Microsoft Drops Live Mouse Out Of Plane To Sell Pointing Devices

If it's a fake it's a good one. And if it is real, I'm sending $30 to PETA. Cuz it's just plain WRONG.



Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Craiglist Takes Aim At The World's Oldest Profession

You are doubtless aware that Craigslist has been under fire of late from a looong list of state's attorneys over the large number of prostitute connections that are made through the "Erotic Services" channel of the site. Until now, such ads were free and essentially untraceable by law enforcement authorities, except through stings.

Well Craigslist has made an agreement with 40 states to try to do a better job of curbing use of the site by individuals offering illegal services.

Under the agreement, Craigslist will charge $10 for these ads, and require payment by credit card, which will make such missives very traceable. The other virtue of the system is that it may prevent child prostitution listings since credit cards are generally limited to those over 18.

OK, so first thing we need to talk about. Does this make Craiglist an electronic pimp? Well, perhaps, but it will be a generous pimp, as all fees charged for erotic service ads will be donated to charity.

As is often the case with discussions of prostitution, there is a bunch of controversy on the interwebs -- many appear to be complaining that this does nothing to protect the sex workers. Well, that's true. But it may serve to reduce the growth in the number of acts of child prostitution -- which I understand has been a big problem because of Craigslist.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Incredible Viral Vid - Star Wars A Capella Tribute To John Williams

Middlespot Makes Online Research Fun, Fast, and Visual

I heard about Middlespot last week, and wanted to tell you about this new take on non navigational search. This powerful search platform works like regular engines in that you input the topic you want to explore, but differs markedly in the presentation of results.

Middlespot still offers a list of text based results, but it also offers a checkerboard of miniature screenshots so that you can make a scanner assessment of which of those results might prove most useful to you.

What you do is you select the visual results you find most potentially valuable and move them to your workpad. Then, you can grab others, conduct other searches if you desire, then explore all of the promising results at once from your middle spot -- that work pad. At least that is how I have used it. I am sure there are other processes to use, but this one seemed a big time saver to me, and I liked the glut of gratification that work pad makes possible.

Here's how they describe their own service:

middlespot.com workpads allow you to gather together only results that you find relevant to your research. You can collect search results together that are from multiple searches, over any amount of time. We've even built a number of tools that allow you to add to your workpads even when not using the middlespot interface.

workpads are feature rich. You can rename them to better reflect what they contain, leave a comment describing the contents of the workpad, open the entire workpad in the middlespot.com interface, and add any url you want. Your collected result is stored as a screenshot that you can uniquely annotate with your own comments. You can also have as many workpads as you want.

to make accessing your workpads easier over multiple sessions, we've placed your workpad tabs on the start page of middlespot.com.

Another excellent set of features comes through the ability to share the results from your work pad with others. Through this powerful offering, you can make search and research truly collaborative and communal.

This offering is not the way to find a place to buy a book or something. But, if you are doing bona fide research on a topic, as I do on multiple occasions every day, this tool can be a welcome addition to your process.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

HobbyThing.com: The World of Hobbies Made Social

The nichification of social media has progressed remarkably, and HobbyThing is a powerful entry in the space. Based around the deep, sometimes bizarre, wonderfuly quirky personal hobbies virtually all of us have, HobbyThing offers an opportunity to share these interests with other quirky people.

I like the idea of a common portal for all hobbies versus totally niching out into hundreds of individual hobby nets, because many of us have more than one interest, and may indeed cultivate new obsessions through browsing the site.

The set of features on this site is very comprehensive and totally expected and I mean that in an entirely positive way. There is no need to remake an absolutely proven feature set.

One key focus of the site is to empower people who are turning their hobbies into professions. In their words:

And not only that, if your hobby is your work (again: lucky you!) you can also create your profile, throw some pictures and write some stories about your experiences.

We understand how difficult it is for a new business to kick off. We would like to help!

We want to give a chance to hobbyists, who put their first steps turning their passions into professions. Members are more then welcome to advertise their work in their profile for free. They can also find others with similar interests, make friends and maybe get some advice on the subject too.

Hobbyist groups also play an important role on the site, and the list of available groups demonstrates both the depth and breadth of the community at large:

Music Listening
Chocolate
Blogging
Coffee
Travelling
Formula 1
Belly Dance
Reptiles
Craft Tour
Lewis Hamilton Fans
Light Sport Aviation
Bird of Prey
Ghosthunter
Painting
Quilting and Patchwork
Doll House Miniatures
Coincidences, or Not
Silly, Unbelievable Facts
Creativity
Beading
Card making
North London Tai Chi
Good Food

Storytelling is also a cornerstone of this community, and hobby related stories abound. The range of such tales is rather broad and many are rather interesting.

Give it a look see, and you may find some kindred spirit hobbyists to compare beanie babies with!

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Moody Or Not? Well...Are You?

There's a fun, eminently viral website called MoodyOrNot? that I suggest you take advantage of. It's a pretty simple premise. You go, and rate your mood on a five point scale. And then the system compares your mood to that of your friends and the world.

It;s not going to cure the economic woes of the nation, but it's fun in a pseudo statistical way to evaluate our collective psychology.

You can track your own, your friends', and the world's mood over time as well, and draw likely unsubstantiated and possibly irresponsible conclusions from said data. For example, I noticed that the mood of the world went very positive on election day, which naturally seems rather logical to me. McCain supporters may feel differently as to whether there is veracity in my conclusion.

I am apparently happier than many people. How about you?

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Enormo.com: Real Estate Site Goes Global

Real estate search sites are a place for anyone with even the remotest interest in buying a house or condo to waste countless hours evaluating options.

And now the temptation will be even stronger now that Enormo is on the scene. OK, OK, it sounds like a bad sci fi movie title, but Enormo is a monster of an addiction -- though a delightful sort of friendly monster like a purple dinosaur or a blur brontosaurus.



Offering property listings in 50 countries, Enormo has to be the most broad based real estate listing anywhere. The site is very easy to use, and the listings themselves are attractive and very informative.





Here's they describe themselves:

Enormo is the world’s largest property portal, with listings in over 50 countries. We’ll help you find a property wherever you are, or wherever you’re looking to go. We’re not an estate agency and we don’t recommend properties. Instead, we bring you the best of the web by aggregating millions of properties from just as many estate agents and property websites.

Enormo started from humble beginnings in late 2006. One, two, three, and four million properties later, we’re now the largest property listings website in the world.

The site naturally supports itself through real estate listing fees. Having now listed 4 million properties since 2000, I would expect that they are supporting themselves very well indeed. There are other global property concerns out there, but this one seems far less focused on super high end offerings, which bdes well for reach and revenue.

Enormo is based in Barcelona, and backed by Mangrove Capital Partners in Luxembourg.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Get Them In FaceBook App: Cool, But Please Don't Send ME a Drink

I learned about this interesting new app that extends the real world into FaceBook. Yes, you read that right. The GetThemIn app lets you buy friends and acquaintances of legal drinking age booze and snacks that they can pick up at participating retailers.

Here's how it works, from their site:

STEP1: CHOOSE A GIFT...
We have many gifts to choose from including several beers, wines, spirits and champagnes. Simply choose the brand and product you'd like to send.

STEP2: CHOOSE YOUR FRIEND...
We make it easy for you to select a friend from your current Facebook friend list.

STEP3: PAY...
By using Google checkout, one of the world's largest and most reputable payment systems, we can take secure payments from almost every major credit and debit card.

STEP4: WRITE YOUR MESSAGE...
Simply write the content of your Facebook message to your friend and off it goes...

STEP5: THEY RECEIVE GIFT MESSAGE...
Your friend then receives an instant notification and SMS message (if you entered their mobile number - which is free) informing them that you have bought them a drink.

STEP6: THEY COLLECT THE PHYSICAL GIFT...
When they add the GTI application, their gift becomes instantly available in their account as an egift. They can redeem this at any time by selecting the 'redeem gift option' which sends out a secure product voucher in the post. The voucher can be taken to their local GetThemIn participating store and used to collect the physical product.

The service launched in the UK, and booze and nibbles can be redeemed at over 1500 locations across the nation:



According to the app page, service in the US is "just weeks away."

DOing anything with alcohol nationally in the US is a nightmare, as we have states from practically anything goes California to the state sells it Pennsylvania. Wanna hear war stories? Talk to the people at Wine.com who have spent a huge amount of time putting together a national distribution system amid an environment of more than 50 state and local regulators.

I like the ida of this service -- both as a business and a social outlet. Given that soc nets are essentially becoming subinternets, having easy buying opps in these environments seems a good idea.

But before you send me any booze, don't, as I am in recovery. ;-)

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

An Open Letter to Joe Lieberman

I understand that you find being relieved of your committee chairmanship unwarranted. I understand you are entertaining offers from the GOP.

First your words:



What a reasonable sounding statement. Not so these.



Here's my advice. Go join the GOP. Have four years of complete powerlessness, followed by the bloodiest ever campaign, with the most well funded Senate opponent in history. Be totally not trusted by anyone, including the GOP -- because let's face it, no one trusts a turncoat.

Face it Joe. You hold NO cards. This is not a negotiation.

So go, Joe, go. Please. Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

will.i.am's New Vid: It's a New Day!"