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6:50 PM ET, March 5, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Saul Hansell / Bits:
The Nation's New Chief Information Officer Speaks  —  Reforming the entire health care system may be easier than doing everything Vivek Kundra says he wants to do when it comes to reforming the government's computer systems.  —  Mr. Kundra, the 34-year-old former chief technology officer …
Discussion: Digits, AppScout and techPresident
RELATED:
Patrick Thibodeau / Computerworld:
New federal CIO Vivek Kundra wants a Web 2.0 government
Discussion: The FASTForward Blog
Kim Hart / Washington Post:
D.C. Tech Chief Tapped for White House Slot
Jason Calacanis / The Jason Calacanis Weblog:
Why I employed a felon  —  Yesterday, I joined one of our Mahalo employees at Federal District Court as he was sentenced to 48 months in jail for crimes related to computer security.  —  Before my employee John Schiefer was sentenced, a violent career criminal was facing 60 months for beating up a prison guard.
Discussion: Guardian, Threat Level and SiliconAngle
RELATED:
Brian Prince / eWeek:
Security Consultant Turned Hacker Gets Prison for Running Botnet  —  Former security consultant John Schiefer was sentenced to four years in federal prison for running a botnet that infected as many as 250,000 and stole passwords and account information.  Schiefer was one of eight defendants nabbed …
Discussion: Ars Technica and The Register
Rafe Needleman / Webware.com:   Mahalo: Our hacker employee is no threat to your privacy
Business Wire:
Clearwire Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2008 Results  —  Key 2008 Highlights  — Completed Combination with Sprint's 4G Assets, Resulting in Largest U.S. Mobile Wireless Spectrum Portfolio  — 2008 Pro Forma Revenue Increases 52 Percent Driven by 21 Percent Subscriber Growth and 6 Percent ARPU Increase
RELATED:
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Clearwire: The race between Wimax expansion and cash burn is on  —  Clearwire on Thursday outlined its Wimax rollout plans for 2010 as it announced a $118 million fourth quarter net loss.  The company also outlined its capital spending plan for 2009, which calls for it burning through …
Kevin Michaluk / CrackBerry.com blogs:
Exclusive: First Real Photos of the BlackBerry 9630!  —  FINALLY!!!!!  What you're looking at above are the first real photos of the BlackBerry “Niagara” 9630.  As you can see, this CDMA full-QWERTY BlackBerry is looking sweet and very much has the appearance of the BlackBerry Curve 8900 and BlackBerry Bold morphed into one.
John Paczkowski / Digital Daily:
Perhaps if They Think of Their Win Mobile Devices as Broken iPhones...  What an uncomfortable moment for Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at the CIO Summit Wednesday.  Fielding questions at Microsoft's annual event for government and education sector IT workers, Ballmer was asked how best …
David Evans / Online Dating Insider:
PlentyOfFish Starts Charging Premium Membership Fees … Free dating sites have had a good run the past few years.  Everyone starting a free dating site jumped, and continues to jump, on the free dating bandwagon.  Meanwhile, top paid dating sites are making hundreds of millions of dollars …
Discussion: Gear Diary, Thanks:daveevans
RELATED:
Markus / The Paradigm Shift:   Plentyoffish Serious Member Profile Upgrade...
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Yahoo's Inquisitor Makes Search Shine On The iPhone  —  Last May, Yahoo acquired a startup called Inquisitor which offers a search plug-in for all the major browsers.  Today, Inquisitor is available as an iPhone app and it shows how certain features, such as Yahoo's Search Assist …
RELATED:
Arik Hesseldahl / Business Week:
At DEMO, VCs Have Stern Advice for Startups  —  With less money available to entrepreneurs and with fewer startups being bought, VCs are pushing portfolio companies to focus on frugality  —  Watch the Video...  Venture capital investor Christine Herron has a bit of advice for technology startups …
Discussion: HipMojo.com
Stephen Schenck / Obsessable:
Acrobat bug can lead to malware installs without even opening an infected file  —  Because Adobe builds parts of Acrobat into Windows Explorer, you can trigger the bug unintentionally.  —  If you've been living in fear of opening any suspicious PDF files since we let you know about a still-unpatched bug …
Discussion: Download Squad
RELATED:
John Leyden / The Register:
Zero-day Adobe PDF peril goes click free
Discussion: Didier Stevens
Raju Vegesna / Zoho Blogs:
Zoho Writer 2.0 launches with fresh look  —  Refreshing changes don't come often.  Today, we are launching a new major version of our word processor - Zoho Writer 2.0 - with a fresh and elegant user interface & significant improvements.  This important upgrade comes with hundreds of improvements, mostly on the user interface.
Lee Gomes / Forbes:
Google Disrupts—Again  —  The Internet giant's search engine could make Web site design and navigation obsolete.  —  BURLINGAME, Calif.—Google has turned the advertising industry upside down.  Here's something else the Internet giant is changing: Web sites—both how they are used …
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
It's Time To Start Thinking Of Twitter As A Search Engine  —  At a dinner tonight with a friend the conversation turned to Twitter.  He just didn't get it, and he's certainly not the first person to tell me that.  Specifically, my friend didn't understand the massive valuation …
Heather Hopkins / Hitwise Intelligence:
Yahoo! Mail More than One Third of Yahoo! Traffic  —  Tuesday, Yahoo!'s new CEO, Carol Bartz spoke to analysts and one comment in particular caught my attention.  According to an article on ZDNet, she said “Yahoo Mail is becoming increasingly critical to the company.
Chicago Breaking News:
Sheriff sues Craigslist as ‘largest source’ of prostitution  —  Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart announced today that his office has sued Craigslist and has asked a federal judge to ban the Internet company from posting its “erotic services” section, which the sheriff said is a clearing house for prostitution.
Microsoft:
Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification for March 2009  —  Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification issued: March 5, 2009  —  Microsoft Security Bulletins to be issued: March 10, 2009  —  This is an advance notification of security bulletins that Microsoft is intending to release on March 10, 2009.
Paul Biba / TeleRead:
Fictionwise acquired by Barnes & Noble for $15.7 million in cash  —  Fictionwise has been acquired by Barnes & Noble, said to be the world's largest bookseller, for $15.7 million in a stock deal that TeleRead revealed earlier today.  —  I spoke with Scott Pendergrast of Fictionwise at 7:20 …
David Pogue / New York Times:
It Rings, It Shoots, It Stumbles  —  I'll never forget the time I visited a Riverwalk restaurant in San Antonio and ordered risotto: rice that's been stirred in broth until it's rich, creamy and perfect.  —  But what the waiter brought to the table wasn't risotto.  It was just rice.
Discussion: Electronic Pulp
Rick Aristotle Munarriz / Motley Fool:
Game Over for GameStop?  —  GameStop (NYSE: GME) probably doesn't see Toys “R” Us as much of a competitor in video game retailing, but that is about to change.  —  Toys “R” Us is starting to buy and resell used games in a few test stores, according to Forbes.
Colby Ranger / The Official Google Blog:
Tipping points  —  Ideas are everywhere, but how do we know which ones actually work?  At Google, we put a lot of stock in both the wisdom of crowds — the idea that lots of people responding to a given question can collectively find the best answer — and the value of community.
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Apple 2.0:
Apple so far immune to PC price “collapse”  —  Apple (AAPL) is the exception to what one analyst describes as a “permanent and structural” collapse of PC pricing and revenue triggered by the onset of the recession and the rise of low-cost netbooks.  —  In the chart reproduced at right …
Discussion: ZDNet and MacNN
Mike Butcher / TechCrunch UK & Europe:
Sky News realises news breaks first on Twitter, not TV - Creates a Twitter Correspondent  —  TechCrunch has been saying for a long time - at least since November last year - that Twitter is an emerging source of news.  Recent tragic events have only served to emphasise this.
Aza Raskin / Mozilla Labs:
New Tab Page: Proposed design principles and prototype  —  Every time you open a new tab, you are opening it to go somewhere.  Sometimes it's to do a search.  Sometimes it's to type in a new URL.  Sometimes it's to check an address you just selected.  The only thing you are guaranteed to not want is a blank page.
Discussion: Download Squad, Mozilla Links and ReadWriteWeb, Thanks:atul
 
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Authy killed their desktop apps.  Time to switch to a reliable authenticator.  Time to switch to Zoho OneAuth.  —  Twilio's Authy recently announced end of life (EOL) for their desktop apps on March 19, 2024—five months ahead of schedule.
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 More Items: 
Economist:
The internet's librarian  —  Brewster Kahle wants to create a free …
Eric Krangel / Silicon Alley Insider:
Sony: iPhone Gaming Blows
Discussion: Electronista and CasualGaming.biz
Eric Goldman / Technology & Marketing Law Blog:
Utah Trying to Regulate Keyword Advertising....Again!? Utah HB 450
Discussion: Search Engine Land and SearchViews, Thanks:atul
Gregg Keizer / Computerworld:
Analyst: Apple turns its back on e-book market
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
New NYTimes iPhone App Enables Offline Reading
Percy Cabello / Mozilla Links:
Next Firefox version bumped to 3.5, another beta to come
 Earlier Items: 
Liz Gannes / NewTeeVee:
Big Money! Vidyo and Verivue Score Funding for Video Tech
Discussion: Dealscape and VatorNews
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Tacoda, Real Media Founder Dave Morgan Back With Another Ad Startup
Discussion: VentureBeat and paidContent.org
Rebecca Buckman / Forbes:
VC View From The Rockies
Alex Chitu / Google Operating System:
Google Chrome, Bundled with RealPlayer
Discussion: Mashable!
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Enthusiasts keep pushing Smule's Ocarina iPhone app to higher numbers
Discussion: Obsessable
Monica Hesse / Washington Post:
Offbeat Name? Then Facebook's No Friend
 

 
From Mediagazer:

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

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”

Todd Spangler / Variety:
YouTuber MrBeast announces a deal with Prime Video for Beast Games, a reality-competition show with 1,000 contestants, promising the winner a $5M cash prize

 
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