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OK, I have been following this as close as everyone else here. Most people fundamentally don’t like the idea of Yahoo as a Microsoft company including myself. But financially it does make sense for Microsoft as they would finally hold the top honors in at least one if not two online services. MSN Messenger and Yahoo messenger would reign supreme over AIM and GTalk. The combined user base of Hotmail and Yahoo mail would pretty much give Microsoft access to every person who uses the Internet.

The most interested play is what would happen to search. Google has held the top honors for well over 5 years and uses their search as the center piece of their Don’t-be-evil empire. By combining MSN search and Yahoo search, they would shake up the search world but still come in at a distant, but closer second. Maybe Microsoft will have what it takes to kick Yahoo into gear and finally wake them up from their Terry Semel-induced slumber. As much as you’d like to hate Ballmer and company, they have been at the software game a lot longer than Semel and Yang combined. With the talent inside Yahoo and the management abilities from Microsoft, they can really give Google a run for their money. It seems to be a classic ‘whole is greater than the sum of the parts’ situation.

As of Monday Yahoo has rejected the $44 Billion offer. The valuation is pretty much built into the YHOO price at around $30 a share. If Microsoft counters with a higher offer the stock should see another boost north. If Microsoft takes the offer off of the table it would certainly send YHOO in a short term free fall. You’ve got to have a pretty good stomach if you are willing to wager in this game right now. Some say Yahoo is against the ropes and should have taken the offer as it stands as they don’t have other offers to leverage. However I think that Microsoft also has no other alternatives when it comes to an acquisition target. Neither AOL or IAC have resource that go as deep as Yahoo nor will they necessarily be open to being acquired. Microsoft will need to acquire both if not more companies to even get close to the kinds of valuable assets hidden within Yahoo.

In a parallel universe somewhere outside of this Galaxy, Yahoo has rejected the Microsoft offer and built itself back up as the Internet giant it once was on its own. Here on our planet, I think the writing is on the wall. The wall of a Yahoo company bathroom. It says, “For a good time , call Bill Steve at 1-800-MICROSOFT”.

Click here to read about the photo from above. Reported also at Valleywag.

In today’s television business, networks seems to be looking only for instant hits. Reality television is partially to blame for that as they usually have strong starts but finishes weak. Traditional serial drama seems to take the biggest hits with this mentality. With the writer strike and everything else going on with online downloads, the studios have even less patience with shows that don’t produce big numbers right away.

Journeyman is one of the new shows this last season that is facing that untimely death. I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that I will really miss not knowing where (when and who) Dan Vasser will be visiting in the non-existent future episodes. There has to be a place where good quality shows like this can live and be profitable. I don’t know if the Internet is the answer but certainly the SciFi network or some cable station should at least pick it up for us fans to continue to enjoy the show.

So please, NBC, give the writers what they want and bring back Journeyman!!!

Every once in awhile I get one of those Emails proposing some kind of gasoline boycott day when we are suppose to stay away from the pump. I guess its well and good and god knows how well these propositions do against the rising oil prices. All it seems to do is for the gas stations to offset the sales of gasoline to the days prior and after. If not enough people participate in this campaign, the financial impact is likely undetectable by the oil companies.

I was just thinking the other day while driving on the freeway. If we could get a small percentage of the drivers to just follow the speed limit for a day, it would probably make a much bigger impact. Imagine 1 of every 20 cars on the freeway driving 55 mph. It would probably slow the entire flow of traffic down to a much more fuel efficient speed and create a noticeable drop in gas consumption. This effect wouldn’t just cause people to shift their gas purchases to another day but actually decrease the demand for the days surrounding it. As long as the assholes on the streets can manage their road rage for a day then we might have something worth thinking about…

I watched a 43 minute episode of Ghost Hunters on Hulu the other day. It was a great show and the video quality was decent but the commercials are a million times worst than regular television. It starts out with a sponsorship drop saying that the show was brought with ‘limited interruptions’ by the advertiser. The truth is, the interruptions are unbearable. They are 5 minute long commercials that you can’t skip. That can be fine if the commercials are engaging and have a good variety of content but that is definitely not the case.

Throughout the 43 minute show, the same 5 minute commercial played 5 times. That’s 25 minutes worth of commercials with 43 minutes of content where usually only 17 minutes would play on regular TV. The fact that you had to sit through the same 5 minutes 5 times is enough to make you want to pull that ethernet plug out of your computer. On top of that, they cut into the shows at random moments. If this is how they are going to deliver their content online, it is going to discourage a lot of viewers.

It is possible that the networks don’t really want hulu to be as successful as it promises to be due to the lucrative contract they have with satellite and cable providers. But that’s just not the way to launch a product that has so much promise just to be sabotaged by its creator.

I decided to sell my 2001 Toyota Tacoma last weekend and posted an ad in craig’s list. I didn’t really want all the hassle of showing and negotiating so I put the truck up with a below blue book price hoping to get it done painlessly while getting more than what I can as a trade in. Sounds logical right? I thought so. Everybody wins this way.

It actually started out real well. People were calling and emailing almost immediately. I started weeding out the used car dealers trying to snatch up a good deal and got a handful or real interested buyers. Having to deal with people wanting to see it and drive it was enough to have to make time for but what really ticks me off is when people make empty promises sight unseen.

If you are going to make an offer on a vehicle sight unseen then you should follow through with it. It’s not like I wouldn’t expect you to want to test drive it. If someone says, “I’ll come by to check it out in an hour.” I wouldn’t hesitate but to happily oblige. But what do you do when someone calls and says. “I want it, who do I make the check out to? I will be down in an hour to pick it up with a driver.” My initial thought was, ‘He must knows what he’s looking for.’ I have the VIN on the listing as well as a number of current, detailed photos. I am assuming that the deal is done. I fended off all of the calls after making the promise to be there when he comes to pick it up. I literally Emailed and called people and told them the truck was sold only to have this guy and his son to come by 30 minutes late to kick tires for another 20 minutes. At the end of the ordeal, he was not the least bit apologetic and says with a straight face. “You know what, we are gonna pass.”

Now I have to call back all the people who I told that the truck was sold to say that someone passed. What are they gonna think? Why did the guy pass? Is something wrong with the truck? I suppose it was naive of me to believe that these guys who came by where honest people who will stand behind their words. They are actually owners of a local business in Santa Barbara, CA who deal with the general public everyday. You want to think that people are not gonna take advantage of you but in today’s world it is few and far in between.

Just in case any of you ever happen to do business with these guys I will let you know who I had to deal with. Their business is called Star Rug Cleaners. It was a father and son outfit that made me take two hours off of work on a Wednesday just so they can come around and kick some tires. Tony and his son Michael Jensen were their names.

Michael actually seem like a good enough guy who was courteous and personable when I met him. His dad Tony was the guy who made the false representation to me over the phone. After test driving the car around the block, Tony Jensen actually sat in the passenger seat with the doors shut and the AC on while talking on the phone while I waited for him outside with his son in the hot California Santa Ana winds. Clearly at this point he already knows he was going to pass. How big of an a-hole do you have to be to sit in another person’s car in front of their house with the engine running and AC on while they wait on you after you were half an hour late to the appointment? I hope to only meet a handful of douche bags like him in my life.

If you get an Email or a call saying that they are bringing down cash to take your used vehicle away, I’d suggest giving them a fake address. Good luck. It’s a jungle out there.