IT Buoy

Rupert Murdoch , the News Corp. boss, reportedly doesn’t believe New York Times will sell itself any time soon, “least of all to a Mexican” like Carlos Slim . But Murdoch doesn’t mean that racially, see. “I don’t mean that racially – he’s just too sensitive and smart to do it,” Murdoch said, according to Reuters reporter Yinka Adegoke’s Twitter stream, which also carried Murdoch’s initial comment . Wait, who’s too sensitive, Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr., or Carlos Slim , billionaire scheming Mexican? With New York ’s Gabriel Sherman closing out that profile about how Murdoch is losing his grip , the media baron had better rush out a bizarre denial, just like he did after agreeing that Barack Obama is a racist. Or say the Times executives are racist, for refusing to immediately sell to Carlos Slim. That will throw the bleeding hearts for a loop

BoomTown hightailed it down to the Hilton in San Francisco yesterday for the 4A annual conference. 4A stands for the American Association of Advertising Agencies , and this year’s gathering is titled “Transformations 2010.” That meant about 1,000 people from the marketing communications industry converged to hear sessions that seemed to focus almost completely on what’s causing all the transformation, with the answer mostly being: Social media and the Web. Such as a panel by the Huffington Post’s Arianna Huffington on “How Social Media Has Transformed the Social Media Landscape.” Or Yahoo (YHOO) CEO Carol Bartz on “Transforming Yahoo!” Or another panel simply called: “How Social Media Is Transforming Everything.” The event goes through Wednesday. Well, I also had to transform a little after leaving my Flip digital camera in the Mini by accident and having to do this video, below, of the event with my Apple (AAPL) iPhone video camera. I am not sure I like it (my already loud voice is really loud), but you be the judge of the variety of interviews: [ See post to watch video ]

Here’s a very funny online video by the always quirky Fine Brothers in which they reprise a good bit–this time, spoiling 50 Hollywood movies from 2009 in under four minutes, in anticipation of the Oscars on Sunday night. My favorite and much repeated line in the spoof: “Just like in real life, who would have guessed it?”

Bravo created their promotional TV ads for Foursquare as part of their new partnership with the mobile-social application. In this 20-second video, Bravo characters like Top Chef’s Padma Lakshmi and stylist Rachel Zoe flash across the screen. Flipping Out’s Jeff Lewis chimes in, “Where are you going from here?” An announcer rushes through instructions on how to download and use the application. Then viewers are directed at to Bravo’s own mobile site , which doesn’t have a link to download the Foursquare app yet. Read the rest of this story

Here’s a podcast I did last Friday on a very good show, “The A-List with Jennifer Lindsay,” on Blog Talk Radio I like podcasts a lot. In this one, Lindsay interviews me about covering the early Internet, including my years on the chain gang covering AOL (AOL), as well as my long and checkered career. We also discuss the Google (GOOG) Buzz debacle, the Apple (AAPL) iPad, mobile trends and the proclivity of Silicon Valley to obsess on the next big thing. Enjoy: