The most shocking part of this isn’t that Mel Gibson is dropping racial slurs like crazy. I think that’s been fairly well discussed up to this point. The shock is that he didn’t have the foresight to assume she’d record his asinine conversations.

Girls, Girls, Girls – Motley Crue from matt edwards on Vimeo.

When he was in his prime, there was no one better. “Billy Jean” and “Beat It” are still better than 99% of all of the shitty pop songs released today, and he turned the video music format into a formidable force until MTV took it out and shot it a decade ago.

The good news is that we don’t have to watch Michael go through the horrible decline that was waiting for him. He owed hundreds of millions and was literally worth less than the average street bum. His only hope was a new tour and some revenue.

The bad news is his family is a bunch of circus freaks. They’ll be picking over his bones for another decade.

Apple

It seems these days that tech is out of favor. No one is interested in what most technology companies are doing at the moment. This won’t last long. After some time passes, and people will be looking for the latest and greatest companies.

With the imminent demise of Yahoo!, people will be looking for where to put their money. Many have already put their money behind Google. This would be a mistake. Google does one thing very well: Search. Beyond that, Google’s successes are suspect. Everyone is far to willing to crown them as the new kings of technology.

My pick to carry the crown? Apple. My reasons are likely not the ones you might think. It has nothing to do with iTunes, the Apple line, the iPod’s, or the iPhones. Those are merely incidental reasons I think Apple has the potential for taking the leadership in technology. The real reason that Apple will become the dominant technology is the App. Store.

For the past decade, the story of the little guy producing Doom in his basement and getting riches seemed impossible. Games budgets were in the tens of millions and small applications were essentially written for free. The brilliant hobbyist programmer had no real mechanism for turning their talents into real money. The Application Store has changed all of that. The iPhone gives programmers a simple device with which to produce small programs that cost $5. There is not only no need for millions of features, but it’s undesirable.

Applications cost anywhere between Free-$29.99, but the vast majority cost about $5. It’s cheap enough that people aren’t afraid of the cost or the effort to learn the software. Most developers think that cost is the main obstacle to purchases of software. It isn’t. The main obstacle is the time it takes to learn a product and hoping it will meet your needs. The idea of buying software to learn just doesn’t appeal to most people.

Most iPhone users have the expectation that the software be VERY easy to use. Factor in the cost of only $5 and you have a recipe for success. The simple standardized platform with an expectation of simplicity means no extra features. Programmers do one simple thing and do it well. This means the dream of anyone producing a blockbuster title is now alive again. Nothing makes your product more vital than a community of hobbyist developers doing far more with your product than you imagined. The valued added from this community is immeasurable.

Now is the time of the iPhone app millionaire. The gold rush for programmers is on. That is the vitality and interest in a platform that Google and Microsoft don’t have.

Well, Kimbo stood in the ring with someone who actually knew what they were doing, not some scrub whose fight accomplishments are stomping someone’s ass outside a bar with 15 of their friends playing backup.  So Kimbo’s shit got rocked by what is considered a marginal MMA fighter.

Put Kimbo right next to “Star Wars Kid” and “Chocolate Rain” as an internet phenom whose 15 minutes are up.

Well, it’s time to take a look back. On the day of that post Yahoo was trading at $26 and change. At no point did it ever trade higher. Currently they are trading at $18 per share. Anyone who held absolutely lost their shirts. Good job Yahoo!

Yahoo Sucks

Joe Biden

Yes I know it is an early call, but I feel confident that Obama will make the most logical choice.  Obama’s biggest weakness is Biden’s biggest strength.  Obama has made some critical errors when he has spoken about foreign policy, and Biden has been the one to counsel him on why his mistakes looked amateurish. (Iran)

Edwards decided to shit the bed and remove himself as the most obvious choice  by banging a woman while his wife had cancer.  Classy.  But this isn’t about Edwards.

Biden has already run for President and been on the national stage.  That is experience that cannot be ignored.  My subsequent guess is that after he announces Biden, he’ll regain that five point drop he slowly lost to McCain.  The ads are effective, and Obama’s only response has been about the spirit of the ads.  Wake up Obama.  This is the big leagues, and you only get so much mileage with that line and it really only works on someone like Hillary.

If I am wrong, his other choices are a major strategy failing and you’ll see him continue to slide in the polls.

In only a couple months, Yahoo managed to not only lose a huge premium on the buyout of the stock, they also inked a deal with Google which will not only NOT help Yahoo! but hasten their death.

The whole  Yahoo Board of Directors along with Jerry Yang should be thrown out of their office and bitch-slapped.  Before Microsofts offer, YHOO was trading at the 20 level.  Microsoft put in a bid of $35.  A very healthy premium in a market getting crushed.  Not only did Yahoo! not jump at the chance to close the deal, but Jerry Yang had nothing but contempt for the offer.  He must have been channeling that girl in his high school that was too hot to notice him.

Mark my worlds.  Yahoo will never hit $33.

Why?  Because Yahoo! inked a deal with Google that makes Yahoo! entirely dependent on Google ads.  It won’t take long for Yahoo users to skip right on past Yahoo and go straight to Google.  After the conclusion of this deal, Google will have left Yahoo! entirely dependent on Google.  At that point, Yahoo will be so weakened that they will either whither away and die, or get picked up at a fraction of todays price.

If I were a Yahoo shareholder (I am not) I’d ditch the shares as soon as possible and watch the carnage.

See Ya Yahoo!  It was nice knowing you!!!

You may think that flying is out of the question since airlines are adding fuel taxes and increasing the prices of tickets. You’ve also likely heard the term “staycation” several times now.

Before you pack up the car for a trip, don’t miss out on one of the cheapest ways to travel. Flight,

Even as airlines increase the price of tickets, they want to fill as many seats as possible. Your willingless to drive can mean huge savings.

The simple google query “last minute flights” can yield huge savings. Just last week, I looked at a 12 hour drive. This trip is would cost $150 each way just in fuel costs. That is a $300 round trip.

As I packed up the night before, I hopped on and checked for last minute flights. I found one that was round-trip with all taxes and fees included for $202 dollars.

I was able to save nearly $100 dollars and several hours of travel. The flight times aren’t always the best and you are at the mercy of the airlines, but a little flexibility can save you hundreds.

Warner Bros. has managed to dump huge money in a film that was bound to be a huge box office bomb.  I don’t care if the Wachowski brothers threw their magic dust all over this one, this was ticking from the beginning.

Car movies are rarely compelling.  No matter how you glitz them up its hard to make them interesting.  There was so much visual flash, you had to wonder going it exactly how much this thing was going to suck.   The Wachowski Brothers are extremely talented and creative, but at the end of the day you need to know what story you are selling to the audience.  After watching the trailers and seeing the posters, I cannot for the life of me figure out what story they are trying to sell.

This movie has very intense computer graphics that are reminiscent of video games.  The problem being this isn’t a video game.  This is a video game sequences splashed in between a story and plot that never really delivers.  Movies are at the point where they cannot deliver a graphic or interactive experience on par with the top end video games in terms of “a-ha” effect.

If Warner Bros. was looking to start another franchise or show they have what it takes to translate Comics into movies, they took two giant steps back.  Let’s hope “The Dark Knight” was a much better effort.