Dear Yahoo!, Close The Gates!

Why does Microsoft have to buy everything? Rumor has it they want to open negotiations with Yahoo! about a merger. Merger my ass. This is what happens when companies get too big for their own britches and all the owners and CEOs want to whip out their tiny penises and measure up. Way Way Way back in time, when AOL was one of the few ISPs in my area, i used their service. Mind you, this is back in 1993 or so. I hated AOL. It was like an amusement park. I just wanted to get online, I didn't need a cutesy icon for everything. I quickly switched to Netzero when it became available in my area. Right from the start, I used Yahoo! mail. It was free. It was portable....I didn't need to use virus sprouter Outlook.... I beat the corporate giants - I was an Internet rebel with my $9.95 access and email I could get from anywhere (again, not many people offered this service back in the day). Back when Google was only about searching, I used it exclusively. These companies can never leave well enough alone. Pick one thing and do it better than anyone - you don't have to put your grimy little hands in everyone else's pocket. More and more things today are all run by major corporations. I'm a capitalist at heart, but if all the newspapers and radio stations and entertainment outlets are all run by the same giant conglomerate - where is the diversity going to come from? The giants fail to create anything innovative for a long time and the second something comes along thats cool (like YouTube for instance) and has a lot of buzz - they gobble it up. I almost wish some of these companies would stay private and not sell out. Yahoo is already a giant fish that gobbles up guppies and now it might get chewed up and spit out itself. I think some companies gravitate towards open-source software not because it's necessarily better or that they can customize it...I think a certain percentage of open-source users just want something different ie NOT Microsoft. The fact that Gates thinks he can take a piece of iPod's business away is laughable. You cannot improve on perfection. I'd like to know how much money he's wasted trying to do so. Really, how much longer is it before Microsoft starts putting energy drinks on the market?

Manson Followers Group Photo Found

This photo was recently discovered in a box full of memorabilia belonging to a longtime member of the Charles Manson clan. The member suddenly quit when the authorities were closing in on the underground group and went into hiding. After a name change and some soul searching, the troubled young adult found Jesus and got his life back together. Although Manson isn't in this picture himself, some of his most devoted disciples are. The back row contains Lenny "Chops" Morgan who wore his sideburns in the "pork chop" style because he liked to "chop" off fingers and toes from people he killed. He used the parts for jewelery he would wear himself. Second from left in the back is Manson's brother, Robert. Robert never killed anyone with his own hands but was present when other murders took place. He often planned the clan's menus and drove the getaway cars. He was somewhat jealous of Charles but due to his low IQ (reportedly 76) Charles couldn't trust him with important tasks. In the back row on the right is "Bear" Jones. Rumor has it that Muppets creator Jim Henson had a fascination with the Manson scene and the muppet Fozzie Bear was created in "Bear" Jones' image. Second from the left in the second row is Epstein Goldberg. He kept the finances for the terror group and after serving 10 years in prison went on to start a record label and is now semi-retired from the entertainment industry. The first guy on the left in the bottom row is.....is......Bill Gates? Damn! I got my stories messed up. This is a photo of the 11 founding members of Microsoft Corporation. Sorry. Well, they all look like Manson followers...except Bill...which is kind of scary in itself.