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9:40 AM ET, January 16, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Devin Coldewey / CrunchGear:
MacBook AirHead: why Apple's new laptop is basically useless  —  First, let me just say that the Air is an extremely impressive piece of technology.  The miniaturization, the optimization of space, the blatant disregard for current standards — it's everything a revolutionary machine should be.
RELATED:
Forbes:
Jobs Fails To Wow At Macworld
Duncan Riley / TechCrunch:   Will Apple TV Take 2 Take Online Movie Rentals Mainstream?
John Markoff / Bits:
The Passion of Steve Jobs
Eliot Van Buskirk / Wired News:
Apple Reinvents Film Biz With iTunes Movie Rentals
Discussion: Cult of Mac
Saul Hansell / Bits:
Video Podcasts: The Sleeping Giant on AppleTV
Discussion: MacUser
Jonathan Schwartz / Jonathan Schwartz's Blog:
Helping Dolphins Fly  —  We announced big news today - our preliminary results for our fiscal second quarter, and as importantly, that we're acquiring MySQL AB.  —  If you're interested in the financial details for the quarter, tune in to our conference call (see details on sun.com) today …
Discussion: CNET News.com
RELATED:
Zack Urlocker / InfoWorld:
Sun Shines on LAMP  —  This morning we announced that Sun Microsystems has signed a definitive agreement to acquire MySQL.  Having spent the last four plus years working on making MySQL into a strong independent company, this is a bit of a change of strategy, but from my perspective it's all for the good.
Tim O'Reilly / O'Reilly Radar:
Sun To Acquire MySQL  —  Sun Microsystems announced this morning that it has agreed to acquire open source database leader MySQL AB for $1 billion in cash and assumed stock options.  (Disclosure: I am on the board of directors of MySQL, and O'Reilly co-produces the MySQL User Conference with MySQL.
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Sun acquires MySQL; Adds to its software stack  —  Sun Microsystems is taking the plunge into the database market with the purchase of open source database developer MySQL for $1 billion.  —  With the move, announced Wednesday, Sun takes a big leap into the $15 billion database market …
Discussion: Sun Microsystems
Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
Why we're going to FastCompany.tv  —  Ahh, Andy Plesser broke my career news again (he was the guy who broke my news about leaving Microsoft too).  Louis Gray got the story first, though, I think, although I told dozens of people at the BlogHaus last week at CES.
RELATED:
Allen Stern / CenterNetworks:   Scoble's New Job Revealed - Video Guy At Fast Company
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Surprise!  Oracle buys BEA Systems  —  The clumsy courtship between Oracle and BEA Systems is over.  Oracle said Wednesday that it will acquire BEA for $19.375 a share in cash.  —  The offer puts the value of BEA at roughly $8.5 billion.  —  It was a strange courtship to say the least.
RELATED:
Wall Street Journal:
Oracle to Pay $8.5 Billion for BEA  —  Oracle reached a deal to acquire BEA Systems in a $8.5 billion deal, three months after BEA turned down an Oracle takeover offer as too low.  BEA investor Carl Icahn endorsed the deal.
John Oates / The Register:
BEA finally says yes to Oracle - for $8.5bn
Discussion: eWeek
BBC:
Facebook asked to pull Scrabulous  —  Facebook has been asked to remove the Scrabulous game from its website by the makers of Scrabble.  —  The Facebook add-on has proved hugely popular on the social network site and regularly racks up more than 500,000 daily users.
Tony Ruscoe / Google Blogoscoped:
iGoogle Themes Directory Launched  —  In October last year, I asked whether we should expect to see an iGoogle Themes Directory Coming Soon.  Today, Peter Dawson noticed that the Themes Directory is now live!  —  Not only does the directory allow you to view and select themes …
Discussion: Mashable!
RELATED:
Jesse Shieh / Google Code Blog:
iGoogle Themes API  —  Recently, on a trip to Shanghai, I snapped a bunch of incredible street photos for my friends and family back home.  When I logged into my iGoogle page and was greeted by my iGoogle theme, I suddenly wished I could create my own theme out of my Shanghai pictures and share …
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Stevenote In 60 Seconds  —  Too lazy to watch the entire Stevenote video stream on CrunchGear, or read Duncan's real time notes from the event?  No worries.  Mahalo's Veronica Belmont distills all the important stuff down into just sixty seconds.  —  See all of our coverage from Macworld here and at CrunchGear.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Application Developers: Don't Be Surprised If Facebook Changes The Rules When You Do Something That Hurts Users  —  We saw early on that Facebook was willing to change policies and their API in order to protect users against clearly black hat/spammy applications, or ones that break the terms of use with users.
Discussion: Alec Saunders .LOG
Josh Jones / DreamHost Blog:
Um, Whoops.  —  Hello.. how's your morning going?  —  I hope it's been a little better than mine.  —  We had a teensy eensy weensy little billing error last night... my first clue something was up when I saw this morning's daily billing report (so far): $7,500,000.
RELATED:
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Dreamhost Overbills Customers $7.5 Million; Uses Homer Simpson To Deliver Apology
Discussion: Demand Satisfaction!
 
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 More Items: 
Official Google Webmaster Central Blog:
Sitemaps FAQs  —  Last month, Trevor spoke on the Sitemaps …
Thomas Mennecke / Slyck:
The Pirate Bay Interview
Discussion: TorrentFreak
Eric J. Sinrod / CNET News.com:
Is GPS liability next?
Discussion: All Points Blog
Antony Bruno / Billboard.Biz:
Wragg Exits EMI
Alice / w3.org:
SPARQL Query Language for RDF
Nate Westheimer / innonate:
Freebase's $42M! Can the top-down semantic web scale?
Ellen Nakashima / Washington Post:
In Child Porn Case, a Digital Dilemma
Dan Dickinson / The Primary Vivid Weblog:
HOWTO: iPhone Webclip Icons
 Earlier Items: 
Garett Rogers / Googling Google:
New iPhone update will confuse and upset many Gmail users
Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:
Nick Denton Runs a “Slave Shop,” Oxford Chum Jason Pontin Declares
Karl / DSLreports:
Uncle Sam Turns Blind Eye To Hidden Fees - Wasn't false advertising …
Discussion: Alec Saunders .LOG and MSNBC
Josh Catone / ReadWriteWeb:
Happy Birthday: Wikipedia Turns 7 Today
Discussion: Voices
GigaOM:
700 MHz Auction Update
Discussion: Ars Technica
Miguel Helft / Bits:
Another Media Exec Leaves Yahoo
Wall Street Journal:
Facebook Gets Big Investment
Duncan Riley / TechCrunch:
Twitter Fails Macworld Keynote Test
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Authentic Brands licenses Sports Illustrated's publishing rights to The Players' Tribune owner Minute Media for 10 years, with plans to keep the print edition

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
Ofcom rules that five GB News programs presented by Conservative politicians have broken its due impartiality rules and puts the channel “on notice”

Todd Spangler / Variety:
YouTuber MrBeast announces a deal with Prime Video for Beast Games, a reality-competition show with 1,000 contestants, promising the winner a $5M cash prize

 
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