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3:50 PM ET, December 21, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Damon Darlin / New York Times:
The Year of the Simpler Gadget  —  THE National Bureau of Economic Research hardly stunned the nation this month when it announced that the United States had been in recession since December 2007.  —  And, as it turns out, the buyers of consumer electronics could very well have been a leading economic indicator.
Brad J. Ward / SquaredPeg:
There's something going down on Facebook.  Pay attention.  —  I really need you to listen up for this post.  Please.  —  Something is going down on Facebook, and it has implications for your school.  —  Several weeks ago I was contacted by my friend and colleague Michelle at Winthrop …
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Apple 2.0:
What the recession means for the Mac  —  Money gets tight.  Buyers get picky.  Price-sensitive consumers — the kind Steve Jobs and Apple famously “choose not to serve” — start shopping for bargain basement PCs and Taiwanese netbooks.  Mac sales plummet.  —  That's the conventional wisdom.
Anne Eisenberg / New York Times:
Need a Ride?  Check Your iPhone  —  SOON you may no longer need to stick out your thumb to catch a ride.  Instead, you may get one by tapping your fingers on your iPhone.  —  Avego, based in Kinsale, Ireland (www.avego.com), is demonstrating an iPhone application intended to let drivers …
Discussion: Smart Mobs
Ronald Ho / Docs Blog:
Access Google Docs from your Desktop  —  If you often work with Google Docs, you probably want more ways to access your docs quickly.  A recent example is the handy Docs gadget in Gmail that shows a list of your recently accessed Google Docs right from within Gmail.
Discussion: Mashable!
Joshua Topolsky / Engadget:
Sony teaser site says “revolutionary new VAIO” coming January 9th  —  Look, we're not going to speculate on what Sony has coming on January 9th.  Let's just say that it wouldn't be totally surprising to see some weird, long netbook.  Okay?  Okay.  —  [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Discussion: Gizmodo
ChannelWeb:
Microsoft Extends XP Availability For Distributors  —  Microsoft system builder partners who've been feeling queasy about the impending Jan. 31, 2009, deadline for selling PCs with Windows XP pre-installed can now breathe a bit easier, as Microsoft is giving them a way to obtain XP licenses through distribution after the deadline.
CdrInfo.com:
First Hybrid Blu-ray/DVD Movie Title Announced For Japan  —  Japanese entertainment software developer Pony/Canon will release the first movie title on a hybrid Blu-ray/DVD disc in Japan in February, in an effort to accelerate the transition from the DVD to the Blu-ray format.
Jack Schofield / Guardian:
Twitter Venn, text snowflakes and other entertainments  —  One of the interesting things about Twitter is the fast-growing “tweecosystem” of add-ons and applications that expand or exploit the basic service.  I've just been playing with a new one called Twitter Venn, which lets you display searches as Venn diagrams.
Discussion: Data Mining
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
YouTube Unveils Unique View Counts.  Now You Can Tell If Your Mom Is Your Only Fan  —  YouTube has just released a new feature for its analytics platform that allows content owners to see how many unique visitors are watching their videos.  While YouTube videos have long displayed …
Discussion: digg.com
Jeremy Liew / Wall Street Journal:
Will the Recession Kill Web 2.0?  —  The last fast few years have seen resurgence in Internet companies not seen since the bubble years of the late 90s.  The growth of these advertising-supported “Web 2.0” companies has propelled online advertising sales to $21 billion from $6 billion between 2002 and 2007.
Discussion: broadstuff and digg.com
 
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 More Items: 
Tessa Lewin / Guardian:
The key(board) to equality
Tim O'Reilly / O'Reilly Radar:
Hard Work and Practice in Programming
James Kendrick / jkOnTheRun:
Touchscreens add nothing to laptop usefulness
Discussion: LAPTOP Mag and Gizmodo
 Earlier Items: 
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Apple 2.0:
After Steve Jobs, who runs Apple?
Discussion: CrunchGear, GigaOM, Macworld and digg.com
John Foley / InformationWeek:
Chief Of The Year: Amazon CTO Werner Vogels
Discussion: CNET News and Scripting News
Markus / The Paradigm Shift:
2008 was a good year, now #13 in the US.
Discussion: Mashable!
Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
Huffington Post Blasted For Stealing Content