Check out Mini-Techmeme for simple mobiles or Techmeme Mobile for modern smartphones.
3:20 PM ET, January 29, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Google's Newspaper Ads: Big Hopes For Small Barcodes (GOOG)  —  Google's efforts to get into the newspaper ad business have yet to yield much.  One tool it hopes will eventually change that: Small, square barcodes, like the one at the right, at the bottom of print ads.
RELATED:
Adam Ostrow / Mashable!:   Interactive Barcodes in Newspaper Ads: The Next Frontier for Google?
Ben Fenton / Financial Times:
U2 manager urges ISPs to help fight web piracy  —  The music industry should shift the focus of its battle with internet piracy towards the technological industries which have “built multibillion dollar industries on the back of our content without paying for it”, according to Paul McGuinness, manager of rock group U2.
RELATED:
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
U2 Manager Says Google And Its Hippie Friends Should Pay The Recording Industry  —  from the still-haven't-found-what-i'm-looking- for... dept  —  While the IFPI and the RIAA have been actively pushing for ISP liability for file sharing, it appears some in the industry are taking it even further.
Guardian:
Silicon Valley's hippy values ‘killing music industry’
Discussion: Mashable!
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Our Tech President Endorsements: Barack Obama and John McCain  —  It's sadly clear that our current leaders have little understanding of technology and why it's important to our economy and culture.  That has to change.  —  We've been interviewing 2008 presidential candidates for the last few months …
RELATED:
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:   YouTube + Digg + Obama = YouBama
Aude Lagorce / MarketWatch:
Motorola may exit its handset business: analyst  —  LONDON (MarketWatch) — There is a possibility that Motorola, Inc. (MOT:, , ) may exit the handset business and concentrate on becoming an enterprise and government company, Richard Windsor, an analyst with Nomura International, told clients a in note published on Tuesday.
RELATED:
Electronista:
Motorola pondering exiting the cell business?  —  Motorola may be looking to fold its cellphone business after years of struggling to restore the business to profit, says an investor note from Nomura analyst Richard Windsor.  After a damaging quarter that saw Motorola's cellphone sales suffer …
barracudanetworks.com:
Legal Defense of Free and Open Source Software  —  The purpose of this Web page is to inform the community of Barracuda Networks' plans to defend itself and the free and open source software (FOSS) community from a patent threat by Trend Micro.  In addition, we wanted to share …
RELATED:
Ryan Paul / Ars Technica:
Barracuda defends open-source antivirus from patent attack  —  Mail and security appliance vendor Barracuda Networks announced plans today to defend the open-source ClamAV antivirus program from dubious patent threats made by Trend Micro, a prominent security software company.
Discussion: Linux.com and Slashdot
John Graham-Cumming:
How many users does Digg have?  —  According to my calculations: around 2.7m registered users.  —  I obtained this number by finding random Digg users and extracting their user id.  The user id is in a hidden HTML form input field on each Digg user's page.  The Digg user page also gives their date of registration.
Discussion: The Next Web
RELATED:
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Digg Nearly Triples Registered Users In a Year, Says Sleuth Programmer
Discussion: PDA
Matt Cutts / Gadgets, Google, and SEO:
11 Power Tips for Gmail  —  Wow, I can't believe how many people commented on my late-Friday night post about desired features for Gmail.  If you want to suggest something for Gmail, that thread is the better place to do it.  But looking through the comments, I saw a few requests that can already be done today.
Ed Bott / Ed Bott's Microsoft Report:
Windows 7 = Vista Release 2  —  All the kerfuffle over Windows 7 - leaked memos, shaky handheld video clips of leaked builds, equally shaky tentative release schedules - is amusing.  I don't have any inside information to offer, only a perspective drawn from 17 years of watching the Windows development process in action.
Sam / a gthing science project:
The True Cost of SMS Messages  —  I just found out that AT&T (A-fee&fee?) is raising their text message pricing.  When I first signed up for AT&T 6 or so years ago it cost 10 cents to send an SMS message, and it was free to receive them.  —  When AT&T switched to Cingular the price of sending …
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
VMware Down 30% As Growth Disappoints; Now What?  —  VMware (VMW) shares have plunged more than 30% today following the company's announcement late yesterday of both a $5 million revenue shortfall compared with Street expectations in the fourth quarter and a 2008 growth projection that left the Street wanting more.
Enigmax / TorrentFreak:
Rapidshare To Be Forced to Shut Down Following Court Defeat?  —  Last week we reported on rumors that Rapidshare had, or was about to be, shut down, rumors that now look likely to resurface.  The company, one of the world's largest ‘one-click’ file hosting services, has lost a copyright infringement case …
Business Wire:
ShoZu Raises $12 Million in Series C Funding; Round Led by New Investor SEB Venture Capital, London  —  Mobile Social Media Company Now Attracting Over 100,000 New Users Monthly  —  LONDON—(BUSINESS WIRE)—ShoZu Inc., the leading provider of mobile social media services …
Futuremark:
Futuremark Announces the Futuremark Games Studio  —  With its first game already in development, Futuremark Games Studio was created to produce original world class games.  —  Futuremark (www.futuremark.com), is proud to announce the formation of a group named the Futuremark Games Studio.
 
 Archived Page Info: 
This is a snapshot of Techmeme at 3:20 PM ET, January 29, 2008.

View the current page or another snapshot:


 
 Techmeme Sponsor Posts: 
Tribe AI:
Build AI that works  —  Tribe builds tech for top AI companies.  Get in touch to learn how our bench of 500+ engineers and researchers can accelerate your roadmap.
Kulkan Security:
Hire Kulkan as your penetration testing partner  —  Kulkan prioritizes deep-dive manual security reviews, dissecting your software and infrastructure to find issues that once remediated can truly reduce security risk.
Zoho:
Navigating the workday with Zoho Cliq's task management capabilities  —  As Monday dawns and I settle into my workday with a steaming cup of coffee, I brace myself for the usual storm of tasks headed my way.
Mastodon:
Donate to Mastodon  —  Mastodon gGmbH, the non-profit behind the open-source software powering the social web, relies entirely on support from users like you.  Donate directly with a credit card or through Patreon.
Sponsor Techmeme
 
 See Also: 
Techmeme: site main
Techmeme River: reverse chronological Techmeme
Techmeme Mobile: for phones
Techmeme Leaderboard: Techmeme's top sources
 
 Subscribe: 
Techmeme RSS feed
Techmeme on X
Techmeme on Mastodon
 
 
 More Items: 
Kip Kniskern / LiveSide:
Wall Street Journal signs up with Microsoft for Contextual …
Discussion: Search Engine Land
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Movie Licensing Goes Virtual With Habbo-Paramount Deal
Discussion: Reuters and Mashable!
Brad Stone / Bits:
Slashdot Founder Questions Crowd's Wisdom
Emily Price / Download Squad:
Destroy the web with NetDisaster - Today's Time Waster
Discussion: Webware.com
Darren Murph / Engadget:
Mustek readies 9.5-inch digiframe with integrated NXT flat-panel speaker
Discussion: Electronista
ClickZ:
Search and the Changing Face of Public Relations
Inside CRM:
50 Social Sites That Every Business Needs a Presence on
Discussion: ResourceShelf
Steve Williams / Digg the Blog:
Digg Joins the DataPortability Project
 Earlier Items: 
Ryan Paul / Ars Technica:
Firefox share up over 20% in Europe, mostly at expense of IE
Discussion: TechSpot News and IT Facts
BBC:
Quarter of US iPhones ‘unlocked’
Juan Carlos Perez / IDG News Service:
EBay Plans Lower Fees, Tighter Seller Standards
IDG News Service:
Apple Readies MacBook Air Add-Ons
Discussion: MacRumors
Brian Prince / eWeek:
More Database Vendors Enter the Cloud
Discussion: CNET News.com and GigaOM
Brent Csutoras / Search Engine Land:
How To Create Compelling Social Media Profiles
Bobbie Johnson / Guardian:
O2 improves package for iPhone users
Daniel Shen / DigiTimes:
HTC share of Windows Mobile smartphone segment declining
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Ben Sherwood and Joanna Coles take minority stakes in The Daily Beast; Sherwood will be CEO and publisher, and Coles will be chief creative and content officer

Sahil Patel / The Information:
Sources: Disney plans old-style TV channels within Disney+, with a continuous, scheduled stream of shows that are focused on certain genres like Star Wars

Laurence Peter / BBC:
Russia's Ministry of Justice labels BBC Russian correspondent Ilya Barabanov and science reporter Asya Kazantseva as “foreign agents”; both now live abroad

 
Sister Sites:

Mediagazer
 Top news and commentary for media professionals from all around the web
memeorandum
 What US political commentators are discussing online right now
WeSmirch
 The top celebrity news from all around the web on a single page