Amazon.com is moving its headquarters out of an aging hospital and into a shiny new corporate campus north of downtown developed by Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen. One of the main draws? “Great access to public transportation,” company spokeswoman Patty Smith tells the Seattle Times. Ah yes, that would be the South Lake Union trolley — known locally by the acronym “SLUT.” Just think: 6,000-some Amazon workers riding the Slut. All in a day’s work. (Photo by Andy Rogers/Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

Source:Valleywag

I normally decline to make predictions, because what really happens is always weirder. But Valleywag’s official 2008 list was such a borefest — I thought I was reading BusinessWeek or Battelle — that I cracked. Here’s my fearless outlook.

1. TechCrunch, GigaOm, VentureBeat and Read/Write Web will merge into one giant Voltron-like supersite I don’t read. Whoops, already happened.

2. Apple evangelists are right: A second-generation Apple TV will have twice the success the first model did. What’s two times zero?
3. Google will have the most amazingly innovative layoff ever.

(Illustration by Uncov)

Source:Valleywag

newVideoPlayer(”Facebook_Halts_in_2008.flv”, 475, 376);
“2008 is the year Facebook grinds to — not a halt — but definitely a slowdown. The backlash is already here. I’ve said it before; I’ll say it again: Facebook flight.” Ah, the sweet, juicy sound of BusinessWeek’s Arik Hesseldahl plopping his cojones on the table. We credit his bravado, but he’s wrong. Beacon was bad for Facebook on the blogs, but users hardly noticed.

Ads by Pheedo

Paul Addis, the man accused of setting torch to The Man, the wooden totem at the heart of the Burning Man festival, has drawn his share of fans and detractors. Chris Radcliffe, who’s tangled with the organizers of Burning Man over various issues, even paid thousands of dollars in bail money to spring Addis from jail. But aside from a statement sent to blogger Scott Beale of Laughing Squid, he hasn’t spoken to defend his actions. Until now. In an exclusive interview, Addis, who’s been charged with the felony of arson, spoke to Valleywag as a friend drove him from Fernley, Nevada, back to his home in San Francisco. The full interview follows.

Valleywwag: When did you first get involved with Burning Man?

Addis: I first attended in 1996 with [a group called] Cyberbus. I went in 1996, 1997, and 1998. In 1997, I helped build The Man, and I participated in the burn as security.

Valleywwag: Why did you stop going?

Addis: I started to believe that because of the way the event itself was transforming, I started to see thatBurning Man’s social impact and efficacy in having a substantial role in domestic policy and personal growth was nil. Burning Man had degenerated into a postindustrial disco.

Valleywwag: So why’d you go this year?

Addis: friend of mine from Los Angeles, a photographer, goaded me into going. He asked me why I wasn’t going, in front of a group of friends. And I said the only reason I would go was … “blank.” The only reason I went was to keep my word to a friend of mine.

Valleywwag: “Blank?” By “blank,” do you mean “to burn down The Man?”

Addis: It has to be “blank,” I’m on charges. You can’t print that.

Valleywwag: In your statement, you attributed the actions to an operative of “Black Rock Intelligence.” Is this a real group? If so, how long has it existed?

Addis: Black Rock Intelligence was founded in August 1998.

Valleywwag: And what’s its goal?

Addis: The gross violation of individual liberties in the name of the preservation of Larry Harvey [the founder of Burning Man]. Black Rock Intelligence has believed that Larry is a danger to himself, and the danger increases the closer he gets to a microphone. We figured we could save him from a severe case of amoebic dysentery if not diarrhea of the mouth.

Valleywwag: Come on.

Addis: If the torching of Burning Man was a prank, follow this through to its logical conclusion.

Valleywwag: What’s your plan now? Where are you headed?

Addis: I’ll be back in my apartment tonight. My arraignment is on the 25th of September, at 9:30 a.m.

Valleywwag: How do you intend to defend yourself?

Addis: With a lawyer.

Valleywwag: Isn’t it true that you’re a lawyer yourself?

Addis: I am a retired intellectual property litigator and a twice-ordained minister of the Universal Life Church and the Church of the Subgenius.

Valleywwag: Any words for the people at Burning Man this year?

Addis: Have a great time. I think it’s an incredible opportunity for a unique experience and community bonding and to consider their emotions and the catharsis possible now. People who got their early got to see two Men burn for one low price.

Valleywwag: And do they have you to thank for that?

Addis: Black Rock Intelligence takes credit for that two-for-one offer.

Source:Valleywag

At McGraw-Hill’s business newsweekly, someone decided, apparently, to do some late-summer database cleaning. BusinessWeek accidentally updating its RSS feed with some really thrilling stories. Headlines include: “More news today than ever,” “Headline bla bla,” and “just another headline that we need to fill in.” Subheads — known in the news business as “decks” — also suffered: “Deck bla Deck bla Deck bla,” “But this time we are testing FedEx campaign handling,” and “testing the pp9 ad.”

According to the New England Journal of Medicine, and the American Medical Association, using a program like SugarStats will reduce the complications associated with diabetes by as much as 40%.

Volcano, Hawaii - Marston Alfred, founder and chief architect of SugarStats.com, himself a diabetic since he was 9 years old, has developed a web based self-management application in which users can track, manage and monitor the most essential and important of their diabetic information online. Through a user-friendly web interface using the latest in web and information technology, SugarStats.com also enables the Diabetic to selectively provide friends, family, educators and health care professionals ‘read only’ access to their statistics. Primary elements affecting blood sugar levels including medication, food intake and physical activity are addressed in a manner that is not overly complex or too feature rich, enabling the end user to expediently self-manage via the Internet and Internet-enabled mobile devices. The core of this system will be available free to the public.

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According to Dr. IM Stratton, Al Adler, HA Neil, et al, management of glycemia in diabetes is crucially important to the prevention of both acute and long-term complications. In general, every percentage point drop in A1C blood test results (e.g., from 8.0% to 7.0%) reduces the risk of micro-vascular complications (eye, kidney, and nerve diseases) by 40%. When programs like SugarStats were used regularly by the diabetic, they showed an average of a 1 point drop in the A1C levels.

Web-based tools have been emerging as effective methods for lowering HbA1C levels and several other key health markers in diabetics such as blood pressure however, to date, none have been available to the public. SugarStats.com provides a proven means to substantially lower these important health markers while also supporting the important opportunity to shift the focus of diabetes management toward patient self-management.

Alfred was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes as a child. He always felt dissatisfied and uninspired with the various ways to monitor and track his blood sugar levels and trends, finding them either over complicated and involved, or pedantic and & ‘boring’. Now 24 years old, Alfred’s professional expertise in the field of computers, networking and Internet technology/programming provided the foundation from which he developed for himself an engaging, informative, time saving and means to effectively address his diabetic management needs. From his personal quest, SugarStats.com has now emerged to support Internet-accessible diabetics the world over an alternative means to effectively address, control and ultimately improve their health.

Alternate Contact: Daerick Lanakila at dlanakila [@] sugarstats.com SugarStats POB 909 Volcano, HI 96785

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Journalists, newsletter publishers, bloggers and others: You may reprint anything in this article as long as you include a link to our website and email.

Need a screenshot of what a diabetic would see on their personal SugarStats page along with more info regarding SugarStats is available at http://www.sugarstats.com/tour

CONTACT: Marston Alfred at 619-573-4071
SugarStats
PO Box 909
Volcano, HI 96785
http://www.sugarstats.com

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SEPTEMBER 8, 2006

INFO TECH

YouTube Inc. is the Internet company to beat these days. Wowed by its meteoric rise — the 19-month-old site dishes up 100 million daily videos — startups and giants alike are crowding into the video-sharing market. Microsoft Corp. (MSFT ) is developing its own service. And this fall, the founders of the Skype (EBAY ) and Kazaa services will unleash the Venice Project, a wannabe YouTube killer built on file-sharing technology.

With all the excitement, it’s easy to forget that the video-sharing pioneer’s business so far amounts to a whole lot of expenses, not much revenue, and no profits. YouTube took on the job of creating the business model for a new medium where anyone can post any video. While it’s starting to develop new ad offerings, its popularity is driving up costs that established Web giants, such as Google Inc. (GOOG ) and Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO ), are able to spread out. YouTube spends a tidy, and growing, sum to stream its short clips. Current estimates range from $900,000 to $1.5 million per month. Much of that goes for computer servers and transmission bandwidth. But because the company is charting a delicate course in how it handles pirated videos, its legal costs could balloon if lawsuits start piling up.

Even more important, though, is the tricky question of how YouTube can make money off its phenomenal growth while maintaining the promise behind that popularity. YouTube could easily alienate its users by overwhelming them with ads. And the startup has to figure out how to attract a broader group of marketers by filtering more for copyrighted or offensive videos and by creating more channels of similar content.

Aware of the risks, YouTube co-founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen are moving slowly to ramp up advertising. They have been wary of asking viewers to sit through a 30-second ad before a two- to three-minute clip. Instead, YouTube is developing new formats, like ones rolled out in August that let marketers build their own video channels or pay to place a video on YouTube’s popular front page.

Creating channels is a logical way to carve out space for ads, but what kinds of channels work in such a wild and woolly environment? Warner Bros. (TWX ) launched YouTube’s first brand channel to promote Paris Hilton’s new CD. But for companies that don’t have content, such as a consumer-goods packager, another approach would be to create managed channels along themes — soccer, say, or anime. Or YouTube could use targeting technology to dish up ads based on a visitor’s viewing habits. Still, marketers say they want another level of filtering. “If I buy advertising to be near humor videos, it can be risqué and edgy, but I have to be comfortable with just how risqué that is,” says Jeff Lanctot, general manager of online ad agency Avenue A/Razorfish.

IN SEARCH OF “NIRVANA”
Another problem is that YouTube isn’t helping advertisers reach the best videos created by just folks, such as a five-minute spoof of Darth Vader as a grocery store manager. These videos are a big part of YouTube’s charm, but since they appear out of nowhere, it’s hard to sort them efficiently. YouTube could create separate channels of the more professional videos, says Allen Weiner, an analyst at Gartner Inc. (IT ). But that means picking over the videos individually or developing technology to pinpoint content that’s not pirated or from someone who is consistently good. “Until they can figure out the consumer-generated content, they miss nirvana,” Weiner says.

For now, YouTube’s execs are resisting turning to ad pros for solutions. The company seems determined to rely on its visitors to filter out pirated and vulgar works. And it’s challenging marketers to find creative ways to tap into its community, such as running film festivals or sponsoring videos posted by studios.

YouTube has a huge head start. Still, it may not have much time to turn a gusher of videos into gold before being overrun by a new generation of mainstream sites and upstarts. Online, as in life, evolution rules.

By Heather Green