Wal-Martyr

This story in the Pensacola News Journal will make you think twice about Wal-Mart.
"You can't buy the Pensacola News Journal at Wal-Mart anymore. The store ordered us off their property, told us to come pick up our newspaper racks and clear out. So we did. A few people called last week, some even wrote letters to the editor, and wanted to know why they couldn't buy the newspaper at Wal-Mart in the days after Hurricane Dennis. Some managers at Wal-Mart didn't appreciate a column Mark O'Brien wrote last month about the downside of the cheap prices that Sam Walton's empire has brought to America..."

Do Wal-Mart execs think they run the world?

IBM loses Apple account to Intel

Sources say that IBM's loss of the Apple account may have been a blessing in disguise for IBM.
Apple provided little revenue and IBM is now focused on providing chips for the next gen consoles from Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo. According to analysts, the loss will have more of a "PR impact than a financial impact." I think most may have expected IBM to issue some sort of aggressive statement especially given the size of their PR machine, but they declined to comment other than to say that its Power PC is moving ahead and beyond the PC. Read the full story.

Apple's iTunes surpasses music swapping peer-to-peer downloading sites

A study by market research firm NPD Group found that approximately 1.7 million U.S. households downloaded a song from iTunes in March. That was good enough to earn the store a second-place ranking with peer-to-peer downloading service LimeWire. Interesting development as we await the Supreme Court decision on file swapping (see previous blog entry). Read more here.

Will Blogs Really Change Your Business

Nick Denton the publisher of Gawker Media and its blogs criticizes the hype around blogs. In this weekend's New York Times, he argues that blogs are just another form on Internet media and not the answer to every company's marketing problems. Read the article here.

British Columbia Election First to be Held in U.S. Style Election

In a xerox of their U.S. cousins to the south, Canadians in the province of British Columbia will go to the polls in the first ever election to be held in Canada on a previously fixed date, something Premier Gordon Campbell's Liberal Party signed into law soon after coming to power in 2001. It's also a historic election because voters will have a chance to decide in a referendum if they want to replace the current first-past-the-post electoral system with one that incorporates proportional representation.

'Apple Paid Gadget Guru To Feature iPod on News Shows'

Wow, what a potential PR nightmare. Technology expert Corey Greenberg said today he had been paid by Apple to demo and feature Apple products during local news appearances, but has not been paid to show the same product during appearances as NBC's "Today" show tech editor. Does it really matter that he was paid for one type of broadcast venue but not another? Does that make it ok? You decide. Read about it at MacNewsWorld. The practice of industry experts appearing on news shows and not revealing they have been paid for their appearance, endorsement or mention is very controversial.

Sponsorship Scandal Witness Remembers Envelopes Full of Cash

The Liberal Party of Canada used hundreds of thousands of dollars taken from the sponsorship program to fund its political activities in Quebec, the Gomery Commission has been told. Former ad executive Jean Brault also said that he delivered $136,000 in cash -- often in envelopes -- to senior Liberal Party officials.

U.S. Blog Becomes Popular Canadian Destination Eh!

An American who published banned testimony on the Internet from the inquiry into the Canadian sponsorship scandal is getting unprecedented traffic on his blog. Morrissey is covering this scandal that it's illegal for Canadian papers to talk about. Interesting use of blogs.

P2P Supreme Court Case Begins

Click here for the latest on the Supreme Court Grokster P2P case as justices deal with major implications for the Internet, copyright, and innovation.

Moore's Law Turns 40

Click here for a Q&A about Moore's Law as it nears its 40th anniversary.

HP Picks NCR CEO Mark Hurd to be its Next CEO

Less than two months after forcing out Chief Executive Carly Fiorina, Hewlett-Packard Co. picked a relative unknown, NCR Corp. Chief Executive Mark Hurd, to be its next leader, according to sources. H-P is expected to announce the appointment later today.

1984 Betamax Ruling Revisited with P2P Case

Over 28 of the largest Hollywood companies descend on the Supreme Court today to take on Peer-2-Peer (P2P) software companies such as Grokster, KaZaA, and Morpheus. Insightful Q&A on CNET on why the 1984 Court ruling in the Sony Betamax rulling applies to this present day case. Can you imagine a world where researchers don’t research and innovators don’t innovate for fear of being prosecuted? A lot rides on this case that comes before the Court tomorrow morning. Will the judges lean towards the technology innovators or towards the companies who feel they must protect their copyrighted material?

Bloggers have rights too

Great opinon piece by Rep. John Connors from Michigan on the rights of bloggers. He refers to the way journalism revolutionalized the way the country looked at news during the Jefferson era. He goes on: "Today we stand on the precipice of a new media revolution with the advent of the Internet. We need to protect bloggers' First Amendment rights so they can help us protect our own citizens' rights."

Hybrid Cars Rev Up for Auto Fair

This is the Aronson Files' second look at hybrid cars. With U.S. gasoline prices soaring past $2.09 per gallon to record averages, automakers at this year's International Auto Show may be able to drum up extra interest for gas-electric hybrids and cars that run on alternative fuels such as hydrogen. Check it out at this link.

HP Buying Snapfish & Beefing Up Its Photo Capabilities

Interesting news from HP today announcing that it's buying Snapfish. This will help HP provide consumers with more choice for sharing, storing, printing photos. It also broadens HP's position in the digital photography market. The Washington Post covered the story which also included news that Yahoo (for all you Canadians out there) is buying Flickr, a Canadian photo-sharing start-up. Isn't that great eh?

15 Year Tech Editor Berlind Q&A

PR Week just published a Q&A with David Berlind, a very well-respected technology journalist. (covering tech for over 15 years) He's come up with a 'media transparency channel', where he provides the raw data he uses such as audio of interviews and e-mails - to write his columns. Berlind addresses some of the criticism thrown at mainstream journalists lately for not being transparent enough.

Judge in Apple Case Rules Blogs Held Trade Secrets

Nick Wingfield of the Wall Street Journal reports today that Apple Computer Inc. can subpoena information related to the sources of online stories containing information about an unreleased Apple product. Judge Kleinberg of California superior court in Santa Clara County denied a request by three "bloggers," -- Monish Bhatia, Kasper Jade and Jason O'Grady -- who published articles late last year on several Web sites, including PowerPage and AppleInsider, about an Apple device code-named Asteroid designed to link musical instruments with Apple software.

The judge accepted Apple's argument that the stories contained trade secrets that, in effect, were stolen property, not unlike a physical item such as a laptop containing confidential information.

Blogging on the Job

Great Alorie Gilbert blogging story on CNET that answers blogging questions related to work.

Can blogging hurt one's career? How risky is blogging really? Can my employer fire me if I blog from home on my own time? Are there any limitations on an employer's ability to fire me? What about the First Amendment? Doesn't that protect me? Are there any court decisions involving bloggers being fired? What if I'm a union employee? Do I have more protection? How about if I'm a government employee, for example, in the federal civil service?

Microsoft Makes a Comeback in Beijing

The Financial Times reports this morning that the Beijing city government has quietly made substantial purchases of software from Microsoft after it cancelled a controversial $3.5 million order for Microsoft Office and Windows late last year, according to municipal officials and industry executives. This is definitely a boost for Microsoft and is a very symbolic win in a part of the world where it has had to endure a great deal of criticism.

Carly Fiorina and HP

Now that the applause, the trauma, the tears and jeers have passed, what's ahead for HP and for Carly Fiorina?

I found an interesting post on Fiorina's situation that recalls the lyrics of the song ``Celluloid Heroes'' by Ray Davies and the Kinks:

Everybody's a dreamer, and everybody's a star

And everybody's in show biz, it doesn't matter who you are.

And those who are successful,

Be always on your guard,

Success walks hand in hand with failure

Along Hollywood Boulevard.