Eubie's notes

WSJ: Postponing Dial-Up’s Demise — The demise of dial-up Internet access has been stymied as the recession has increased demand for a slower but cheaper way to surf the Web.

Footnoted.org: More investigations for Office Depot… — first the states were investigating it over its pricing policy. Now the feds are.

All Things Digital: Buying Spree, The Sequel: Why Not IBM/Sun, Google/Twitter, Microsoft/Anyone?

Ad Age: It’s Not Newspapers in Peril; It’s Their Owners: Dailies Still Make Good Money, but Debt-Laden Publishers Post Losses

“Not a lot of papers are operating at a loss,” said John Morton, the veteran industry analyst. “There are roughly 1,400 daily newspapers. We only hear about the top markets. That leaves at least 1,300 papers out there.”

All Things Digital: Upside at the Washington Post: At Least Web Ads Didn’t Disappear Last Quarter

Online revenue was up five percent, and display ads were up 10 percent. Both of those numbers represent decelerations from Q3, when overall online revenue was up 13 percent and display was up 32 percent. But that’s better than the folks over at the Times, who saw online ads shrink altogether in Q4.

WSJ: Online Ad Spending Seen Shrinking — Internet advertising could fall 5% in the current quarter, research firm IDC said, the first decline since the dot-com bubble burst in 2001.

ReadWriteWeb: Just Work Please: Mainstream Media Meets the Fail Whale — ABC may have to weather a bit of snark for it, but it’s a great learning experience for them. And a testament to the sheer volume of users who share their opinions via Twitter – and the potential the service holds.

Wired: Google Joins EU Antitrust Case Against Microsoft and Mozilla too, Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal: Google, Mozilla line up against Microsoft

Wired: Toyota Wants to Build Car From Seaweed — As Toyota looks towards a greener future, it is exploring ways of using plastic derived from plants such as seaweed. They think it’s only a matter of time before automakers use bioplastics to build ultralight cars that take less petroleum to make, and less petroleum to drive.

Wired: Recipe for Disaster: The Formula That Killed Wall Street — In the mid-’80s, Wall Street turned to the quants—brainy financial engineers—to invent new ways to boost profits. Their methods for minting money worked brilliantly… until one of them devastated the global economy.

Calculated Risk: Fed: Delinquency Rates Increased Sharply in Q4 — Commercial real estate delinquencies are rising rapidly, and are at the highest rate since Q2 ’94 (as delinquency rates declined following the S&L crisis).

WSJ: Employers Hit Salaried Staff With Furloughs

WSJ: Defaults by Franchisees Soar as the Recession Deepens — Some franchise brands had loan default rates of more than 40%.

WSJ: So, You Want to Be an Entrepreneur — We spoke with entrepreneurship researchers, academics and psychologists to come up with a list of questions you should ask yourself before making a big leap.

NY Times: The Index Funds Win Again — A new study provides evidence to invest in simple, plain-vanilla index funds, whose low fees often lead to better net returns.

Using information from a federal lawsuit and additional reporting, the Charlotte Business Journal has taken a detailed look at that one bet — called a credit-default swap, which is similar to an insurance policy. The broad sweep of entanglements in that $10 million deal opens a window into the complex world of exotic Wall Street finance, illustrating what has happened in the national and world economies on a much larger scale.

ReadWriteWeb: Stimulus Spend Data Coming via Feeds

ReadWriteWeb: The Next Node on the Net: Your Car!

Bloomberg: Bond Trading Highest Since ‘07 as Credit Freeze Thaws

Corporate bond trading is accelerating after the recession pushed investment-grade yields to 9.3 percent in October, the highest in 17 years, according to data compiled by Merrill Lynch & Co. Investors are betting yields are high enough to compensate for defaults that Moody’s Investors Service forecast will rise to 16.4 percent by November, the highest since the Great Depression and about three times the current rate.

One thing I’m enjoying about geocaching is the cleverness of those making the treasures for the rest of us to find. This one is a good example. Here’s what I was looking for:

And here’s how it was prepared for geocaching:

from Dshort.com

WSJ: The Day the Muzak Died: Remembering a Soundtrack to Life — I can remember the precise moment when Muzak first pierced my awareness, letting in the notion of an adult universe in which the cool and the uncool do perpetual battle.

WSJ: Parents Give Up Facebook for Lent — As Lent approaches, some parents are mulling a choice they’d have once seen as preposterous: A Facebook fast — not for their teens but for themselves.

Calculated Risk: U.S. Vehicle Miles Driven Off 3.6% in 2008

Chris Brogan: How Not to Market on Twitter and Build Blog Posts Like Building Blocks

Atlanta Business Chronicle: Carter: No comparison between Great Depression and today

“There is no comparison to the Great Depression and where we are now,” he said. “The Great Depression was much more severe. Right now, we have 7 percent unemployment. In the Great Depression, it was four times that. Back then, there was no money.”

All Things Digital: Google’s Plan To Save Newspapers: Make Them Look Better

All Things Digital’s conclusion: I think that the best place for newspapers to start is by cutting costs and generating more revenue. But maybe I’m missing something. Would a better-designed New York Times site make you more likely to, say, pay for a subscription to the New York Times? Let me know.

WSJ: Local Web-Ad Market Cools Down — Growth in the local-ad market is expected to shrink, challenging the ad and media-buying shops that rely on the local Internet market.

Time: 25 Best Blogs 2009 – TIME