Charles Cooper and Cnet Need to Disclose That They are Competing with Google News When They Bash it. (all the time)

How long has Cnet been bashing Google News For? Now their executive editor has come the the conclusion that–get this–web 2.0 is a metaphor for "rip-off."

 

The executive editor of CNET news,(news.com) Charles (The News Chuck) Cooper has a problem. Google’s distribution model for tech news among other shops (techmeme anyone?) is quickly becoming obsolete because the vast majority of the reporting going on at Cnet doesn’t add value to the events and yet they still draw a salary. There are too many Google bashing stores coming from Cnet, and they don’t properly disclose that they are a direct competitor to Google news–one of the services they are bashing.  For a long time, it has seemed like Cnet has stepped outside of what’s exceptable for news reporting by bashing Google’s news creating algorithm and doing too many opinion peices on Google news realted material.

 

We know there is some double talk going on when Cnet hasn’t told it’s Robot.txt file to block Google news, and so they appear on Google news, but they think it’s a horrible immoral thing. It’s a like saying, yes, I’ll take one please and–by the way–do you know that offering this is immoral? Grrrr…

 

The problem here is that you can’t take the competitive hate talk that goes around in the office and then put it on the web. With the exception of a few good reporters at Cnet, they do the same thing the Google news algorithm does–but they draw a salary. They just scan tech news and then post a bit of their own thoughts.

Cnet’s had this slogan on their site for sometime that bashes Google tech news… Put together with–get this–"Real People" Yeah, people that don’t know squat, but how to read the WSJ and NYT and try to post before the bots do. Cnet had better rethink things. If you think an example of Web 2.0 is that sorry Cnet Story linking program that takes up valuable space on your ugly site, then you’ve missed the boat, turn in your stripes as soon as possible and save the stockholders some money.

 

If you are going to bash Google for Copyright infringment, do it to libraries as well, because all they do is scan and index books. Let’s get rid of the Evil Dewey Decimal System next?

 

This pisses me off, I’m going to bed.

NOAA.GOV Hi-Rez Photos of New Orleans Online

After looking at these photos for an hour or more, I can understand how really messed up this whole situation really is. That is A LOT of water.

 

http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/katrina/090E30A_KATRINA.HTM

 

I wish VirtualEarth and Google had widespread hi rez babies like this. It only took this team a small amount of time to get this up.

 

 

Shooting at Rescue Helicopters

The last thing I will do is turn this blog into a discussion or–more likely–an argument about politics or religion, and I know it might be a touchy subject when I ask what logic–under what human condition–does a person in America shoot at a helicopter pilot who is trying to save their life? I can understand looting the local bakery, and it doesn’t surprise me to see folks stealing from electronics stores, but this really blows my mind. Can someone please answer this for me? I can find no algorithm for this type of human behavior. Unreal.

 

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9156612/