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12:45 PM ET, February 22, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Rory Cellan-Jones / BBC NEWS | dot.life:
Facebook - back to the kids?  —  Facebook - it's so over.  That's been the tenor of most of the commentary since Thursday's figures showing a slight dip in Facebook's UK users.  The general feeling is that the kids, with their minute attention spans, have already tired of the social networking site …
Nick Miller / The Age:
$10 chip puts Australia on the fast track  —  A new silicon chip developed in Melbourne is predicted to revolutionise the way household gadgets like televisions, phones and DVD players talk to each other.  —  The tiny five-millimetre-a-side chip can transmit data through a wireless connection …
Jean Eaglesham / Financial Times:
Whitehall gives ISPs piracy deadline  —  The government will on Friday tell internet service providers they will be hit with legal sanctions from April next year unless they take concrete steps to curb illegal downloads of music and films.  —  Britain would be one of the first countries in the world to impose such sanctions.
RELATED:
BBC:
ISPs could face piracy sanctions
Discussion: DSLreports and Guardian
Reuters:
Britain threatens ISPs with possible piracy legislation
Discussion: WebProNews
Bernard Lunn / ReadWriteWeb:
Why Google Apps is a Serious Threat to Microsoft Office  —  This is the perspective of a “skeptical, later early adopter”; the sort of person who Microsoft needs to retain and should have been able to retain easily.  I don't spend time on productivity tools that may at some date make me more productive …
Ina Fried / CNET News.com:
Microsoft glitch offers up Vista SP1 early  —  Brett Zehr was surprised on Thursday when he saw that his Windows Vista PC had a new update ready: Service Pack 1.  —  The software wasn't supposed to be available until mid-March, however a glitch on Thursday meant that Zehr and some other general users …
RELATED:
Kelly Fiveash / The Register:
Vista SP1 kills and maims security apps, utilities  —  Check security software before installing  —  Microsoft has admitted that Windows Vista service pack one (SP1) renders useless a number of well-known third party security products.  —  Redmond said in a knowledge base article yesterday that due to …
John Markoff / New York Times:
Researchers Find Way to Steal Encrypted Data  —  SAN FRANCISCO — A group led by a Princeton University computer security researcher has developed a simple method to steal encrypted information stored on computer hard disks.  —  The technique, which could undermine security software protecting critical data …
Eric Bangeman / Ars Technica:
Star Trek, Twilight Zone, other classics beamed onto 'Net  —  Last spring, CBS announced the creation of the Audience Network, which has become the online home for CBS programming.  Yesterday, the network gave the site a boost with the announcement that it plans to bring some classic shows there.
Discussion: TVover.net
RELATED:
James Lewin / Podcasting News:
CBS Offering Star Trek On Demand
Discussion: PR Newswire
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Microsoft Fishes in Silicon Valley For New Yahoo Board Members  —  According to a source with knowledge of the situation, as part of the preparation for a possible proxy fight it is preparing to wage against Yahoo, Microsoft has been angling in Silicon Valley for prominent techies to serve on a board it must nominate.
Nik Fletcher / Download Squad:
UK Facebook users ‘dropped 5% in January’  —  For all the talk of Facebook being the $15-billion dollar social network de jour, it would appear that the heavyweight may be losing its touch, at least in the UK.  The BBC quotes Nielsen Online figures for last month, showing Facebook dropping …
Discussion: AppScout
RELATED:
Arn / MacRumors:
Apple Releases iTunes 7.6.1, $0.99 Rental Discounts  —  Apple released iTunes 7.6.1 today through the Mac OS X Software Update.  This maintenance release includes several bug fixes and improves compatibility with Apple TV 2.0.  The included description remains the same as the original 7.6 release:
Stephen Shankland / CNET News.com:
Firefox crosses 500 million download mark  —  Sometime last night, Firefox downloads crossed the 500 million threshold.  —  It's an arbitrary but interesting milestone for the open-source Web browser, whose development is overseen by Mozilla but that's also developed and extended by a large number of outside programmers.
Discussion: AppScout
Associated Press:
Google's Brin spooked by Microsoft's Yahoo bid  —  Speaking after a Google press event, Sergey Brin calls the possibility of a Yahoo takeover ‘unnerving.’  —  MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (AP) — Google Inc. co-founder Sergey Brin called Microsoft Corp.'s takeover bid for Yahoo Inc. an “unnerving” …
InfoWorld:
Hackers turn Google into vulnerability scanner  —  San Francisco - The hacking group Cult of the Dead Cow (CDC) this week released a tool that turns Google into an automated vulnerability scanner, scouring Web sites for sensitive information such as passwords or server vulnerabilities.
Discussion: The Register, GNUCITIZEN and eWeek
Erica Sadun / The Unofficial Apple Weblog:
TUAW Responds: iPhone LoJack  —  Way back, one of our readers begged for an iPhone LoJack solution.  He wanted his iPhone to “call home” regularly in case of loss or, let's be more realistic, theft.  Over the past week, I finally had a chance to give this request some time, and I put together findme.
Discussion: Infinite Loop, iLounge, VoIP Blog and Digg
Lewis Page / The Register:
EU data guardians: search engines must obey our rules  —  European gov data-privacy supremos have collectively said that search engines operating in their jurisdiction are governed by EU personal-data regs even if headquartered elsewhere.  —  The Article 29 Working Group …
Discussion: WebProNews
RELATED:
Aoife White / Associated Press:
EU: Search Engines Under EU Rules
Discussion: Search Engine Land and Mashable!
 
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 More Items: 
googlelunarxprize.org:
The X PRIZE Foundation Announces Official Contenders in Private Moon Race
Geoff Price / officeformac.com:
Office 2008 Update  —  It's been a month now since …
Scott Gu / ScottGu's Blog:
First Look at Silverlight 2  —  Last September we shipped Silverlight 1 …
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
SXSW 2008 on BitTorrent: 3.5 GB of Free Music
Discussion: Egregious Thoughts
Tricia Bishop / Baltimore Sun:
Lawyer seeks a lock on lingo
Darren Murph / Engadget:
LG's 13.3-inch P300 arrives in Europe, Americans beg a little more
Discussion: Electronista
Royal Pingdom:
Joost website has a surge of downtime in February
Discussion: NewTeeVee and Mashable!
Telco 2.0:
BBC's iPlayer nukes “all you can eat” ISP business model
 Earlier Items: 
Reuters:
EU, U.S. vow crackdown on computer counterfeits
Discussion: The Register and Newspond.com
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Apple 2.0:
NAND and demand: How the chips fall at Apple, Inc.
Discussion: Seeking Alpha and DailyTech
Greg Sandoval / CNET News.com:
MTV bets on a ‘Jackass’ move to the Web
Kelly Fiveash / The Register:
EU wants RFID tags turned off
Discussion: Ars Technica
uscc.com:
New Products & Services  —  U.S. CELLULAR OFFERS $99 UNLIMITED …
J. Nicholas Hoover / InformationWeek:
Black Hat Conference: Security Researchers Claim To Hack GSM Calls
Discussion: DailyTech, IntoMobile and Engadget
Ryan Kairer / PalmInfocenter.com:
Buy a Palm TX, Get a Free Z22 Handheld
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced she will leave the agency on January 20; she was the first woman to be confirmed to lead the agency

Lachlan Cartwright / The Ankler:
Sources: MSNBC renewed Rachel Maddow's contract early this fall, but with a pay cut; MSNBC bosses' plan to shake up daytime and weekend programming

Evan Drellich / New York Times:
The MLB is planning national packages for streaming companies to bid on in 2028, when its national TV deals with ESPN, Fox, and Turner expire

 
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