Better enjoy that free Portland Wi-Fi while you can…the Oregonian and the Portland Business Journal are both reporting the network may soon be sold to the city or shutdown. Word is MetroFi has decided to walk from the deal and is offering to sell the network to the city for $894,000! The company said it will be yank its equipment at the end of June if the city or someone else doesn’t pick up the tab.

This really seems like a crap move by MetroFi, especially when you consider this word of news that the company will be selling its nine city networks across the country. This move casts doubt, I think, on the viability of metro-wide Wi-Fi. We still have all those Personal Telco network hubs out there, but if you aren’t near one and don’t have another way to access the Internet, you’ll probably soon be out of luck.

So it turns out the Rose City had a hand in the progression and eventual failure of the Yahoo/Microsoft merger. An article in today’s Wall Street Journal, among other sources, reports executives from the two companies met here on April 15th at a Portland law firm:

As a result, Microsoft executives were surprised when Mr. Ballmer on April 5 letter sent a letter to Yahoo directors threatening a hostile approach if they didn’t reach a friendly deal by April 26. That spurred Yahoo executives and an entourage of bankers and advisers from both sides to meet with Microsoft on April 15 at a Portland, Ore., law firm. A presentation from Yahoo included a slide that said Microsoft’s offer “significantly undervalues” Yahoo.

Late into the meeting Mr. Ballmer addressed the elephant in the room: “Where are we on price?” he asked Mr. Yang, according to two people who were present. Responding to Mr. Ballmer’s question, Mr. Yang repeated that the original offer of $31 a share “substantially” undervalued the Internet company. Mr. Ballmer again asked for a firm price, and Mr. Yang said he didn’t have a number.

They also reportedly met about “social issues,” such as management and perhaps corporate cultures. I find it interesting the two giants chose to meet in Portland for this meeting. Apart from the law firm, Portland seems to be a good middle ground for the two of them to have traveled to. Wonder if they got a chance to enjoy Stumptown Coffee or Voodoo Doughnuts while here? Anybody know what that law firm is?

POST UPDATED 10:48 AM with more links and info.

This is slightly old news, for those of you who read the same Portland-centric transportation blogs that I do, but TriMet is giving the buses voices! You read that right - not only will the buses announce their eventual destinations to riders at the stop on an external speaker, but they’re equipping the buses to do the same for major stops inside the buses, much like the MAX and Streetcar do per stop already. The lines taking on the system (powered mostly by GPS) are few for now, but so far I’ve heard the announcements on the 20 and the 75 (per the major stops). As I took my first ride on the 75 yesterday, and as I was preoccupied by my cat being freaked out (it was her first bus ride, full stop, and to the vet, no less), the announcement for the Powell stop, so clearly stated, was incredibly helpful. I know that some drivers speak the stops into their wee microphones as they are approaching, but in my near-year of bus riding here, I’ve only been able to actually hear one of these drivers - and I have excellent hearing. Thanks, TriMet, for improving upon our awesome public transit system! They’re not always on time, but at least I now know where we’re going on the bus.

It you are ever without power for an entire evening - I highly recommend a game of Spongebob Squarepants Monopoly. And margaritas. On the rocks of course - your blender doesn’t work, remember.

No - really.

So because we live in this neighborhood - a silly bird took down our power for more than 10 hours yesterday. It was off when I got home from work - my husband had just checked with PGE and they estimated 7pm for restoration so we decided to head out for dinner. Mexican food and margaritas sounded good, so we headed over to one of our favorite Mexican joints - El Dorado on NE Glisan just west of 82nd. It’s not a fancy place and I’m sure their food is to basic or Americanized for many Portlanders ‘authentic’ taste-buds - but their seafood dishes are stuffed full of fresh ingredients, simply spectacular and their margaritas are to-die-for! Gigantic, tasty, strong and cheap. And the staff is always super friendly. A perfect place to spend a powerless evening.

Once we got home, we discovered we still didn’t have power - so we figured we’d better look for flashlights and candles where there was still enough daylight to do so. Normally after dinner out like that we probably would have ended up watching TV or a movie, or on our computers… but instead we pulled a game out of the credenza… and set up a table full of candles, plastic pineapples and headed into Bikini Bottoms.

Our power didn’t come back on until after we’d gone to bed (well after the second estimate of 9pm) so not only was this a good test for us to be sure that we did have a supply of candles, flashlights with working batteries and a radio with batteries, but I believe I read somewhere that this is “turn off your TV week” - which is something I’m really bad at doing - so it was kind of nice actually that the dumb bird forced us to do so.

I highly recommend it.

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The media landscape has changed dramatically over the last decade, with ownership concentrating in fewer corporate hands, and with declining newspaper circulation and ad revenue. Eric Alterman eulogizes the late, great big city daily in a recent New Yorker.

Our home-town daily struggles to maintain relevance with a proxy Web site, and tragi-comedically cautious style which has seen them sit on important stories (see Packwood and Goldschmidt) to protect their powerful friends, even as they pursue Pulitzers for fluffy human interest reporting.

Meanwhile, blogs have sprung up like weeds in the fertile soil once covered by paid journalists, with citizen journalists pouring forth millions of column inches daily, completely free of the stodgy old constraints of artificial objectivity. (more…)

Earlier this month, Polaroid announced that it stopped making their instant cameras nearly two years ago and that production of the iconic film would cease by the end of the year. Two of their instant film production plants are closing, with more to come by the end of the year as the company moves farther into the digital arena.

I love my digital camera because it’s easy to carry and snap photos whenever, but I own a 35mm SLR that I still use. In the olden days when I was Washington, DC drone by day, band photographer at night, I used both.

Maybe I’m one of the few out there who still have a fondness for “real” film, but shooting on slides was something that helped me perfect my photography skills. Not to sound all “get off my damn lawn, you kids!” but learning to shoot on film and getting it right in one take because you know what you’re doing is more appealing to me than simply being able to hit delete, try again and using Photoshop to handle the rest.

That said, my next camera purchase will be a digital camera. However, I will always have a special place for all those fun Polaroids I’ve taken over the years.

If you still want to have the film, I suggest you act fast as the film is flying off shelves. I’m sure most is going to folks planning to sell it on Ebay, but I’d like to think there are others out there hoping to hold on to a bit of history.

I’m far from being a Luddite, yet I don’t hop on every technology that comes along. For example, HD Radio. I’m more of an Internet radio supporter, so it would be hard to imagine buying a receiver just to listen to something I can already get for free. Though I am loving XM Radio’s offerings, I’m waiting to subscribe until the merger with Sirius either happens or dissolves.

I know 94.7 FM offers a second station only available via HD Radio and OPB has a station for its music offerings as well. Anyone out there have an HD receiver and can tell me if spending the cash for a receiver is really worth it?

According to the weekly City of Portland Notification Service I received today (oh, the irony), an email outage is affecting several city bureaus.

From a quick scan of the list, if you emailed any of our commissioners, the Mayor’s office, or the Management & Finance department after 1:30 pm yesterday, for example, your mail is in limbo somewhere.

I’m sure you’ll be pleased to know that if you emailed the Emergency Communications, Fire or Police bureaus - well, they have no such excuse to use. Ditto Transportation or that all-important Water Bureau.

Hmmm. In my office, work slows to a crawl (or stops entirely, in some cases) if we don’t have email. And on a Friday afternoon? It’d have given us the perfect excuse for a happy hour excursion that didn’t necessarily have to wait until 5 pm. So I’m wondering what Friday afternoon was like in the Emergency Management Bureau…the Auditor’s Office…or if Mayor Potter got to cut out a little early himself…!

Here’s a tip to restaurants. If you feel the need to have a Web site, keep it updated and put information on it that potential customers may want to know. This proves to be quite helpful if you’re making dinner arrangements and want to make sure everyone in your dinner party is cool with the options available.

Here are a few additional suggestions for your consideration:

If you’ve been open for more than say, two months, having a site that says “coming soon” doesn’t cut it. (I’m looking in your direction Green Dragon.)

And if you’re a new restaurant, don’t aim so high that you go live with a near-empty site. I understand you’re spending time prepping the menu and getting things just right. Thus, stick with a one page site that gives some basic details and then build up from there.

Case in point, Tondero, a new restaurant that opened downtown. If you click on “Bar,” for example, you’ll find…nothing. Not one word of content. In fact, if you look around the site, you won’t find menus or any details about the food they serve outside the “South American/Latin/Caribbean” banner.

Finally, if your site does not work in my browser (Firefox) or makes it crash, I will be that much more hesitant to visit your establishment because I’ll likely find something else wrong once I arrive.

To recap, keep the site simple, keep it updated, and keep it compatible.

Local Phil Knight owned animation studio Laika is getting some attention for their Christmas animation that appears on Apple computer’s website. It features a Rankin and Bass like animated versions of the “hello I’m a Mac, and I’m a PC” guys, as well as the one and only Santa Claus. At my part time gig Laika employees are often rushing in to buy external hard drives in a panic (side props to them for shopping locally) so it’s fun to see their efforts paying off. Given that St. Jobs himself is a former Reedie, it’s cool to see another local tie between Portland and my favorite computer company.