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3:40 PM ET, October 16, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Ballmer: It's ok to wait until Windows 7; Yahoo still ‘makes sense’; Google Apps ‘primitive’  —  Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on Thursday defended Vista's honor-again-but at least gave a nod to enterprise buyers that planned to skip it and upgrade when Windows 7 launches.
RELATED:
Amy Thomson / Bloomberg:
Microsoft-Yahoo Deal Still Makes Sense, Ballmer Says  —  Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) — Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer said a deal with Yahoo! Inc. may still make economic sense for shareholders of both companies, prompting Yahoo shares to jump as much as 12 percent.
Rex Crum / MarketWatch:
Ballmer says Yahoo deal would “make sense economically”  —  ORLANDO, Fla. (MarketWatch) — Microsoft Corp. (MSFT: , , ) Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said Thursday that he thinks a Microsoft acquisition of Yahoo Inc. (YHOO: , , ) would still “make sense economically” for both companies shareholders.
Owen Thomas / Valleywag:
Yahoo to cut 3,500 jobs — party on!  —  A tipster tells us that Yahoo plans to cut 3,500 jobs, chiefly in sales and finance, on December 10 — while keeping plans for a multimillion-dollar holiday party days before the cuts: … Our source also confirms that the company is slashing severance packages …
InfoWorld:   Microsoft: ‘No interest’ in pursuing Yahoo deal
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Yahoo Shrs Jump; Did Ballmer Hint On New Bid?
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider
Nancy Gohring / Computerworld:
The Android fine print: kill switch and other tidbits  —  An uproar erupted when iPhone users discovered a so-called remote kill switch on their phones — will it spur the same reaction in users of the G1, the first Android phone?  —  In the Android Market terms of service …
RELATED:
Walter S. Mossberg / Personal Technology:
Google Answers the iPhone  —  In the exciting new category of modern hand-held computers — devices that fit in your pocket but are used more like a laptop than a traditional phone — there has so far been only one serious option.  But that will all change on Oct. 22, when T-Mobile …
Matthew Miller / Smartphones and Cell Phones:
Review: Over 260 images and 5 videos of the T-Mobile G1 Google Android device  —  The biggest mobile news of 2007 was definitely the Apple iPhone and I think the biggest news of this year is the Google Android.  I enjoyed my trip out to see the T-Mobile G1 launch last month …
RELATED:
Matt Gundersen / The Official Google Blog:
What's new with iGoogle?  —  I'm an iGoogle addict.  I check my news, email, stocks, feeds and weather there and sometimes even manage to squeeze in a game or two during the day.  Having everything in one place is super convenient, but I often wish I could deal with all my stuff without having to leave my iGoogle page.
RELATED:
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
iGoogle Goes Wide, Introduces Canvas Pages.  —  Google's startpage, iGoogle, is spreading its wings.  Today it is rolling out a new design that shifts tabs to a column on the left so that more Google gadgets and sources of content can be accommodated.  But the biggest change is the ability …
Discussion: louisgray.com
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Go Get Yer Shiny New Yahoo Profile...And Make Some Connections!  —  Yahoo begins the rollout of its new user profile today, which marks the first tangible product release for the social part of the Yahoo Open Strategy, or YOS.  The profile is one of the anchors (mail is the other) …
RELATED:
Dan Farber / Webware.com:   Yahoo rolls out social Web foundation
Trevor Claiborne / Inside AdWords:
Build your own display ads in minutes  —  Today we released the AdWords display ad builder, which lets you create professional-looking display ads in AdWords without needing to hire a designer or start from scratch.  If you've wanted to expand beyond your text ad campaigns …
Justin Scheck / Wall Street Journal:
H-P Making Touch Screen Laptop  —  PC Giant Aims to Spur Demand With Line of Products Using Touch Technology  —  Hewlett-Packard Co., aiming to boost its personal computer sales amid a deteriorating economy and soft holiday season, is increasingly turning to touch-screen technology.
Joe Strupp / Editor and Publisher:
Shocker: Tribune Co. Gives Notice To Drop AP  —  NEW YORK Tribune Company has given a two-year notice to the Associated Press that its daily newspapers plan to drop the news service, becoming the first major newspaper chain to do so since the recent controversy over new rates began.
Ryan Paul / Ars Technica:
Opera study: only 4.13% of the web is standards-compliant  —  Browser maker Opera has published the early results of an ongoing study that aims to provide insight into the structure of Internet content.  To conduct this research project, Opera created the Metadata Analysis and Mining Application …
Discussion: Open Sources
Arik Hesseldahl / Business Week:
Inside the BlackBerry Bold  —  Research firm iSuppli says it costs Research In Motion $169.41 to make the smartphone, lower than some Street estimates—and promising for RIM's profit margins  —  The smartphone race between upstart Apple (AAPL) and incumbents like Research In Motion (RIMM) is well under way.
Chris Sherman / Search Engine Land:
Headup: A True Semantic Web Search Agent  —  “Semantic web” is one of those phrases that's tossed around loosely these days, used to describe just about anything that goes beyond basic keyword search to surface relevant content on the web.  But true semantic web applications …
Michael Kahn / Reuters:
Doctors warn of rash from mobile phone use  —  LONDON (Reuters) - Doctors baffled by an unexplained rash on people's ears or cheeks should be on alert for a skin allergy caused by too much mobile phone use, the British Association of Dermatologists said on Thursday.
Discussion: Salon, The Register, Switched and Gadget Lab
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Adbrite Lays Off 40% Of Staff, Including Two Execs  —  It's not a happy day at San Francisco-based Adbrite this morning.  The company is laying off 40 employees, which is 40% of total staff.  Among those that are leaving are VP Marketing Paul Levine and VP Finance Bob Feller.
Discussion: CNET News and Valleywag
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Details Released On The Radiohead Experiment Results: A Tremendous Success  —  While Trent Reznor has been very open in discussing the results of his various business model experiments, Radiohead has been notoriously quiet about it — leading some to falsely assume that the experiment was a failure.
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Can You Really Own The Idea Of Making Your iPhone Look Like Beer?  —  from the drink-up!  dept  —  It's time to raise your glasses in a toast to ridiculous intellectual property lawsuits.  Or, if you don't have a tasty beverage on hand, perhaps a virtual one, say, on your iPhone?
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Apple 2.0:
Macintosh share of the U.S. market tops 9%  —  Almost lost in the noise of the Presidential debates, the collapse of the Dow and the milling of those new MacBook aluminum unibodies were the preliminary reports from Gartner and IDC this week that showed sharp gains for Apple (AAPL) in third-quarter domestic computer shipments.
Reuters:
Norway police charge Microsoft's Fast with fraud  —  The Norwegian police economic crimes unit said it had charged Microsoft-owned search technology firm Fast Search & Transfer with accounting fraud on Thursday.  —  “We are raiding Fast's offices now to secure evidence,” police attorney Baard Thorsen said.
David Cotriss / Industry Standard:
AIM's formula for success: Buddy lists, IM partnerships, and the enterprise  —  (The following is part of the Standard's First To Market special feature) In the world of instant messaging, few services come close to the popularity of AIM, and no one can beat AIM in terms of longevity.
Discussion: Download Squad
Engineering Windows 7:
Engineering 7: A view from the bottom  —  Aka: A developers view of the Windows 7 Engineering process … Thanks to Steven and Jon for letting me borrow their soapbox :-).  —  I wanted to discuss my experiences working on building Windows 7 (as opposed to the other technical stuff …
 
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 More Items: 
eWeek:
Inside HP's P.O.D. Mobile Data Center
Discussion: Data Center Knowledge
Andrew Webster / Opposable Thumbs:
GTA San Andreas coming to Xbox Originals
Discussion: Xbox.com and Kotaku
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Prosper And Other P2P Lenders Get Squeezed By The Credit Crunch
Discussion: Bits and P2P Blog
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
EA Brushes Off DRM Complainers As Fringe 0.2%
Discussion: Custom PC
Tony Hirst / OUseful.Info, the blog:
Data Scraping Wikipedia with Google Spreadsheets
 Earlier Items: 
Sunshine / LiveSide:
Virtual Earth: Get A MultiMap Map On Your Site For Free!
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
The Pirate Bay Removes Fake Trackers from Torrents
Aude Lagorce / MarketWatch:
Nokia's profit falls 30% but margins hold
Tom Espiner / CNET News:
Adobe addresses Flash Player ‘clickjacking’ flaw
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Google's third quarter: What to expect
Discussion: BoomTown
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
YouTube Founder Compares Online Video To Nascent TV Market
Discussion: Podcasting News