Top Items:
Paul Buchheit:
Should Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail block Facebook? — Apparently Facebook will ban you (or at least Robert Scoble) if you attempt to extract your friend's email addresses from the service. — Automated access is a difficult issue for any web service, so I won't argue with their decision — it's their service and they own you.
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Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
Facebook lets me back in... I just received this email. — I answer Mike Arrington and several others in a video that now is up at http://www.mogulus.com/robertscoble. — UPDATE: In the video I cover a whole bunch of topics and take questions from the live audience that was there when filmed.
Discussion:
Get Engagd, TechCrunch, FactoryCity, broadstuff, Global Neighbourhoods, All Facebook, Valleywag, Elliott C. Back, larry borsato, Between the Lines, rexblog.com, Marketing.fm, Facebook Applications …, Compiler, Techmamas, LucaFiligheddu.com, theory.isthereason, CenterNetworks and Google Watch
Om Malik / GigaOM:
A Heart-to-Heart with GigaOM Readers — Happy New Year. As you may have noticed, my byline hasn't been up on the site for a few days. That's because the holidays weren't exactly my most jolly. — I had a heart attack on Dec. 28. I was able to walk into the hospital for treatment …
Discussion:
VoIP Watch, TechCrunch, THE BLOGGING JOURNALIST, Master of 500 Hats, Loic Le Meur Blog, WebMetricsGuru, Between the Lines, Geek Speaker, WebProNews, VentureBeat, FoundRead, LucaFiligheddu.com, atmaspheric, IP Democracy, BoomTown, Epicenter, Silicon Alley Insider, Marketing.fm, The Jason Calacanis Weblog, Digital Common Sense, bub.blicio.us, Valleywag, The Crunchies, Scripting News, Venture Chronicles, The Stalwart, Paul Kedrosky's …, Disruptive Telephony, Furrier.org, Kevin Burton's NEW FeedBlog and Digg
John Markoff / New York Times:
Intel Leaves Group Backing Education PCs — SAN FRANCISCO — Intel said Thursday that it had chosen to withdraw from the One Laptop Per Child educational computer organization, which it joined in July after years of public squabbling between Intel's chairman, Craig R. Barrett, and the group's founder, Nicholas P. Negroponte.
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Dean Takahashi / Tech Talk with Dean Takahashi:
Intel pulls out of One Laptop Per Child group — Here's another turn in a soap opera. I'm sure that kids in developing countries are not going to benefit from this internecine squabble. — Intel has decided to pull out of the One Laptop Per Child nonprofit organization after a dispute with its chairman, Nicholas Negroponte.
Thomas Claburn / InformationWeek:
Google Patent Imagines Robots Indexing The Grocery Aisle — The two computer scientists behind “recognizing text in images” search technology also worked on Google Street View and Google Book Search. — A patent application filed by Google with the World Intellectual Property Organization …
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wipo.int:
(WO/2008/003095) RECOGNIZING TEXT IN IMAGES — Publication Number: — WO/2008/003095 — International Application No.: — PCT/US2007/072578 — Publication Date: — International Filing Date: — Int. Class.: — G06F 17/30 (2006.01) — Applicants:
Scott Hillis / Reuters:
“Major Nelson” emerges as face of Xbox — REDMOND, Washington (Reuters) - Dressed in jeans and a T-shirt and sporting unkempt graying hair, Larry Hryb looks like just another guy in Microsoft's corporate headquarters. — But Xbox 360 players know Hryb by his alter ego, “Major Nelson,” …
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Ryan Block / Engadget:Xbox Live outage, day 13: still up and down, still preventing fun from being had
Discussion:
Hacking NetFlix
Mary Kathleen Flynn / Behind The Money Blog:
Leah Culver, 25, writes the code that powers Pownce — Technorati — Facebook — Digg — How does a 25-year-old computer science major from the University of Minnesota wind up as a co-founder of one of Silicon Valley's most closely watched startups?
Discussion:
CenterNetworks
Dean Takahashi / Tech Talk with Dean Takahashi:
CES gadgets: Sling Media unveils new Slingbox PRO-HD for moving HD video around the home — Sling Media, the local outfit recently acquired by Echostar, is benefiting from our urge to watch videos anytime, anywhere, and to sling it around the house so we can watch it in whatever room, except maybe the bathroom.
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Fury.com:
Today is My Last Day at Google — After a life-changing four and a half years of working with the most talented group of people I have ever met, I've decided to take the plunge and do it all over again, working for a very small start-up. Today is my last day at the Big G.
Tony Smith / The Register:
Sony confirms Skype coming to PSP — There's no doubt now that Skype is coming to the Sony PlayStation Portable - Sony's own website, updated to preview next week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, admits as much. — “Call friends, talk trash to fellow gamers or catch …
Peter Galli / eWEEK.com:
Microsoft Takes Heat for Office 2003 SP3 File Format Blocking — CorelDraw .CDR files are one of the formats that have been blocked. — Microsoft is facing criticism from a competitor and some customers for its decision to block some older file formats with Office 2003 Service Pack 3, which it released last September.
Discussion:
Have You Seen My Stapler?, Security Watch, Microsoft Watch, Christopher Null and Neowin.net
Catherine Holahan / Business Week:
Sony BMG Lets the Music Play — The last of the major labels finally throws in the towel on DRM, and prepares to fight Apple for valuable download revenues — In a move that would mark the end of a digital music era, Sony BMG Music Entertainment is finalizing plans to sell songs without …
Matt Asay / The Open Road:
Mac's market share growth is ‘nothing short of spectacular’ — Apple has been on a tear of late, but it's not just a story of iPods. — Web analyst Net Applications now puts the Mac's market share at 8 percent, up from 5.3 percent in early 2007. That is stunning growth by any measure …
Discussion:
Epicenter
Quentin / Rogue Amoeba:
Live Disc — Every time we exhibit at Macworld Expo, we hand out CDs with trial copies of all our software on them. And every time, we face the same problem, of how best to create these discs such that the software on them is up to date with the latest we have.
Min Lee / Associated Press:
China Limits Providers of Internet Video — HONG KONG (AP) — China has decided to restrict the broadcasting of Internet videos — including those posted on video-sharing Web sites — to sites run by state-controlled companies and require providers to report questionable content to the government.
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