this is me blogging Dave blogging me blogging about RSS (does that count as Dave again?) on Mac OS X.

my head hurts. (via Scripting News)

the ugly mess around Global Crossing gets, well, uglier and messier. it seems that the previously-reported cross-ownership shell games played by Gary Winnick and the government of Singapore's investment corporations are even more intricate than we had imagined.

Winnick and partner Steven Green (who, incidentally, is the United States' former ambassador to Singapore and a former director of Asia Global Crossing) bought partnerships in a Singapore investment firm called K1 Ventures. K1 Ventures is a unit of Temasek Holdings, the Singapore government investment vehicle that also controls Singapore Technologies Telemedia. STT (along with Hutchison Whampoa) has a $750 million offer on the table to buy Global Crossing.

but wait. there's more.

K1 Ventures also made a recent $14 million investment in wireless company PrimeCo Wireless Communications. one of PrimeCo's owners? you got it: Gary Winnick, this time through his Pacific Capital Group investment company. in other words, Gary was on both the buying and selling side of the PrimeCo deal. Gary's a generous fellow, though, and other Global Crossing directors had a seat at the PrimeCo table.

at the time of the K1 investment, PrimeCo was also owned by the completely inappropriately-named Clarity Partners. Clarity's investment team includes David Lee (a Global Crossing founder and former managing director of Pacific Capital), Barry Porter (a Global Crossing founder and former managing director of Pacific Capital), Clinton Walker (a former Global Crossing and Pacific Capital vice president), and Andrew Howard (who worked for Barry Porter at Global Crossing). PrimeCo's ownership also included Trimaran Capital Partners. two of Trimaran's principals (Jay Bloom, and Dean Kehler) are former directors of Global Crossing. the other Trimaran principal, Andrew Heyer, is also a partner in the Argosy Group, an affiliate of CIBC (another major beneficiary of Global Crossing). finally, as if to put a bow on the whole stinking package, JP Morgan Partners was also a part of the PrimeCo posse. that's right, the same JP Morgan that lent Global Crossing money (and is now in line with the other creditors) and the same JP Morgan that handled investment banking for Global Crossing was also in bed with Winnick on this closely-related side-deal. (via NY Times)

Apple's getting a technical Grammy, but Steve Jobs doesn't think much of the big labels' digital distribution plans. as he tells the Wall Street Journal:

"No one is going to use such services," Mr. Jobs said. "If you legally acquire music, you need to have the right to manage it on all other devices that you own."

featuring what has to be the most redundant headline since "Generalissimo Francisco Franco is Still Dead", the AP is has a story entitled "Starbucks Hopes to Expand in 2002".