RizWords - Daily Politics and Tech - EP53

RizWords - Daily Politics and Tech
Episode 53 - download link coming soon: check the feed for details: subscribe now

• A member of the TechPodcast Network @ techpodcast.com. If it's Tech, it's here.
  
• Remember, if you're listening on the podcast recording, you can call into the show live if you tune in through TalkShoe.com at 2:30 PM EST every weekday.
• If you like the podcast (and you haven't already given us a rating), head over and do so, and don't forget to sign up for the discussion list.
• Other Podcast Plugs:
  
• TalkGirls comes on Tuesday nights. Check out the TalkGirls Podcast ... it's good times!
• Cotolo Chronicles: Frank is a good friend of the show, and an associate of the late great Wolfman Jack. Check out his podcast.
• NewsReal: Good friend to Art and I - has one of the best hours of news podcast each week.
• You Are the Guest: Bill Grady turns the microphone on the internet's most interesting people.
  
• Sponsors:
  
• Try GoToMeeting for 45 days! Visit www.GoToMeeting.com/podcast to start your free trial today.
  
• J. Douglas Barker - Voice-overs for you! www.romancingthetone.com

A bunch of new startup acquisition news. We talk a bit about the acquisitions specifically, and then a bit in general about the prevalence in the news lately of all the startups getting bought:

Look For Confirmation of eBay/StumbleUpon Today
I’m hearing that the eBay/StumbleUpon acquisition will be officially announced sometime today. Keep an eye our for the press release. We originally broke this rumor in April when a term sheet was reportedly signed. The Wall Street Journal picked up the story earlier this month.

I don’t know if the price will be disclosed, or if the rumors of $75 million are roughly correct.

An Old Media company actually gets it right with a new media acquisition:

CBS Acquires Europe’s Last.fm for $280 million
The quickly growing music social network Last.fm has been acquired by CBS for $280 million in an all-cash deal.

UK based Last.fm launched five years ago and has become a social networking favorite with 15 million active users. It has become a massive repository for music information (artist and song wikis, listening data from users, etc.). In the U.S., companies like Pandora, MOG and iLike all compete with some of Last.fm’s features, although none of those startups has built the basic social network/community of last.fm.

The deal sees Last.fm’s management team staying in place and the site maintaining a separate identity.

Last.fm has been an attractive takeover target for some time. CBS as a buyer though is surprising and is a sure sign that the media giant is getting serious about Web 2.0. CBS acquired video blog WallStrip for $5 million earlier this month, and has been on a bit of a buying spree lately after filling out the management team on the interactive side of the business last year.

Previous TechCrunch coverage here.

This certainly explains why Last.fm was a little slow to jump on the Facebook Applications bandwagon last week - they were understandably distracted.

An interesting perspective on the same story:

Don't Look Now, But Old Media May Be Figuring This New Media Thing Out
It's not much, but there are a few signs that some "old media" companies are starting to figure out what makes new media tick. This morning's announcement that CBS is buying last.fm for $280 million isn't all that interesting on its own -- but it's one of a pattern of recent deals by so-called "old media" companies that have them looking to build or buy into communities, rather than just content. The mistake that many media companies have made over the last few years is the belief that the content was king -- and as long as they had the content, the community would form naturally. What people are noticing is that the community is important and it's hard work to build one. Of course, recognizing that is only the first step. The real question is what these companies will do to cultivate these communities. In most cases (MySpace being the one exception so far), these types of purchases tend to wither and die once they become part of a larger company (and the entrepreneurial souls of the community move on).

And other startup news:

Google buys anti-malware browser virtualization startup (Ryan Naraine/Zero Day)
Google has quietly made its first anti-malware acquisition, snapping up GreenBorder Technologies, a venture-backed company that sells browser virtualization security software.

And in political news, both Art and I are surprised we didn't hear about this earlier:

Cyber-Spies Tracking Terror on Web
Dana Rosenblatt writes on CNN.com:

There is an unconventional war being waged on the Internet. The battles here know no boundaries; and are fought from homes and offices from small Midwestern towns to Europe and the Middle East.

For the fighters in these battles weapons usually consist of no more than collected intelligence and computer programming skills.

It's no secret anymore that active terrorist cells are currently operating freely and openly on the Internet, using propaganda tactics to illicit prospective recruits.

The emergence of these terrorist groups has spawned their nemesis: groups of researchers, hackers, and maverick computer geeks who cyber-stalk terrorist networks online and take them down.

More here.

Resembling a modern-day Clark Kent, Weisburd is a boyish 40-something former computer programmer who decided to use his background and skills to track terrorists following the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

He's proved himself a force to be reckoned with, fighting -- and winning -- a war waged against the "dark side" of the Internet.

Weisburd's reputation has earned him the nickname "the vigilante" in cyber space, a legacy he's eager to shrug off.

"If I was a vigilante running a Web site, I would hurt you," says Weisburd.

"If I find that you're running a Web site for al Qaeda, I'm not going to hurt you. I'll report you to people that will ask you to come quietly, and if you don't go quietly, they may hurt you," he says.

Art jumps for joy:

Fred Thompson to Form Presidential Committee

"Law and Order" star Fred Thompson — will make his flirtation with a White — House bid official this week, forming — a presidential committee and launching — a fundraising effort

His advisers say they do not expect to match the amount of money the others are raising, but profess to be unconcerned.

"He doesn't need as much money as the others have raised," said one supporter, noting that his Hollywood fame has already given him a boost in the polls. "He hasn't raised nor has he spent a single dime so far. People should not expect that he will outraise anyone."

We find a Democrat we like:

Lieberman in Iraq sees "progress,"
What a coincidence. Two years after Cheney said the insurgency was in its last throes, Joe Lieberman made essentially the same prediction.

CNN reports that Lieberman is on an unannounced "surprise" visit to Baghdad. Paula Hancocks followed Lieberman around. She talked to Lieberman and reported, "He said he was happy with the progress. He was devastated by the fact that May was turning in to the deadliest month since November 2004. But he said he did believe that this surge eventually would pay off and it would start to break the insurgency."

And in people turning on the Democrats news:

Cindy Sheehan Quits as 'Face' of Anti-War Movement
Cindy Sheehan, the "peace mom" who made headlines in 2005 by staging a marathon protest outside President Bush's Crawford, Texas, ranch, said Monday that she no longer wants to be seen as a leader of the anti-war movement.

Want to be part of the Rizzn-ite army? Indoctrination instructions here.

RizWords - Daily Politics and Tech - EP52

RizWords - Daily Politics and Tech
Episode 52 - download now - subscribe now

• A member of the TechPodcast Network @ techpodcast.com. If it's Tech, it's here.
  
• Remember, if you're listening on the podcast recording, you can call into the show live if you tune in through TalkShoe.com at 2:30 PM EST every weekday.
• If you like the podcast (and you haven't already given us a rating), head over and do so, and don't forget to sign up for the discussion list.
• Other Podcast Plugs:
  
• TalkGirls comes on Tuesday nights. Check out the TalkGirls Podcast ... it's good times!
• Cotolo Chronicles: Frank is a good friend of the show, and an associate of the late great Wolfman Jack. Check out his podcast.
• NewsReal: Good friend to Art and I - has one of the best hours of news podcast each week.
• You Are the Guest: Bill Grady turns the microphone on the internet's most interesting people.
  
• Sponsors:
  
• Try GoToMeeting for 45 days! Visit www.GoToMeeting.com/podcast to start your free trial today.
  
• J. Douglas Barker - Voice-overs for you! www.romancingthetone.com

Solo show today... I talked a bit about this:

Bill calls for better tracking of faster broadband
How fast is U.S. "broadband" service, anyway? The FCC says 200 kbps is good enough to count, which sets the bar kind of low. Then again, it lets the government claim that broadband service is available in 99 percent of all ZIP codes (another fairly useless measure). A bill introduced in the Senate last week requires broadband providers to use smaller geographic areas than ZIP codes to report statistics, and force the FCC to think again about whether a 200 kbps pipe is all that broad. The Broadband Data Improvement Act was introduced by Hawaii Sen. Daniel Inouye, chair of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.

For more about S.1492:
- read this article from InfoWorld
- see the legislation from the Library of Congress

Related Articles:
FCC head says broadband is top priority. Report
VoIP lets hotels charge extra for true broadband. Report

And everyone seems to be jumping on this story... my analysis... Google probably has little to worry about:

FTC to Investigate Google-DoubleClick Acquisition
Steve Lohr writes in The New York Times:

The Federal Trade Commission has opened a preliminary antitrust investigation into Google’s planned $3.1 billion purchase of the online advertising company DoubleClick, an industry executive briefed on the agency’s plans said yesterday.

The inquiry began at the end of last week, after it was decided that the Federal Trade Commission instead of the Justice Department would conduct the review, said the executive, who asked not to be identified because he had not been authorized to speak. The two agencies split the duties of antitrust enforcement.

An F.T.C. spokesman said yesterday that the agency did not comment on pending inquiries.

More here.

And in other Google news, something else Google might not need to worry about:

Look Out Google - Here Come the Aussies
The only word that describes what happened to our inbox tonight was “spammed” - no less than eleven links were sent to this Australian article which talks about new stealth startup MyLiveSearch.

Dubbing itself the “world’s first live search engine” it promises to show us the 4/5 of the web that Google doesn’t index - this includes the grey web of dynamically created web pages as well as real time indexing of more traditional pages.

The article says “Google is keeping a close eye on a small, suburban Melbourne start-up that claims to be developing a search engine that improves on the world leader” and goes on to quote founder Rob Gabriel as saying his startup “gives better, more relevant results” than Google and “this technology could be snapped onto any of the major search engines and improve them.”

Those are big words for a startup that is yet to launch into private beta. We’ll be taking a look at MyLiveSearch at the end of June when they launch, and looking for a little backup to their website claim of “searching the internet will never be the same…” It’s certainly true that Google isn’t perfect, but it will take more than words to take them down. These guys are feisty, though, and I like that.

In dumb engineering news:

Nissan Warns Drivers: Don't Put Mobile Phones Near Our Keys

Nissan is going around warning a bunch of US drivers of either the Nissan Altima or the Infiniti G35 to be careful with their mobile phones. However, it's not, as you might expect, about driving while using those mobile phones. Nope. It's about keeping those mobile phones away from the car keys that open and start the cars. Like many newer cars, these cars use a wireless key system. Unfortunately, they're discovering that mobile phones receiving calls while in contact with the keys can scramble the electronic code on the keys... making them into useless paperweights. This would seem like a pretty big problem -- and simply telling drivers to keep their phones away from their keys isn't likely to work very well, considering phones and keys very often end up together in people's pockets or purses.

A good alternative to Joost, for those without invites:

Joox: Another Illegal Video Site?

Joox.net is an online repository for videos–mostly television shows and movies that seemingly elude copyright agreements.

You can find quite a few episodes of The Simpsons, or Grey’s Anatomy, and the second half of Pirates of the Carribean 3: At World’s End. Content is added by Joox users, in what looks to be a somewhat complicated process. You’ll have to first play your video in the provided player, and add it to Joox directly from the player. The clip will need to be confirmed before becoming part of the Joox library, but you can still watch these upcoming videos. As Joox is probably not based in the U.S. (the domain is reportedly registered in Sweden), Joox may manage to avoid a few copyright infringement suits for a while. Also to keep in mind, you’ll need to download a divx file as Joox does not operate in flash, and doesn’t have the best quality either.

Others in this space include Pirate Bay, which has confirmed its upcoming streaming service, and front runner Joost, the Internet television provider that has landed copyright agreements with nearly every major network, studio and brand in creation, BitTorrent, which has recently launched a video store, and Jalipo, which could be considered a paid version of Joost.

Google's slow pace contributes to this more than anything else, in my opinion:

Google's Slow Shift to Social Unification?

One of the aspects largely overlooked in Google's recently unveiled Hot Trends is the prominent link on a topic's page to 'Discuss with others'. While the feature is currently flawed, and as such is basically useless, it could signal a move by Google towards unifying their services with a more social approach.

Clicking on the 'Discuss with others' link (found immediately below the Hot Trends 'Peak' information), takes you to a Google Group entitled 'Google Trends Hot Trends'. Despite being prominently displayed, this link garners little in the way of actual discussion on the Google Groups page - a total of 34 messages, 20 total members, and an activity rating of 'Low' for a group that is linked to on every single Hot Trend item.

Instead of this rather pointless broad group, Google should create a Google Group for each individual topic found in the Hot Trends. Furthermore they should make it so that at least some of the discussions will load right within the Hot Trends Topic page itself rather than redirecting you to the Google Groups page. This would show that there are others who are actively participating in discussions and entice more readers to contribute as well.

If Google could get this very basic social feature working in the Hot Trends area, they could expand the idea to their other services as well. This could particularly be interesting in Google News, where a single discussion thread on an article might be preferable to some over multiple discussion threads on sites like Digg, Netscape, Reddit, and the like.

Google Groups already keeps track of users posts and gives the option to have an avatar and profile just like the social news sites. Why Google isn't making any moves to utilize these tools already in place is a bit baffling to me. It reminds me a bit of the Google Toolbar/Dice situation with StumbleUpon. In that situation, Google had the elements in place to create a service that would have been very much like StumbleUpon before it was popular, yet they lacked the foresight to do so. Here again, they have just about everything in place to unify some of their services into a more social network, but they still have yet to act upon it.

A really neat link (pay attention to this, could be a possible ARG (alternate reality game) alert):
Batman Dark Knight viral campaign.

Want to be part of the Rizzn-ite army? Indoctrination instructions here.

New

This new business called Martin Worldwide in Westlake Village, CA, came up with a new program that is said to be off the wall amazing. ResponseCom™ is the newest thing for businesses and other people to get their call volume up. For the most part businesses need it for Sales Leads and to pump up the response rate. I would even like to get involved in this.

Martin Worldwide is one of the largest and most successful mailing list providers. It offers customized mailing lists, and fax lists to any one that needs it. I think its even more interesting that they guarantee its data integrity in writing. I guess we will have to see about that.

[This post contains a paid placement.]

RizWords - Daily Politics and Tech - EP51

RizWords - Daily Politics and Tech
Episode 51 - download now - subscribe now

• A member of the TechPodcast Network @ techpodcast.com. If it's Tech, it's here.
  
• Remember, if you're listening on the podcast recording, you can call into the show live if you tune in through TalkShoe.com at 2:30 PM EST every weekday.
• If you like the podcast (and you haven't already given us a rating), head over and do so, and don't forget to sign up for the discussion list.
• Other Podcast Plugs:
  
• TalkGirls comes on Tuesday nights. Check out the TalkGirls Podcast ... it's good times!
• Cotolo Chronicles: Frank is a good friend of the show, and an associate of the late great Wolfman Jack. Check out his podcast.
• NewsReal: Good friend to Art and I - has one of the best hours of news podcast each week.
• You Are the Guest: Bill Grady turns the microphone on the internet's most interesting people.
  
• Sponsors:
  
• Try GoToMeeting for 45 days! Visit www.GoToMeeting.com/podcast to start your free trial today.
  
• J. Douglas Barker - Voice-overs for you! www.romancingthetone.com

We opened the show with something Mark thought would be good news for conservatives wishing to stay sane in the mornings... of course Art found the dark cloud around the good news rather quickly:

Rosie O'Donnell has fought her last fight at The View.

ABC said on Friday she will not be back on the television talk show following her angry confrontation with co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck on Wednesday.

It ended a colourful eight-month tenure for O'Donnell that lifted the show's ratings but no doubt caused heartburn for show creator Barbara Walters.

O'Donnell feuded with Donald Trump and frequently had tense exchanges with the more conservative Hasselbeck.

O'Donnell said last month she would be leaving because she could not agree to a new contract with ABC executives.

"Rosie contributed to one of our most exciting and successful years at The View," Walters said.

"I am most appreciative. Our close and affectionate relationship will not change."

In a statement, O'Donnell said that "it's been an amazing year and I love all three women."

'US troops terrorists'

No one was feeling the love on Wednesday, when the argument with Hasselbeck began over O'Donnell's statement last week about the war: "655 000 Iraqi civilians have died. Who are the terrorists?"

Talk show critics accused O'Donnell of calling US troops terrorists.

She called Hasselbeck "cowardly" for not saying anything in response to the critics.

"Do not call me a coward, because No 1, I sit here every single day, open my heart and tell people what I believe," Hasselbeck retorted, and their riveting exchange continued despite failed attempts by their co-hosts to cut to a commercial.

According to a New York Post report, O'Donnell's chief writer, Janette Barber, was allegedly led out of the building on Wednesday after she was caught drawing moustaches on photographs of Hasselbeck in The View studios.

ABC executives did not return repeated calls for questions on the incident on Friday.

Scrapbook-like video

On Thursday, O'Donnell had asked for a day off to celebrate her partner's birthday. The View aired a taped show on Friday.

On her website, O'Donnell posted a scrapbook-like video on Friday with pictures and news clippings of her tenure at The View.

Cyndi Lauper's Sisters of Babylon played in the background.

A day earlier, she had posted messages on her website indicating she might not be back.

"When painting there is a point u must step away from the canvas as the work is done," she wrote. "Any more would take away.

The Nose on your Face finds a conspiracy uncovered in all this:

Despite claims that a monster pig shot in Alabama bears a striking resemblance to “The View” host Rosie O’Donnell, both ABC and O’Donnell representatives deny that the enormous swine is the controversial star. ABC’s abrupt announcement on Friday, however, that O’Donnell would be immediately leaving “The View” only lent strength to the rumors that she may indeed have been bagged by 11 year-old Jamison Stone while on a hastily scheduled “foraging retreat” in Alabama.

“Rosie does like foraging as a stress-reliever,” said her spokesperson, Amelda Johnson, “but she stopped going to Alabama several years ago after she discovered it was a favorite foraging haven of Starr Jones.”

In Newsguy Jon news:

Sheen Re-Thinks Loose Change Alliance

May 27, 2007 -- SUPPORT for the loopy 9/11 documentary "Loose Change" - which argues that the World Trade Center terror attack was part of a secret U.S. government conspiracy - is quickly losing steam.

A source tells us Charlie Sheen "is having second thoughts" about being involved in an updated version of the flick, which has a huge following on YouTube. As Page Six reported in March, Sheen had agreed to narrate the ridiculous flick, presumably to give it some needed Hollywood sizzle.

The conspiracy documentary got a further boost earlier this month when Virgin Atlantic announced it would offer the current, narration-free version as an in-flight movie choice. But just days later, it scrapped the idea. "After Virgin announced it, bloggers went nuts and there was so much negative feedback that [the airline] a few days later nixed it," the source said.

After we revealed Sheen's participation, the "Two and a Half Men" star told Extra: "It's a story that needs to be told. It's a story about the truth, and the truth needs to be exposed. It's not just me, not just the Hollywood community [that] is standing up saying what you have given us doesn't make sense. We just want better answers." As for Sheen now pulling his support, the star's flack, Stan Rosenfield, did not return calls over two days.

Another proponent of the "Loose Change" theory is Rosie O'Donnell, who trumpeted her feelings about it on "The View" and her blog, making ABC brass nervous and infuriating some viewers.

O'Donnell reportedly had booked the film's producers, Korey Rowe and Dylan Avery, on Thursday's show. But after getting into a fight with Elisabeth Hasselbeck Wednesday, and after her chief writer was caught defacing Hasselbeck's photos with mustaches, O'Donnell left the show.

"Loose Change" pushes the widely debunked "controlled demolition" theory, which claims the Twin Towers and 7 World Trade Center were blown up from within. It alleges the jet-fuel fires inside the towers weren't hot enough to melt the buildings' steel beams.

Those claims were soundly refuted by Popular Mechanics magazine, which meticulously shot down every single one.

In other Venezualian news, there is major political change afoot... the pictures tell the story better than the links do, but pay close attention to both:

CHAVEZ FORCES CLASH WITH DEMOCRACY PROTESTERS!

Venezuala continues its descent into hell.
** The Jungle Hut is following the clashes from Venezuala.
** Globovision has photos from the crackdown by the regime.
** Venezuela News and Views- Even in San Felipe we are hearing sirens and pot banging!
** Devil's Excrement- "Chavista thugs are attacking another private station!" -Photos
** Xeni Jardin has video links of the regime blasting the protesters with water cannons.
** Citizen Feathers has video of the "pot-banging" against the regime.

(ElPais)

Chavez warned (via BBC): "Venezuelan armed forces are ready. Anyone generating violence will regret it."

He even sent in the tanks for the first time on the opposition.

A supporter of Radio Caracas TV (RCTV) uses the Venezuelan flag to cover herself from tear gas during a protest outside the National Commission of Telecommunications (CONATEL) in Caracas May 27, 2007. (Reuters)

Venezuelan troops earlier today seized the broadcast equipment of the opposition television station.
Reuters reported:

Venezuelan troops have seized an anti-government television channel's broadcast equipment, the station said on Sunday, ahead of a controversial midnight EDT/0400 GMT takeover by President Hugo Chavez that will take the broadcaster off the air.

Supporters of Radio Caracas TV (RCTV) lie on the floor after being hit by tear gas during a protest outside the National Commission of Telecommunications (CONATEL) in Caracas May 27, 2007. RCTV is being forced off the air after President Hugo Chavez's administration refused to renew its broadcasting license which ends on Sunday. (REUTERS/Yuri Ferrioli)

Publius Pundit has several pictures from the protest earlier before the clashes.
Fausta has a podcast posted discussing the closure of the popular opposition news station.
FREERCTV.com has more on the shutdown.
This is very sad.

Actress Cynthia Lander cries during a live broadcast at RCTV station in Caracas May 27, 2007. The government is not renewing RCTV's license after 53 years on the air because of accusations that the broadcaster participated in a bungled 2002 coup against Chavez, incited violent demonstrations and aired immoral programming. (REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins)


Supporters of Radio Caracas TV (RCTV) clash with police during a protest outside the National Commission of Telecommunications (CONATEL) in Caracas May 27, 2007. RCTV is being forced off the air after President Hugo Chavez's administration refused to renew its broadcasting license which ends on Sunday. (REUTERS/Francesco Spotorno)

Previously:
Hugo Chavez Silences the Opposition- Sends Tanks In!

We had a huge discussion on the devolution of democracy in the UK, much to the chagrin of some of our British listeners:

UK: Police to Get Tough New Terror Powers
David Cracknell writes in The Sunday Times:

New anti-terrorism laws are to be pushed through before Tony Blair leaves office giving “wartime” powers to the police to stop and question people.

John Reid, the home secretary, who is also quitting next month, intends to extend Northern Ireland’s draconian police powers to interrogate individuals about who they are, where they have been and where they are going.

Under the new laws, police will not need to suspect that a crime has taken place and can use the power to gain information about “matters relevant” to terror investigations.

If suspects fail to stop or refuse to answer questions, they could be charged with a criminal offence and fined up to £5,000. Police already have the power to stop and search people but they have no right to ask for their identity and movements.

More here.

Turning to tech news, the whole blogosphere is buzzing with the Facebook stuff. Here's our token coverage:

MySpace v. Facebook: “It’s Not A Decision. It’s an IQ Test”

Venture capitalist Josh Kopelman rips into MySpace today as he applauds Facebook’s new developer platform.

Facebook’s timing is perfect. They just released an API that gives third party developers deep access to Facebook functionality and it’s 20 million users. Not only can these third party startups get a widget placed on people’s Facebook profiles, but they can also get viral distribution through users’ news feeds and access core Facebook features. Using the tools that Facebook made available, developers could build new versions of some of Facebook’s own applications, like Facebook Photos. Users can then remove those default applications and add the new ones. Like Microsoft with Windows, Facebook is now competing with application developers on its own platform.

This isn’t all just talk, either. The most popular third party application, iLike, has nearly 400,000 users just a couple of days after launching and 10x what they had just last Friday. That means nearly 5% of Facebook’s users have now included it on their profile.

Kopelman’s post looks at the new reality from the perspective of a startup. MySpace is a minefield - startups want access to their users but suffer from the very real possibility of being banned, either temporarily or permanently.

Facebook is viewing things from exactly the opposite position: they are giving startups access to Facebook’s core feature set, and allowing them to show advertising and conduct transactions with users without even asking for a cut. This is exactly why I called Facebook the Anti-MySpace last week. Kopelman goes on to say:

Think about it. If you ran a venture-backed company and had to decide whether you wanted to focus your effort on: (a) a property that welcomed you in and let you keep 100% of the revenue you generate or (b) a company with a vague policy that doesn’t let you generate any revenue, which would you choose? I don’t think it’s even a decision. It’s an IQ test.

Kopelman estimates that $250 million has been invested in widget companies in the last 18 months. When these startups think about where to spend their resources, they’ll be weighing MySpace’s relative size advantage (MySpace has 100 million users, growing by 300,000 or so per day. Facebook has 20 million users, growing by 100,000 per day) to the open and transparent nature of Facebook’s approach. On balance I agree with Kopelman. Startups can build a very large business on the back of Facebook. The MySpace path is much riskier.

And as a nod to a few of our listeners who have talked a bit about needing this kind of service, we present Gaboogie:

Conference calling is a $2 billion business in North America alone. But it’s not perceived to be a sexy space, and Gaboogie, which brings some next generation smarts to conference calls if making sexier. Gaboogie starts with a beautifully simple “why didn’t I think of that” solution to this problem: the service calls you. No password is needed because if you’re not supposed to be there, you don’t get called. Participants simply press ‘1′ to join, ‘2′ to decline, and ‘3′ for ‘later.’ The service makes the adjustments for time zones, too. And if you get disconnected, the number is on your caller ID to redial. Calls are setup through the website and it’s easy to check the schedule online. Moderators have a dashboard to monitor calls in progress. You can set participation in a call to “lecture” which lets you simply listen. Calls can be recorded and shared as RSS feeds or MP3 files, all with a single click. Attendees can be added on the fly by simply dragging them from the phonebook.

Want to be part of the Rizzn-ite army? Indoctrination instructions here.

Hilarious Presidential Politics Analysis from a Non-American

This was found on the comments thread for this discussion on SlashDot:

MY KINGDOM FOR MOD POINTS
(Score:5, Funny)
by Anomolous Cowturd (190524) on Friday May 25, @07:09PM ( #19277405)

The best thing a president could possibly do for nerds or just about anyone else is stop making more laws and start dismantling the stupid laws perpetrated by previous governments.

I am not in the US, so I can't do much about your choice of president, but at least I can have my say here. The way I see it from here, your options can be divided unambiguously into two groups:

1: Scumbags that will sell you out, nay, have already sold you out, to whichever corporate and special interests will finance their campaign.

2: Ron Paul.

I am a cynic. I hardly expect people to vote in their own best interests. There's a reason the scumbags sell their souls for campaign money - it gets them elected. So I expect another scumbag leading your country in 2009. But please, please, for the sake of all that is good, pure and true in this world, anyone but Giuliani.

I swear, if you guys elect Giuliani, I am going to go out every weekend, find drunk Americans, and beat the crap out of them. Maybe even daily. You've been warned.

/mark "rizzn" hopkins
For my blog, profile, and wikipedia entries, simply Google "rizzn"
--
intelligent discussion: http://groups.google.com/group/rizzncom-v83/
intelligent podcast: http://feeds.feedburner.com/RizWords
--

RizWords - Daily Politics and Tech - EP50

RizWords - Daily Politics and Tech
Episode 50 - download now - subscribe now

• A member of the TechPodcast Network @ techpodcast.com. If it's Tech, it's here.
  
• Remember, if you're listening on the podcast recording, you can call into the show live if you tune in through TalkShoe.com at 2:30 PM EST every weekday.
• If you like the podcast (and you haven't already given us a rating), head over and do so, and don't forget to sign up for the discussion list.
• Other Podcast Plugs:
  
• TalkGirls comes on Tuesday nights. Check out the TalkGirls Podcast ... it's good times!
• Cotolo Chronicles: Frank is a good friend of the show, and an associate of the late great Wolfman Jack. Check out his podcast.
• NewsReal: Good friend to Art and I - has one of the best hours of news podcast each week.
• You Are the Guest: Bill Grady turns the microphone on the internet's most interesting people.
  
• Sponsors:
  
• Try GoToMeeting for 45 days! Visit www.GoToMeeting.com/podcast to start your free trial today.
  
• J. Douglas Barker - Voice-overs for you! www.romancingthetone.com

We kick off the show talking about a bit of inside baseball in terms of past investigative reports on the Kos/Leftosphere's smear jobs on the Rove persona and the Bush campaign. We surmise that you can effectively ignore this news story, and that it likely is an incredible fabrication:

Investigative reporter says he has the 500 missing Rove emails
Mark Frauenfelder: R.U. Sirius says:

Investigative reporter Greg Palast says 4.5 million votes will be shoplifted in 2008, thanks largely to the “Rove-bots” that have been placed in the Justice Department following the U.S. Attorney firings.

... he (Palast) claims to have the 500 emails that the House subpoenaed and Karl Rove claims were deleted forever. They prove definitively, says Palast, that the Justice Department is infested with operatives taking orders from Rove to steal upcoming elections for Republicans and permanently alter the Department.

Link

After the break we come back and talk about some people's allegations that email is on the way out. Art thinks definitely not, and I couldn't come up with anything substantial to counter the claim:

Is Email 'Bankrupt'?
Gary W. Longsine writes "The Washington Post writes about a Venture Capitalist and blogger, Fred Wilson, who recently declared 'e-mail bankruptcy', wiping out his inbox and starting over because he couldn't keep up. Spam is cited as one reason. There have been several public incidents, some cited in the article, where the flow of email is just too much to keep up. 'If there is a downside to completely turning a back on e-mail, it's not one many former users notice. Stanford computer science professor Donald E. Knuth started using e-mail in 1975 and stopped using it 15 years later. Knuth said he prefers to concentrate on writing books rather than be distracted by the steady stream of communication.' Is email just too hectic a communication form for some people? Is email dead?"

Oh, to be there for this one:

Gates and Jobs to Share A Stage
Rob wrote with a link to a Computer Business Review online article, which reports that Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and Apple chief Steve Jobs will make a joint appearance at a future technologies conference in Carlsbad, California. The event is expected to last a little more than an hour, and the two computer industry magnates are expected to reflect on their pasts - while theorizing on the future. "[WSJ Tech columnist] Walt Mossberg, a co-producer of the conference who will interview the execs on-stage along with colleague Kara Swisher, said they simply invited Gates and Jobs to do the interview ... [Mossberg] declined to give any color about the questions he and Swisher are preparing, or any additional information. Most likely, Gates and Jobs will use the occasion to do some friendly sparring on their polar-opposite philosophies on personal computing. Jobs may bang on about the benefits of a software-hardware approach, while Gates may rattle off the joys of partnering with hardware partners."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Art doesn't use Google News, I use it minimally, but after this, I will be taking a second look at increased usage of the service:

Google News to Add Videos and Social News Features?
Computerworld has an interview with Nathan Stoll, from Google News. The interviews reveals some of the philosophy of the product and possible future directions.

Google News wants to respect editors' choices in regards to the importance of a news and only one section from Google News is generated by looking at the popularity of a news. Another important idea behind Google News is showing more than one perspective for a news, and this is partially achieved by clustering related news.

Videos could enhance the way you understand a news. "To the extent that a lot of those [persectives] are in video and becoming available online, we'd certainly love to make those perspectives available and easily discoverable. With the YouTube team, working hard, it's certainly an area we'd like to make progress in."

Google also ponders the addition of features from social news sites like Digg. "We offer a most popular section on the front page of many of our editions. That popularity ranking signal is different from how the front page is ranked, which tries to reflect what editors are publishing on their sites. If we introduced a Digg-style feature, it would be more similar to that popularity metric."

What are you doing on the social news front, along the lines of sites like Digg and Slashdot?

Obviously Google has a number of products and services that touch on those types of areas. In News today we offer a number of customization and personalization features. If I was to give you themes about areas that we're working on, that would be one area in which we're very interested.

An internal document leaked from Google last year mentioned about a "radically improved [version of Google News that should allow] other news sources, and organizations and individuals mentioned in news stories to debate specific points". Google also licensed content from AFP and AP to be able to use the full text of a news.

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Jacob Li Hopkins - More Hospital Baby Pictures

These are the most recent set of images developed from the hospital. We have about two rolls of film that were also taken at the hospital that haven't been developed yet, but don't you worry, I'll be getting those done quite soon.

Check them out. largest collection of Jacob Li Hopkins pictures to date!Jacob Li Hopkins - More Hospital pictures

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RizWords - Daily Politics and Tech - EP49

RizWords - Daily Politics and Tech
Episode 49 - download now - subscribe now

• A member of the TechPodcast Network @ techpodcast.com. If it's Tech, it's here.
  
• Remember, if you're listening on the podcast recording, you can call into the show live if you tune in through TalkShoe.com at 2:30 PM EST every weekday.
• If you like the podcast (and you haven't already given us a rating), head over and do so, and don't forget to sign up for the discussion list.
• Other Podcast Plugs:
  
• TalkGirls comes on Tuesday nights. Check out the TalkGirls Podcast ... it's good times!
• Cotolo Chronicles: Frank is a good friend of the show, and an associate of the late great Wolfman Jack. Check out his podcast.
• NewsReal: Good friend to Art and I - has one of the best hours of news podcast each week.
• You Are the Guest: Bill Grady turns the microphone on the internet's most interesting people.
  
• Sponsors:
  
• Try GoToMeeting for 45 days! Visit www.GoToMeeting.com/podcast to start your free trial today.
  
• J. Douglas Barker - Voice-overs for you! www.romancingthetone.com

Succumbing to the pressures of the media around us, Art and I spend the first half of the show talking about presidential politics and campaigning, and whether or not Ron Paul has a real shot at winning this thing. Mark says 'maybe' and Art says definitely not. Noteable Futurama quote from the conversation:

On the TV, candidate Jack Johnson is debating candidate John Jackson

Johnson: It's time someone had the courage to stand up and say: I'm
against those things that everybody hates!
Jackson: Now, I respect my opponent. I think he's a good man. But,
quite frankly, I agree with everything he just said!
Fry: These are the candidates? They sound like clones.
[Squints] Wait a minute. They are clones!
Leela: Don't let their identical DNA fool you. They differ on some
key issues.
Johnson: I say your three cent titanium tax goes too far!
Jackson: And I say your three cent titanium tax doesn't go too far
enough!

Turning to actual news, Art and I comment on what can be a real positive move for the monetization of New Media video efforts:

Adsense For Video, Google Still Lagging

Google has announced a closed beta test of Adsense for Video.

According to the post on Inside Adsense, Adsense for Video consists of “in-stream” advertisements. Publishers define at what point the advertisements will appear for each video.

It’s a change in the right direction for Google. The previously announced advertising trials for YouTube consisted entirely of text advertising overlays that lead to video-on-video click to play advertisements; a form of advertising that can easily be ignored by the viewer. Whilst many may find in-video style advertising annoying, it at least comes with a guarantee that viewers are going to see the advertisement.

Adsense for Video, as it is currently explained lacks contextual delivery. Allowing publishers to select where a video is played may empower content creators, but it does nothing in terms of automatically optimizing advertising for the viewer.

Google appears to be lagging in this market; the technology to contextually serve advertising within video is already available, ScanScout providing such a service. Given the massive market share Google holds in the online video hosting marketplace through YouTube, it would normally be expected that Google would be leading development in this field. For reasons unknown, they are not doing so.

Looking for an alternative for Alexa? Your ship may have come in... Art and Mark both give positive reviews of Compete:

Compete API Open For Business

Web analytics startup Compete.com opened its API for public use today. Websites and applications can now access Compete’s data and incorporate it into their own products.

This is timely for the company, which competes directly with Amazon’s Alexa. Recenty, Statsaholic has been in a very public dispute with Alexa over use of its data, with both sides looking bad. That dispute recently went to litigation. As some services shy away from Alexa, either due to public perception or inflexibility over the Alexa APIs, Compete could grab additional market share.

In related SEOish news, Technorati's new changes to their search engine are not well recieved around the net:

Technorati's Authority
Technorati made some changes this month to show it's more than a blog search engine. "Technorati continues to grow well beyond its roots at the leading blog search engine; increasingly, we are the main aggregation point for all forms of social media on the Web, including blogs, of course, but also video, photos, audio such as podcasts and much more", noted David Sifry last month.

The site also introduced a score for each blog that measures the "authority". The pretentious name has one purpose: to cover the real meaning of the number. "Technorati Authority is the number of blogs linking to a website in the last six months. The higher the number, the more Technorati Authority the blog has," explains Technorati's blog. So each blog that links to me (no matter if it's a spam blog or Slashdot) increases my authority with 1. Imagine what would happen if Google's PageRank was proportional to the number of links to a page in the last 6 months: the top search result for most of the queries should be a page from yahoo.com or google.com, sites that would have the PageRank 100,000. It would be easy to increase your PageRank: just create a new site that links to you; it's as important as a link from New York Times. But fortunately, Google found a better way to rank web pages:

PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at considerably more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; for example, it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important." Using these and other factors, Google provides its views on pages' relative importance.

Buzz Out Loud will probably be talking about this later today:

Senator Warns of Email Tax This Fall
cnet-declan writes "State and local governments in Washington this week began an all-out lobbying push for the power to tax the Internet, according to our article at News.com. A new Senate bill would usher in Internet sales taxes, and the Federation of Tax Administrators (representing state tax collectors) advised senators at a hearing on Wednesday not to renew a temporary moratorium limiting broadband taxes that expires in November. One irked Republican senator warned that unless the moratorium is renewed, we could start seeing email taxes by the end of the year. Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey blames it on the Democrats taking over, as do Yahoo and eBay lobbyists. Is this a non-hoax version of bill 602P?"

Mark talks of his experiences with red-light cameras, and applaud's Texas's move to ban them:

Texas Looking To Ban Speed Cameras?
There are all sorts of problems with things like speed cameras and red light cameras, starting with technical problems and moving on to the more serious questions about whether or not they make the roads any safer. Since they're usually offered in combination with private companies who receive a large percentage of the fines, it's often pointed out that these cameras are more about making private companies and government coffers money, rather than any real attempt at increasing safety. Still, they've only become more and more popular recently, with a new speed camera catching over a thousand speeders in a single day. However, it looks like Texas may actually be heading in the other direction. Jeff Nolan points us to the news that Texas lawmakers have approved a ban on speed cameras. The law also requires signs warning about red light cameras -- though, it's unclear if that will help, since studies have shown red light cameras often increase accidents, as drivers are more likely to slam on their brakes.

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Another Ron Paul Petition

I got this in the mail today:

Dear fellow patriots,

Please SIGN and then include the following news release in your
future email distributions and on other message boards if you can
see your way clear to doing so:

Ron Paul Supporters Take Action Against Major Media Bias

Dr. Ron Paul has done far better than anyone could have expected in
the early going for the Republican nomination for President of the
United States. After the first Republican debates sponsored by
MSNBC on May 3rd in San Diego, Dr. Paul was the clear winner in all
of the various poll questions conducted by MSNBC on their own
website. Then, on May 15th, he was a very close second (some claim
he finished 2nd and not 1st because of hijinx) in the debates in
South Carolina.

In the first instance, Dr. Paul was "rewarded" by MSNBC by dropping
from 9th to 12th (dead last) shortly thereafter in their rankings of
the Republicans most likely to win the nomination. There was also
not a single mention on their network that Dr. Paul had been the
consensus and clearcut winner in all of their own polling data.

In the post-debate show conducted by Fox News after their debate on
May 15th, the treatment of Dr. Paul was blatantly negative. One of
the invited guests on the show actually said that "Dr. Paul is
finished," moments before the results of the Fox News call-in
polling flashed on the screen showing that Dr. Paul had won their
debate. Sean Hannity was also blatantly rude to Dr. Paul after the
debates.

These are merely examples. The mainstream media's treatment of Dr.
Paul has been routinely negative and/or purposely inaccurate. The
campaign supporters have begun a petition demanding fair and equal
treatment in the MSM. You can view and sign the petition here:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/487443841

This petition calls for Congressional hearings in the event that
this type of blatant distortion of Dr. Paul, his message, and his
campaign prospects continues within the MSM, on the grounds that it
is an aggregious attack on the entire democratic process.

Thanks!

God bless.

For the Republic,
Steve Martin

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Good site

I was looking the other day at sites that provided good vacation packages. Well I found a really great site that has an all inclusive mexico one that I can tell Wendy about. She was talking the other day about wanting to go to Mexico for her honey moon when her and Chris get married.

This site provides a great booking engine and has great rates. I think it is by far the best one that I have seen so far in my browsing. She is going to love the vertual tours that it provides, and the commentary that they have from other customers that have stayed their. I will surley have to tell her about this site the next time I talk to her, unless she has already to go with something else.


[This post contains a paid placement.]

RizWords - Daily Politics and Tech - EP48

RizWords - Daily Politics and Tech
Episode 48 - download now - subscribe now

• A member of the TechPodcast Network @ techpodcast.com. If it's Tech, it's here.
  
• Remember, if you're listening on the podcast recording, you can call into the show live if you tune in through TalkShoe.com at 2:30 PM EST every weekday.
• If you like the podcast (and you haven't already given us a rating), head over and do so, and don't forget to sign up for the discussion list.
• Other Podcast Plugs:
  
• TalkGirls comes on Tuesday nights. Check out the TalkGirls Podcast ... it's good times!
• Cotolo Chronicles: Frank is a good friend of the show, and an associate of the late great Wolfman Jack. Check out his podcast.
• NewsReal: Good friend to Art and I - has one of the best hours of news podcast each week.
• You Are the Guest: Bill Grady turns the microphone on the internet's most interesting people.
  
• Sponsors:
  
• Try GoToMeeting for 45 days! Visit www.GoToMeeting.com/podcast to start your free trial today.
  
• J. Douglas Barker - Voice-overs for you! www.romancingthetone.com

I mentioned this earlier today on the blog: "There was a bit of a huge argument between Hasselback and O'Donnell this morning on the View. I don't have any links on that yet, but I will. It was truly a joy to watch as Hasselback served O'Donnell. Someone must be giving that girl some debate lessons." Here's the link I talked about in the show, where you can find almost all of the argument/cat-fight. Art an I started the show talking a bit about this, and the conversation devolved a bit into the pure crappitude of daytime TV. After that, we got to the actual news of the day, beginning with privacy issues:

Google Wants Still More Personal Data on its Users
Via HSToday.us.

Google wants to maximize the personal information it is capable of capturing – and storing indefinately - on its users. The company even envisages a day when it can tell people what jobs to take and how they might spend their days off.

Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, said gathering more personal data is key for Google’s expansion and believes it is the logical extension of the company’s stated mission to organise the world’s information.

But privacy rights advocates are concerned that the personal information Google is capturing and storing can also be used to compile a detailed portrait of a person’s behavior.

Indeed. HSToday.us first reported that Google reputedly has been working with the US Intelligence Community – with whom it has long enjoyed a close relationship and which helped the then fledging company get off the ground – to provide it with search engine user data which, in conjunction with other datamining efforts, is used to identify suspected terrorists.

More here.

In media monitoring news, more death-throes of the Old Media, a topic which spawned a really interesting discussion on the nature of our presence and public face in the Middle East:

Charles from LGF notices the AP paying homage to their Islamic Overlords

Ok someone tell me what exactly does the AP think it is doing by mentioning that Muslims are praying for rain? Does the AP just not give a shit about the fact that CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) has been a den of terrorist supporters? Maybe they think that Barbara Boxer is a Neo Con Stooge?

Last month, U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer rescinded an award her office gave to the head of CAIR’s Sacramento office, saying her staff had turned up a “laundry list” of problems with the Islamic advocacy group. “We made a bad mistake not researching the organization,” Boxer told the Sacramento Bee. Among Boxer’s concerns were the convictions of two former CAIR members — Ghassan Elashi and Ismail Royer — for engaging in financial transactions with the leader of Hamas and supporting overseas terrorist operations.

So then explain why AP thought it was a good idea to include this bit of nonsense in an article about the fires raging in Florida?

Jim Harrell, a spokesman for the Florida Division of Forestry, said the situation hadn’t changed throughout the day Thursday. But another official says there is concern about winds picking up and fanning the flames. As of Friday, the number of active fires has dropped from 236 to 223, with about 140 square miles —- over 87,000 acres — burnt. Seven homes in the state were destroyed. Other large fires are burning in Bradford and Collier County.

Meanwhile, the Council on American-Islamic Relations says Florida Muslims are offering special prayers for rains at mosques on their religion’s day of rest.

In northern Minnesota, high wind fanned a fire around the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, prompting more evacuations. Bill Paxton, a spokesman for the firefighting effort, said the fire was “challenging” the containment lines. “They’re holding right now,” he said. “We’re having some difficulty holding them, but they’re holding now.” The fire had burned more than 45 square miles and destroyed about 45 structures since it started Saturday. The shifting winds Thursday put another 100 buildings at risk, fire officials said.

What is the point?

Turning to technical news, yesterday's rumors ring true:

$100 Million Payday For Feedburner - This Deal Is Confirmed
Rumors about Google acquiring RSS management company Feedburner from last week, started by ex-TechCrunch UK editor Sam Sethi, are accurate and are now confirmed according to a source close to the deal. Feedburner is in the closing stages of being acquired by Google for around $100 million. The deal is all cash and mostly upfront, according to our source, although the founders will be locked in for a couple of years.

The information we have is that the deal is now under a binding term sheet and will close in 2-3 weeks, and there is nothing that can really derail it at this point.

Huge congratulations to Feedburner. The company was founded in 2003 and has raised just $10 million in capital over two rounds. Portage Ventures funded their $1 million Series A round in 2004. The $9 million Series B round was closed in mid 2005 (second close in 2006), from Mobius Venture Capital and Union Square Ventures.

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Working on a great show today...

I'm working on a great show today, folks.  And unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), I still haven't found the CD that has all my baby pictures on it.  We got about 70% unpacked, which is some sort of record for someone like me.  My boxes tend to sit around the house for at least a month or so after a move.

In terms of the show, I hope to be able to talk a bit about Ron Paul today.  He was recently interviewed on CNN's Late Night, and had quite a reaming to give to Larry King, who quoted all kinds of discredited bits of news at him, to which he responded adeptly, but admittedly, a little curmudgeonly ( you can read the full transcript here).

Fox News has also done a nice opinion piece that puts the feud between Paul and Giuliani in great perspective ( read that here).

There was a bit of a huge argument between Hasselback and O'Donnell this morning on the View.  I don't have any links on that yet, but I will.  It was truly a joy to watch as Hasselback served O'Donnell.  Someone must be giving that girl some debate lessons.

In other news, there have been two traffic surges to the podcast that I can't explain.  Episode 46 has had over 400 downloads today so far, so someone important must have mentioned us. Additionally, episode 19, which isn't particularly impressive to me as an episode, has had over 50 downloads on its own today so far.  Not sure what the big deal is. I appreciate everyone's continued support, though - and TELL A FRIEND!

That's it for now.  Stay tuned for the podcast, which should air on schedule today at 2:30 PM EST on TalkShoe.com.  Click on the RizWords link on the TalkShoe front page.
--
/mark "rizzn" hopkins
For my blog, profile, and wikipedia entries, simply Google "rizzn"
--
intelligent discussion: http://groups.google.com/group/rizzncom-v83/
intelligent podcast: http://feeds.feedburner.com/RizWords
--

Hey folks...

I'm running back to the house now to finish unpacking... just wanted to let everyone know that I'm gonna have a bunch of new baby pictures tomorrow for everyone to check out.

Yes, that's right, I'm becoming that kind of dad... the one who has pictures of his kids in his wallet and shows them to everyone, every chance he gets.  Except in this case, change wallet to blog site, and every chance I get to about once a week.

Sorry.  Just relax and enjoy it.  He's the most beautiful baby that was ever born, so it won't be that bad to be subjected to pictures all the time.

:-p

--
/mark "rizzn" hopkins
For my blog, profile, and wikipedia entries, simply Google "rizzn"
--
intelligent discussion: http://groups.google.com/group/rizzncom-v83/
intelligent podcast: http://feeds.feedburner.com/RizWords
--

RizWords - Daily Politics and Tech - EP47

RizWords - Daily Politics and Tech
Episode 47 - download now - subscribe now

• A member of the TechPodcast Network @ techpodcast.com. If it's Tech, it's here.
  
• Remember, if you're listening on the podcast recording, you can call into the show live if you tune in through TalkShoe.com at 2:30 PM EST every weekday.
• If you like the podcast (and you haven't already given us a rating), head over and do so, and don't forget to sign up for the discussion list.
• Other Podcast Plugs:
  
• TalkGirls comes on Tuesday nights. Check out the TalkGirls Podcast ... it's good times!
• Cotolo Chronicles: Frank is a good friend of the show, and an associate of the late great Wolfman Jack. Check out his podcast.
• NewsReal: Good friend to Art and I - has one of the best hours of news podcast each week.
• You Are the Guest: Bill Grady turns the microphone on the internet's most interesting people.
  
• Sponsors:
  
• Try GoToMeeting for 45 days! Visit www.GoToMeeting.com/podcast to start your free trial today.
  
• J. Douglas Barker - Voice-overs for you! www.romancingthetone.com

A perfect example of the type of stories we like: fusion of politics and tech:

Change.org 2.0: Harass Politicians and Fund Their Opponents

We covered the social activist community Change.org when they first launched back in February. The site is one of a few philanthropic startups tailoring the latest web features for non-profits and politics. It is a social networking site that serves as a resource for researching and organizing groups around social and political causes, called “Changes”. Changes are a place for members to post related images, videos, blog posts, and donate time or money to the relevant nonprofits.

Tonight, Change.org is launching an ambitious version 2.0 that expands beyond nonprofits and into political fundraising and lobbying. Founder Ben Rattray says politicians are expected to raise over $3 billion in this election cycle, with about half of that spent on fund raising (running total here). He says nonprofits receive donations upwards of $250 billion a year, with $50 billion of that money spent on chasing down a donors. Change.org wants to lower those fund raising costs, counteract large donor’s “special interest” money, and help give a voice to the average Joe who can’t afford a $2,500 a plate dinner.

To accomplish this, Change.org has effectively turned each “Change” group into a political action committee (PAC) by adding a database of politician profiles and some extra features to the “Change” groups. Now each group has the power to pool together a pot of money to donate to relevant charities or political candidates, as well as the power to lobby your representatives.

Instead of only nominating one charity per group, members can now vote on who which charities or politicians can best enact the change they want. Any member of the group will be able to submit a candidate for the donation, but only people who donate to the group’s “piggy bank” ($10 min by credit) will be able to vote the candidates up or down the list. Donations can be raised through the main site or an embeddable widget.

At the end of the month, all the money in the piggy bank will be divided between the top “n” donation candidate(s) (3 by default), minus a 1% management fee to sustain Change.org. If the money is raised for a political candidate, that candidate will get a check for the amount and their opponent will get slapped with a novelty check for the negative amount, just to let the competition know you mean business. Donations can also be conditional, such as donations to whoever wins the Democratic or Republican primary. Change.org will distribute the money when a winner is determined.

Michael Moore got SERVED!

Oh my Fred Thompson destroys Michael Moore…

You don’t pull on Superman’s cape, you don’t spit into the wind and you don’t mess around with Fred. Apparently Michael Moore that fat bag of crap so adored by “all” the right sorts of leftist windbags (see Jimmy Carter) issued a challenge to Fred Thompson (undeclared candidate for President) for a debate this morning. Jimmy [...]

Click here for the video

Everyone knows that the Onion is fake news, right?

RIAA Takes Cue From The Onion: Wants Radio Stations To Pay Up For Promoting Music
You know your business is in trouble when you feel the need to start taking cues from the Onion for ways to squeeze more money out of customers. Last year, it was Verizon, who was found to have copied The Onion's satirical "charge-you-at-a-whim" plan. The latest, as submitted by a few folks, is that the RIAA is following the basic recommendation famously laid out by the Onion five years ago to go after radio stations for "giving away free music." It's not quite that bad, but pretty close. The LA Times notes that the RIAA and some musicians are asking Congress to change the law to force radio stations to pay up for promoting their music. Of course, radio stations already do have to pay some royalties, but they're for composers and publishers. The actual musicians are exempt from royalties because Congress (correctly) recognized that they get the benefit of their music being promoted. However, the new charge is being led by an original member of the Supremes, Mary Wilson, with the support of the RIAA, complaining that she can't just sit at home and collect royalties and actually has to (gasp!) work to get paid these days. Oh, the horror. If only everyone else could sit at home and get paid for work they did forty years ago. In the meantime, she ignores the fact that radio play is a big part of what helped make the Supremes famous allowing her to make any money from her music at all. It's what drove people to buy the records. It's what drove people to go to the concerts. This is just like the musicians in the UK whining about not extending copyright. They're acting as if this is a welfare system, and the government needs to make sure they keep getting paid for work they did decades ago.

In requisite Google news:

Gmail Doubles Maximum Attachment Size to 20 MB
Gmail upgraded the maximum attachment size from 10 MB to 20 MB. Gmail was quite forgiving and you could send more than 10 MB in some cases, but now it's possible to send at least 20 MB in one message.

Of course, few mail providers will accept a such a big message, so it's safe to send messages bigger than 10 MB to other Gmail accounts, to Yahoo Mail Plus or to other premium accounts.

It would be nice if Gmail showed a progress bar for the upload and if uploading files to Gmail was faster and more reliable. But maybe we're asking too much.

Everyone knows about Justin.TV, right?

Justin.TV Network Launches: More Shows to Come

24/7 reality online TV show Justin.tv has has turned into a bit of a mini-phenomenon since launching just two months ago. Their apartment was raided by the police, and they were later evicted by their landlord. They were on the Today Show. Justin has hung out with famous rappers. They’ve taken extravagant dares from their audience, and a crowd always surrounds Justin and his ubiquitous camera. Hundreds of adolescent viewers watched (sort of) as Justin had sex on the show, although users were left with a black screen and silence until the Justin.tv team started playing porn music. The site has been far more successful so far than the founders anticipated.

The site is so successful, in fact, that many people have said they want to start their own real-life television shows. Startup Ustream launched just in time to take advantage of this - they give users the tools to easily duplicate the Justin.tv experience.

Today, Justin.tv is launching its own network to allow users to create and publish their own shows.

The site has been redesigned to improve usability and in preparation for expansion into a network of live video streamers. Ustream.tv currently has a fully open lifecaster network, with profile pages and all, but Justin.tv is expanding more slowly.

Each Monday for the following weeks, Justin.tv will be opening their network to a new live video casters, serving as examples for the different ways fans will be able to use live video. Some may be like Justin Kan, with a now more affordable mobile hat came based on off the shelf hardware. Others will stream from their computers or static cams set in the public. They’ve got a list of the upcoming casters but are keeping the names secret for now.

Sounds like a pet Paris Hilton would get:

Legless Chihuahuas Prove Google Hot Trends Not So Hot

Google has launched a new addition to its growing lineup of…well everything, Google Hot Trends.

Google Trends takes the idea behind Google Zeitgeist to the next level. Instead of providing weekly details of top Google searches, Google Hot Trends provides similar data daily and goes as far as providing “hot” search results via state, city and country.

The data though isn’t top search results. According to Search Engine Land the data shows “hot trends” as the services name would the suggest. The hottest queries for the day are calculated by a “sophisticated algorithm” that takes in factors such as a sudden rise in a query phrase over previous periods.

Anything that is solely reliant on computer calculations is bound to have hiccups. In the case of Hot Trends for May 21 (US) those hiccups included “legless chihuahuas” at 25, but not forgetting that you may only be interested in one legless dog, “legless chihuahua” is at 36; the ultimate handbag accessory perhaps? Pretzel syndrome (33) might be cured by using a nose bidet (7) however “what did lawyer ellis rubin suggest prison inmates could donate in exchange for reduction in their sentences in 1992″ (26) may provide a hidden answer. Tasmania Tigers (45) may not get pigeon breast disease (43) but cicadas (23) are prone to issues.

It’s very early days for Hot Trends. It’s easy to have fun with it, however any new Google release, like wine, is sure to improve with age.

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