If you're a Google-horny fanperson with enthusiastic regard towards the way your existence will be cataloged on the internet, this one's for you. Google Wave is, in the words of Gizmodo:

What could best be described as a genetically modified inter-species lovespawn between Gmail, Google Docs, Twitter and AIM.

But really, is so ridiculously confusing, there's now a website devoted to voting on how confusing it actually is. Naturally, people are gonna put their lives on this thing, which Google will hold in their severs to one day hand over to the government when they ask for it. This is mildly unsettling.

Even moreso: people are now paying for the privilege to do it. Google Wave Invites, the community devoted to people sharing their invites, is now raffling off four invites. You can buy a ticket at a $1 a piece to enter in the drawing. Interestingly, the site's been down since they sent out the announcement, which you can view below. Yes, I wanted one (and still do!) to see what all this talk is about, and also, because I'm pretty sure our privacy's long doomed, anyway. Someone, somewhere, might be getting kneecapped by a man dressed in primary colors.

The funny upshot, however: some guy's making money from Wave invites, or at least trying. Wonder what Google has to say.

It's not huge news to the vampires, but for humans, in this economy, anything not heading directly toward bankruptcy is of interest. According to the article, blood plasma is worth over 20 dollars a pint, while oil is at 18 cents a pint. Private blood collection agencies are paying good money for donations. Again: Donate, please.

Thanks, Transracial, for the tip. Keep them coming. Email your blood-, vampire-, shape-shifter-, fang-, etc. related news to tips@bloodcopy.com.

Scan of Fortune article here:

A Word on Security

I'm not quite as cynical or concerned about my security with Mint, especially after having read Mint's Privacy and Security statement (give it a look before you naysay). That said, ultimately some of you will be comfortable with this, and some of you won't. If you are comfortable making the leap to web-based, aggregated money management, the question remains: Is Mint good enough to justify that leap?

The fact is that even if Mint is secure enough to satisfy you, nobody wants to move their financial nerve center to a web application that's not completely up to snuff. So let's take a look at the good and the bad of Mint to get a better idea of whether or not it's time to hand Mint the keys to your cash.

The Presentation, Integration, and Features

The Savings

Likewise, Mint can save you money with the alerts described above. Receiving an SMS or email alerting you of a low balance or unusually high spending can provide you with a reality check before you go overboard and over budget.

The Drawbacks

On a similar note, Mint doesn't export data—meaning if you decided to ditch Mint for another money management solution, you're not going to get a CSV file or any other export of your data.

The most notable and practical drawback to Mint came in the form of strangely named, incomplete transaction descriptions (the imported name was strange—the actual transaction name at the originating financial institution was more descriptive). As a result, I ran into problems setting up renaming rules for transactions in Mint. For example, a transaction that read in my checking account (at the actual US Bank web site) as "Web Authorized Payment AT&T" showed up in Mint as "Web Payment" or something along those lines. I set Mint to automatically rename this transaction to AT&T, but then every Web Authorized Payment in my account was renamed AT&T, although some were gas or water and power bills. Similarly, "Purchase with PIN" shows up in the ledger as "With," which is not terribly helpful. Next to the all-in-one account integration, automation is Mint's biggest draw—which means these sort of minor issues need worked out before you can set up renaming rules with complete confidence (especially since you can't currently undo renaming rules). On the flip side, Mint claims to accurately identify and rename 90% of imported transactions without any need for user import, compared to Quicken's 40% (their numbers).

The Future of Mint

The Conclusion

With Mint as a free contender, you almost have to wonder what normal person (i.e., anyone with a relatively normal and uncomplicated financial situation) won't be using Mint or an application like it (maybe even built by your bank) within the next five to ten years to manage their finances. We're already managing most of our finances online in some form anyway, and the technology will continue to improve while consumers will continue to grow more comfortable with the idea. To that end, let us know what you think about Mint—whether that's explaining what you like, don't like, what you'd like to see, or why you'll never use it—in the comments.

For example, Au contends that in a Second Life strip club, only the dancers' bodies, costumes, and undulations may be construed as sexual. All the window dressing — the furniture, setting, building, even the improperly sized currency — could be used in Second Life for something else, and thus are not sexual in nature. This seems a little willfully naive, or else designed to make Second Life seem like less of a carnal bazaar by defining sex content down to a tiny category. It's not like anyone would wander around Stacey Sugar's Barbie Club if it was just a big room with some chairs and dollar bill graphics lying around. Au doesn't even want to give the genitals over to sexuality, as doing so assumes "that wearing genitals is only for sexual expression." What else would they be for? Reproduction?

There are numerous sexplay areas in Second Life, and even more escort services which have no function besides the prostiutional. Since SL areas can be sorted and classified by "mature" ratings, it would seem a simple matter for Linden Labs to simply track the total traffic (and perhaps Linden dollar exchanges) in such areas. Of course, perfectly innocent transactions might take place in such areas, but chances are the data would indicate generally how big of a commercial draw sex really is for Second Lifers. I doubt Linden would release such information though. I'm guessing the percentage would be substantial, and perhaps not the kind of press Linden particularly wants.