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9:05 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
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, Rolling Stone and digg.com
RELATED:
Jay Hathaway / Download Squad:
Last.fm not really sharing data with RIAA  —  Have you torrented the new U2 album?  We won't tell, and neither will Last.fm, if those unreleased tracks show up on your listening profile.  That's not what TechCrunch is saying, though.  Earlier today, they reported that Last.fm turned …
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  —  If a new federal proposal announced this week requiring Internet providers and Wi-Fi access points to keep records on users for two years becomes law, police would not be the only ones to benefit.  —  So would individuals …
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
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 and broadstuff, Thanks:dreamsketcher
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 …
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Forget About Those Leaked Downloads, Listen To U2's Entire New Album on MySpace Music  —  I'm not sure if this was moved up in response to leaked copies of U2's newest album, No Line On The Horizon spreading across the Internet, but the entire the album will be streamed for free at MySpace Music.
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider
RELATED:
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
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 …
Discussion: broadstuff, Thanks:atul
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.
John Cook / TechFlash:
Microsoft's workforce grew in January ... before layoffs  —  Microsoft's headcount grew during the month of January — that is before layoffs were factored in.  The company employed 95,943 employees worldwide in January, meaning it added a net total of 115 workers when compared to December, according to figures released today.
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 …
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.
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.
MG Siegler / VentureBeat:
Twitter slowly turning back on the SMS spigot  —  Back in November of last year, Canadian Twitter users were outraged when the service had to end its support for inbound SMS (text messages) updates due to rising costs.  Today brings good news for some of these users: SMS support is back if you happen to be a Bell Mobility subscriber.
Discussion: Twitter Blog, Thanks:atul
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
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 …
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 …
Sean Michael Kerner:
Ubuntu's next release: Karmic Koala  —  From the ‘wacky names r us’ files:  —  From the great minds that brought us the Hoary Hedgehog, Intrepid Ibex,Dapper Drake and Jaunty Jackalope comes the next wacky name for an Ubuntu Linux release: Karmic Koala.  —  Ubuntu has always had wacky names and Karmic Koala continues the tradition.
Discussion: Ars Technica
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.
Doug Palmer / Reuters:
U.S. lawmaker to push repeal of online gambling ban  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior Democratic lawmaker will push legislation this year to repeal a U.S. ban on Internet gambling that has hurt trade ties with the European Union, a congressional aide said.
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider
Heather / WordPress.com News:
Comment Threading is Here!  (Plus Other Cool Comment Settings)  —  You asked, and we listened.  Introducing threaded comments, comment paging, and comment order settings for your WordPress.com blog.  —  Go to Settings > Discussion in your dashboard, and you'll discover three new options in the “Other comments settings” section:
Discussion: jkOnTheRun
 
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 More Items: 
Aidan Malley / AppleInsider:
Video of claimed next-gen Mac Mini surfaces online
Discussion: VentureBeat, TheAppleBlog and PC World
Ryan Junee / YouTube Blog:
Introducing Collaborative Annotations
Discussion: WebProNews, TechCrunch and ReadWriteWeb, Thanks:atul
Michael V. Copeland / Fortune:
Uninspired by eBay  —  The stock is cheap, but its core business …
internetnews.com:
Top Web 2.0 Security Threats
Emel Mutlu / Inside AdWords:
A change to our display URL policy
Discussion: Search Engine Land and WebProNews
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
Adobe:
Buffer overflow issue in versions 9.0 and earlier of Adobe Reader and Acrobat