Kept next to my desk is a $2 bill which to date I’ve always thought of as kind of a novelty.

If the U.S dollar value continues to slide then this $2 bill might move back into fashion someday — seriously. Washington economic consultant Charles McMillion calculates 20.5% of the US dollar’s value has decreased since October 2002. McMillion has his eye on the Australian dollar being possibly the next to pass the US dollar if the situation doesn’t change.

See the downward spiral of the US Dollar using the Yahoo currency converter.

via gulfnews.com:

During that five year period, the dollar is down 43.9 per cent against the euro, down 61.8 per cent against the Canadian dollar, down 10.2 per cent against the Chinese yuan, down 5.6 per cent against the Japanese yen, down 30.6 per cent against the British pound, and up 5.8 per cent against the Mexican peso.

Wow, we’re only gaining ground on the Mexican peso under the Bush administration? Now there’s something to hang your hat on, President Bush. When will somebody in the White House realize we can’t afford the Iraq war? Forget about revenge, nation rebuilding or whatever idealistic middle east fantasies we have, let’s pull the troops out of there ASAP and work on restoring financial stability on our own soil.

The heavily advertised *$0 stock trading site Zecco has added something new in beta that allows sharing investment data across members they’re calling Zeccoshare.

It’s open and getting involved requires free registration or, if you’re already trading on Zecco, activating your profile.

In the announcement email sent to all community members, they are claiming to have 70,000 members. This is an optional service that those with Zecco accounts must activate their profiles to use. If you choose to elect to share trading (pictured below), which again is completely optional, the actual dollar amounts of your trades are not disclosed, only what investments you’re buying and selling and the percentage to your overall Zecco portfolio are shared.

Also, the Motley Fool CAPS rating is next to each stock. You can check out what my Zeccoshare profile looks like:

My wife and I have already been sharing the Google spreadsheet with the dollar amounts and additional details as part of our friendly stock competition we started a couple months ago. For those new, here’s what we’re doing: we started with $500 USD and are making trades through Zecco and tracking the trades using Google spreadsheets so others can follow along in near real time. Understanding this history, I don’t mind sharing this information at Zecco too, as third party verified data showing I’m actually making the trades indicated in the Google spreadsheet I’m making add credibility. Or perhaps, when your overall portfolio is -11.10% like mine currently is, take some away.

My wife who is roundly kicking my butt in the competition, with a current portfolio +20.72% as of his writing, doesn’t seem interested in Zeccoshare yet. But when I first mentioned Zeccoshare to her it was three o’clock in the morning. Later today or in the coming days when she’s more awake she might be more receptive to activating her profile. Her decision, of course.

*As of January 1, 2007, the Zecco free trades will be going away unless one or both of us add more money to our accounts, or get on an extraordinary streak. The minimum account balance for 10 free trades a month at Zecco will be changed to $2,500 USD for existing members and is already there for new members.

Now if only Zecco would add some sort of API to let us get to this shared data programmatically … (hint, hint).

Patrick Gavin leader of the crew behind ReviewMe, Text-Link-Ads and more at MediaWhiz, just sent me a private invite to their first ever cost per click (CPC) program Shoppingads. I signed up for use on our group website and we’re checking it out. Early thoughts: the UI is similar to Google Adsense code generator and uses JavaScript for the ads. You heard that right, it’s compliant with the Google God’s advertising wishes.

The signup form requires the basic information and right now the only payment option is by PayPal. Next month Patrick indicated “other payment options” will be available. Minimum amount earned before payout is $50 which is more/different than how they do ReviewMe and Text-Link-Ads.

The easy to use generator allows ad creatives in the following sizes:

728×90 leaderboard
468×60 standard banner
336×280
300×250
250×250
234×60 half banner
180×150
160×600
125×125
120×600 skyscraper
120×240 vertical banner

You can choose the keywords for the ad or use the “Automatic Popular Keywords” feature. We’re trying that to start. Seems like the ads are sort of targeted. These ads aren’t contextually generated so you can run them alongside Google Adsense.

Shoppingads offers an automatic webmaster referral affiliate program too, but none of the links in this post are using these links. Nice feature having each ad that displays carries a link that will pass along webmaster referrals as well, so if some webmaster visits your site that is displaying ads and signs up through that you’ll earn 5% of all revenue generated by that webmaster for six months. 30 day cookie on all referrals.

Consider this a preview, not a review, since I have no idea how well Shoppingads will perform. You can see the ads running in the sidebar at the group blog I participate in: VTOReality.com.

If you’d like in to Shoppingads private beta since I don’t have any invites, just drop Patrick Gavin a line. If you’re already in one of the other programs he runs you might have an invite code waiting there automatically like we did. BTW, I checked with him directly before publishing this and those of you with access are allowed to blog/Twitter about this, despite the text of the email that says: “Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited.”

In 1998 a university professor from North Carolina created a site that focused on providing exhaustive descriptions of how stuff works.

Nine years later, Discovery, the folks behind Animal Planet and Discovery Channel are paying $250 million for all those juicy Google search results.

Acquiring HowStuffWorks will give Discovery the online firepower it has been lacking, Mr. Zaslav says. He wants to make the site, which draws about 3.8 million unique U.S. users a month, according to comScore Media Metrix, the foundation of Discovery’s digital push. HowStuffWorks says it has 11 million users globally.

A search query at this blog for ‘howstuffworks.com’ results in two links, the most recent link in February on how beer goggles work (pictured) and the first link in August 2003 showing how mood rings work. HowStuffWorks is a good site with solid content. It’s nice to see a payday for a site with good content.

IP Democracy digs deeper into Discovery’s plans, which will focus on video specifically:

HowStuffWorks is planning to embed videos from Discovery’s various channels as well as serve as an oulet for the display of new short-form videos that could very well turn into long-form series for Discovery’s cable networks if they prove to be popular or sticky enough.

I think the relationship will work better using HowStuffWorks content on the TV shows than trying to focus on video content from the TV show. Here’s an even better idea: take user submitted how stuff works like content and put it on TV — now that would be good for both. At the least Discovery needs to make it easy to embed in websites a la YouTube rather than forcing people to view only at HowStuffWorks. The ironic thing is Google and other search engines still don’t provide good search of the content inside videos.

Mathew Ingram points out that Discovery also purchased Treehugger for $10 million. The $250 million is Discovery’s biggest purchase to date.

According to the data presented in the table on infoplease average annual income for men who completed high school as of 2004 was $35,725. You can watch this calculate in real time with the salary generator.

Dividing into monthly reveals the $2,977 monthly amount shown in the screenshot of the payment calculator above. This accumulates at a rate of $145.21 per day and 30 cents a minute.

Now what does it look like if you make a million dollars a year? Just enter in $83,333 and watch how fast the dollars add up: $4,065.02 per day, $8.46 per minute.

How about all you billionaires out there? Just move the decimal over. $40,650 per day, $84.68 per minute.

Remember Leo Laporte switching from Twitter to Jaiku because the former was too much like the name of his podcast? Seems like #1 Twitterer at the time (now that honor probably goes to Scoble) switched to the right camp with today’s news.

Saw first at Gigaom that Google is buying Jaiku:

What does that mean? First and foremost, we’re of course continuing to support our existing users. So fear not: your Jaiku phone, the Web site, IM, SMS, and API will continue to work normally.

A FAQ page at Jaiku place outlines the details answering, among other questions, why:

Activity streams and mobile presence are important areas where we believe Google can add a lot of value for users. Jaiku’s technology and talented team are a great addition to Google’s current application and mobile teams.

Good thing I have the same name on Jaiku as Google, so integration into the Google hive should be incident-free. Now the bigger question:

Do those of us who wondered what the big deal was need to rethink the value of Twitteresq conversations? Just because Google buys something (disclaimer: I own stock) doesn’t give the service instant validation, but it does give some good street cred. Look at the stock, bubbling around the $615 mark as I write this. Cliche be damned, it is hard to argue with success.

While I like the idea of some types of social networks like music where I think it’s a good way to find/explore new music, I’m still mostly on the sidelines with these short IM/IRC-like web message services. My Twitter/Jaiku world is still in IRC. What are you using services like Twitter and Jaiku to do? Has it been helpful to your business communication? Or is it a time waster?

Today GOOGle stock (disclaimer: I own GOOG stock) crossed the $600 mark. It took 11 months and more than a few setbacks along the way to reach the $600 mark. Now comes the speculation in how long, if ever, to reach $700?

via Bloomberg:

While 34 of 37 analysts tracked by Bloomberg recommend buying Google, their price targets indicate more skepticism. Of the 28 analysts with 12-month price goals, 19 have forecasts below $625 and only two see the stock reaching $700.

There are a couple of potentially major events working against Google right now. The uncertainty surrounding the Viacom billion dollar lawsuit at the forefront. If they can emerge from that lawsuit unscathed and continue to dominant search and more importantly to the bottom line: online advertising, then it’s not inconceivable to see them reach $1,000 a share. That’s a big, big, big IF though.

Meanwhile, Microsoft continues to seemingly sit on the sidelines, unable to make anything significant happen with Adcenter. What in heaven’s name are you waiting for Microsoft? Get some sort of micropayment affiliate program part of Adcenter into the hands of hungry webmasters like me post haste. I’d love to run a trial of that instead of Adsense. Sooner instead of later.

Especially now that you’re gearing up for the holidays with a lower priced Xbox 360. While you take forever to turn the ship, Google continues to increase their lead. Classic line from Revenge of the Nerds: “You just got your ass whipped … by a bunch of goddamned nerds.”

Somebody send the AdCenter team the Panty Raid edition of that movie (pictured left, affiliate link). Maybe they’ll know who to forward it to inside the Redmond campus to turn the molasses into water.

Compare this:

versus this:

Which is better?
When first checking out Newsvine last year, I wasn’t impressed. They seemed like sort of a snobby digg clone complete complete with their coveted code of honor. I also had some problems registering, but eventually would get that sorted out. Unpredictably since that time I haven’t used the service, so keep that in mind when reading this post.

Today, we learn that MSNBC is using their first acquisition in 11 years to buy Newsvine for an undisclosed amount in cash. If it’s cash, I’m guessing it’s in the low seven figures or high six figures. Now check out the words in double quotes in the MSNBC article below.

Msnbc.com is diving into citizen journalism and social media by acquiring Newsvine.com, a small but innovative player in what is known as “participatory journalism.”

Did I miss something “innovative” about Newsvine? And what exactly is “participatory journalism”? The article never explains their definition of what these buzzwords mean. Let me stab at the dark: what Newsvine has provided is a place that you and I — the citizen media, as we’re sometimes known — can submit news we write and then others will vote it up or down, a la digg style.

Checking who does best in a recent big local news story
Curious, I checked on a big local story on Saturday 10/6/07 around 3pm PST: the Atlas Foundary propane tanker exploding in Tacoma, shutting down part of I-5 and Highway 16 for hours as other explosions were anticipated. We were less than five miles away from the Foundary when it exploded, taking a leisurely trip through the Tacoma Mall. Power and street lights were down for miles.

The question: how many local particiapatory journalism stories were on Newsvine?

A search for Tacoma Explosion resulted in the top story being submitted by who? Some other local Tacoma citizen journalist? Nope. It’s an Associate Press story (pictured above, second picture).

How about the second story, surely that would have submitted by a Tacoma, WA resident? Nope. That story came from the Associate Press too. So where was the best coverage for this event? How about on KOMO radio where there were updates every few minutes and actively encouraging listeners to visit the KOMOtv.com website and submit pictures — and several did to their YouNewsTV service. Now there is an example of participatory journalism.

If Newsvine was that innovative, why weren’t citizens submitting some of these pictures to them? I realize this is only one local news story example and there are probably other examples and locales where lots of Newsvine citizens are reporting. That’s cool, wait for something significant newsworthy to happen in your backyard and respond in the comments if Newsvine has any citizens actually participating. Personally, I don’t want to visit Newsvine to see AP coverage of local news events, I want to see what MSNBC is buying into as “paticipatory journalism.” I can get the AP stories at Google News.

Maybe participatory journalism also took a three day weekend at Newsvine.

Keep in mind that this is also Microsoft’s home turf. You’d think MSNBC could check these kind of things out too and not need a blog to point this out. How about Newsvine competitor, NowPublic? Did they have any citizen coverage of the explosion?

None found there either.

Maybe my search skills suck this morning. Help me out, do your own investigative citizen journalism on this topic. What do you find of value at Newsvine that MSNBC is buying into that isn’t happening better at a local TV and radio station website? I still don’t get it, but as mentioned at the top of this post, I’m not using the service and could be missing out on some hugely valuable site.

Congratulations to Newsvine for attracting MSNBC suitors, apparently they have something going for them. I still don’t see it. Do you?

Update 8:40am PST: Another big story from the weekend to gauge Newsvine citizen coverage, the shooting and killing of six people by an off duty law enforcement officer in Crandon, Wisconsin. Newsvine search top three results: AP, AP, AP. I asked a friend online who lives 113 miles from Crandon where he went to check out the news. Was it Newsvine? He replied that he’d “briefly heard” of them and that it was only because he thinks I might have mentioned it. Hmm.

When you login to Zecco today you’ll see the following message:

If you were holding out on signing up for Zecco to take advantage of the free trades, now your minimum balance needs to be $2,500 in order to take advantage of the free trades. Where it used to be a maximum of 10 free trades a day and 40 free trades a month, now it’s a maximum of 10 free trades a month with the new minimum balance.

Existing account holders like my wife, a few friends online and myself will still be able to make a maximum of 10 free trades a month until January 1, 2008 when we will need to buff up our accounts to $2,500 or pay $4.50 per trade.

It’s still a decent deal comparatively, and overall trade prices are declining, but it does mean we’ll need to tie up some more money if we want the 10 free trades. I’m probably going to transfer my Sharebuilder account over. At the rate my wife is building her account, maybe she won’t need that much to add to her initial $500 to be able to acces the free trades (she’s at almost $700 now).

When it comes to the Techcrunch40 $50,000 winner Mint contracting Yodlee’s web scraping to get information that’s not being given them by banks with permission, Gerald writes:

“Well, OK. Gotta get after it somehow. I’m not overly concerned HOW the sausage gets made. I just want to eat.”

Oh Gerald, you can’t really be serious, can you? So you’d enjoy the stolen TV the neighbor gave you even if you knew it was stolen? Web scraping is a violation of the TOS of most sites and considered very, very bad netiquette. Unless/until Mint stops using scraping, I’ll be passing on their service. I don’t care if they are the most promising new financial Web pooh point app on the planet, how much they may or may not be able to make managing our finances easier and so on, scraping without permission is unethical behavior.

If Mint — or in this case their contracted provider Yodlee — can’t or won’t get the information through legitimate means — IE. cutting deals with financial institutions and using APIs — why should I trust them with any of my username and passwords? If they can’t follow the Terms of Service of other sites, why should I believe they will follow their own privacy guidelines with my or your sensitive financial information? What else will they fudge in the effort to provide a useful service to us? Sure, they are using TRUSTe and probably keep an otherwise clean kitchen, but this is a corrosive detail.

I covered why screenscraping is bad from a developer perspective over two years ago. My feelings on scraping, if anything, have hardened on the subject after continuing to see web app after web app acting like scraping is some kind of reliable business model or the right thing to do. And in a financial application where trust all around is essential, scraping is the rock chip in the windshield, soon to spider unless filled.

ProbargainHunter is right to label scraping “shady”:

This situation probably puts Mint in very uncomfortable position at very inconvenient time. It is ironic how life of a startup can depend on such a seemingly small thing. Web scraping has always been a shady business and I am surprised that Yodlee has gone with it so far.

Sorry for the cliche but just because somebody can doesn’t mean they should. Mint’s freshness, for me at least, has gone stale. Maybe I’m in the minority caring about these kinds of details, but so be it. I don’t just blindly do things because they are popular and/or provide me some benefit.