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7:50 PM ET, March 5, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Saul Hansell / Bits:
The Nation's New Chief Information Officer Speaks  —  Reforming the entire health care system may be easier than doing everything Vivek Kundra says he wants to do when it comes to reforming the government's computer systems.  —  Mr. Kundra, the 34-year-old former chief technology officer …
RELATED:
The White House:
President Obama Names Vivek Kundra Chief Information Officer  —  WASHINGTON, DC - Today, President Barack Obama named Vivek Kundra the Federal Chief Information Officer (CIO) at the White House.  —  The Federal Chief Information Officer directs the policy and strategic planning …
Patrick Thibodeau / Computerworld:
New federal CIO Vivek Kundra wants a Web 2.0 government
Discussion: Xconomy and The FASTForward Blog
Jason Calacanis / The Jason Calacanis Weblog:
Why I employed a felon  —  Yesterday, I joined one of our Mahalo employees at Federal District Court as he was sentenced to 48 months in jail for crimes related to computer security.  —  Before my employee John Schiefer was sentenced, a violent career criminal was facing 60 months for beating up a prison guard.
RELATED:
Rafe Needleman / Webware.com:
Mahalo: Our hacker employee is no threat to your privacy  —  Mahalo CEO Jason Calacanis sent an e-mail Thursday to his followers (also posted on his blog, and worth a read) disclosing that his company mistakenly hired a man convicted of computer crimes but who hasn't yet served his sentence.
Threat Level:   Botnet Hacker Gets Four Years
Clearwire News Room:
Clearwire Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2008 Results  —  Key 2008 Highlights  — Completed Combination with Sprint's 4G Assets, Resulting in Largest U.S. Mobile Wireless Spectrum Portfolio  — Closed $3.2 Billion Financing Round at $17 Per Share
RELATED:
John Paczkowski / Digital Daily:
Perhaps if They Think of Their Win Mobile Devices as Broken iPhones...  What an uncomfortable moment for Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at the CIO Summit Wednesday.  Fielding questions at Microsoft's annual event for government and education sector IT workers, Ballmer was asked how best …
Kevin Michaluk / CrackBerry.com blogs:
Exclusive: First Real Photos of the BlackBerry 9630!  —  FINALLY!!!!!  What you're looking at above are the first real photos of the BlackBerry “Niagara” 9630.  As you can see, this CDMA full-QWERTY BlackBerry is looking sweet and very much has the appearance of the BlackBerry Curve 8900 and BlackBerry Bold morphed into one.
Justin Smith / Inside Facebook:
New Viral Channel: Facebook Launches Chat Invite API for Applications  —  Facebook has just released a new chat invite API that allows developers to let users send application invitations to their friends via Facebook Chat.  —  Here's how it works:  — After embedding the fb:chat-invite FBML element …
Discussion: All Facebook
RELATED:
Yariv Sadan / Facebook Developers:
Inviting Users to Chat in Your Applications
Discussion: TechCrunch and Mashable!
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Yahoo's Inquisitor Makes Search Shine On The iPhone  —  Last May, Yahoo acquired a startup called Inquisitor which offers a search plug-in for all the major browsers.  Today, Inquisitor is available as an iPhone app and it shows how certain features, such as Yahoo's Search Assist …
RELATED:
Colby Ranger / The Official Google Blog:
Tipping points  —  Ideas are everywhere, but how do we know which ones actually work?  At Google, we put a lot of stock in both the wisdom of crowds — the idea that lots of people responding to a given question can collectively find the best answer — and the value of community.
RELATED:
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Google's Tip Jar Uses Crowdsourcing to Help People Save Money
Raju Vegesna / Zoho Blogs:
Zoho Writer 2.0 launches with fresh look  —  Refreshing changes don't come often.  Today, we are launching a new major version of our word processor - Zoho Writer 2.0 - with a fresh and elegant user interface & significant improvements.  This important upgrade comes with hundreds of improvements, mostly on the user interface.
Stephen Schenck / Obsessable:
Acrobat bug can lead to malware installs without even opening an infected file  —  Because Adobe builds parts of Acrobat into Windows Explorer, you can trigger the bug unintentionally.  —  If you've been living in fear of opening any suspicious PDF files since we let you know about a still-unpatched bug …
Discussion: Download Squad
RELATED:
John Leyden / The Register:
Zero-day Adobe PDF peril goes click free
Discussion: Didier Stevens
Arik Hesseldahl / Business Week:
At DEMO, VCs Have Stern Advice for Startups  —  With less money available to entrepreneurs and with fewer startups being bought, VCs are pushing portfolio companies to focus on frugality  —  Watch the Video...  Venture capital investor Christine Herron has a bit of advice for technology startups …
Discussion: HipMojo.com
Lee Gomes / Forbes:
Google Disrupts—Again  —  The Internet giant's search engine could make Web site design and navigation obsolete.  —  BURLINGAME, Calif.—Google has turned the advertising industry upside down.  Here's something else the Internet giant is changing: Web sites—both how they are used …
David Evans / Online Dating Insider:
PlentyOfFish Starts Charging Premium Membership Fees … Free dating sites have had a good run the past few years.  Everyone starting a free dating site jumped, and continues to jump, on the free dating bandwagon.  Meanwhile, top paid dating sites are making hundreds of millions of dollars …
Discussion: Gear Diary, Thanks:daveevans
Chicago Breaking News:
Sheriff sues Craigslist as ‘largest source’ of prostitution  —  Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart announced today that his office has sued Craigslist and has asked a federal judge to ban the Internet company from posting its “erotic services” section, which the sheriff said is a clearing house for prostitution.
Microsoft:
Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification for March 2009  —  Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification issued: March 5, 2009  —  Microsoft Security Bulletins to be issued: March 10, 2009  —  This is an advance notification of security bulletins that Microsoft is intending to release on March 10, 2009.
Heather Hopkins / Hitwise Intelligence:
Yahoo! Mail More than One Third of Yahoo! Traffic  —  Tuesday, Yahoo!'s new CEO, Carol Bartz spoke to analysts and one comment in particular caught my attention.  According to an article on ZDNet, she said “Yahoo Mail is becoming increasingly critical to the company.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
It's Time To Start Thinking Of Twitter As A Search Engine  —  At a dinner tonight with a friend the conversation turned to Twitter.  He just didn't get it, and he's certainly not the first person to tell me that.  Specifically, my friend didn't understand the massive valuation …
Paul Biba / TeleRead:
Fictionwise acquired by Barnes & Noble for $15.7 million in cash  —  Fictionwise has been acquired by Barnes & Noble, said to be the world's largest bookseller, for $15.7 million in a stock deal that TeleRead revealed earlier today.  —  I spoke with Scott Pendergrast of Fictionwise at 7:20 …
Aza Raskin / Mozilla Labs:
New Tab Page: Proposed design principles and prototype  —  Every time you open a new tab, you are opening it to go somewhere.  Sometimes it's to do a search.  Sometimes it's to type in a new URL.  Sometimes it's to check an address you just selected.  The only thing you are guaranteed to not want is a blank page.
Gregg Keizer / Computerworld:
Analyst: Apple turns its back on e-book market  —  Says Amazon.com's Kindle for iPhone proves Apple thinks 'people don't read anymore'  —  Computerworld) Amazon.com's release of a free e-book reader for the iPhone proves that Apple is simply not interested in the electronic book market, one expert said today.
Rory Maher / paidContent.org:
Blockbuster Releases Some Q4 Results Early To Quell Bankruptcy Rumors  —  In an apparent effort to reassure investors, Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI) fell nearly 90 percent following reports that it had retained law firm Kirkland & Ellis to explore ways to resolve its debt due in August, including bankruptcy.
Economist:
The internet's librarian  —  Brewster Kahle wants to create a free, online collection of human knowledge.  It sounds impossibly idealistic—but he is making progress  —  FOR a man who has set himself a seemingly impossible mission, Brewster Kahle seems remarkably laid back.
Bloomberg:
Palm Pre Will Take IPhone Users as Contracts End, Investor McNamee Says  —  Palm Inc.'s new Pre smart phone will persuade customers to switch from Apple Inc.'s iPhone when their contracts start expiring in June, Palm investor Roger McNamee said.  —  “They will wait until their two-year contract is done …
 
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 More Items: 
Venture Capital Dispatch:
VoIP Start-Ups Scramble To Find Niche
Discussion: VoIP Watch and FierceVoIP
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Apple 2.0:
Apple so far immune to PC price “collapse”
Discussion: ZDNet and MacNN
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
New NYTimes iPhone App Enables Offline Reading
Liz Gannes / NewTeeVee:
Big Money! Vidyo and Verivue Score Funding for Video Tech
 Earlier Items: 
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Tacoda, Real Media Founder Dave Morgan Back With Another Ad Startup
Discussion: VentureBeat and paidContent.org
Rebecca Buckman / Forbes:
VC View From The Rockies
Alex Chitu / Google Operating System:
Google Chrome, Bundled with RealPlayer
Discussion: Mashable!
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Enthusiasts keep pushing Smule's Ocarina iPhone app to higher numbers
Discussion: Obsessable
David Pogue / New York Times:
It Rings, It Shoots, It Stumbles
Discussion: Electronic Pulp
Monica Hesse / Washington Post:
Offbeat Name? Then Facebook's No Friend
Mike Butcher / TechCrunch UK & Europe:
Sky News realises news breaks first on Twitter, not TV …
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
The Onion, backed by some Sandy Hook families and Everytown for Gun Safety, buys Infowars in a bankruptcy auction, and plans a January 2025 relaunch as a parody

Robbie Whelan / Wall Street Journal:
Disney reports Q4 revenue up 6% YoY to $22.6B, TV network revenue down 6% YoY to $2.5B, and a $321M DTC streaming profit, up from a $387M loss in Q4 2023

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Disney plans to add an ESPN “tile” to Disney+ for US subscribers on December 4, giving users access to some free ESPN content

 
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