My Nerves are Shot....

...about this election. Which is why I'm glued to the TV in an airport bar relieving tension through the almighty cocktail. However, I can't bear to listen to pundits battling over blue states and red states, so I'm listening to a new playlist instead. Thank vodka Steve Jang, a SarahLacy.com favorite and iMeem exec, compiled a list of Barack Obama's top ten favorite songs. So in between gulps and stomach flips, I'm singing out loud to some Rolling Stones, and fistpumping to Kanye. Which means I am literally Baracking the Vote.

We all know SarahLacy.com is nothing but bi-partisan, so I'll also listen to John McCain's playlist too. When I'm trying to pass out in my middle seat on our plane to London. Thanks Grandpa!

Election eeeeeek! from sarah lacy on Vimeo.

When Tech Reporters Become Irrelevant

In some ways, 2008 has been a great year for TechTicker to launch. The biggest tech story was, after all, the continually botched-then-even-more-botched deal between Yahoo and Microsoft. It was a story we surely had some implicit authority on, and one that allowed us to prove we'd cover Yahoo as reporters not employees. (I have the denied access to Yahoo's intranet to prove it.)

But the bad news is that's been pretty much the only big tech story. Mostly it's been a year of financial news. So, especially lately, TechTicker is looking less "tech" everyday. But, hey, people want to kvetch over the economic crisis, and we are here to oblige. If you haven't been watching Henry and Aaron's excellent coverage from the Nasdaq, you should start. Mostly, to see how excited Henry is about all of it. He is quite literally flying out of his chair in some clips. (Judging from these eye-popping numbers, few of you aren't watching TechTicker. I'm glad I wasn't missed during my month on tour. Sniff.)

In a semi-desperate attempt to have a value-add again-- or at least show off my latest DVF splurge-- I did a few segments with Paul Kedrosky around the crisis, trying to hew to tech as much as possible. If you're one of those people who needs an economy fix, clips are on the jump.

Um, Paging All Those Silicon Valley Libertarians...

Ok, I've been cyber-bullied and I think this is scary:

"Legislators are newly arming themselves with laws that will protect kids from being repeatedly harassed via the Internet, text messages, or other electronic devices. In recent weeks, Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) and Rep. Kenny Hulshof (R-Mo.) proposed    a federal law that would criminalize acts of so-called cyberbullying (PDF). And Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt was scheduled Friday to sign into state law a similar measure, but the event was postponed because of inclement weather in St. Louis.

Both state and federal laws were prompted by the suicide of Missouri 13-year-old Megan Meier, who was the victim of repeated harassment on MySpace.com. An adult neighbor was indicted in the case last month by a grand jury in Los Angeles not on charges of cyberbullying, but on charges of unauthorized access of a computer system with intent to harm another person. (Missouri litigators said they didn't have a law to prosecute the case at the time.)"

OK, my legal knowledge is limited to the reruns of Law & Order that provided great white noise while I was writing my book last year, but couldn't cases like this be covered under manslaughter or some such? Harassment/stalking or battery laws don't stipulate "offline only" right?

If enacted, this starts a new slippery slope of legislation that could endanger free speech (ahem, I hate when people call me the c-word, but doesn't mean they are felons) and crimp the Web's innovation.

Way More Useful than a Segway

Yahoo is such a crazy huge platform that I didn't blog about my Dean Kamen interview that made the site's front page on Friday. But a few friends didn't see it or hear anything about this amazing project, so I decided to embed it below. Below that is a much, much longer clip about Kamen's work with a non-profit called First. I'd wager both are more impactful than Kamen's last invention, the far more hyped Segway. (Although he addresses that too in the clip.) The interviews were a last minute get at D, and arguably the best stuff we did while we were there. It was too bad so many people left before the last day of the conference and missed Kamen's presentation on stage. (Fun fact: list to how insanely stopped up I am in my voice over! I was so sick in these clips!)

Doing Good, Not Just Writing about It

Jeremiah Owyang had a great point on my post yesterday. Why not actually use social networking to do good yourself, not just observe it? After all that's kinda the point of technology giving us all a platform. So I'm urging everyone to donate to the Red Cross or World Vision. More info on Jeremiah's blog. He points out that we're incredibly vulnerable to an earthquake in the Bay Area, so if nothing else it's good karma! I plan on donating. What about you?

Sue Part Two

In case you haven’t checked it out on Tech Ticker yet, here is the second half of my interview with Yahoo’s President Sue Decker. In this segment we focus on the future for Yahoo, including possible deals with Google, AOL or News Corp. Also, we ask about those high fives….

As usual, there's mass voting and commenting on Tech Ticker (including all the usual Sarah Lacy haters, no doubt!) Would love your comments here too!  (Now, back to my regularly scheduled, four-day late BusinessWeek column….)

Sue Decker Speaks!

I'm not going to lie: It was a long day at Yahoo today. Some 16 hours long, not counting my commute from SF to Sunnyvale, back to SF, back to Sunnyvale, and one day-- I hope!!-- back to SF. But we emerged with the exclusive interview of Yahoo president Sue Decker. I was actually pretty impressed with how she handled things. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Yahoo has generally been a champ about our using one of their biggest assets (Yahoo Finance) to dissect their job performance. If you watch our coverage it's been as tough as anyone's and we all still have jobs. (Knock wood, of course.)

Video is below, but click through to Tech Ticker to vote, comment, and read my blog on Yahoo.
Of course you are free to comment here too!!