Technics: Internet: WorkHack is an online personal to-do list that emphasizes simplicity

Simplicity of access, that's one of WorkHack's beauties. I encountered it on the email newsletter put out by Read/Write Web which features analysis of online writing for online reading. It does so quite excellently in the article, "WorkHack redefines 'simple' task management" (Apr26,2k7) by Josh Cantone.

Simplicity of privacy, but you don't even have to register to access your private page. How this is accomplished will amaze some old habitues of the web, with this Web 2.0 cutie.

Simplicity of preferences, whether you use each or not; there's a mercifully small number of pref options. Just to get stuff off my desktop and free up bits of memory-capacity, I've tried To-Do lists before, both online and off (on my computer desktop). So when Josh Cantone says--

To-do lists should be simple, or so claims WorkHack, a task list web app that takes simple to a whole new level. There are very nearly no features to WorkHack.

Technotes, by Technowlb

There is no sign up, no tagging, no due dates, no multi-user support. Just to-do lists, organized into three priority categories (High, Medium, and Low) and sorted by color or size.

--you'll have to forgive my skepticism. But besides skeptical, I was also intrigued. So, I've been trying WorkHackfor myself, in the mini-size. That way, I can have a desktopful of blogging windows in view, pause to call up WordHack for viewing or for making a quick new entry, then close WH and go back to my work at hand.

I've decided to give it a real try, and so far it is superior to any online To-Do list I've used (like Remember the Milk with 100,000 users and as many bells & whistles ... and most online calendars used for basic to-do matters, as well, like 30 Boxes that I tried to use for to-doing). Changing my previous use-strategies, my experiment with WH involves splitting my refWrite tasks off from everything else, and keeping on my desktop in the main menu-bar an app called Check Off where I store a list of all the other things I want to get done--but include no rW tasks. Sad to say, Check-off will not work for some of you, as this desktop menu-bar app is only for Mac OSX users.

Technics: Internet Software: MicroSoft promises truckload of upgrades and new products, said to produce a 'Big Bang,' but when?

From Mike Vizard's email newsletter on internet tech (IT), What's Hot Now (Apr27,2k7), where the lead note is "Big Bang Theory suggests that MicroSoft is about to explode," I found my way to Joe Wilcox writing on "Microsoft's 'Big Bang' Is When?" (Apr26,2k7) in eWeek's MicroSoft Watch. Wilcox:

Last night's release of Windows Server Longhorn Beta 3 is a monumental event for Microsoft, much bigger than the launch [earlier] of Windows Vista [MS's new operating system]. How big may depend on when Microsoft releases Vista Service Pack 1.

Windows Server is the nucleus of Microsoft's enterprise strategy, around which all other products—-even Windows Client—-revolve. Longhorn's eventual release, which Microsoft claims will be later this year, will likely set off major software upgrades, including Office 2007 and Windows Vista.

And thus challenge MS's wannabe competitors as never before, especially to the extent the new products are hack-proof. Hmmmm.

Laura DiDio, a Yankee Group research fellow, described the expected phenomenon as the "Big Bang." Other analyst firms' projections of Windows Vista upgrades, including Gartner, synch well with the Big Bang theory.

Technics > IT > Microsoft, by Technowlb

Since few of these prodcuts and their brandnames suggest anything directly familiar to me (I'm quite Apple / Macintosh / iMac OSX 3.9 (Panther) oriented in regard to my PC IT preferences), I have to remind myself that MS products still command about 80% of the software market for personal computers, while my own favourites are rah-rah-ed by Mac fans for achieving a mere 6% of PC market penetration--with the radical exceptions of iTunes Music Store and iPod which MS failed to displace from their ballooning dominance. And not just MS has been bested on this terrain: so has Sony fallen by the wayside, as far as I can tell. Now, Amazon has announced it will have a go at the digital-music IT retail market in direct competition with iTunes Music Store. I also noticed somewhere today (try this instead) that the non-digital recorded-music sales are quite stagnant; there's a downside to that as far as the musical experience is concerned.

But back to MicroSoft's banging its own big drum, skipping all too many beats these days.

Gartner expects a first major round of Vista deployments to start [Oct-Dec 2k7], with most businesses waiting until [May-Jun 2k8]. The timing is also right for Windows Server Longhorn's release and potential pull on Windows client upgrades. Many IT organizations are willing to wait for Longhorn Server as to coordinate multiple infrastructure upgrades around the same time, DiDio said.

When isn't When

But there is a wrinkle—-uncertainty which Microsoft has created. Back in November, Bob Muglia, Microsoft's senior vice president for server and tools, told eWeek that Windows Server Longhorn and Windows Vista Service Pack 1 would ship "simultaneously." Such a plan would be quite sensible, as, according to Muglia, "it is one source-code base" for both products. Since then, Microsoft has backed away from this coordinated release commitment.

So much ink has been spilled and keys tapped on the subject of MS's hegemony in the personal computer market that I couldn't add anything really new here. But I can say something from the standpoint of the h+ value I place on a pluralist market, where there are at least a handful of truly competing major corporations. And, where the trend toward open-source and interoperablity is much stronger than now. I'd like to see MicroSoft give way in its near-control of IT software generally, and also see Apple give way in its almost-monopoly in music IT. Of course, by "give way" I don't mean to suggest that either give anything. I'm just fantasizing how I'd like to see the market tumble things out in this cultural zone of life, to everyone's betterment hopefully.

Music: Pop: Rush Of Fools #1 on multiple radio charts, debut single 'Undo'

Unprecedented radio success positions band > 1st new artist to land a debut single at #1 on AC charts since 2004

Nashville, Christian Newswire (Apr25,2k7) -- "Undo," the first radio single from premiere new Midas Records band Rush Of Fools, garnered the #1 position on the Billboard Christian Chart, R&R Christian AC Monitored chart and CRW Comprehensive charts this week. Rush Of Fools is the first new artist to land a debut single at #1 on AC charts since Casting Crowns in 2004. The unprecedented multiple chart success positions the band as history makers in that no other debut artist on a new label has ever achieved such immediate success.

"We're so grateful to be able to help facilitate the ministry of such a dynamic and passionate group as Rush Of Fools," Robert Morrison, head of sales & operations at Midas Records said. "They are being used in so many wonderful ways, this is truly the beginning of something awesome!"

"Undo" is the first single from the group's forthcoming May8,2k7 Midas Records release distributed through EMI CMG. After going for ads at radio on Jan12, 2k7, the debut single rapidly climbed radio charts and immediately garnered the highest score in the history of 20 The Countdown Magazine's listener poll. In addition, Rush Of Fools have received a flood of My Space messages that describe incredible life-changing stories of hope and inspiration from listeners. Multiple requests have started to come in on a regular basis for copies of "Undo," in addition to personal stories told about how lives have been impacted by the lyrics, heart and message of the song.

Music > Pop, by Audiovisiotor

In addition to their recent radio success, Rush Of Fools are currently touring with By The Tree and The Turning on the multi-city World on Fire Tour in support of their debut release.

Rush Of Fools consists of Wes Willis (lead vocals, electric guitar), Kevin Huguley (lead vocals, electric and acoustic guitar), Jacob Chesnut (bass, vocals), Jamie Sharpe (drums, vocals) and JD Frazier (electric guitar, keys, vocals).

I'm going to be interested to follow what some Christian reviewers with broad music and videoclip interests may have to say about this work, so I won't attempt any comment here at the moment. Except something elliptical to the music itself--and that is to note the professional press-release hype from Midas/Christian Newswire, and the strategy of storming the radio pop-chart ramparts, yet with clearly expressed evangelical wordage and concerns. I wonder if Apple's iTunes Music Store is selling this song, since its new contractual arrangement with the mentioned EMI's Christian Music Group. After all, EMI's digital-download sales are presumably now without built-in DRM nonsense?

More Info:

Rush of Fools
My Space RoF page
Lab Media RoF page

Summer Fun: At the beach or the cottage, you may want to read about the city

Comment (print and online) is an amazing general-interest magazine with a reformational broad-cultural concern. The lastest issue carries one of those "Summer Reading" lists, this one by Eric O. Jacobsen, "The space between: summer reading on cities" (Apr27,2k7). To Jacobsen's list of 10 books, I've dared supplementarily to add Jacobsen's own title on his chosen topic. And then, out of sheer favouritism, I've also appended at list's end my own candidate, a volume that was such a wonderful read for me when I first ventured into its pages decades ago. I'm sure subsequent works covering the same ground have since added important new ins+ts; but my nominee, like the first title on Jacobsen's own list, is a classic on the subject it addresses.

1. Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities

2. Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater Zyberk, and Jeff Speck, Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream

3. James Howard Kunstler, The City in Mind: Notes on the Urban Condition

4. Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life

5. Allan B. Jacobs, Great Streets

6. David Solomon, Global City Blues

7. Robert Fishman, Urban Utopias in the Twentieth Century: Ebenezer Howard, Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier

8. Daniel Kemmis, The Good City and the Good Life: Renewing the American Community

9. Ray Oldenburg, The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community

Summer Fun > Reading Books, by Owlb

10. Nicholas Wolterstorff, Until Justice and Peace Embrace: The Kuyper Lectures for 1981 Delivered at the Free University in Amsterdam

11. Eric O. Jacobsen, Sidewalks in the Kingdom: New Urbanism and the Christian Faith

12. Lewis Mumford, The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects

Jacobsen gives us more than my barebones reproduction of his list (with my two supplements, to which I could add a second Wolterstorff title, Art in Action that includes at least a chapter on the aesthetics of any city made for living in, pleasantly...but if I added that, I would move the list into the numerics of 13, instead of dwelling restfully in the numeric symbology of 12, one book title for each of the Apostles).

I must say that Jacobsen's discussion of each title on his list is brief, but not too brief that we get only hype and no ins+t. We do get ins+t about each book, Jacobsen's measure of each. Realizing this genre of writing an intro to several books at a time, in one article, is achieved quite artfully by the author. So much so that a reader (who finds her/his summer will allow sufficient leisure for the project) could decide to make one's way thru the entire list. For this purpose, the list offers the utility of selecting what you want to read first and what second; there's suffcient matter to make your choices according to your own reading-plan.

I suggest you click-up the Comment page (live-linked above) and enjoy a good read as served-up by Jacabosen. If you want to get any or all the books into your own hands as soon as possible, each of the works' titles are live-linked to Amazon's book retailing service. You can purchase direct, of course, or you could read the reviews, then go out and find what's available at Barnes and Noble,

Sports: Soccer: Do goalies cause direction of penalty kickers?

Cognitive Daily one of several ScienceBlogs carries an interesting sports item by Dave Munger, "Can soccer goalkeepers influence penalty kicks?" (Apr24,2k7).

Penalty kicks are nearly universally reviled among soccer fans, yet they remain an important part of the game. The sport is so exhausting that extending it beyond 30 minutes of extra time in a playoff game could be dangerous for the players. Typically in playoff or championship matches, tie games get decided by a penalty kick competition.

But penalty kicks offer such an advantage to the shooter that it often seems like dumb luck when a goalkeeper manages to make a save. The usual strategy is simply to dive randomly to the left or right, and hope you guessed right. Why not just flip a coin to decide who wins the match? Chris at Mixing Memory ["The Science of Goalkeeping" (Apr20,2k7) who/which in turn glosses: Masters, S.W., van der Kamp, J., & Jackson, R.C. (2007). Imperceptibly off-center: Goalkeepers influence penalty-kick direction in soccer. Psychological Science, 18(3), 222-223.] has found a study suggesting that the position of the goalkeeper just before the shot can indeed affect the shooter:

Sports > Soccer, by Sportikos

They found that in almost all instances (96%), the goalkeeper stood just slightly (and I mean just slightly) off center, creating a difference between the distance of the goalie from the two goal posts of about 9.95 centimeters, which amounts to a difference between the areas to the right and left of the goal keeper of about 2.9% of the total area of the goal. The side to which the goalie stood did not, however, influence the side to which the goalie dove as the ball was kicked. So goalies didn't seem to be aware of their position. However, when they looked at whether penalty takers were aware of the position of the goal keeper, they found that 103 out of 174 (I'm not sure what happened to the other 26 kicks) were to the side of the goal keeper with more space. So the position of the goal keeper does appear to affect the direction of the kick on a (statistically) significant percentage of penalty kicks. Penalty takers are, then, aware of the goalie's position.

I underscored the bit about goalies not seeming to be aware of their position sl+tly to one side, but if we follow the Ways of Knowing theory of Herman Dooyeweerd (philosophy) and Douglas Blomberg (educational research), and supplemented by Howard Gardner (cognition and education), we mite say there is a human pre-analytic way of knowing that is kinematic in its orientation to space and movement/s thru it. Dancers and many athletes are gifted in this regard, and spend a career in h+tening it. Gardner says it is a special kind of intelligence, among 6 or 7 others.

Music: Business:: Amazon tries to divert iTunes Music Store users

One and only, The Times [London, UK] published yesterday an article by Dan Sabbagh, "Amazon set to launch online music store" (Apr23,2k7).

Amazon.com, the internet retailer, wants to launch an online music store next month to challenge Apple and is working on plans to sell music with reduced protection against copyright infringement.

The internet giant has approached all the music majors in the past fortnight and said that it wanted to sell unprotected MP3 songs in May as it tries to follow Apple in shaking up the music industry.

However, it remains unclear if Amazon will meet its deadline. The internet retailer has been trying, unsuccessfully, over 18 months to break into the market dominated by Apple iTunes, which has a share of about 80 per cent.

Selling music without copy protection is controversial, because it makes digitally downloaded songs easier to copy. At the beginning of the month EMI broke ranks and signed an agreement with Apple to provide unprotected songs for a higher price.

Music, by Audiovisiotor

If Amazon’s MP3 service does launch as planned, music is most likely to come from EMI and independent labels. Speculation that Vivendi’s Universal Music was already signed up to test classical MP3 downloads is understood to be wide of the mark.

Amazon’s efforts have been held back by various problems. It originally wanted to launch its own music player to rival the iPod in tandem with the store and held discussions with manufacturers, but these failed to develop successfully.

The phrasing "provide unprotected songs for a h+er price" is sheer ideology, a reference to the so-called Digital R+ts Management idiocy [DRM] which the music industry has tried to maintain to satisfy its greed with an obsolete business model that is at once not pertinent and impertinent to the listeners using the new technical possiblities for sharing music. It is the individual purchasers of digitally-recorded songs whose songs are unprotected from DRM (a song-killing virus if you try to share your music with friends--all non-commercially!

Major League Baseball super-buzy tonite

In a few minutes today's full-to-the-brim Major League Baseball agenda will unfold from time-zone to time-zone across the continent (and on TV), as the season warms up with the weather.

Athletics
Orioles 7:05pm

Blue Jays
Red Sox 7:05pm

Braves
Marlins 7:05pm

Astros
Phillies 7:05pm

Yankees
Devil Rays 7:10pm

Sports / Baseball, by Sporktkos

Rockies
Mets 7:10pm

Mariners
Rangers 8:05pm

Brewers
Cubs 8:05pm

White Sox
Royals 8:10pm

Indians
Twins 8:10pm

Tigers
Angels 10:05pm

At the moment, 7:43 PM EDT, in the bottom of the second inning it's Blue Jays 1, Red Sox 0; bottom of 2nd, Braves 1, Marlins 2; top of 2nd Astros 1, Phillies 2; bottom of 2nd, Yankees 1, Devil Rays 0.

Sports: Baseball: Phillies (4) finesse triple-play against Cincinnati's Reds (1)

Philadelphia Phillies had a tumultuous, joyous 4-1 win over Cincinnati Reds yesterday, in a game where a rare play sent the action under pitcher Cole Hamels into a triple play by his infielders.

The Phillies backed Hamels with their first triple play since May 15, 1999, against the New York Mets. [Yesterday,] With Josh Hamilton on second base and Edwin Encarnacion on first in the fifth inning, David Ross hit a grounder to Phillies third baseman Abraham Nunez, who stepped on third to force Hamilton [out] and threw to second baseman Chase Utley to force Encarnacion for the second out.

The Phillies backed [pitcher Cole] Hamels with their first triple play since May 15, 1999, against the New York Mets. With Josh Hamilton on second base and Edwin Encarnacion on first in the fifth inning, David Ross hit a grounder to Phillies third baseman Abraham Nunez, who stepped on third to force Hamilton and threw to second baseman Chase Utley to force Encarnacion for the second out.

Utley's relay to first baseman Wes Helms caught Ross by a step. The Reds hadn't hit into a triple play since catcher Eddie Taubensee lined into one against San Diego on May 19, 1997.

Sports USA > Major League Baseball

"[Ross] was the perfect guy to do it," Nunez said. "I said to myself, 'If I get the ball close to the bag, I'm going to try for it.'"

The triple play helped the Phillies preserve a 2-1 lead.

"I'm sure it saved me 10 or 15 pitches," Hamels said.

"The triple play was pretty exciting," Utley said. "It's the first one I've ever been a part of. It happened so quickly."

There were five triple plays turned in the majors last season, the last by the Chicago White Sox on Sept. 18, against the Detroit Tigers.

The foregoing is a clip from the AP account on MSNBC's Recap on ESPN.com's Baseball page online.

Aesthetics: Music: Top pop songs that changed the world, says Rolling Stone mag

Here's the Top 10 of Rolling Stone mag's just released list of the 40 pop songs that 'changed the world.'

1. Elvis Presley, "That's Alr+t"
2. Ray Charles, "I Got a Woman"
3. Chuck Berry, "Maybelline"
4. Bob Dylan, "A Hard Rain's a Gonna Fall"
5. The Kingsmen, "Louie Louie"
6. The Ronnettes, "Be My Baby"
7. Beatles, "I Want to Hold Your Hand"
8. Martha and the Vandellas, " Dancing in the Streets"
9. Rolling Stones, "Satisfaction"
10. Bob Dylan, "Like a Rolling Stone"

Sports: Olympics 2008: Beijing claims complete bill of health for Games, leaves out mention of pollution

UPI via Earthtimes.com reports " 'Positive' review to Beijing Olympics" (Apr19,2k7).

BEIJING, April 19 Beijing Olympic officials received a positive review from an International Olympic Committee group checking preparations ahead of the 2008 Olympics.

The IOC Coordination Commission on Thursday wrapped up three days of meetings and site visits in Beijing to check on how Chinese officials are getting ready for the 2008 Summer Games. The commission has two other Beijing visits planned prior to the Aug. 8-24, 2008, games.

Commission members visited several sites, including the National Stadium and the Olympic Village. The overall impression was positive, the IOC said in a release.

"The venues that we have just seen will be truly magnificent for the athletes to compete and live in and for the media to live and work in at games time," said commission Chairman Hein Verbruggen. "Personally, I found the visit to the National Stadium a particularly emotional experience because I can now see that the opening ceremony is nearly upon us and also just how far we have come together over these past six years." Beijing Olympic officials have scheduled 26 test events this year to help fine-tune preparations, the IOC said. Copyright 2007 by UPI

Sports > Olympic Games, by Sportikos

The particularly roseate report above is not just propaganda, it is directly tied to advertizing for airfares and Beijing Olympics packages. It's propaganda that is at the same time misrepresenting an aesthetics-sports product to make money by deleting the fact that the Beijing Olympics 2008 is a hazard to your helath.

I suspect that Earthtimes.com is a front for the Chinese Communist Party's Olympics promotion, or that the UPI story has been clipped to remove the UPI writer's coverage of the IOC's distinct unease about pollution and gridlock, or that UPI has become part of the corruption of the news. Or, all three of the foregoing simultaneously. Because, just as particularly, the cited report makes no mention of the IOC's concerns about air traffic, street traffic congestion, and the dangerously polluted air of Beijing.

More info:

Sooty air and traffic congestion in Beijing concern IOC inspectors (Apr19,2k7). The foregoing is a Canada.com page; the same story is available on MSNBC; both versions derive from an Associated Press story by Steven Wade.

IOC Commission Concerned About Beijing 2008 Pollution (Apr19,2k7, GamesBids.com)

Boycott Olympics 2008. There's no uptodate material on the 2008 Olympics, but only critical material on the big subject of China's Communist repression of human r+ts, including freedom of religion. The Boycotters note the repression of Tibetans and other Buddhists, and of the Falun Gong. They do not mention the repression of China's largest religion, Christianity. I think the Boycotters are a Falun Gong front with themselves an anti-Christian bias. Sad thing, because carrying such a bias to the point where it itself becomes repressive of info about the repression of a wide religious freedom that also embraces all Christians in China, such a selectivity is a poor strategy, even a stupid one. It is stupid to carry such a bias into reporting human-r+ts news of repressions in China, because the best constituency for the boycott project hypothetically would be North American evangelical Christians who cheer on the unregistered Protestant house-church movement, and North American conservative Catholics who cheer on the underground Roman Catholic Church aligned in China with the Papacy in defiance of the Communist govt and its registered churches. I'm not joining a Boycott Olympics 2008 movement so unwise and so biased itself, to the point of erasure of other Chinese religions besides Falun Gong and Buddhism--tho these too have indeed experienced the same horrors as unregistered-church Christians. The Boycotters should get their own act together if they want to unite all people of conscience. Otherwise, let the Games begin!

Sports: Soccer: Italy denied next Euro Football Tournament allegedly because of violence

A blog-entry at Eursoc shares info about the internal politics of soccer (called "football" in Europe). At stake are the location of the 1012 all-Europe games (Apr18,2k7):

Euro 2012 For Poland

Football: Italy may be world champions, but the country's recent history of crowd violence and match-fixing seems to have damaged its standing with European soccer's governing body, UEFA.

Today it was announced that Poland and Ukraine will jointly host the Euro 2012 football championship, not Italy, which was previously a firm favourite for the tournament.

Sports > Soccer/Football, by Sportikos

The head of Poland's football association Michal Listkiewicz said he "couldn't believe" UEFA's decision.

EURSOC can't really believe it either: Italy isn't the only nation facing a match fixing scandal. In Poland, over 80 people have been arrested in an enquiry into match fixing. The government suspended the entire football board, but was forced to back down following pressure from world football body FIFA.

Italy played host to the 1990 World Cup Finals.

This will be the first time since 1976 that a former Iron Curtain nation has hosted a major football tournament. Back then, Yugoslavia hosted the competition, which was won by Czechoslovakia.

The current champion of Europe is Greece. Next year sees the 2008 tournament, held in Austria and Switzerland.

In any case, not counting match fixes, the violence in Italian "futball" has been horrendous, like North American hockey.

Sports: Hockey: Sidney Crosby guy to watch in today's playoffs

Sid the Kid is the guy to keep an eye on in today's pro hockey playoffs, where he hits the ice for the Pittsburgh Penguins. The series is the 2007 Stanley Cup Conference Quarterfinals. It pitted the Pens (4) versus the Senators (3) in Game 2.

Sports > Hockey, by Sportikos

In Game 1, Pens lost 3 to the Sens 6. Despite the win yesterday, he satisfied neither himself nor his team-mates, but his record and rep still put us on alert for Game 3: Sun, April 15 @ PIT 6pm ET.

Did I menion that Crosby is a NovaScotia-born Canadian?

More Info:

"Crosby will get by with some help from his friends" (Apr14,2k7) by Evan Grossmann

Sports: Pro Baseball: Yanks pull win from 13th inning

NYT's Tyler Kepner reports on a fantastic Major League Baseball game worthy of history-laden New York Yankees.

Oakland, Calif., April 14 – The Yankees lead the majors in errors, with 13 in their first 10 games. Their starting rotation is depleted by injuries, and their bullpen is exhausted. But they are always a threat to change a close game with one swing.

Alex Rodriguez hit his seventh home run of the season in the fifth inning.

It happened on Saturday at the Coliseum, when Jason Giambi belted a home run to right center off Lenny DiNardo in the 13th inning, leading the Yankees to a 4-3 victory over the Oakland Athletics.

"This could be a big early-season win," said Giambi, who had been 0 for 5. "We might look back and say, 'That was the beginning.' Hopefully, this is the one that really turns it around for us."

Kepner is an excellent sports writer; and you can well imagine, as this game continued 4 more innings beyond the 3-3 tie at the end of the 9th, the tension built up to give Kepner a game worth his skills. Then Giambi homered the tie-breaker, to show his batting prowess.

Technics: Internet Web2.0: Google buys DoubleClick to continue lead in online advertizing

Read/WriteWeb email newsletter carries word of "Google to Acquire DoubleClick For $3.1 Billion In Cash." (Apr13,2k7)--also at R/WW website.

In a move predicted by R/WW's Sean Ammirati and New York Times a week or so ago, one of the big Internet companies has acquired online advertising system DoubleClick. And the buyer is none other than Web 2.0's big spender, Google! According to the press release just out:

"The acquisition will combine DoubleClick's expertise in ad management technology for media buyers and sellers with Google's leading advertising platform and publisher monetization services.

The combination of Google and DoubleClick will offer superior tools for targeting, serving and analyzing online ads of all types, significantly benefiting customers and consumers..."

This is a huge deal - because for DoubleClick, Google is paying nearly twice the amount it paid for YouTube late last year ($1.65B in that case).

The deal appears to have been hastened by DoubleClick's announcement earlier this month that it plans to launch an exchange for online advertisements. Sean analyzed this development on 4 April, noting that it may lead to more profitable monetization of online ads.

Technotes, by Technowlb

As if Google isn't profitable enough already in that department! One thing's for sure, this is a blow to Microsoft - whose AdCenter product was designed as a direct competitor to Google's Adsense/AdWords. But now Google has - yet again - trumped the competition (Microsoft and Yahoo) by taking its online advertising technology into new territory.

MarketWatch reporter Gabriel Madway takes up the optimatics aspect in monetary terms, "Google agrees to buy DoubleClick for $3.1 billion" (Apr13,2k7):

San Francisco (MarketWatch) -- Google Inc. (GOOG: GOOG466.29, -1.10, -0.2% ) said late Friday it has agreed to acquire digital marketing company DoubleClick Inc. for $3.1 billion in cash from private equity firms Hellman & Friedman and JMI Equity, and [Google] management. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year. DoubleClick is based in New York. "It has been our vision to make Internet advertising better - less intrusive, more effective, and more useful," said Sergey Brin, Google's co-founder, in a statement. "Together with DoubleClick, Google will make the Internet more efficient for end users, advertisers, and publishers."

Hopefully, the new DoubleClick-able Google will allow both websites and blogs to have greater control over their ads when dealing with Google's system.

I interviewed rW's General Editor, Owlb, on our advertizing perspective. He said: "I have been very sad about the lack of editorial fit between Google Adsense ads that we run on various pages of refWrite. I'm definitely looking for something competitive in regard to the possiblity of our choosing--say, from an Adsense massive list--a menu of advertizing that wholely fits with our editorial policy and regular-readers as our best-market niche. Adsense has an alogarithm by which to choose and place ads here, but often that mechanically-applied numeric formula is so skewed in its determination of the editorial slant of what should be the best ad-content for us, that Google's search for profits here is so mis-structured it seems to reduce itself to absurdity. Let refWrite choose which ads to place, as part of our own overall editorial/advertizing identity. We remain non-commercial, but we would prefer that our own selection of adverts (at least give us a veto power!) be given the first chance to make a marginal profit off our existence." That's our General Editor, Owlb.

As to my own view, I tow the line but still enjoy the suprizes we encounter strait from the Google mathemical ad-machine.

Technics: Games: Top game company shifts to bigger later model, cuts off low-end customers

FoxNewsreports on top game company's abandonment of the little guy--both the low-end buyer and smalller console model of PlayStation 3 (call the newer models "PayStation"), "Sony Discontinues 20GB PS3" (Apr12,2k7).

SAN FRANCISCO — Sony Corp. has discontinued the 20-gigabyte PlayStation 3 game console so it can focus on a more popular--and expensive--model that has a bigger hard drive.

Since the launch of the PlayStation 3 in November, consumers have been buying the 60-gigabyte model 10 to 1 over the cheaper unit, said Dave Karraker, spokesman for Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc.

Technotes, by Technowlb

Both models have much of the same hardware inside, but the 60-gigabyte console, which costs $600, has built-in wireless support and slots for memory sticks and other storage media.

Retailers still have several thousand 20-gigabyte models on store shelves, Karraker said Thursday. The 20-gigabyte consoles will continue to have a suggested retail price of $500 until supplies run out.

"Better to put resources toward the ones that retailers want," Karraker said.

Severe production shortfalls in the months after the PlayStation 3 debuted meant that thousands of consumers had to wait in long lines and still couldn't buy a console.

On eBay and other auction sites, bidders were willing to pay several times the suggested retail prices so they could have consoles for the holidays.

The discontinuation racket is the real game here, displaying Sony's contempt for its low-end customers in the country where it is a guest business.

Sports: Swimming: Phelps wins 7 golds at world aquatics meet

"American Michael Phelps Sunday became the first swimmer to win seven gold medals at a world aquatics championship. He set the mark by breaking his own world record in the men's 400-meter individual medley in Melbourne, Australia." I found this item on Christian Science Monitor email newsletter. I'll have to check out the further facts, hunt down the info about this amazing competitive swimmer.

Sports:Hockey: Toronto's last chance for the playoffs, tonite vs NY Islanders

Toronto's Maple Leafs face their last chance to gain entry to the end-of-season tournament for the National Hockey League's championship. In a racy pre-game psych-up, Bill Lankhof of Toronto Sun writes, "Somehow, Leafs keep hanging on" (Apr5,2k7)

If it is true that the most dangerous animal is one that is wounded and cornered then the Maple Leafs should be a fearsome sight to behold the next couple days.

They've got the Islanders and Montreal [Saturday, Apr7,2k7] right where they want them. The rest of the NHL just doesn't know it yet.

This team has more nicks, scratches and blemishes than a frat-house beer fridge. Parts keep falling off, the door is hanging by one hinge but somehow it keeps getting the job done.

When they beat the [Philadelpia] Flyers Tuesday they did it on goals by three defencemen, against a hot goaltender, with a No. 1 line centred by goal-slump ridden Mats Sundin and a second line centred by someone with the injury yips.

For three-quarters of the season this team couldn't win at home. Now, when it had no choice, it's won eight in a row.

They have had more man-games lost to injury than any other team. Kyle Wellwood, the lynch-pin of the power-play is back from hernia surgery, but skates like he's carrying a Ming Vase in his hockey pants. But, he'll play tonight because without him the Leafs might as well decline the penalty.

"He does so many great things even at the speed he's going. But my concern is the cautiousness in his skating. He can still create some things. But the Kyle that we remembered before the injury was quick to holes. He's not at that point right now," coach Paul Maurice said yesterday.

Here's hopin'!

FINAL SCORE & STATS: Sports Illustrated

Sports: College Athletics: University of Florida in Basketball, Football, and Women's Gymnastics

A fan of the bastion of atheletic prowess, the University of Florida posted on That'sFit blog: "My Florida Gators win second straight NCAA basketball title and teach life leason" (Apr3,2k7). Altho he left out some key details, Fitz's blog conveys the spirit of an enamored fan after his team reached the top of the National Collegiate Athletic Assocation for the second time in a row these last two years (and we mite add, it's football team earlier won the NCAA championship as well. Whether it's Gator Basketball or Gator Football (that's American-style football), this fan exudes his joy and gives us a bonus sermonette to boot:

Last night I watched and cheered as my Alma mater's basketball team won the Big Dance. Again! It was a spectacular feat which was well earned. I've had the luxury to sit court-side at many games this year, and as wonderful as they look on television, they're even more impressive in person. I have tons of respect for this team.

The Gators are composed of incredible athletes who play selflessly every second of every game. Each Gator works hard in the gym and on the court more for the guy next to him than for himself. They are quick, agile, strong and smart. Each player is a coach's dream. Since they play for one another, they never made excuses or trained half way.

Gators' basketball coach, Billy Donovan, was so roundly supported thru-out the Florida ranks for his second championship in a row that he turned down a contract offer to coach his sport at the more prestigious University of Kentucky.

While Donovan is staying, four of his players, not even yet seniors, are turning pro to enter the National Basketball Association.

...[J]uniors Corey Brewer, Joakim Noah, Al Horford and Taurean Green will all give up their final year of college eligibility to enter the National Basketball Association. The quartet and senior Lee Humphrey teamed to become the first starting five in National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament history to win back-to-back titles.

``They need to take the next step,'' Donovan said at a televised press conference with the players in Gainesville, Florida.

Each of the players are considered by scouts to be first-round picks. College underclassmen have until April 29 to declare for the June 28 draft. They can withdraw their names by June 18 if they don't hire an agent.

``We did everything we could possible do in college basketball,'' Brewer, the Most Outstanding Player of this year's Final Four, said. ``It's been so much fun, but we all know it's time to move on and take new challenges.''

The four players accounted for 83 percent of the scoring from Florida starters this season. Green averaged a team-high 13.3 points, Brewer and Horford averaged 13.2 points each and Noah 12 points.

Florida captured its second straight national title April 2 with an 84-75 win over Ohio State. The Gators are the seventh team overall and first since Duke in 1991 and 1992 to win consecutive titles.

After winning the championship last year, Noah, Horford and Brewer were projected as first-round NBA draft picks and opted to return to Florida for their junior seasons. The Gators returned to the Final Four this year, beating UCLA in a rematch of last year's title game and Ohio State.

Donovan has a 261-103 record in 11 seasons at Florida.

Without his stars on hand next year, Donovan will be building again on younger players at the university for their sophomore and junior years. He must see prospects, and have a real appetite for challenges.

As tho all that weren't enuff, New York Times weaves the men's stories in basketball and football into an account featureing UFlorida's women's gymnastics team.

last weekend’s Southeastern Conference championships in Arkansas.

The Gators’ gymnasts, using the success of the university’s reigning national champion football team and its resplendent men’s basketball team as a springboard, vaulted Georgia and Alabama to win the title, becoming the first college other than the Bulldogs or Crimson Tide since 1989 to wear the crown.

With the NCAA regionals looming in two weeks — followed two weeks later by the national championships in Salt Lake City — the gymnasts did not dare take a practice off, even to acknowledge the team whose success has spurred their own.

Here, at the center of the college sporting scene, while other athletic programs ponder how to catch up to the Gators, the Gators are busy chasing one another. After the football team equaled the success of the basketball team, the basketball team raised the bar by repeating, becoming the first university to win the football and basketball Division I championships in the same academic year.

Samantha Lutz, a senior gymnast, said, “I feel like all the sports are feeding off each other, like the entire athletic association has caught fire.”

Gators, it seems, are surfacing everywhere. Ryan Lochte, a former Florida standout, last week set an individual world record and won five medals at the World Aquatics Championships in Australia. An ex-Gator golfer, Camilo Villegas, is playing this week in his first Masters.

There has to be some kind of special social-psychological phenom in process at University of Flordia--as well as a lot of hardwork and discipline on the part of the student athletes, and good coaches.

Music: Internet: Now you can download pay-for songs on iTunes from EMI--without DRM copy blockade

Associated Press via CNN carries the news "EMI-Apple pen deal to sell songs" (Apr3,2k7). The EMI side of the partnership means that you can purchase for a little more per song thru Apple's iTunes improved digital recordings of Rolling Stones, Norah Jones, Coldplay and a whole lot more artists too (but not songs of the Beatles--no loss, to my ears!). And you can do so in about a month's time without those hi-tech blocks called DRMs (Digital R+ts Management technowreckers) that are currently installed in most online music downloads when you make your purchase.

EMI Group is the first and perhaps the only one of the Big Music corporations to break with the DRM technoblocks that prevent an owner from copying a song and perhaps sending it on non-commercially to friends, etc. You know, P2P file-sharing, person-to-person.

The announcement followed calls by Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs earlier this year for the world's four major record companies, including EMI Group PLC, to start selling songs online without copy-protection software.

Music, by Audiovisiotor

The Big Music holdouts are Sony BMG, Universal, and Warner.

The technology, known as digital rights management, or DRM, is designed to combat piracy by preventing unauthorized copying or sharing, but it also can be a consumer headache. Some music players, for instance, support one type of DRM software but not others.

The DRM used by Apple does not work with competing services or devices, meaning that consumers can only download songs from iTunes to work on their computers or iPod music players.

The lock between the download services and players has drawn criticism from European industry regulators, who argue that it limits buyer choice.

"Doing the right thing for the customer going forward is to tear down the walls that impede interoperability," Jobs told a London news conference.

Yes indeed!. Mr Jobs, but what about the point the Eurocrats are making--interoperability! Got a strategy for achieving that? And surrender your grasp on the digital music market thru your reigning advantage in the brilliant combo of iTunes Music Store and iPod? I doubt it.