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7:10 PM ET, December 31, 2006

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Don Dodge / Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing:
Is Google's hypocrisy evil?  —  Google's motto is "Do no evil".  TechCrunch says Google is at a tipping point.  The controversy is around Google promoting its own services in search result pages.  The argument is that the way Google promotes its services may confuse users that they are actually clicking …
Jameskyton / unnecessary:
Looking at Fiji and Vienna  —  Windows Vista has been released for a month now to business, and is going to be released to the general public in a month (January 30).  For those who haven't been following Vista's development, it is worh noting that even though Vista comes 5 years after XP, it is a rushed product.
RELATED:
Paul Miller / Engadget:
Never mind Vista, here's Fiji and Vienna  —  Face it, Windows Vista is just so played these days.  With that preliminary biz release under its belt, we're ready for bigger and better things, and luckily a certain "jameskyton" drive-by-blogger has the low-down for us on Vista's successors, Fiji and Vienna.
Discussion: Teching It Easy and Slashdot
Doc / Doc Searls' IT Garage:
How VRM can help CRM get past DRM  —  DRM is a solution to a problem that only appears on the supply side of the market for easily copied entertainment goods.  In the absence of a real relationship with customers, the entertainment industry characterize the problem of file copying as "piracy" …
Betsy Schiffman / Associated Press:
Apple faces suit over iPod-iTunes link  —  NEW YORK - As if its options woes weren't trouble enough, Apple Computer Inc. said Friday it is facing several federal lawsuits, including one alleging the company created an illegal monopoly by tying iTunes music and video sales to its market-leading iPod portable players.
RELATED:
Jackson West / NewTeeVee:
Apple Sued Again Over iTunes
Discussion: Mashable!
Darren Murph / Engadget HD:
Millions miffed at poor quality from holiday HDTV purchase  —  It seems that all of those witty predictions claiming that HDTVs would sell like hotcakes this holiday season have apparently been proven accurate, but the consumer backlash that we all assumed would follow is now in full swing.
Discussion: Epeus' epigone and digg
Deborah Schoeneman / New York Times:
Can Google Come Out to Play?  —  ON a Thursday afternoon before the holidays, the game room at Google's new offices in Chelsea was being put to good use.  Two engineers were taking a break from coding at the pool table.  A programmer in a purple Phish T-shirt was practicing juggling.
Scott Schwebke / Standard-Examiner# Vermont …:
Unhappy Christmas surprise  —  sschwebke@standard.net  —  LAYTON — Christmas became XXX-mas for a 14-year-old Layton boy who discovered hard-core pornography on a video game he received as a gift.  —  Kolton Mahoney was shocked when he put the Madden NFL 07 game in his new Xbox 360 console Christmas …
Discussion: GamePolitics.com, Joystiq and digg
Karen Wickre / Official Google Blog:
A year in Google blogging  —  The definition of "googol" is a number, and Google lives by numbers.  So how else should we look back over the year but with numerical bits?  Here goes: This post marks the 294th time this year you're reading a post from us — nearly 100 times more often than in 2005.
Discussion: TechCrunch, Zoli's Blog and Paul Mooney
Pete Cashmore / Mashable!:
Saddam's Execution Video Makes it to Google Video, YouTube, Revver  —  It's a sign of the times that cameraphone footage of Saddam Hussein's execution - including the aftermath as he hangs from the noose - has made its way to video sharing sites.  While mainstream media avoided showing the whole clip …
Discussion: Web Strategy and ben barren
Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
I like Matt Cutts of Google  —  This post from Google's Matt Cutts, that I just posted to my link blog, demonstrates why I think Matt is one of the best things going at Google in terms of relations with the outside world right now.  —  One piece of advice for Matt: Google will be judged unfairly.
Discussion: Matt Cutts
Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life:
The Year the Blog Died  —  Jeff Simmermon wrote a blog post entitled Drowning Kittens In A River Full Of Cash which he seems to have deleted but which is cached here.  There was a sentence from that blog post which stayed with me and I have reproduced below
Peter / MySQL Performance Blog:
Where to get recent MySQL version ?  —  As you might noticed there are no recent MySQL Community versions available for download from MySQL Download Area This applies both to binaries (which is expected with new polices) but also to the source files which were promised to be available.
Discussion: digg
Tim Green / mobile-ent.biz:
First Google phone actually Samsung phone  —  It was touted as Google's first handset, but the Ultra Edition 13.8 is really just a Samsung slider with a bunch of Google apps pre-loaded.  —  Samsung's HSDPA device incorporates Google's mobile search and Gmail applications.
Discussion: Tom Hume and 21talks
Associated Press:
NEW YORK CITY CABS TO MAP OUT CELL-PHONE DEAD ZONES  —  NEW YORK — Ever wanted to stuff that "Can you hear me now?" guy into the trunk of your car and take him on a tour of those maddening spots where your cell phone won't work?  —  One telecommunications company has a plan to do the mechanical equivalent.
Discussion: Gizmodo, Engadget Mobile and digg
Ionut Alex. Chitu / Google Operating System:
Google Video Contact Manager  —  Google Video has a new feature that lets you send a link to a video much more easily.  Google Video already had a way to share videos, but you had to type emails and the autocomplete was barely usable.  —  Now you can see all your contacts or just the most contacted …
Discussion: Googling Google, Googlified and digg
 
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 More Items: 
Tom Evslin / Fractals of Change:
at&t's Trojan Horse
Ryan Carter / Download Squad:
Performancing Firefox plugin is now ScribeFire
Todd Haselton / Opposable Thumbs:
Computer-free iPod stuffing
Discussion: digg
Steve Rubel / Micro Persuasion:
Tagging Site Raw Sugar Tanks, Put Assets Up for Sale
Search Marketing Gurus:
Barack Obama Doesn't Know What a Widget Is - Internet Marketing Meets Politics 101
Hugh Macleod / gapingvoid:
BLOGGING DELIVERS FIVE-FOLD INCREASE IN STORMHOEK SALES IN LESS THAN TWO YEARS?
Discussion: RSS Marketing Blog
 Earlier Items: 
Google Blogoscoped:
AdSense Blacklist to Increase Revenue
Discussion: media blog
Major Nelson / Xbox Live's Major Nelson:
Top Xbox Live Games of 2006
Stephen Shankland / CNET News.com:
Virtual reality to get its own network?
Sion Touhig / The Register:
How the anti-copyright lobby makes big business richer
Discussion: Libervis.com and digg
Washington Post:
AT& T Completes BellSouth Takeover
Discussion: digg and Slashdot
 

 
From Mediagazer:

A.G. Sulzberger / New York Times:
A.G. Sulzberger says the role of a free press is under attack, and that the anti-press playbook used in eroding democracies is now being deployed in the US

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
CNN CEO Mark Thompson tells employees that CNN plans to launch a streaming service in fall 2025; cable subscribers will have free access to the service

Stephen Fowler / NPR:
Court docs: DOGE tried to assign a team to review CPB operations on April 29, but CPB said DOGE had no role “supervising or having any activity relating to CPB”

 
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