RizWords - Daily Politics and Tech - EP39

RizWords - Daily Politics and Tech
Episode 39 - 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.
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• 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.
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Derrick Vann, long time technologist and good buddy of mine joins me today as co-host. Apologies for the late posting of the show notes - very hectic day. Jumping into the news, the latest in the Viacom/GooTube suit:

NBC Universal sides against YouTube in piracy suit
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - NBC Universal is taking sides with fellow media conglomerate Viacom Inc. over a piracy lawsuit filed against Google Inc.'s online video sharing site YouTube, according to papers filed in court.

In business acquisition news:

Confirmed: MySpace To Acquire Photobucket For $250 Million

Apparently an overzealous Photobucket employee is the source of this rumor, but we’ve confirmed it with more senior people: MySpace is acquiring Photobucket for $250 million in cash. We’re hearing that there is also an earn-out for up to an additional $50 million.

Photobucket has been looking for a buyer since March, when they hired Lehman Brothers to help sell the company. They were looking for $300 million or more, but may have had few bidders other than MySpace.

The companies have been in serious acquisition discussions for the last couple of weeks - A dispute that involved Photobucket videos being blocked on MySpace led to acquisition discussions, and the block was removed.

Photobucket generated $6.3 million in revenue last year and planned on hitting $25 million or more this year. They have 40 million registered users and add another 85,000 per day.

Our first coverage of Photobucket was a year ago. They’ve raised $15 million over two rounds of financing.

Derrick and I had a good conversation about the RealID Act, and what it means:
Homeland Security's Own Privacy Panel Declines to Endorse Real ID
Ryan Singel writes on Threat Level:

The Department of Homeland Security's outside privacy advisors explicitly refused to bless proposed federal rules to standardize states' driver's licenses Monday, saying the Department's proposed rules for standardized driver's licenses -- known as Real IDs -- do not adequately address concerns about privacy, price, information security, redress, "mission creep", and national security protections.

The 18-member Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee began looking at the proposed rules at the request of Hugo Teufel IIl, DHS's chief privacy officer. According to Teufel's instructions, the group was asked to provide very specific comment on how to implement the rules, which civil liberties groups and libertarian-leaning states want repealed, not reformed.

More here.

Then we had a real interesting discussion about the concept of "Life Streams":

My Digital Life Stream

Finally! I have been looking for something that would let me create a Digital Life Stream (a log of all my digital activities) for me and finally i’ve found a solution - iStalkr.com

This lets you take all your digital activities like Digg, Del.icio.us, Last.fm or any Feed and aggregate it into one. Now this could previously be done using something life xfruits or Yahoo Pipes, but whats different is how it organises the data and displays it.

Instead of just packing all the data into one ugly RSS feed, it creates a nice looking page with icons to differentiate the types of content. For example, all of my Digg’s have a Digg.com icon next to it. To see what im talking about have a look at this page

I wrote about wanting to create a digital lifestream before and one of things I wanted was to place it on my website. iStalkr does offer the ability to add the aggregated feed on your site, but it doesn’t keep the nice formatting and looks. If they create this feature then they will have to be given the rare two thumbs up!

Im sure where going to see more startups taking on the Digital Life Stream concept in the following months.

And then a little bit of gadget news:

Transform a Regular LCD Into a Touchscreen
eZtaR writes "NAVisis is introducing a new USB gadget (for Windows only including Vista) called LaptopTablet. You mount it onto the side of your regular LCD monitor to transform it into a fully functional touchscreen, controlled with an included pen. The gadget is priced at around $100 and seems a good alternative for Photoshoppers."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

RizWords - Daily Politics and Tech EP 37

RizWords - Daily Politics and Tech
Episode 37 - download now - subscribe now - iTunes subscribe

• 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.
  
• Sponsors:
  
• Try GoToMeeting for 45 days! Visit www.GoToMeeting.com/podcast to start your free trial today.
  
• AACS - Guaranteed improved credit - http://aacsnet.com/ - Mention RizWords and get $50 off your entry to the program.
  

This was a PACKED episode... FULL of news. Art Lindsey is still on Medical Leave. See www.artlindsey.com for more information. On Monday, Bill Grady from You Are The Guest Podcast will be joining as co-host, and Derrick Vann, longtime personal friend, will be joining us on Tuesday. Do not fail to miss these shows, if you can. Hopefully, Art will be re-joining us next week soon.

But now, the news! The big talks today center around re-opening of merger talks between Microsoft and Yahoo!:

Massive: Microsoft, Yahoo Talk Merger
By Nicholas Carlson

Microsoft and Yahoo are talking at the merger table. And this time, Microsoft is said to be willing to pay the heavy price it would cost to acquire Silicon Valley's most successful Web portal. Some wonder whether that's wise.

According to unnamed sources cited by the New York Post, Microsoft broached the merger topic months ago and Yahoo quickly rejected the deal. A Yahoo spokeswoman told internetnews.com the company refused to comment on "rumors or speculation." Microsoft did not respond to requests for comment.

But since, a series of Google successes -- its launch of Web-based applications for small businesses, its outbidding of Microsoft for advertising firm DoubleClick and another quarter of spectacular financial results -- has Microsoft hot for Yahoo's Web presence once more.

ahoo's current market capitalization is $44.75 billion. In morning trading, Yahoo's share price rose five points, or 17 percent, to a near 52-week high of $33.23 per share.

Apparently, merger talks are just the cure for Yahoo after weak first-quarter financial results caused investors to bail on the company in mid-April. The problem then was that Yahoo did not exceed expectations for its new advertising platform, code-named Panama.

When reporting Yahoo's 2006 financial results, CFO Susan Decker said Yahoo did not expect Panama to positively impact its profits until the second quarter of 2007. But early reports of the advertising platform's success raised investor expectations. Despite positive reviews from Yahoo advertiser customers, however, those expectations were not met and the stock tanked. Until today's merger talks.

In other Yahoo! related news:

Yahoo Photos going dark as Flickr shines on (USA Today)

LOS ANGELES — At Yahoo, Web 2.0 has won one battle with stodgy old Web 1.0. — Yahoo is shutting down Yahoo Photos — for years, the No. 1 or No. 2 most-visited photo site on the Web. Its users will be directed to move their pictures to Yahoo's hot upstart, Flickr.

And on the flipside, two interesting Google-related stories:

Google Scholar Added to Google's Homepage
There's a new link to Google Scholar in the list of services from the "more" box. Google's search engines for scholarly papers was available on the homepage only if you visited Google from your school.

Google Scholar includes a big list of scientific publications and some of them aren't available in Google's main index. "Google Scholar covers peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts, and other scholarly literature from all broad areas of research. You'll find works from a wide variety of academic publishers and professional societies, as well as scholarly articles available across the web."

And the other:

YouTube Users Get Paid. Tomorrow.

On Friday, YouTube will begin revenue sharing with top users including LisaNova, renetto, HappySlip, smosh, and valsartdiary using the same system they’ve used for TV networks. They’ll also be sharing revenue with thousands of medium-sized content content creators like small production houses and universities.

These “top users” have been picked from the “most subscribed” list, and YouTube is spinning this as a way to put ordinary users on a par with professional content. I’m going to guess that this is partially related to the Viacom lawsuit, which alleges that YouTube is almost totally reliant on copyrighted professional content: just like the bizarrely late YouTube Video Awards 2006 (held in March 2007), this may be an attempt to highlight the importance of user generated content. (”Look, we make so much money from Renetto that we can pay him!”).

The top users were plucked from the “most subscribed” list, which may be a little worrying based on the fact that YouTube doesn’t really regulate these numbers. Even more worrying: they still haven’t fixed the bug that allows you to get more views by refreshing the page: when there’s money involved, that trick will be even more enticing (look at all the crappy videos on the Most Viewed list with very low ratings). Nonetheless, we now know that the YouTube rev share program is being tested on many more accounts that just the Afterworld trial we mentioned earlier.

More on the YT blog.

Embedded below: LisaNova, whose good looks almost make up for a lack of talent.

In more reasons to hate the RIAA news:

RIAA Drops Yet Another Case
Given just how many cases the RIAA has had to drop after it was pointed out that it's sued the wrong person, why isn't anyone questioning why the RIAA is allowed to file thousands of cases in a single shot when it's clearly not very careful about the process? The latest is that the RIAA has dropped a case after it was pointed out to the RIAA that the person being sued wasn't actually a subscriber to the ISP in question at the time of the observed file sharing. Oops. At some point, you would think that someone would point out that the RIAA appears to be abusing the legal system as its personal plaything in suing whoever it wants whenever it wants on whatever flimsy evidence it can find.

In EVEN CHEAPER laptop news:

India Hopes to Make $10 Laptops a Reality
sas-dot writes "We all know Nicholas Negroponte's $100 OLPC. India, which was a potential market, rejected it. India's Human Resources Development ministry's idea to make laptops at $10 is firmly taking shape with two designs already in and public sector undertaking Semiconductor Complex evincing interest to be a part of the project. So far, the cost of one laptop, after factoring in labor charges, is coming to $47 but the ministry feels the price will come down dramatically considering the fact that the demand would be for one million laptops."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This is quite a big deal... lots of big deals in the news today:

AOL Slips to No. 3 on Internet
After more than a decade connecting more Americans to the Internet than any other company, AOL has given up its title as the leading Internet service provider, a reflection of changing consumer habits and its own strategic shift.

I'm interested to hear what Todd Cochrane will say about this:

THE END OF MILITARY BLOGGING
The most excellent Noah Shachtman of Wired's Danger Room has a great article with lots of milblogger reaction to the new OPSEC regulations that will end military blogging as we know it. Yes, that's right - the end of soldier blogging from the war zones.

In purely political news:

Bush vetoes troop withdrawal bill
WASHINGTON - President Bush vetoed legislation to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq Tuesday night in a historic showdown with Congress over whether the unpopular and costly war should end or escalate. — In only the second veto of his presidency …

Condi, and why it's legal for her, and not Pelosi:

Rice to Meet With Syrian Foreign Minister
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plans to meet with Syria's foreign minister here later today, United States officials said. The meeting would be the first diplomatic contact at such a high level between the two countries in years.

This story set me off:

Is Virtual Rape a Crime?
cyberianpan writes "Wired is carrying commentary on the story that Brussels police have begun an investigation into a citizen's allegations of rape in Second Life. For reasons of civil liberty & clarity we'd like to confine criminal law to physical offenses rather than thought crimes but already threats, menace & conspiracy count as crimes. Could we see a situation where our laws extend?"

Read mor of this story at Slashdot.

What I'm Working On

I'll be brief - my step-son's father is coming in an hour or so to come and pick him up, so I need to head on home. Here's what you can look forward to in the next few days here at Rizzn.com:

• Some re-vitalisation over at ModernOpinion.com - I've got a few things planned, and hopefully the beginning of some monetization over there. I can't wait for that thing to start making some money so I can start promoting it! I thank my writers there for being so dedicated in this lean time of slow growth.
• An interview with Barry Cooper - a fellow has been making headlines lately. He's an ex-Narc who's instructing people with a penchant for pot how to not get busted. I sit down with him and talk about what he's doing get the inside scoop and all that jazz.
• The next iteration of PoddedMeat - A lot of fans out there are wondering what's going on with PoddedMeat. I gotta say, we have some exciting things in the works, and pending a few pitch meetings next Thursday, I can start talking about what we have in store.
• OblongBox - I'm going to do something about OblongBox. The momentum has sort of died around here, and I've got a few ideas to pick things back up.
• UT Tyler - I'm working on creating a news engine for the UT system's websites. I'll give the inside scoop on how I'm putting all that together.
• Optimus Rhyme - I'm finishing up my remix for the new Optimus Rhyme CD. It's gonna be neat.
  

Look for information on this stuff in detail tomorrow and next week. For now, gotta jet!

/rizzn