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9:40 PM ET, October 7, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Google: We're Hiring, and Spending, Again  —  Google CEO Eric Schmidt used the opening moments of a New York City press conference to reinforce a message he's been delivering for a couple months: The worst is over, things are looking up, and Google is spending accordingly.
RELATED:
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
Reviewing Some Bad Google Search Results With Sergey Brin  —  After today's Google search press briefing, where I raised the issue of some poor quality search results in Google at one point, Sergey Brin asked me to demonstrate a few.  My pleasure!  Below, what we reviewed and comments from Google's cofounder.
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Schmidt: “We Have Not Yet Found The Evil Room.”  —  Earlier today, Google's Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt held an informal press conference of sorts (see my live notes), touching upon pretty much everything under the Google sun.  One issue that kept on coming up was Google's growing power in general.
Discussion: Brainstorm Tech
The Official Google Blog:
Quickly view formatted PDFs in your search results  —  Google search results sometimes include documents that were not originally formatted to be viewed in a web browser, such as PDFs.  In the past, the only way to view these documents was to download them and open them in a separate viewer application.
Steven Levy / Gadget Lab:
Kindle Goes International — With a Little Help From AT&T  —  Although Amazon's Kindle e-reader has become the first major hit in its category — and the best-selling product in Amazon's entire store this year — it does have its drawbacks.  One of the biggest is that its wireless connection to the Kindle store works only in the U.S.
RELATED:
Marc Lostracco / Torontoist:
Kindle Still Won't Ignite in Canada
Amazon.com:
Amazon Kindle Now for Sale to Customers in More Than 100 Countries
Kevin Poulsen / Epicenter:
Google's Abandoned Library of 700 Million Titles  —  Imagine a world where Google sucks.  —  It might seem a stretch.  The Google logo is practically an icon of functionality.  Google's search engine and other tools are the company's strongest, if unstated, argument in favor …
Discussion: Television Archiving, Thanks:atul
Andrew Lookingbill / Google LatLong:
Your world, your map  —  One of the exciting challenges of working on the Geo team at Google is that the physical world is constantly changing, and keeping on top of these changes is a never-ending endeavor.  For example, 15,000 miles of roadway are built in the United States each year.
Emil Protalinski / Ars Technica:
Microsoft mulling 128-bit versions of Windows 8, Windows 9  —  Believe it or not, Windows 7's successor(s) have been in the planning and early development stages for a while now.  We haven't posted anything about any of them yet, but we've been watching closely to see if anything really interesting turned up.
Wall Street Journal:
Dell to Build Android Phone for AT&T  —  Dell Inc. expects to launch a smart phone on AT&T Inc.'s cellular network as soon as early 2010, said people briefed on the plans.  —  The Dell phone uses Google Inc.'s Android mobile-operating system, said the people briefed on the matter.
RELATED:
Wall Street Journal:
EU to Settle Microsoft Case by Year End  —  BRUSSELS—The European Union signaled it would accept a settlement proposal outlined this summer by Microsoft Corp. that would end the bloc's pursuit of antitrust charges over the Internet Explorer Web browser, drawing the software giant closer …
RELATED:
EU Press Room:
Antitrust: Commission market tests Microsoft's proposal to ensure …
Richard Waters / blogs.ft.com:
Microsoft prepares to pack up its briefs and go home
Robert Mueller / CNET News:
FBI head banned from online banking after phishing attempt  —  SAN FRANCISCO—No one is immune from cyberthreats, not even the head of the FBI.  —  FBI Director Robert Mueller was banned by his wife from doing online banking after he nearly fell for a phishing scam, he said on Wednesday during …
Discussion: The Register and PC World
RELATED:
Adam Ostrow / Mashable!:
Drew Carey Raises Bid to $1 Million for @Drew on Twitter  —  Over the weekend, we reported on Drew Carey's bid of up to $100,000 (if he reaches 100,000 followers by Nov. 9th) for the Twitter name @drew.  The name is currently up for auction by Drew Olanoff, who was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year …
Fawn Johnson / Wall Street Journal:
FCC Chairman Commits to Open Internet Rules for Cell Companies  —  WASHINGTON — Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski told the wireless industry Wednesday that he intends to proceed with Internet openness rules for cellular carriers, despite some of the …
RELATED:
DigiTimes:
Foxconn said to be tapped to make Apple tablet PC, shipments expected to begin in 1Q10  —  Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry) will be the manufacturing partner for an upcoming tablet PC device from Apple, according to market sources.  The device is expected to hit the market …
Tony Dokoupil / Newsweek:
Striking It Rich: Is There An App For That?  —  Seeking fortune and fame, entrepreneurs rushed to create programs for Apple's App Store.  That's not always what they found.
Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
Buffalo ships world's first USB 3.0 hard disk drives this month  —  It's fine to announce USB 3.0 gear, but it's another thing entirely to actually put it up for retail.  Buffalo's making the boast today that its HD-HU3 series of USB 3.0 hard disks will be the “world's first!!” to ship.
Nilay Patel / Engadget:
Samsung Moment slider coming to Sprint, packing Android (update: official, $179)  —  Samsung just accidentally leaked a Sprint-bound Android QWERTY slider called the Moment in an otherwise totally boring press release about its OLED handset lineup — it'll have an 800MHz processor …
New York Times:
U.S. Begins Inquiry of I.B.M. in Mainframe Market  —  The Department of Justice has started a preliminary investigation into whether I.B.M. abused its monopoly position in the market for the mainframe computers, which remain vital to many of the world's largest businesses.
Discussion: VentureBeat and Bits, Thanks:atul
Jennifer Vilaga / Fast Company:
FTC Responds to Blogger Fears: “That $11,000 Fine is Not True”  —  As you've likely heard by now, the Federal Trade Commission is trying to reign in freebie-grabbing bloggers and graft-happy social media users masquerading as unbiased critics.  The agency announced an update to the FTC Act of 1980 …
Jennifer Martinez / GigaOM:
NeighborGoods: Craigslist for Your Neighborhood  —  NeighborGoods, a web site that lets you share stuff with people in your neighborhood, today is launching publicly in its first city, Los Angeles.  It's somewhat of a cross between Facebook and Craigslist.  For example, if you need to borrow …
Discussion: TechCrunch and lalawag
Stephen Shankland / CNET News:
Google: Computer memory flakier than expected  —  Wondering why your computer just crashed again?  Its memory might be to blame, according to real-world Google research that finds error rates higher than what earlier work showed.  —  With hundreds of thousands of computers in its data centers …
Tameka Kee / paidContent:
Personal Web Systems Raises $1.2 Million For Web-to-TV Browser  —  Ready for WebTV 2.0?  Personal Web Systems, a tech firm that's developing a web-to-TV browser add-on, has raised $1.2 million worth of a proposed $1.8 million round of funding, per an SEC filing.
Discussion: alarm:clock and NewTeeVee
Nicholas Carlson / Silicon Alley Insider:
What A $3.65 Billion Mistake Looks Like  —  In 1999, Yahoo (YHOO) paid $3.65 billion for GeoCities.  Today it sent out a “final notice” warning GeoCities users that its pulling the plug.  —  Yahoo is shutting down or selling a lot of businesses lately.  (Find out what's for sale here.)
Discussion: CNET News, Mashable! and Obsessable
Caroline McCarthy / CNET News:
New report warns of dangers of trashy avatars  —  If you're running a business that has a presence in a virtual world, market research firm Gartner thinks you might want to make sure your employees' avatars aren't dressed like Lady Gaga at the VMAs.  —  “Companies with codes of conduct …
Discussion: Gartner
Alex Chitu / Google Operating System:
Google Cloudboard  —  Google tests a service called Cloudboard, an online clipboard that should make it easy to copy data between Gmail, Google Docs and other Google services.  The service is not publicly available yet, but there are many references to it.  —  An internal feedback form …
 
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 More Items: 
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
C:\ONGRTLNS.OSX  —  Or: There Is No Replacement for Creator Codes in Snow Leopard
Thanks:atul
George White / Dealscape:
PE lobbyists throw VCs under the bus
Charles Arthur / Guardian:
Spotify's freemium approach leaves Napster gasping
Discussion: Music Ally
CBC News:
Google Street View goes live in Canadian cities
David Kaplan / paidContent:
Scribd Releases Co-Branded Reader For Media Sites With An Eye Towards Ad Sales
Discussion: WebProNews
Nat Ives / AdAge:
Magazine Publishers Talk of Creating Online Ad Network
Discussion: the Econsultancy blog
Gregg Keizer / Computerworld:
Researcher refutes Microsoft's account of hijacked Hotmail passwords
Discussion: ScanSafe STAT Blog
 Earlier Items: 
some blog:
Someecards iPhone app rejected for making fun of celebrities?
Discussion: Gadget Lab and TechCrunch
Caroline McCarthy / CNET News:
Oops! Hack lets anybody join the MySpace network on Facebook
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
GetAFreelancer Hits 1 Million Users, Switches Name To Freelancer.com