Top Items:
Joel Spolsky / Joel on Software:
My First BillG Review — In the olden days, Excel had a very awkward programming language without a name. "Excel Macros," we called it. It was a severely dysfunctional programming language without variables (you had to store values in cells on a worksheet), without locals …
Discussion:
Scobleizer, Good Morning Silicon Valley, Alec Saunders .LOG, The Browser, Gadgetopia and Mini-Microsoft
RELATED ITEMS:
Steve Hamm / Business Week:
What Ozzie Can Do for Microsoft — Expect the new software czar to nudge Microsoft toward open standards support without radically changing the company's core business — The departure of Bill Gates as Microsoft's technology czar puts a heavy load on the shoulders of Ray Ozzie …
Owen Thomas / Business 2.0:
Why Ballmer should leave Microsoft — With Gates stepping down from his day-to-day role, there are reasons his long-time partner should head out the door. — (Business 2.0) - Now that Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates has started his two-year goodbye from a day-to-day role at the company …
Discussion:
M-Dollar, InterMedia, GigaOM, channel9.msdn.com, Kevin Maney, Tom Raftery's I.T. views, Joel on Software, Web 2.0 Explorer and Mark Evans
Annalee Newitz / Wired News:
Where 2.0 Gives the World Meaning — SAN JOSE, California (37°19'58.28"N 121°53'22.00"W ) — At O'Reilly Media's Where 2.0 conference this week, an odd mix of people gathered and gawked at a tiny spy plane mounted on a display table. Some wore the understated ties of government bureaucrats …
Discussion:
The Other Here, The Tech Confidential Blog, edparsons.com, O'Reilly Radar and All Points Blog
Kenneth Li / Reuters:
Microsoft developing a rival to Apple's iPod — NEW YORK (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) is developing a music and video device to compete with Apple's iPod and creating its own music service to rival Apple's iTunes, sources familiar with the plans said on Friday.
Discussion:
Engadget, TechEffect, Blogging Stocks, Bink.nu, paidContent.org and Microsoft News Tracker
Anne Broache / CNET News.com:
Politicos mull action against patent system abusers — WASHINGTON—U.S. politicians appeared sympathetic on Thursday to tech companies' cries for help combating what are commonly called "patent trolls"—companies that supposedly hold patents for no reason other than coaxing inflated settlements out of wealthy corporations.
RELATED ITEMS:
Paul Mutton / Netcraft:
PayPal Security Flaw allows Identity Theft — A security flaw in the PayPal web site is being actively exploited by fraudsters to steal credit card numbers and other personal information belonging to PayPal users. The issue was reported to Netcraft today via our anti-phishing toolbar.
Eli Milchman / Wired News:
Yahoo 'Strictest' Censor in China — Yahoo is stricter than any other search engine in China when enforcing censorship, said a journalism-advocacy group Thursday. — Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said their tests showed that Yahoo.cn blocked a higher percentage of politically sensitive results …
Wade Roush / techreview.com:
Cooling Computers with Tiny Jet Engines — Hewlett-Packard is adapting fans from radio-controlled jets to relieve heat-stressed computer servers. — The computer servers that fill huge data centers are producing more heat with every new generation of processors.
MarketWatch:
Social Networking Sites Continue to Attract Record Numbers as MySpace.com Surpasses 50 Million U.S. Visitors in May — comScore Media Metrix Releases May Top 50 Web Rankings and Analysis; Online Interest in World Cup and NBA Championships Heats Up; Spring Upfront Television Season Drives Traffic
RELATED ITEMS:
Joris Evers / CNET News.com:
Online threats outpacing law crackdowns — SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.—Authorities are cracking down on phishing and botnets, but the threats are advancing instead of diminishing, two law enforcement officials said. — Cybercrooks are organizing better and moving to more sophisticated tactics …
Discussion:
GigaLaw.com Daily News
Live Favorites:
Live Favorites - Beta No More! — Live Favorites V1 is Released! — We, the Live Favorites Team, are happy to announce that as of today Live Favorites is officially released as a V1 product... Beta No more! — A little while ago we put into production our final V1 service and web site.
Tim Lee / The Technology Liberation Front:
Announcing Software Patent of the Week — As regular readers of TLF know, I'm not a big fan of software patents. The more I learn about them, the more I'm amazed at the sheer scope of the problem. Every month, thousands of new software patents are issued.
Discussion:
Techdirt
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Watch Blog:
Schmidt Talks On Staying In China, GBuy & More — Conde Nast Portfolio, a new business magazine out next year, landed a nice coup of having Eric Schmidt speak yesterday at its launch party (Schmidt's also apparently set to be one of the first profiles in the new magazine).
Jennifer Slegg / Search Engine Watch Blog:
AdWords Ad Scheduling Officially Launches — Google AdWords officially launched their new ad scheduling, enabling advertisers the ability to schedule the appearance of their ads based on both time of day and day of the week. This new feature, which competes with dayparting that Microsoft AdCenter …
Lunch over IP:
More cell phones than people — In 30 countries around the world, from Aruba to Italy to Hong Kong, mobile phone penetration has past 100 percent. Translation: the number of cell phone subscriptions has exceeded the size of the population. That's according to end-of-Q1-2006 data just released …
Cory Doctorow / Boing Boing:
Is RIAA nastygramming YouTubers over vids of kids singing and dancing? — The RIAA is reportedly sending letters to YouTube users demanding that they take down videos of kids singing along and dancing to their favorite songs. This is pretty crazy, of course — as Battelle says, "Wake up.
gizmag.co.uk:
World's first 18x rewritable DVD — June 14, 2006 One of the most competitive areas of technology is the speed with which we write to optical storage media - five minutes saved writing a DVD is something we're all prepared to pay for. And Samsung loves the bigger/better/faster game …
Discussion:
Engadget
