A Brief History of Yahoo Acquisitions

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You know what really bothers me about the whole Yahoo-Flickr deal? Take a look at each of these sites:

All of them were bought by Yahoo sometime between the late 1990s and early 2000s. Do you sense a common thread? What happened to each one after being bought by Yahoo? I’m not aware that Yahoo has ever allowed any of its acquisitions to maintain a unique identity. What, then, does that bode for Flickr?

Update, Feb 2007: This entry has been linked a couple of times (okay, once by me) in the official login merge thread, and I’ve added links to a few more acquired companies that have been brought up. It really is looking unavoidable that Flickr will be turned into a subdomain within the next few years. They better not break my <img> links. Also see the list here and the Wikipedia list of Yahoo acquisitions.

Update, 2008: Yum, crow!

Belated “Blogiversary”

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I forgot to post about this last week, but last Tuesday, September 13th, marked this weblog’s fifth year. HNBP is now a super-senior.

It all began with “Think,” a spare directory in my old Hypermart space (gone now) where I could tool around with various things — in this case, Blogger — as I reacquainted myself with the joys of hand-coding my own HTML, after years of being spoiled by Adobe Pagemill and Macromedia Dreamweaver. Back then, it was black backgrounds, table-based layouts, and <ALLCAPS> <TAGS>. (I still get a bit embarassed at myself when I look at the code on my old sites.)

Over the years, “Think” (later to be called “How Now Brownpau” in an obvious pun on my online handle) would cycle through a long and painful series of free web hosting services before I got my own credit card and was finally able to buy my own domain name and paid web hosting. The site has been demolished and rebuilt several times, quite often around its anniversary, so don’t be surprised if new changes appear sometime soon. ‘Tis the season.

Trees on the Mall

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(Trees.jpg uploaded by brownpau.)

It was nice enough out that I could amble home from work today, so I opted for the “scenic route” along the National Mall. I had to stop at one point and just admire how twilight shone through the trees as a warm northwest breeze rustled the canopy. A heavy sense of history seemed to settle over me, as if all the generations that had trod this place through the years had left a palpable aura, so thick you could almost smell it.

Or maybe it was the contractors’ porta-potties as the workers dismantled the tents from last week’s National Black Family Reunion.

Spammers, Stickers, Shirts, redux

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Heh, my entry on Spammers, Stickers, and Shirts appears to have struck a nerve in Link Spam Land, because I’m being hit with repeated rape/incest/bestiality spam comments, specifically targeted at that single post. Just goes to show: there may be lots of money in illicit mercenary weblog vandalism (I don’t really think of it as “marketing”), but money can’t buy morals.

It’s also worth noting that money couldn’t save Vardan Kushnir.

No Bones, Mo’ Bowels

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So I tried watching Bones last night, and in the first two minutes, the show tries to make you believe that you can see the US Capitol from Dulles Airport (you can’t), that a woman will gladly flash her breasts to get a snooty flight desk clerk’s attention, and that TSA agents will only accost you for the decayed skull in your handcarried luggage — several minutes after you’ve arrived and come out the gates. All this, in an airport which was very clearly not Dulles, nor was it National, nor was it BWI.

I decided to turn off the TV and just wait for something considerably less insulting to the viewer’s intelligence: House, which featured race issues and LL Cool J, with a bad heart and necrotic bowels. Brilliant.

Update: The proof:

Thanks to DCist for the hat tip.

WaPoRati?

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If you scroll down through the Washington Post story I previously linked in the espionage post, you’ll see a little box titled “Who’s Blogging?” with Technorati-powered trackbacks, and a link to more inbound weblog content.

A bold move! Opening up the paper’s online content to the wild, distributed interactivity of the weblog world will attract inbound links from bloggers eager to see their names in the Post, widening readership and possibly increasing revenue from ad clicks; but this also raises the possibility of specific WaPo-critical links — or worse, spam — being published alongside WaPo’s own content. This WeblogsInc report implies that the links will be filtered or moderated, but even considering that, the Technorati deal is still an excellent way to get inbound traffic from weblogs. Great to see the Post freely embracing interactivity with its readership.

(Emphasis on “free,” unlike the NYTimes, which is apparently attempting to alienate its online readership by charging for select content.)

Atheist Debate Bingo

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Somewhat inspired by CatBirdSeat’s Hipster Bingo, (thanks to Raffy for the link) I’ve taken a list of popular fallacies, straw men, misconceptions, and trolls often used by strident atheists in religious discussion, and collected them in one fun game: Atheist Debate Bingo!

You win when you can get intolerant skeptics to trot out all twenty-five memes in one discussion, at which point you should yell “Bingo!” as loudly as possible, especially when in public. (And yeah, I know it’s not strictly the Bingo format, but the numbers rule over the need for a “FREE” middle box in this case.) Phase two will one day involve having each bingo square link to sound theological refutations for each argument. Your suggestions are welcome.

God Hates Fags / Fred Phelps Jesus never existed Problem of Evil Jebus Crutch for the Weak
Salem Witch Trials Opiate of the Masses Women in Church / Head Coverings Jesus was just a great philosopher Can God Make a Rock…
God is Dead Sky Fairy / Imaginary Friend Flying Spaghetti Monster! Virus of the Mind Bible Retranslations Fallacy
Religion as root of violence Baby-dashing in Psalm 137 Da Vinci Code / Magdalenic Sacred Feminine Pat Robertson All religions worship the same god
Problem of Hell/Satan Lost Gospel of Thomas The Inquisition The Crusades God Hates Shrimp

Filipinos Charged with Spying

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Two Filipinos, Leandro Aragoncillo and Michael Ray Aquino, were charged with espionage today, for having shared secret US Government information on the Philippines. Aragoncillo, an American FBI intelligence analyst (of Filipino descent, I’m guessing from the name) seems to have been working for Aquino, downloading and printing classified documents relating to Filipino government officials. Aquino (no relation to Cory) was a senior superintendent in the PAOCTF (Presidential Anti-Organized-Crime Task Force), an Estrada/Lacson institution, and was implicated in the murder of Bubby Dacer. Possibly a conspiracy related to the opposition cabal’s attempts at a power grab?

More in the news:

Probably the first thing that jumped out at me from this story was that Aquino was not initially charged with conspiracy, but was arrested by immigration authorities for overstaying his tourist visa. (In other words, nag-TNT*.) He was found living in Queens. Yes, Queens. Are there nice neighborhoods in Queens, or did he just fancy the “urban decay” chic? It was only later, when Aragoncillo tried to intervene by vouching for his friend, that additional investigation uncovered the abuse of intelligence material. “Pakiusap lang pare, i-print mo yung documents.” **

Update: More from Kingdom of Chaos and Rant Street. Apparently Aragoncillo was half a million dollars in debt. How does one rack up so much debt? Gambling? Buying a mansion with 100% downpayment?

Ping Lacson has already preempted conspiracy speculation by publicly stating he expects the admin to link him to the case. Considering Lacson’s history as a Marcos/Erap crony, Gloria opponent, and crafty political power player, I think it would be imprudent not to implicate him.

PCIJ has more details, including background info on Aquino and Aragoncillo, and a PDF of the official criminal complaint.

The official Lacson press release gives Aquino a nickname of “Ninoy,” attempting to sweeten his reputation via association with a prior Filipino hero, then praises him as a true “Filipino patriot.” Because after all, true Filipino patriots overstay their US tourist visas.

* TNT – tago nang tago, literally, “hide-hide,” referring to some Filipinos’ method of using tourist visas to gain access to the USA, then stay under Immigration’s radar till they can get work.

** “Just do me a favor, buddy, and print the documents.”