Michael Snow is the new chairman of the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit that manages Wikipedia and other collaborative online content projects.

Snow's appointment was announced today by the San Francisco-based organization. He's been on the Wikimedia board since February and an active Wikipedia volunteer since December 2003, the release said.

Among the interesting nuggets in Microsoft's earnings report today: The February acquisition of Palo Alto, Calif.-based handset software maker Danger added $24 million in costs to the entertainment group.

Sounds like the group is also stepping up investments into the next Xbox (or Zune?).

The report doesn't say exactly what Microsoft paid for Danger, but it does say Microsoft experienced $24 million in expenses related to the company. Hmmm.

"Research and development expenses (in the Entertainment and Devices Division) increased $141 million or 38%, primarily reflecting increased headcount-related expenses, increased product development costs, and costs relating to Danger, including a $24 million in-process research and development expense."

In another surprise disclosure, Microsoft said its investments include mortgage-backed securities but they're mostly "prime" mortgages and the portfolio is not directly exposed to the sub-prime meltdown:

"While we own certain mortgage and asset-backed fixed-income securities, our portfolio as of June 30, 2008, does not contain direct exposure to subprime mortgages or structured vehicles that derive their value from sub-prime collateral. The majority of the mortgage-backed securities are collateralized by prime residential mortgages and carry a 100% principal and interest guarantee, primarily from Federal National Mortgage Association, Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, and Government National Mortgage Association. The remainder of the mortgage position is collateralized by high quality international prime residential mortgage loans."

Apparently Google is not immune from the economic troubles. Earnings per share, diluted, were $4.63 versus Wall Street analyst expectations of $4.74. That's also down from $4.84 the previous quarter.

I wonder if this explains why it's taking so long to open the Kirkland campus?

Three months after Sampa launched a new version of its family Web site service, the Bellevue venture is powering nearly 100,000 sites, Chief Executive Paul Gross said.

"We are about to reach our 100,000th Web site created on Sampa, and given that Wetpaint has raised gads of money and proudly announced their 1,000,000th wiki, we figured we should do the same,'' he said in an email, noting that Sampa's reaching 100,000 sites with $1 million in funding versus Wetpaint reaching 1 million with $13 million in funding.

Sampa's now thinking about taking series B funding this fall or next spring.

That's how the New York Times characterized the outcome of deal talks between Microsoft and the forlorn Time Warner Internet property.

The companies reportedly met in Seattle yesterday. I supposed we could have generated Techmeme fodder by scouring local hotels and restaurants looking for East Coast business development types in dark suits, but it's hard to get worked up about a deal that may happen eventually but doesn't seem earth shattering.

I wonder if the AOL team really just wanted an excuse to be in Seattle for this weekend's blockbuster event lineup, including the Bruce Lee memorial and the Bite of Seattle.

It was probably their last chance to visit this month, before the hotels fill up around Seafair. Microsoft's people won't want to leave Seattle (or the San Juans ...) for New York City in August, so my guess is that an AOL deal, if there is one, won't happen until the third quarter.

It's still just a tech preview, but the public can start experiencing Microsoft's new Mesh computing services platform today free.

The platform is geared to developers to create all sorts of online services using Mesh components, such as the ability to easily synchronize folders across devices and PC desktops, and receive notifications when people use the files you're sharing.

But for casual users, it could be a cheap and easy way to store and access a set of files from the home, office and remote Web terminals.

Are video games no longer a young person's sport?

The average age of game players has risen to 35, according to a new report today from the Entertainment Software Association.

"No longer is there a stereotypical gamer. With deeper market penetration and the broadening of our audience base, video games have incorporated themselves into America's cultural and social fabric,'' Michael Gallagher, association chief executive, said in the release.

Apparently Microsoft wasn't ready to put its Xbox cash cow out to pasture -- a new version of the blockbuster Halo series is in the works, according to comments that Xbox boss Don Mattrick made to MTV.

Mattrick apparently was referring to a new Halo game being developed by Bungie, the studio that created the series and spun itself out of Microsoft last year.