With only a few days leftuntil we spring ahead the clocks,the buzz meter is really starting to move. I've been reading a lot of the news and blog postings and they really run the gamut from mini-Y2K to "no big deal." ZDNet just posted something on how much money it's going to cost IT departments and compares that with how much we're going to save in energy costs. They come up with some figures that make it look like a loser for the conservation team.  read more »

I have been fascinated by all the debate around the inefficacy of Cost-Per-Click (CPC) model prevalent with search engines and shopping comparison sites. In his December 4 article in the New York Times, Bob Tedeschi highlighted some of the online shopping newcomers who are attempting to differentiate themselves from the three leading, multi-million dollar shopping sites,  read more »

I connected with David Strom, an old friend who I first met when we both worked at Ziff Davis. David is an articulate, knowledgeable, observer and reporter on everything high tech. Here's a link to one of his many sites which has some interesting and useful posts on using tech in your daily life. You can also find him onour blog roll.

We just posted an "everything you ever wanted to know about daylight saving time," page. The reason we think this is important is because there are a lot of devices all the way from enterprise servers to camcorders that are going to change time on the wrong date this year. Before you start complaining, just remember that getting the sun to set an hour later really doesoffer some real benefits. It saves energy because more people are outside and not using lights and appliances. It also cuts down on traffic accidents and even reduces crime. That said, it's s  read more »

Here's the cheapest and best way I've found for callingmy daughter who'sdoing a semester abroadin Florence.The problem with the no charge call-backservices isshe gets charged about $.38 a minute for local calls while incoming calls are free so the $.32 that rebtel charges seems to be the most reliable and cheap so far. Jajah only charges $.21 but the two times I tried it, I couldn't get it to connect. Allfreecalls.net told me they didn'twork withher number,My hunch isthey don't work with cell phones but I could be wrong.  read more »

There was a well-written article in Wall Street Journal today about venture debt and its virtues. You can read the article summary here. You need subscription to read the complete article. Besides the fact that the article started with Retrevo, Pui-Wing did a good job of presenting different viewpoints about the venture debt from entrepreneurs, venture capital investors and venture lender  read more »

As I mentioned earlier, my daughter is spending a semester abroad. What could a Dad want more than to be able to see his daughter as well as talk to her from oversees?  read more »

Jim Samples, the head of Cartoon Network resigned according to NY Times. Samples, who had been with the network for 13 years felt compelled to step down amidst all the public scruitny and bad press TBS got for the guerrilla marketing around''Aqua Teen Hunger Force''. Of course no uplift in viewership week to week despite the publicitydidn't help the cause. It underscores theresponsibili  read more »

I just sent my daughter off to Florence, Italy for a semester abroad. Naturally, I wanted to connect with her the cheapest and best way possible. Fortunately she had a Motorola V551 which is a quad band phone required to handle European GSM frequencies. Unfortunately it needed to be unlocked before it could take an Italian SIM card. Cingular provided the unlock code for free, it just took a few days for them to get it from Motorola.  read more »

Hello, My name is Andrew Eisner. I just joined the Retrevo team full time now that we have a little cash in the bank.  read more »