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Fred / A VC:
Selling The Company Back To The Founders — I read with interest the Brad Stone piece in the NY Times this morning suggesting that Niklas and Janus might buy Skype back from eBay. I think this is a wonderful idea and I hope it happens. — Back when eBay bought Skype in 2005, I was skeptical that eBay was the right home for Skype.
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Brad Stone / New York Times:
Skype Founders Seek to Buy Service Back — SAN FRANCISCO — The European duo who created Skype and sold it to eBay for billions may have another trick up their sleeve: buying it back. — Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, the original founders of Skype, have approached several private equity firms …
Discussion:
Epicenter, Mark Evans, CNET News, Reuters, Download Squad, Skype Journal, VoIP & Gadgets Blog, TechCrunch, Silicon Alley Insider, ReadWriteWeb, The SiliconANGLE, paidContent.org, HipMojo.com and AuctionBytes Blog, Thanks:atul
Joshua Topolsky:
Why Engadget is blocking the DiggBar — Some of you may be wondering why you're not seeing the latest piece of Digg's news-puzzle — the DiggBar — on Engadget. Let me explain. — If you've seen the tool in action, then you know that it appears to offer an easy way to read an article …
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Ted Dziuba:
DiggBar is a Howl of Desperation — Since the most recent death of Uncov, I've tried to lay off the Web 2.0 s**t. However, as a conoisseur of fail, I thought the DiggBar is worth an examination. — DiggBar is a URL shortening service from Digg, the internet's largest community of whiners …
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
How to Sell Your Soul on Twitter and Who's Buying — What are you doing? No what are you doing Apple, Skype, Flip, StubHub and Box.net?? These popular companies just couldn't resist paying off Twitter users to put advertisements into their Twitter streams using the new pay-per-tweet service Magpie.
David Kaplan / paidContent.org:
Steve Jobs Still Running The Show At Apple (From Home) — While speculation has continued as to whether Steve Jobs will even back at Apple's helm at the midway point of a self-imposed six month medical leave, WSJ cites unidentified sources who contend the company's co-founder is still running the show, albeit from his home.
Matt Richtel / New York Times:
A Google Whiz Searches for His Place on Earth — MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Where's Sanjay? — The question comes from one of dozens of engineers around a crowded conference table at Google. They have gathered to discuss how to build easy-to-use maps that could turn hundreds of millions …
Jennifer / Electronic Frontier Foundation:
Federal Authority Over the Internet? The Cybersecurity Act of 2009 — There's a new bill working its way through Congress that is cause for some alarm: the Cybersecurity Act of 2009 (PDF summary here), introduced by Senators Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Olympia Snowe (D-ME).
Discussion:
Data Security Podcast
Joshua Topolsky / Engadget:
Is this the Zune HD? — Uh. Looks like something is happening — big time — in Zune land. We present what might possibly be your first look at, yes... the Zune HD. In the gallery below, you can see images from what appears to be a forthcoming marketing campaign for Microsoft's new PMP.
Discussion:
Boy Genius Report, Newlaunches.com, ithinkdifferrent, The iPhone Blog, Engadget HD, Crave, Podcasting News, AppleInsider, Switched, PC World, pocketnow.com, I4U News, 9 to 5 Mac, Redmond Pie, Gizmodo, CrunchGear, Ubergizmo, MacRumors, TechFlash, Technologizer, Electronic Pulp, LiveSide, DisplayBlog, Joystiq, Edible Apple and techeblog.com
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Paul Graham:
The Founder Visa — Watch how this essay was written on Etherpad. — I usually avoid politics, but since we now seem to have an administration that's open to suggestions, I'm going to risk making one. The single biggest thing the government could do to increase the number of startups …
Thanks:mrinaldesai
Dan Nosowitz / Gizmodo:
iTunes Gift Code Hackers Turn Attention to iPhone App Developers — The all-too-easy-to-crack iTunes gift code has led to a flooded market, making the codes essentially unprofitable. So they've now turned their attention to the App Store to find new, underhanded ways to screw Apple.
Cecilia Kang / Washington Post:
IRS Increasing Oversight of Electronic Tax Filings — With more and more Americans using software to figure their taxes and the Web to file their annual returns, the Internal Revenue Service has decided it's time to beef up its oversight of the security and accuracy of such filings.
Matt Buchanan / Gizmodo:
$1.29 iTunes Songs Mysteriously Get Less Popular — Billboard's crack scientists conducted a quick study on a mysterious new phenomenon: More expensive $1.29 songs on iTunes are becoming less popular! (Actually, the results will surprise you.) — One day after the price jump …
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