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It's so funny. And yet funny in that all Tina Fey has to do is repeat the bizarre things Sarah Palin says to be funny way.

If you haven't already checked out PalinasPresident.com and clicked on all the little details (Maverick!) then do so now, laugh, then feel little frisson of horror when you realize how damn close to the truth it is.

The Seattle website Crosscut.com has singled out The Register-Guard for one of the worst websites among the many "bad" examples in the Northwest.

The R-G and other regional papers have the attitude of "It's not news until we get around to posting it: How dare you expect to read the news in the afternoon or evening. These are morning papers! That's when the news will be ready for you." Not updating a site continuously is "Not the best way to influence the regional agenda — or the D.C. congressional delegation," Crosscut.com writes. "The worst example of timelessness is the Eugene Register-Guard, which posts the news at noon. On purpose. Let that be a lesson to those of you who don't subscribe to the dead-tree edition."

Crosscut's criticism is actually not new. Two years ago The Spokane Spokesman-Review's Ken Sands blogged about the R-G web site: "the print content seems really old because the site isn't updated until noon Pacific time each day."

The R-G may be behind the times in locking up its content. The New York Times announced today that it would stop requiring paid subscriptions to read columnist articles and access the paper's archive. With so many people accessing news content through Google and links from other websites, the paper figured it could make more money in ads from the extra traffic than in charging for the content. Guess they just discovered what the "inter" in Internet means.

Meanwhile the R-G keeps its archive locked away for paid access. Seems kind of silly. Anyone with a Eugene Library Card can access it for free thanks to the city library.

In a testament to the speed and ease with which the web can respond to demands, a new website will be launched tomorrow that aims to fill in a gap mentioned in an EW article.

Fast Track Housing is a site geared specifically to people who want to interface with Olympic Trial attendees and Eugene residents and businesses offering their services during next year's sporting bonanza. Categories range from bed and breakfast rentals to car rentals to spare ticket for sale to scheduled meetings and parties attendees or hosts may wish to attend.

Mike Gray and Sterling Schonfarber of the MG Computer Group designed the site primarily in response to EW's 7/26 news story Housing Goes Underground, which detailed the lack of one central website in which to barter for housing and other goods specifically catered to Eugene '08 attendees.

Gray said the site will be launched Thursday, Aug. 2, but anyone can start posting their listings now.

Now all they need to do is get either VisitLaneCounty.org or Eugene08.com to provide a link on their websites. This is wide world of Web 2.0, and we need hyperlinks.