win for Blu-ray. Despite the fact that I was completely and totally correct, I am not here to brag (although I won’t pass up the opportunity, either). In the course of that article, I poked some fun at the world of technology analysts:

So, here’s the part where I play “tech analyst,” which is to say that I will make something up and present it to you as fact. I will even put it into blurb form so that newspapers can use it and quote me as an expert.

Ironically, it seems that this has worked far better than I had imagined. For reasons I won’t get into, I was recently visiting the online directory site ZoomInfo. While I was there, I decided to have a little fun and search for my own name, just to see what might come up. Among the accurate results was this tidbit:

Now, to be fair, they use some kind of automatic crawler bot to aggregate a lot of their information, which appears to pretty much take at face value anything it is told.¹ I agree that this is a good idea, as we all know that the Internet contains only 100% truth.² I…
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shempzilla's Avatar shempzilla posted this on May 5, 2008
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NY Times: Microsoft walks away from Yahoo bid

By Nick, May 3, 2008

Well, there you go.

The New York Times reports that after months of wrangling, Microsoft has walked away from its attempt to purchase Yahoo.¹ The reason? Microsoft and Yahoo couldn’t come to terms on a price, so instead of launching a long and difficult proxy fight, Microsoft decided to give up on its takeover bid. You can read the details here.

Personally I think this was a good idea on Microsoft’s part. For one, the Yahoo takeover was becoming a bit of a distraction at a time when Microsoft has larger fish to fry (like convincing the world that Windows Vista doesn’t suck). For another, I still have a hard time how a Microsoft-Yahoo merger makes sense. Sure, Yahoo’s more popular than MSN and Windows Live, but Yahoo is still far, far behind Google, and with some exceptions, hasn’t been particularly innovative in recent years. What Microsoft needs is innovation to keep up with Google. Yahoo wouldn’t have brought it. And then you have the messy issue of trying to blend the two companies. Will it blend? Probably not. My guess is that Yahoo would have survived as a Microsoft subsidiary.

Where do Yahoo and Microsoft go from here? In the months since Microsoft made its initial bid, there have been rumors of Yahoo forming an alliance with another company…
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Nick posted this on May 3, 2008
Comments: 2 · Views: 82

Spam turns 30; Internet not happy

By Liam, May 3, 2008

THE INTERNET- Spam today announced that it has been 30 years since its first use, when it was first sent on the ARPANET on May 3rd, 1978. Since then, it has maintained a standard of excellence in annoyance of anyone who dares to set foot on the World Wide Web. Though not called spam until 15 years after that historic event, Spam was an insult and a nuisance even on its first day of life.

“LOSE 10 POUNDS IN 2 WEEKS!!! VIAGRA IN STOCK 40% OFF NOW!!! I’M 30 YEARS OLD TODAY!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!! FREE ANTIVIRUS SCAN U ARE INFECTED!!!” Spam announced today, to thunderous dissent. Though the first use of spam was email, it has since spread to many other communication methods, such as instant messaging, blog comments, and even the telephone.

One humble spammer, who gave his name as Geoff Kennedy, was available for comment. “V|aggra 50mg x 60 pi1ls = $ 89.95,” he told Deep Thought. He then added, “Have liver problems; have kidney problems; have ever had blood cell problems such as sickle cell anemia, multiple myeloma, or leukemia,” a statement which had us somewhat puzzled. The man concluded by stating that, “Via-gra 1.41 per p!ll best 0n-line dr.ugstore in the internet,” and resumed his work. I then threw an empty soda cup at…
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Liam's Avatar Liam posted this on May 3, 2008
Comments: 0 · Views: 84