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8:10 AM ET, December 17, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Facebook:
Facebook Data Team: How Diverse is Facebook?  —  How Diverse is Facebook?  —  In order to make Facebook as open and connected as possible for everyone, one of our goals is to understand how different populations of users join and use the service.  With that objective in mind …
Discussion: ReadWriteWeb and Softpedia News, Thanks:atul
RELATED:
Mike Swift / Mercury News:
Facebook releases first-ever demographic look at users  —  In its earliest days, Facebook was primarily a white and Asian phenomenon.  No more.  In the first-ever study of the race and ethnicity of its U.S. users, Facebook said Wednesday that blacks and Latinos have joined the social networking giant …
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Get Ready For The Google Branded Chrome OS Netbook  —  Most of the tech world now considers it a given that Google will be selling its own unlocked phone, called the Nexus One, to customers directly early in 2010.  A few stragglers are still debating the finer points of the difference between Google working …
Bruno Bowden / The Official Google Blog:
Browser Size: a tool to see how others view your website  —  In a newspaper, the most important story is featured on the front page.  If it's a really important piece, then it's placed “above the fold,” which means you can find it on the top half of the first page — the bottom half …
Nilay Patel / Engadget:
Zune HD Twitter app now live UPDATE: it censors tweets!  —  It was a slow rollout today, but the promised Zune HD Twitter app is now live in Marketplace.  We've been playing with it a little since we got it, and while it's definitely one of the more attractive mobile Twitter clients we've come across …
Wall Street Journal:
Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones  —  $26 Software Is Used to Breach Key Weapons in Iraq; Iranian Backing Suspected  —  WASHINGTON — Militants in Iraq have used $26 off-the-shelf software to intercept live video feeds from U.S. Predator drones, potentially providing them with information they need …
Discussion: TechCrunch
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Exclusive: Ex-MySpace Execs Launch Gravity Into Private Beta  —  Back in March 2009 a trio of MySpace execs -COO Amit Kapur, SVP Steve Pearman and SVP Jim Benedetto - left to begin working on a new startup.  —  In May we learned that the company, then called Blue Rover Labs, had raised $10 million in funding.
Discussion: GigaOM, Thanks:mrinaldesai
Jack Hebert / The Official Google Blog:
More great news sources to discover in Fast Flip  —  Three months ago, we launched Google Fast Flip, a service that seeks to make reading articles online as fast and simple as flipping through a magazine or newspaper.  It's still early in this experiment, which is why Fast Flip remains in Google Labs.
MacNN:
VLC for Mac development on verge of demise?  —  All work on the Mac version of VLC may soon have to come to a halt, says VideoLAN.  VLC is an open-source media playback application, notable for supporting both audio and video, and formats missing from official playback tools made by Apple and Microsoft.
John Paczkowski / Digital Daily:
Nvidia CEO Not Above Celebrating Intel's Misfortune [Memo]  —  A number of tech companies are rejoicing over the Federal Trade Commission's complaint against Intel today, none more so than Nvidia.  —  A top player in the market for graphics processing units, Nvidia stands to gain quite a bit …
RELATED:
Federal Trade Commission:
FTC Challenges Intel's Dominance of Worldwide Microprocessor Markets
Rob Jackson / Android Phone Fans:
Motorola Backflip/Enzo Pictures & Details!  —  We just got a big scoop from an anonymous tipster that will leave you doing backflips... or, uh... Enzos.  If you remember our first Motorola Backflip article, you'll remember a unique/odd form factor that left people guessing exactly how it would work.
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Craigslist Unclogs Yahoo Pipes  —  Two weeks ago we wrote about the story of developer Romy Maxwell, who had built a Craigslist mashup using Yahoo Pipes.  A few weeks after sending his app to Craigslist founder Craig Newmark (who forwarded it to other members of the Craigslist team) …
Roy Furchgott / Bits:
The iPhone Goes to War  —  Is the iPhone going to war?  —  On Wednesday at the 2009 Intelligence Warfighting Summit in Tucson, Raytheon, the military contractor, announced an iPhone application that tracks friends and foes, shows their positions on live, real time maps and provides secure communications.
Jackie Kong / Facebook Blog:
Celebrating Anniversaries on Facebook  —  As much as I enjoy celebrating my birthday every year with my friends, I often regard the anniversary of my relationship with my significant other to be even more important.  —  At Facebook, we're always looking to make it easier to share and recognize such milestones.
Om Malik / GigaOM:
How Facebook Squeezes More From Its Machines  —  Back in June, during an onstage conversation with me at our Structure 09 conference, Facebook VP of Technical Operations Jonathan Heiliger lamented how chip makers such as Intel and AMD don't quite understand the needs of web behemoths like his company …
Political Punch:
V.P. Biden to Announce Stimulus Funding for Broadband Internet Projects  —  ABC News' Karen Travers reports:  —  Today, Vice President Biden will travel to Georgia to announce more than $2 billion in Recovery Act grants and loans to bring broadband Internet services to communities that currently do not have it.
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Russian Investment Group DST Ups Its Facebook Stake To 5%+, Wants More  —  Digital Sky Technologies, the Russian investment group founded by Yuri Milner and Gregory Finger, has increased its stake in social networking leader Facebook to more than 5% of the American company, Russia's leading business newspaper Kommersant reports.
Discussion: Quintura blog and Bloomberg
Yahoo It Was You:
Yahoo! France striking today  —  Despite multiplying its profit by more than 300% in the third quarter of 2009, mostly through cost-cutting, Yahoo! is planning to lay-off all its engineers currently located in France.  This would put an end to the Yahoo! R&D centre in Grenoble inaugurated …
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
RepairPal Grabs $4 Million For Google Health For Cars  —  Startup RepairPal, an auto repair and maintenance information site, has raised $4 million in Series A funding led by Tugboat Ventures, with Rick Keister, David Strohm, Mark Goines, and Michael Torres participating.
Discussion: VentureBeat and alarm:clock
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
EA to launch three big franchise games on the iPhone  —  Electronic Arts continues its offensive on the iPhone today as it announces the impending launches of three major games on the iPhone: Need for Speed Shift, Spore Creatures, and the Simpsons game.  —  All three games could be called second-generation iPhone games.
Anthony Ha / VentureBeat:
Smule, creator of hit iPhone music apps, raises $8M more  —  Smule, the company behind popular, music-based iPhone apps like Ocarina and I am T-Pain, has raised $8 million in a third round of funding.  —  The Menlo Park, Calif. company's apps usually take advantage of the iPhone's capabilities in cool …
Matt Webb / BERG:
Mag+, a concept video on the future of digital magazines  —  I've got something I want to share with you.  —  We've been working with our friends at Bonnier R&D exploring the future of digital magazines.  Bonnier publish Popular Science and many other titles.
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Google: Actually, We Count Only 16,000 Apps In Android Market  —  Yesterday, I wrote a post on our sister site MobileCrunch about the estimated amount of applications that were available on Android Market according to AndroLib, which aims to serve as both a comprehensive directory …
Arn / MacRumors:
Apple Working on 3D ‘Hyper-Reality’ Displays  —  Apple's patent applications are always provide an interesting peek into what Apple researchers have been working on.  In one of the more interesting patent applications we've discovered, Apple appears to be researching 3D displays in which the user will be about to look around an object.
Discussion: 9 to 5 Mac
Google LatLong:
Google & Audi take Google services in a car to the next level in the new Audi A8  —  Nowadays, it seems like everything is connected to the Internet: mobile phones, laptops, netbooks, portable game consoles, personal navigation devices.  Think of how applications such as Google Maps for mobile …
Discussion: Mashable! and Gizmodo, Thanks:atul
E. John Sebes / TrustTheVote:
Federal Government to Build Overseas Voting System  —  There is some very interesting news today out of the U.S. government organization, the Federal Voting Assistance Program, which provides voting assistance to military and overseas voters.  FVAP announced their intent to embark on a path …
Jolie O'Dell / ReadWriteWeb:
OpenID Ends 2009 With 1 Billion Users  —  At the close of a whiz-bang year, OpenID has a lot to be proud of.  —  With a community of 9 million sites that use OpenID logins and 1 billion individual users, OpenID has effectively revolutionized the way we are able to create and maintain portable identities.
Rebecca MacKinnon / RConversation:
U.S. and China on Internet freedom vs. security  —  Last week I attended a quiet event in San Francisco called the U.S.-China Internet Industry Forum, organized by Microsoft.  This is the forum's third year - last year they met in Shanghai and the year before in Redmond.
Robert McMillan / Computerworld:
Chinese ISP hosts 1 in 7 Conficker infections  —  IDG News Service - Security experts have known for months that some countries have had a harder time battling the Conficker worm than others.  But thanks to data released Wednesday by Shadowserver, a volunteer-run organization …
Discussion: The Register
 
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 More Items: 
Kim Zetter / Threat Level:
Document Reveals TJX Hacker's Assistance to Prosecutors
Paul Boutin / VentureBeat:
CEO language misleads analysts' ratings, study confirms
Discussion: IOL Home, Thanks:paulboutin
Ariel David / Associated Press:
Lawyers: Google execs not liable for abuse video
Discussion: New York Times
Suneel Gupta / personas:
Introducing Personas 2.0  —  Personas 2.0 offers a cleaner look …
Walter S. Mossberg / Personal Technology:
Diabetes Meter Mates With PC to Track Trends
 Earlier Items: 
Jenna Wortham / Bits:
The Times and Bit.ly Roll Out ‘nyti.ms’ Short Links
Discussion: CNET News
Jennifer Van Grove / Mashable!:
Fake Steve Jobs Waffles on Plan to Take Down AT&T
Discussion: The Register and iPhone Savior
Andrew LaVallee / Digits:
Foursquare Unlocks a Badge for Waze
David Coursey / PC World:
Google's Nexus One: World-Changer or Just a Bad Idea?
Kshitij Sobti / Digit - Tech News:
Multi-process plugins come to Firefox
Business Wire:
Photobucket and Ontela Announce Agreement to Merge Operations
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Pamela McClintock / The Hollywood Reporter:
Disney confirms pulling a transgender storyline from animated series Win or Lose, saying “many parents would prefer to discuss certain subjects” with their kids

Brooks Barnes / New York Times:
Sources: Disney worried that it had a flawed case in Trump's ABC lawsuit, and fighting it could hurt the Disney brand and damage press protections for others

Erik Wemple / Washington Post:
A look at GOP attacks on local news outlets across the US, including the Lancaster County Board of Commissioners' harrassment of LNP reporter Tom Lisi

 
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