I guess that I read Ballmer well.

I agree with him that Yahoo! shareholders are the big losers!

I can't wait to hear what Jerry Yang has to say! :-) 

Link to Microsoft says proxy battle not worth it | Beyond Binary - A blog by Ina Fried - CNET News.com

Link to Breaking: Microsoft Withdraws Yahoo Bid; Walks Away From Deal (Updated) - TechCrunch

IF I were a Yahoo! shareholder, I think that I'd be upset! How about you?

I suppose that I give Steve Ballmer credit for walking away from a deal which probably was going to be a disaster. Microsoft had better have an alternative strategy to compete with Google!

Jerry Yang of Yahoo! is now going to be under a great deal of pressure to find a better deal because I'm worried that Yahoo! might not make it on its own! The problem is that I can't think of a better prospective partner than Microsoft. Can you?

Link to Microsoft pulls its Yahoo offer | Beyond Binary - A blog by Ina Fried - CNET News.com

Here's a good reason to allow kids to use their cellphones in school. We ought to encourage them to reflect on their learning experiences as they learn rather than to ask them to recall it later. This could also be a good case for devices such as the iPod Touch (IF your school has WiFi) rather than "unwieldy" laptops that have a much larger footprint.

As 2007 comes to an end and as 2008 beckons, I thought that it's "now or never" to reflect on the tech scene during 2007 and to look ahead on what 2008 MIGHT bring.

For me, 2007's tech scene was characterized by social networking and software as a service. I was "converted" to Facebook when the Facebook Platform launched in the spring, BUT I am much more bullish about the torrent of services that characterized the year. Most notable among these was Twitter, of course. Like the Facebook Platform, Twitter is notable because it is an "ecosystem" that cultivates innovation. I am so impressed by the wave of innovation that has propelled phenomena such as Twittervision as well as emerging services such as #hashtags and Hoosgot. I'm sure that 2008 will bring even more!

On a personal note, I have been trying to focus my personal blogging efforts on placeblogging as illustrated by the Indianapolis placeblog and my neighbor page at outside.in. I hope to do more in 2008 and to get others involved as well.

Where I really hope to get more involvement is our nascent Indy Christian Geeks which has the potential to accomplish much for Jesus in Indianapolis as well as to serve as a role model for similar groups that I hope to see emerge in other locales. Please join us if you share our vision!

For 2008, I'll have my eye on two areas where I expect to see a lot of energy: mobility and identity. To launch the new year with a "worthy" mobile device and data service, I just ordered a Sprint Mogul in order to get EVDO :-(got "tired" of "waiting" for T-Mobile)

I also am "kicking off" the new year with my digital identity "branded" by my i-name =thomas.ho so check out this blog by clicking on http://xri.net/=thomas.ho/+blog and look for other instances of my life online. In the meantime, you can find my "online identity" at http://DrThomasHo.info under my personal "brand" DrThomasHo.

Oh yeah, I "forgot" about attention so I guess that it didn't get my "attention" so it just shows how important the concept really will be as we deal with information overload.

So, you can see that 2008 looks to be even more exciting than 2007 as I continue to be amazed at the creativity and innovation that the Internet has fueled. Come along for the ride!

This is a very cool tool that allows you to capture part of any Web page as an image for posting to the Web. I can't figure out how to get the HTML of an image of this page here so I have posted it to my public Flickr photostream.

kwout | A brilliant way to quote

For the seller, anything is "worth" whatever the buyer is willing to pay for it! I'd rather see Microsoft (rather than Google) get a piece of Facebook and I think that it would be a "win-win" for both companies! Microsoft certainly has a proven track record and only time will tell whether Facebook develops much of a record, but it certainly will be FUN to watch! I'm "worred" about Yahoo! (aren't you?) especially since they have my photos on Flickr and I love some of their services such as del.icio.us so I'm hoping for the best for them although I have my doubts about Yahoo! Mash. On the other hand, I am very "fond" of Yahoo! Pipes which I'm using to "power" one of my lifestreams. Scoble is optimistic about Yahoo! so I hope that he's right!

Groundswell (Incorporating Charlene Li's Blog): Facebook - is it worth $10 billion?

I "took the plunge" several years ago myself so you can see the results at:

• my online identity (I'll probably redirect http://DrThomasHo.com here as well)
• my emerging online "name" (I STILL don't know HOW the Internet Address Book does this: I haven't been able to register http://ho.name because "ho" is a "reserved word" since the ICANN rules require a minimum of 3 characters in .name domain names so this alone is worth the registration fee although the accompanying email address and OpenID are nifty so I hope that IAB stays in business)

My ONLY regret is that I didn't register http://thomasho.com in 1994, BUT I do own http://ThomasHo.mobi and http://ThomasHo.info which MAY be more valuable in the long run! Oh well, I always rationalize by saying that DRthomasho.com is a more "pretentious" brand anyway so it was a blessing in disguise!

The Jeff Pulver Blog: It’s a Social Media World Outside…

IF it's going to be as "easy" (using Google's upcoming API) to create services that mash up these exposed social networks, then I can't wait for November to get here so that the "fun" can begin (perhaps limited ONLY by our imagination!) I've been dreading winter after the wonderful summer (although it was HOT here in Indiana) I've had so the prospect of this fun will certainly make the winter pass much faster and keep me occupied if it's a "tough" winter.

» Google to take social networking to a new level | Googling Google | ZDNet.com

Since I'm still blogging at Windows Live Spaces,  I'm a big fan of Windows Live Writer so I just installed a new version of Writer.

I'm also going to try OneCare Family Safety for parental controls.

Windows Live Wire: Test drive the new Windows Live suite

 As a fan of lifestreaming, I have been troubled by how much of myself that I reveal even though I doubt that anyone even cares! What I like about lifestreaming is the opportunity that it offers to share my interests so that prospective collaborators would become aware of those interests and so that I can find collaborators via their lifestreams. For example, I found this blog entry by using Twittersearch's new feature which enables you to search Twitter feeds by keyword. For example, here's the URL of the RSS feed for a search for the keyword "lifestream"

In other words, the power of RSS feeds and the ease of searching them are a powerful combination that produces a "double-edged sword" and it shouldn't take us long to find out whether the bad outweighs the good!

Who needs Carnivore when you have lifestreams | WinExtra

 I'm using ClaimID as my OpenID provider as well as for my "online identity" at http://DrThomasHo.info

» If ‘you’ build OpenID, will ‘they’ come? | Berlind’s Testbed | ZDNet.com

Which type are YOU?

I'm a "mobile-oriented" omnivore although I certainly don't "fit" the demographic!

Wired but not Web 2.0? That's normal, study says | CNET News.com

If you were to monitor my lifestream, you would instantly recognize where my current interests lie as indicated by this and recent postings! This could go a long way toward encouraging collaboration and finding partners.

I'm going to try an experiment: I will TRY to remember to put an "M" at the beginning of any post made while I am mobile. I claim to be an advocate for mobility so let's see IF I "walk the talk" BUT I'm guessing that only about a quarter of my postings will be mobile.

Blah, Blah! Technology: Social Networks: mobile micro-blogging

 I set it up so that this blog's RSS feed will be sent to my Twitter feed so let's see IF this works? IF you see it on my Twitter feed, please leave a comment on this entry.

Three Twitter tricks with Twitterfeed | Webware : Cool Web apps for everyone

Here's Wired Magazine trying to "take the high road" on social networking, BUT I'm afraid that social networking isn't going to evolve in this direction. After all, look at instant messaging and you'll see that AIM is still "holding out" so I don't expect either Facebook or MySpace to give up their stranglehold.

I put my lifestream on Plaxo's Pulse, BUT I STILL haven't figured out how to see others' Pulse data except for my friend Scott Wilder. However, I haven't asked him yet what he did to enable me to see his data. He's told me that he can see mine so I'll have to check out what I did to make that happen.

Slap in the Facebook: It's Time for Social Networks to Open Up

I have taken a special interest in lifestreaming:

my "mashed up" lifestream on Profilactic

so I'd be very happy IF FB would let my data OUT OF FB!

| The Social Web | ZDNet.com

Over the weekend, I "got wind" of Pulse so I finally got around to setting it up because I'm always "on the lookout" for the "ultimate" DLA (Digital Life Aggregator) In their haste to launch, they haven't YET set up an RSS feed (WHY would anyone "forget" to do that?), but it does show great promise because of its ability to let YOU control WHO sees your DLA stream.

However, Scoble thinks that it's "too little, too late" and NOT AS COOL as Facebook so we'll just have to wait and see IF he's right about that! 

Plaxo's Personal Card: Oh geez, not ANOTHER social network…