Mob mentality, especially on the market, can be a dangerous thing. I've found that often, the best thing to do long term is to avoid the one-day panics as groups jump out of one stock or another, whether based on rumors, or even hard news. This week's activity in eTrade just may be exactly that, as I've seen the viability of my long-term broker put in question.

As speculation and analyst commentary stated, eTrade will likely be writing off massive loans that have gone unpaid, to the tune of multiple billions of dollars. Some have speculated the company could go bankrupt, or even be at risk of closure.

Obviously, given all my discretionary market funds are tied up in eTrade, and have been since the beginning of the decade, the thought has crossed my mind to transfer my cash out of eTrade, back into the bank, for later investment in another brokerage. Any of them. But even more than my thoughts of going with the crowd by giving into the panic, I've considered going against the grain by buying eTrade stock, which just might be oversold. Maybe I could even actually profit from the short-term timidity of others?

Regardless of that choice, which I haven't acted on, I'm not leaving eTrade. The brokerage has given strong service for a long time for me, and I have close to zero expectations that I'd find my funds were completely gone. That would be a scandal of epic proportions, one I don't see happening.

One of the big drivers behind RSS syndication is the ability to publish once and distribute anywhere. A single posting to a blog is now not only posted on your main site, but through software RSS readers, e-mail applications, widgets and the like. Your content is also being taken beyond the Web browser and PCs to mobile phones, often with unpredictable results. One new startup, Wirenode, based in the Czech Republic, is looking to help you optimize your site for mobile access, so you can be sure it looks the way you would like.

I first met Tomas Zeman of Wirenode at the Plug and Play Expo in Sunnyvale in September, where he gave a demonstration of the company's product, and how you can easily create a mobile-optimized version of your site, confidently knowing it will display well on mobile phones, no matter the brand or carrier. Today, I got a follow up note from Tomas saying he had done me a favor and mobilized my blog, at http://louisgray.wirenode.mobi/.

(You can see a screen capture of what that mobilized site looks like on the right)

The promise of Wirenode is that publishers can take their presence beyond the browser, and modify the way mobile consumers access and view their content. Content owners can login to the site to modify the way it's displayed or make edits.

But, while Wirenode is working on optimizing your Web site for mobile access, mobile providers are optimizing their hand sets for what's seen as "the real Internet", Apple's iPhone included. Are people really going to go to my mobile Web site instead of louisgray.com on their handheld? I'm not sure. But we'll see where their technology is headed.

After all, how could you not root for a company whose "about us" page was written in ComicLife, and whose blog marvels at the wonders of the San Francisco Bay Area on a recent visit?

Want to get your blog or Web site optimized for mobile phones and get your own wirenode.mobi address? Start at www.wirenode.com.

This evening presented the last home game for Cal football of the season, against one of our most hated conference rivals, USC. What should have been one of the most hotly-anticipated games of the season was instead a battle of two lower-ranked Top 25 teams who had better days behind them. Sprinkle in a few sprinkles, and some more... and then some more... and we ended up having a soaking wet evening that wrapped up with Cal doing what it seems to always do in these big games. Losing.

Around 3, my wife and I put on our Cal gear, grabbed our tickets and headed to the car to make our way to Berkeley. It was misty in Sunnyvale, but not sprinkling all that much. The further north we drove, up 880, the more it started to rain, never letting up. As we walked to the game, after grabbing BART at the Ashby Station, our umbrellas were out, and we were debating if we should have donned our ponchos right away.

Getting into the stadium, we saw more than 70,000 fans in all colors of poncho - from the Red and Gold USC fans, to the blue and other colors of Cal fans. I reached into my bag only to realize we had two ponchos, but one white (for my wife) and one orange - a shade too close to red for my own good in a quite hostile crowd. So for the full game, as I jumped up and down and yelled from my seat, the rain poured down, dripping from the bill of my cap. My shoes had turned dark with precipitation, and as I would slap my hands to my saturated jeans, the would spray with water. My Cal jacket, hanging damply at my sides, could be wrung out at the elbows and wrists, not exactly keeping me dry.

But the game went on.

Cal scored first, going up 7-0, before letting the Trojans tie the game up 7-all at the end of the first quarter. A few frustrating drives later, it was 14-10 USC at the half, as the rain continued to fall, and many fans considered whether they should trust their better judgment, giving into the elements and going home. Many did.

And the rains kept coming.

The second half started with USC getting the ball, and driving down the field, stopping short of a touchdown, but putting 3 more points on the board, taking a 17-10 lead. Cal struck back with a touchdown of their own, making it 17-all to end the 3rd quarter.

But we were already gone.

While I was willing to play the part of a human puddle, my clothes stuck to my body and the slight wind keeping me all too cool while cheering on the Bears, the elements proved to be too much for my wife. Her jacket, covered by a poncho, with a sweatshirt and blanket besides couldn't overcome Mother Nature's assault, and we had already made our way back down to the BART station to return home. After two full years of A's season tickets, and at four of Cal football games, we had finally found one that saw us leave well before the game's conclusion.

But the game went on.

As we drove down 880 South, we hit the dashboard, frustrated, as we listened to USC's march down the field to gain the lead 24-17. We gnashed our teeth as Cal looked to come back, only to throw another interception, effectively giving up the game. We rolled our eyes as time expired, and the Bears were handed their 4th loss in 5 games, sending the rest of the valiant fans who had stayed behind home with feelings of frustration and emptiness, as another Saturday came and went without the Bears fulfilling their potential.

For our family, we're now at a crossroads. The A's season long behind us, lingering only as memory, the Cal home schedule complete, we're done for the year, barring a special one-off to see the Kings in Sacramento, the Sharks in San Jose, or maybe another 49ers game. But for now, we're on hold. We can put our ballcaps away, dry our clothes, and hope 2008 brings better news. 2007 left us with the occasional sparks of excitement, but far too much loss and frustration.

The rain didn't help.

I don't mind the occasional note from someone I don't know (or know well) asking me to be friends on Facebook, or to connect on LinkedIn. Over time, I've gotten used to people wanting to pad their network stats through finding my e-mail and expecting us to act as if we're the best of character references. After all, with the value of what a "friend" means online going down seemingly by the day, after a while we'll have to find a new name for the "real world" version, and I don't think "BFF" is going to be it.

But now, new social networking sites, or even warmed-over old ones, are starting to fill my e-mail with absolute junk, under the guise of "real world" friends reaching out and begging me to share our similarities - to compare books I like with their own preferences, exchange favorite movie listings, or see if we've traveled to the same countries. In fact, in some cases, these little features or would-be Facebook apps are sometimes masquerading as full networks on their own, when that guise is frivolous.

The first is Plaxo Pulse - who jumped on Google's Open Social bandwagon last week to gain membership in the "Everybody Except Facebook" club. Since the network's roll-out, I've gotten dozen of Plaxo Pulse invites that have me begging to hit "Return to Sender", if only e-mail worked that way. In my opinion, LinkedIn won the business networking challenge years ago, and Plaxo never got past its spammy beginnings, so we're not going to be making that move any time soon.

Now, even more mind-numbingly, I'm starting to get alerts from people joining Shelfari, hoping I can share book rating and reviews, or even join book clubs. News to all who sent me those invites today - no frickin' way. If I wanted to join a group of folks to review books, I'd already be doing it on Amazon.com. Even worse, it looks like the service isn't wired well enough to tell the difference between a small invite list and spamming the planet. As one person wrote me, when I declined his invitation to Shelfari, "This was really embarrassing. I accidentally sent this one to everyone in my address book!"

With so many social networks out there now, it's become a full-time job for some just to keep current, let alone adding more and more services as they debut. Hence the rise of services like FriendFeed and Spokeo. But each of these social networks are chasing a finite number of heavy Internet users, and there's no question you'll see invite fatigue and eventual saturation. Barring the impossible, I've made my preferred selections, and I'm done. So if you really want to be my friend, stop spamming me. If you want to compare books or movie preferences, pick up the telephone and call. My number's on the top right of the blog.