Someday, We'll All Look Back on This and Laugh
Sick to death of year-end look back/look forward pieces, yet? Well here’s another: Digital Daily’s abridged guide to the year in tech news–a fond reminiscence of what was, and our First Annual Year-End List For Year-End List Haters.
- Yahoo Shareholders Reject Plan to Tie Executive Compensation to Company’s Crappy Performance
Well, what do you know: Yahoo’s annual shareholder meeting didn’t conclude with CEO Terry Semel’s head piked on the exclamation point of the Yahoo sign outside company headquarters. - I Know It Was You, Fredo. You Broke My Heart. You Broke My Heart!
Apparently, Fred Anderson is the “Fredo” of the Apple options backdating family. - We’ve Asked John Williams to Do a Special Performance of the Theme From “The Poseidon Adventure” for Our Q4 Results
Who’s programming Microsoft’s on-hold music, Apple’s Phil Schiller? Waiting for the company’s third-quarter earnings call to begin yesterday, those listening in were treated to an instrumental piano version of Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On.” From “Titanic,” the disaster movie. - I’m Proud to Say Our New “Soylent Green” iPod Is Made of 100% Biodegradable Greenpeace Activists!
If you’re going to try to smear Apple for reckless environmental practices, you best have some hard epidemiological and toxicological data on hand, because goofy Photoshop treatments of the company’s marketing materials just can’t stand up to a blow from the Apple PR machine. - And Online Display Impressions Soared as More Americans Checked Their AOL Accounts for Old Times’ Sake
To hear tell from Time Warner executives, the company’s better-than-expected earnings for the first quarter owed quite a bit to gains in online-advertising market share by its AOL Internet division. - Web 2.0 Audience in Mirror May Be Smaller Than It Appears
How ironic is it that Web 2.0–the “participatory Web”–has far fewer participants than its architects would have us believe? - And for My Next Trick, I’ll Turn Myself Into a Complete Jackass
If you’re going to demand that YouTube remove a video to which you object under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, it’s probably wise to make sure that you actually understand the DMCA. - War Is Peace. Freedom Is Slavery. Ignorance Is Strength. DRM Is DCE.
You can’t put frosting on manure, but HBO’s Chief Technology Officer Bob Zitter isn’t above trying. - We’re Naming It the Motorola STNKR, After Our Q1 Earnings …
Carl Icahn was right. Motorola really is desperate for a new product. How else to explain a patent the company was awarded last month for a “communication device having a scent-release feature and method thereof.” - The Frienemy of My Frienemy Is My Enemiend
If Microsoft is planning an acquisition in the online marketing and advertising space, it better act fast, because if it waits much longer there won’t be anything left to acquire. - How Would Monsieur Ellison Like His BEA Served? Mixed in a Bucket With Oracle’s Other Acquisitions?
Looks like we may be in for another PeopleSoft-esque takeover drama … - I’m Just Biding My Time Here Until I Can Quit and Study Whale Feces Full Time
Given the chance, how would you alter the course of your career? Well, if you worked at Microsoft’s Security Response Center, you might consider taking a job as an Olympic drug tester, a gravity research subject, or a “whale-feces researcher.” - Much Like Energy, BS Cannot Be Created or Destroyed, It Can Only Be Changed From One Form to Another
If Steorn’s perpetual motion effort is anything like its e-commerce venture (and by all accounts things do seem to be going that way), the only thing in its future is insolvency. - From Now On, We’ll Be Known as Nlsn/NtRtings
Looks like vowels won’t be the only accoutrements to be tossed aside in the rise of Web 2.0. The venerable page view is to be abandoned as well. - The Defendant Stands Accused of Copyright Infringement, Breach of Contract and Misappropriation of Dumb Luck
According to popular legend Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg once kept two versions of his business card in his wallet–one with the title CEO, the other with “I’M CEO . . . BITCH.” - Well, Here Come YouTube’s Video ID Tools. Guess That Means Godot Will Be Here Any Minute Now
Google’s apparently finished “educating users about copyright law” and has moved on to the far more important business of making sure not to run afoul of it. - Look at It This Way: Now That Yahoo’s an ‘Ecosystem,’ the EPA Can Finally Declare It a Superfund Site
“Our financial performance is not what we would like to see long-term.” This, from Blake Jorgensen, Yahoo’s chief financial officer who, just six weeks into the job, is already well versed in the company’s fiscal truisms. - Gates to Google: My Lyrical Technique Will Leave Your Body Weak
Much as Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates fancies himself untroubled by Google’s incursions into his software empire, they clearly do chafe him a bit. - Newest Yahoo Mail Feature: BCC Beijing
Sure, Yahoo signed China’s “Public Pledge on Self-Discipline for the Chinese Internet Industry,” a voluntary agreement to monitor and restrict information deemed “harmful” by Beijing, but did it have to take it quite so seriously? - Apple: Wham, Bam, Thank You Fanboi
“I feel like a $200 whore.” That was one iPhone early adopter’s crass assessment of his feelings of self-worth, after Apple unexpectedly cut the price of the device by a third–just two months after it arrived at market. - In the Unlikely Event of a Water Landing, Sergey’s California King May Be Used as a Flotation Device
With its onboard hammocks, full-size sofas and California King beds, it’s a wonder Google’s “party plane” has room for scientific instrumentation befitting the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, but apparently it does. - Act Now and Get a Downgrade to the OS You Really Want, ABSOLUTELY FREE!
It’s looking more and more like the pent-up demand for Windows Vista we’ve heard so much about this past year is really just pent-up demand for Windows XP. - Dude, I Work for Friggin Forbes Magazine. Have You Heard of It?
The year-long guessing game is over. New York Times reporter Brad Stone has outed Daniel Lyons, a senior editor at Forbes magazine, as the author of the Secret Diary of Steve Jobs, the satirical blog lampooning Apple’s iconic CEO (See? Told you it wasn’t me). - If Facebook’s Worth $15 Billion, Then My Stupid Idea’s Got to Be Good for $10 Mil
Apparently the vainglory from which Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg appears to suffer is communicable and spreading rapidly throughout the social network’s developer community. - A Billion Here, a Billion There, and Pretty Soon You’re Talking Real Bollocks
MySpace is worth $65 billion in the same way that Facebook is worth $15 billion–hypothetically. - “Apple Has Destroyed the Music Business”–Not That We Didn’t Try Our Best
Many, many years ago, when the digital-music business consisted of little else besides Napster and the Recording Industry Association of America’s lawsuits against it, Apple proved that there was indeed a decent business to be had in selling music online for $1 per song. - It’s Not an Unpaid Endorsement, It’s a “Social Ad”
Facebook’s Social Ads aren’t endorsements, they’re a “representation” of user activity. - Obama Announces “No Tech Policy Left Behind” Plan
If Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful, then Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s is to do the same to its tech-policy issues. - Sounds More Like the “Zune of Reading” to Me
If Jeff Bezos truly hopes to create “the iPod of reading,” observers say he’s going to have to do a hell of a lot better than Amazon’s new Kindle e-book reader. - Fiascobook
What Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg lacks in foresight, he certainly makes up for in disingenuous hair-shirt remorse.
