The Fune

Microsoft and Yahoo

Denise Richard voted worst bond girl ever. Ha!

And of course the huge news of the day, Microsoft finally makes a bid for Yahoo. Honestly I am surprised it took so long. Yahoo's overseas assets are worth a whole lot more than it's market cap. Rumors about someone buying it have been going around for a long time. It's really a no brainer. Once they got rid of Semel the coast is clear for potential buyers. Here is TechCrunch's take on it, and what they think Microsofthoo would look like. Ballmer's letter to Yahoo's board, from Valleywag. Is Microsoft's offer too low, from Valleywag? And some analysis and commentary from Valleywag.

And, Super Obama girl. I'm not a big fan of Obama's, but whatever:

Evil Characters from South Park (and Facebook)

Imaginary evil characters on South Park:



Self-help books that will never sell, from Radar.

How to kill yourself in a totally awesome way.

Interview with David Lynch about Twin Peaks. Lynch is apparently some sort of boy scout with a really twisted imagination and I love it! The next movie I am going to watch is Inland Empire. Without cows there would be no cheese in the Inland Empire.

The Microsoft Facebook deal in 15 seconds or less. A reasonable person's view on this matter. And a rather non-committal viewpoint.

Google was named by a typo. By someone who know works at Microsoft.

Best. Headline. Ever: Pit Bulls Kill Miniature Horse Donated To Cancer-Stricken Child

The Hills is staged? Really? (I've never seen it, nor do I have plans to)

NPR's Daily News Quiz.

Valleywag lists some websites that used to be funny or useful but are no longer. The Onion is #1 on the list.

Financial Tips for those of us who don't reportedly own 30% of Facebook

Some common-sense financial tips, from theStreet.com.

Some thoughts on the Microsoft Facebook deal that is making huge waves today:

• Did Zuckerberg not want this deal?
  
• Microsoft took a 1-2% stake in Facebook for $240 million... Some tidbits of info about this.
• What exactly does a poke mean? Not being a regular Facebook user I am not exactly sure.
• Facebook downgrades its growth rate.
• If Zuckerberg does, in fact, own 30% of Facebook as has been reported, on paper he is now worth $5 billion. That must feel nice, but I can say from experience, it's horrible when you are worth a lot of money on paper and you don't cash out and end up with nothing. See an older post of mine for more details on this.
• I still hold by my belief that Facebook is going to crash when and burn when they are unable to turn their large user base into a large money base. While Apple reported such a good quarter last week, I think the stock is pretty much done with it's run. It's been down for the last two days. Want to hear something that will make you sick? I bought AAPL at $18 and sold it at $30 a few years back. Makes me sick to think about it, but not as sick as the above mentioned paper loss of 99% of my net worth.
• All of the above that is not from me is from Valleywag.
• And just in - Facebook is getting another $500 million from two hedge funds, bringing their take over the last two days to a hefty $750 million!
• And something about Facebook's value and growth... As a note, Facebook's users are growing at 2% a week - not active users, registered users. And as far as I know the revenue growth is pretty much non-existent.
• Some guy from Intel agrees with me.

In non-Facebook news:

• Google is once again being a little bit evil. Only like 2% evil or so but still...
• Sergey Brin tries to pass off the Facebook mess as something positive for Google. I don't think its positive for anyone except Mark Zuckerberg and the other early investors.
• Montage of Mark Cuban's all-too-brief stint on dancing with the stars.
  

Kids Start Becoming Gamers at Age 6

I am not a gamer so I don't really understand all the fuss. But apparently young kids are turning into serious gamers. From Advertising Age.

Seth Godin on using Wikipedia for homework. He thinks its a good idea, as do I, a lot of other people apparently do not.

Debbie Harry is 62 years old? Other stuff in the article as well.

A list of 66 celebrities that blog. Just because we have nothing better to do.

Zuckerberg is a smug little asshole as usual.

Man given vodka after he drank antifreeze or something. Apparently he needed it for medical purposes.

Man arrested for standing on a sidewalk in Time Square.

Apparently eBay's acquisition of Skype contributed quite a bit to the not so good numbers eBay reported last night.

Google's ridiculous 411 idea is apparently being copied/rivaled by Microsoft. Two companies with huge amounts of money now battling it out over the same stupid idea.

Some crappy web apps that everyone uses and some better replacements that not too many people use. I haven't used any of the replacements so I have nothing to say about them, other than that I dislike Vimeo for personal reasons.

One Last Apple Update

It's not actual money Apple is giving back to people who paid the $200 "stupid tax" on their iPhones. It's $100 store credit. Like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs didn't get rich by writing checks.