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One of the things clearly worth noting about Tuesday's announcement about a $200 million investment in Facebook is the fact that it values the company at $10 billion, down a third in the 18 months since Microsoft poured $240 million into the company.

However, the fact that Facebook isn't worth $15 billion, while confirmed on Tuesday, has been pretty well understood for some time. Ever since Microsoft took its stake, there have been questions about what the social network was "really" worth.

The $200 million investment announced Tuesday came from European company Digital Sky Technologies, which … Read more

Microsoft has been testing its search engine under the name Kumo, but if a report in Advertising Age is on target, it will launch under the name "Bing."

The advertising trade magazine says Microsoft will spend $80 million to $100 million on print, online, TV and outdoor ads touting its latest search effort. The magazine notes that figure is higher than most consumer product launches. Rival Google, meanwhile, spent just $25 million total on advertising last year, AdAge said.

Microsoft declined to comment on the report. The software maker is said to be planning to announce details on … Read more

Alina Percea, 18, needed to pay for a computing degree.

So, perhaps in an attempt to prove how significant computing is in modern life, she auctioned her virginity on a German Web site.

However, unlike Natalie Dylan, the American who claims to have secured bids of $3.7 million for the privilege of deflowering her (although no deeds seem either to have been signed or done), Alina did not attract offers in quite the same region.

The best bid she managed to secure came in at 8,800 pounds, or just over $13,000. The bidder, a 45-year-old Italian man, … Read more

I am a little on the touchy-feely side. On the right side of touchy-feely, of course. But it's the Polish blood, you see. Feel first, think later. Like Chopin. But not so much like Roman Polanski.

This touchy-feelingness means I've never bought a T-shirt on Amazon. However, I am rather tempted to sacrifice this principle, and any feelings attached to it, in favor of a T-shirt that features three wolves howling at the moon.

Oh, it doesn't seem like all that wondrous a design. It's just that, well, the reviews it's received on Amazon suggest … Read more

He is selling $25 for 87 cents. He's sold Michael Jackson tickets for next to nothing. And now he's selling an iPhone 3G for $7.48.

Perhaps you might think Nicolas Dickreuter, the creator of PsychoAuction.com, is a few bills short of a fold himself. Some of his friends think so.

Dickreuter used to work for Lehman Brothers and now he doesn't. So he set up the site, a sort of eBay on ganja, on which auctions last only a few minutes and prices are absurdly low.

"I appreciate that some of my friends are … Read more

So here's what having a strategy and taking a stand gets you. Yes, results.

At least that seems to be the conclusion one can reach from new data culled by BrandIndex. BrandIndex is a company that seems to get its kicks from tracking brands every 24 hours. A little neurotic, if you ask me. But you have to make a living somehow.

Anyway, its latest data suggests that Microsoft's "Laptop Hunters" campaign is radically altering value perceptions of PCs.

According to a report in AdAge, BrandIndex says Microsoft's so-called value perception has risen steadily since … Read more

Rudy the Parrot hates him.

Last week, Rudy tweeted: "They can try but they will never get to me. Birds live twice as long as cats, sometimes longer. @Sockington will perish."

I am sure that is true. However, whereas in January Sockington had 10,000 Twitter followers, now there are more than 500,000. Rudy is stuck on 1,573.

Sockington is, as you have probably guessed, a cat. One extremely popular cat.

He is the cat that belongs to Jason Scott, a man with remarkable sideburns who is the brains behind, amongst other things, Textfiles.com. Sockington'… Read more

You have called your coach out. You have dreamed that you would win. Then you go and beat the Boston Celtics in their own haughty arena in Sunday's Game 7 of the playoffs, a win that means you will now face off with LeBron James.

You are Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic, so whom do you thank?

Traditionally, a player might thank his family, his coach, his teammates, his very special conditioning coach. But, as if to prove just how much the world has changed, Dwight Howard went in a different direction.

Oh, he thanked God. As many … Read more

I once used to live in an apartment in London that had previously been something of a bordello.

It was a very nice apartment. However, it was extremely disconcerting to receive late-night calls from strange men wondering if Hermosa was available.

But this was but a mere twinge when compared with the discomfort of a woman from Norwalk, Conn., who also allegedly began to receive phone calls of a somewhat perplexingly sexual nature.

She described these communications to CBS 2 this way: "Men calling, looking for a good time. And I said, 'You got the wrong number.' I hung … Read more