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20 Jan 2010 10:16

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Tech: Analyst: AT&T is laughably far behind Verizon’s mobile network

  • $353 amount Verizon has spent in infrastructure per customer
  • $308 amount AT&T has spent on infrastructure per customer
  • $5B amount AT&T needs to spend, at least, just to catch up source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Jan 2010 10:03

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Biz: Learning to love the bomb: Why we don’t mind the NYT’s pay wall

  • The gray lady’s change from free to pay makes sense. Simply put, if there’s one newspaper in the U.S. that can blaze the trail for online pay walls and get it right, it’s the New York Times. Here’s why:
  • one They’re big enough to take the kind of risks that smaller papers can’t.
  • two They understand the Web better than most papers – there’s no tired cynicism here.
  • three They get the sharing nature of the Web, and so does their planned model.
  • four They’ve had a long history of online innovation already, such as Times Skimmer.
  • five They have content that’s good enough that people will pay for it. Duh. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Jan 2010 09:36

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Culture: CBS decides Jack Benny’s legacy worth more to them hidden away

  • Basically, CBS has decided that it could cost too much to pay a lawyer to figure out if they can release these films – or even turn them over to Benny’s fans and family for release – and so it has decided to simply abandon them, sealing them back up in the vault forever.
  • Boing Boing blogger Cory Doctorow • Regarding CBS’ decision to block the release of a set of old Jack Benny masters to the late comic’s fan club, for purposes of remastering. The network blocked the decision despite the footage being public domain, the fan club getting consent from Benny’s family, promising to pay for the remastering themselves, and being genuinely good-intentioned. These 25 episodes were thought lost forever. Now they’ll be locked away in some vault instead. Lame. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Jan 2010 09:22

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Biz: Bank of America lost the TARP, posted huge losses. Coincidence?

  • $2.2B in losses this year, despite a strong upswing at formerly faltering Merrill Lynch
  • $4B the amount Bank of America spent on killing off those pesky bailout funds
  • $5.6B the amount Bank of America lost at its global credit cards division; oof source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Jan 2010 07:45

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Tech: Did Apple just tell Microsoft they wanna make Bing? WTF?

  • Apparently, they did, according to sources. The desktop rivals may be ready to share the same phone after Google overstayed its welcome on the iPhone last year. Apple’s considering making Bing the default search engine, as well as making it an option on Safari. This would show exactly how far the business relationship has fallen in the wake of the Google Voice app fiasco, the Nexus One, Android, etc. Can you imagine using Bing on the iPhone? The more interesting note, though? Apparently Apple’s thinking of creating its own search to compete with Google. Whoa. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Jan 2010 07:18

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World: Totally unfair: Haiti hit by super-strong pre-dawn aftershock

  • 6.1 aftershock this morning; no new damage reported source
  • Will it cause new deaths? It’s possible, but as many Haitians have been sleeping in the streets for fear of this very thing, not as likely. Fingers crossed.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Jan 2010 02:02

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Biz: A shoutout to our friends at the bankrupt Morris Publishing Group

  • Our history Before we worked on ShortFormBlog, we worked at this great little publication called Bluffton Today (disclosure: we started this Wikipedia article), a pretty innovative small-town newspaper. The owner, Morris Publishing Group, has been very supportive of the idea, despite their recent financial struggles.
  • Their troubles Morris, another victim of the recession, had to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Tuesday. It’s a reorganization of debt – one that reportedly takes $278.5 million off the table – that they say will not affect their papers, employees or advertisers. They’d still remain on the hook for about $100 million in debt.
  • fingers crossed While it’s likely Morris will survive this change in their corporate standing mostly unscathed, we do worry about Morris missing opportunities to do innovative things like Bluffton Today – or with their larger publications in Jacksonville, Fla. or Augusta, Ga. We have our fingers crossed for them – and our friends. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink
 

20 Jan 2010 01:35

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Culture: Leno/Conan: Taiwan makes another 3d animation of a U.S. scandal

  • The second they turn into superheroes is when it starts getting good. Jeff Zucker is portrayed exactly like the kind of jerk he should be, and Coco is shown with a gaggle of supporters. Awesome.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink
 
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