This morning I went to play tennis with a good friend and colleague of mine and although I hadn't played for over a year (due to a knee injury) I felt really good. Sure, I made quite a few (unforced) errors and got pretty tired at the end (considering we only played a couple of sets after a 20-minute warm-up) but at my age (37) what really matters is to stay healthy and set a good example for my kids (8 and 7 years old). So, I decided in the new year (2007) to go back to the gym at least 3-4 times a week (mix it up with cardio, weights, swimming, and tennis).

Saddam Hussein's execution earlier today prompted me to search for his biography. When it comes to "controversial" figures such as Iraq's long time ruler, I prefer tapping into unbiased sources and form my own opinion. Predictibly, I ended up on Wikipedia's article.

Read more »

According to a recent study by comScore which examined blog visitation throughout North America and Western Europe, Canada had the highest penetration of visitors to blogs, with 58 percent of all Internet users visiting the category in October 2006. Although a big segment of my blog's growing audience is from Canada, I cannot claim any piece of the action since I only started blogging at the end of November (2006)!

Read more »

I'll never forget the first time that I went to the circus (with my parents back in Athens, Greece). It was the famous Circo Medrano from Italy. I was young enough to laugh every single time a clown would fall down, and old enough to stare at the female acrobats and their revealing outfits. The trapeze was my favourite part of the show. And, of course, the pop corn (I never really liked cotton candy), the balloons... we even took a photo with a cute little monkey!

Read more »

One of the very few blogs that I enjoy (and actually find the time to read) is that of Mark Cuban's Blog Maverick. Great insight. I also like the fact that he blogs it the way he sees it (my blog's motto). Today, he took another shot at YouTube!

Read more »

On December 19th Google announced its annual Zeitgeist, featuring lists and charts of the most popular and fastest-rising global search terms that people have typed into Google.com.

Read more »

From the December 25, 2006 issue of TIME magazine*

The "Great Man" theory of history is usually attributed to the Scottish philosopher Thomas Carlyle, who wrote that "the history of the world is but the biography of great men." He believed that it is the few, the powerful and the famous who shape our collective destiny as a species. That theory took a serious beating this year.

Read more »

Leading Web properties such as Yahoo! and Google may offer advanced tools to personalize a user's Internet experience, however, there's still lots to be done in this area. In fact, it's a lot of "little things" that would make a difference.

Read more »

Mamma.com shares (NASDAQ: MAMA) have skyrocketed since the self-proclaimed "Mother of All Search Engines," announced (on Dec. 12) the launch of an online video meta search engine that would help people find videos throughout the Web. As a result, the company's stock peaked yesterday (Thursday) at a one-year high of $8.60, more than triple the share price the day before the announcement. The stock traded as low as 86 cents in late summer.

Read more »

Ever since I moved to Canada (1993) I've been calling my parents back in Greece on a weekly basis (if not more frequently due to holidays, birthdays, etc.) With the deregulation in the long-distance sector the year before (1992), I remember being approached by a long-distance reseller who offered "highly competitive rates" for international calls and "as low as $1 per minute for Greece" (they even provided me with a cost/savings analysis based on my "call patterns")! It didn't take me long before I "switched". Not just because I'm not in favour of any monopoly (unless we're talking about the board game) but also because it was indeed a good deal!

Read more »

National football team coaches and captains from around the world voted Fabio Cannavaro as the 2006 FIFA World Player of the Year. The 33-year-old defender led Italy to the World Cup title earlier this year in Germany. Zinedine Zidane, who took the World Cup's top player award despite receiving a red card in the final for head-butting Marco Materazzi in injury time, was second. Ronaldinho, who won the title in 2004 and 2005 and another victory would have put him equal with Zidane and Ronaldo for the most awards since their creation in 1991, was third.

Read more »

British entrepreneur Alex Tew who made $1M almost a year ago by selling pixels on The Million Dollar Homepage is back with version 2.0: Pixelotto. As the name implies, this one combines pixel advertising with lottery, and, according to Tew, it's a Win-Win.

Read more »

The Word of Mouth Marketing Association's (WOMMA) Summit opens tomorrow (Dec. 12th, 2006) in Washington, D.C. It looks like an action packed two-day event with an awesome keynote (Ted Leonsis from AOL) and intense networking opportunities.

Read more »

Back in 1998, when Idealab impresario Bill Gross introduced GoTo.com and the "concept" of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, there was a lot of skepticism and debate about the legitimacy of buying your way to the top of search engine results. Today, PPC advertising is a common interactive marketing practice and all the major search engines, directories and publishers display such ads.

Read more »

I'm a huge football (soccer) fan and earlier this year I was very happy to attend a pre-qualification match for the UEFA Champions League between my favourite club A.E.K. (Athlitiki Enosis of Constantinople) and Hearts (Heart of Midlothian Football Club) from Scotland at the Athens Olympic Stadium. For the record, AEK won the match (3-0) and eventually advanced to the Groups stage where they would face Anderlecht, Lille, and A.C. Milan.

Read more »

Today is the International Volunteer Day (IVD). IVD offers an opportunity for volunteer organizations and individual volunteers to make visible their contributions - at local, national and international levels - to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. Over the years, rallies, parades, community volunteering projects, environmental awareness, free medical care and advocacy campaigns have all featured prominently on IVD.

Read more »

Almost everywhere I go these days I carry a credit card size SONY Cybershot digital camera that also captures (MPEG format) video. I bought this camera not just because my Canon Digital EOS cannot fit in a pocket but because I also wanted to be able to take small (no need for high quality) video clips without having to carry my "bulky" SONY digital camcorder as well. Mind you, I carry all these three plus a film camera (actually, my wife carries that) when we have our children's birthday parties... But let's not go there!

Read more »

As you may have read in my previous blog, the 15th Asian Games are underway. Despite their huge audience (not just people within Asia but also Asians and/or sports fans in North America and around the world), there is very little coverage (almost non-existent) among the major US-based portals / news sites.

Read more »

In the next 2 weeks, more than 10,500 athletes will compete in 46 disciplines across 39 sports in 424 events. A potential worldwide audience of 3 billion viewers is expected to watch the Games.

One may wonder: Is this an Olympic Games blog? Can't be! Unless the posting date is false...

Read more »