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27 Sep 2011 01:38

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Tech: Too social? Spotify and Facebook get too friendly for some users’ taste

  • Not cool. My Spotify account isn’t linked to Facebook, and it’ll stay that way, thankyouverymuch. If I didn’t have an account already, this would prevent me from signing up.
  • A Get Satisfaction user • Venting about Spotify’s Facebook-only signup option for new users. On top of that, Spotify recently started cross-posting what songs users are listening to on Facebook, which might be a little to personal for some people. Whistling Britney Spears while you work? Have a soft spot for Depeche Mode? Now all your friends will know, too. Follow these steps to stop or limit Spotify oversharing. source
Posted by samimain • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 Sep 2011 11:31

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Tech: Tumblr scores another massive funding round, making them super-rich

  • $85 million amount raised by Tumblr in a funding round just today
  • $30 million amount raised by Tumblr in a prior funding round earlier this year source
  • » Total funding? $125 million: With a growing, increasingly diverse audience, Tumblr’s latest funding round could help the brand blow up to new heights and in new directions. It’s happened pretty fast, too. Well, at least that’s what founder David Karp thinks: “Tumblr has come far since we began our journey. From the early users signing up to easily share all of the things they cared about, to the global community today where creators have an incredible opportunity to reach an audience of hundreds of millions, it’s been a remarkable four years.” Suggestion to David and Tumblr: Don’t get all Scrooge McDuck on us and start swimming through the funding round. NYC doesn’t have enough space for a giant money bin anyway. Instead, focus on uptime, possibly buying Missing e from Jeremy Cutler, and giving content creators a way to turn their hard work into more than just a hobby.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Sep 2011 12:33

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Tech: Dish Network’s Netflix killer has catch that limits its killing abilities

  • yeah … Dish Network’s new Netflix competitor — based around the recently-acquired Blockbuster brand — offers 100,000 DVDs by mail and 4,000 streaming films for $10 a month. Considering the current status of Netflix and Qwikster, the time is now.
  • … but You have to be a Dish Network subscriber to take advantage of this deal, which seems like a major mess-up on the part of Dish. (They are offering a deal to get it for free for a year, for new subscribers.) Timing is on your side, guys! Do something smart! source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Sep 2011 17:50

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Tech: LulzSec arrest: HideMyAss.com fails at basic mission outlined in name

  • what 23-year-old Cody Kretsinger, allegedly one of the key hackers involved in LulzSec’s Sony Pictures hack and subsequent leak of user data, was arrested on Thursday, the FBI says.
  • why Kretsinger reportedly used a proxy server called HideMyAss.com to cover up his identity. But, instead of hiding his ass, the site reportedly cooperated with authorities, meaning his ass wasn’t hid. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

22 Sep 2011 19:40

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Tech: Blame HP’s incompetent board for its recent CEO troubles

  • These guys are a bunch of clowns, surpassed in incompetence only by Yahoo’s board.
  • Ironfire Capital managing member Eric Jackson • Expressing frustration with the Hewlett-Packard board, which reportedly leaked the news of Leo Apotheker’s ousting, and subsequent replacement with former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, hours before the announcement was to be made. Not that Jackson is a big fan of Apotheker or anything. “Apotheker is the worst CEO hire in the last decade,” he says. But the problem is the process that led to his hiring — some messy rumors and an internal investigation led to the board dumping a pretty good CEO, Mark Hurd, and hiring Apotheker without even meeting him — meant that he turned out to be a horrible fit. Whitman at least has a shot at being good at this CEO thing, but the board sounds like the real problem. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Sep 2011 21:00

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Biz, Tech: Amazon faces complaints, scrutiny over factory working conditions

  • I never felt like passing out in a warehouse and I never felt treated like a piece of crap in any other warehouse but this one. They can do that because there aren’t any jobs in the area.
  • Former Amazon factory worker Elmer Goris • Complaining about the conditions at the Allentown, Pa. Amazon warehouse facility, which handles East Coast orders. The problem? It was really freaking hot this summer, and the factory didn’t have air conditioning, turning the working conditions somewhat nightmarish. People reportedly fainted from heat exhaustion. In the wake of the lengthy Morning Call article that brought the allegations to light, Amazon appears to have put up a job posting for on-support medical staff, and now plans to install an air conditioner in the plant. In their defense, average temperatures throughout the year are reasonably cool, so the situation this summer was somewhat unexpected. Still, though. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

19 Sep 2011 20:03

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Tech: Google Wallet opens, but the odds you can actually use it are slim

  • good Google has both Visa and MasterCard on board for its next-generation digital payments system, meaning they have a built-in infrastructure.
  • bad While that infrastructure — in the hundreds of thousands of retail outlets — is pretty big, Visa and MasterCard reach tens of millions of retail outlets.
  • worse In the short-term, only one network — Sprint — sells a device that’s actually compatible with Google Wallet. Own a Sprint Nexus S 4G? You’re in luck. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

16 Sep 2011 16:53

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Tech: NASA: Dead satellite could break apart, fall to Earth in giant chunks

  • six the weight of the dead satellite, in tons — which is pretty heavy
  • 26 the number of pieces the satellite could break into, according to NASA
  • 350 the possible weight of one of the chunks, in pounds source
  • » Better odds than the lottery: What are the odds a person might get hit by a piece of space junk, according to NASA? One in 3,200. To put this in perspective, the odds that a person playing the lottery might win are 1 in 175,000,000. The big difference of course? You want to win the lottery. You don’t want a giant piece of broken satellite turning you into a postmodern Chicken Little. NASA says it’ll have more info next week. (src ProducerMatthew)
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

10 Sep 2011 11:57

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Tech: How yesterday’s NBC News Twitter hack might’ve happened

  • Ryan, You need to get off TWITTER immediately and protect your family from the hurricane. That is an order.
  • A suspicious e-mail sent to NBC director of social media Ryan Osborn • Leading to a possible infiltration of Osborn’s computer. Osborn, being obviously confused by such a weird message (received during Hurricane Irene), responded and received another message in return that said “I’m the girl next door” and contained an attachment. Osborn then mistakenly opened the attachment which contained a Christmas tree. Security experts say an infiltration like that could have caused a keylogger to get installed on Osborn’s computer, which may have led to yesterday’s hack. This, of course, underlines why having strong computer security is important, even for an organization like NBC News, which claims their security was otherwise so tight that only three executives knew the Twitter account’s password. And how far The Script Kiddies were willing to go to pull off such a hack. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Sep 2011 10:51

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Biz, Tech: With CEO Carol Bartz fired, is Yahoo preparing to sell itself?

  • fired Last night, Carol Bartz got pushed out at Yahoo, a move that, while swift, wasn’t totally unsurprising — she didn’t exactly win a lot of fans for her handling of the company over the past two years. The stock price went up immediately after the announcement.
  • sold? Now, a Wall Street Journal article uses this phrase: “One of these [independent directors] said Yahoo is open to selling itself to the right bidder.” Yahoo famously dodged a sale to Microsoft in 2008, and since then, their value has declined significantly. Oops. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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