It used to be easy to find the latest information on technology, and it used to be that the big media press was the place to get it. But now, CNET, ZDNet, eWeek and Wired are more recaps than news-breakers, while more focused rags like MacWeek (once called MacLeak because they always had scoops) are flat-out gone. Here's where I have enjoyed getting new data... fast.

1. GigaOM
2. TechCrunch
3. SiliconBeat
4. SearchBlog
5. Scobleizer
6. Engadget
7. GearLive
8. MacRumors
9. ValleyWag
10. Slashdot

For the first time ever, and what hopefully won't be the last time, my wife and I are headed off to the Cactus League in Arizona to see the Oakland A's at their pre-season best, catching three games, against the Anaheim Angels, Chicago White Sox and San Francisco Giants. You can never get enough baseball, and we are just happy to get away from the house and our respective offices for a few days - as the vacation days are few and far between.

Of course, with our luck, the weather is threatening to diminish our fun. After nearly five months without rain, it's forecast that Phoenix may see showers on both Saturday and Sunday - two of the three days we've planned to be at the ballpark. That won't be good at all. After having it rain on our wedding day, and our honeymoon (in spots), it seems we're doomed. Maybe we're not meant to enjoy ourselves...

I haven't exactly learned how to fully break away, so on the trip, we'll be dragging along the Blackberry, and the laptop, and I practically demanded that our hotel feature high-speed wireless Internet, so we won't be too removed from the real world. So long as we have air, water and high-speed Internet, things will work themselves out.

While in Phoenix, we'll be sure to bring the camera. I'm hoping to take lots of photos of A's players for future ANtics, and possibly may share the ANtics themselves with those who've been featured. Given the relaxed atmosphere of the spring season, it could happen. We'll keep you posted.

More in an irregularly occurring series...

This morning, TiVo shares jumped more than 4 percent, so I'm done with that play. In 7 days of holding the stock, it was up more than 7%, so that's all I was really looking for. I've made bigger money on TiVo before, but don't see that the bump from earnings (err... losses) is going to be sustained. I had purchased at 5.68 and sold at 5.99 - small potatoes, but I don't want to get greedy.

In other news, Apple looks more and more like they are going to mimic TiVo and offer season passes of TV shows through the iTunes Music Store. On their iTunes Video site, they say you can "buy the entire season of a TV show at a discount". Given that their full seasons for shows are running in the $35 to $40 range, I'm hoping we see some decrease. For me, this would only be interesting for a premium channel show, like HBO and Showtime, as we don't subscribe. Everything else, we'll let the TiVo run with. Additionally, Apple's added Law and Order: SVU to their lineup, and if Rush Limbaugh is to be believed, the company will soon be offering paid podcasts - his excellency included.

Also - Google can't seem to stay out of the news this week. They settled a case on click fraud yesterday by paying out $90 million. Not backbreaking for the search giant, but still a dent. Henry Blodget can't believe Google announced this on their blog of all places, saying "Google needs some new PR people and it needs them now." Also, Google is prepping a calendar service to work with GMail. TechCrunch has the screenshots. Rumor has it that Yahoo! employees leaked the screenshots to TechCrunch.

Here's one way to ensure that we'll never upgrade to the latest TiVo DVR boxes - change the service plan so that we'd be contractually bound to pay the company about $20 a month just to continue watching the TV we already pay for on the cable, while gaining TiVo's standard functions (pause, slo-mo, skip and store). When my wife and I got our Series 1 recorder, I paid for the lifetime service fee, and won't ever have to give TiVo another check, should I choose to do so. But with the lifetime service plan only being assigned to the lifetime of the DVR, and not the lifetime of the customer (small difference there), if I were to upgrade, I would have to pay up again. And now, following this afternoon's announcement, the lifetime service plan is gone - as TiVo has opted to move all plans to include monthly fees.

TiVo has struggled to find a consistent, growing revenue stream. I can see how they would want to get more money from new customers, but what this has done is eliminate my plan to upgrade to a series 2 when it comes down the hand-me-down line, should a friend go to a series 3 following their introduction. Were I able to upgrade and buy another lifetime service plan, I would do so, but now that option has been taken away. Were I to accept the second box and move the Series 1 recorder to a second room, I'd still need to pay monthly service fees on the second TiVo, and that's just not interesting.