Blogs are Stupid

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MC Plus+ rattles off lines like: "I'm encrypting shit like every single day; sending it across a network in a safe way; protecting messages to make my pay; if you hack me you're guilty under DMCA."

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"I think CS graduates have a better chance than most rappers at calculating and devising hitherto unheard rhyme pairings," he said. "50 Cent has dance clubs and oral sex, we have awesome video cards."

Fox preps 'Family Guy' movie for Sept. 27 DVD bow

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane is preparing his long-awaited direct-to-DVD movie based on the exploits of his cartoon clan for a Sept. 27 release.

"It's been an enormous undertaking to juggle this with doing 35 new episodes of the show, but we think it turned out great," MacFarlane said of the film, his first full-length feature, and the first direct-to-video ever made off a television franchise.

The 83-minute, unrated "Family Guy Presents Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story" ($29.98) is based on the animated series MacFarlane created for Fox Television in the late 1990s. The irreverent series, aimed at adults rather than kids, went on the air in early 1999 and was canceled in 2003, only to be resurrected last month after an overwhelming demand for the show on DVD.

The movie finds Stewie, the maniacal baby genius, having a near-death experience that prompts him to change his ways. Instead of seeking to dominate the world, he sets out on a road trip to find his real father.

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The DVD will include several special features, including deleted scenes, still galleries, animatics and a commentary from MacFarlane.

"We also sandwiched special features around the movie," he said. "It begins with an animated movie premiere, with the family arriving to watch it, and then there's an after-party at the end."

"Kill Reality" will feature "Survivor" alumni Ethan Zohn, Jenna Lewis, Jon "Jonny Fairplay" Dalton and Jenna Morasca; "Real World"-ers Trishelle Cannatella, Tonya Cooley and Steven Hill; ex-"Bachelor" Bob Guiney and "Bachelor"-ette Trish Schneider; "Amazing Race 4" winner Reichen Lehmkuhl and "Apprentice" contestant Stacie J. Upchurch.

In classic reality-show style, they'll share a house while making the show and the movie. Cameras will follow them as they learn whose character survives longest and who will have on-screen romances with one another, along with any repercussions those developments might have.

• Miller and other top execs now have made a plea for a bigger allowance from Parsons. In a meeting that took place directly after the all-employee confab in Dulles in May, AOL execs explained that they recently had problems getting approval from the parent company's bean counters for potential acquisitions, according to a senior AOL exec present at the meeting.
  
  The big one that got away: About.com, a network of Web sites on topics ranging from personal finance to hobbies, which The New York Times (NYT ) bought from Primedia (PRM ) for $410 million in February. With 22 million unique visitors a month at the time, according to the Times, About.com could have catapulted AOL beyond Yahoo in monthly unique visitors to its Web sites. AOL execs contended that Yahoo gained its girth as much through acquisitions of Overture, Inktomi, Launch, and Hot Jobs as it did through organic growth.
  




• AOL won't comment on the companies it may seek to buy. But Jupiter Research analyst David Card suggests that to generate more page views and attract advertisers, CEO Miller could look at leading news site CNET.com (CNET ), with a $1.6 billion market cap, women's site iVillage.com (IVIL ) with a $429 million market cap, or even the privately held Neopets.com, where kids build cyberpets and feed them online.
  

Zombie army camped out on AOL, report says

Internet "zombie" attacks that attempt to knock computer systems offline are more likely to come from users of America Online than any other source, according to a new report.

AOL and other large Internet service providers serve as launching pads for most denial of service attacks, according to a report released Tuesday by Prolexic Technologies, which helps companies fend off such attacks.

Other top sources of such attacks include T-Mobile's German-based service; Wanadoo, a French Internet provider; and Comcast.

Prolexic's chief technology officer, Barrett Lyon, said the report could indicate that some Internet providers don't protect their customers as much as EarthLink and other companies that don't show up on the list.

"Their clients may be exposed differently, or they may be doing a poor job of filtering certain things from their clients," Lyon said, referring to AOL and the other providers named in the report.

But such figures only show that AOL has a much larger user base than other Internet providers who account for nearly as many attacks, company spokesman Andrew Weinstein said.

"This survey is a huge victory for our members. If they're three-to-four times less likely to be compromised than their peers, that's not a bad thing," Weinstein said.

AOL provides antivirus, anti-spyware and firewall services for its members, and those who are compromised probably haven't updated their software recently, he said.

Kevin McBride and his little flunky manager had just finished telling the world they were just getting started, that Kevin was ready to "shock the world," that he'd fight anyone, anywhere, anytime. Bring it on, McBride said. You're looking at the next great champion. Ireland's waiting.

Tyson doesn't have to be any more direct. The point was made: McBride is a stiff, and the once-great Tyson lost to a stiff. Therefore, Tyson is presently lower than a stiff.

But what does McBride do while Tyson is saying this? He nods, of course, bobbing his head like it's spring-loaded. Mike's not only right, he's so right McBride can barely contain himself. He just told us he's going to be the next great heavyweight, and now he's agreeing with every word Tyson is saying.

Google took over the top spot as the most highly valued media company this week, surpassing Time Warner in just 10 months of trading as a public company.

Google's share price on the Nasdaq rose another $2.18, or 0.75 percent, to close at $293.12 on Tuesday, an all-time high. Stock market analysts have suggested the stock could go as high as $325 or $350 a share.

With a current stock market capitalization of more than $80 billion, Google is now worth more than any other media company in the world. That includes Time Warner, created five years ago when AOL purchased Time Warner for $106 billion in a much-hyped combination of old and new media.

But Time Warner's share price has deteriorated since the dot.com bubble burst--its market capitalization on Tuesday stood at $78.1 billion--and investors view Google as the hot internet and media company these days.

Other, more traditional, media companies trail Google's stock market worth by even more. Viacom and Walt Disney, for instance, hold stock market capitalization of between $54 billion and $55 billion.

Even Yahoo, seen as one big internet media competitor, carries a market value some $27 billion less than that of Google.

• He said the game ceased to be "fun" last season, said his former teammates failed to match his intensity in practice and characterized his relationship with Williams as nonexistent

• But Gilchrist's claims were viewed as outlandish by various sources within Maryland's program, who paint him as a belligerent player distracted by the lure of the NBA, rebellious toward Williams's long-successful philosophy and unaccepted as a leader by teammates.

• Gilchrist said he never sought a personal association with Williams -- "He was my coach; I looked at it like business." In fact, one of the only conversations of a personal nature Gilchrist recalled having with Williams occurred in spring 2004, when the player told his coach that his longtime girlfriend was pregnant.

• Gilchrist's college career officially ended when he withdrew from classes shortly after the 2004-05 season. Gilchrist acknowledged difficulties with teammates, who he said did not "take me seriously" and questioned whether his priorities were with the team or with his pro prospects.

It was meant to be funny — but no one is laughing now in the San Francisco 49ers' front office over an in-house training film that featured off- color racial jokes, lesbian porn, a spoof of gay marriage and a trio of buxom, topless blondes frolicking with team public relations director Kirk Reynolds.

The 15-minute video (see it here), some of which was filmed in the City Hall office of Mayor Gavin Newsom — who comes in for a few unsubtle swipes — was intended as a primer on how players should handle the media in diverse San Francisco.

Instead, it's turned into a team embarrassment — with PR man Reynolds looking for another job.