CNet News.com is reporting that many Gmail beta participants, who receive a number of “invitations” to forward to friends or colleagues, have been auctioning those invitations on eBay. Not one to ignore a chance to make a few bucks on something I didn’t pay for in the first place, I’ve added one of my own.

***>>>B!D N0W!!!<<<***

Edit: The auction closed in six and a half minutes, when someone used “Buy it Now”. The instant selling price? $99.99.

I’ve put the second invitation up now as well.

Wow.

Barnesandnoble.com to pay fine, boost security | CNET News.com

Barnesandnoble.com has agreed to pay $60,000 and boost Internet security after a flaw that exposed the personal information of some shoppers, New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said Thursday. The agreement stems from an investigation that found that a design flaw in the New York-based company’s Web site granted access to customer information such as name, billing address and account information but not credit card numbers.

So, to my B&N; membership pitch when I say, “…and we don’t sell your name or information to anyone,” I should add, “but we’ll let it slip out the back door without noticing.”

In this telling article about the differences between the Florida Marlins and the sad-sack Giants, we find out that

[Florida catcher] Mike Redmond, who watched platoon partner Ramon Castro hit a roaring home run into the left-field bleachers Thursday, revealed that to break a slump last year, he took batting practice wearing nothing but his spikes and batting gloves in a cage near the Marlins’ clubhouse. It worked, too. He continued taking nude BP as the Marlins reeled off six straight wins.

Here’s more on the Curves-owner-donates-profits-to-anti-choice-organizations story I linked last week.

Bottom line: There are lots of fitness clubs out there, most of which are not owned by fanatic anti-choice wackos.

My Mountain View neighbor Google has put an end to the waiting and speculation by, this morning, filing for an IPO. Coverage:

SFGate/AP

c|net News.com

Slashdot

Google News

I drive past the newly-expanded GooglePlex on my way to and from work every day. For the past couple of days, they’ve had security manning the parking lot entrances – no doubt to keep out gawkers.

I’ve actually been trying to think of another single company that has as much impact in my life as Google does right now. A few years ago I could have said Disney, but not so much since we moved north. I run or administer four Blogger sites (owned by Google), use the Deskbar and Toolbar, have it configured as the default search in Opera, and am more likely to use it to find a company site than guessing at the domain name.

It will be interesting to see how this news changes things here in Silicon Valley.

Edit: The home of PigeonRank, the G.C.H.E.E.S.E., holiday logos and numerous other geeky in-jokes has perpetrated another on the investment community. Google’s Form S-1 shows the “Proposed Maximum Aggregate Offering Price” as $2,718,281,828. This happens to be e times 10 to the ninth power. Clever.