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1:05 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.
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.
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.
RELATED:
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.
Discussion: MacRumors, MacUser and Gadget Lab
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.
Discussion: Infinite Loop and The Mac Observer
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:
Kelly Fiveash / The Register:
Zuckerberg flirts with record labels, eyes digital music biz
Discussion: Reuters
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 …
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.
Dusanb / IntoMobile:
Qik taps the feature phone market  —  today announced that their live mobile video streaming product is coming to a feature phone near you.  The Java ME-based application is available in alpha, allowing users with select Nokia and Sony Ericsson feature phones to record and stream video from wherever they are.
RELATED:
Bhaskar / QIK:
Qik now available on mass marke...
Juan Carlos Perez / Computerworld:
Extended Gmail outage hits Apps admins  —  E-mail service expected to be down for 24 hours  —  IDG News Service) A prolonged, ongoing Gmail outage has some Google Apps administrators pulling their hair out as their end users, including high-ranking executives, complain loudly while they wait for service to be restored.
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 …
Allen Stern / CenterNetworks:
Vimeo Launches Vimeo Plus - Annual Paid Plans  —  NY-based video sharing service Vimeo has announced the launch of Vimeo Plus today.  Vimeo Plus is a paid service that offers additional benefits over the free service.  NewTeeVee has a good overview of all of the features of Vimeo Plus which include …
RELATED:
Chris Albrecht / NewTeeVee:
Vimeo Lanches Vimeo Plus Paid Service
Discussion: ReadWriteWeb
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 …
Matt Marshall / VentureBeat:
MySpace on target to do $1B in sales this year, defies downturn  —  We're hearing from sources close to social networking company MySpace that it expects to hit $1 billion in revenue this year, or at worst be within a hair's breadth of that number.  Meanwhile, MySpace executives …
Devin Leonard / Fortune:
Shazam comes out of the shadows  —  The British tech firm can thank Steve Jobs.  Its music search is one of the most popular apps for Apple's iPhone.  —  NEW YORK (Fortune) — Have you ever been out with friends at a bar and heard one of those seventies songs like “Play That Funky Music …
Paul Miller / The Semantic Web:
Yahoo! gets local with SearchMonkey  —  Continuing to deliver on their aim of enriching the core search offering with a little help from SearchMonkey, Yahoo! yesterday announced that the existing SearchMonkey apps for CitySearch and Zagat are now available by default to all users of Yahoo! Search.
Ronen Halevy / BerryReview.com:
AT&T Bold Event Fails To Launch... Michael Phelps & All - Signs Are Pointing To A Release Very Soon  —  I just spent the better portion of my night at a AT&T launch event for the BlackBerry Bold in New York City.  Sadly I had to stand around in line outside for over an hour and a half to even get into the event.
Kevin C. Tofel / jkOnTheRun:
Asus breaks sub-$300 price barrier with Eee PC 900A at Best Buy  —  Let's get the sub-$300 netbook party started!  Pereira just pinged me to share this Best Buy link which shows the white Asus Eee PC 900A available for $299.  This is basically the same model as the 900, but the “A” stands for Atom.
InfoWorld:
Microsoft makes gains in server virtualization  —  Bolstered by the June launch of its Hyper-V virtualization software , Microsoft grabbed nearly a quarter of the fast-growing x86 server virtualization market in the second quarter, IDC said Thursday.  —  The success cut VMware's global share to less than twice its own.
Warren E. Buffett / New York Times:
Buy American.  I Am.  —  THE financial world is a mess, both in the United States and abroad.  Its problems, moreover, have been leaking into the general economy, and the leaks are now turning into a gusher.  In the near term, unemployment will rise, business activity will falter and headlines will continue to be scary.
Bonnie Cha / Crave: The gadget blog:
Sprint HTC Touch Pro delayed  —  Back at CTIA Fall 2008, Sprint announced that it would offer the HTC Touch Pro smartphone with an expected ship date of October 19.  Well, with the date drawing close, I thought I'd check in with Sprint to see about getting a review unit; plus …
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Adult Startup Zivity Cuts 1/3 Of Staff  —  Zivity, the adult social network and media site that describes itself as a “community-powered showcase of female beauty”, has laid off 1/3 of its staff, cutting back from 22 employees to 14.  (Again, 1/3 seems to be the magic number …
Matt Burns / CrunchGear:
NVIDIA launches the Quadro CX GPU for graphic professionals  —  The latest from NVIDIA isn't designed with Crysis in mind, but rather graphic pros that rely heavily on Adobe Creative Suite 4 software.  With an MSRP of $1,999, your Photoshop dabbling isn't the market NVIDIA is after here with this optimized card.
Discussion: TG Daily, Gizmodo and InformationWeek
Staci D. Kramer / paidContent.org:
Discovery CEO: Web ‘Take-up Rate Is Not That Strong’  —  Cable programmer Discovery (NSDQ: DISAB) is making its first foray in ad-supported, free-to-air TV on the UK's Freeview.  (It's not free for Discovery, which is reported to be paying millions of pounds for the privilege.)
Discussion: Financial Times
 
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 More Items: 
Tim Westergren / Pandora:
A Sad Day  —  This is a very sad day for Pandora, and for me personally.
Discussion: Webware.com and TechCrunch
Mark Sweney / Guardian:
Google reintroduces gambling ads
Discussion: Google Blogoscoped and WebProNews
Greg Phillips / PlayStation.Blog:
Resistance 2 beta begins... today!
Discussion: Destructoid, Kotaku and videogaming247
Heidi N. Moore / Deal Journal:
Steve Ballmer May Want Yahoo. Microsoft Does Not.
Matt Cutts / Gadgets, Google, and SEO:
Alerting webmasters to webserver vulnerabilities
 Earlier Items: 
AppleInsider:
Apple says new MacBook Airs to ship first week of November
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols / Computerworld Blogs:
The five best things in Linux 2.6.27
Discussion: digg.com
Brian Krebs / Washington Post:
Report: Russian Hacker Forums Fueled Georgia Cyber Attacks
Pete Koomen / Google App Engine Blog:
Announcing HTTPS support for appspot.com!
John P. Falcone / Crave: The gadget blog:
First Panasonic Tru2way TVs hit stores in Chicago, Denver
Discussion: Ars Technica and DSLreports
Christopher Beam / Slate:
Epic Win  —  GOODBYE, SCHADENFREUDE; HELLO, FAIL.
Discussion: Guardian and Valleywag
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Peter White / Deadline:
Fox and Hulu extend their content partnership, including in-season streaming rights for Fox's programming; sources: the deal is worth $1.5B over four years

Michael S. Rosenwald / New York Times:
Mike Shatzkin, a publishing consultant who was among the first in the industry to shake publishers into confronting the digital disruption, died on Nov. 7 at 77

Peter Kafka / Business Insider:
A Q&A with Chris Balfe, CEO of Red Seat Ventures, which has helped Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly set up their podcast and streaming businesses and sell ads

 
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