Yahoo China to evolve into business-oriented search engine...

This development bodes ill for Google's efforts in China, too. I wonder how much of Google's technology is linked specifically to the English language:

Yahoo's China portal will be reoriented as a business-oriented search engine, the company's head announced Monday, saying the firm had to change or fail amid intense competition from domestic rivals. Search is a huge and fast growing business in China and surveys show Yahoo lagging far behind the NASDAQ-listed Baidu.

Link: Yahoo China to evolve into business-oriented search engine ...

Ringtones with avatars

I bought myself the smart phone I've been wanting to get, and it does video. I'll write a full review soon.

A buddy who has the same phone pointed me to U-DOO.com, which is a web site that lets you build an avatar with matching ringtone. I was really impressed with the avatar-buiding tool, which is simple but still allows lots of customization. Check it out here. The ringtone can be used on the phone, while the avatar can be uploaded to MySpace...or to your smart phone, if you've been smart enough to buy yourself one! Now, when my phone rings, it displays both sound and video. Actually, I think that I can make different ringtones with avatars for all my friends.

U-DOO is free for the first sixty days!

Link: Check it out here

Love of management

I read a laudatory article about a GE exec balancing her work and family. The article makes the woman sound so darn boring. Get a load of this:

Pendergrass' passion for management started early. As a chemical engineering student at the University of Louisville, she had her sights set on leadership. 'I knew I didn't want to be a career engineer. I wanted to go into general management,' Pendergrass said. After earning her master's degree in 1983, her plan was to work as an engineer until opportunities with more responsibilities arose.

But my perspective has changed, now that I am older and have children (as well as GE stock!). I am really grateful that there are people like this in the world, who have a passion for doing the boring jobs that make the world run. I don't have that passion.
Link: GE exec juggles duties

Planning holiday travel

You know what I've discovered? Re-discovered, if truth be told. Here it is: making travel reservations for four people isn't much fun.

First, find the flights we need on expedia. Try to reserve them, find out that the seats are no longer available. Call the airlines to try again, find out that the airlines charge a higher price over the phone. Check the airlines' sites. Get some of the flights. Back to expedia. Repeat, literally, ad nauseum.

I used to go through almost the same rigamarole with hotels. This year, though, I used HotelReservations.com for our Hotel Reservations. The process was a joy, and I got the job done in about 30 minutes. The site is very well organized, has excellent search functionality, and got me where I need to go quickly. They cover everything from motels to luxury resorts. Most importantly, the pricing seems to me better than what is available on Expedia, especially for world wide destinations, where many discounts are offered.

I also like the options for choosing a web site in your own language and currency. This feature allowed me to plan travel with some Spanish friends of ours. We followed the web site in English, they followed it in Spanish, yet the searches produced the same set of properties that we could compare and talk about.





Link: Hotel Reservations

US TV and internet use climbing

If the average is five months, I'm sure I'll be spending ten or twenty. Oh, wait...how many months in a year again?

Americans will spend almost five months next year watching television, surfing the internet, reading newspapers and listening to music, new data shows. ...

Link: US TV and internet use climbing

Telescope hunting II

I'm surfing for telescopes again, because Christmas is coming real soon. Who do I know who wants a telescope? Only one person, who happens to be typing this blog entry right now...that's right. Me! I'm surfing for my own gift.

Today I spent a lot of time at AstroAds.com. This site offers telescope classified advertisements, which means that they are sort of like Ebay for telescopes. Like Ebay, the site is endlessly fascinating, except that the posters are a lot more knowledgeable about astronomy than your average Ebayer.

Link: telescope classified

Google, Baidu eye online video business in China

There's no question at all for me that online video is the story of the year. I don't know anyone--folks I work with, my parents, friends from college, little kids--who hasn't watched a video at YouTube this year, and enjoyed it. To think that this market is still unowned in China boggles the mind. Wish I oculd think of some way to get involved.

Google Inc. and Baidu.com Inc., its biggest rival in China, are exploring similar options to expand their online video services in the world's fourth-largest economy. Industry sources told Reuters this week that the two Internet search leaders have independently had early discussions with some local video Web sites for potential business cooperation or possible acquisitions.

Link: Google, Baidu eye online video business in China

Trip to Sedona for the wife

I've just come back from a trip to Sedona with my wife. This was sort of a pre-Christmas present for her. You'll notice that the trip didn't stop me from posting to my blog!

We stayed in a real nice inn, the Southwest Inn at Sedona, combination bed and breakfast / Small luxury hotel. This place is a cool combination of a luxury hotel and a bed-and-breakfast, with the gloss of the former and fantastic customer service of the latter.

I recommend it highly.







Link: Southwest Inn at Sedona, combination bed and breakfast / Small luxury hotel

Qwest battles spam/virus attacks on business

The amount of money spent on this stuff is amazing. Unfortunately, protection against this sort of attack requires either a very talented sysadmin (almot impossible to find) or paying lots of money to companies like Quest.

Qwest Communications International Inc. Thursday announced that it has beefed up services to help keep business networks secure. Qwest's business class virtual antivirus/antispam gateway solutions now provide even more effective and essential e-mail protection and security services, safeguarding companies from receiving unsolicited e-mail, viruses, worms and unwanted content at the customers' external network perimeter, officials said.

Link: Qwest battles spam/virus attacks on business

Chatting online

I've been writing a lot about VoIP and videoconferencing, so some readers have been asking how I feel about online chat.

The answer is a bit embarrassing: I think I'm too old to "get it". I'm a big man and I can admit this. I just don't see the appeal.

However, to appease one adamant reader, I checked out the chat rooms at Pictari. And I was impressed. I had a good time chatting on the site. Chatting is a lot of fun--relaxing and stimulating at the same time. I don't think it fits in a business environment, where I spend most of my time, but I see now that this is missing the point. Chatting is much more intimate than e-mail--the process invites confidences, so maybe a chat room is best appreciated by those looking to score!

Link: chat room

Easter eggs at Flickr!

I didn't know that Flickr did Easter eggs! This one is killer. I've tried it and it works. Here's BoingBoing's description:

Flickr's got an awesome Xmas easter-egg: if you add a photonote called 'ho ho ho hat,' Flickr draws a Santa-hat on your pic; make one called 'ho ho ho beard' and you get a snowy white beard.

Link: via Boing Boing: A Directory of Wonderful Things

Tis the season for cards

The e-cards have really started to pile up now. I'm getting one or two every day, and this will only accelerate.

I've started to realize that finding a great e-card is important. Nothing says "I am lame" like sending a lame e-card. With this in mind, I've performed quite a bit of research on e-card sites. I doubt there's many that I haven't used at one time or another.

The American Greetings site is the best of the lot. The site has a very broad selection (important when folks are receiving several each day) of e-cards, invitations, and so-called "printables". The site also has a reminder service to help keep track of periodic events like your wife's birthday. This feature has saved my rear end more than once.

Cards can be selected and sent easily, with fewer than five clicks. The number of categories is impressive. This is really important for an e-card site, since an e-card can be sent for any occasion, some less usual than birthdays. For example, my favorite category at American Greetings is "Over the Hill"! The variety of individual cards within each section is impressive, including some that are Free while others are more narrowly tailored to specific occasions.

I've also started to use the printable cards. I have a color laser printer at home now and some card stock, and I've found that it takes only a few minutes to print a lovely card from American Greetings. I love the fact that I can customize these cards before printing, unlike those bougght in a local shop.



Link: birthday

Microsoft's Office Communications Server Targets Business VoIP Users

You know, everybody wants VoIP to succeed because it is cool. We all want to use computers as phone. The truth is, though, it doesn't work very well right now. We went to a VoIP system at my company about 6 months ago, and had to switch back. The phones tended to become inoperable and show a boot screen complaining about their DHCP parameters. I mean, you've got to be kidding me...

The beta is aimed at business users, who will be able to utilize their existing telephony infrastructure. Microsoft said that a simple click on a ...

Link: Microsoft's Office Communications Server Targets Business VoIP Users

Pet diabetes treatment

I've made quite a bit of money in biotech over the years, but I've lost some money as well. The volatility of that sector is amazing, because it is so darn hard to make safe medicines for people. Compare the enormity of this task with the relative simplicity of making a gadget that people like.

Lately, I've started to wonder about biotech and pharmaceutical companies that focus on pets: vaccines for pets, drugs for pets, etc. For example, Diaxol is a treatment for dog diabetes that has achieved enormous success. It works fast, within 3 to 5 days, to control a pet's blood sugar. Diaxol is a pharmaceutical-grade product with published clinical studies demonstrating effectiveness. In fact, we have used Diaxol for our dog (Bijou) and it worked very well for us. We noticed that the dog seemed happier about two days after starting the drug. This made us happier, too.

Products like these have impressed me. It is generally easier to show effectiveness in pets and then get the products marketed, and people want these products just like they want an iPod or other gadget. I think that this sector is worthy of further research.

Link: dog diabetes

2006 Was Business Unusual

Business unusual, huh? OK, I'll buy it. What about the readers out there? Did you think it was such a crazy year in the world of business?

TAt the start of 2006, investors had little interest in the words "pretexting" and "backdating", the housing market was forecast to make a soft landing and stocks were considered range bound at best. Over the course of the next 12 months, those ideas got turned on their head. From the headline grabbing scandals to Wall Street's record surge to Ken Lay's sudden death, it was business unusual in 2006.

Link: ALL BUSINESS: 2006 Was Business Unusual

LifeSize video conferencing

I am a huge fan of the Video Conference. Regular readers know that I don't like VoIP, but I love videoconferencing. This technology works, and to me it just seems like a waste to get on a plane and fly across the country for a 45-minute meeting.

My company uses video conferencing equipment from LifeSize. This technology, more than anything else we use at the company, has improved both my work and home lives. Since buying this equipment, I am away from home less and am also more rested and productive at the office.

Link: Video Conference

China tightens controls over Internet games, music industries

What amazes me about these stories is that the Chinese have any success at all in blocking web sites. I'd think that there are so many proxy servers and other devious ways of getting to the content that it just wouldn't work. But maybe this is naive. Maybe Chinese housewives and average Joes have no idea how to circumvent these controls. It would be interesting to try this myself sometime...I'll have to take a trip to China.

China is tightening control over its online music and game industries, ordering distributors to submit all imported products for approval by official censors, the government said Tuesday...The moves come amid official efforts to step up control over the Internet and other media, both to shield Chinese companies from competition and to suppress ...

Link: China tightens controls over Internet games, music industries

Property investment

I've written before about our search for a vacation home. We have a home in Lake Tahoe, relatively close to where we live, but are now searching for something farther afield. Maybe Europe. But we have to find a place that we can afford to visit regularly and not too painfully.

We are thinking about buying a vacation property and an investment property at the same time. This would make trips to our vacation home more easily justifiable and more profitable. While thinking about investment properties abroad, I came across Compass Worldwide Property. This is a farily new site but offers great deals on investment property worldwide. They are worth a look if you're sifting through the same choices I am.

Link: Compass Worldwide Property

Mobloggin' from Times Square

I really, really want a cell phone with a decent camera (not VGA) and an operating system that allows me to post photos to the web easily. Right now I have the lamest of all cell phones, the LG CG225. The only way to get photos off this phone is using an MMS text message. Give me a break. I want a Symbian phone that can run Shozu, or that allows me to write my own Java program that can upload the images to my own blog--automatically. When these devices become ubiquitous, then stories like this:

Advertisers have long been drawn to Times Square as a valuable place to reach consumers, paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for space on billboards and blazing video screens.

But recently they have discovered that down on the ground, new technology has given low cost, face-to-face marketing campaigns something of a cutting edge as consumers spread their messages on the Internet.

Take the recent display of public toilets set up by Charmin bathroom tissue: Used by thousands in Times Square and viewed by 7,400 Web users on one site alone. Or Nascar’s recent display of racecars; videos of the event have been viewed on YouTube more than 1,800 times. More than 60 people wrote about the event on their blogs and 60 more spread the word — and pictures — on the Flickr Web site.

...won't need to be written any more. Because we'll all be posting those photos, automatically, all the time.

Link: Times Sq. Ads Spread Via Tourists’ Cameras - New York Times

Stag and hen weekends

A friend of mine is getting married in the UK, and I've been invited to the stag weekend, while my wife is going to the hen weekend. Great term, isn't it? I've never heard it used here in the US. But I think hen party is much funnier and more fun than bachlorette party.

Also, I vastly prefer the stag weekend to the stag party. The former gives you time for a truly dissolute, rip-roaring good time, while the latter just gives the illusion--the merest taste--of freedom.

The stag and hen weekends were organized by Redsevenleisure, a UK-based website that organizes Stag Weekends UK and worldwide. Hmmm...worldwide. Wouldn't it be nice to have a stag weekend in Spain?

Link: Stag Weekends UK

Business schools try to be clear: Haste laying waste to good writing

It is amazing that most people don't recognize the importance of good writing until they are in their 30s and 40s--when it is too late to change your writing ability very much. I think that by this age most folks have given enough presentations, begged for money enough times, had to fight for an idea enough times to know that writing isn't just important: it's practically the only thing that matters. Even somebody with mediocre ideas will be more likely to get them funded if he can explain them clearly and quickly to a large audience. But so few people are able to do this.

Like a dark and stormy night, bad writing has long shadowed the business world, from bureaucratese to mangled memos to the cliche-thick murk of corporatespeak...

Link: Business schools try to be clear: Haste laying waste to good ...

Employee reviews

At my company, we are going through the yearly ritual of employee reviews. Let me tell you that, as an employer, I hate, hate this process.

The goal of the process is simply to create the opportunity to get rid of bad workers. This is important, and it has to be done. But good workers get swept up in it too, because reviews matter to good workers, who are actually listening to their management. The reviews, rebuttals, and the whole ugly process get dumped into our employee management software, where the whole mess lingers, until...

Well, until it is time to say goodbye to somebody who has been a problem worker. And then, you better be glad that you've got this process in place!

Link: Employee Review Software

Munich Re sees big price rise in hurricane business

Again, why did GE get out of insurance after Katrina? Why? Didn't they know that this business has its downs? And also, its big, big ups?

Germany's Munich Re (MUVGn.DE: Quote, Profile , Research) expects reinsurance prices for US hurricane and natural catastrophe business to rise...

Link: Munich Re sees big price rise in hurricane business

AdPack

As most of you know, I've been trying out different marketing ideas on the web. I started with Google, have reviewed Yahoo's efforts, and more recently PayPerPost. Now I've started looking at AdPack, a marketing product whose goal is to help you generate Advertising Ideas.

This is important. I can't tell you how many folks I know who have started businesses and have only one idea: to spend money at Google. Google is fine, but reaches only one audience. To reach others you will need different approaches.

AdPack gives you some ideas for those approaches. I am just working through the product and will post more as I go. The good news, though, is that they offer a full 100% money back guarantee. If the product doesn't work, you can always return it.





Link: Advertising Ideas

China Leads Backlash Against Internet Freedom, Media Group Says

I find stories like this sobering because they show how much people can take. People can live without freedom and keep ticking. Which means they often won't fight until the battle's been lost.

China is leading the fight by authoritarian states to control internet freedom and remains the world's leading jailer of journalists, a media rights' group said on Friday. One in three of the 134 journalists jailed worldwide is an internet blogger, online editor or web-based reporter, said the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The total number of journalists jailed for their work increased for the second year running, and China led the way with 31 recorded in prison on December 1, the group said in an annual report posted on its website, www.cpj.org.

Link: China Leads Backlash Against Internet Freedom, Media Group Says

Another reason to like Maxim

One of my pet peeves is harmful myths and Urban Legends that prey on people's fears. I think that the "cellphones cause cancer" myth is among the worst of these, right up there with "power lines cause cancer." It is difficult or impossible to debunk such myths, since doing so involves proving a negative. Popular publications are reluctant to debunk such myths becuase people seem to want to believe them.

Believe it or not, Maxim Magazine recently came through big in this regard. That's right, you read me correctly: Maxim Magazine is setting its readers straight about cellphones and cancer. The magazine has released a Common Myth and Urban Legend Debunkment Section that debunks myth.



Needless to say, some of the other myths are a whole lot sassier, if you catch my drift. For example, I for one have never believe that women with pierced tongues give better head. But Maxim says: Believe it, buddy. They have the good grace to admit that their survey testing this myth is "very unofficial". Nonetheless, I've started wondering how my SO might look with a pierced tongue.

Another great myth debunked, which I'd never heard before, is: "To relieve a jellyfish sting, pee on it." Gross. I hope I wouldn't have believed that nonsense. Although it would be pretty funny to watch my brother, for example, peeing on himself to relieve a jellyfish sting! I've got to think of some way to enlist jellyfish to help me play this trick on him...


Link: Urban Legends

It's a great idea to protect your business with a proper trademark

It's true that trademarks are important, of course. But so many web operators are operating at the fringes and don't have time to prepare for the big time. How about a web-based business that handles the trademark filing for $10 a pop? Could it be done?

You're the chief executive of an up-and-coming Web startup called Widgets.org. Your company sells widgets over the Internet to people throughout the United States. One day, you're reading the Wall Street Journal and discover a new competitor calling itself Widgets-R-Us. What do you do? Your options depend at least in part on whether you've properly protected your trademarks or service marks.

Link: It's a great idea to protect your business with a proper trademark

Bond, James Bond

So, my wife is Jewish and I'm not. She's had some friends point her to the videos from koolanoo.net, which is a new social network for Jews. We've had a few laughs about how her whole family will be joining koolanoo and I won't be able to.

Anyway, koolanoo is distributing some funny and well-produced videos. This one is about a cold-blooded female secret agent a la La Femme Nikita:



Link: La Femme Nikita

Mind Your Business

Thought this was interesting. I had assumed that the photographer could do anything he wanted with these photos

Q: I am a photographer who was given permission to take photos at a music club. I've taken a number of pictures of rock stars and other musicians performing there. Do I own the rights to these photographs or do the rights belong to the subjects of my photos? And if I own the rights, can I copyright the pictures and sell them to the public?

There are actually two separate issues here -- whether you own a copyright to these photos, and whether you have a right to make money off of them. Let's start with copyright. As the creator of these photos, you automatically have a copyright even if you haven't registered your work with the U.S. Copyright Office. Now for your ability to make money from photos of, say, Mick Jagger in concert. There you run into restrictions because of state privacy laws, according to Owen Seitel, an intellectual property lawyer with Idell, Berman & Seitel in San Francisco. Just like I couldn't start selling "Mick Jagger Lip Gloss" without Mick's permission, you can't sell photos of him in concert without his OK.

Does this even make sense? What about those folks who snap photos of celebrities for sale to tabloids? Why don't they run afoul of privacy laws?

Link: Mind Your Business

Language training for businessmen

I have a real passion for language training. Not just language learning (for myself) but language training for everybody who travels abroad, particularly businessmen. Businessmen need to be conversant with the languages of all their co-workers, period. It makes no difference if the businessman cannot speak the language sufficiently well to use it on a daily basis. The important thing here is the effort. In human relationships, effort matters a lot.

Language Trainers is a UK-based website that offers Business Language Courses targeted at businessmen and other busy people. I believe that training targeted to businessmen is important because these folks are so darn reluctant to take languages. They need a course that takes their time crunch seriously and teaches them language skills that they think they might use.

Link: Language Trainers

Tories 'lazy' on business vote

The same thing is happening here in the US. The Republicans have always assumed that they had the business vote locked up. Then they go on the biggest spending spree in US history, and now I hear folks in business talking about the Democrats again.

TORY chairman Francis Maude admitted today his party has been "lazy" in assuming it would always secure the business vote and had to prove it understood the ...

Link: Tories 'lazy' on business vote

Accounting on the web

I've finally found a company that is filling a space I've been watching for a long time: payroll and bookkeeping on the web. This area has been almost complete devoid of innovation, but Accounting Paradise has established a presence that I think will only grow over time.

Basically, small businesses have a very hard time finding a good bookkeeper, most of whom either want to charge a lot of money or don't know what they are doing. I've been expecting to see web businesses spring up to remedy this situation. I'm impressed with what Accounting Paradise has done...they have a nice system in place with good prices.

Link: payroll and bookkeeping

Johns Hopkins gets $50 million donation for new business school

I've always been amazed that Hopkins lacks a business school. I'm sure that this school will establish itself very quickly indeed.

Johns Hopkins University, the first research university in the United States, has received a $50 million (€37.5 million) donation, which it will use to establish a business school. William Polk Carey, a trustee emeritus of Hopkins and chairman and founder of real estate company W.P. Carey & Co., donated the money, which is the largest ever to Hopkins for business education.

Link: Johns Hopkins gets $50 million donation for new business school

Mailboxes for your business

I've long been fascinated by the mail drop business. If you've ever started a business, then you know what these are: a secure address that can be used as a postal address. Usually maildrop services are used by small businesses that want to seem bigger.

This is the part that fascinates me...the wanting to seem bigger. Because, for the most part, there is a line to walk here. You don't want to admit that your company has only three employees, but you can't overplay your hand, for two reasons. First, you actually want prospective customers to know that they are going to get personalized service from a hungry businessman. Second, it is impossible to pretend that your business is a lot bigger than it is. Usually, your clients understand that you are using a maildrop, are fine with it, and understand that it is part of running a small business today.

However, until now, it has been painful to find a good maildrop service. Maildrops often don't have a long track record, although the track record is critical. There is a new serice, though, serving as an internet directory of mail drops and remailing services. I found it at maildropguide.com and was quite impressed. Check it out!

Link: mail drop

Barge in to do the business

I like the idea of using barges to undo the absurd run-up in rental and real estate prices over the course of the past several years. Why not fill the water around Manhattan with barges. I guess the commute is a bit of a problem, but with rents where they are, who cares?

The 100ft barge is to be transformed into office accommodation as part of the Water of Leith Business Centre, marking the end of a remarkable journey.

Link: Barge in to do the business

Holiday ecards

Okay, it is time for the holiday cards. In my house we have three Christmas card lists. First, there are the true lifelong friends and relatives. Second, there are critical business associates with whom I need to remain on good terms. Finally, there are a bunch of casual acquaintences with whom I need to make some contact, any contact. The first two groups are getting a family-style greeting card from Snapfish. The last group is getting an ecard!

I have to admit that I like the ecard. I don't read the paper greeting cards that I receive, but I read each and every ecard. There is an endless variety of such cards out there, and I like seeing the world's imagination laid bare. I especially like the funny and/or risque cards.

So far this year (yes, I've received a half-dozen Christmas cards already) the best cards I've seen are from Egreetings. I thought that these two were particularly good:

• A Christmas Pick-Me-Up, featuring top pickup lines that Santa's elves use on women)
• Snakes on a Sleigh, a parody of the movie 'Snakes on a Plane

But there are many others to choose from.

Anyway, the site has a free 30-day trial to send eCards and a yearly subscription for only $13.99. The subscription lets you schedule eCards to arrive either instantly or on a specific date.







Link: Christmas greetings

PM impressed with Indian School of Business

This guy sounds like a politician through and through. Read the first part of the quote, then get his blistering caveat.

On his first visit to the Indian School of Business (ISB) here, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Tuesday that he was impressed with ... Stating that many institutes were created in the past but could not be sustained, he hoped that ISB would continue to grow with investment in research and people.

No kidding. See my post later about the $50M donation to the school of business at Johns Hopkins. This is the kind of commitment that will be needed.

Link: PM impressed with Indian School of Business

MySpace and kids

I'll admit it. I'm old. I'm techno-saavy, true: an engineer, a scientist, and a program. But three things mark me as the oldy that I am:

1. I don't own an iPod
2. I don't send text messages
3. and I don't belong to MySpace

These three areas belong exclusively to the young. (I'm working on each and every one of them.)

I have children, though, one of whom is in first grade. He has a third-grade cousin who is using MySpace. Yes, you read that correctly. Some parents (my sister included) lump MySpace into computer proficiency and conclude that it is OK for a third-grader to participate.

So, I've been researching Myspace tracking software to give to my sister as a Christmas present. I've been looking for software that can keep her son--and, eventually, my son, safe in the years to come. Recently I came across some Spector Pro monitoring sofware, which won an award in PC Magazine. This software is the most full-featured that I've found so far and can record all activity on MySpace.com: profile updates, picture posting, comments, messages, invitations, and more. Spector Pro is truly impressive software.

I'm sure my sister would prefer to receive a RAZR. But she'll be getting Spector Pro!

Link: Myspace tracking

An iPod- and hype-free guide to Internet shopping

Yes, I get his point about too many people recommending iPods for Christmas:

This is not a holiday gift guide. There are plenty of those floating around, and, frankly, I’m a little bit tired of every one of them including some form of iPod product. There are cheaper, equally good and certainly more versatile music players out there, people. This is, instead, a basic Guide to Online Shopping, that small miracle of antiseptic commerce and porch-dropped packages that is sweeping the nation. It contains tips and advice, but no coupons and no warranties, expressed or implied. Use the information herein at your peril, and check my blog during the day Friday (chicagotribune.com/johnson) for additional notions from readers or to post your own.

In case you're wondering, though, what I want for Christmas...I'd like an iPod, please.

Link: An iPod- and hype-free guide to Internet shopping

Keyloggers

You know that I've been on a software security kick and, judging from the comments, you support me in my efforts!

After reading about Spector Pro, I started looking into other software from Spector Soft. I came across their keylogging product. For those of you who don't know, keyloggers record every keystroke pressed on a computer. The records can then be scanned for worrisome activity.

In the past, these programs had a bad name, as they were occasionally used to steal passwords. As a parent, though, I've come to realize that I have the right and even the obligation to monitor what is going on with the computer. I hope and pray that my kids are using Google images to search for pictures of atoms, maps of Mars, and models of the solar system. I'm worried that they might start searching for other things too. Not because they are bad kids, but because they are kids.

So I'm thinking about trying keylogging software again at home. I think that keylogging software is the right thing for a father to do. I can imagine that employers might use keylogging software to make sure that employees are staying within their Internet use policy. I'd consider the same thing, but I feel a little less comfortable with this application (even though I am an employer of dozens of people).

Link: keylogging

Boeing delivers business jet to India

The resurgence of Boeing is just amazing. A few years ago I had written them off. In the back of my head, though, I swear, I was thinking, "Isn't it strange that Boeing has been undone by an industry-government consortium of just the type that we Americans are always saying won't work?" Well, it didn't work!

India has taken delivery of a Boeing Business Jet (BBJ) for VVIP movement from US-based Boeing Co, for which this happened to be the 100th...

Link: Boeing delivers business jet to India

Understanding payday loans

I had an employee recently ask me for an advance. At first, I refused. Then the employee started talking about asking for a payday loan from a third party. He clearly didn't know anything about how to get such a loan without getting ripped off (this can be done, but it requires knowledge). I finally relented and gave him a payday loan myself--at the prime rate.

There is no substitute for knowledge when it comes time to take a loan. If you need to take a loan of any kind--mnortgage, payday, or otherwise--please do your research first. After a little Google searching, for example, I pointed my employee to PayDayCashAdvanceLoans.biz. this site explains the payday loan process and provides editorials, finance calculators, and a directory of lenders. This information allows for a thoughtful and informed decision regarding a faxless cash advance.

Link: faxless cash advance

Judge sentences US attorney who challenged common police Internet ...

I am of two minds on these issues. As a parent, I can appreciate that we need to get these people off the streets, plain and simple. As an intellectual, though, it seems to me that this falls into the same category as creating fake pedophiliac porn with computer-generated images.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis on Wednesday reinstated the jury's verdict against Helder and sent the case back to Whipple for sentencing. The appeals court said the critical issue was that Helder thought he was seducing a minor, not whether the minor truly existed.

Link: Judge sentences US attorney who challenged common police Internet ...