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3:40 PM ET, January 3, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
Facebook disabled my account  —  If you are trying to contact me on Facebook, please don't.  My account has been “disabled” for breaking Facebook's Terms of Use.  I was running a script that got them to keep me from accessing my account.  I'm appealing.  I'll tell you what I was doing …
RELATED:
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Plaxo Flubs It  —  News leaked prematurely today about a new Plaxo Pulse feature that allows users to match Facebook contacts to Pulse contacts, and then import contact data about the matches into Pulse.  —  Plaxo has been testing the feature with a number of journalists and bloggers.
Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
What I was using to hit Facebook — unreleased Plaxo Pulse  —  OK, so I've been released from my NDA.  I was alpha testing an upcoming feature of Plaxo Pulse — this feature has not yet been released and now that my account has gotten shut down it's not clear whether it will be released.
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Free the Scoble 5,000!!  —  It is easy to make light of the constant swirl of twittery online activity that surrounds well-known blogger Robert Scoble.  —  But Facebook's disabling of his account yesterday-because he was apparently using a script to access and pull data from his own profile …
Mike Butcher / TechCrunch UK:
Updated: Facebook blocks Scoble for downloading his contacts, sparks revolt  —  Data portability from social networks is going to become a huge tech industry issue in the new year.  Why?  Because well known tech blogger Robert Scoble has had his Facebook account disabled after he tried …
Discussion: Techmamas and broadstuff
Nick / Rough Type:
Scoble: freedom fighter or data thief?  —  The great revolutionary activist of our day, Robert Scoble (or “Che Scoble,” as Mike Butcher says), is battling for the ideal of data freedom with the evil forces of Facebook.  At issue, writes Kara Swisher, in a post titled “Free the Scoble 5,000! …
Discussion: CenterNetworks
Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life:
Facebook Right, Scoble Wrong: Social Network Interoperability and the O'Reilly Social Graph FOO Camp  —  I've read a number of stories this week that highlight that interoperability between social networking sites will be a “top ask” in 2008 (as we say at Microsoft).
Glenn Derene / Popular Mechanics:
Macworld 2008 Prediction: Apple's MacBook Plus Tablet Laptop  —  In his biweekly trends column, PM's senior tech editor forecasts what he thinks Steve Jobs will show the computer world at this year's Apple developers conference: a touchscreen “MacBook Plus” to enter the growing tablet market.
RELATED:
Slash Lane / AppleInsider:
Apple set to ship Macs with Blu-ray support - report  —  Apple Inc. at this month's Macworld Expo will will outline a high-definition video strategy that will see its weight thrown further behind Sony Corp's Blu-ray DVD format as opposed to Toshiba's HD-DVD, according to one Wall Street analyst.
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Apple 2.0:
Shaw Wu's Macworld: Blu-ray, movie rentals, MacBook mini or slim
Discussion: TECH.BLORGE.com
Scott Dunn / Windows Secrets Newsletter:
Microsoft charges customers for free services  —  Thousands of customers are paying almost $120 USD per year to Microsoft for an Internet subscription service that includes e-mail, security, and other features.  —  But Microsoft gives away almost identical services absolutely free in Windows Live …
Discussion: CrunchGear
RELATED:
Todd Bishop / Todd Bishop's Microsoft Blog:
Site: Microsoft charging for equivalents of free services
Discussion: Market Wire
Ina Fried / CNET News.com:
Is MSN Premium a rip-off?
Discussion: LiveSide and Digital Trends
Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
The Mozilla / Firefox IPO  —  How much is the entity that manages the Microsoft IE-killing browser Firefox worth, and when will it go public?  Answers: 1) A lot, and 2) Probably this year or next.  —  Background:  —  In the past few years, Mozilla's open-source Firefox browser has done …
Sue Zeidler / Reuters:
Netflix, LG to offer movie set-top box  —  LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - DVD rental company Netflix Inc on Wednesday said it was developing a set-top box with LG Electronics Inc to let subscribers watch movies streamed directly from the Web to their TVs.  —  Netflix, with about 7 million subscribers …
RELATED:
netflix.mediaroom.com:
LG Electronics and Netflix Announce Plan to Stream Movies …
Joel Johnson / Boing Boing Gadgets:
Dell Crystal LCD Monitor  —  This is Dell's new fancy monitor, the “Dell Crystal LCD."  I applaud Dell's willingness to put this one to market.  Its design certainly makes a statement.  —  Here's why you shouldn't buy it: It's only a 22-inch monitor with a 1,680 by 1,050 resolution.
RELATED:
HotHardware.com News:
Dell Crystal LCD Monitor, Launched
Discussion: DailyTech and I4U News
Microsoft:
Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification for January 2008  —  Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification issued: January 3, 2008  —  Microsoft Security Bulletins to be issued: January 8, 2008  —  This is an advance notification of two security bulletins that Microsoft is intending to release on January 8, 2008.
Greg Jarboe / Search Engine Watch Blog:
ChaCha launches text service at Sundance Film Festival  —  ChaCha, a “human-powered search engine”, today announced a new service that allows users to text questions of any kind to 242242 (which is ChaCha on a phone keypad) and receive text answers on their cell phone.
Discussion: eWEEK.com and WebProNews
Aviv Raff / Aviv Raff On .NET:
Yet another Dialog Spoofing - Firefox Basic Authentication  —  Summary  —  Mozilla Firefox allows spoofing the information presented in the basic authentication dialog box.  This can allow an attacker to conduct phishing attacks, by tricking the user to believe that the authentication dialog box is from a trusted website.
 
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 More Items: 
Arn / MacRumors:
Optimus-like OLED Apple Keyboard?
Discussion: CrunchGear and Gizmodo
Joseph Weisenthal / paidContent.org:
CMP Acquires Mass Events Labs, Producer Of Tech UnConferences; David Berlind Joins
Discussion: WebProNews and PR Newswire
NeoSmart Technologies:
Exclusive: Microsoft to Push Silverlight via Redesigned Homepage
Jonathan M. Gitlin / Ars Technica:
First Look: Microsoft Office for Mac 2008
Andrew Orlowski / The Register:
Microsoft patents Wish Lists
Discussion: Techdirt
Wang Shanshan / CHINAdaily:
Chinese googlers searching for money
Discussion: WebProNews and Reuters
Royal Pingdom:
Outages caused by raccoons, thieves and random gunfire
Discussion: WebProNews and canada.com
CNET News.com:
Net users are becoming their own reputation managers
Discussion: iPlot and WinBeta
 Earlier Items: 
Joel Hruska / Ars Technica:
WiFi flu: viral router attack could hit whole cities
Discussion: DSLreports
Charles Jade / Infinite Loop:
Macworld.Ars: Pre-pre-show photos and info
Caroline McCarthy / CNET News.com:
Surprise! Barack Obama, Ron Paul win MySpace ‘primaries’
Richard Thurston / CNET News.com:
Office 2003 update blocks older file formats
Chris Messina / FactoryCity:
The problem with open source design
Discussion: open and Blogging Pro
Liz Gannes / NewTeeVee:
5min Raises $5 Mil
Mike Nizza / The Lede:
Prankster Playing Bhutto's Son on Facebook Fools News Outlets
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
James Harding says the Tortoise-Observer deal could create a profitable media group and there isn't a guaranteed future for the Observer with the Guardian

Alex Sherman / CNBC:
Analyzing Comcast's spinoff of cable networks, purposefully structured with low debt: the move might be a signal to the industry that it's time to consolidate

Lauren Forristal / TechCrunch:
Tubi launches Scenes, a mobile feature that lets viewers watch 60-to-90-second trailer-style clips from its library to help with content discovery

 
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