oh, this handy page clears things right up. preferences.com belongs to MatchLogic which is a member of the Excite @Home network which serves up banner ads for companies like GM through doubleclick AND deliverE their "by choice" email system AND their sweepstakes network. (step 1: enter your email address. ha!) The banner ads are then served up on pages like Wired news and suck. (members of the Lycos network) Well, now I know.
it's not too early to start listening in to the sxsw gossip. sure, finding music rumors is fairly easy, but where can one go to find out what's really happening at sxsw interactive? hmm...