“Hard to believe, but two years ago today, Kevin decided my code was bug- free enough to take down the beta sign and unleash Digg upon the world. It’s been a crazy and exciting time since then, and we owe it all to you – the loyal and passionate members of the Digg community.” Thanks everyone and Happy Birthday to all! : ) –kevinrose
I remember finding out about digg very early. I know I wasn’t hardcore enough to actually know about the site on the first day but I would have to say I was among the first group. I had gone to the site a few times in December 2004, and then it was also mentioned on one of the first episodes of TWIT (this week in tech, previously known as Return of the Screen Savers). I registered my username in April, since I’m such a big lurker who doesn’t see the need to contribute. It has been a pleasant past couple of years for Digg, with visitor numbers constantly increasing and the site expanding into areas beyond tech. I can’t wait to see what else is going to be in store for the next birthday.
I really dislike all those Mac Vs. PC commercials. I use a PC all the time and don’t consider it to be solely a “business” platform like they keep trying to say in the commercials. They continually say I am unable to do fun things, which is a lie. Also, looking at games, how often does that Apple guy get to play new fun games.. never, since Mac doesn’t have games (don’t try to say WoW and Warcraft 3). Well enough of Mac vs PC, I ran across another spoof commerical. This video is kind of old but its the PS3 vs. Nintendo. Although I will disagree a little bit with it, I generally think its pretty funny though. I just wonder what an Xbox 360 girl would look like in that style commercial?
International Movie Database finally gets a face lift. The new website seems to perform much better and also has a much cleaner look. Backed up by a Table-less design with power of CSS, IMDB has finally taken the web 2.0 plunge. Take a look for yourself! This is one of my most visited sites. If I want to find out any information regarding a movie, or actor this is the site I go to. I am glad they didn’t change the site too much and I like how they kept the overall feel the same. It also looks like the new design is setup to allow more advertising! :)
SIRIUS Satellite Radio (Nasdaq : SIRI) announced late Monday that they are cutting their subscriber forecast for the end of the forth quarter. They now feel that with the slowness of the current holiday sales, they will likely have between 5.9 – 6.1 million subscribers. This is slightly down from previous forecasts which saw between 6.1 – 6.3 million
With the news of the lower subscriber forecast, shares fell big in early Tuesday trading. Only a couple hours into trading and shares were down 31 cents or 7.43% to 3.86. Surprisingly, XM Satellite Radio (Nasdaq : XMSR) who had not mentioned a decrease to their subscriber forecast is also down 70 cents or 4.79% to 13.91.
Shareholders must have a sense that the satellite radio market isn’t quite as hot as they were thinking. I was predicting that consumer demand wouldn’t be as high this Christmas season since neither Sirius or XM has made any new major programming announcements. The battle for SIRIUS and XM isn’t between themselves, it is between them and other modes of entertainment. Hopefully someone in their marketing departments will think of something quick because this holiday season is quickly coming to a close.
Lots of new bells and whistles, the future promises more. With a new version of Azureus, we are going to be getting something very different. They have integrated in something called Zudeo. It sounds like this is some sort of legitimate web page that will appear in the client to download from. That also means that they are probably trying to get content partnerships with various media groups. These advancements sound less like they are advancements and they sounds more like they are to get rid of the public opinion that Azureus is only for piracy. Good luck to them with that.
Well not really an update, but more of a collection of links. Incase you don’t know about what went on, Michael Richards (aka Kramer from Seinfeld), was at a comedy club and he was heckled by a couple people. These people were black and Michael Richards responded to their heckling with some very harsh racist comments. This was all captured on video and his career was pretty much finished. He then goes on the Late Show with David Letterman for a chance to apologize. This could be seen as successful or unsuccessful depending on your opinion.
Tonight, I found a funny video that mashes up Seinfeld, and the above clips into a very entertaining piece. The editing and the clips work very well and the entire thing kept me entertained. Check it out.
The football player in question is named Lucious Pussy. What were his parents thinking? It must be so distracting for the coaches and his team-mates. I can just imagine the players talking, well he got Lucious Pussy on our team.. Then there is always the question people ask in sports, “how much action does he get in a game.” Well, I’m just thankful my parents didn’t give me a name like a porn star!
The largest bank in Canada, announced their largest year-end profit ever today. The Royal Bank of Canada (TSE: RY, NYSE: RY) reported a net income of $4.7 billion or $3.59 per share which is an increase of 40% over a year ago. So far the only other major Canadian bank to release its financial statement is BMO, which posted a profit of $2.7 billion which is a large ways away from RBC. The profits are likely to continue as they are expecting a “robust Canadian economy, with strong consumer spending and solid business investment. The strong earnings were attributed to the wealth management and banking divisions. With such strong earnings, I wish they would lower there fees that way I might consider doing more banking with them.
There has been a lot of buzz lately in regards to the possibilty of SIRIUS Satellite Radio (Nasdaq : SIRI) merging or buying out XM Satellite Radio (Nasdaq : XMSR). Most of the talk is due to lower than expected subscribers for both companies, and XM growth slowing down. Sirius CEO Karmazin has even been quoted as saying that “mergers often lead to creating shareholder value.” I am sure that he is under a lot of pressure from shareholders to turn the company out of its losses and finally turn a profit. He has also stated in the past that he would want to merge with XM, but it would be a regulatory problem. However, more recently, he has stated that the regulatory should not be a problem anymore. By the sounds of things, he seems as though a merger could happen. Whatever happens though, it should make for an exciting story.
I’m just not sure I see the benefits of decreased competition. On the one hand, with a combined company they would have all the sports leagues all on one platform, as well as all the bigger named talent like Howard Stern and Oprah. I think that the merger would have a negative impact on the assets that are already up in the sky. Since with one network they wouldn’t need to have that many satellite up in there. Also, I’m not sure how the satellites will interact with each other, since XM’s satellites are currently in geostationary orbit while Sirius are elliptical geosynchronous orbits. I have a feeling that if the merger did happen, we could see the possibility of moving a couple of those satellites over another market, such as Europe, to increase their business. Also with the increased bandwidth available, it will be interesting to see if they increase the quality on individual channels or if they just increase the total number of channels. I know that Sirius had been talking about adding cartoons to their service in the future, with the increased bandwidth they could probably be able to do that. As of right now, all this talk is just rumours and nothing substantial has come into play. Be on the lookout since a merger would happen quickly.
Wang Yue Si, a Chinese citizen studying in Japan, started selling items such as weapons and currency for online games through an Internet auction site in April this year, without obtaining the appropriate residency status. Wang, living in Kumamoto, Japan, has admitted that he sold the virtual goods for about 150 million yen ($US 1.3 Million). Hearing a story like this makes me interested. I really want to make a lot of money too. I have a feeling that he didn’t farm the games by himself though. He probably has an army of farmers in these games back in China. I wonder what will happen now that he has been charged. Will he just be taxed or will they take all the money away from him?