Top Items:
Kevin Newcomb / ClickZ:
Amazon Hosting Author Blogs — Adding to its user-generated content, Amazon.com has launched a program to allow authors to blog on the Amazon.com site. — The Amazon Connect program, in beta for the past month, aims to increase the engagement between readers and authors, and between readers and Amazon.com.
Discussion:
michael parekh on IT, Scobleizer, a shel of my former self, Guardian Unlimited, Somewhat Frank and Scripting News
RELATED ITEM:
TDavid / Things That:
Amazon Connect program not an author blog hosting experiment — The new Amazon Connect program aims to increase the connection between author and readers by providing an Amazon hosted 'blog'. Ok, that's what Clickz is calling it, but that doesn't seem to be what Amazon is actually using for a description …
Lisa Vaas / eWEEK.com:
Critical Impact: Windows Metafile Flaw a 'Zero-Day Exploit' — Updated: Code for what Secunia is deeming an "extremely critical flaw" in Windows Metafile Format files is being exploited on fully patched systems. Researchers are currently tracking thousands of sites distributing the exploit code.
Discussion:
Matt Cutts, Security Fix, F-Secure, Incremental Blogger, Sunbelt BLOG and Microsoft Watch
RELATED ITEMS:
ABCNEWS:
iPod Replaced With Meat — Unsuspecting Mom Gives Son iPod for Christmas — Discovers Mystery Meat Inside — HAWAII, Dec. 29, 2005 — Rachel Cambra couldn't wait to see the look on her 14-year-old son's face when he opened a very special present on Christmas morning.
RELATED ITEM:
Brian Krebs / Security Fix:
Sony BMG to Settle Class-Action Lawsuit — Sony BMG Music Entertainment has agreed to a settlement that would end a nationwide class-action lawsuit brought against the company over security flaws in anti-piracy software that it shipped on millions of music CDs.
RELATED ITEM:
Jeremy Reimer / Ars Technica:
Microsoft predicts Xbox 360 to become profitable by July 2006 — Microsoft has taken the bold step of announcing that the Xbox 360 will become profitable by the start of the company's 2007 financial year, which begins in July 2006. While this is an admirable and ambitious target …
RELATED ITEM:
San Francisco Chronicle:
Google team sets sights on big screen — Entertainment-savvy co-founders invest in Stanford friend's independent film, shot in S.F. — After becoming Internet moguls, Google Inc. co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page are dipping their toes into Hollywood.
Discussion:
Search Engine Watch Blog
Joel Spolsky / joelonsoftware.com:
The Perils of JavaSchools — Lazy kids. — Whatever happened to hard work? — A sure sign of my descent into senility is bitchin' and moanin' about "kids these days," and how they won't or can't do anything hard any more. — When I was a kid, I learned to program on punched cards.
Nick Wilson / Performancing.com:
John Battelle Talks to Performancing about FM Publishing — Over the holidays I had a chance to talk to John Battelle of FM Publishing, a new but much discussed blog ad network that's currently in beta. FM has a whole bunch of high profile bloggers working with it already …
Discussion:
John Battelle's Searchblog
Hugh Macleod / gapingvoid:
BLOGGING DOUBLED STORMHOEK SALES IN LESS THAN TWELVE MONTHS — [The original brochure that came with the bloggers' Stormhoek bottle.] — A journalist phoned me yesterday about an article she is writing about business blogs for one of the large UK trade mags.
Discussion:
Scobleizer
Deborah Fallows / pewinternet.org:
How Women and Men Use the Internet: Women are catching up to men in most measures of online life. Men like the internet for the experiences it offers, while women like it for the human connections it promotes. — A wide-ranging look at the way American women and men use the internet shows …
Discussion:
IP Democracy
Guardian:
Robot car: streets ahead in cities of the future — · Architects and engineers rethink auto technology — · 'Easy to drive, stackable vehicle for people to share' — The MIT Smart Cities research team's car. Image: Franco Vairani/MIT Department of Architecture
New York Times:
Spy Agency Removes Illegal Tracking Files — By The Associated Press The National Security Agency's Internet site has been placing files on visitors' computers that can track their Web surfing activity despite strict federal rules banning most files of that type.
Clint Ecker / Infinite Loop:
Trade your CDs for an iPod — How important are CDs to you? Do you read your liner notes? Do you like to display your CDs in your place of dwelling? A company out of Charleston, South Carolina is offering those of you that have no real attachment to your collection an interesting proposal …
David Pogue / New York Times:
10 Greatest Gadget Ideas of the Year — ON New Year's Eve, don't be surprised to witness more heartfelt celebrating than usual; 2005 was not a year noted for its tidings of good cheer, and plenty of people will be happy to see it go. — Still, there were inspiring and gratifying success stories …
Read/WriteWeb:
Acquisitions and The Big 3 — William Slawski has compiled two very useful lists of acquisitions, first by Google and now by Yahoo (see also The Guardian's list). I'll add the third, Microsoft's acquisitions as listed on their corporate site. From 2003 on: — Nov. 3, 2005: FolderShare
Wired News:
Hackers Rebel Against Spy Cams — BERLIN — When the Austrian government passed a law this year allowing police to install closed-circuit surveillance cameras in public spaces without a court order, the Austrian civil liberties group Quintessenz vowed to watch the watchers.
