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7:40 PM ET, February 20, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Alexander Haislip / PE Hub Blog:
Andreessen Launches VC Fund  —  Marc Andreessen confirmed that he has launched a venture capital fund with former Opsware executive Ben Horowitz after running an angel fund with him since 2007.  —  Andreessen, who became synonymous with Internet success programming the browsing software that drove Netscape …
RELATED:
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Andreessen on Charlie Rose: “I Am Creating A Fund.”  (Full Video)  —  Marc Andreessen appeared on Charlie Rose last night.  (The entire interview is embedded above).  He gave Rose a primer on everything from Facebook and cloud computing to the mobile Web.  But he also tells Rose: “I'm creating a fund.”
Discussion: VentureBeat
Fred / A VC:
Welcome To The “Dark Side” Marc and Ben  —  I think this is big news although I have not seen anyone pick up on it yet.  Last night on Charlie Rose, Marc Andreessen told Charlie that he and his longtime business partner (and CEO of Opsware/Loudcloud) Ben Horowitz are getting into the venture capital business on a full-time basis.
Discussion: BoomTown, Thanks:atul
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Did Last.fm Just Hand Over User Listening Data To the RIAA?  —  That leaked U2 album is causing all sorts of trouble.  The unreleased album, which is due out on March 3, found its way onto BitTorrent and was downloaded hundreds of thousands of times.  That, apparently, sent music industry lawyers …
Discussion: Forbes and Rolling Stone
RELATED:
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Forget About Those Leaked Downloads, Listen To U2's Entire New Album …
Matthew Moore / Telegraph:
Google Ocean: Has Atlantis been found off Africa?  —  A “grid of streets” on the seabed at one of the proposed locations of the lost city of Atlantis has been spotted on Google Ocean.  —  The network of criss-cross lines is 620 miles off the coast of north west Africa near the Canary Islands on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean.
RELATED:
Sarah Lacy / TechCrunch:
Why the Smart VCs Are Boarding their Jets  —  I started my career as a finance reporter covering wonky subjects like banks, bonds and agribusiness.  I ended up in Silicon Valley covering tech, because it was the late 1990s, and I was doing what finance reporters are supposed to do: Follow the money.
Discussion: eWeek, ecpm blog, broadstuff and DealBook, Thanks:dreamsketcher
Declan McCullagh / CNET News:
Bill proposes ISPs, Wi-Fi keep logs for police  —  Republican politicians on Thursday called for a sweeping new federal law that would require all Internet providers and operators of millions of Wi-Fi access points, even hotels, local coffee shops, and home users, to keep records about users for two years to aid police investigations.
RELATED:
Declan McCullagh / CNET News:
Data retention bills to benefit copyright holders
Discussion: AppScout and Wi-Fi Networking News
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Congress Wants WiFi Owners To Keep Log Files For 2 Years... For The Children
Discussion: CNET News
Tim Culpan / Bloomberg:
Asustek May Use Google's Android in Netbooks, in Challenge for Microsoft  —  Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) — Asustek Computer Inc., which pioneered the market for sub-$500 laptops, may install Google Inc.'s free Android operating system on its low-cost notebooks, challenging the dominance of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows software.
Brian Caulfield / Forbes:
Ditch Your iPhone  —  With the first wave of iPhone contracts expiring in June, consumers have plenty of other options.  —  Imagine a smart phone that worked on only one carrier's network.  Now add in the cost of a wallet-draining $20 monthly data plan.  The thing has no keyboard …
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
The Cable Companies' Evil Plan To Take Down Hulu  —  Cable companies have watched online video upstarts like Hulu and YouTube take attention away from their most important business — cable TV services — with little response so far.  —  But in a new effort to keep cable TV subscribers from fleeing …
RELATED:
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Comcast's ‘OnDemand Online’ Web Video Service Coming This Year
Enigmax / TorrentFreak:
Pirate Bay Trial Day 5: Peter's “Political Trial”  —  Friday, the fifth day of the trial and Peter Sunde, aka brokep, is being questioned by the Prosecution.  Håkan Roswall started off by asking Peter if he ever had dealings with The Pirate Bay's (TPB) computer systems - Peter said he did, but in a limited fashion.
RELATED:
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
Pirate Bay: survey says that 80% of our torrents are legal
Discussion: TorrentFreak and The Local
Paul R. La Monica / CNNMoney.com:
Why I hate Facebook  —  The social networking wunderkind may be cool.  But enough already!  How's it ever going to make money...especially in a recession?  —  About the author  —  NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — I need to take a break from all the gloom in the markets and economy for an Andy Rooney-esque rant.
Rex Sorgatz / Silicon Alley Insider:
Can 4chan Turn 300 Million Pageviews Into A Business?  —  (This interview was originally published on Fimoculous)  —  Like many successful internet phenomena, 4chan is a shockingly simple idea: an online bulletin board where anyone can post pictures.  —  This simplicity is deceptive.
Alexei Oreskovic / Reuters:
Google shareholders lose that loving feeling  —  SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc (GOOG.O) is famous for pampering its employees, but some shareholders feel like they're getting a raw deal.  —  The sore spot became evident after the Web search leader decided last month to reset the price …
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Untitled Document Syndrome  —  1.  —  Scenario: you have an idea for something, start a new document in an appropriate app, and then work for hours before realizing you haven't yet saved the document?  Typically, it's a chuckle — ha, guess I should save this thing.
Discussion: Snarkmarket
Brad Stone / Bits:
EBay Founder Tweets About an Unusual Lawsuit  —  Leave it to Twitter, the microblogging service, to persuade a stubbornly private billionaire to chronicle his daily activities in short, 140-character bursts.  —  That is what has happened to Pierre Omidyar, the eBay founder, philanthropist and start-up investor.
Mary Pilon / Digits:
Exploring Twitter Ties  —  While the world has been a-Twitter over the Shorty Awards, Fashion Week and whether advertisers are going to be charged per tweet, some scholars have been digging in.  —  Bernardo Huberman, Daniel Romero and Fang Wu of Hewlett-Packard Laboratories …
Thanks:atul
BBC:
Hackers target Xbox Live players  —  Xbox Live is being targeted by malicious hackers selling services that kick players off the network.  —  The booting services are proving popular with players who want a way to get revenge on those who beat them in an Xbox Live game.
Adobe:
Buffer overflow issue in versions 9.0 and earlier of Adobe Reader and Acrobat  —  Vulnerability identifier: APSA09-01  —  A critical vulnerability has been identified in Adobe Reader 9 and Acrobat 9 and earlier versions.  This vulnerability would cause the application to crash …
Emil Protalinski / Ars Technica:
Rumor: public to get Windows 7 RC build on April 10, 2009  —  If all goes according to plan, the Windows 7 Release Candidate build will be released to the public on April 10, 2009.  —  After rumors sprang up across the blogosphere of a Windows 7 build 7048, we debunked them and along …
Anupreeta Das / MediaFile:
Tech cos to H-1B workers: We feel your pain  —  Technology companies, which have laid off hundreds of thousands of workers, are already feeling the heat from politicians about their support of the H-1B foreign worker program at a time when many Americans are jobless.
MG Siegler / VentureBeat:
A snow leopard on Live.com is causing some to lose their minds  —  I saw the story once and I thought: Oh, that's kind of funny.  I saw it twice and I thought: Hmm.  I saw it three times and saw it all over Twitter and thought: This is getting ridiculous.  There must be a shortage of stories …
Emel Mutlu / Inside AdWords:
A change to our display URL policy  —  Beginning the week of February 24, we'll implement a change to our AdWords policy regarding multiple display URL domains per ad group.  Please read on to determine whether your AdWords account will be affected by this change.
Discussion: Search Engine Land and WebProNews
 
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 More Items: 
Sean Michael Kerner:
Ubuntu's next release: Karmic Koala
Discussion: Ars Technica
Heather / WordPress.com News:
Comment Threading is Here! (Plus Other Cool Comment Settings)
Discussion: jkOnTheRun
Michael V. Copeland / Fortune:
Uninspired by eBay  —  The stock is cheap, but its core business …
internetnews.com:
Top Web 2.0 Security Threats
InfoWorld:
Microsoft Visual Studio to boost SharePoint
 Earlier Items: 
Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
Bad News For Google: U.S. Search Share Stabilizing
Kim Zetter / Threat Level:
Clues to Massive Hacks Hidden in Plain Sight
Discussion: BetaNews
Elizabeth Woyke / Forbes:
Creating LG's Watch Phone
Cyrus Farivar / PC World:
Microsoft CEO Ballmer Calls on Apple to Be More Open
Discussion: The Open Road
Robert L. Mitchell / PC World:
Online Dating: Analyzing the Algorithms of Attraction
Discussion: Susan Mernit's Blog and WebProNews
Paul Meller / PC World:
Skype Calls' Immunity to Police Phone Tapping Threatened
Discussion: Obsessable
 

 
From Mediagazer:

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”

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

Patrick Frater / Variety:
Tencent Music reports Q4 revenue down 7% YoY to $971M and a $198M profit; in 2023, paying subscribers rose 21% YoY to 107M and net profit rose 36% YoY to $735M

 
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