I wrote yesterday about the Microsoft/Yahoo alliance, and my update to that entry (earlier today) sorta sums up what I feel: Yahoo is circling the drain.

But don’t take my word; here are couple of good snippets about the MS/Yahoo deal by folks way smarter/wired than me:

Make no mistake, Yahoo’s out of the search game. I know the spin. Better user interface, new ways to innovate, a winning play. Let’s not kid ourselves. They’re done. Not today, not necessarily in a year, but down the line at some point. Done.

And it’s sad, because they were one of the originals. There was a time when the mighty Yahoo roared above all other search engines. When people were so worried about being listed in Yahoo that they pondered lawsuits over the issue, because not being in Yahoo was like not being on the internet at all.

Sound familiar? Yeah, Yahoo was the Google of its day. Funny to write that — it should be Google is the Yahoo of its day, but that’s how the tables turned in the search space.

— Danny Sullivan, A Search Eulogy For Yahoo

Yahoo committed seppuku today.

The once proud warrior of the internet space laid down its sword, knelt at the feet of Microsoft and gutted itself today. There was no honor in this death, it was one brought by the shame of losing to Google and a lack of faith in one’s ability to compete in the space they created. To be clear, Yahoo didn’t need to do this deal, Microsoft did. Ultimately Yahoo will look back at this moment as the second–and perhaps fatal–mistake in their epic history.

…

Microsoft’s massive investment into video games, mobile operating systems and search are clear indications that Sony’s Playstation, Google’s Andriod, the iPhone, Google and Yahoo are very important companies.

Nintendo didn’t give up when Microsoft came into the video game space–they innovated. Now the Wii outsells the mighty XBOX 50 million to 30 million. That is how you fight Microsoft: you innovate. Steve Jobs knows this, Nintendo knows this, and Oracle knows this. Yahoo, apparently, did not get the 40-year-old memo.

— Jason Calacanis, Yahoo committed seppuku today

OK, Microsoft and Yahoo today announced a search/ad deal, which basically targets Google.

OK, this was sorta expected, and the full details have not been announced, but the thing that surprised me was the duration of the deal: 10 years.

Yikes!

In internet time, that’s like a gazillion years. Imagine how many Facebook.com-like sites will launch, climb and crash and burn in a decade.

Hell, this is a deal for web search/ads; the market for web search/ads can’t be older than that.

Interesting….

Note: First glance at the union; I’m sure I’ll revisit at some point. All I know now and have had the time/brainpower to process.

Update 7/30/2009: The more I read about this, this is the beginning of the end for Yahoo. It was perhaps a necessary step, but one that makes the company, to a degree, irrelevant. This is sad, as Yahoo pretty much started search; it is an internet pioneer/former giant. On the other hand, I really don’t think Microsoft gained that much in this agreement (other than tripling its search percentage for virtually nothing). I think Google won.

Pic from NASA

Ah, I remember sitting on the cold tiles in our basement, watching the moon landing on our cabinet TV (wood enclosure; TV tube top, speaker bottom).

I remember being upset over the clarity of the pics – we cut from some network news/report from Mission Control to some wildly contrasty images.

From the moon.

Neil Armstrong climbing down the LEM (Lunar Excursion Module) ladder and stepping onto the moon.

Forty years ago.

I was 10 years old. When I think back about it, I still am (10 years old). I was there. How amazing?!

Given all that I know (and don’t know) about computers, physics and so on, it’s still that much more amazing (watch Apollo 13 – lots of slide rules [which I mastered and no longer need]; save a space project with a slide rule? I’m listening…).

Kudos to all the Apollo program members, and I recall (after the fact [I was 3] ) JFK’s address to Rice University:

We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon… (interrupted by applause) we choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.

— John F. Kennedy, We choose to go to the moon (9/12/1962)

Ah, nice pic – love the subtle purples and yellow that contrast with the hard line of the leaves in the water/the dark water.

The thumbnail doesn’t do it justice (really, and I’m not tooting my own horn): Click here for the larger image. Nice.

From our trip to the Chicago Botanical Garden, Glencoe, IL, earlier this month.

And yes, I took a bunch of pics, most of are not worth “publishing” (I put that in quotation marks because what constituents publishing these days???). I published my favorites with my home-grown pic publishing system(s).

I’m so circa 2000/pre-Flickr.com. Agreed. Upsides and downsides.

Ya know, this intertubes thing might just catch on.

I’ll fax you all about same….

Finally hit the Chicago Bot Garden (Glencoe, IL) after a few years of missing it.

I don’t know if we hit it at different times – or the weather played a factor – but lots of stuff in bloom this year. I’m putting together a gallery, but that’ll take weeks, to be honest (no time!).

Beautiful day, and saw some good stuff. Good enuf for me…

Update 7/11/2009: posted most of the pics I’ll post for that day in the Chicago Bot Garden – 2009 gallery.

Downloaded the new cut of Firefox at work today (very old, RAM-challenged box).

Took a long time (five minutes?) to fully install, but right now, very happy.

Nothing bad has happened, and one good thing has happened: It’s more stable.

I run Firefox pretty hard on my (work) 512k, 5-year-old system, and I usually have 3-5 (Firefox) restarts per day. In particular, when McAfee updates (daily), it chokes Firefox.

Since installation, no crashes – slight slowdown on the McAfee update.

Some small changes (porn mode, certificate notification in location bar and so on) in this release, but nothing really big (to me).

I downloaded hoping for stability, and I thinks I gots same.

Update 7/1/2009: Approximately two (biz) days since installation; no crashes/restarts. Often got CPU challenged, but recovered. So far, good update.

Update 7/2/2009: Still no crashes. Worst issue is a little hang (sometimes) when typing in a URL.

Update 7/14/2009: Finally sorta died; restarted. I went from 2-5 crashes a day to one in two weeks. Again, I run browsers hard — on crappy computers — but that’s a HUGE improvement. Kudos to the Firefox team.