Blogs are Stupid

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Consumers can expect retail gas prices to rise to $4 a gallon soon, but whether they stay there depends on the long-term damage to oil facilities from Hurricane Katrina, oil and gas analysts said Wednesday.

"There's no question gas will hit $4 a gallon," Ben Brockwell, director of pricing at the Oil Price Information Service, said. "The question is how high will it go and how long will it last?"

Brandt also expressed reservations about the company's new motto. Until yesterday's news conference, the company's unofficial slogan had been "Don't be evil." The slogan has now been expanded to "Don't be evil, unless it's necessary for the greater good."

Co-founders Page and Brin dismiss their critics.

"A lot of companies are so worried about short-term reactions that they ignore the long view," Page said. "Not us. Our team is focused on something more than just making money. At Google, we're using technology to make dreams come true."

"Soon," Brin added, "we'll make dreams clickable, or destroy them forever."

I think I'm posting this just because I like the term "godcasting".

Interesting use for your ipod - if you're so inclined.

No more religion posts after this, back to google lovefest .. (except i dont like Google Talk and Sidebar....shit..maybe MD basketball posts? Chris McCray arrested...hmm nm on that one too....eh just read Allan's blog or something)

Missed Church? Download It to Your IPod.

Kyle Lewis, 25, missed going to church one Sunday last month. But he did not miss the sermon.

Mr. Lewis, who regularly attends services of the National Community Church in Alexandria, Va., listened to the sermon while he was at the gym, through a recording he had downloaded to his iPod. Instead of listening to the rock music his gym usually plays, he heard his pastor's voice.

"Having an iPod is a guaranteed way to get the sermon if you're going to be out of town," Mr. Lewis said, adding that he listens to the pastor's podcast at least once more during the week, usually while driving to work, even during weeks he makes it to services.

Mr. Lewis's pastor, the Rev. Mark Batterson, started podcasting, or "godcasting" as he prefers to call it, last month to spread the word about his congregation. The hourlong recordings of his weekly service, available on theaterchurch.com, have already brought new parishioners to his church, he said.

Nearly 10 months after it supposedly ended, the bellicose 2004 election campaign rages on, in the streets. Bumper and window stickers on cars beseech you, even now, to vote for George W. Bush or John Kerry.

But instead of embracing Google as one of their own, many in Silicon Valley are skittish about its size and power. They fret that the very strengths that made Google a search-engine phenomenon are distancing it from the entrepreneurial culture that produced it - and even transforming it into a threat.

A year after the company went public, those inside Google are learning the hard way what it means to be the top dog inside a culture accustomed to pulling for the underdog. And they are facing a hometown crowd that generally rebels against anything that smacks of corporate behavior.

Nowadays, when venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and technologists gather in Silicon Valley, they often find themselves grousing about Google, complaining about everything from a hoarding of top engineers to its treatment of partners and potential partners. The word arrogant is frequently used.

Other ranking lists in "The Best 361 Colleges" and the #1 colleges on them are:

AOL's storefront for mobile services, phones, and accessories, called AOLMobile.com, has been available in public beta for several weeks, and its full-featured version will debut today, an AOL spokeswoman said.

AOLMobile.com, which is meant to be accessed from a regular PC-based browser and not from a mobile device, will feature promotions and discounts as well as showcasing the latest mobile wares.

Visitors to AOLMobile.com will also be able to customize the information they see on the site. For example, a user will be able to configure the site to show him the products and services that his existing mobile device and service plan support, or, more broadly, the service plan and device options available in his geographic area, the spokeswoman said. AOLMobile.com is for U.S. users only.

A feature that will be launched later this year, called Account Management, will allow users to check their mobile usage and pay their mobile service bills using the AOL Bill Pay service.

...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Billionaire investor Carl Icahn and several hedge funds are expected to file with U.S. regulators their plans to improve the performance of Time Warner Inc. (TWX.N), The Los Angeles Times reported on Friday.

The newspaper quoted Wall Street sources as saying Icahn was preparing to inform the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as early as Friday in a filing that he had assembled a group of Time Warner shareholders holding more than 5 percent of the company's stock.

In the filing, Icahn is expected to call for Time Warner, the world's largest media company, to expand a stock buyback plan by $10 billion to $20 billion and to radically reduce its costs, according to the newspaper.

He could also push for the sale or spinoff by New York-based Time Warner of its cable, publishing and America Online groups, the newspaper reported.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are developing software for cell phones that would analyze speech patterns and voice tones to rate people — on a scale of 0 to 100 percent — on how engaged they are in a conversation.

Anmol Madan, who led the project while he pursued a master's degree at MIT, sees the Jerk-O-Meter as a tool for improving relationships, not ending them. Or it might assist telephone sales and marketing efforts.

....

For now, the Jerk-O-Meter is set up to monitor the user's end of the conversation. If his attention is straying, a message pops up on the phone that warns, "Don't be a jerk!" or "Be a little nicer now." A score closer to 100 percent would prompt, "Wow, you're a smooth talker."

However, the Jerk-O-Meter also could be set up to test the voice on the other end of the line. Then it could send the tester such reports as: "This person is acting like a jerk. Do you want to hang up?"

(via aol)
NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Shares of Time Warner Inc. (TWX) gained 4% following a report that financier Carl Icahn is attempting to organize an investor group, potentially to advocate for the break up of the media conglomerate.

Icahn, known for staging proxy fights after building up stakes in companies, has contacted hedge funds, institutions, and former Time Warner executive Ted Turner to gauge their interest in joining such a group, according to a report on CNBC by David Faber.

Speculation swirled in the markets on Friday that Icahn was boosting his five- million-share stake in Time Warner.

Icahn didn't return telephone calls from Dow Jones Newswires seeking comment. A representative from Time Warner couldn't immediately be reached for comment. A Ted Turner spokeswoman had no immediate comment.

Time Warner rose 4%, or 72 cents, to $18.69 a share, on volume of 26 million shares, up from average daily volume of 20.4 million. Shares gained more than 3% in heavy volume on Friday amid speculation about Icahn's interest.

:) :) :) :) :) :) :)

The problem, says Bianculli, is that the network is not, as advertised, showing every one of the first season's 24-episode run; for example, ABC is skipping from episode 11 last week to episode 14 this week. Because the suspenseful series ''relies on an intricate sequential story structure,'' says Bianculli, the rerun policy makes characters' story lines very hard to follow.

Bastards

Solution though: Bnetflix season 1 when it comes out September 6.

Time Warner Cable is making the convergence of the TV and the PC real. After years of offering customers access to Web sites and short video clips, Time Warner has given 9,000 broadband subscribers in San Diego access to up to 75 cable channels—including CNN, MTV and ESPN—on their computers.

“We’re offering it for free to subscribers of our video and high-speed data service,” says Peter Stern, Time Warner Cable executive VP of product management. “We believe the PC is just another outlet for video programming in the home. If the subscriber has already paid for the service, they should be able to receive the signals on their PC.”

Even more interesting:

With help from RealNetworks, Time Warner is looking into offering digital video recording for the computer, as well as multicasting (the ability to open up several RealPlayer windows simultaneously). Closed captioning will be featured in version 1.2 in the next couple of months, and video-on-demand is on the horizon as well.

"We believe that wireless is one of the biggest places for AOL to play in," says AOL Wireless General Manager Craig Eisler. The deal with privately held Wildseed "enables us to offer new products like instant messaging for phones, and great photo and music experiences for phones."

The companies will not disclose terms of the acquisition, which closed late Friday. Wildseed, based near Seattle, is best known for its phone-personalization software, which it sells to manufacturers, service providers and content companies. That could be important for Time Warner's AOL as it competes with Yahoo, Google, Microsoft and other Internet companies eager to expand into phone services.
...

Cathy: The unfaithful woman in whose closet Sylvester finds himself trapped.

Rufus: Cathy’s husband, who is carrying on a homosexual affair with Chuck.

Chuck: Rufus’s secret lover

Sylvester’s Wife: The wife of the narrator, who tries to disguise her own unfaithfulness through rowdy sex.

Policeman: Secret lover of Sylvester’s wife.

Essay questions:

1. Why does Chuck look for Sylvester under the dresser? How big do you imagine the dresser to be?

2. In chapter four, what does Sylvester mean by “a tear fell up out my eye?”

3. When Sylvester’s wife is describing the string of friends that led to the policeman, who is Tina and where does she fit into anything?