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Google Base Was Sort of Live — Several people report Google Base (as predicted yesterday) went live, or at least, its login-screen. I can't reach it at the moment as it seems Google took it down again, but Dirson posted a screenshot to Flickr. So what is it? Quoting from Dirson's screenshot of the login screen:
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Writers Side With Google in Scrap — Google's plan to scan library book collections and make them searchable may be drawing ire from publishers and authors' advocates, but some obscure and first-time writers are lining up on the search engine's side of the dispute — arguing that the benefits …
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Futurists Pick Top Tech Trends — Taking a long-term view isn't easy nowadays. — Even the recent past seems blurry at times. Google's just seven years old, but it's hard to imagine life before instant search. Broadband has been widely available for only a few years …

Les Blogs 2.0 preliminary program — Introduction — Why have we started to organize the Les Blogs conference ? — A frustration. I have always been so sorry that there were not enough cool conferences around the Web generally in Europe. If you are European, you have to go often …

Ready for a 20-inch laptop? — How big is your laptop? Fifteen inches? Seventeen inches? How about a massive 19- or 20-inch wide-screen LCD model? — With so many DVDs featuring letterboxed or wide-screen versions of films, consumers' fascination with larger screen sizes is changing …

Geo-Targeted RSS Ads Surprise Advertisers — Google has quietly been running geo-targeted contextual ads in RSS feeds for several months, but many advertisers, agencies, and analysts contacted by ClickZ were surprised to learn about the placements. — "I don't think most advertisers know it's going on …

The Right Desktop Processor: CPU Price/Performance — When you build a PC, you're often making a series of delicate trade-offs. After all, most of us have budget limits on any PC we build, and making the most of that budget is key. Last spring, we took a look at graphics hardware price/performance …

'Wireless tours' to boost tourism — VISITORS to Edinburgh will be given "wireless tours" of the city on their mobile phones and hand-held computers, under plans announced by tourism leaders. — The service, which could be in place as early as next summer, would help tourists pre-plan …
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textually.org

Google Appoints Johnny Chou as President, Sales and Business Development, Greater China; Company Strengthens Focus on China; Hires Chou To Join Dr. Kai-Fu Lee in Building Google's Chinese Operations — MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Oct. 25, 2005—Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) …
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Chinawhite

Making signatures more secure IBM is developing new technology to foil forgers — Forging someone's signature is one of the oldest and most popular forms of identity theft. — But what if a forger were required to imitate not only the look of your signature but also how you went about writing it …

A LIST BLOGGER OPENLY RECOMMENDS CLICK FRAUD...WHO'S HAT IS BLACK? — To be honest, I normally think rather highly of Mitch Ratcliffe, but this anti blogspot spam comment is off the mark: … What is the best that would come out of that? Spam blogs would quickly and easily be built elsewhere …
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Wal-Mart pulls plug on 360 kiosks — Xbox maker acknowledges consoles interfering with Wal-Mart's internal management systems; says fix is in the works. — Gamers looking to be among the first to get their hands on an Xbox 360 controller at Wal-Mart demo kiosks can still do it, but they won't actually be controlling anything.
Discussion:
Silicon Valley Sleuth

Rumors of Sun-Google Hosted Desktop Suite Quashed — Sources close to the joint efforts between Google Inc. and Sun Microsystems Inc. say rampant speculation about hosted desktop productivity offerings and common operating systems is way off base. — Insiders with knowledge of the joint plans …

Got a Mac? Want Front Row? You're In Luck! — A buddy of mine just sent me a torrent for a hack version of the new Front Row application for the new iMacs. Download the torrent file and get the contents (2.8 mb file) follow the read me and you're golden! — Installation:

Will Mark Cuban (Finally) Revolutionize Hollywood? — His plan to break the video window. — I recently demonstrated my high-definition projector by showing scenes from the beautifully shot Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. First, I played an HD recording made by the TiVo-style digital recorder …
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Scrivener's Error