Two relatively new websites that I can’t live without.

Songza

Songza puts every other online music service to shame. It’s of questionable legal nature, but poses no risk to end users. Songza indexes the web for unprotected MP3s and lets the user play them in an extremely elegant flash interface. It’s not possible to download the music, but it’s great when you want to play a particular song, or demo a song in it’s entirety before buying from iTunes or the like. Perfect for finding that one song to play during the party also.

TripIt

TripIt lets you forward any confirmation email from dozens of travel sites and automatically extracts all the important elements and organizes it neatly. For someone who travels a lot, it’s invaluable — lets you forward airline, rental car, and hotel confirmations and have it organized by date elegantly.

via xkcd.com

via practicesafepolicy.com

Google makes its money from advertising. Everyone knows this.

Earlier today, Firefox was not rendering a page correctly, so I switched over to Internet Explorer hoping it would. As I did so, something dawned upon me: I haven’t seen an online advertisement in over three years, let alone clicked one.

For example, one website that I frequent, GigaOm.com has a front page that is riddled with advertisements when opened in Internet Explorer, but none in Firefox. The reason? AdBlock Plus. AdBlock is an extension for Firefox that dynamically blocks advertisements using wildcard filters, etc. For example, three filters that were automatically applied to block all ad’s on GigaOm.com were “/magic-ads/*”, “.googleadservices.”, “.fmpub.net”.

GigaOm — Internet Explorer:

GigaOm — Firefox with AdBlock Plus:

Similarly on TechCrunch.com, a site I frequent more than 3-4 times a day, the filters that dynimcally blocked advertisements were, “.snap.com/$script”, “/ads/*”, “/openads/*?”, “.fmpub.net/”, and “http://ads.”

TechCrunch — Internet Explorer:

TechCrunch — Firefox with AdBlock Plus:

Similarly, NYTimes.com:

NYTimes — Internet Explorer:

NYTimes — Firefox with AdBlock Plus:

As AdBlock becomes more and more popular, the return that advertisers are receiving for their money is falling. Even though publishers will tout subscription numbers and daily uniques, the actual number of users that see the advertising is impossible to gage because AdBlock Plus blocks advertisements after the page has rendered, thus still loading the content, but just preventing it from displaying.

So back to the title? How can Microsoft Kill Google, and also entirely shake up how the internet works? Build AdBlock functionality into Internet Explorer 8. Sure it’d lose advertising revenue from Live.com, Hotmail.com, but is that Microsoft’s core business?

Microsoft has one advantage over Google that people always forget about. They make real products that people pay real money for. They aren’t resellers or organizers of information. But rather, they produce and sell products.

Kill online advertising and power returns back to the people who produce products that people demand. Game over. Checkmate.

With all this iPhone nonsense buzzing around the world today, you may have missed a huge decision. In Quanta v. LG Electronics, the Supreme Court ruled that a company can’t enforce patents down the supply chain, when a customer purchases a full licensed product from one of the patent holders licensees.

LG wanted to collect royalties from a company that had purchased a full licensed product from Intel, who is one of LG’s licensees.

I will be buying an iPhone on July 11th. At a $199 price point, it’s affordable to have both my blackberry for work and an iPhone for my adventures.

I had bought a iPhone 1.0 and returned it after being slightly disappointed. Let’s see how long this lasts.

On a less serious note, sure Mr. Jobs, you just released iPhone 2. Well this is what I want for iPhone 3.

SmartSend: Every one of us has at some point fired off an angry email in the heat of passion, only to instantly regret it. The next generation iPhone should be able to edit your blowups with “SmartSend” technology. SmartSend would stall emails in your outbox that include inflammatory content such as “go ahead and fire me,” “I never considered you a close friend anyway,” and “frankly, we don’t need your business.”

All-in-one tools: Who hasn’t been caught in meetings or cocktail parties without a Phillips head screwdriver when they need one? Apple could easily incorporate Leatherman-style tools into the design of the iPhone, concealing handy instruments like a nail file, beard trimmer, toothpick, and of course, a trusty pen knife.

ESP calendar: What most of us really need is a calendar program that reminds you about the appointments that you forgot to write down, rather than those you remembered. The new iPhone should auto-populate a calendar with data hacked from your brain, maybe using WiFi or that fancy 3G network they keep going on about.

Excuse profiles: Ever told your boss that you’re stuck in traffic when really you’re still in bed? Maybe that lie would actually work if the iPhone had customizable excuse profiles to mask unwanted noises or add helpful new ones: like road sounds, office noises, or static for those unbearable phone calls from mom.

Hands-free touch screen: Apple has already shown us they can perfect touch screen technology – big deal, we want more. How about an interface that works by mind control? That way you could browse your iPhone hands-free in the car, while typing on your laptop, or just for fun to impress your friends. If it worked in Carrie and Powder, it can definitely work for Apple.

iPal: Most iPhone users are busy people leading hectic lives, and the least Apple can do for $499 is provide you with a friend and confidant. The iPhone’s iPal should know how to comfort you when you’re down (automatically load laughing baby clips from Youtube?) and be your wingman when you need a drinking buddy. Have you ever seen an iPhone after a few beers? Me neither, but I’d like to.

25-hour clock: The new iPhone should add an hour onto your day to give you an edge over all those BlackBerry users that always complain about how “there isn’t enough time in the day.” I haven’t worked out the specifics, but I’m sure there’s some sort of algorithm that can do this.

via Portfolio.com

Warren Buffet has bet the principal in the hedge fund Protégé Partners, that an S&P 500 Index Fund will yield higher returns than the net average returns (less management fees) of any five hedge funds of his choice. The amount of the bet: $1m and the proceeds going to charity. – Fortune

For those of you who like to be ahead of the curve, access your facebook account via http://www.new.facebook.com. It gives you a preview of the new version of the facebook design that is due to be released in the upcoming weeks.

I’m not sure how I feel about it yet. I like the lack of clutter, but for people with relatively tiny profiles and no applications, it feels like there is too much white space.

Screen shots are below:

Forget the fact that there is rising demand all over the world and exporters are shipping less. Let’s just blame the “failed” Bush energy plan and come up with silly ideas like a “gas tax holiday”.

Poston, Arizona.

The following is the black and white version of the beach in San Clemente, CA.

Gas Prices around the country — Source: GasBuddy.com