Bill Gates: ‘I wrote Steve Jobs a letter as he was dying.  He kept it by his bed’  —  People's plutocrat Bill Gates talks about friendly rivalry, and how to get bankers to part with their money.  —  Change the world: 'If you have a dream and it comes true, it's a very cool thing,' says Bill Gates

The ACTA Fight Returns: What Is at Stake and What You Can Do  —  The reverberations from the SOPA fight continue to be felt in the U.S. (excellent analysis from Benkler and Downes) and elsewhere (mounting Canadian concern that Bill C-11 could be amended to adopt SOPA-like rules) …

Letter to Twitter Executive Chairman Jack Dorsey urging him not to cooperate with censors  —  Reporters Without Borders has written to Twitter Executive Chairman Jack Dorsey voicing deep concern about yesterday's announcement that Twitter will introduce geolocated censorship …

Macworld finds its footing as a “hardcore consumer lifestyle event”  —  Macworld Expo, a once powerful Mac tradeshow, is getting new life as smaller event for Apple consumers and fans.  The revamped three-day event, now called Macworld |  iWorld, is taking place this week in San Francisco.

Facebook's ticker symbol will be $FB -neatly matching its internal email addresses @fb.com http://m.nypost.com/...

Mega Aftermath: Upheaval In Pirate Warez Land  —  Despite its “rogue site” status and various other warnings, when MegaUpload went down last week it still came as a shock.  —  But what came next was unprecedented, a dramatic reaction in cyberlocker land that took out vast libraries of digital content and capacity.

Apple introduces us to the Wild World of Coded Magnets  —  Once in a while we're treated to new Apple invention that virtually contains a new self-contained world of possibilities and vocabulary to enrich it.  It comes out of the blue and feeds our need for meaty new technology brimming with potential.

Two Weeks In, Google Says “Search Plus Your World” Going Well, Critics Should Give It Time  —  Two weeks ago, Google launched Search Plus Your World.  Since then, Google has faced strong criticisms that SPYW is making its search relevancy worse and favoring its Google+ social network too much.

Study: Only 1% of Facebook ‘Fans’ Engage With Brands  —  Not Many Fans Are Creating Content, But That Might Not Be a Bad Thing  —  For a few years now, brands have been touting frothy Facebook “like” numbers as evidence of their social-media acumen.  But how many of those fans …

Jobs told Google to stop poaching workers: filing  —  (Reuters) - Apple's Steve Jobs directly asked former Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt in 2007 to stop trying to recruit an Apple engineer, according to a court filing.  —  The email from Jobs to Schmidt was disclosed on Friday …

Making Sure the Next Zuckerberg or Gates Stays Put at Harvard  —  Earlier today, Harvard University and New Enterprise Associates announced the Experiment Fund, aimed at making sure that future Mark Zuckerbergs and Bill Gates can stay on campus and innovate without having to head West.

Universal Music May Have Inadvertently Exposed a Flaw in the YouTube Takedown Process  —  One rap artist speaks out against UMG, YouTube, and SOPA.  —  Last month, before federal authorities shut down Megaupload, the popular file-storage website got into a legal brawl with Universal Music Group …

How Siri is ruining your cellphone service  —  Like a few million other people this past holiday season, we bought an iPhone 4S, with its much-hyped Siri feature.  The vocal interface allows users to speak all kinds of commands into the phone ("What's the weather in San Francisco?") and get answers from a sultry-voiced robot/concierge.