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6:50 PM ET, April 14, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
eBay Inc.:
eBay Inc. Announces Plan for 2010 Initial Public Offering of Skype  —  eBay Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY) today announced that it plans to separate Skype from the company, beginning with an initial public offering that is intended to be completed in the first half of 2010.  Specific timing of the IPO will be based on market conditions.
RELATED:
Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
SKYPE IPO!  —  eBay is finally dumping Skype... on the public market!  Specifically, it's planning to spin the company out in an IPO next year.  —  (In the meantime, by announcing the deal now, it can get investors excited about the separation and try to goad potential acquirers into ponying …
Discussion: BetaNews
Andrea James / Amazon & the online retail blog:
AmazonFail: An inside look at what happened  —  I've spoken to an Amazon.com employee who works closely with the systems involved in the glitch.  The employee asked me not to share his name because of company policies on talking with the media.  —  On Sunday afternoon at least 20 Amazon.com employees …
RELATED:
SmoothSpan Blog:
AmazonFail Shows Data Matters Too  —  No software company in their right mind would change code and move it to production without extensive testing to make sure the new code wasn't broken.  It's a tried and true business process supported by tools like automated build (gather up all the files …
Discussion: Digits and deal architect
Mattz / Electronic Frontier Foundation:
Boston College Campus Police: “Using Prompt Commands” May Be a Sign of Criminal Activity  —  On Friday, EFF and the law firm of Fish and Richardson filed an emergency motion to quash [pdf] and for the return of seized property on behalf of a Boston College computer science student whose computers …
RELATED:
Rebecca / Electronic Frontier Foundation:
Computer Science Student Targeted for Criminal Investigation …
Discussion: p2pnet
Darren Waters / BBC:
EC starts legal action over Phorm  —  The European Commission has started legal action against Britain over the online advertising technology Phorm.  —  It follows complaints to the EC over how the behavioural advertising service was tested on BT's broadband network without the consent of users.
Sam Diaz / Between the Lines:
Intel: The bottom is in for PC demand  —  updated: Intel reported a first quarter profit of $647 million, or 11 cents per share, on revenue of $7.1 billion, beating Wall Street's estimates and suggesting that the sluggish PC industry may have finally bottomed out.
Andrew Sinkov / Evernote Blog:
Evernote + Twitter = Instant Memories  —  Now you can send your tweets directly into Evernote.  Why is this cool?  Because Twitter is chock-full of great stuff.  Your ideas, thoughts, and experiences mixed together with all of the content from the people you follow: journalism, storytelling …
Tameka Kee / paidContent.org:
Dominos Pranksters Done In By Crowdsourcing  —  Teens have long used YouTube to post videos of themselves doing gags, but in the case of some Dominos employees from North Carolina, uploading clips cost them their jobs in less than a day thanks to the viral power of social media.
Thanks:c_santiago
Steven Grady / SlashGear:
First non-Apple monitors to feature Mini Display Port announced  —  Want to play with Apple's new video connection standard, but don't want to shell out $800?  Collins America has announced the first new line of LCD monitors to utilize Apple's new Mini Display Port standard.
Jacqueline Emigh / BetaNews:
EMC launches cloud storage for VMware first, Microsoft's Hyper-V later  —  Built on an entirely new architecture known as the Symmetrix Virtual Matrix Architecture, EMC's new VMax departs from more customary data center storage arrays such as its own DMX-4 through its unprecedented scalability …
Discussion: eWeek and iTnews Australia
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Yahoo Could Save $1+ Billion Per Year Outsourcing Search To Microsoft  —  Jefferies analyst Youssef Squali runs the numbers on Yahoo's (YHOO) potential search/display ad deal with Microsoft (MSFT) in a report today.  His notes:  — Outsourcing search infrastructure to Microsoft could save Yahoo $1 billion to $1.3 billion per year.
Discussion: tinyComb, Traffick and Pulse2, Thanks:bobcaswell
John Herrman / Gizmodo:
Man Builds Chair That Tweets His Farts, Single-Handedly Justifies Twitter's Existence  —  You know those guys (and gals?) who are just, like, super proud of their farts?  Thanks to this cool guy and Twitter, these a**holes can indulge their disgusting habit without wrecking our noses.
Matt Asay / CNET News:
Should Sun buy Novell?  —  Sun Microsystems has adopted an ambitious business model that depends upon commodity open-source downloads serving as loss leaders and gateways for hardware and services revenue.  According to a report in The Register, however, profits have been hard to come by for Sun …
Discussion: The Register and rand($thoughts);
Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica:
Fully functional Office 2008 for Mac trial is now available  —  Those who want to try out Office 2008 for Mac but don't want to fork over hundreds of dollars just yet can now use a 30-day trial of the software.  Microsoft's Mac BU made the fully-functional trial available on its website today …
Discussion: Mac Mojo, AppleInsider and MacRumors
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Twitter Co-Founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone Speak!  —  BoomTown visited Twitter's San Francisco HQ for a pie-filled tour yesterday.  —  But I also got a chance to sit down to have a chat with two of its founders, CEO Evan Williams and Biz Stone (pictured here, right to left) …
David Saleh Rauf / MySanAntonio.com:
Time Warner delays meter program  —  READ  —  Time Warner Cable Inc. Internet users won't have to worry about shelling out extra cash for downloads anytime soon.  —  Officials with the cable company said Monday they are postponing implementation of a new billing format for San Antonio …
Emil Protalinski / Ars Technica:
Confirmed: Office 2010 will come in 32-bit, 64-bit flavors  —  Microsoft has confirmed that Office 2010 will indeed be shipping in 32-bit and 64-bit versions.  —  Last month, a very believable rumor started flying around in regard to Office 2010 shipping in 32-bit and 64-bit versions.
Discussion: CNET News and Neowin.net
Staci D. Kramer / paidContent.org:
Brill, Crovitz, Hindery Launch E-Commerce Venture For News Business  —  The news business has problems and entrepreneur Steve Brill, former Wall Street Journal publisher Gordon Crovitz (photograph, right) and cable guy-turned-investor Leo Hindery, Jr. think they have the answers.
Greg Kumparak / MobileCrunch:
How to take screenshots on the Palm Pre  —  Sure, none of us have the Palm Pre yet - but once you get it, won't you want to take a ton of screenshots to show off to your friends document the experience?  —  On the iPhone, taking a screenshot requires no wonky software or hackery - just hold two buttons.
Discussion: PreCentral.net
John Cook / TechFlash:
Alaska offers details on in-flight Wi-Fi, but pricing still up in the air  —  More than 2,100 passengers have tested Alaska Airlines' new Wi-Fi system, with the overwhemling majority indicating that they would like to try it again.  Alaska introduced the system on one Boeing 737-700 in late February.
Discussion: Wi-Fi Networking News and eWeek
Matt Rosoff / CNET News:
Zune phone ad campaign coming?  —  I was vacationing last week, so I missed my chance to comment on the Zune HD rumors.  Microsoft had already told me that it is planning one more iteration of the Zune hardware, and given the iPhone's success, it wouldn't surprise me if it has a touch screen …
Discussion: Adweek, Engadget and Electronista
David Kaplan / paidContent.org:
Goom Radio Raises $16M First Round For Broadcast Service  —  Battles between streaming-music sites and the labels over royalties have scared off some internet radio startups, but not all.  One that is persevering is Goom Radio, which has raised over $16 million in first-round funding …
Helen Walters / Business Week:
Can Widgets Save the Television Industry?  —  With Internet Connected television, Yahoo and Samsung try to take a leaf out of Apple's design playbook  —  Convergence has been the buzzword of the media world for years now.  But while mobile might have won many of the recent headlines …
David Kaplan / paidContent.org:
Industry Moves: News Corp. Forms Global Editorial Hub; Fox News' Moody Tapped To Lead It  —  News Corp (NYSE: NWS). isn't immune to the advertising cutbacks that are squeezing news organizations both online and offline, and so Rupert Murdoch wants his various properties to start sharing more.
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Coming Soon, Yet Another Re-Org at Yahoo  —  Given the number of re-orgs that have taken place at the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Internet company Yahoo in recent months, one could be forgiven for dubbing it “Re-org Nation.”  But while many of these shakeups — all part of a larger game of musical chairs …
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider
John Timmer / Ars Technica:
E-book reader market gets crowded as Amazon eyes big screen  —  Publishers, booksellers, and wireless companies are all looking at getting in on the e-book market, all while the company that enables it all, E Ink, is getting ready to roll out a much larger screen to all takers.
Discussion: L.A. Times Tech Blog and TeleRead
PhysOrg.com:
Tweet this: Rapid-fire media may confuse your moral compass  —  Emotions linked to our moral sense awaken slowly in the mind, according to a new study from a neuroscience group led by corresponding author Antonio Damasio, director of the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California.
James Kendrick / jkOnTheRun:
OQO Rumored to Be Looking for Buyer: Expansys Pulls New Model Off Web Site  —  The title of the smallest full-featured Windows PC is still held by OQO, the tiny pocketable computer that has been around for a few years.  I spent a good half hour with the newly announced Model 02+ early this year …
 
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 More Items: 
Quentin Hardy / Forbes:
Google Gets Lucky
Stephen J. Dubner / Freakonomics:
Is It Time to Rename “Digital Piracy”?
Discussion: Techdirt
GSMArena.com:
Samsung S8000 leaked again - this time it speakes Androidish
Giulio Quaggiotto / PSD Blog:
World Bank gets ahead of the pack in the race to open data
Christopher Boyd / SpywareGuide Greynets Blog:
Instant Messaging Password Stealer Available From Major Download Sites
Discussion: PC World
Espen Antonsen / CloudAve:
The Problem with URL Shorteners: ow.ly Server Errors
 Earlier Items: 
Scott Moritz / TheStreet.com:
Tech Rumor of the Day: Cisco Layoffs
Chris Preimesberger / eWeek:
Part-timer Bechtolsheim Still a Big-Time Influence in Sun's Product Development
Nicholas Carlson / Silicon Alley Insider:
How Publishers Can Get Advertisers To Spend In A Recession
Anthony Ha / VentureBeat:
Simple backup service Backblaze now available to all Mac users
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
StumbleUpon, A Case Study In The Efficient Allocation Of Resources