News today came of Microsoft offering Yahoo! Inc. $50 billion for the purchase. This would mean that Microsoft basically owns Yahoo. This move shows how scared Microsoft really is of Google. Microsoft has a fraction of the online advertising revenue that Google does, and they want some of that action.

Google has also been making a move into the online application market. They are setting up to be direct rivals of software like Microsoft Office, and the many other desktop applications that Microsoft controls. Microsoft is definitely feeling the pressure of Google, which is good because MS has had a strangle hold on software for about 15 years now. Google has already been moving into the application market with online software such as Google documents.

Google’s baby is still adsense/adwords. When Eric Schmidt (CEO of Google) was asked to describe Google in a few words, he didn’t say search engine first. The very first thing he said was advertising giant. Something like 80% of Google’s revenue comes from adsense and adwords, and allows them to offer all of the free services that they do today. Microsoft has a fraction of this revenue with their version of adwords, Microsoft Adcenter.

This potential merger is history in the making. Even if the merger went through, Yahoosoft (hehe) is probably still not even as powerful as Google. I do not like one company to have all the power, so I am going to sit back and enjoy the show as Microsoft and Yahoo try to compete with the new giant of IT.

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Businesses constantly change, that’s how companies stay ahead of the game. If a company fails to adapt to the market, it will be eaten up by another that did. The ringtone industry is not immune to this fact. They now have a hurdle to overcome to continue to be such a profitable market.

Here’s the problem: I currently have an Audiovox smartphone (I already know what your saying, but it was one of the first smartphones on the market). All I have to do to get a new ringtone on my phone is plug it into a PC and transfer a MP3 onto it and I have my new song. It is so easy and the ringtone quality is great. Now with the iPhone, just like every other Apple product, they are going to make the cellular phone something more wonderful than ever before. This means that MP3 ringtones, which are easily transferable to and from the phone, will be the standard of all cell phone companies. This is a great fact for the argument that ringtone companies are on the way out.

This is incorrect however. There are still ways that ringtone companies can make money. Let’s use personalized MP3 ringtones as an example. I came across a very cool site called mp3masher.com. This site allows you to basically be a DJ and create custom MP3′s “mashed” together from songs you already own. This site also goes a step further by allowing you to download the MP3 you created and therefore you are now able to transfer it to your new iPhone or possibly smartphone (for those of you who are crazy enough not to get an iPhone…just buy apple iphone).

It is obvious that these companies are going to have to make a change, no longer are people going to dial *34422 on their keypad to download a song for $1.99. Payed ringtones are definitely dead. Ringtone companies are going to have to go fully online and offer more than just copy written melodies. It may be difficult for them to adapt to the changing market, but it is far from impossible. Here is a pic of the beautiful iPhone, ill buy apple iPhone as soon as I can.

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Basically read, read, read all you can about Internet business. Ever since I started in this industry, I eat, sleep, and live the Internet. When I am not at work putting my skills to the test, I am at home reading up on every little tid bit of information I can get my hands on. I suggest everyone trying to be successful do the same. Now that social news sites and blogs are so popular and abundant, it is ridiculously easy to keep up with technology news. Here are some websites that will keep you up to date on everything you need to know:

• digg.com – One of my favorite ways to learn about anything interesting going on with the Internet or technology. Although the majority of digg stories are either about programming or funny websites, there are still many stories on there that can help you discover new ways to make money. Just don’t get distracted by a story about Jessica Alba in a bikini.
• originalsignal.com – This site is a feed aggregator of all sites relating to Internet business or technology. This is the best source for startup related news. Original signal is an automatically updated site with all Internet business news from all the top blog/news sources. This sites makes me truly believe we are in the second Internet boom, there are about 20 new startups listed there every single day.
• techcrunch.com – With many posts per day to this blog, it is one of my favorites to read. Mike Arrington knows what he’s talking about. When a blog reaches over 130,000 subscribers daily, the credibility of the blogger is undeniable.
• johnchow.com – Last but certainly not least is John Chow’s blog. He is a very successful and self named “dot come mogul.” He writes about topics that are not only useful to advanced webmasters, but also for beginners. Best of all he is always willing to help out the little guys.

Now obviously these are not the only sites I use or you should use. There are many sites out there that help you stay ahead of the competition. Just keep digging for more and more information and eventually you will be at the forefront of the industry.

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If you walk into any computer retailer to pick up a new desktop or laptop, one of the first questions you should be asking yourself is “Do I get a computer with an AMD processor or one with an Intel processor?”

But even before you can even ask yourself that question, you would need to know the benefits to siding with one processor over another given your specific computing needs. Some people are going to tell you it doesn’t matter, and others might say Intel is better because they are number one in sales and have been around the longest (assuming that’s a viable answer). Neither of those however even resembles a thought out decision.

Let us compare AMD’s Athlon 64 X2 4800+ to Intel’s Pentium Extreme Edition 840 Dual Core in five different benchmark categories; Gaming, Photo Editing, MP3 Encoding, Multitasking, and Day-to-Day tasking.

Gaming: In testing Half Life 2 on a screen resolution of 1024×768, it was found that the AMD was performing at 140.6 frames per second while the Pentium was only clocking in at 106.3 fps. This is unfortunately a 10% difference that Intel needs to play catch up on.

Photo Editing: For this one of the most common tasks done was tested, Cropping. For this Photoshop was used and was tested to crop a relatively large image file down to a size appropriate for websites. Once again AMD took the prize finishing its task in 146 seconds leaving Intel to come in ten seconds later. Now a lot of us might think 10 seconds isn’t that big of an issue, but it will matter to the person who is making a living out of it.

MP3 Encoding: This is another common task that is possibly even more common these days than photo editing. For this test Apple’s iTunes was used because it is a multithread application programmed to utilize multiple processor threads. This could be a little embarrassing for Intel given their chip is ripping an album in 2 minutes and 12 seconds while AMD had already finished in 1 minute and 50 seconds, a good 20% faster than its competitor.

Multitasking: For this test two relatively rigorous processes were used. First McAfee was set to do a virus scan on 40 gigabytes of data. At the same time (of course) the computer was told to encode 85 megabytes of video to DIVX. Much not to my surprise AMD finished up in 3 minutes and 15 seconds while Intel dragged its proverbial fat ass at 3 minutes and 31 seconds. Not the biggest victory for AMD, but things are starting to look clearer.

Day-to-Day Tasking: Last but nowhere close to least is the run of the mill Microsoft Office and web browsing that every Dick and Jane is going to do. I’m actually sorry to say AMD takes this test as well. I would have liked Intel to have something to show for itself. But according to BAPCo SysMark ratings just gets things done a little bit faster than the Pentium.

Now there are a lot more selections the Athlon 64 and Dual Core families have to offer, but if you were going to be choosing between these two processors, you read something like this and then you see the price tags: AMD $725 and Intel $1175, what would you choose?

The bottom line is there are going to be minor differences here and there with any competing chips, unfortunately all the differences here are in favor of AMD which leads me back to believe what I always have, Intel is overpriced because they have the top spot. There’s no other real way to justify a $450 dollar difference for chips that do the same thing. This could be the reason why you now hear rumors of Apple in talks with AMD so quickly after putting Dual Cores in their machines. But until that’s official its mere speculation, but it would be a logical move given the stats. So whether you are buying a new computer or building one from scratch, I’d suggest going with AMD. It’s going to perform better and cost you a lot less. Win-Win.

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Advances in computer hardware and software have greatly simplified data-collection tasks, so one result is the rapid accumulation of massive amounts of information. But, just having databases full of idle information is useless unless it’s able to be exploited in some way. What commonly happens is the data is collected, but the familiar, well-trodden solutions are still the most often used by the business analyst despite sitting on piles of alternatives.

That’s probably where the retort for any well-documented yet still unresolved problem came from; the phrase itself, “Drowning in data but starving for information” is a good example of something that is so familiar and overused, no alternatives are even attempted. Similarly, business solutions can be like that: hackneyed. Using solutions learned in seminars outlining any of the dozens of problem solving methodologies out there may not necessarily cater to your biggest asset, your very own data. The problem is there’s just too freaking much of it. And organizing it is worst than organizing the garage. It’s more like organizing the garage and being expected to make a profit from what you find in there. One solution for dealing with this kind of information overload is called data mining.

Data mining involves the computer-assisted analysis of huge amounts of data, using advanced software tools, for the purpose of extracting hidden, qualitative relationships. Sounds like just querying the database? Not quite, even though the first step in a data mining process is collecting the data in an organized manner. But, a querying just allows you to just ask the database ‘such-in-such’ and let it send you the records. What differentiates data mining from querying is that querying can be effective in acquiring information that fits expected outcomes, but data mining techniques are more focused on uncovering hidden patterns and associations not previously known to the analyst. It’s the difference between asking for a list of everyone who lives on Main Street and requesting the address of anyone, anywhere who has a good chance of buying what you’re selling.

In a nutshell, using mathematical techniques to methodically sift through warehoused information, data mining helps in the recognition of significant trends or patterns that might not otherwise be apparent. Great…but if its so hidden, how can you be sure it’s even relevant? Well, that’s a whole other matter and up to you to decide. But you get the point: the process goes way beyond just the software.

And data mining is not new. Used by military and intelligence agencies, techniques long used in statistical analysis have been incorporated in recent years into a focused methodology featuring software with more user-friendly interfaces. Data mining has been used in diverse commercial applications, such as detecting credit card fraud, defining shopping patterns, analyzing equipment failure and profiling criminals.

It’s no secret that the new U.S. intelligence czar is further developing data-mining capability for gathering huge amounts of information in an effort to discern patterns that look like terrorist planning. The system will supposedly take all the data mining and modeling work done by various U.S. intelligence agencies and develop tools and algorithms to detect terrorist activities. There are currently privacy advocates criticizing a program called Tangram, currently being developed for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. It is supposedly being tested without using any data about Americans…well, “OK, if you say so”.

The problem with data mining is that it’s not as much of a black-box, low user interaction tool many would want. With the diverse kinds of modeling you can use (neural networks, classification trees, link and nodal analysis, etc.) there are some decisions to be made before you even get started, so you don’t just get garbage out from all the garbage you put in. How do you decide? It depends… just what do you want to know? Tangram uses custom algorithms and a technique called link analysis, a method for linking entities with no overt association. Apparently, that’s for scouting terrorists, but what if you just want to know who buys widgets?

Data mining is a flexible tool so business oriented software may have quite a different focus requiring other methods. Still, in the end, many end-users may not feel as confident in navigating all the options of such a package. And that is also assuming the term ‘data mining’ isn’t as nebulous as the term ‘organic’ has become in the selection of produce. Relying solely on the term ‘data mining’ being in the product description doesn’t necessarily mean you are not just getting a supercharged query tool that’s simply adding more data to your warehouse faster. Sure, tools that collect data efficiently are good too, as long as you know what you’re getting. A good rule of thumb before buying a data mining package: know what data you have, know what data you need, and know what it is you want to find out. A little research will tell you what models are commonly associated with solving those type of problems, so make sure the package you’re buying at least has that as an analysis option. Or else take a shot in the dark and just do what the leaders in your own market are using.

Data mining has even found use in the area of matrimonial actions. E-mails are often automatically archived and can be easily retrieved by software without data mining. Since they can also contain very personal information that is relevant, revealing affairs and hidden assets, that knowledge would be desirable. Even illicit illegal activity can be retrieved and investigated for further and presented during the trail. Consequently, the side with the most data about the other party has the advantage. But the side who has the data and has the ability to mine for hidden associations which upon further investigation can be substantiated has a bigger advantage. The cost of retaining a data recovery specialist is supposedly less than that of than the retainer custody experts and forensic accountants. But, here’s the rub. Data recovery experts may be retained for longer periods based on complexity of the data mining operation.

Of course, the technique is not without its controversy. The Center for Digital Democracy is a nonprofit group involved in diversity in media and suggests that some large Web sites did not protect personal data from disclosure under certain circumstances. It’s not a revelation that many internet companies collect data and track visitors online. The Internet companies collect data from every click their visitors take to track what they’re doing online. This data can be used for Web site designs, targeted advertising campaigns and product introduction when properly analyzed via any number of data mining techniques. Microsoft’s adCenter advertising platform contains Web analytics, behavioral targeting, audience segmentation and data mining functions.

When a user clicks an ad delivered by Microsoft adCenter, a cookie is placed on the user’s computer for 30 minutes, which enables Microsoft and the advertiser to determine if a visitor clicked an ad delivered by Microsoft adCenter or visited the advertiser’s website within the 30 minute period. The user’s identity remains anonymous, and no personal information is collected or stored by Microsoft. Reputedly, the ad performance data helps determine the effectiveness of the ad but the question remains: what useful information can be mined from this data, anonymous or not? How exactly do you make such technological advances profitable? And how do consumers, who may be largely unaware of the extent they are tracked online, feel when they discover it?

The right balance between a retailers need to know and a consumer’s desire for privacy is a big issue. Just how much do I want the grocer to know about me? Or if I’m the grocer…is there any market for salmon in this demographics? While anything has the potential for misuse, simply having data mining ability doesn’t automatically imply the proper techniques are being used to analyze the collected data. Frequently, all the end user ends up with is a mass of mush…or the other extreme where the output just restates the obvious.

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I have been very sure about my opinion of who will win the console wars from the beginning. With the PS3 and Wii on the verge of release, it is becoming very apparent that my prediction will be correct. I had told my friends months ago that this will be the order of winners:

1) Nintendo Wii
2) Microsoft Xbox360
3) Sony PS3

What I mean by winner is whichever is most successful in terms of sales. The victor will not appear in the next few months or even year, it may take a few years to finally see who has dominated this round of video game console wars.

There are many reasons for my prediction, and with all the news that has recently surfaced about the PS3 and 360′s problems, more and more it is looking like Nintendo knew what they were doing. In addition, everyone who has played the Wii so far has had nothing but praises to say about it.

Let’s start with the price. Since the 360 has been out for about a year now, it has already dropped in price from its ridiculous $400-$500 price range. Since there is basically no point in buying the Xbox with no harddrive, most people opt for the premier model. So many people ended up paying the full amount for the premier Xbox 360 console. Now that the price has dropped about $100 in price, it is looking more appealing to us Frooglers out there. The Wii is by far the cheapest out of the three systems coming in at a low price of $250. This is lower than the original Xbox was when it was first released. The PS3 is being sold at a starting price of $499, way more than I would be willing to pay for the system and about half of the Wii. This will send many price-conscious buyers to Nintendo.

Reviews have a lot to do with the success of a product. Good reviews from publishers can sway the opinion of many in one direction or another. Since the 360 has been out for a while now, they have already cemented themselves in the market and therefore this does not apply to them. For the PS3 and Wii however, this will have a big impact on what customers decide to buy. Recently, most headlines about the PS3 have been negative. From Sony not being able to produce enough units, to the backward compatibility being flawed, its been nothing but negative press for the PS3. On the other hand the Wii has been getting nothing but rave reviews. Anyone who has been lucky enough to set their hands on a Wii has been overwhelmed by how much fun it is to play. Even the controller, which most thought would kill the Wii (because it was too different from the norm) has been loved by everyone. Another problem Sony has had is that the Blu-Ray is said to be before its time. Even Sony released a statement saying it overreached with the release of Blu-Ray in the PS3. With all the bad press for the PS3 and good press for the Wii, many peoples’ opinions will be swayed towards Nintendo.

Hardware is a very important feature when considering which console to buy. The Wii has the weakest hardware of the bunch but was not made to blow people away with its graphics. Sony has the strongest machine followed by the 360. This is enough for some people to buy the PS3 but again the price is just way too high. To use half the features that the PS3 provides, one would most likely need a new 1080 TV which is just more money to spend. HD TV’s are becoming the norm now which looks good for the XBox 360 but not so much for the PS3. Even with a HD TV the full potential of the PS3 cannot be reached without the top of the line HD TV’s.

All this information has given me enough reason to believe that the Wii will win the console war. XBox will still have a great following purely because of Halo 3. The list of games exclusively for the PS3 is growing shorter and shorter, which is just another reason not to spend all that money getting one. As always input is more than welcome on this subject. If you have a different opinion please comment and let me know which console you think will win.

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Ok this must be the coolest workspace I have ever seen. It is either the best way to motivate workers or the best way to distract workers. This office is called inventionland, and it looks just like Disneyland (or Michael Jacksons scary Neverland ranch). It is kinda weird at times, but overall could be the coolest place to work. Plus they have all the video game consoles in every room. Can you say work productivity decrease? The guy in the video also looks like he is way too into his idea. Check out this video and see for yourself:

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The first piece of advice I want to give to people is something my father has told me a million times over: always pay your bills in full when you get them. Simple advice yes, but many people just figure they will pay the minimum amount each month and that will be sufficient. Interest continues to pile on to these peoples’ bills and the debt-storm begins. If you cannot afford to pay a bill off all at once, consider not spending that money! There are also different campaigns, which companies offer for their products that say something like “no interest for 6 months” or “no payments for a year.” These are all legit offers, although you most likely will have to sign up for a credit card. With these types of offers, as long as there is no interest, paying the minimum amount is not a bad idea, though try to make a habit of paying bills off all at once.

This next tip was surprising even to me. It comes straight from the mouth of a mortgage broker who’s job is to know credit scores like the back of his hand. His first piece of advice was to have 3 credit cards. People with many credit cards and with just 1 credit card are in the same boat, it just doesn’t look good on your credit score. It’s not a horrible thing, but it’s also not a good thing. The most surprising piece of advice he gave me was to never spend more than 30% of your credit limit. Spending exactly 30% and paying it off right away is the best thing you can do for your credit. For example, if your credit limit is $1000, then don’t spend more than $300. At first I figured maxing out my credit card but still paying it all off right away was good for my credit, but I was wrong. This is looked down upon in the eyes of the credit companies. I am not sure the exact logic behind this, but this is where having 3 credit cards comes in handy. Spend 30% of your limit on each card and pay it off right away and watch your credit score (and credit limit) greatly increase.

One quote that stuck in my head, which is pretty obvious when you think about it was: “it is much harder to increase your credit score than to have it decreased for you.” If you are already in debt this does not apply to you, but if you are young and new to the credit game, take these words to heart. My friend kept repeating that you are trying to prove you have a history to these companies. That is exactly what credit is, a history of you. You want to prove to people that you are capable of handling credit and making payments on time.

Another obvious yet underused tip is to check your credit score often. There are free ways of doing this through the 3 credit firms. The two that I use are Experian and Equifax. A word of caution: while signing up for these sites and your first few months with them are free, they eventually start charging you. I experienced this first hand when I started receiving $10 charges from them. Checking your credit score often allows you to catch any problems very early before they start taking a toll on your credit.

Another not-so-known tip is to not close your credit cards. What I mean by this is if you have a credit card that you don’t use, don’t close it. It still creates a history for you. Also, the longer you have a “trade-line” open the better. A trade-line is just an credit card account. Having a credit card for 8 years looks much better than having it for 3 months, regardless of how much you spend.

These are just some simple tips to improve your credit score. Hopefully you will implement these tips and watch your credit score rise.

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1. Minidisc – It’s hard for me to say anything bad about the minidisc because I owned one. For about 10 mintues I actually believed that the minidisc was the future of portable music. I actually said the those exact words as my reason for spending $500 for the future. By the time I had finished paying for the minidisc, it was old news. CD burning had just become popular and everyone pulled out of the minidisc race before it even started. The minidisc allowed you to record and erase digitally on to a very small and durable tape-disc thing (whatever it’s called). The MiniDisc was targeted as a replacement for analogue cassette tapes but did not take with the public. There are still a bunch of you who are loyal to the minidisc so ill let you in on a secret: the minidisc is dead! Please get an iPod.

2. Zip Disc – This started out as a genius product. All of a sudden we went from having a little over 1mb on a disc to having 100. There was one major problem with this, it required everyone to have the same proprietary hardware, that no one had up till that point. These discs also had the potential to store massive amounts of data, but again the only way to do that was with proprietary hardware for each data storage size. The main killer of the Zip Drive was, once again CD’s. CD’s were so cheap and easy to use, along with durable, that it just made sense for everyone to use them. The best part about CD burning was that everyone had CD players already. Basically all Zip Drives are good for now is a paper weight.

3. Blu-Ray* – Notice the star next to this one, since it hasn’t yet flopped. In my opinion, it is just a flop waiting to happen. Does Sony really think the public is ready for Blue Ray? Not only are they releasing it too early, but it will be competing against many other (cheaper) technologies. Especially with the popularity of the iPod and other harddrive based storage devices, we are trying to move away from discs that can be scratched or lost. Sure video games are still produced on CD’s and Blue Ray provides enormous density opportunity, but how far off are we from downloading games straight to your consoles’ harddrive? This is just a flop waiting to happen.

4. Paper Clip (Office Assistant) – Oh boy this was a horrible idea! Here’s what the Microsoft geniuses were thinking: let’s have this little annoying cartoon paper clip tell me how to write documents. Let’s also have him animated so people can get distracted every 5 seconds. I’m still not quite sure why this idea didn’t pan out. The best part about this paper clip was you could turn him off.

5. Windows ME – Yet another bad Microsoft product. Notice how Microsoft’s bad ideas occupy 3 places on this list? That was not by accident. It took many minds to come up with that many bad products. Windows ME was supposed to be a “home edition” of Windows 2000 (probably the best Microsoft operating system there is). For some reason, it was just implemented horribly. It crashed all the time, required multiple reinstalls, which barely worked and was overall just a headache to use. Why would anyone want a stripped down version of a great product that barely worked?

6. Microsoft Bob – This really should have been at the top of the list if it was actually in order of how big of a flop these items were. Designed to be “user-friendly,” Bob was just plain weird. Although it was still very early in the OS race and Microsoft was atleast trying something, it was just a horrible idea to start with. The format was supposed to resemble a video game of sorts, which just took away from its’ functionality. The cherry on the top of this disaster pie was obviously the poor choice of names. Personally I would never buy a product named Bob, no matter what it did.

7. Laser Disc – Basically an oversized, overpriced version of the DVD. The laser disc was the first commercial optical disc drive and was mainly used to play movies. It had good quality, good sound, but was too expensive. We were just not ready for this type of technology at the time. This is another good example of a media storage device that the public was just not ready for.

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This will sound very bad, but I have just discovered Fark. What the Fark?!? Yes, just discovered it. Fark, regardless of its’ pretty horrible design, is a great source of traffic, and has many quality links. Some have told me that Fark is meant to ridicule websites, and not provide a forum for quality links. I am still not sure about this fact but what I have noticed is that I am liking Fark more and more than Digg.

So what is Fark? Fark is somewhat of a Digg clone for less techy content. Some people say that Digg is a more techy version of Fark, since Fark has been around for a while. There aren’t as many articles on what the best sites for programming tips are, but instead more general and funny articles. I describe Fark as the Internets’ version of The Daily Show. Most of the articles about world news are real, but done in a funny way. It is a humorous site.

Besides that, there is one main difference between Digg and Fark: content that gets posted is determined by Fark rather than voted on by users. There’s voting on Fark don’t get me wrong, but it is not exactly what determines what hits the homepage. A few days ago I had noticed a huge spike in traffic to my site and I could not figure out why, because I had not dugg anything. I checked my Google Analytics referring source and to my surprise, this website (Fark) that I had never heard of was sending me large amounts of traffic.

The point of this post is to show people that to rely on Digg alone for traffic is not the right strategy. There a literally hundreds of Digg-like sites out there, which cater to every category of link submission (here is a list of all Digg-like sites). Some of my stories will do very well on one site, and then flop on another. Start to learn which stories do well on which sites and you will be a pro at generating traffic for your site.

To give you an idea of what does well on which sites, I will use my articles as example. This article about a simple Windows XP hack that my friend wrote did amazingly well on Digg and Reddit. They happened to both hit the homepage at the same time, which resulted in my site being down for an entire day. Simple cool tricks like this tend to do well on a lot of Digg-like sites. On Fark however, it did not get approved simply because it wasn’t funny in any way. This story was another big hit. It reached the homepage of Digg to later get buried (guess Diggers don’t like stuff like this) but did extremely well on Fark generating upwards of 6000 unique clicks.

As it gets harder and harder to reach Digg’s front page, people will be looking elsewhere for their social news. As a webmaster, I suggest trying all the Digg clones to see what does well for your site’s content. Use the site list given in this article to find out which sites work. There are also descriptions of what kind of news sites they are. Even if you don’t get hit the homepage, just getting your links out there helps your site as I always say.

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