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Ashlee Vance / The Register:
Sun turns to Neil Diamond for Amazon utility ‘killer’ — Here's Sun Microsystems. Ahead of the curve with utility computing? Check. Interested in gaining the business of today's internet companies? Big check. Full of server-side software skills? Check.
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Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
BitTorrent Developers Introduce Comcast Busting Encryption — Several BitTorrent developers have joined forces to propose a new protocol extension with the ability to bypass the BitTorrent interfering techniques used by Comcast and other ISPs. This new form of encryption will be implemented …
Nicholas Carlson / Valleywag:
Screenshots of Yahoo Buzz, a Digg competitor — The pace of of product launches from Yahoo is breathless — and with a whiff of desperation. On February 26, Yahoo plans to beta launch Yahoo Buzz as a competitor to Digg, and a tipster supplied Valleywag with screenshots.
Adam / Xobni:
Jeff Bonforte Joins Xobni as CEO — Matt and I have hired a new CEO to help us build Xobni. As those close to Xobni know, we were not actively looking for a CEO. Nevertheless, when we met Jeff Bonforte several months ago we said We've got to get this guy on our team.
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Gabor's Blog
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Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Patentability Of Business Model And Software Patents Comes Under Court Scrutiny — Nearly ten years ago, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) made its ruling in the State Street Bank case, effectively allowing patents on business models and greatly expanding the scope of software patents in one single move.
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Stephen J. Dubner / Freakonomics:
Is MySpace Good for Society? A Freakonomics Quorum — Two little words — “social networking” — have become a giant buzzphrase over the past couple of years, what with the worldwide march of Facebook and headline-ready stories about Web-assisted suicides. So what's the net effect of social networking?
I, Cringely . The Pulpit | PBS:
Plan B — Last week I presented my best guess why Microsoft would want to buy Yahoo. What was it that made Yahoo worth $44.6 billion to Bill Gates? Based on what I believe is a pretty profound understanding of the innards of each company, I said it came down less to competing with Google …
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WinExtra
Greg Linden / Geeking with Greg:
Ranking using Indiana University's user traffic — Mark Meiss gave an great talk at WSDM 2008 on a fascinating project where they tapped and anonymized all traffic into and out of Indiana University, then analyzed the behavior of search users. Their paper, “Ranking Web Sites with Real User Traffic” …
Duncan Riley / TechCrunch:
stickK Allows You To Put A Contract On Yourself — stickK is designed to promote a healthier lifestyle by allowing users to create “Commitment Contracts” that oblige them to follow through with commitments such as exercise and quitting smoking. — stickK was developed by Yale University …
Elinor Mills / CNET News.com:
Lawsuit claims Google stole idea for Sky layer in Earth — A former Google contractor is suing the company for allegedly stealing from him the idea for the Sky layer in Google Earth. — The lawsuit filed this week in federal district court in Atlanta seeks punitive damages of $25 million from Google.
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Comparing Six Ways to Identify Top Blogs in Any Niche — In the early days of blogging you could go to the Technorati Blog Index, enter some identifying terms for a particular niche topic and discover what the top blogs were in the field. — Identifying top niche blogs is invaluable knowledge …
David A. Utter / WebProNews:
Yahoo Layoffs Could Cost $25M — Most of the charge will hit Yahoo's first quarter numbers — The reorganization at Yahoo that resulted in hundreds of layoffs will cost the company millions in related costs. — Sending employees out the door of its California offices triggered mass layoff provisions in the state's labor laws.
Eliot Brown / New York Observer:
Apple Is Building on 34th, But Will It Set Up Shop? — Avenue Apple store? — Apple has applied for a building permit at 21 West 34th Street, listing plans for a two-story 19,000-square-foot retail structure on the site, owned by SL Green. — So will this be the next iStore? — Maybe, maybe not.
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols / eWeek:
What's Behind the SCO Buyout — What's Behind the SCO Buyout — Why would anyone pay $100 million for a company in bankruptcy and with a collapsing business and a total worth, including selling the furniture, of about $5 million? — If I had a $100 million lying around …
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Mark Spoonauer / LAPTOP Magazine:
Everex CloudBook Mini Review Verdict: Needs More Time in the Oven — Does the Asus Eee PC have some serious competition in the $399 Everex Cloudbook? On paper it does. This 2-pound notebook boasts more storage than the Eee PC (30GB hard drive versus 2GB to 8GB) and runs the more flexible …
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Eric Bangeman / Ars Technica:
Report: Toshiba making funeral plans for HD DVD; Wal-Mart to go all Blu (updated) — Since the beginning of the year, when Warner Bros. announced that it was pulling support for HD DVD, the prospects appeared grim. Toshiba and some of the other backers of the format put on a brave face …
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