Facebook relegated to "fast follower" status -- and the innovator is.. AOL??

Yesterday, AOL bought Bebo, a large online social network in the UK and Europe. AOL discussed plans to integrate AIM, their market-leading IM platform, into Bebo.

A whole 24 hours later, Facebook has now announced that they will release an IM system of their own, stepping on the toes of many companies who have spent the past year developing IM and chat on Facebook's platform.

Competing with your own customers?  Check.  Out of ideas, so you'd prefer to steal some from AOL? check.  Looks like Facebook is the new Microsoft.

"Please let me break the law from your machine"

Wow, disturbing post on Craigslist Baltimore:

I need a machine that I can remote desktop into. I need it to be a windows machine that has a fast internet connection- a decent processor (1-2 ghrtz or so), about 2 gb of ram. I will only need to use the machine for about 1 hour per day max between the hours of 9:30 am - 1:30 pm.
I will use little disk space on the machine and will just run a mildly processor-intensive program on the machine in 10 minute intervals max of 3 times a day, but probably only at 10 am and at 1 pm mostly on fridays and saturdays.
I will pay per month for this access- probably enough to pay for your monthly internet bill.
Let me know what type of machine you have- processor speed, ram, operating system and what type of internet connection you have and how much you would charge per month.
Thanks

I hope he's going to use it to take fractions of a cent off each transaction in a pool of billions!

Molly Ivins

Some of you probably know who Molly Ivins was. I learned about her when Shelly and I saw the Molly Ivins tribute on Book TV (viewable here -- but only in Real Media format, regrettably). Based on the descriptions and eulogy-ish speeches (and poem!) dedicated to her, she was totally awesome. Speakers included: Maya Angelou, Kathleen Chalfont, Gail Collins, Lou Dubose, Garrison Keillor, John Leonard, Eden Lipson, Anthony Romero, and Calvin Trillin.

I just learned that she wrote the following article before she died -- very insightful.

Molly Ivins: Not. Endorsing. Hillary.