Another $0.02 on the Microsoft Offer to Buy Yahoo!

A few initial thoughts on the proposed Microsoft acquisition of Yahoo that was announced today:

Microsoft is a software company whose track record in content and advertising is not so hot. Yahoo still has some fantastic content, both internal and user-created, and they’ve by and large been able to monetize well, but Yahoo is too big, too slow, and lacks a clear vision of their path forward. Their stock is way down and they’re an acquisition target. Microsoft has the resources to make the acquisition and on paper, it looks like a good matchup (although neither of them has done well in the search area). Still, I don’t think it’s going to turn out well for them in the end.

Why? Simple. Yahoo’s problems will not be solved by the people who took five years to bring us that POS that is Vista.

I expect that the deal will go through sooner or later, and then the integration will be long and ugly. The Yahoo! brand may or may not survive; Microsoft has managed to keep their branding off of XBox but I wonder whether they’ll be able to resist rebranding Yahoo. And certainly some core Yahoo properties will get Borged into Microsoft; I don’t expect YIM, Yahoo Mail, and maybe even My Yahoo itself to survive intact. Some of the spin I’m seeing is that Microsoft is looking to Yahoo to add some social expertise to their current mix; which would imply that Flickr will probably make the cut, as well as del.icio.us and hopefully some of the the other acquisitions like MyBlogLog or Upcoming as well. No matter how you slice it, though, this is going to cost a lot of Yahoos their jobs.

Eventually, you’ll have one homogenized behemoth that still won’t be able to beat Google at search. Whether it will still be able to provide quality (and monetized) content that people find useful — we’ll see.

Superbowl Sunday update: Google weighs in, and they’re not happy.

Why I'm for Obama

I think I’ve mentioned in passing that Obama is my candidate, but with Super Tuesday approaching, it’s time I came out and said so in no uncertain terms. There’s a lot of reasons why, but essentially it boils down to something Obama himself said in a speech today:

It’s not enough to say you’ll be ready from Day One — you have to be right from Day One.

I support Barack Obama for President, and if you’re voting in one of the upcoming Democratic primaries, I strongly urge you to vote for him as well.

Frankly, Hillary Clinton and Obama do not differ all that much in many aspects of their platforms and their voting records — except for one glaring difference. Obama was right about the disastrous war Bush got us into, and Hillary was not. All the experience in the world will not help you if you make the wrong choices on key issues like whether or not to go to war, and Hillary got it wrong.

And even more than that, Obama is one of those uniquely gifted leaders who can, despite how rough the last 8 years have been, make people feel good about being an America, make us feel confident about our future, and make us feel that yes, we can get this ship of state back on course.

An America with Barack Obama as its President is an America I’d very much like to see. Whether we’ll get there, I don’t know, but I’ll be doing my part next Tuesday to try to bring it about.

Why is Segregation The Answer to Sexism?

I just read that Mexico City has now joined several other locations, including cities in Japan, India, and Brazil, in adding women-only buses and subway cars to combat the ongoing problem of male sexual harassment of female passengers.

According to the article, the women seem to love it, and frankly, I can’t blame them. There’s scarcely a woman on this planet who has not been groped, pinched, handled, or leered at against her will at some point in her life (myself included), and not having to worry about that as you go to work every day would be a welcome relief.

But there’s another part of me that is angry, too. Why do women have to be segregated from men in order to be safe? Why do so many men seem to lack even the most basic sense of courtesy or respect when there is a breast or a butt in their vicinity? In short, why is is so damn hard for men to just keep their hands to themselves?

And please, spare me the “ohhh, they just can’t help themselves” bulls***. Men are perfectly capable of self-control. They are choosing otherwise. And these kinds of actions, however, well-intentioned, just reinforce the perception that a woman outside the ‘safe zone’ is an acceptable target.

They Buried The Lede

Deep in the news reports about the government economic stimulus package today was this nugget of information:

To address the mortgage crisis, the package also raises the limits on Federal Housing Administration loans and home mortgages that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can purchase to as high as $725,000 in high-cost areas. Those are considerable boosts over the current FHA limit of $362,000 and the $417,000 cap for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s loan purchases.

For those of us living in high cost of living areas, that has the potential for a much bigger and more long-term boost to the economy than a quick cash infusion, becasue now many more people will be able to avoid some of the ‘jumbo’ loan penalties put on loans that are bigger than FHA guidelines.

Save The Date: January 30, 2008

I don’t actually have a MySpace account, but this post on Bloggasm made me smile on an otherwise gloomy day. For those of you who are on MySpace, it’s time to get with the program:

If you’re reading this and you’ve experienced any of the things on the list below, your account may be in need of deletion:

1. You rarely log in to Myspace except to delete spam friend requests from nude webcam girls.

2. You spend five minutes writing a wall post only to hit an error message when you try to post it because of all the website glitches.

3. You’re a girl who constantly gets marriage proposals from random men in the middle east.

4. You visit someone’s Myspace profile only to suddenly have music start blasting out of your speakers. Bonus points if it happens to you while you’re at work.

5. You have to make redundant clicks to perform simple tasks because Myspace keeps taking you to advertisement pages where you have to click on “return to myspace profile” in order to continue what you’re doing.

6. You visit someone’s profile only to have your eyes bleed because of terrible page layout with non-matching designs and font colors.

7. Your experience is hindered because of intrusive banner ads that either talk to you or try to reach out and block your view of what you’re trying to look at.

8. You read yet another news account about how some child predator using Myspace has abducted a little girl or that some hoax Myspace account has caused a teenager to commit suicide.

9. You’re frustrated with the fact that Myspace doesn’t allow you to post your contact info, meaning to contact someone you can only use Myspace’s glitchy Instant Messenger, message/email system, or wall commenting.

10. You’re tired of seeing Tom stare out at you from millions of friends lists and just wish he would change his f*cking profile picture.

Have any of these things happened to you? Well you’re the perfect candidate for Myspace deletion. Join me on Wednesday, January 30th by deleting your Myspace account. You won’t regret it!

Sad News: RIP Ronald Noll

I spent roughly 10 years as a member of New York’s Village Light Opera Group. It’s a classic community theater group comprised of dedicated, hardworking, talented volunteers, who have put on high-quality theater in the heart of New York City for decades.

Tonight I learned of the passing of VLOG’s longtime Music Director, Ron Noll, and it’s hard to type through the tears. Ron’s passion for music shone through everything he did, and came second only to his passion for his family.

One of my favorite memories of Ron dates back to VLOG’s production of “The Desert Song”, back around 1995 or so. In the finale of the first act, Azuri, the “native woman” seduces a French soldier, thereby proving that he’s not a suitable match for the heroine (sorry, that’s not politically correct, but what can you do, Romburg wrote it in the 1920s). At any rate, the ensemble sings this gorgeous accompaniment to her dance, and right before the end, there’s a key change signaled by the sopranos. Every night we did the show, Ron’s eyes would meet mine as the transition happened, and he would smile happily, as would I. It was a perfect little musical moment.

Ron did more than run a community theater group. He won an Emmy, among other achievements. But for me (and I suspect for many others), his work with VLOG was what left the biggest mark on the world.

You like to think that things will always go on as they were … and then, they don’t. It’s a sad fact of life. Luckily we were blessed to have Ron with us for as long as we did.

Rest well, Maestro.