Hil emailed me today this link to a slideshow of pictures of baby bears. I can only imagine that these scientists are weighing the bears because they are ardent Stephen Colbert supporters who realize that when the great bear uprising occurs, they need to know what countermeasures and technology to deploy. I realize that my website is probably not deploying enough of its own technology, so I decided to see what I could make it do in the post.

I installed a while ago, but have had yet to actually use, a reasonably popular script for displaying images called Slimbox, which is a version of Lightbox2 that takes up less room. Here is an example using a bear.

But photos on the web are so 1997. I decided to see if I could also embed a video using the code provided to me by the bear-lover site, which they have titled "Bear cub in a sock" although it is clearly a sack and not a sock that the bear cub is in.

So what do we learn from all this? That I have managed to demonstrate the web design prowess of an 12-year-old girl? Sometimes that's just enough to keep these soulless creatures at bay.

It's the only month that starts with Feb, and love is in the air. I am talking, of course, about Microsoft which, jealous of lothario Google's dating record ("Wherefore art thou, DoubleClick?") and sexually frustrated by Apple's curvy leopard-print dress, has moved past its earlier pickup lines to Yahoo and Facebook, grabbed Yahoo forcefully by the hair, kissed it full on the mouth, and then leaned back casually to await a response. Will it get a slap, or is Yahoo drunk enough on strawberry daiquiris for some casual sumfin-sumfin in the back of Microsoft's Geo Metro? Yahoo! (Google, as everyone knows, drives a plug-in Prius, while Apple rocks a New Beetle). If MS gets a drink in the face from Yahoo's board, it can always mack on their stockholders, and drop poison-pill roofies in their recession-scare mojitos.

I'm not really excited about this possible merger. (Full disclosure: I think I still own Microsoft stock.) I think that at this point Yahoo is only going to drag down whomever tries to acquire it. And I don't want all of my email accounts to suddenly change to me874658923@windowsliveyahoohotmail.omg. Microsoft seriously sees no regulatory hurdles in forming a company combining the top two webmail providers? (Yahoo is #1, Hotmail #2, Gmail a distant #3 or 4 depending on who you believe.) At the same time, combining the usage of the Yahoo and Microsoft search engines would only give a total 26% of the market, as compared to Google's dominating 66%.

What I mean to say is that, since both companies are already kicking Google's butt in email, and since their joined numbers for search would still be losing badly, this may turn out to be an expensive buy for Microsoft with no potential benefits. Microsoft would deal a much bigger blow to Google by acquiring Facebook (although it is way overvalued), since Google's own attempts at social networking have been pretty anemic. I dunno. I was kinda pissed when they spent all that money to develop Xbox Live back in the day, but that seems to be doing well for them.

I detest Microsoft except when their stock makes me money, so I am often conflicted as to how I should judge their business moves. The crappy highway-side view they called Vista makes me laugh and then worry about my savings. But with this merger they've somehow made me upset about the future of my bank and email accounts. Thanks, Microsoft!

And hey, sometimes dotcoms like it when you come on strong, so you just keep doing what you're doing, buddy. No means yes when you've got deep pockets. Remember, there's a Melinda out there for every Bill.