Another good day to be a Sirius subscriber with one billionaire slamming another billionaire.

This morning Howard Stern’s guest was billionaire Donald Trump and there were some juicy quotes. Trump did credit Mark Cuban, who is currently enjoying a stint on the TV show Dancing with the Stars, for being a good dancer, but wasn’t impressed with his business acumen adding that if Cuban could make a billion anybody could. Trump seemed annoyed that Cuban who rents an apartment from him was in the beginning nice to him and saying nice things and then changed and started talking badly about him.

Don’t cry for Cuban, he seems to love the attention and this seems to be a case of history repeating itself. On December 21, 2006 Mark Cuban wrote on a blog post titled ‘Trump the Chump‘:

Every couple weeks I get emails from people asking me if I heard what Donald Trump said about me on some radio or TV show. From Howard Stern to Donnie Deutch to just this week while promoting The Apprentice. I have to be honest, I LOVE IT when he rips me. Its been 3 seasons since The Benefactor tanked, but Donald still couldn’t find something else to rip on. It always gives me a good chuckle knowing that he thinks of me so often.

Cuban’s tongue lashing from The Donald was mild compared to others like President Bush whom he deems the worst president ever. Can’t disagree with him there. Trump is friends with both the front runners in the 2008 President election, Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani and while Howard pressed to find who Trump would be voting for, he sidestepped. Trump did add that whomever supported the war in Iraq was “going to lose and lose badly.”

Rose O’Donnell whom Trump has been trading barbs also earned was bashed worse than Cuban, so don’t feel too badly for Mark. Lest we forget that Trump is known for being boisterous, especially when the camera and microphones are hot, so not sure we can take much away seriously from his quotes. Come on, Donald, start telling us what you really think.

If the Sirius merger with XM is ever approved there will be even more reasons to love satellite radio. Never tried satellite radio and enjoy solid radio entertainment? You’ve got to give it a try. A little over a year ago I joined the satellite radio movement and remain a happy subscriber. It’s playing in the background as I type this post.

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.

Spent most yesterday at the opening day of the World Cyber Games being held at the Qwest event center in Seattle where 700 best gamers from all over the world gather to compete for the crown in 12 different games: eight for the PC, four for the Xbox 360.

We arrived just after 11am and didn’t leave until almost 8pm. In the back of the first floor area, Guitar Hero III was being demoed. There were a dozen or so booths setup in typical convention style offering advance play of games either newly released or in beta. Valve was handing out serial codes for Day of Defeat: Source, a team-based online war game set in Europe during WWII.

On the main stage we caught a couple Warcraft III matches, complete with live play-by-play commentary, fireworks and dry ice. A first class presentation watching the world’s best gamers with three huge monitors, a camera on a boom crane and more. The last time the World Cyber Games was held in the U.S. was 2004. Last year it was held in Italy.

Low point
The low point of the WCG for me was during the open ceremony when all the countries were being announced including their flags of origin and scattered boos were issued for China. USA got the loudest applause with Germany and Russia not far behind. It was neat seeing the flags of 74 different countries and I wish fans and gamers wouldn’t have booed China. Despite the political climate in China and even though we enjoy free speech here, and others may feel to disagree in the comments, it was an inappropriate venue to boo. The World Cyber Games is supposed to be about fair play and showing respect to fellow players, not a forum for airing out political dissatisfaction.

I didn’t hear boos for any other country announced except China. Looking at the picture atop this post you can get some idea where we sat during the opening ceremony.

High point
The WCG will be continuing today through Sunday. There are daily drawings for those who visit and obtain at least six stamps from the various vendor booths. At the Samsung booth you need to get your picture taken with a tightly dressed female model to earn a stamp. At other vendors, all you have to do is ask for the stamp. The usual assortment of t-shirt and bag swag is there in full force.

After the opening ceremony prizes were drawn from the box of stamped cards filled out. The prizes included a few Samsung phones, Halo 3 Xbox 360, several Novint Falcons (3D game controller), and the top prize for the night: a Samsung NV20 digital camera. Guess who’s name got drawn for the camera?

Woohoo! Been so busy this morning that I haven’t had time to unbox this badboy and take it for a test drive. My days of being able to say “I’m not that lucky” are going away after this and winning Visual Studio 2003 .NET Professional at a local developer meeting.

Any readers attending the World Cyber Games this weekend? Know anybody in the competition?

We’ll have to wait until mid-November for the completely rewritten Zune Marketplace software and second generation 80GB black Zune ($249.99) hard drive version, 8GB ($199.99) and 4GB ($149.99) flash versions to hit stores. The new Zune portable media players will offer something called a Zune Pad which Microsoft describes as a “an innovative touch-sensitive button for navigating on the device, as well as wireless sync, a feature that allows Zune devices to automatically sync over the device owner’s home wireless network when it is connected to an AC adaptor, in a dock or speaker dock accessory.”

That taken from official press release which also explains the new Zune Social (emphasis):

Launching first in beta, Zune Social, a beta online community Web site, gives people a place to share their music tastes, knowledge and experiences with others. Anyone can create a free, customizable Zune Card that automatically updates to reflect the music they are listening to on their Zune or with Zune software on their computer. The Zune Card shows most recently played tracks and highlights that person’s all-time music favorites. Other members of Zune Social can play samples of the songs a user has been playing directly from a friend’s Zune Card or link to Zune Marketplace, where they can buy or download the music … members of Zune Social can send song links and messages to each other, post comments on a friend’s profile page or on their favorite artist pages. They can discover new music by seeing what their friends are listening to, receiving recommendations from others in the community or by seeing what the top fans of artists they’re interested in are listening to

Sounds a little like a cross between Xbox Live gamer cards, iLike and last.fm (which somehow I haven’t registered for yet. Update 10:12am PST: after further review, I found I have registered for last.fm when it was formerly audioscrobbler).

The biggest news to first generation Zune owners and early adopters is backwards compatibility with the new software and features. Very nice, this ties up my “what about the 1 in 25 who bought a Zune instead of the iPod” concerns on Monday.

Perhaps the best news is yet another DRM-free music store option will be born alongside AmazonMP3. That’s right, the Zune Marketplace is going to start selling over one million DRM-free MP3s. The new Zune Marketplace will also have built-in podcast support, something that they were criticized for omitting from the first release.

And speaking of criticism …

Zune bashers are predictably out in full force this morning
Jay Greene at Business Week makes an early doom and gloom prediction: “The next version of Microsoft’s music player won’t make any serious iPod inroads.” And despite starting his article out with this slam, Mr. Greene never defines what he means by “any serious iPod inroads.” Right now 1 in 25 people buy a Zune. If a year from launch 5 or 10 in 25 people are buying a Zune would that constitute a serious iPod inroad? It’s this kind of cheap shot reporting that annoys me. Microsoft never claimed they’d be a serious competitor to the iPod right away, no more than they claimed to be a serious force in console gaming right away with the Xbox. They aren’t doing too bad with the Xbox 360 right about now.
TechCrunch new editor, Erick Schonfeld, can’t resist blasting the color, stylistic snobbery at its finest: “At least [Microsoft is] getting rid of the Zune brown (a color only a UPS delivery man could love).” I guess the first generation Zune Brown (only $165 at Amazon, affiliate) will become a collector’s item, Erick.

Final Hmm thoughts
Despite the naysayers and pessimists, this sounds like a solid second version upgrade path and my only regret as a happy Zune customer is that it’s not available now like when Apple CEO Steve Jobs announces new stuff it’s typically available the same day.

And like John Gruber suggests, why doesn’t Microsoft rip that page out of the Apple playbook? As commenter Jaxim says at the Windows Connected blog, they should release the firmware and new store now to drive interest in the Zune 2 gadgets ahead of sales. Maybe if enough Zune owners encourage them to do this, they will. Microsoft, you have my vote: release the firmware and new Zune Marketplace ASAP.

This must be Monday morning price increase day. Go away price increase news, begone!

1&1 (affiliate) is raising their domain prices (.com, .net, .us, .org, .info, name) by $1 from $5.99 to $6.99, a 15% increase. For those of us with many domains, this starts adding up, for those with only a few domains, it probably won’t matter too much. In an email dated today and timestamped at 4:57am PST from info at 1&1 they write (emphasis mine):

We are writing today to inform you that it has become necessary for us to increase the rates for some domains due to price increases by the major domain registries.

As reported back on April 6 this year, domain prices were set to increase by 7% on October 14 and I’d hoped our registrars didn’t tack on more. So much for that. I guess rather than raise them by 75 cents which would have covered inflation and the price increase, they wanted to make it a round $1. 1and1.com is still a good deal, especially if you want private registration for domains (see picture).

If you’re wondering who to thank for the base domain price increase, it’s Verisign. For webmaster readers, how much did your domain registrar raise prices? More than $1? Less? If it’s more you might want to give 1and1.com a try with your next renewal or new domain purchase. You can search for domains using the form below. 1and1.com discontinued paying commission on instant domains so I don’t make anything if you buy through this form.

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).

The 3/4 Van Halen tour kicked off last night at the Charlotte Bobcats Arena in North Carolina. See a cool then and now slideshow at charlotte.com.

The fan reviews are starting to trickle in, most are positive from what I’m reading thus far:

Reza: “I’m back to my hotel from the Charlotte concert (drove over 500 miles from Florida to see this!) and let me tell you one thing: it was the best Van Halen concert I have ever seen!!! I have seen every VH tour since 1985 (with Sammy , Cherone and Dave solo) and this was by far the best!”
George M: “Wolfie sounded good. A la the rehearsal reviews, he does a pretty good job on the background vocals as well. He seemed relieved when the show was over, but also not that nervous as people say he was at the LA rehearsal.”
Halleen: “It was a nostalgia show, they are old, they made mistakes. Hopefully they’ll get better as the show goes on, I’m seeing them in LA in two months.”
Hiphopaddict: “I have to say that it was one of the most amazing concerts I’ve seen in my life. The energy was spectacular. Dave and Eddie seemed to jive off of each other very well. I thought Wolfie did a great job as well.”
jimmyw: “I saw one guy after the show, walking by me and he was shaking his head. I looked at him and said “That was great, wasn’t it?” He replied “I can’t even describe how good that was.”"
smashism: “[Wolfgang] absolutely RUINED “Unchained” — which WOULD HAVE BEEN the highlight of the night, except that when it got to the “come on Dave, gimme a break” line Wolfgang stepped to the microphone and in a cracky 16 year old’s voice said “Come on Dave, uh, give whoever you’re talking to a break.” Serious WHAT THE F**K epic fail moment. It was as if the entire stadium all looked around at each other with a look of “HUH?”"
pacfanweb: “With [Wolfgang] and Eddie singing, the backing vocals sounded good. You can definitely tell Mikey isn’t there, though. Wolf can hit a lot of the same notes, but not with the same power…and let’s face it, lots of people can hit the same notes, but everyone has their own tone. The backing vocals are just fine.”

The “Unchained” Wolfie quote is bizarre but overall it seems fans were pleased. Be sure to read the whole thread, those are just a few quotes I pulled that stuck out to me. The setlist — warning: spoiler — can be found at the end of the post here. Sounds like 26 nostalgic tracks, all from the pre Van Hagar days as rehearsed.

Our VH ticket situation
Ticketmaster sold out of two seats together for both the Seattle and Portland shows right away, so as of this writing we’re still ticketless for the upcoming Dec 3 show in Seattle. Vancouver BC (about 3 hours north) goes on sale tomorrow. If we don’t get tickets there, we could be hitting the secondary market and paying a premium. I was hoping not to have to pay more than $100 a ticket — and maybe still won’t — but because of the volatility of Eddie and David Lee Roth this could be the last opportunity to ever see these guys playing together.

As many others are saying, I hope they find some way to include Michael Anthony. And for those who want a taste of the concert, I’m sure videos of the first show will be there soon, if they aren’t already.

Van Hailstorm on Sirius Buzzsaw 19
Note to fellow Sirius subscribers (thanks Blabbermouth): every night at 10pm EST on Buzzsaw channel 19, Ian Christe, author of the VH biography Everybody Wants Some: The Van Halen Saga (pictured, above right) is playing a few tracks, including some rarities, and telling VH stories. You can also enter for a chance to win Van Halen concert tickets. I entered, you never know.

Factor two copies of Halo 3 from our household into the estimated $170 million in sales estimated via Xbox.com:

Halo® 3 has officially become the biggest entertainment launch in history, garnering an estimated $170 million in sales in the United States alone in the first 24 hours. The Xbox 360™ title beat previous records set by blockbuster theatrical releases like Spider-Man 3 and novels such as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Hat tip to Webb Alert for the news.

What game has been being played nearly non-stop when not sleeping, at school or work on two of our four Xbox 360s? Halo 3. Me? I still haven’t played even one second of Halo 3. This might sound funny, but I like watching good players go at it over playing the game myself. I can appreciate art.

World Cyber Games
Speaking of spectator sports, the kids will be pulling themselves away for next week’s World Cyber Games [worldcybergames.com] at Qwest Event Center from October 4-7, 2007 enjoying hundreds of the world’s best gamers and $500,000 on the line.

The games in the competition include: DOA4 (Xbox 360), Warcraft III: Frozen Throne (PC) and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 8 (Xbox 360). None of the Halo trilogy of games is on the list.

Event attendance costs $10 per day. At the recent PAX (Penny Arcade Expo) in Seattle they were handing out free passes like candy.