Appropriate, because New York Nonstop is as close as one can get to the Internet in obscurity, and yet still claim to be on television, making it an appropriate home for the contentless musings of Allison, an inappropriately well-known dating columnist Time Out New York, and her two friends, Silicon Valley heiress Meghan Asha Parikh and vapid handbag designer Mary Rambin. (Or perhaps just Rambin: Rumors are spreading that Parikh may have quit, though Allison denies this.)

Episodes of TMIweekly, a videoblog, have featured the three talking about uninteresting aspects of their lives. (Imagine Twitter, but videotaped.) It's part of a pseudo-business called NonSociety. Allison recently informed me that NonSociety had taken in $60,000 in revenues in all of 2008. Using the advanced business metric known as earnings before expenses, that would give NonSociety's three foundresses a living slightly above minimum wage. Parikh's family fortune must surely throw off more interest than that in a month.

The 24-hour news channel broadcasts in Manhattan, sort of, on digital channel 4.2, and Time Warner Cable carries it on channel 161. So if you avoid triple-digit cable channels and haven't upgraded to a digital converter — since the government has pushed back the deadline for the digital transition, you probably haven't — you can remain blissfully Allison-free. New York NonStop claims a theoretical reach of 5.7 million, though, so it's possible someone, somewhere, in the New York area might accidentally be exposed to her work.

Whatever NBC is paying Allison for this 24x7 filler, it's surely too much. As NBC officials themselves seem to realize! Meredith McGinn, senior manager of special products for NBC4, explained to the New York Daily News:

You'll get your meat — your news, weather and headlines — every 15 minutes. In between those 15 minutes, you may have a two-minute segment, a two-minute pod, a five-minute pod. So the shows we're looking at are in little bits, not your traditional half-hour newscasts.

So the news is the meat, which makes TMIweekly, what, exactly? Shredded lettuce? Mayo? Anything, surely, except relish.

Rather than force you to watch TMIweekly, we will show you Gawker videographer Richard Blakeley's much funnier parody, "NomSociety":

Welcome To NomSociety from Richard Blakeley on Vimeo.

Six Sigma has been part of America's corporate culture for a couple decades now; some 80 percent of the 100 largest American companies now use it. But General Electric, NBC's parent, is particularly famous for its Six Sigma fetish. GE does not think it's a laughing matter: "It is not a secret society, a slogan or a cliche," GE's website harrumphs.

What does it means in practice? As Universal found out after GE bought the Hollywood studio, it means lots and lots of meetings. "They are very focused on results," Universal Studios president Ron Meyer said of his new owners to the Times in 2004, after the acquisition. "They don't want surprises."

The idea behind Six Sigma is that every process of a business should be executed with as few errors as possible — the target Six Sigma aims for is 3.4 errors in every 1 million attempts. Now, lots of companies follow silly management philosophies. But Six Sigma takes on religious overtones at G.E. because of its followers fervent belief that it is a universal belief, enforced in every facet of the corporate empire. Even, at one point, according to a (maybe apocryphal) well-told anecdote to comedy writing. Former GE chief executive Jack Welch is said to have once ordered the counting of the number of laughs each episode of NBC's sitcoms.

Eliminating deviations is entirely wrongheaded when the audience wants something fundamentally new. Six Sigma's not a bad practice for industrial manufacturing, but it's not easily applied to fields like information technology, entertainment, R&D, or startups — in other words, everything that increasingly drives what's left of our economy.

Then again, maybe Fey, who bought a copy of Six Sigma for Dummies, is learning something. When 30 Rock launched in 2006, Fey sprinkled episodes with Six Sigma jokes. One of her comedic predecessors, David Letterman, delighted in mocking GE after it bought NBC. Here is a process that can be defined, measured, analyzed, improved and controlled: biting the hand that feeds you. It delivers a laugh every time. The black belts would be proud.

There's little chance that being posted to Hulu will cut into DirecTV signups and viewers, but more importantly, it means that online video consumers will be able to download the new episodes from file-sharing sites months before they're available from Hulu. The peacock would be smart to post them to Hulu as they air on the satellite net and earn a little ad revenue, or at least seed BitTorrent networks with ad-laden files. (Photo by AP/Paul Drinkwater)

We've also heard talk of a deal with NBC Universal. And about four other rumored deals that will not happen. AOL, likewise, shows little sign of happening; debt-laden Time Warner wants cash, not stock, for AOL, and it's not clear how tacking AOL onto Yahoo would boost the latter's value higher than the Microsoft offer. Clever of Yahoo's bankers, though: Even talking up rival deals has to keep Microsoft scared.

• AT&T or Comcast buy Yahoo instead AT&T just signed a display-advertising deal with Yahoo. Last year, Yahoo inked a similar one with Comcast that Mark Cuban hailed as the "Deal of the Year." But neither one has the cash for a bidding war with Microsoft. AT&T executives have already said they encouraged Microsoft to make the bid.

• Yahoo sells the Yahoo Media Group to NBC Universal Sources tell us Yahoo is considering selling its media group — news, finance, sports, entertainment, and so on — to NBC Universal. A sale would let Yahoo double down on search and display advertising, essentially "throwing the kitchen sink" into beating Google. Won't happen. Shareholders lack the patience to let Yahoo carry out such a slow-moving recovery strategy. And the media operation gets most of its audience from Yahoo's big portals, like search, mail, and My Yahoo.

• Yahoo sells the Yahoo Media Group to NBC Universal and advertising businesses to FacebookThis is the most ludicrously elaborate scenario. TechCrunch reports former Yahoo COO Dan Rosensweig — yes, the guy Decker forced out — now of private equity firm Quadrangle Group, is working on a deal. His goal is to sell the Yahoo Media Group to NBC and combine the remaining search and advertising business with Facebook. In other news, Rosensweig thinks the New England Patriots should have traded for David Tyree during halftime last night.

• Apple to buy Yahoo One time, Apple CEO Steve Jobs spoke at a Yahoo event. Another time, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang expressed admiration for Jobs. According to reports, these facts provide conclusive evidence that Apple is considering buying Yahoo. Right. This is as likely as a purple iPod.

• Rupert Murdoch is Jerry Yang's white knight Last summer, rumors circulated that News Corp. wanted to swap MySpace for a piece of Yahoo. This does not mean News Corp. will join in the bidding for Yahoo now. The company already told the New York Times it would not submit a bid. One reason why? With a $60 billion market cap and far less cash than Microsoft, it wouldn't be able to match Microsoft's half-stock, half-cash offer anyway.

Disputing the rumor, a Yahoo executive told Valleywag: "Don't put stock into it. It's not going to happen." This exec says the rumor likely stems from Yahoo executives who fear for their jobs and don't want Microsoft to acquire the company. In a situation where they have little control — "It's up to the board now" — leaking possible alternatives to the press is one way to try and have a say.

Microsoft can't run both because back when NBC and Microsoft formed MSNBC.com, Microsoft agreed that the venture would be the only source of news on Microsoft sites. A Microsoft-owned Yahoo News would violate that agreement. One of the two properties would have to go.

Expect Microsoft to keep Yahoo News and sell MSNBC.com to NBC Universal, which already owns 82 percent of the associated cable channel.

Insiders say NBC is eager to take over, and Microsoft should be happy to sell. MSNBC.com is more successful online than its TV counterpart is on cable, but according to ComScore, Yahoo News is more popular. Besides, Microsoft has specific reason to trust Yahoo News managment. It's run by the man many consider to have once made MSNBC.com what it is: Microsoft veteran Scott Moore, who's said to be missed in Redmond.

Two things. One, fanboys might be drooling over the MacBook Air Steve Jobs announced last week, but studio bosses like those at Zucker's Universal are more excited about movie rentals on the remodeled Apple TV. And two, entrepreneurs seeking quick cash might consider taking on Zucker in a game of Texas Hold 'em.