At the end of my high school days, and throughout college, I was sure I was going to end up a reporter. I didn't know just what I thought I'd be covering, and at times my whims floated from covering baseball to becoming a technology reporter. While attending UC Berkeley, I covered a number of beats for the Daily Californian, including crime, the UC Regents and city council, and majored in Mass Communications, as well as Political Science. So what happened?

The Internet happened, and the Internet changed everything.

Alongside my writing efforts at the Daily Cal, I was also the paper's Online Editor, and helped the Web site grow from its earliest stages from 1996 to 1998. The site lives on today, but in a much different state, of course. But working on the site and seeing how Web journalism was rapidly extinguishing the one-time glory of newspapers, I no longer was wowed by the idea of being an ink-stained wretch toiling away for the San Jose Mercury News or MacWorld, as I believed the medium had to make a dramatic change to stay relevant.

After my time at the Daily Cal, I derived two versions of the resume - one for becoming a reporter, and a second, for becoming a Webmaster. In 1998, you can only guess which one gained a lot of interest, even for a student without a degree (yet), and which one didn't. By October of 1998, a month and a half into my senior year at UC Berkeley, I was commuting over the Bay Bridge to Burlingame every day working at an Internet startup, and the dreams of being a reporter were being replaced instead with the hopes of helping  a new company grow. Now, instead of calling companies and people to hear their side of things, I was on the other side - able to make news and not just follow it. Meanwhile, news media on the Internet has grown dramatically, eclipsing the one time leadership of traditional papers.

One gets the feeling that traditional papers are still very leery about the Internet. They are very afraid that their one-time cash cow, classified ads, is going away, replaced by CraigsList and eBay. And by the time their stories are published, the news cycle has already left them in the dust. So you are seeing an increased emphasis on newspapers' online reporters to get the story out early and continue updating it, if simply to keep pace with more nimble outlets. I read the San Francisco Chronicle and Mercury News online, but primarily to keep updated on the A's more than anything else. Especially in the Silicon Valley, technology news doesn't go their way first, and circulations are getting hammered.

An interesting discussion on that subject can be found in The Economist today, in a piece titled "More Media, Less News". As they write, "Newspapers are making progress with the internet, but most are still too timid, defensive or high-minded." Simply put, if they don't find a way to compete with blogs and Digg and news aggregators, they're toast. I'm glad I went the way I did, even if it meant changing the dream, just a little bit.

Listening to ''Nautical Bodies (Original Mix)'', by Paul Oakenfold (Play Count: 8)

Avaya is a classic example of a company built out of the "Asypta" school of naming. A, consonant, vowel, consonant, A. Avaya was spun off from Lucent at the end of 2000, and during the era of dot-com frenzy, the company didn't define exactly what it did very well.

From the company's spin-off press release in June of 2000, Lucent's president and CEO, Don Peterson said, ""We chose a name that would set us apart and capture what we're doing with the company - focusing on communications solutions for business customers. Avaya sounds open and fluid-reflecting a company that's open-minded and that provides seamless, effortless interconnections among people and businesses."

Source: Lucent

But what does that mean? Open, Fluid? Open-Minded? Sounds like some nice words to explain "Don't Know Exactly".

The Daily Telegraph, in a piece from December of 2005, ties into that very issue - company names that don't really stand for squat. They partially blamed Landor Associates, a San Francisco design group, for the name, and many others like it.

"If you ever wondered where those bizarre unpronounceable company names come from, look to the Landor crew. Avolar, Midea, Avaya, Spherion, Onity, Lucent. And Lucent's rival, Agilient. You know, like Lucent - but agile! Nice. Soon lots of big branding companies were picking up briefs and now our world is littered with Arrivas, Aptivas, Achievas and Avandas."

Source: Igor International

For fitting the stern criteria set out in the rules of Asypta, Avaya scores a 10.0 and is the first inductee to the Asypta hall of fame!

More in an irregularly occurring series...

It's odd how even in what could be considered a small wave of bad publicity, some companies wait out the storm and somehow come out unscathed. After yesterday's $100 million lawsuit settlement with Creative Technologies, Apple followed on today with news that they - like Dell - have issued a recall for more than 1 million laptop batteries which may catch fire. It's highly possible the PowerBook I've got is in the listed serial numbers eligible for replacement... but even with both of those announcements, Apple stock didn't take any kind of hit. In fact, Apple (AAPL) rose less than one percent on the day, even with the news. For what it's worth, my most-recent investment in Apple is doing fairly well, up 24 percent. I had sold some of my holdings for a loss, because I could use it to drag down my total income at tax time by the end of the year.

Of interest to those who follow Apple closely, as I do, an unlikely foe has beaten them to the punch for an online movie store - AOL. The would-be owners of Time Warner (oops!) announced today that for  a mere $10 to $20, customers could download full-length films, with no option to rent. Sounds steep.

Earlier this month, I mentioned how Topix.net's newly-introduced one year news archive search tool could bring huge benefits to companies and PR agencies. Apparently, my feelings are not just mine alone. Steve Rubel, who works for Edelman PR, said Topix "doesn't get the attention it probably deserves", and delves further into the site, to help track companies or individuals and use advanced search features.

The A's have an off day this evening, which means activity on Athletics Nation should be significantly lower than normal - as I, as well as many others, are probably taking the day off as well. For a good fix on AL West baseball, you can check out the LA Angels site at Halos Heaven or the much funnier Seattle Mariners blog at Lookout Landing. Also, be sure to catch Blez' input on why ESPN has lost all relevance for him and many west coast sports fans. The worldwide sports leader is a mockery of its old self these days.

Listening to ''Forever Today'', by DJ Tiesto (Play Count: 14)

The Players: Wells Fargo Bank, eTrade, and Bank of America

(Follow on to "Give Me My Money. Now.")

For those keeping score at home, the financial issues between eTrade and Wells Fargo still have not sorted themselves out. In a highly wired world, it seems the only "instant" way to send cash is to use PayPal - and I don't know anybody who has yet managed to tie their stock brokerage into the online payment eBay subsidiary.

To recap:

* On Thursday at noon, I sold half of my Apple stock holdings in eTrade, both to diversify, and to raise needed cash.

* Friday, Saturday and Sunday went by. No sign of my cash in eTrade being available to transfer out of eTrade.

* Monday night, after checking throughout the day, the money became available, and I immediately set up to transfer $5k to Wells Fargo.

* Tuesday and Wednesday... nothing. Now that it's early Thursday morning, the money is no longer in eTrade, and certainly is not at Wells Fargo yet, let alone ready to be spent or written out in a check to my wife. (One potential recipient)

Are you telling me that with some of the most online-savvy brokers, it takes a whole week to sell stock, and transfer the proceeds from one account to another? Color me unimpressed.

Listening to ''Summer Sun (Ibiza Mix)'', by 4 Strings (Play Count: 8)