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8:15 AM ET, February 24, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
MG Siegler / VentureBeat:
Where were you during the great Gmail outage of February 2009?  —  If you live in the United States, chances are, you were asleep.  But for those in other parts of the world, and those of us who are nocturnal, Google's email service, Gmail, was down for several hours on Tuesday morning.
RELATED:
BBC:
Google users hit by mail outage  —  Business and consumer users of Google's popular e-mail service were hit by an outage on Tuesday.  —  The service went offline at 0930 GMT with Google saying it was “working hard to resolve this problem”.  —  Professional users of Google mail are covered …
David Pogue / New York Times:
The Kindle: Good Before, Better Now  —  In the high-tech industry, you live for the day when your product name becomes a verb.  “I Googled him.”  “She's been Photo- shopped.”  —  Amazon, however, is hoping that its product name, a verb, becomes a noun.  “Have you bought the new Kindle?”
Discussion: USA Today and Electronic Pulp, Thanks:vindugoel
RELATED:
Amazon.com:
Kindle 2 Ships Today
Discussion: Gearlog, InformationWeek and TechFlash
Official google.org Blog:
The Next Chapter for Google.org  —  When Larry and Sergey laid out their vision for Google.org, they hoped that this “experiment in active philanthropy” would one day have an even greater impact on the world than Google itself.  They committed resources from Google's profits …
RELATED:
Jay Yarow / Silicon Alley Insider:
Google Shakes Up Its Philanthropic Division  —  It looks like Google is getting more disciplined, reorganizing Google.org, its philanthropic arm, to become a more tightly focused organization.  —  Through the company's official blog, Dr. Larry Brilliant announced that he'd be stepping down as director of Google.org.
Andrew Chen / Futuristic Play:
Which startup's collapse will end the Web 2.0 era?  —  The Silicon Valley machine is still going, for now  —  Here in Palo Alto, the Silicon Valley machine is still going strong - entrepreneurs are still starting companies, angels and VCs are still investing, and engineers are still coding.
Thanks:atul
Sam Oliver / AppleInsider:
Snow Leopard screenshots show interface tweaks  —  A gallery of screenshots from the latest build of Apple's upcoming Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard operating system showcases a handful of minor design tweaks that have been reported around the web in recent weeks.
Discussion: Softpedia News and digg.com
RELATED:
Reuters:
Yahoo to offer tools to match users, ads- WSJ  —  Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O) is set to unveil several tools on Tuesday to help marketers better target their online adverts, as the Internet company tries to win back business during a recession, the Wall Street Journal said, citing senior company officials.
Ina Fried / Beyond Binary:
Microsoft backtracks on severance issue  —  This story was updated at 3:45 p.m. PST with an official statement from Microsoft.  —  Amid a wave of criticism, Microsoft is backtracking on a decision to require laid off workers to pay back money that the software maker said was in excess of its planned severance, CNET News has learned.
Kelly K. Spors / Wall Street Journal:
So, You Want to Be an Entrepreneur  —  First, answer these questions to see if you have what it takes  —  Thinking about starting a business?  Make sure you're cut out for it first.  —  In this bleak economy, lots of people are contemplating striking out on their own …
Clive Thompson / Wired News:
The Netbook Effect: How Cheap Little Laptops Hit the Big Time  —  Netbooks prove that we finally know what PCs are actually for.  Which is to say, not all that much.  —  Mary Lou Jepsen didn't set out to invent the netbook and turn the computer industry upside down.  She was just trying to create a supercheap laptop.
Discussion: Liliputing and digg.com, Thanks:atul
Darren Murph / Engadget:
VUDU first on-demand service to sell HD and HDX movies  —  VUDU made some pretty big waves with its Blu-ray-rivaling HDX downloadable format, and now it's pushing the envelope once again by becoming the first on-demand service to actually sell (as in, for keeps... on your box, anyway) HD and HDX movies.
Discussion: paidContent.org, Pulse2 and Crave
Adrian Covert / Gizmodo:
‘I Am Richer’ App Pops Up in Android Marketplace for $200  —  Is it any huge surprise that someone is already charging the maximum Android Marketplace price for a nonsensical, paid app?  Or that the name makes reference to the $1000 “I Am Rich” iPhone app?  No.
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes / Hardware 2.0:
Do you really think Apple's going to take business advice from a bunch of cheapskates?  —  I can't be the only one who's tired of reading about the opinions of cheapskates who feel that Apple, for some bizarre reason, owes them a low-cost Mac OS powered computer.  Read my lips: It's not gonna happen!
Discussion: Tech Trader Daily
Soulxtc / Zeropaid File Sharing P2P Technology News:
OneSwarm Turns P2P into F2F  —  New friend-to-friend (F2F) data sharing application allows users complete control over how data is shared, with the public, with friends, with some friends but not others, and so forth.  —  Some of the same researchers at the University of Washington …
Chris Albrecht / NewTeeVee:
Online Video Viewing Up, Impact on TV “Negligible”  —  Television is still king, despite gains being made online.  That's according to two separate research reports released today.  Taken together, the studies from Nielsen and Leichtman Research Group (LRG) also help illustrate how newteeve is impacting oldteevee (hint: it isn't).
Chris Albrecht / NewTeeVee:
Where to Watch Obama's “State of the Union” Online  —  Technically, President Obama's speech tomorrow night isn't a State of the Union.  Give the guy a break, he only started the job a month ago.  Instead, his speech is considered a formal address to Congress.
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
With Chernin Out At News Corp, What Happens To FIM?  —  Peter Chernin, the long-time president and COO of News Corp, is leaving the company after protracted negotiations over his contract could not be resolved.  Chernin's salary was $28.8 million in the last fiscal year …
Founders at Work:
A Note About Sabeer Bhatia's Interview  —  I received evidence yesterday that some of the things Sabeer Bhatia said in his interview in Founders at Work were false.  The evidence indicates that (a) Tim Draper rather than Jack Smith had the idea of putting a Hotmail ad at the bottom of emails sent …
Discussion: TechCrunch, Thanks:venturehacks
Mathew / mathewingram.com/work:
Journalism, or irresponsible rumour-mongering?  —  TechCrunch, one of the Web's top tech blogs, sparked a firestorm of criticism with a recent story about Last.fm — the popular music-sharing network that CBS acquired last year — by reporting that the service had turned over a pile …
Andy Sternberg / netZoo:
To 90,000 Twitter Followers in 30 Days  —  Last month Twitter quietly launched a new feature that generated a list of suggested users to follow.  Most likely as a result of this list, the followers to many Twitter accounts increased exponential over the course of the last month.
Stephanie Condon / CNET News:
White House names Internet team  —  The White House on Monday officially rolled out the names of its new-media team, which includes a former Google product manager.  —  Macon Phillips was officially named the director of new media, though he wrote his first White House blog post in that capacity the day President Obama took office.
Discussion: MediaMemo
Saul Hansell / Bits:
Does Cloud Computing Mean More Risks to Privacy?  —  Last week, we had a wave of panic roll through Facebook users as many realized that the site had changed its terms of service in a way that implied it might soon broadcast their most embarrassing photographs to parents, teachers, and prospective employers.
Kevin Poulsen / Threat Level:
Hidden Cameras in DTV Converters?  YouTube Hoax Fans Conspiracy Fears  —  Ever wonder what the government is really up to paying for all those digital TV converter boxes?  Last week a Spokane, Washington man claimed he'd discovered the horrifying truth, and he produced a YouTube video to prove it.
Discussion: digg.com
Chris Ziegler / Engadget:
The Engadget Interview: Ralph de la Vega, CEO of AT&T Mobility  —  We had an opportunity to sit down with AT&T's Ralph de la Vega last week — one of the most influential individuals in the wireless world today — at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona for a nice little chat covering all the topics …
Douglas A. McIntyre / 247 Wall Street:
The Twenty Five Most Valuable Blogs  —  It is extremely difficult to put accurate financial values on blogs.  Almost all of them are private companies.  Some do raise VC money and those sums can be used as guidelines if and when they are disclosed.  Like many content businesses, the only worthwhile value is what an acquirer will pay.
Eliot Van Buskirk / Epicenter:
Major Label Acts Get Hip to Music Apps  —  Apple's app store is doing for music promotion what the company already did for music sales: making it portable, desirable and easy to access.  Forget about ringtones and Rhapsody; these apps let you subscribe to artists.
Austin Modine / The Register:
Eircom to block Pirate Bay  —  ‘Automatic’ music label salute  —  Eircom, Ireland's biggest internet provider, has agreed to block access to any website the music industry says is responsible for illegal music-swapping.  —  In a letter sent to ISPs across the country last week …
 
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 More Items: 
Gregg Keizer / Computerworld:
Researcher posts homemade patch for critical PDF bug
Discussion: VRT and Slashdot
Stephanie Condon / CNET News:
Obama picks Leibowitz as FTC chairman
Kristen Philipkoski / Wired News:
Videogame Technology Helps With Disaster Planning
Steve O'Hear / last100:
Chumby bets on Internet-connected TVs
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
Pirate Bay Prosecution Hires Hypocrite Pirate Author for PR
Discussion: digg.com
Sara Silver / Wall Street Journal:
Motorola to Sell Email Unit
 Earlier Items: 
Dieter Bohn / PreCentral.net:
Celebrities Handle the Pre (Update: with help from Palm)
Discussion: Engadget and WebOS Arena
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Could Wikipedia's Future Be as a Development Platform?
Discussion: The Noisy Channel
Timothy B. Lee / Ars Technica:
Publisher speculates about Amazon/Google e-book “duopoly”
Discussion: CrunchGear, VatorNews and DigitalKoans
Robin Abcarian / Los Angeles Times:
Hit ‘send,’ then hit the door
Discussion: Beyond Search and Slashdot, Thanks:atul
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Apple 2.0:
Apple's growing cash hoard
Connie Loizos / PE Hub Blog:
Who's Advising Tom Friedman? I Have a Guess