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3:10 PM ET, October 17, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Paul Graham:
Why to Start a Startup in a Bad Economy  —  The economic situation is apparently so grim that some experts fear we may be in for a stretch as bad as the mid seventies.  —  When Microsoft and Apple were founded.  —  As those examples suggest, a recession may not be such a bad time to start a startup.
RELATED:
Don Dodge / Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing:
Start a company in a recession?  Absolutely!  —  Now is a great time to start a company.  Why?  Because great people are available to join you, VCs are loaded with cash, and office space is available cheap.  Everything is cheap and readily available in a recession.
Brian Garrity / New York Post:
FRIENDS OF THE BAND  —  ZUCKERBERG PONDERS FACEBOOK MUSIC BIZ  —  Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg is plotting a possible push into the digital-music business in the wake of MySpace's launch of MySpace Music last month.  —  The surging social-networking giant is talking to a number …
RELATED:
Matt Marshall / VentureBeat:
MySpace on target to do $1B in sales this year, defies downturn
John Paczkowski / Digital Daily:   BREAKING: Facebook May or May Not Launch Music Service
Prince McLean / AppleInsider:
Jobs responds to outrage over MacBook's missing FireWire [u]  —  In one of his characteristically terse email replies, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs has reportedly told one Mac user that changes in video camera technology have reduced the need for FireWire on his company's 13-inch MacBooks.
RELATED:
Edible Apple:
Steve Jobs email response re: lack of Firewire on MacBooks  —  Pictured below is a supposed email from Steve Jobs himself regarding the lack of Firewire on the newly introduced MacBooks.  Jobs kind of dances around the issue and just mentions that USB 2 is a viable option instead.
The Boy Genius / Boy Genius Report:
RIM announcing BlackBerry Storm-alike for U.S. at WES 2009, more devices  —  Look, we really don't want to do this to you, (well, we kind of do) but we've just got the word from one of our RIM ninjas that there will be a BlackBerry Storm-type device announced at WES 2009.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Google Asking Their Advertisers To Publicly Support Yahoo Search Deal  —  A reader, Darrin (from ReverseMortgageGuides), who says he spends about $100,000/month on Google adwords received a voicemail from a Cleary Gottlieb lawyer named Donald Burke.  Burke says he's representing Google in the Yahoo advertising deal.
RELATED:
InfoWorld:
Ballmer: Windows 7 is Vista, just ‘a lot better’  —  Windows 7 will be like Windows Vista , but more so, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said Thursday as he defended the first two years of Vista and claimed its successor will be a major release.  —  “[Windows 7], it's Windows Vista, a lot better …
GamesIndustry.biz:
LittleBigPlanet release delayed worldwide  —  The release of Sony's highly anticipated PlayStation 3 title LittleBigPlanet has been delayed worldwide.  —  The title has been delayed due to references to the Qu'ran on the in-game soundtrack.  —  “During the review process prior to the release …
Ars Technica:
Benchmarking Flash Player 10 (Updated)  —  The web collectively got a bit shinier this week with Adobe's release of Flash Player 10.  The new version offers designers a compelling set of new features including support for rich 3D visual effects, a new antialiasing engine, an improved drawing API …
RELATED:
Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
Desperate Google Will Now Take Gambling Ads  —  Google's Q3 growth rate in the UK is a sign of things to come elsewhere: a measly 17%.  Why was growth so slow?  In part because of the economy and in part because of market saturation.  Google utterly dominates search in the UK, as it will soon do in the US and everywhere else.
Discussion: Brand Republic and Valleywag
RELATED:
Philipp Lenssen / Google Blogoscoped:
Google UK Allows Gambling Ads Now
Discussion: Techdirt, Guardian and WebProNews
Tim Westergren / Pandora:
A Sad Day  —  This is a very sad day for Pandora, and for me personally.  Today we reduced our staff from 140 to 120 employees.  Like virtually every company, Pandora is not immune to the challenges presented by the current economic turmoil.  We are trying to react quickly and responsibly to the new environment.
Clint Ecker / Infinite Loop:
New MacBook Pro's got game: compelling new gaming benchmarks  —  It has been a long-running joke amongst gamers that Mac users tend to wallow in a dearth of gaming options.  While that perception may have been true in the past, the tides are definitely turning for the gaming Mac user.
Kasper Jade / AppleInsider:
Apple's Snow Leopard to sport Cocoa Finder and ImageBoot  —  Apple next-generation Snow Leopard operating system will introduce a massive re-write of the Mac OS X Finder and debut a new feature called ImageBoot, AppleInsider has learned.  —  Cocoa-based Finder
Discussion: MacRumors, Infinite Loop and TUAW
Bhaskar / QIK:
Qik now available on mass marke...  Qik now available on mass market J2ME phones  —  We are really excited that Qik is now the first mobile live streaming service on mass market phones - a.k.a feature phones, a.k.a non-smartphones a.k.a non-PDA phones.  As of today, Qik is now live in alpha on the following phones.
RELATED:
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
The Verbatim Transcript of Ballmer on Yahoo Deal: Separating Fiction From Truth  —  While many would like to see Microsoft reignite its bid for Yahoo, and as much as even good reporters insinuated that its CEO Steve Ballmer (pictured here) said yesterday in an appearance that he was interested …
RELATED:
Heidi N. Moore / Deal Journal:
Steve Ballmer May Want Yahoo. Microsoft Does Not.
Discussion: Industry Standard
Stephen Shankland / CNET News:
Google hedges against foreign currency swings  —  In recent months, financial analysts have expressed concern that Google's financial results could be hurt by foreign-exchange rate changes.  But Google said Thursday that it has taken measures to insulate itself from the potential problem.
Philipp Lenssen / Google Blogoscoped:
Footnotes in Google Docs  —  You can now add footnotes in Google Docs documents, as the Google help center explains.  Just click anywhere in the document and pick Insert -> Footnote from the menu.  The resulting document can display as shown in the screenshot, with a collapsable gray box next to the text …
Dylan Stableford / Folio:
Mygazines Folds  —  Controversial magazine sharing site shuttered.  —  RELATED POST: R.I.P. Mygazines, 2008-2008  —  Just weeks after settling a lawsuit with dozens of publishers, Mygazines, the controversial Web site that allowed users to share digital copies of hundreds of magazines, has closed.
Discussion: Industry Standard and Epicenter
Chris Albrecht / NewTeeVee:
Vimeo Lanches Vimeo Plus Paid Service  —  As promised, the increasingly popular video sharing site Vimeo launched its premium paid service today, introducing a host of new features for those willing to pony up — and placing more restrictions on those who don't.  —  For a $59.95 annual subscription, Vimeo Plus offers:
Discussion: ReadWriteWeb and AppScout
RELATED:
Allen Stern / CenterNetworks:   Vimeo Launches Vimeo Plus - Annual Paid Plans
 
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 More Items: 
BBC:
Man killed wife in Facebook row
Bonnie Cha / Crave: The gadget blog:
Sprint HTC Touch Pro delayed
InfoWorld:
Microsoft makes gains in server virtualization
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Adult Startup Zivity Cuts 1/3 Of Staff
 Earlier Items: 
Staci D. Kramer / paidContent.org:
Discovery CEO: Web ‘Take-up Rate Is Not That Strong’
Discussion: Financial Times
Devin Leonard / Fortune:
Shazam comes out of the shadows
Pete Koomen / Google App Engine Blog:
Announcing HTTPS support for appspot.com!
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Alex Sherman / CNBC:
Analyzing Comcast's spinoff of cable networks, purposefully structured with low debt: the move might be a signal to the industry that it's time to consolidate

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
James Harding says the Tortoise-Observer deal could create a profitable media group and there isn't a guaranteed future for the Observer with the Guardian

John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Substack, very deliberately, tries to have it both ways by saying publications on their platform are independent while presenting them all as parts of Substack

 
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