The Digital Clip File

First Hotmail, now my health records?

2007-10-05T14:58:00.001-04:00

Microsoft launched HealthVault beta yesterday. Log in with your Live ID, upload your private, personal, confidential health records, and start sharing? Interesting.

Cutting the Bungie cord

2007-10-05T14:54:00.000-04:00

Rumors on Seattle P-I blogs turned out to be more than rumors. Microsoft said Friday it has spun off Bungie Studios, developers of the "Halo" franchise.

Pink and blue spreadsheets?

2007-09-24T11:57:00.000-04:00

That's what my editor wanted to know when I told him where my story on gender and computer science was going.

Reprints

2007-09-20T13:35:00.000-04:00

Once again, I've been lax in keeping this up to date. Here's a quick rundown of what's been keeping me busy:

Piracy, Amazon.com earnings, Digg fires Google, Microsoft's financial analyst meeting, Starbucks earnings, Office for Mac, Amazon's new fresh grocery delivery service, aQuantive acquisition closes, Xbox price cut (finally), Xbox wheel gets hot and smokes (yikes!), antitrust, Zune price cut, antitrust, antitrust.

Phew.

The profit post

2007-07-20T12:14:00.001-04:00

Microsoft reported 4th quarter, full-year results Thursday after the bell.

Vista sentiment, 6 months along

2007-07-18T15:48:00.000-04:00

Not sure how I managed to forget this one. How some people are feeling about Windows Vista.

DRM and Chickens

2007-07-17T21:46:00.000-04:00

Monday: the latest move in an ongoing battle between Microsoft's Windows Media DRM team and hacker or hackers who wish to set music and movies free.

Tuesday: Microsoft's addictive Chicktionary helps boost search share.

Getting hot in Redmond

2007-07-06T19:30:00.000-04:00

Microsoft said Thursday it's extending the warranty for Xbox 360 consoles to three years for death-by-general-hardware-failure.

The company isn't saying much about causes of death, but that's never stopped folks from speculating online.

Meanwhile, if you're Googling (or Live-searching) for my name and the word Xbox and you happen to see versions of this story with the word spelled "warrantee," um, apologies. Rest assured that my editor is planning to add "ee" to every IM'd word he sends me from now 'till eternity.

Google was underwhelmed, it seems...

2007-06-25T17:51:00.000-04:00

...by Microsoft's desktop search promises.

Ahead of tomorrow's U.S. District Court hearing, the U.S. search leader asks the DOJ to extend its Microsoft oversight.

The Antitrust

2007-06-20T12:22:00.000-04:00

Microsoft strikes a deal with the DOJ, after Google complains about desktop search. Updates continuing throughout the morning.

Jeff Bezos and women's shoes

2007-06-15T12:48:00.000-04:00

Amazon.com's annual shareholder meeting drew a small crowd, but they laughed big as Bezos spent a disproportionate amount of time showing off Endless.com, the company's new-ish shoes and accessories store. He adeptly described platform wedge sandals and red patent-leather ballet flats, but claimed he didn't know what a slingback was.

Read the straight story.

Update: One thousand words in a single shot.

Arts and crafts

2007-06-08T18:02:00.001-04:00

I've finally settled into a Seattle routine, though there's much to learn about Microsoft's technology and culture.

My latest on the culture front ran today online, and may show up in print tomorrow.

The broadcast editor also put together a nice little audio slideshow to complement it.

Dateline: Seattle

2007-01-10T10:43:00.000-05:00

After just a few short months on the job here, I'm moving already: to Seattle, to cover Microsoft. It begins already, even from New York:

Microsoft's Mystery Game Is Vista Promo

802.11n: Not quite yet

2006-12-11T15:49:00.000-05:00

I dropped in on the Wi-Fi industry story this weekend. The Wi-Fi Alliance, which makes sure all the manufacturers' chips/routers/cards/what-have-you are interoperable, put out some data with In-Stat, a research group, showing overall growth in wireless chipset shipments.

Craigslist: Monetization is still just jargon

2006-12-07T17:30:00.000-05:00

Unfettered by rules about what public company execs can and can't say in front of a mixed crowd, Craigslist's CEO gave a refreshingly frank talk at a UBS investment conference today.

It's the economy, stupid

2006-12-01T15:14:00.000-05:00

With help from gracious colleagues, I put together the main economy-focused story for the wire today. I spent a lot of time yesterday and today fumbling on the phone with equally gracious economists and manufacturing executives. Apparently, manufacturing didn't do too well in November.

On the spot for a...spotlight

2006-11-28T18:02:00.000-05:00

Every now and then an editor creeps up behind me and asks me to write somethingorother about somethingorother having to do with The Internets, for an ongoing, online-only story called the "market spotlight."

Here's today's installment, a very quick hit on how the un-Googles have fared this year.

Googley-eyed

2006-11-27T17:57:00.000-05:00

Is it better to be the reporter everyone else is reacting to? A Barron's column about Google's stock price sparked a sell-off today, at least if you believe what everyone else was writing this morning. Naturally, I had to follow suit.

Movie Madness

2006-11-22T14:16:00.000-05:00

Blockbuster's stock shot up today, on rumors from Taiwan, my dear old home.

China wireless companies

2006-11-17T17:26:00.000-05:00

I really love writing about Chinese tech companies -- at least the ones where I sort of understand the product. In this case, companies that sell ringtones, SMS service and other so-called wireless value-added services are getting squeezed by policies from the government-backed wireless providers, making for an interesting scramble in the sector to come up with new business models.

Shutterfly, and others

2006-11-16T18:00:00.000-05:00

I'm a devoted flickr user, but have been shopping around for a site where I can upload a photo and make a cool un-holiday-ish holiday card. Only fitting that work brought me to a UBS conference to talk to the CEO of Shutterfly Inc.

As for the cards -- postcards, I think -- I haven't decided who's going to get my business.

Some other recent-ish clips:

Speaking of stories without bylines...

2006-11-08T15:21:00.000-05:00

Before I dashed out of the office Monday, I was asked to write a short story about...how Time Magazine was writing about YouTube. Ah, journalism in the media capital of the U.S.

Catching up: 5 months at the AP, part 1

2006-11-03T08:20:00.000-05:00

I write a lot of stories each day -- five, ten, sometimes twenty -- that go out on the Web without my byline on them. That was surprising to me at first, but I've made my peace. Plus, do I really need credit for crunching numbers and essentially rewriting a press release? Some recent samples, from the third-quarter earnings season:

Sina Corp.
aQuantive Inc.

It's not poetry by any means. And the beat reporter who covers Sina may decide to rewrite my version and sign their name to it. Such is wire service life.

In between press releases, I squeeze in as much reporting and writing as I can safely without having a multitasking-induced breakdown.

Conde Nast's Wired buys reddit
What should Google do?

Why am I showing you only Yahoo Finance pages? It's the easiest place for me to find archived versions.

Now, back to work. Earnings season's almost over...thank god.

welcome

2006-11-03T07:20:00.000-05:00

After two years at the Wall Street Journal, I have taken a job at the Associated Press. Not only do I get a cool .org email address, but I have the privilege of seeing my work run free (some might say amok) on the Web.

The honest truth is that most reporters like to see their name in print. Since I don't have a stack of newspaper clippings to remind me every day that yes, in fact, I can do this, I thought I'd make a blog to keep track of my "clips." What a funny notion these days, no?