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Please cast your vote for the most interesting person in technology in the poll in the right hand column. The winner in the poll will receive a Most Interesting Technology Person award, and a profile and interview will be posted online, and possibly in print. But I need at least 100 votes.

As a reward for voting, I'll send you a free, autographed copy of "Inside Larry & Sergey's Brain," a profile of the guys who founded Google and why they do the things they do. Hey, it was called a "must read" by Publishers Weekly.

After you vote, just send an email to rlbrandt@gmail.com, tell me why you voted for that person, give me a mailing address, and you'll get your book in the mail.

The winner will also be profiled in my next book. When the new book is published, everyone who voted for the winner will also get a free copy of that book as soon as it is available.

The people listed in the poll are just my suggestions. You can vote for someone else by voting for "Other" and adding a comment on why you voted for that person.

Remember, you get the free book about the founders of Google just for voting, regardless of who wins or how many votes I get.

It's all free, and none of your information will be shared with anyone under any circumstances. This is simply to spread word about my books. So tell your friends!

Thank you for your time.

Once again, Google has shown its blatant disregard for international copyright standards.

Earlier today, Google CEO Eric "Oh aren't I smart with my Ph.D©" Schmidt announced that the Mountain View, California company was changing its name to Topeka. 

Why? Because the city of Topeka, Kansas had supposedly given up the rights to that name when it announced it was changing its name to Google.

This argument doesn't wash any better than my uncle Ernie after a night drinking with the hoboes in U.N Plaza in San Francisco.©  

Google, sorry, Topeka, knew that the people of Topeka, sorry, Google, were only planning on making the change temporary.

The Topekans, sorry, Googlans, simply wanted to call attention to the fact that children in that city of 122,000 have never had the luxury of Web-surfing faster than 122K baud, 1,000 times slower than that enjoyed by children in more developed parts of the world like Singapore. The good people of Topeka, sorry, Google, Kansas want to convince Google, sorry, Topeka, to install a Singapore-speed© broadband network in its fair city. 

Google, sorry, Topeka, has promised to do that for any U.S. city willing to change its name to Google, sorry, Topeka, wait, I'm confused now. So that city-that-must-not-be-renamed in Kansas obliged, but only for a month.

Post an honest comment about this item and I'll send you a free, autographed copy of my book. Hey, it's a "must read" according to Publishers weekly! (Other reviews: http://www.richardlbrandt.com/drupal/node/31)

Here's some data about Craig Newmark, the founder of craigslist.org. Is this interesting to you, or old news? Would you buy a well-written, lively book about this guy?

Did you know that:

Outsiders estimate that Craigslist revenues are somewhere between $100 million and $300 million annually

The company has only 30 employees and the sites largely run themselves. That means huge profit margins on a company that takes in between $3.3 million and $10 million in annual revenues per employee. That's between 3x and 10x Google's revenue per employee.

Craigslist sites get more traffic than either Amazon.com or eBay and have over 50 million members.

Craigslist sites now have more job listings than Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com and Yahoo's HotJobs.com combined.

Although Craig netted $9.5 million when a former exec sold his stock to eBay, he would be worth at least $300 million if he took the company public.

He refuses to raise prices, charge for more listings or modernize the site's technology. If he wanted, he could probably be a billionaire. He despises “sociopathic organizations that have the almighty dollar as their only goal.” Craig's goal is to change the world.

A Chicago county sheriff described Craigslist as “the single largest source of prostitution in the nation."

The Spanish version of my book is out.

Info at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXGeKIHzXgI&feature=player_embedded

Info and video intro to book at
http://www.editorialviceversa.com/files/llibre.php?id=27

Beginning of the decade predictions are wonderfully fun. For the columnists making them. 

But they're generally about as accurate as George W. Bush talking about ... well, pretty much anything. Except for those predictions that are as obvious as a Sunday morning hangover.

    On its march to world domination, has Google come to a fork in the road and taken the corporate path most traveled? The one that leads a giant corporation to arrogance, monopolistic practices, disregard for competitors (and the welfare of whole industries), and just plain evilness?

    To many, Google's power and size have turned it into the old Microsoft, while the new Microsoft has become the poor underdog fighting the good fight against the Google monopoly. Google is abusing its power, poking its Snidely Whiplash nose into our personal Internet transgressions, monitoring our phone calls, stealing copyrighted books for its own gain, destroying the journalism business, censoring search results in China, and even dodging taxes in the UK.

    Enough hyperbole. Here are some facts. Well, OK, some actual opinions.

The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times are reporting that a new Google phone being tested by employees may be one whose software is designed from the ground up by Google, and that it may be unlocked.

TechCrunch has been following Google twitterers and their friends who are saying things like:

“Supposedly, Google employees were given tons of these phones today. unlocked,”

Earthlink has been having trouble making money lately. It's abandoning municipal wi-fi efforts to focus on "more profitable" businesses.

Earthlink can't figure out how to run the businesses it has. After years of great DSL service from Covad, I decided to switch to earthlink for phone and DSL because it's cheaper. I was hoping this was still a decent entrepreneurial company, not a jaded loser like the monopolistic telcos.

I was wrong. My service has been spotty. A week ago, the phone line suddenly went screwy, full of static. The static comes and goes, and is so bad that I can rarely get a DSL signal through it.

I went to tech support, and they spent hours getting me to unplug and plug in lines, cycle the modem, etc. Finally they agreed to send out a technician. But I had to wait two days.

I came across an interesting company at a Web Ventures conference and wrote about it. Several people have given their own feedback. Funding Universe offers a site for entrepreneurs to help them get funding. I've long felt that with the death of publications like Red Herring and Upside, there's a dearth of good resources for entrepreneurs. The new Red Herring, relaunched under new ownership, does not focus on entrepreneurs any more, which I think it should do.

Funding Universe offers weekly chats with angel investors, archives of documents that help educate you through the funding process, a service that rates your business plan as often as you like, the ability to upload documents and video for VCs to see, events with potential funders and consultations with funding experts. Most of the services are offered for a fee.