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16. januar 2007
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Business Briefs. DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY DEAL The American communications technology firm Arris has agreed to buy the digital broadcast systems maker Tandberg Television of Norway for $1.2 billion, but Tandberg’s shares rose 17.4 percent on speculation of a rival bid. The cash-and-stock takeover, if successful, would create a leader in voice, data and video systems by combining Arris’s broadband know-how with Tandberg TV’s digital video, compression and interactive television technology. By . [NYT > Business]
6:49:06 PM 
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Venezuela Ends Oil Negotiations. Venezuela will end negotiations with foreign oil companies over how it will take a majority control of their operations along the Orinoco River, the country’s oil minister, Rafael Ramírez, said on Monday. By DOW JONES/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. [NYT > Business]
6:46:46 PM
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11. januar 2007
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4. januar 2007
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Online spending tops $100 billion.
(InfoWorld) - Driven by a strong rise in holiday spending, U.S. retail Web sites collected $102.1 billion in 2006, marking a 24 percent increase over last year, according to a report released Thursday.
Holiday shoppers spent $24.6 billion between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31, 2006, a rise of 26 percent over 2005, according to the report from comScore Networks. The numbers include consumer spending in all sectors except travel.
Spending jumped in the last two months of the year, pushing the total over $100 billion for the first time, said Gian Fulgoni, chairman of comScore.
Without the need to visit brick-and-mortar shops in person, online shoppers spread their spending over a longer period. The Monday after Thanksgiving is traditionally one of the heaviest shopping days of the year for U.S. retailers, but in 2006 it was just another day. The $607.6 million spent on "Cyber Monday," Nov. 27, was surpassed on 11 other days before the end of the year.
By delaying their shopping until the last days before winter holidays, shoppers showed their growing trust in online retailers' ability to ship goods through the mail quickly, the report said. The top three days of online spending for the year were Dec. 13 ($666.9 million), Dec. 11 ($660.8 million) and Dec. 4 ($647.5 million).
By Ben_Ames@idg.com (Ben Ames). [InfoWorld: Top News]
9:26:18 PM
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3. januar 2007
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Google Answer to Filling Jobs Is an Algorithm. Google, in typical eccentric fashion, has created an automated way to search for well-rounded candidates. By SAUL HANSELL. [NYT > Technology]
Editors advice: If you want to become a machine, join Google. If you still want to be yourself, stay away from Google!
9:14:09 PM
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2. januar 2007
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9:41:26 PM
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What I might have said to Suze Orman.
 On the flight back from NY I sat in the same row as TV celebrity Suze Orman. I was in a window seat, and she was in the other window seat, so I didn't get a chance to talk with her.
If I had had the chance, here's what I might have said...
First, of course, I've watched your show, and I admire your chutzpah, but I gotta say, I'm (obviously) a man and I don't think you treat men very well on your show. Myself, I do pretty well with finances. The only debt I have is a mortgage, for its tax benefits, I could afford to pay it off. I have always been a saver, haven't been in debt since my late 20s (I'm in my early 50s now) and I have health insurance, and home owner's insurance. I've never mooched off women. I'm pretty responsible, I even quit smoking and stayed quit. And I don't like the way you treat men on your show.
Yeah, after saying that, I would have been happy to sit next to this person for six-plus hours on a flight from NY to SF. Not. ";->"
So another thing I'm grateful for is that I wasn't seated next to Suze Orman.
PS: Speaking of smoking, I heard that Barak Obama is a smoker? [Scripting News]
5:19:08 PM
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The unedited voice of a person.
 People use blogs primarily to discuss one question -- what is a blog? The discussion will continue as long as there are blogs.
It's no different from other media, all they ever talk about is what they are. We got dinged by the NY Times because all bloggers talked about at the DNC was other bloggers. But what were they busy doing -- talking about other reporters, except when they were talking about bloggers -- talking about bloggers. ";->"
Nothing wrong with it.
In the early days we joked that they were watching us watch them watch us watch them. And so on.
In 2003, when I was beginning my stint as a fellow at Berkman Center, since I was going to be doing stuff with blogs, I felt it necessary to start by explaining what makes a blog a blog, and I concluded it wasn't so much the form, although most blogs seem to follow a similar form, nor was it the content, rather it was the voice.
If it was one voice, unedited, not determined by group-think -- then it was a blog, no matter what form it took. If it was the result of group-think, with lots of ass-covering and offense avoiding, then it's not. Things like spelling and grammatic errors were okay, in fact they helped convince one that it was unedited. (Dogma 2000 expressed this very concisely.)
Do comments make it a blog? Do the lack of comments make it not a blog? Well actually, my opinion is different from many, but it still is my opinion that it does not follow that a blog must have comments, in fact, to the extent that comments interfere with the natural expression of the unedited voice of an individual, comments may act to make something not a blog.
We already had mail lists before we had blogs. The whole notion that blogs should evolve to become mail lists seems to waste the blogs. Comments are very much mail-list-like things. A few voices can drown out all others. The cool thing about blogs is that while they may be quiet, and it may be hard to find what you're looking for, at least you can say what you think without being shouted down. This makes it possible for unpopular ideas to be expressed. And if you know history, the most important ideas often are the unpopular ones.
Me, I like diversity of opinion. I learn from the extremes. You think evolution is a liberal plot? Okay, I disagree, but I think you should have the right to say it, and further you should have a place to say it. You think global warming is a lie? Speak your mind brother. You thought the war in Iraq was a bad idea? Thank god you had a place you could say that. That's what's important about blogs, not that people can comment on your ideas. As long as they can start their own blog, there will be no shortage of places to comment. What there is always a shortage of, however, is courage to say the exceptional thing, to be an individual, to stand up for your beliefs, even if they aren't popular.
I sat next to Steven Levy the other night at dinner in NY. He volunteered that in his whole career he had never written a word that wasn't approved of by someone else, until he started a blog. I applaud him for crossing the line. I give him a lot of credit for writing without a safety net. It really is different. Comments wouldn't make the difference, what makes the difference is standing alone, with your ideas out there, with no one else to fault for those ideas. They are your responsibility, and yours alone.
For me, the big rush came when I started publishing DaveNet essays in late 1994. I would revise and edit, for an hour maybe more, before hitting the Send button. Once I did that, there was no turning back. The idea was out there, with my name on it. All the disclaimers (I called the essays "Amusing rants from Dave Winer's desktop") wouldn't help, if the ideas were bad, they were mine. But if they were good, they were mine too. That's what makes something blog-like, imho. [Scripting News]
5:16:06 PM
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20. desember 2006
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The last post on the Google API.
 We were excited when the Google API came online, we waited for them to come up with a licensing plan that would allow developers to build Internet-scale applications using the API. Today, the wait is over, and it's not good news.
Google is deprecating the API, which means, for now, they will continue to implement their side of it, but they won't be issuing new keys, and presumably we should not wait for a business plan. This leaves the door open to others -- my recommendation would be to support the API as-is so that developers who have built on it can just change the name of the server and their software works. Google blinked in search. Who would have thought such an opportunity would present itself. Seems a perfect opening for Amazon or Yahoo.
Postscript: The discussion here has taken an interesting turn. [Scripting News]
4:20:49 PM
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Two notes about TV shows.
 My parents were here for the lasagna dinner on Sunday and for breakfast on Monday. My dad, as usual, is full of stories. Apparently he's been watching Dr. Phil, because he quotes him all the time. "What were you thinking?" is the punchline of many of his tales. It's often a good question.
For no special reason, I want to say that Deal or No Deal has become my favorite TV show. Ever since Howie Mandel made an appearance on Studio 60, I've been tuning in whenever I can. It's a very nice show. A little math and a lot of spunk. [Scripting News]
4:18:05 PM
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18. desember 2006
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© Copyright 2007 Olaf E. Roalkvam.
Last update: 16.01.2007; 18:56:04.
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