Top Items:
Paul Buchheit:
Should Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail block Facebook? — Apparently Facebook will ban you (or at least Robert Scoble) if you attempt to extract your friend's email addresses from the service. — Automated access is a difficult issue for any web service, so I won't argue with their decision — it's their service and they own you.
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Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
Facebook lets me back in... I just received this email. — I answer Mike Arrington and several others in a video that now is up at http://www.mogulus.com/robertscoble. — UPDATE: In the video I cover a whole bunch of topics and take questions from the live audience that was there when filmed.
Discussion:
Get Engagd, TechCrunch, FactoryCity, broadstuff, Global Neighbourhoods, All Facebook, Valleywag, Elliott C. Back, larry borsato, Between the Lines, rexblog.com, Marketing.fm, Compiler, Facebook Applications …, Techmamas, Smalltalk Tidbits …, LucaFiligheddu.com, theory.isthereason, CenterNetworks, Google Watch, Mashable! and Things That
Om Malik / GigaOM:
A Heart-to-Heart with GigaOM Readers — Happy New Year. As you may have noticed, my byline hasn't been up on the site for a few days. That's because the holidays weren't exactly my most jolly. — I had a heart attack on Dec. 28. I was able to walk into the hospital for treatment …
Discussion:
VoIP Watch, TechCrunch, THE BLOGGING JOURNALIST, Master of 500 Hats, Loic Le Meur Blog, WebMetricsGuru, Valleywag, Between the Lines, Geek Speaker, WebProNews, VentureBeat, FoundRead, IP Democracy, atmaspheric, BoomTown, Epicenter, Silicon Alley Insider, The Jason Calacanis Weblog, Marketing.fm, Digital Common Sense, bub.blicio.us, Scripting News, The Crunchies, Venture Chronicles, The Stalwart, Paul Kedrosky's …, Disruptive Telephony, Furrier.org, Kevin Burton's NEW FeedBlog and Digg
Scott Hillis / Reuters:
“Major Nelson” emerges as face of Xbox — REDMOND, Washington (Reuters) - Dressed in jeans and a T-shirt and sporting unkempt graying hair, Larry Hryb looks like just another guy in Microsoft's corporate headquarters. — But Xbox 360 players know Hryb by his alter ego, “Major Nelson,” …
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Ryan Block / Engadget:Xbox Live outage, day 13: still up and down, still preventing fun from being had
Discussion:
Hacking NetFlix
John Markoff / New York Times:
Intel Leaves Group Backing Education PCs — SAN FRANCISCO — Intel said Thursday that it had chosen to withdraw from the One Laptop Per Child educational computer organization, which it joined in July after years of public squabbling between Intel's chairman, Craig R. Barrett, and the group's founder, Nicholas P. Negroponte.
Discussion:
Bloomberg
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Dean Takahashi / Tech Talk with Dean Takahashi:
Intel pulls out of One Laptop Per Child group — Here's another turn in a soap opera. I'm sure that kids in developing countries are not going to benefit from this internecine squabble. — Intel has decided to pull out of the One Laptop Per Child nonprofit organization after a dispute with its chairman, Nicholas Negroponte.
Discussion:
Hardware 2.0, TeleRead, The Register, Bloomberg, CNET News.com, Gizmodo, Ars Technica and Engadget
Thomas Claburn / InformationWeek:
Google Patent Imagines Robots Indexing The Grocery Aisle — The two computer scientists behind “recognizing text in images” search technology also worked on Google Street View and Google Book Search. — A patent application filed by Google with the World Intellectual Property Organization …
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wipo.int:
(WO/2008/003095) RECOGNIZING TEXT IN IMAGES — Publication Number: — WO/2008/003095 — International Application No.: — PCT/US2007/072578 — Publication Date: — International Filing Date: — Int. Class.: — G06F 17/30 (2006.01) — Applicants:
Mary Kathleen Flynn / Behind The Money Blog:
Leah Culver, 25, writes the code that powers Pownce — Technorati — Facebook — Digg — How does a 25-year-old computer science major from the University of Minnesota wind up as a co-founder of one of Silicon Valley's most closely watched startups?
Discussion:
CenterNetworks
Dean Takahashi / Tech Talk with Dean Takahashi:
CES gadgets: Sling Media unveils new Slingbox PRO-HD for moving HD video around the home — Sling Media, the local outfit recently acquired by Echostar, is benefiting from our urge to watch videos anytime, anywhere, and to sling it around the house so we can watch it in whatever room, except maybe the bathroom.
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Peter Galli / eWEEK.com:
Microsoft Takes Heat for Office 2003 SP3 File Format Blocking — CorelDraw .CDR files are one of the formats that have been blocked. — Microsoft is facing criticism from a competitor and some customers for its decision to block some older file formats with Office 2003 Service Pack 3, which it released last September.
Discussion:
Microsoft Watch, Have You Seen My Stapler?, Security Watch, Christopher Null and Neowin.net
Catherine Holahan / Business Week:
Sony BMG Lets the Music Play — The last of the major labels finally throws in the towel on DRM, and prepares to fight Apple for valuable download revenues — In a move that would mark the end of a digital music era, Sony BMG Music Entertainment is finalizing plans to sell songs without …
Maija Palmer / Financial Times:
Autonomy strikes subprime gold — Autonomy has struck a $70m (£35m) deal with a large global bank, by far its largest contract to date and the first concrete sign that the search software company could benefit from the US subprime lending crisis. — The deal, believed to be with Citigroup …
Matt Asay / The Open Road:
Mac's market share growth is ‘nothing short of spectacular’ — Apple has been on a tear of late, but it's not just a story of iPods. — Web analyst Net Applications now puts the Mac's market share at 8 percent, up from 5.3 percent in early 2007. That is stunning growth by any measure …
Discussion:
Epicenter
Josh Lowensohn / Webware.com:
MORE DETAILS ABOUT THE SUPER-SECRET NETFLIX SET-TOP BOX ARE REVEALED — The long-anticipated set top box from Netflix is headed towards your living room this summer according to several major news providers including the Associated Press, The New York times, and Reuters.
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