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Todd asks "why no hard questions for BillG?" — Over at Geek News Central Todd Cochrane asks an interesting question about yesterday's Bill Gates Blogger Meetup. "It pisses me off that none of them could ask a hard question" he says, while asking what hard questions would you ask?
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Who Questions Bill Gates' Commitment to Web Standards? — On a rainy Wednesday in Redmond, Washington, 14 invited bloggers and industry leaders gathered at building 20 of the Microsoft campus for a full day of discussion regarding Microsoft's outreach to its communities via the upcoming MIX07 conference.


Nintendo respond to Wii breakages — Games firm Nintendo has said it will replace all broken straps for its Wii console, following customer complaints. — The strap is connected to a motion sensitive remote which is used to control the on-screen action. — The announcement follows reports …
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Your easiest holiday task — We launched Google Apps for Your Domain at the end of August, and since then we've been getting great feedback from people all over. Organizations from Thailand, Argentina, and even our neighbors in Palo Alto have set up private-label Gmail, Google Talk …
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Adobe to release Intel-native Photoshop CS3 beta — Photoshop users who've been waiting for a version of the image-editing program that runs natively on Intel-based Macs are about to be rewarded for their patience. Adobe will release a beta of Photoshop CS3 on Friday, December 15, that's available as a Universal Binary.
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Top mistakes made by new online publishers — Commentary: Don't fall into the traps that have left too many other journalists muttering that 'no one can make money online.' — Perhaps you've heard the horror stories: You can't make any money publishing online. No one does any original reporting on the Web.

Changing the Game — There was a time in Silicon Valley when starting a company meant building something that you wanted to have, then other people came asking to buy one and you were in business. Companies in those days absorbed little venture capital and had the quaint notion that prior …

Gizmodo Knows: iPhone Will Be Announced On Monday — I guarantee it. It isn't what I expected at all. And I've already said too much. -Brian Lam
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Hotty McHotHot Rumor: iPhone, Monday the 18, For Reals
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Graceful Flavor


DISK DRIVE PIONEER LED SEAGATE — SILICON VALLEY BUSINESS PIONEER LED SEAGATE — On his office desk, Alan ``Al'' Shugart kept a small, wooden triangle with a straightforward message: ``Keep it simple.'' — But the life of the disk drive pioneer, who died Tuesday at 76 …


19 Ways To Make Social Sites Pay — With the top YouTube users becoming paid shills for Coke, and the top Diggers being accused of taking 'cash for Diggs', it seems that the users of social sites are looking to be rewarded for their efforts. In fact, there are already plenty of services that will pay you for your participation.
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Technically Speaking

BREAKING: More AOL Changes: EVPs Jim Bankoff, Joe Redling and John Buckley Leaving; Also CTO — More upheaval at AOL, as the company goes through a transition period under a new leadership: three of the top EVPs at the company are leaving, paidContent.org has learned.


Microsoft Statement: More Information on Windows Vista Software Protection Policies — In advance of general availability of Windows Vista late in January, Microsoft offers important information to help customers protect themselves from the risks of counterfeit software.
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SES Chicago - Using Images — We all had a great time at SES Chicago last week, answering questions and getting feedback. — One of the sessions I participated in was Images and Search Engines, and the panelists had great information about using images on your site, as well as on optimizing for Google Image search.


Prediction Markets at confab.yahoo — A report from the yahoo.confab event on Prediction Markets, held Wed Dec 13 in Silicon Valley. Written by Nitin Karandikar from The Software Abstractions Blog and edited by Richard MacManus. All photos are by David Rout for Yodel Anecdotal.

Third MS Word Code Execution Exploit Posted — Exploit code for a third, unpatched vulnerability in Microsoft Word has been posted on the Internet, adding to the software maker's struggles to keep up with gaping holes in its popular word processing program.
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Slashdot

Valleywag is becoming essential — I have to echo Fred Wilson's view that Valleywag has suddenly become a must-read for me. Despite the incessant Yahoo! bashing recently, Nick Denton has finally created an insightful Silicon Valley gossip rag that's worth the time put into it. Fred states,
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Technically Speaking


Orange to offer DSL and a MacBook for two euros per day — We'll go ahead and spare you the blatantly obvious "apples to oranges" remark, as the two fruitful companies actually do seem to have something in common based on a recent report from French newspaper Le Figaro.

U.K. considers wiki to ease patent bottleneck — The U.K. Patent Office is considering reforms to the British patent system based on recommendations made in a commissioned report on intellectual-property issues. — The patent office is "looking at an implementation plan" …
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Techdirt