The Wall Street Journal wrote, “U.S. Fines Google, Microsoft, Yahoo“. 

I find this to be yellow journalism. I don’t really care that the article is about Microsoft & Google, so this isn’t about my biases.  From reading the title, I sort of expected that Google got hit the hardest.  This doesn’t seem unlikely since the Google search engine is by far the biggest.  But, when you read the content of the article, you discover that the size of the fines were:

   Microsoft:  $21M
   Yahoo: $7.5M
   Google: $3M

So, the title was intentionally misleading us about the nature of the fines.  Anyone not looking carefully would have assumed from the title (like I did) that Google was hit hardest. 

I wonder if you could write an “unbiased news” app.  One which just takes titles, shuffles them around to get similar but less colored meaning.  This would help make sure your eyes don’t accidentally process titles as facts.  It’s all too easy to do.

The real story should have been, “Why were the 3 companies fined so differently?”  And why did Microsoft get hit so hard?  Poor negotiations?  Or something else.  The press release from the DOJ says nothing useful.  But it does provide the text of the contracts with each company.  Each was drafted separately (no doubt due to the legions of lawyers hired by the big 3).  None of the contracts are specific about how the penalties were derived. 

Each contract has similar text about, “In particular, the United States alleges and <company> neither contests nor admits, that on or about, and during, that time period, <company>, received payments from, or attributable to, on-line gambling businesses… The United States will move for the forfeiture of these funds…”

The Microsoft contract then states, “These funds are represented in full by the Four and a Half Million US Dollars…”

The Google contract then states, “These funds are represented in full by the Three Million US Dollars…”

The Yahoo contract then states, “These funds are represented in full by the Three Million US Dollars…”

OK - so, if the funds were represented by these amounts, why did Microsoft and Yahoo get screwed?

I seem to accidentally get QuickTime on my machine a lot.  Most recently, it’s probably because I tested the Safari browser at home.  But when you do have the misfortune of being infected by anything Apple related, Apple invariably starts prompting for updates every day.  It’s like saying, “Would you like to uninstall me now?”  The answer is yes, but they don’t give you a nice, convenient button.

I don’t know why utility companies don’t get it - being in front of the user does not help your brand.  Don’t take up a slot in the system tray.  Don’t prompt if I’m not even using your software.  After all, if I don’t use Quicktime, why on earth would I care about security updates for it?  It does not help make users love you.  It does not remind them, “oh yeah, I’ve got this great stuff I’m not using.”  It’s just annoying.  You should stop.  Lest you get uninstalled, like Quicktime, Safari, Apple Update, and every other piece of Apple-related junk on my system.

A guess it’s a testament to the Apple brand that they can get away with these types of antics.

Update:  Looks like Apple is as annoying in French as English.

The news that Marc Orchant passed away yesterday is sad news indeed.

For me, it’s unusual to be so sad about this because technically, I barely knew Marc.  I consider him a friend, and yet our interactions were few enough and far enough between that we hardly knew each other.

I guess that’s a testament to the type of person Marc was; even those that barely knew him thought of him as a friend.  I’ll miss him.

 When you see a homeless guy on the street begging, you might be inclined to donate (personally, I’m not).  From the looks of him, you can tell if he needs the money or not; if he wears high-priced Nikes and a Abercrombie&Fitch sweatshirt, you probably won’t donate.

Lately we see lots of internet beggars.  Begging is easy on the internet.  You can be anonymous.  You still have to make up some lie (like “will work for food”, or “viet vet has cancer”), but you can use text and pretty graphics.  Fancy it up, it’s still begging.  These guys, hidden behind their internet sob-story, do wear fancy sweatshirts and brand name shoes.

Is begging on the internet any different than spam?  It’s somewhat socially acceptable to help a kid pay for college, right?  Or help a young couple with HIV?  Or bail out a kid who got in over his head in real estate?  There is even a how-to-site to help you setup shop on your local internet offramp.

When you give people money- whether it is on the street or on the net - you are encouraging thousands like them to do it too.  Do we want the internet just filled with “give me money” pages?  Don’t donate.  They are scams.

I’ve been a constant follower of Marc’s blogs over the past few years.  I blogged about him yesterday.  I wish him and his family the best.

My friend Marc Orchant has taken the same path as me! 

Doesn’t it seem awfully coincidental that while Bonds allegedly perjured back in 2003, they waited until 2007 to indict him?  Baseball and the Giants used Bonds to the very end; they got all the press, all the fans, all the hype for baseball by way of his road to the record.  Once that was done, they unleash the Feds on him.

This year, I replaced all appliances - refrigerator, microwave, stove, oven, dishwasher, washer, dryer.  It was a lot of work to figure out which ones to buy.

At first, I really did want to buy online.  AJ Madison is a great appliances store, and their website is awesome.  It is definitely one of the best ways to learn about what products are available and compare them.  Combine that with free shipping (they almost always offer free shipping for orders over $1500 and no sales tax in CA, and it seems like a great deal, right?

Well, it is a pretty good deal, but despite all that, they still generally are more expensive.  At the end of the day, they are mailing their appliances across the country.  They hide this by declaring “Free Shipping”, but you know it’s not really free!

I ended up buying most all the appliances at Western Appliance.  I don’t really like having to go to the store.  Appliance stores always make pricing difficult.  Instead of just showing the price, its the base price minus the in-store rebate minus the manufacturer rebate, minus the weekend special, etc.  I guess they think most of their customers can’t do basic math?  It seems to backfire, because it makes the prices seem inflated.  If they didn’t inflate the price, I never would have thought the e-store price was cheap.  Western Appliance’s salespeople are pretty reasonable and not high pressure, and they are knowledgeable too.  In the end, I know I paid less, even after Western Appliance’s $50 delivery fee and CA sales tax. 

There is one more important reason to shop locally.  The local stores know the PG&E/Water company rebates for energy efficient and water-saving appliances.  AJMadison, or any other e-tailer, just can’t possibly keep track of local area rebates for everyone.  These rebates are non trivial too; I’ve had about $400 in utility rebates this year.  If I hadn’t bought locally, I probably wouldn’t have known.

News is now coming to light that Canada has been investing heavily in anything and everything which increases global warming.  As we all know, much of the land in the innocent country to our north is unusable, icy tundra.  As global warming continues, Canada hopes to double its usable land area, bringing it a windfall of increased natural resources, more desirable weather, and untold riches.

One researcher stated that due to the weather changes, ”Vancouver could become the Los Angeles”.

I’ve always known that Canadians have beady little eyes.  I guess we now know why.

I don’t understand why we care that the TV & Movie writers are going on strike.  I think this is great! 

My reasoning comes from three angles.  First, how many times have we complained about the garbage on TV?  These are the guys that wrote that junk!  Do we really need federal mediators for this?

Second, we watch too much TV.  Every hour we spend in front of our TVs is an hour we could have spent, learning, working, cleaning the yard, fixing the bike, washing the car, volunteering at the library, reading, or researching who should be the next President.  There are so many better things to do than watch TV.

Third, cable just costs way too much.  Some people pay for service which is over $100/mo!  The cheapest is about $30/mo.  That means we’re paying $360-$1200 per year to be couch potatoes! 

How about if we all recognize this opportunity as a time when we can save ourselves some money and make our lives and our communities a better place to live?  OK - I can dream. 

The interesting part about this strike is that these guys have never been on strike in the Internet Era.  Will the Internet make it so that people don’t miss TV so much?  After all, if you want to watch stupid people, you can do that on YouTube.  I wonder if this strike will end up being good for Google?

Update: I really liked Marc A’s writeup on this.

Fun: http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/, Too much TV may result in academic failure, TechCrunch