Dax 4.0

Test Ping Back

2007-02-21T20:43:00.000-06:00

Blog has moved to www.daxdesai.com

2007-02-14T16:52:00.000-06:00

I've moved the blog to www.daxdesai.com to enable me more flexibility.

No need to be alarmed. I've imported all my posts over to the new site.

Please update your bookmarks.

http://www.daxdesai.com

YouTube Founders Lose $30 mm

2007-02-09T19:29:00.000-06:00

Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim lost $15 mm today. These are the founders of youTube which got gobbled up by Google.

They received shares in Google price. A few days ago Google was $480. Today it closed around $460. What does that mean to these young millionaires? Well they lost $30 mm in the past couple of days.

Here's the number of shares they own:


Chad Hurley		735219
Steve Chen		694087
Jawed Karim		137443

Don't feel too sorry for them. When Google bought YouTube, Google stock was around $410. Today at $461, they're collectively up $78 mm.

How to tell how popular your blog is

2007-02-09T18:58:00.000-06:00

Why's it important to know how popular your blog is? Well for an advertisor there are a few things. There is the simple matter of traffic, but blogs potentially offer something traffic alone does not provide and that is influence. An individual with a popular blog may potentially have a much higher influence per visitor than more generic websites. This is what advertisors strive for - influence. If an influential blogger says "I swear by [product name here]." it means much more than an advertisement on the side of a website that says "buy [product name here]".

So how do bloggers capitalize? Well if you have a higher ranking in Technorati you will be better off. Many websites that offer advertising sharing with bloggers use Technorati as their baseline for payment rates. ReviewMe, payperpost, and many others use Technorati as part of their payout formula. In fact if your ranking is not high enough they will not even accept your blog for advertisements.

So how do I know my websites rank you may ask yourself. Well I found a Technorati Estimator on this lovely site. I'm going to improve this guys Technorati ranking by putting his link on my blog. :o) He or she (pardon my sexism) has a good article on Technorati and a formula to boot for ranking.

Here is the Estimator below. Check your site out.

Another new site I found is socialmeter.com. At one point I actually considered buying this website. 2 measly links for this blog :o(

Seen on the Web: How to sell a Zune

2007-02-08T14:41:00.001-06:00

The Real Reason we want to attack Iran

2007-02-08T07:01:00.000-06:00

George Bush loves Microsoft. Apparently he had a preview version of MS Vista and fell in love with it. Thus Iran is evil. You can buy pirated copies of Vista there for $8.

Yeah they have to pay. We should send some aircraft carriers and oil tankers there right away.

iPhone Clone?

2007-02-08T07:00:00.000-06:00

Samsung is set to unveil the Ultra Smart F700 at the 3gsm conference. The phone is a candybar form factor with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and 7.2Mbps HSDPA plus EDGE. It has a 2.78 inch touchscreen , microSD expansion slot, Bluetooth, and a 5 megapixel camera.

The phone should be 900/1800/1900 GSM so it should hit our shores (eventually).

Phones like this support my belief that Samsung is better than Sony now at delivering innovation to the consumer.

I'd buy this phone over the iPhone. The keyboard and 5mp camera do it for me. Incidentally I love Samsung. My first phone was a Samsung and it served me well. My first digital camera was a Samsung, which I preferred over its replacement Sony.

Related Samsung posts:

Sorry Big Bird: Bush cuts PBS budget by 25%

2007-02-07T20:55:00.000-06:00

$114 of the $460 million budget for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has been cut in the 2007 budget. We live in a world of 24x7 TV with most of that content not wholesome. Of course you have your cartoons. Coked up-looking animals that attack each other, Power Rangers (more violence), and then there's good old fashioned degenerate cartoons.

I grew up on Electric Company and Sesame Street. Even if I didn't learn my alphabet from TV, I learned that there is such a thing as calm stimuli-free TV. Now that seems counter-intuitive. How can TV be stimuli-free. Well it doesn't cause me to start jittering, jump up and smack my brother, or otherwise act a fool. That's what I mean. So yes, it did stimulate but in a positive way.

If there's any public entity that I'd support it would be PBS. Sure X-Men was cool, but Wolverine never taught me how to connect C with A with T to form the word cat. If there was some mangling to be done, I'd give Wolverine a buzz. If I needed a terror camp destroyed, G.I. Joe was never too far away. I always came back to PBS at some point though.

It greatly hurts to see a great institution, a worthwhile investment seeing its budget cut. What message does this make? Education is not that important? Education is important in all its forms: the classroom, peer-to-peer social interactions, as well as entertainment.

Generations from now it will become even easier to cut education. A generation taught by example that it is not that important will learn to lose value for it. While other nations begin to prosper on the backbone of education, knowledge, and open communication others will decay in its absence.

I like my heroes to be overtly heroic and my enemies to be faceless villains from a foreign culture. That's why I like this poster.

2007-02-07T20:53:00.000-06:00

What does it take to create 1 litre of bottled water?

2007-02-07T20:50:00.000-06:00

I've always wondered how much water & energy it took to create a bottle of bottled water. I've found the answer.

From Digital Journal:

"Pablo Päster at Triple Pundit finds 1 liter Bottled Water uses 26 Liters Water + 1 Kg Fossil Fuel + 1 Pound CO2"

Iraq Field Guide - Comic

2007-02-06T07:00:00.001-06:00

How Iraq Trillion could have been Spent

2007-02-06T07:00:00.000-06:00

For Comparison:

Annual budget for Department of Education is about $55 billion
Annual budget for National Science Foundation is $6 billion
Annual budget for National Cancer Institute is $5 billion
Annual budget for Homeland Security is $35 billion

For $2 Trillion, the U.S. Treasury could:

Mail a $6,000 check to every person in the United State or
Mail a check for $300 to every human on earth (consider some nations per capita income is less than $300 imagine the Christmas lil Timmy would have that one).

We've got a new General out there now. Let's see if he uses our money wisely. Our wallets are with you General.

Windows vs Linux Server - Why its not secure visually

2007-02-05T17:59:00.000-06:00

This is a great picture of why Windows is difficult to secure. This guy has shown visually what many people debate in words all over the internet. article here.

Can you guess which one is Apache/Linux and which picture is IIS/Windows?

Click on the pictures to the left for a larger view.

Hint: Apache/Linux is the cleaner/fewer system call picture.

Why IQ Matters

2007-02-05T10:08:00.000-06:00

Google preparing Presentation Tool for Google Apps?

2007-02-04T15:19:00.000-06:00

Found this article that Google may have slipped some information regarding an upcoming product presumably called Presently.

Vista Upgrade Flowchart

2007-02-04T00:40:00.000-06:00

If you are considering upgrading to MS Vista you will want to follow this flowchart. Click on the flowchart on the left to enlarge it for the full effect. Check out the article on bbspot. A pdf/jpg version for you to hang in your office can be found here.

Get a Mac.

Bush Declares Disaster Areas in Florida - Cha Ching

2007-02-03T20:56:00.000-06:00

Bush declared 4 counties in central Florida disaster zones. You know what this means? People as far north as Georgia will probably get paid. Last time Bush declared a disaster in Florida, people in North Florida where there was no hurricane damage were getting federal funds.

Why am I ranting? My hometown in Louisiana got hit with a tornado that wiped out the local high school, half the small town, and no Federal funds there. Small towns, with less afluent people get left out. What was the impact on this little town? Most people didn't have insurance. The people got wiped out financially. The school was reopened with the generosity of a company that had an empty fabric manufacturing warehouse.

America still lives outside of the cities. Some of America lives outside the oil patch.

Damn those hanging chads...

Cisco posts full-size ad in NY Times showing their iPhone vs Apple iPhone

2007-02-03T20:48:00.000-06:00

Ok they have a legal point, but Apple still rules. In the market Apple will always have "The iPhone"

I love when corporate titans battle it out in the public. The NY Post and The Wall Street Journal are popular venues for corporate shareholder letters and proxy fights.

hmmm "Sleek Styling" vs "Retro look" I'm going to have to go with LOL on that one Cisco.

Heard on the Street: Vista so reliable it can run your life support

2007-02-01T19:39:00.000-06:00

" While on a trip in Europe, Bill Gates claimed Vista is so secure and reliable that it could even run life support systems in hospitals."

L-O-FREAKING L

article here

Seen on TV: Ikea ad you didn't see in America

2007-02-01T17:54:00.000-06:00

Dad optional.

Zune Phone in the works?

2007-02-01T17:44:00.000-06:00

This is definitely not far-fetched. Microsoft already has the Windows Mobile OS and gaining rapid market share in the mobile OS space.

Chris Stephenson, general manager of global marketing for Zune let the cat out of the bag yesterday, telling Reuters that “a Zune phone is definitely part of the future of this brand."

Note to self - Get iPhone in June.

Seen on the Web: Iraq Exit Strategy

2007-02-01T07:15:00.000-06:00

"there is growing alarm among military and intelligence experts that Bush already has decided to attack and simply is waiting for a second aircraft carrier strike force to arrive in the region – and for a propaganda blitz to stir up some pro-war sentiment at home..."
-consortiumnews.com

The author of the article broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s. This is an interesting read from a great investigative journalist.

Greenhouse gas statistic show UK on track to double Kyoto target

2007-02-01T07:00:00.000-06:00

Our partners in crime - the U.K. is doing the right thing for the environment. Remember the Kyoto Treaty talks? If not, let me refresh your memory - George Bush arrives and declares "The Kyoto Treaty is dead." referring to the fact that he believed it was bad for America. You know what it probably is bad for oil errr America.

Read the article here. Right on Brits.

How Not to Make Friends in Iraq

2007-01-31T21:37:00.000-06:00

Seen on TV: Actually not

2007-01-31T20:38:00.000-06:00

Ok.. you won't see this sign on TV. Fan at a Pittsburgh Penguins game.