Michael Arrington outs Google's Marissa Mayer as user of Foursquare

During this interesting and wide-ranging interview at LeWeb in Paris, and between TechCrunch Founder and Editor Michael Arrington and Google VP Marissa Meyer, Arrington outed Meyer as a user of the location-based mobile service Foursquare. It's a competitor to Google's Latitude service, which Arrington says is "pretty bad."

Beyond that exchange, which starts at the 9:30 mark in the video, Mayer talks about her new role with the search giants in consumer product development, and something she's working on called Contextual-Based Search, as well as the Nexus S, containing the latest and fastest version of the Android Operating System, called Gingerbread.

In CBS, information is "pushed" to you based on your location and browser used. Just how it will work, the UI, or "User Interface," is being developed.

Meyer uses the talk to promote a ton of Google products, as well as the over explanation that "social is important" to Google. Michael kind of "busts" Meyer here, because Google has had more failures than successes in the social category. But Meyer makes it clear that Google wants to get it right.

Finally, we are treated to a cool demo of the Nexus S, and its amazing maps app.

If you want to read a good blog transcript of the entire talk, check out TechCrunch here.

Journalism 101: Nikky Raney's Actual Notes

This video shows my actual notes. These are the notes from interviews I have done so that viewers can get a look and see a sneak peek of how I take notes and all that good stuff. After this, I will be transferring all those notes from interviews from that notebook to word documents. This will be lots of fun - Luckily I type 120 words per minute. The only problem could be deciphering certain chicken scratches and deciding whether or not each note is essential to be typed up and included - it may end up being perfect in the end result. Enjoy.



"Journalism is not a profession or a trade. It is a cheap catch-all for fuckoffs and misfits -- a false doorway to the backside of life, a filthy piss-ridden little hole nailed off by the building inspector, but just deep enough for a wino to curl up from the sidewalk and masturbate like a chimp in a zoo-cage." Hunter S Thompson

Originally posted at The Future of Journalism

Blogging, YouTube, and Video-Blogging for Dollars

If you've ever wondered how one can make money blogging and video blogging, this 30-minute, three-part video series I stumbled over a few minutes ago can give you some guidance.

On March 24th, 2009, I was a guest of Christina Marie on her show SF Live. The subject was "Blogging, YouTube, and Video-Blogging for Dollars," but in truth, I just came up with that title, because we didn't have one for the show. The video says "Political Focus" but that wasn't our objective at all.

Here, I talk about how you can get started in blogging, and what a blog is. Christina and I then talk about how to make money with blogging, the Google AdSense ad platform, blog sponsorship, and affiliate marketing.

Then the focus shifts to video-blogging, and something called The YouTube Partner Program, which I've been a part of since 2007.

At the time I just started the TV show The Blog Report With Zennie62, and was fresh off an incredible year where my work was featured on CNN many times.

The video information, even thought it's just over a year old, is a little dated. 12 Seconds.tv just shut down a month ago. And this was before I started blogging with different news websites, in addition to Zennie62.com. So I have more advise that works well for a new video.

Is this self-promotion, too? YEAH, of course it is! And you should learn to do it yourself; this economy's not going to improve any time soon, and whining about what others are doing is not going to make it any better. You have to get out and become a doer yourself, not a complainer. You think Google doesn't promote itself? Ha! You should have seen Google VP Marissa Meyer at LeWeb talking about the firm's newest products!

But I digress.

Here's the video set:

Part One:



Part Two:



Part Three:

Derrick Burts Gay/Straight Porn Star Tests Positive For HIV - Advocates Condom Use in the Industry

Warning: This post may be a bit too graphic for some.

It seems sort of shocking that there isn't already condom usage in the porn industry, but it's good to see that Derrick Burts, HIV-Positive porn star, is advocating for its usage. This shows a lot of maturity and shows responsibility.

The 24-year-old spoke to the Los Angeles Times regarding this serious issue. LA Times reporter Molly Hennessy-Fiske writes that Burts tested positive for HIV in October after getting tested at the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation in Sherman Oaks.

Personal photo taken from CBSNEWS

Burts wants there to be mandatory condom usage in porn productions. This doesn't sound too far fetched - with all the editing software out there someone could probably edit out the condom.

Burts tells the LA Times that he believes that he contracted this virus during a porn performance with another male. Burts performs in straight and gay porn - he gave the facilities a list of all the other performers he had been in contact with so that it could be narrowed down to who he may have contracted this from.

According to the clinics no one on the list tested positive. Burts also has a girlfriend who tested negative.

When accusations were made that he may have contracted it from his personal sex life he told the LA Times:

"That's completely false. There is no possible way. The only person I had sex with in my personal life was my girlfriend."

CBS News, personal photo with girlfriend

It must be pretty interesting to be dating a man who works in the gay and straight porn industry - especially after finding out that he is now HIV positive. Sorry for digressing.

Burts says that during a gay porn shoot in Florida the performers used condoms during the actual intercourse, but there was no condom usage during oral sex.

He says that he makes $200-800 for filming a straight scene and $1,000-2,000 per gay scene. Again, thinking about his girlfriend in this situation. That must be one interesting relationship.

He gives advice:

"Making $10,000 or $15,000 for porn isn't worth your life. Performers need to be educated."

Video Below:

 

A's Stadium San Jose vs. Oakland update: SJ Council approves Gen Plan

ALERT! A's Stadium San Jose vs. Oakland update.

A quick follow-up on yesterday's post regarding opposition to the San Jose effort to build a stadium for the Oakland A's (Athletics): the San Jose City Council passed it's much discussed amendment to its General Plan.

Three San Jose Councilmembers, Oliverio, Liccardo, and Herrera, voted against the proposal. Councilmember Pierluig Oliverio was the one to sound the call that the amendment would "erode the city's tax base."

What that means is more housing where industrial property is currently situated, and more urban costs and less tax increment revenue generation from a tax base that some San Joseans feel has already suffered a "death by a thousand cuts."

This decision is a major blow to the city's ability to afford a stadium for the Oakland A's. That is, of course, assuming San Jose withstands a court challenge from both the San Francisco Giants and The City of San Francisco, as well as The City of Oakland.

Stay tuned.

Obama made right call; Democrats didn't get the votes

President Obama reminded everyone, including us Democrats, that politics is the art of compromise. Facing votes on two tax-cut deals that didn't go the way most Democrats wanted, Obama struck a deal that restored unemployment insurance funding while retaining tax cuts for Americans making over $250,000.

Great move. Why?

While U.S. Money Supply is rebounding from this time a year ago, and the highest it has been, as it should be because that wasn't the case earlier this year, it's not appreciably higher. Meanwhile, the more-often reported unemployment rate is still near 10 percent. And more to the pedestrian point, people who are drawing unemployment need their checks.

The President wasn't going to use them in a political game, unlike many Democrats and Republicans who have money coming in. But Democrats who say they stand for the working person should be ashamed. Working people can make over $250,000 a year - great. I support that. But I don't support taxing them while the economy is in recovery mode out of the weakest recession in history.

If Democrats really feels so strongly, why the hell didn't more of us vote in the 2010 Midterm Election? Stop whining. Start working.

That includes House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D - California), who's first job should be to back the Democratic President. It was on Speaker Pelosi's watch that the Democrats lost the House of Representatives. Pelosi must realize that the politics of division don't work. Still, given her statements against the President on this issue, it seems she has no problem applying such politics to her own party.

Speaker Pelosi and other Dems must realize the U.S. economy is not back to full health.   Not even close.  Obama made the right call.

Cam Newton for The Heisman Trophy

Suburban Atlanta - This blog post is complicated because the motivation for writing it was because, first, of my good friend Oakland Tribune Sports Columnist Monte Poole's passive agressive Heisman Trophy take. Second, my current proximity to Cam Newton's College Park residence, just outside Atlanta, Georgia.  Third, seeing Newton and Stanford Quarterback Andrew Luck (who Poole picked for the Heisman) play, and finally Southern Culture and the fact that I can't sleep.  Blogging should knock me out.

Cam Newton (photo by euroweb.com) is quite simply the best quarterback talent I've ever seen and should be the 2010 Heisman Trophy winner.

The main difference between Newton and Luck, is that for all of his accomplishments, Luck is a product of an offensive system formed by Cardinal Offensive Coordinator David Shaw, who gets little credit for his work. Cam's success has little to do with a particular offensive scheme, but his god-like talent. Consider this is Newton's first year in Auburn's system, and his third system in three years, where Luck has played in the same system for the three year span.

We've seen Cam do things, like score six touchdowns in the SEC Championship, that even the most rabid college football fans only dream of.  And all in his first year in a new system with new players and at a new school.  That's wild.

Cam's only problem is he's in an area of the country known for scams. To one from the San Francisco Bay Area (I go back and forth to help my Mom, who's here) it seems an inordinate number of people have their hands out, selling this or that. Robocalls are rampant. Newton's only hell has been growing up black, male, and physically gifted in football-crazed, dollar-sign-driven Georgia.

Frankly, I find the young man impressive. He handled himself extremely well when being questioned by CBS Sideline Reporter Tracy Wolfson.  He never broke his winning smile, and came off quite charming.  He certainly passed the Mom test, as mine was sold on his presentation at the SEC Championship.

What Cam knew or did not know, does not matter. Spend a little time down here and you don't have to be a genius to know that someone made Cam the focus of their sell / scam efforts. That's not Cam Newton's fault, yet it's being held against him.

Look, let's be honest with each other.  What we're tired of is yet another example of the African American male student who's great on the sports field, but has questions about his character off of it.  The Reggie Bush Heisman give-back has left a bad taste in the mouths of many.   But Cam Newton is not Reggie Bush.   Cam's not the smart, militant, chip-on-shoulder guy that Mr. Bush can be at times.  Cam Newton is an innocent kid with King Kong talent.   And like Kong, Newton can't help how society responds to him.

The question is, did Cam do well on and off the field this year in Auburn?  Yes.  He did.  And what Newton did on the field was jaw-dropping amazing.

Cam Newton for The Heisman.