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5:45 PM ET, May 2, 2008

Techmeme

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DealBook:
Finally, Microsoft and Yahoo in Merger Talks  —  After a months-long standoff, Microsoft and Yahoo are in active merger talks, a person involved in the discussions said.  —  Microsoft, which had threatened to abandon its bid, has increased its offer “by several dollars,” this person said.
Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
Microsoft Officially Raises Yahoo Bid “Several Dollars,” Negotiations Continue  —  UPDATE: The WSJ has confirmed our earlier assumption: Microsoft has been silent because Microsoft and Yahoo are now negotiating seriously about consummating a friendly deal.  Microsoft has raised its bid “by several dollars.”
Nathan / FlowingData:
Chart of the Day: A Breakdown of Facebook Applications  —  Of the 23,160 Facebook applications, I use about 5, but I probably wouldn't notice if someone randomly removed all of them from my profile in the middle of the night.  Kids these days.  I used to play BlockStar …
RELATED:
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Facebook Apps Are Still for Toddlers: The Visual Proof!
Discussion: All Facebook
Vasanth Sridharan / Silicon Alley Insider:
Confirmed: Facebook Apps Are Useless
Discussion: O'Reilly Radar and The Social
Saul Hansell / New York Times:
Amazon Sues Over State Law on Collection of Sales Tax  —  Amazon.com has filed a lawsuit challenging New York State's new law forcing online retailers to collect sales tax on shipments to state residents.  —  On Friday, Amazon filed a complaint in State Supreme Court in Manhattan objecting to the law …
RELATED:
Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica:
New York's “Amazon Tax” called “unconstitutional” by retailer
The Boy Genius Report:
BlackBerry KickStart: T-Mobile launch and a whole bunch of specs!  —  You didn't think we'd actually leave you hangin', did you?  To follow up on on yesterday's post of the BlackBerry KickStart photos, we've got here a couple more images of the phone with T-Mobile branding and some interesting details on the physical design attributes.
Nick / Rough Type:
Is Office the new Netscape?  —  As Microsoft and Yahoo continue with their interminable modern-dress staging of Hamlet - it's longer than Branagh's version! - the transformation of the software business goes on.  We have new players with new strategies, or at least interesting new takes on old strategies.
RELATED:
Peter Burrows / Business Week:
The Mac in the Gray Flannel Suit  —  More office workers infatuated with iPods and iPhones are demanding Macs.  Is business ready?  Is Apple?  —  Istvan Banyai  —  Soon after Michele Goins became chief information officer at Juniper Networks (JNPR) in February, she decided to respond …
Andy Serwer / Fortune:
Larry Page on how to change the world  —  Breakthrough ideas are around the corner, says the Google co-founder.  But most of us are failing to take a chance on them.  —  (Fortune Magazine) — As president of Google, Larry Page has pushed his people to take risks that have led to hot new applications like Gmail and Google Maps.
Discussion: HipMojo.com, Valleywag and Digg
I, Cringely . The Pulpit | PBS:
Iron Man  —  There was a game we used to play in the office, years ago, casting a movie of our own lives.  What well-known actor or actress would play you?  Who would play your friends?  The game eventually faded, as games always do, but at the time it was great fun.
Discussion: Tech Trader Daily and MacDailyNews
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Want That Post to Go Popular?  Here's The Best and Worst Times to Post It  —  Connecticut software developer Jake Luciani has run 10k items on Del.icio.us, Digg, Reddit and Mixx through the API of popularity ranking engine AideRSS to analyze the connection between popularity and timing.
Discussion: THIRD RAIL and AideRSS Blog
Karl / DSLreports:
Broadband Over Powerline (BPL) Stumbles - FCC gets a wrist slap, industry's largest deployment sold...  While the FCC once called broadband over power lines (BPL) the “great broadband hope,” the technology has been stuck in neutral, thanks largely to it's tendency to interfere …
Discussion: IP Democracy and GigaOM
RELATED:
Andrew D. Smith / Dallas Morning News:
Broadband over power lines plan is dead in Dallas
Discussion: Parks Associates
Elizabeth Corcoran / Forbes:
Tech's Top-Paid CEOs  —  Jerry Yang should take note: The best-paid chief executives among technology companies last year was not Google's Eric Schmidt.  —  Oracle's (nasdaq: ORCL - news - people ) Larry Ellison tops our ranking of the best-compensated chief executives at technology companies in 2007.
Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
Xbox 360 Blu-ray console shipping by September?  —  For all of Microsoft's denial, the Xbox 360 Blu-ray console rumors just will not die.  In fact, they are getting more and more specific.  The Chinese language Economic Daily News is reporting that Pegatron, an OEM subsidiary of ASUS …
Katie Marsal / AppleInsider:
Apple on MacBook Air, Jobs' plane, leases, R&D, NAND flash, more...  Apple in a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday discussed in detail some of the catalysts behind its industry-leading PC growth, expenditures for Steve Jobs' private aircraft …
Discussion: Infinite Loop and MacRumors
 
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 More Items: 
Los Angeles Times:
SAG, studios extend contract talks again
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
MicroHoo: Mail Monopoly Part of Yahoo's Price Holdout
Kevin Purdy / Lifehacker:
Slipstream Service Pack 3 into Your Windows XP Installation CD
Discussion: Download Squad
Karen Richardson / Market Wire:
Fujitsu First to Offer Built-In AT&T BroadbandConnect High Speed Packet Access
Betsy Schiffman / Epicenter:
Our Tip to Mr. Ballmer: Forget Yahoo, Buy AOL
Brooke Crothers / CNET News.com:
Intel-Nvidia screamer has lots of processors—and fans
Discussion: Electronista
John Cook / John Cook's Venture Blog:
Old media needs to wake up, or die
New York Magazine:
Rockstar Games' Dan Houser on Grand Theft Auto IV and Digitally …
 Earlier Items: 
John Battelle / John Battelle's Searchblog:
Addict-o-matic  —  My pal Dave Pell's new Web hack is up: Addict-o-matic.
Joelle Fornengo / Official Google Docs Blog:
Want your docs to be stylin'?
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Microsoft's PopFly makes it easy to create your own arcade games
Marc Andreessen / blog.pmarca.com:
Examining Microsoft's and Yahoo's unspoken concerns
Discussion: BoomTown, Go West and Valleywag
Allen Stern / CenterNetworks:
Nouncer Founder Discusses Failure and The Lessons He Learned
Mike Yamamoto / Crave: The gadget blog:
The ‘Hard Disk Crusher’ doesn't mess around
Andrew Wallenstein / Hollywood Reporter:
ABC.com mulls adding ads
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Coming to America: Getting visas to do business in Silicon Valley