Robert Scoble talks about "growth markets" for Microsoft...now there is a scary thought!

The Wired 40
They are masters of innovation, technology, and strategic vision - 40 companies driving the global economy.
The Wired 40
1. Google
2. Amazon.com
3. Apple Computer
4. Genentech
5. eBay
6. Samsung Electronics
7. Yahoo!
8. Electronic Arts
9. Pixar
10. Cisco Systems
11. Infosys Technologies
12. Dell Computer
13. IBM
14. SAP
15. Nokia
16. Netflix
17. Monsanto
18. Toyota Motor
19. Vodafone Group
20. Flextronics
21. InterActiveCorp
22. Nvidia
23. WPP Group
24. Intel
25. EMC
26. FedEx
27. Microsoft
28. Pfizer
29. Costco Wholesale
30. Comcast
31. Taiwan Semiconductor
32. Ameritrade
33. Gen-Probe
34. Ryanair
35. L-3
36. Citigroup
37. Level 3
38. Inditex
39. JDS Uniphase
40. BP

Ten companies were ejected from the Wired 40 this year. Their sin? Failure to meet the global economy's incessant demand for innovation.

Affymetrix
Cemex
Charles Schwab
Check Point Software
GlaxoSmithKline
Honda Motor
Millennium Pharmaceuticals
Oracle
Sony
Wal-Mart

WITH TIDE OF TROUBLE RISING, EMERGENCY AGENCY TURNS TO VERIZON
A call for help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
came into our Enterprise Customer Service Center in Boston late one
Friday afternoon last month. President Bush had declared five
flooded counties in Massachusetts a disaster area and, with more
rain predicted, FEMA was preparing for the worst. FEMA was
requesting service to an emergency call center for flood victims by
Monday. The request for 12 analog lines, a T1 and a PRI typically
takes 15 to 20 business days, but by 11:30 that evening, the
Enterprise team had activated its plan, completed systems
engineering; and called-in from vacation a Baltimore employee to
assign critical central office equipment. Meanwhile, National
Service scheduled a field technician to install services and test
the circuit. Service was turned up Saturday afternoon, in time for
FEMA to open its center Tuesday morning.

Press Release from Verizon:
VERIZON UNVEILS FIRST FIBER-TO-THE-PREMISES SITE TODAY
Keller, Texas is the site where Verizon will begin the most
significant transformation in over a century in the technology we
use to carry phone calls, data and video. At a news conference later
today, we will name the city -- a fast growing community in the
Dallas - Fort Worth area -- as the first location for Verizon's
fiber to the premises (FTTP) deployment. With this effort, Verizon
becomes the first in the nation to begin a large-scale rollout of
advanced fiber-optic technology. FTTP technology enables a vast
array of new high-speed broadband services and video applications,
along with traditional voice and data services. We've begun
preparing for similar FTTP deployments elsewhere in North Texas and
in several other states. We plan to pass 1 million homes in nine
states with this new technology by the end of the year. As part of
the deployment, Verizon will open a technical support center in
Dallas for customers using our FTTP network.

Honesty is a lost art in today's day & age. Danny Graves of the Cincy Reds plans to reward a special person.

I hear & read about all these articles on why we need to change the game of baseball just because teams won't pitch to Barry Bonds. Frankly, I am tired of the whining. If Barry Bonds wants to see some pitches to hit, he only needs to turn in one direction...the management of the San Francisco Giants. Teams know they can score on the weak pitching staff the Giants have put together. They also know the only way the Giants can out score them is if they let Barry Bonds beat them. You see, the Giants don't have any hitters around Barry Bonds for teams to be afraid of. Jeff Kent, the only player the Giants had who had some pop in his bat, is off doing his thing in Houston.

Teams decided early in April to go ahead and pitch to Bonds & they got burned. He hit over .400 and smashed some tape measure drives into McCovey Cove. Teams in May decided, "why are we being so stupid" and pitched to everyone else except Bonds. Does it come back to bite them? Sure, every once in a while you'll here of the game where Bonds walked three times and scored two or all three of those times. But more often than not it works. Through May 12th, the No. 5 hitters for the Giants were hitting .192 (5 for 26, with one walk) this year following Bonds' intentional walks. And Bonds has scored after only seven of his 27 intentional walks….about once every four times he gets the intentional free pass.

That brings us back to the original point, "do we need to change the rules" as Jason Stark suggests in his article posted at ESPN.com? Of course not. Did we change the rules in basketball because Shaq can’t shoot free throws (can anyone say Hack-A-Shaq)? Did we change the rules in football because coaches decided to double team Jevon Kearse so he can’t get all those sacks? No. The Key is to surround the great players with enough good players so that you make them pay for doing things like this. If Bonds was batting 4th with Jeff Kent 3rd and Carlos Delgado 5th you think teams would be so eager to put him on base?

What it boils down to is this…Don’t do something radical to the game just because one individual stands out (think Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the ban of dunking in his college days). If the Giants don’t win this year I don’t want to hear the crying from the fans in the Bay Area…there’s enough whine in NorCal already. If the Giants had a few more hitters to protect Bonds OR they had a top pitching staff where teams would be afraid to put runners on base, this wouldn’t even be an issue.

In the Article by Stark, Sandy Alderson of the A’s says, “"If we're talking Hack A Shaq you have to think about it this way: Is it better for the game for Shaq to be as dominant as he can -- and should you change the rules to make that more likely? Or should it be survival of the fittest, and clubs have to be creative in finding a better way to attack Shaq? The way it stands now, his responsibility is to become a better free-throw shooter. That would stop it.

"And the way it stands now, the best solution with Bonds is just to find a better guy to hit behind him. And not just in the fifth spot, but in the fifth and sixth spot. That's how you make teams pitch to him. You don't have to change the rules."

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

How Not to handle a situation where you are mad at a company:

Man angry at Verizon hurls phones
More than $2,000 in damage results
Friday, May 14, 2004 Posted: 2:20 PM EDT (1820 GMT)
FARGO, North Dakota (AP) -- A man who said he was fed up with his cellular phone service went to a Fargo mall and started hurling phones across a store, striking an employee and causing more than $2,000 in damage, authorities said.
Jason Perala, 22, of Fargo, told The Forum newspaper that he planned only to yell at employees at Verizon Wireless.
"Then I just lost it," he said. "I just started grabbing computers and phones and throwing them. I just destroyed the place. ... I kind of regret that I did it, but I hope my message got across."
Police said Perala took off his shirt and put on safety glasses before throwing around computers, phones and other items.
One employee was struck in the shoulder by a phone before he and other workers dashed into an office, locked the door and called police, Sgt. Kevin Volrath said. Other businesses in the West Acres mall lowered their steel security gates during Thursday's incident.
Perala was arrested without incident and jailed on charges of felony criminal mischief and misdemeanor simple assault.

Italian cops get a Lamborghini: ROME, Italy (AP) -- Italian drivers who like to use highways as their personal speed-tracks are about to lose the race.

Italy's state police presented a sleek new addition Friday: a Lamborghini Gallardo, with a top speed of 309 kph (192 mph).

Sports Illustrated released its list of the top 50 "earners" in sports today. Some of these surprised me: LeBron at #3?

Boston Rob bought himself quite an insurance policy last night. On Survivor's final episode of the season Boston Rob proposed to Amber right before host Jegg Probst read the final tally. Some call it cheesy...some call it romantic...I call it insurance! If he wins the vote, he can lose the girl and all it costs him is a meager 10-20K or whatever he spent on that rock. If he loses, he has the girl with the money and he can always say, "I proposed before I knew you won, so I didn't do it for the money." Smart guy that Boston Rob!

Well it had to happen sooner or later. They sell rotating ads behind the plate. They sell ads on the sports tickers the only things left were jerseys and the field. The field beat the jerseys to the punch. The Yankess and Red Sax games coming up later this season will feature "Spider Man 2" logos on the bases and the pitchers rubber.
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And I thought I had a sweet tooth....In London a woman paid over $3,000 U.S. money for about 10,000 MARS candy bars...had them boxed up and put in her Limo and drove off. No Explanations, nothing.