Voices

The Facebooker Who Friended Obama

Brian Stelter — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 07:13:48 +0000

By Brian Stelter, Lead Contributor, The New York Times, TV Decoder

Last November, Mark Penn, then the chief strategist for Hillary Rodham Clinton, derisively said Barack Obama’s supporters “look like Facebook.”

Chris Hughes takes that as a compliment.

Mr. Hughes, 24, was one of four founders of Facebook. In early 2007, he left the company to work in Chicago on Senator Obama’s new-media campaign. Leaving behind his company at such a critical time would appear to require some cognitive dissonance: political campaigns, after all, are built on handshakes and persuasion, not computer servers, and Mr. Hughes has watched, sometimes ruefully, as Facebook has marketed new products that he helped develop.

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Five Nines On the Net is a Pipe Dream

Stacey Higginbotham — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 07:03:12 +0000

By Stacey Higginbotham, Writer, GigaOm

The New York Times today finally got around to noticing that when web sites go down, people are increasingly likely to get mad and generally react the way I might if I drove to my favorite bar and found it closed for a private party. I might be miffed and share a few choice words with members of my party before deciding on a new locale. However, when we write blogs or tweets (if Twitter is up), the inconvenience and our subsequent vitriol is archived forever and transmitted around the world rather than just to our friends. And because millions of other people want to go to that same bar, the chorus of curses grows quickly.

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FCC Ponders Solution to Bird-Slaying Communications Towers

Matthew Lasar — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 07:02:59 +0000

By Matthew Lasar, Lecturer, University of California at Santa Cruz

What should the government do about migrating birds that fatally collide into wireless communications towers at night? The actual number of deaths is disputed, but it may run into the millions each year. A recent mini-conference on the problem held at the Federal Communications Commission went largely unnoticed by most agency watchers, present company included. Five conservation group leaders attended the event, two from the National Audubon Society, two from Defenders of Wildlife, and one from the American Bird Conservancy.

“The conservation groups’ representatives urged the Commission representatives to implement immediately some interim measures in the near term,” their ex parte summary of the June 19 meeting politely concluded, “while the Commission deliberates on how to address all of the outstanding issues relating to the environmental impacts of communications towers on birds.”

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Tea, Tennis, Faceless Aliens at Wimbledon

John Scott Lewinski — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 07:01:11 +0000

By John Scott Lewinski, Contributor, Wired.com, Underwire

As the 2008 Wimbledon fortnight played itself out, the event offered all of its traditional trappings–immaculately mown grass, clean yellow tennis balls, breakfasts of strawberries and cream and well-dressed faceless alien androids.

The creepy spectators had already showed up at Harrod’s and other spots around London, but their persistent pop-ups at the All-England Tennis Club were by far their most public appearances. A couple of the world’s more ingenious media outlets reported that the figures weren’t really faceless and had pinholes in their masks for the actors’ eyes.

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Merchants Angry Over Getting Yanked By Yelp

Ellen Lee and Anastasia Ustinova — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 07:00:26 +0000

By Ellen Lee and Anastasia Ustinova, Staff Writers, The San Francisco Chronicle

Four years ago, Geri Rebstock started using Yelp, a popular site for consumers to review local businesses and services. She critiqued her favorite veterinarian, a neighborhood print shop and an acupuncturist who took care of her bad wrist.

But Rebstock’s reviews and personal account vanished from the site recently after Yelp accused Rebstock, who owns a small interior decorating business called Geraldine Rebstock Interior Design, of trading glowing reviews with other business owners.

“It’s Orwellian,” Rebstock said. “I had reviews of my business from several years back and they kind of erased my identity.”

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VeriSign CEO Roper Resigns; James Bidzos Named Interim Chief

Eric Savitz — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 22:29:56 +0000

By Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily

VeriSign (VRSN) announced that CEO William Roper resigned as an officer and director, effective June 30. On an interim basis, the company named James Bidzos as chairman, CEO and president. Bidzos was the company’s founder and original CEO; he has been chairman or vice chairman since April 1995. The company did not give a reason for the change, nor did they give any details on plans to install a permanent replacement.

In the announcement, Bidzos said that the company will proceed with its plan to divest non-core operations.

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Corel: Solid Q2; No Update on Vector Bid; Piper Upgrades

Eric Savitz — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:55:23 +0000

By Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily

Corel (CREL) shares are rallying today after the company reported solid results for its fiscal second quarter ended May 31.

For the quarter, the company posted revenue of $67.0 million and non-GAAP EPS of 36 cents; the Street had expected $66.85 million and 35 cents.

For Q3, the company sees revenue of $63 million to $65 million, with non-GAAP profits of 30-36 cents a share; the Street had been expecting $63 million and 32 cents. For the full year ending in November, the company sees revenue of $263 million to $275 million, with profits of $1.50 to $1.70; the Street consensus has been $269.1 million and $1.54.

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Google’s MySpace Problem: Serving Irrelevant Ads

Eric Savitz — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:27:02 +0000

By Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily

The problem Google (GOOG) is having monetizing its inventory of News Corp.’s (NWS) MySpace pages may have more to do with faulty algorithms for ad serving than it does inherent issues with social networking sites.

That’s the conclusion Pali Research analyst Richard Greenfield reached in a research piece today on News Corp. “While everyone is blaming social networking as the culprit for Google’s MySpace monetization problems, the real problem is Google itself and its search algorithms for social networking,” he asserts.

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Apple Sells Off on Holder Suit; Feeling Jumpy, Are We?

Eric Savitz — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:02:29 +0000

By Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily

Apple (APPL) shareholders: you need to get a grip.

On Wednesday, AAPL sold off on news that the company, CEO Steve Jobs, former CFO Fred Anderson, former general counsel Nancy Heinen and several Apple board members were hit with a purported class-action lawsuit in federal court in San Jose related to the company’s stock-options backdating scandal. Shareholder lawsuits always sound scary, but there’s nothing to this that holders don’t already know: the company admitted that some options were backdated, but both Apple and Jobs have avoided any federal prosecution. Anderson settled SEC charges related to the situation; litigation by the Commission against Heinen is pending.

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The Rising Cost of Texting

Marguerite Reardon — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 07:01:32 +0000

By Marguerite Reardon, Senior Writer, News.com

If you thought gas prices were rising too quickly, check out what’s been happening to text messaging. Since 2005, rates to send and receive text messages on all four major carrier networks have doubled from 10 cents to 20 cents per message. This percentage of increase is on par with similar price hikes at the gas pump as crude oil prices skyrocket. In 2005, Americans paid on average about $2.27 per gallon for gas compared with more than $4 a gallon today.

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