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It's Coop's -30- column: Adios, sorta

It's a stylistic flourish that dates back to the days when reporters would file stories they typed out on typewriters. (Quick show of hands: How many of you still know how to change typewriter ribbons? OK, how many of you worked with typewriters in the first place? Never mind.)

Within the journalism profession, it's become a tradition to label your farewell piece as the -30- column. Explanations vary. The one that I most like equates the number with a "sign of completion."

That's a nice poetic approach, though it's only nine years since I … Read more

YouTube phenom Susan Boyle talks (in few words)

If Susan Boyle is overwhelmed, she isn't exactly showing it.

On Thursday morning, the YouTube singing phenomenon (11 million hits and counting) appeared on CBS' "The Early Show," standing in her living room in her best pearls.

In the face of morning show questions, she gave honest and comfortingly short answers. Scots don't gush. Some Scots barely speak at all. (Try watching the original series of the Scottish detective saga, "Taggart.")

How does she feel about stardom? "It hasn't really sunk in yet." How did she deal with the laughter when … Read more

How technology is changing broadcast TV

As the marketing guy at CBS, it's my job to get people to watch our programs. Our department is like an ad agency, with CBS shows as the clients--everyone from "60 Minutes" to Letterman, to "CSI" and the NFL. Each day, our focus is on how people find out what's on television and how to get them to watch, which is an increasingly difficult task given the huge volume of content that's available and the plethora of ways people are consuming it.

Sometimes my job is hard to explain. When my kids were … Read more

YouTube gets NCAA games

Add YouTube to the list of Web sites offering visitors live streaming video of NCAA Division I men's tournament games.

The Google-owned video site quietly began streaming college basketball games on Thursday via a feed from CBS (parent company of CNET News).

I don't understand why CBS wouldn't have promoted this more in order to take full advantage of YouTube's enormous audience. YouTube, by far the Web's largest video site, recently said more than 100 million U.S. visitors log on to the site. YouTube didn't do a lot of press prior to Thursday'… Read more

How to make sure your NCAA bracket is the winner (clue: EA's simulation)

Everyone has an NCAA bracket. It's like underwear. So few people come back home without it.

The problem is that the regular season of NCAA basketball might as well be sponsored by Xanax. It used to be wonderful and then players started leaving after one year of (not) attending college in order to turn pro. (See how many of your friends can name last year's Kansas starting five.)

In any case, the whole point of your NCAA bracket is to gain some superiority in your workplace of painful mediocrity.

So, because the Tournament starts tomorrow and because I … Read more

March Madness: 10 sites to feed your need

The NCAA Basketball Tournament is just days away. And now that the teams are ranked and ready to play, we have you covered. Not only can you join our Webware Bracket Challenge, but we've compiled a list of online services that will help you get the most out of the tournament. Whether it's creating brackets, researching players, or just watching the games online, it's all right here.

Stream, stream, stream

CBS (which owns CNET News and the Webware blog) is the television host of all the NCAA men's basketball games this year, so it shouldn't … Read more

Join the Webware Bracket Challenge on CBS Sports

Are you getting ready for the most exciting season in NCAA Basketball? So are we. And that's why we've created a public bracket for Webware writers and readers to create their own brackets and see who stands above the rest as the best March Madness performer in our community.

If you want to sign up and compete, sign up for a free CBS Sports ID, and once complete, follow this link to get to the Webware invite page.

You'll be asked to input a password. Type webware into the password field, and you'll be able to … Read more

Get ready for fantasy baseball--18 top sites

Baseball season is almost under way. So it's time we all get online and start forming our fantasy leagues. Perennial favorite sites from ESPN, Yahoo, and MLB.com will probably top the list for most people when they decide which service to use, but more goes into fantasy baseball than simply signing up for leagues. What about stats? Did you forget about the news? Did you happen to remember scouting tools?

Hear are the rest of the sites you need.

Step 1: Form the league

There are a number of fine league-building services out there, but if you want to have the best experience, stick to these selected few:

CBS Sports Not only is CBS Sports' Fantasy Baseball league free, it provides real-time scoring, live chat so you can talk with buddies during the game, and adequate player news and stats to help you make more informed decisions. I've used it a few times over the past five years and find it to be easy to use and high-powered for a private or public league. Disclosure: CBS Sports and CNET are owned by the same parent company: CBS.

ESPN Fantasy Baseball I've also used ESPN's fantasy sports services for years, and I've been impressed with how much they offer. Leagues are free, player news and stats come straight from ESPN, one of the best sources for sports news, and managing your team couldn't be easier. But ESPN's penchant for charging for extra scouting help and more in-depth player information is annoying.

MLB.com If you want the most basic offering for your fantasy baseball league, you'll probably want to use Major League Baseball's service. It's free and makes it easy to set up a league. But I'm generally unimpressed with its stat tracking, and managing a team isn't nearly as easy as it is in competing services. It's a well-known fantasy site, but it's not the best.

Yahoo Sports Yahoo was one of the first companies to start fantasy leagues. More than a decade later, it's still providing an outstanding experience. All the leagues are free, player information is always up-to-date and reliable, and the service's stat tracking is second to none. Yahoo does charge some hefty fees for access to a draft kit ($9.99) and a scouting report ($14.99), but it's still a great service.… Read more

CBS Sports gets a March Madness iPhone app

On Thursday, CBS Sports Mobile released a March Madness On Demand application for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Tracking the NCAA's college basketball tournament, March Madness, CBS Sports' iPhone app will stream videos of the games live over Wi-Fi, and will stream audio commentary if you've got a 3G or EDGE connection.

In addition to video or audio streaming, the March Madness On Demand app will show updated scores of ongoing games, news stories, bracket information, team stats, preview segments, and video recaps of past games in a screen dedicated to highlights.

The app's video and audio … Read more

The 404 295: Where we hide our junk in the cloud

Facebook loses your uploaded photos temporarily. Wilson knows this due to his vigilant Facebook stalking. We're still running our motto contest, and right now it's split between "The nerdy dirty" and "Full frontal nerdity." If you can come up with something better, please send a voice mail to 1-866-404-CNET (2638). Please! We're an audio show, e-mails only go so far.

More on today's show, we've got some news about the rise of pay-per-view porn on cable. We can't figure out why you don't just download it, but hey there's still a whole population out there that still watches movies from VHS. Speaking of watching stuff, our parent company CBS is going to be streaming March Madness online this year. Expect productivity to drop to nothing--as if the economy isn't bad enough.

Also, the economy has hit Google as well. They're announcing that they'll have to close two caf?s. They still get to keep their free laundry, massages, lunches, dinners, snacks, stock options, etc. I know it's rough being a Googler. We're worried they're going to take away our Flavia machine. Finally, did you know that you pay an average of $3 per minute with your cell phone plan? Yeah, shocker right there. Wilson had to give AT&T his first-born child when he went over.

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