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Google Passes on PCs — Google (Nasdaq: GOOG - message board) and Wal-Mart are both denying reports that the two are planning to market low-priced, Google PCs via Wal-Mart stores. — The LA Times reported Monday that Google intends to market a fully functioning PC running a Google operating system …
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Microsoft takes down Chinese blogger — Microsoft's MSN Spaces continues to censor its Chinese language blogs, and has become more aggressive and thorough at censorship since I first checked out MSN's censorship system last summer. On New Years Eve, MSN Spaces took down the popular blog written by Zhao Jing, aka Michael Anti.
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Followup to Chinese thing, off to CES — Working in a big company is interesting cause there are lots of moving parts. Tracking them all down is difficult, especially when you have a full day of meetings and other things to do and when the stakeholders of the decision you're trying to find …
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Smalltalk Tidbits …

Experts Advocate Non-Microsoft Windows Patch — Security experts yesterday criticized Microsoft Corp. for waiting until next week to address a recently revealed flaw in the Windows operating system that they say is unusually dangerous. — The experts took the unusual step of urging users …
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Should Scoble Leave Microsoft? — David Tebbutt over at Teblog speculates that Scoble may have outlived his usefulness to Microsoft and so they are allowing him to wander around meeting people, setting up his er... Blogger Dinners and building up a powerful personal brand.
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Have I outlived my usefulness? — Heheh, Shel Israel …
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Teal Sunglasses

iBook and PowerBook Reliability — Introduction — We thank MacInTouch readers who participated in our recent laptop survey. More than 10,000 laptops were logged, along with many thousands of comments. — Survey Design — Our survey spanned every laptop capable of running Mac OS X …

Windows XP Home: obsolete sooner than you expect — Microsoft set out to adopt a formal and rigid support lifecycle in 2002, back at a time when most analysts were expecting to see Windows Vista (then, "Longhorn") within a couple of years. My own point of view was that this lifecycle business …

Hidden Virtual-World Prison Revealed — tagged Culture Design Internet Law On the Screen Other Space Second Life Virtual Reality Watchdog — Nimrod Yaffle, a resident of the virtual world Second Life, has revealed details of a bizarre and dark prison Second Life's maker Linden Lab is now using to lock up criminal avatars.

The Cute Factor — WASHINGTON, Jan. 2 - If the mere sight of Tai Shan, the roly-poly, goofily gamboling masked bandit of a panda cub now on view at the National Zoo isn't enough to make you melt, then maybe the crush of his human onlookers, the furious flashing of their cameras and the heated gasps …

Vongo movie service waits on Apple for Mac support — Starz' new digital video subscription and download service Vongo could be Mac-compatible, a Vongo executive told Macworld, presuming Apple has a change of heart in its digital rights management philosophy.
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9rules Communities — When we started the 9rules Network we always envisioned a place where readers could come to find the best content from the independent web and that's why we consider ourselves a content network first and foremost. Others wanted to label us as a blog network or blog ring …

Broadcasting, Podcasting, Webcasting and Blogging at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2006 in Davos — The World Economic Forum announced ambitious plans today to share the proceedings of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2006 in Davos with as wide a public as possible.
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Forumblog.org

Blog debate: is Apple making a game console? — What happens when Applespeculation and video game speculation meet: platform wars of biblical proportions! Under speculation here is whetheror not Apple has any interest in reentering the console gaming arena with the expected relaunch of their diminutive Macmini.

Growing on-demand content may mean blockbuster's end — Just before going to see King Kong, my family found the 1933 and the 1976 versions airing simultaneously on back-to-back TV channels. So we kept flicking from one to the other, laughing at the Gumby-level special effects and Jessica Lange's acting.
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PaidContent.org

Guy's Golden Touch — If only I could get paid for answering the question, "How can I get people to evangelize my product?" I would be able to stop working and play hockey every day. Alas, there is no way to get paid for this information, so I give it to you for free.

Blogger Threatened to be Sued by Sozialgericht Bremen for Appearing in Google — Bjoern Harste is a well-known German blogger - he owns a supermarket and writes about his daily experiences at work in his Shopblogger blog. Now, he received a Cease & Desist by the Sozialgericht Bremen …