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3:55 AM ET, December 4, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Techmeme News:
Guess what?  Automated news doesn't quite work.  —  Any competent developer who tries to automate the selection of news headlines will inevitably discover that this approach always comes up a bit short.  Automation does indeed bring a lot to the table — humans can't possibly discover and organize news as fast as computers can.
RELATED:
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
TechMeme Gives Up On Fully Automated News  —  3+ year old TechMeme, an automated news site that shows breaking news clustered by topic, has always generated “headlines” by analyzing how news sites link to each other.  If a lot of sites start linking to something unique, TechMeme guesses it's news.
Discussion: Technologizer and Tech Central
Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:
News aggregator Techmeme melds algorithms and humans  —  News aggregator Techmeme is perhaps the fastest way to find interesting tech news - it takes minutes to find and link to breaking stories, as opposed to the hours or days that rivals like Digg or Google News take.
Rafe Needleman / Webware.com:   On the record: New overseer for Techmeme robots
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Adobe lays off 600 workers, CS4 demand weaker than expected  —  Adobe said Wednesday that it will eliminate 600 full-time positions, or roughly 8 percent of its workforce, amid weaker than expected fourth quarter earnings.  —  The company said in a statement that it will deliver fourth …
RELATED:
Business Wire:
Adobe Provides Preliminary Q4 Fiscal 2008 Results
Discussion: VentureBeat and Contentinople
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Why Twitter Didn't Sell to Facebook — Really  —  The New York Times' Claire Miller attended a Churchill Club function to fete Twitter co-founder Evan Williams last night.  In an onstage interview, Williams talked about many different aspects of his micro-blogging service, which now has 6 million subscribers.
Discussion: SarahLacy.com
RELATED:
Claire Cain Miller / Bits:
Why Twitter Turned Down Facebook
RELATED:
Tom Krazit / CNET News:   Apple looking for Psystar's backers
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes / Hardware 2.0:
Who are the John Does that Apple is looking for?
Discussion: TG Daily and CrunchGear
William M. Bulkeley / Wall Street Journal:
IBM Offers ‘Microsoft-Free’ Desktop  —  Applications for Thin Clients Would Operate From Back-Office Server  —  International Business Machines Corp. is hoping to convince corporate customers that they no longer need Microsoft Corp.  —  IBM says it has created a “Microsoft-free” …
Discussion: CNET News
Nate Raymond / amlawdaily.typepad.com:
Hogan's Litvack Discusses Google/Yahoo  —  Google Inc. and Yahoo! Inc. called off their joint advertising agreement just three hours before the Department of Justice planned to file antitrust charges to block the pact, according to the lawyer who would have been lead counsel for the government.
RELATED:
Jim Goldman / Tech Check with Jim Goldman:   Google a Monopolist? Seems So
Matt Buchanan / Gizmodo:
Barack Obama Uses a Zune  —  After all of the misinformation and dirty lies spread about Obama over the course of the presidential campaign, this is the most shocking I've heard about him: He uses a Zune.  This can't be possible.  —  Why?  Because, as has been widely reported, Obama, many of his staffers and Joe Biden use a Mac.
Josh Lowensohn / Webware.com:
New Firefox extension turns Amazon.com into illegal free-for-all  —  A new Firefox extension called Pirates of the Amazon lets users download movies, games, TV shows, and MP3s free of charge by cross referencing Amazon's product pages with torrent files from the Pirate Bay.
Discussion: DSLreports, TorrentFreak and digg.com
Arik Hesseldahl / Business Week:
Apple's iPod Problem  —  With fewer iPod users upgrading, the days of explosive growth are over.  And that leaves iPhones and Macs picking up the slack  —  William Thomas Cain/Getty Images  —  Chris Wysopal is the head of a four-iPod family.  His wife and two kids all carry …
RELATED:
Paul Graham:
The High-Res Society  —  For nearly all of history the success of a society was proportionate to its ability to assemble large and disciplined organizations.  Those who bet on economies of scale generally won, which meant the largest organizations were the most successful ones.
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Tapulous Brings Weezer And World-Class DJs To Tap Tap Revenge  —  iPhone development house Tapulous has announced two new premium versions of its mega-hit Tap Tap Revenge, both of which feature licensed music (still a rarity on the fledgling platform).  Tap Tap Revenge is an intuitive …
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider and TUAW
Gavin Clarke / The Register:
Sun sneaks JavaFX Mobile into desktop FX  —  Any RIA in a storm  —  Sun Microsystems, it is generally felt, lost the desktop to Microsoft a long time ago.  Aware of this, Sun in recent years evangelized mobile as Java's habitat - mobile is, after all, where Microsoft's at its weakest.
Darren Murph / Engadget:
Kogan intros world's second Android phone: Agora / Agora Pro  —  We'll be totally honest — we pretty much blew Ruslan Kogan off when he proclaimed that he was about to push out a $199 Android phone by the year's end.  And truthfully, the guy still hasn't totally delivered …
Om Malik / GigaOM:
DNS Problems Hit Yahoo  —  Updated: Yahoo, one of the largest web sites on the planet, is being plagued by series of problems related to Domain Name System (DNS).  A test using Gomez's testing service shows error messages in certain cities such as Chicago.  Others are experiencing slower access …
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
588 Kleiner Perkins iFund Applications Accidentally Published To Web  —  Kleiner Perkins's iFund is a $100 million fund to invest in startups building applications for the iPhone.  —  Startups that wish to apply for funding can fill out an online application here.
Nick O'Neill / The Social Times:
Google Makes a Hard Push With Friend Connect  —  Tonight I've been seeing a lot of buzz about Friend Connect, Google's open initiative to take of Facebook Connect.  The service lets you login using your Google, Orkut, or Plaxo account.  Both MySpace and Facebook decided to opt-out of integrating …
Discussion: VentureBeat
Meghan Keane / Epicenter:
Greystripe Brings Flash to the iPhone, Sort Of  —  Adobe may be hard at work creating a version of its Flash Player that works on the iPhone, but until Apple gives its OK, iPhone users must muddle along without viewing most online video content.  —  Except that on Monday …
PC Pro:
Mobile broadband to hit 42Mb/sec in 2009  —  Mobile broadband speeds could hit a blistering 42Mb/sec as early as next year, according to Ericsson's chief technology officer.  —  The idea seems far-fetched given that even the fastest dongles currently hover at around 7.2Mb/sec …
Discussion: CircleID and Slashdot
Greg Sandoval / CNET News:
What's causing video glitches at Apple, Netflix?  —  Some Apple TV owners have complained for several weeks that it takes much longer now to download and playback high-definition movies.  —  “I started downloading an hour back and it says it will take two hours,” wrote someone with the user name Reachg.
 
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 More Items: 
Paul Bond / Hollywood Reporter:
Batman already blitzing iTunes
Discussion: Edible Apple and digg.com
Fawn Johnson / Wall Street Journal:
FCC's Free-Internet Plan Could Morph Into Free Airwaves
Discussion: The Register and dailywireless.org
Joseph Tartakoff / The Microsoft Blog:
Debut of new Windows Live hits a snag
RFA:
Chinese Authorities Enforce Switch from Microsoft
Discussion: CircleID and Tech Daily Dose
Jon Oltsik / CNET News:
Whither Cisco MARS?
Nicholas Carlson / Silicon Alley Insider:
Icahn: I Would Vote Against Miller's Yahoo Takeover (YHOO)
Discussion: paidContent.org
 Earlier Items: 
Rafe Needleman / CNET News:
Confessions of a man who does the layoffs
Rafat Ali / paidContent.org:
Angie's List Grows A Lot Longer: Adds Another $7 Million in Financing
Discussion: VentureBeat
Dan Rayburn / The Business Of Online Video:
Online Video Companies Raise Over $75 Million In VC Money In The Past 60 Days
Discussion: NewTeeVee