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2:40 PM ET, October 31, 2010

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Are You A Pirate?  —  I read blog posts by Don Dodge and Glenn Kelman today about people jumping from Google to Facebook and it got me thinking about entrepreneurs.  —  Most people have an aversion to risk, my college economics professor told me.  Which means they have to be rewarded to take on that risk.
RELATED:
Glenn Kelman / Redfin Corporate Blog:
One in Five Facebook Employees Has No Imagination Whatsoever  —  Whoa!  Shocking news, guys.  An engineer left Google for Facebook.  The great Lars Rasmussen, creator of Google Maps and Google Wave, quit Google Thursday to join Facebook.  This has, admittedly, happened before.
Claire Cain Miller / New York Times:
Why Twitter's C.E.O. Demoted Himself  —  AT the annual South by Southwest gathering of techies in Austin, Tex., in March, conference organizers had chosen a hangar-size room to accommodate their star speaker: Evan Williams, the co-founder of Twitter, the messaging and social networking site that had become a digital phenomenon.
Discussion: SAI
RELATED:
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Twitter Added 30 Million Users In The Past Two Months  —  In a New York Times profile on Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, the company revealed a few interesting stats showing the growth trajectory of the network.  Twitter now has 175 million registered users, which is up from 145 million users in September.
Don Dodge / Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing:
Will Facebook have an IPO bounce?  Has 409A changed the game?  —  The conventional wisdom is that you join a hot startup pre-IPO to get the low priced stock options.  Techcrunch reports that some people are joining Facebook now to get in on pre-IPO shares.
Discussion: Inside Facebook, Thanks:dondodge
RELATED:
Jeff / Venture Chronicles:
409A Valuations  —  Don Dodge wrote about a very dry but critically important issue facing private companies that issue equity to employees... 409A valuations: … We are in a really interesting period where tech IPOs are few and far between and the effect has been for a secondary market …
Jean-Louis Gassée / Monday Note:
Apple's Next Macintosh OS  —  Operating systems don't age well.  Some have better genes than others or they have more competent caretakers, but sooner or later they are stricken by a cancer of bug fixes upon bug fixes, upgrades upon upgrades.  I know, I lived inside two OS sausage factories …
Discussion: TechCrunch
Doc Searls Weblog:
The Data Bubble II  —  In The Data Bubble, I told readers to mark the day: 31 July 2010.  That's when The Wall Street Journal published The Web's Gold Mine: Your Secrets, subtitled A Journal investigation finds that one of the fastest-growing businesses on the Internet is the business of spying on consumers.
Thanks:kevinmarks
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
On Google Growing Up, Losing Employees & Being The New “California”  —  Google's lost yet another high profile employee, apparently to Facebook.  Another sign that Google's slipping, to some.  Perhaps.  For me, Google has become the new “California,” stealing that role away from Yahoo.
Discussion: TechCrunch
Randall Stross / New York Times:
When the Assembly Line Moves Online  —  DO one assigned task on your computer.  It shouldn't take you more than two seconds.  Repeat 14,399 times.  Congratulations!  Your eight-hour work day is complete.  —  No such workplace yet exists, but with the fiendishly clever creation of standardized …
Ryan Pollock / Google Mobile Blog:
Find your polling place and follow the US Election on the go  —  The United States midterm election is on Tuesday, November 2, and we encourage all eligible US citizens to get out and vote.  We've made it easy to find your polling place and follow election news by visiting our Election Center mobile site …
Discussion: The Next Web and PhoneArena
Oliver Chiang / SelectStart:
Twitter Investor Defends New ‘Tweet’ Usage Rules  —  Twitter is taking heat in the tech blogosphere (here and here) over its new guidelines about how others can use the words “Twitter” and “Tweet.”  Now some well-known technology investors are also saying “Hey, Twitter, enough of this.”
Discussion: Brian Solis
RELATED:
Henry Blodget / SAI:
Hey, Twitter, Enough Of This Crap About “Here's How You Can Use The Word Tweet”
Discussion: The Blog Herald and TechCrunch
Spencer Ackerman / Danger Room:
Real Men Use Android: Special Forces Favor Google Phone  —  The Army is 20 years and a half-billion dollars into a star-crossed effort to build custom communications and digital-mapping gadgets for its soldiers.  Special Operations Command, on the other hand, is taking a simpler approach: They're planning to use Android phones.
Jack Purcher / Patently Apple:
Apple Files Lawsuit against Motorola to Defend Multi-Touch  —  The inevitable: When Motorola preemptively launched their declaration judgment action against Apple earlier this month, we knew that Apple was likely to launch multiple patent infringement lawsuits against Motorola once …
RELATED:
AppleInsider:
Apple countersues Motorola over multi-touch iPhone patents
Discussion: IntoMobile and Engadget
 
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 More Items: 
John Paczkowski / Digital Daily:
Google Street View: Chronology of a Cock-Up
Brooke Crothers / CNET News:
Will HP, Dell, Sony answer 11-inch MacBook Air?
Bernard Moon / VentureBeat:
Are Q&A startups a threat to Google?
Discussion: Silicon Moon
Geoff Duncan / Digital Trends:
India to have BlackBerry Messenger interception by end January
Discussion: Associated Press
 Earlier Items: 
Fred / A VC:
The Creative Phase  —  The digital technology revolution was …
Discussion: Financial Times
Manan Kakkar / India IT Blog:
Indian government plans to introduce SIM cards with digital certificates
Discussion: Times of India
 

 
From Mediagazer:

A.G. Sulzberger / New York Times:
A.G. Sulzberger says the role of a free press is under attack, and that the anti-press playbook used in eroding democracies is now being deployed in the US

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
CEO Mark Thompson tells employees that CNN plans to launch a streaming service in the fall; cable subscribers will have free access to the service

Alex Sherman / CNBC:
ESPN's forthcoming standalone streaming service will cost $30 per month, or $36 per month in a bundle with Disney+'s and Hulu's ad-supported tiers

 
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