Top Items:
Steve Hamm / Business Week:
Sony BMG's Costly Silence — The label was alerted to the secret, virus-vulnerable software on its CDs long before the scandal broke. Trouble is, it didn't act immediately to alert consumers — For Sony BMG Music Entertainment, it has become a public-relations nightmare — and it shows no signs of abating.
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Sarah Lyall / New York Times:
What's the buzz? Teens can't stand it — BARRY, Wales—Though he did not know it at the time, the idea came to Howard Stapleton when he was 12 and visiting a factory with his father, a manufacturing executive in London. — Opening the door to a room where workers were using high-frequency …
ctv.ca:
New spyware could prevent drivers from speeding — Many motorists would balk at the idea of an electronic back-seat driver that forcefully prevents them from speeding. — But a new device being road-tested by Transport Canada could mean breaking the speed limit will no longer be an option.
Discussion:
Gadget Blog
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Daniel Terdiman / CNET News.com:
Newsmaker: Banking on a virtual economy — Late last month, Jon Jacobs, an independent filmmaker from Miami, became the first person in the history of online gaming to spend $100,000 on a single virtual item when he bought a space station in the game "Project Entropia."
Discussion:
Second Life Future Salon
Ina Fried / CNET News.com:
No Vista Beta 2 this year — The second beta of Windows Vista will not come until next year, Microsoft said Tuesday. — The software maker did not give a time frame for the release of Beta 2 of the operating system, and said only that it would have more to say next year.
Jeremy Reimer / Ars Technica:
Firefox 1.5 released on Mozilla's FTP site — The much-anticipated release of Firefox 1.5 has finally been posted on Mozilla's FTP site. This is the full release, unlike the Release Candidates 1, 2 and 3 that were posted on the Mozilla.org website on November 1, November 10 and November 17, respectively.
Dan Farber / Tech Blogs on ZDNet:
Grand Central turning to Swivel — After co-founding and leading CNET (from which this blog issues forth) from obscurity to Web stardom, Halsey Minor started 12 Entrepreneuring, raising over $130 million to incubate Web services companies before flaming out during the 2001 bubble bursting.
John C. Dvorak / PC Magazine:
Dead Media Everywhere — I've had thoughts on dead media before but I never thought about a real solution. I've decided paper tape is the way to go. Everything needs to be transferred to paper tape. Can you image the piles of paper tape that a 500GB hard drive would create?
Discussion:
digg
Jonathan Krim / Washington Post:
New Orleans's New Connection — City-Owned WiFi System To Be Announced Today — Hurricane-ravaged New Orleans will deploy the nation's first municipally owned wireless Internet system that will be free for all users, part of an effort to jump-start recovery by making living and doing business in the city as attractive as possible.
John Heilemann / New York Magazine:
Googlephobia — Google may be the giant asteroid that is going to make the old-media dinosaurs extinct—but the publishing industry is trying to head it off. — Pat Schroeder, the former Colorado congresswoman who's now the head of the Association of American Publishers …
Discussion:
John Battelle's Searchblog
Pete Wright / The secret life of an MS Author:
Motion LE 1600 Tablet — I've long had a certain amount of lust for the Motion slate Tablet PC's. They are well balanced, have an incredible screen (if you go for the pricey view anywhere option). In fact, if computer manufacturers can be compared to car manufacturers, Motion to me always seems like the BMW of PC builders.
Discussion:
Life On the Wicked Stage
Momus / Wired News:
Blogging With a Wooden Tongue — The French call it la langue de bois, the "wooden tongue." It's the language of officialdom; of politics, power and propaganda. It's usually spoken by someone whose job is to speak, but whose real mission is to end speech.
Russ / Russell Beattie Notebook:
PSP Update 2.6: Podcasting (RSS) and WMA Music Support! — Sony just released a new firmware update v2.6 for the PSP with RSS(!) and Windows Music support. I'm downloading it to try now, but I think this is a pretty cool update. I have to say, besides Sony's insistence on hammering the homebrew scene …
Daniel Roth / Fortune:
ANIME EXPLOSION — It's... Profitmón! — From Pokémon to Full Metal Panic, the anime industry is doing everything the rest of show biz isn't: embracing technology, coddling fans—and making a killing. — It was 2 a.m. when John Ledford heard the banging at his door.
