Oh Dear, This Is A Dog's Life!

Oh well, this is not news.

Just some inconsequential ramblings about life writing an eclectic news blog as an unpaid newshound. Not to mention, there are two other personal blogs to take care of while I go about my business.

I've got a funny feeling that watching the World Wide Web spinning around might be like spinning a yarn that has no end to it.

In other words, I'm a little short of breath doing this darn thing. It's a dog's life, if you asked me.

Maybe chasing rabbits might be easier and more fun.

Has this bloghound been barking up the wrong tree? Taking on more than he could chew? With this blog?

Oh yeah, some bloggers like to rave about their faves. Others prefer to apply different laws of attraction to their blogs. Like they say, it's different folks, different strokes.

But I must say I have encountered a lot of bloggers who are nice and charming folks, dishing out good advice and other tid-bits. Some are awesome in their blogging and some are inspiring.

And some don't seem to get much sleep at all!

Like they say, it's the Freedom of the Blogosphere. You put in what you have to put in. And it goes out into Blogosphere for all to see.

Well, I could keep going...doggedly if I have to...

Doggone It! Here Come Snoopy Dogs Lucky And Flo

Watch out when you see two black Labrador Retrievers poking their noses here and there in your shop.



The real crunch comes when these two dogs sit down and wag their tails.

It may not turn out to be a friendly canine gesture. More likely they are pointing their paws at you - that they have found something suspicious.



True enough, Lucky and Flo had sniffed out 10 million Malaysian ringgit in fake optical discs at a shopping complex in the southern Malaysian city of Johor Baru on Tuesday, according to a report by the English-language newspaper New Straits Times (NST). Johor Baru is just north of the island state of Singapore.



The two sniffer dogs from Northern Ireland are presently on a month-long working trip to Malaysia.



They became an instant hit when they made the biggest pirated optical discs bust of the year on their very first official assignment in the country.



The fake discs were meant to be exported to Singapore, Britain, Hong Kong and Japan.The NST, quoting enforcement officers, reported that the syndicate "is probably one of the biggest in the country." It had been very active shipping out discs worldwide.



(Although proud of their achievement, this WiredHound feels it's being outdone by Lucky and Flo when it comes down to the real nose job)



Lucky and Flo are trained to be the first canines in the world to sniff out discs. They can detect polycarbonate and other chemicals used in the production of optical discs.



Read more...



Latest - Just got wind of the news from another newshound today: Just like a Mafia movie, it's believed that a contract is out on sniffers Lucky and Flo. Now, several guards have been assigned to protect our two canine heroes who have got the pirates all worked up.

For the record: Lucky and Flo are not the first dogs to have attracted a bounty on them. A Colombian drug cartel placed a $10,000 USD bounty on a golden Labrador Retriever named Agata in 2004. Agata was one of Colombia's best drug-sniffing dogs.



Agata had tracked down 300kg of cocaine and 20kg of heroin since she began her sniffing career in 2003.

Photo credit: NST

Google, YouTube: The Ghost Of Copyright Returns

It's all coming back to haunt Google and YouTube.

When the Mountain View search engine kingpin gobbled up YouTube, Inc. for $1.65 billion in October last year, the acquisition shook up the dotcom landscape.

It was the most expensive takeover in Google's eight-year history.

At that time, industry pundits were wondering how Google would deal with copyright issues in view of the "freeloading" of videos on YouTube.

Now, entertainment giant Viacom Media is suing both Google and YouTube for $1 billion for illegally using its TV programs.

The BBC News website reported that the lawsuit seeks more than $1 billion in damages and an injunction to prevent copyright infringement.

Last month, Viacom, which owns cable networks MTV and Nickelodeon, told YouTube to remove 100,000 "unauthorised" clips.

Read more...

Related topics:
Google's copyright nightmare
Viacom Sues Google, YouTube
YouTube removing Viacom TV shows

USA Today - Expanding A Journalistic Mission

September 15, 1982 - that was a momentous day for Allen H. Neubarth.

His Gannett Company had just launched USA Today, America's first national daily newspaper and also the first satellite-delivered full-color American daily.

It was a high-stake venture for founder Neubarth, a man who is well-known for his never-say-die competitive spirit. It was his dream come true.

March 2, 2007 - USA Today launched a new-look website that's hyped as an expansion of the newpaper's journalistic mission that "we set for ourselves nearly 25 years ago when the newspaper first launched."

In a note to the readers, Editor Ken Paulson wrote on the new website:


In many ways, it's an extension of the mission we set for ourselves nearly 25 years ago, but it is a mission recast for an era in which readers increasingly have the power to monitor many different sources of information at once; to more quickly assess the credibility of those sources; and to share their reactions with a wide audience."

One of the main aspects coming out of this launch is the new Community Center blog that's slated to become "a hub for network journalism activity on the site."

How are reactions to the new site? As with most new things, there are always the pros and cons. Initial previews from Web media analysts were generally positive but since its launch early comments coming to the USA Today.com site were mostly negative.

Related topic:

Can newspapers do blogs right?

GMail In The US Faces Petition

If you are having a GMail address, who knows, you may have to change it if Google lose the rights to the GMail trademark. They lost it in the UK and now...

Here's the latest tip-off from Jason L. Miller of WebProNews:

The company that recently won the rights to the GMail trademark in the UK has taken its case Stateside. And if Independent International Investment Research (IIIR) is successful claiming its stake to GMail in the US as well, your @gmail.com address could change to @googlemail.com instead.

Late last month, IIIR filed a petition with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to cancel Google's ownership of the GMail trademark, alleging the company had improperly acquired their application for it in 2004. "

Read on...