] Friendster, which is known as a dating site that hooks up
] friends of friends, last year pulled in $13 million in
] venture capital -- a significant amount considering the
] tough climate for new venture funding. Business-oriented
] Spoke and LinkedIn picked up $20.5 million and $4.7
] million respectively.

Lots of sites, many millions in venture capital, but no clear business model yet.

Though I'm very much enjoying the business-networking aspect of this, I'm starting to have my own concerns about where things are going. Especially about how the porn market is going to fit in to all of this -- I'm starting to pick up flickers that all this network-building is just going to result in new avenues for a flood of "Hi I'm Jenny Check Out My Webcam" messages.

Social-Networking Site Business Models

] Recently, much attention has been lavished on the
] pornography industry--as a business--and many have
] claimed it is large and profitable, especially on the
] Internet. Many of the claims are cut from whole cloth,
] but are accepted without question by the legitimate
] press.

I was having a discussion with someone today about the size of the porn market v. mainstream. We disagreed strongly on respective market sizes and went looking for numbers to back up our claims. This article has a lot of good data on the subject.

Forbes.com: How Big Is Porn?

] Experimenters burst water balloons in the low-gravity environment
] produced aboard a NASA Glenn DC-9 aircraft.

Videos of What It's Like to Pop a Water Balloon in Space

] Today, sources at Electronic Arts confirmed what has been
] rumored for the past week: EA is folding Maxis into its
] central corporate offices. Currently, Maxis operates out
] of a now-cramped building in Walnut Creek, California.
] Their new digs will be in EA's Redwood Shores
] headquarters, some 30 miles to the east.
]
] "Maxis was running out of space at Walnut Creek," an EA
] spokesperson told GameSpot this morning. The current
] management team at Maxis, Luc Barthelet, Lucy Bradshaw,
] and Sinjin Bain, will relocate to Redwood Shores, as will
] most of Maxis' 300 staffers.

The official spin is, "They were running out of space." But the buzz I've been hearing is different. The Maxis office in Walnut Creek is basically being shut down by Electronic Arts. Hundreds of people are being relocated to the Redwood office, which means they'll now face a lengthy commute (well over an hour), or of course they can just choose to quit. Duplicated positions are being eliminated. The Walnut Creek office will continue with a small staff including Will Wright and a couple dozen people who are working on his next project.

EA Shuts Down Maxis Office in Walnut Creek

] Based on a careful evaluation of the competitive MMORPG
] landscape, Microsoft Game Studios has decided to cancel
] the Windows-based game "Mythica." As a result
] of this effort, job eliminations within Microsoft Game
] Studios will take place, and up to 40 employees may be
] impacted.

I wonder how much of this is related to Jacobs' lawsuit:
 http://www.memestreams.net/thread/bid10156/

Microsoft Cans MMORPG 'Mythica'

] If you have information relating to Iraq which
] you believe might be of interest to the U.S.
] Government, please contact us through our secure
] online form. We will carefully protect all information
] you provide, including your identity.

I wonder how many real tips they get here, vs. nutcases? Then again, it's probably no worse a percentage than anything else. I hear that "America's Most Wanted" gets an enormous amount of junk tips that they have to wade through, but for the few tips that they get which are real and useful, it's worth it.

CIA has 'secure online form' for reporting information about Iraq

] President Bartlet (Martin Sheen): I like how you call
] homosexuality an abomination.
]
] Jenna Jacobs: I don't say homosexuality is an
] abomination, Mr. President, the Bible does.
]
] President Bartlet: Yes, it does. Leviticus.
]
] Jenna Jacobs: 18:22.
]
] President Bartlet: Chapter and verse. I wanted to ask you
] a couple of questions while I have you here. I'm
] interested in selling my youngest daughter into slavery
] as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. She's a Georgetown
] sophomore, speaks fluent Italian, always cleared the table
] when it was her turn. What would a good price for her be?
] While thinking about that, can I ask another? My Chief of
] Staff Leo McGarry insists on working on the Sabbath.
] Exodus 35:2 clearly says he should be put to death. Am I
] morally obligated to kill him myself or is it okay to
] call the police? Here's one that's really important
] because we've got a lot of sports fans in this town:
] touching the skin of a dead pig makes one unclean.
] Leviticus 11:7. If they promise to wear gloves, can the
] Washington Redskins still play football? Can Notre Dame?
] Can West Point? Does the whole town really have to be
] together to stone my brother John for planting different
] crops side by side? Can I burn my mother in a small
] family gathering for wearing garments made from two
] different threads? Think about those questions, would
] you?

Great scene. :)

The West Wing

] WASHINGTON - Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan on
] Thursday lent support to a White House bid to make $1.7
] trillion in tax cuts permanent, telling Congress spending
] control was the best way to cut the budget gap.

MSNBC - Greenspan backs Bush tax cuts extension

] All the information located on this resource is for
] private use by its developers and must not be used by you
] in any way. If you use this service and disagree with
] these "Conditions of use", administration of the resource
] and/or hosting provider don't bear any responsibility for
] your actions in general or based on the information that
] might be found on this resource. Also, if you do not
] comply with current "Conditions of use" you have no right
] to complain because your actions will be considered as a
] violation of code no. 431.322.12 of the 1995 Internet
] Privacy Act.
]
] This resource does not distribute any commercial
] software, as this would be illegal. Administration of
] this resource would give all the possible help in
] stopping such illegal actions.
]
] KeyGen.us is a well-known resource and it gave a good
] account on itself working successfully for about a year
] and giving efficient and high-quality information on
] computer security.
]
] Administration of this resource is indeed against of
] using the materials found on this resource for cracking
] any commercial software as it is prosecuted by law and is
] called "Computer piracy".
]
] Further to mention that hosting provider of that resource
] hosts only a catalogue of links and does not host any
] executable files. Also we would like to point to that
] independent developers developed all the materials on
] this resource and we have organized an easy search and
] accessible presentation of this information. We do not
] bear any responsbilitis for hte content and/or use of
] these materials.

Interesting site.

Keygen.us

] Brigadier Gen. Turnipseed, 75 and retired in Montgomery,
] Ala., says he's sorry he ever said he would have "had
] some recall" of Bush had he attended a meeting of the
] Alabama Air Guard unit.
]
] "I don't remember whether he came or not. Our unit had
] about 900- 1,000 men and he could have attended many
] meetings without me ever knowing it," Turnipseed said
] this week.

For anyone who feels so incentivized, there's a good timeline on this page that shows the details of Bush's service. You're welcome to examine it for yourselves.

Personally, I don't see anything there that raises a red flag for me. There are plenty of other things that Bush says or does that I find annoying or inexcusable. But this 30-years-ago suspected-AWOL non-story is not one of them.

Can we please go back to discussing *real* issues now?

Alabama commander regrets Bush comments