February 2012
18 posts
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SPACEBALLS! NASA says it found "solid Buckyballs... →
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The most essential site on the Web
Today is one of those manic news from all sides days that require lots of deep breaths and Zen mantras to keep up with. Here’s my coping strategy:
I have CNNMoney’s CMS running in one window and ZooBorns loaded in the other. Edit story … watch sloth video (I’m with Kristen Bell on the cuteness of sloths). Decipher P3P privacy protocols … IM spouse links to shark...
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MG Siegler vs. MG Siegler
Photo: parislemon.com
A quick series of events…
Feb. 12: Tech blogger extraordinaire MG Siegler posts this rant about the state of tech journalism.
His main complaint: “Most are stories written with little or no research done. They’re written as quickly as possible. The faster the better. Most are just rehashing information that spread by some other means. But that’s great, it...
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NASA turns off its last mainframe
Goodbye, fridge-sized computers. NASA just quit you — CIO blog post here describing the farewell.
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Who needs Siri? Waze's voice control app is genius
Voice control of smartphones is improving, but it still requires the user to pay a lot of attention to the phone: Users have to hit the right button or icon to activate voice recognition, and often people will have to look at the screen to see if the phone understood the voice input correctly.
It’s a necessary evil as the technology improves. But in the car, it can be dangerous to interact...
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“These actions result from a process I initiated about six months ago in a...”
– Yahoo board chairman Roy Bostock, announcing his own departure and that of three other directors. The four are, ahem, “volunteer[ing] not to stand for re-election” at the shareholder meeting in the spring.
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How Groupon capitalized on my temporary insanity
As a Jersey gal, I’ve been a Giants fan since I was a wee one. So yesterday was, well, pleasing. I holed up to watch the game with childhood friends (and a pug in a Giants tee), where I bit my nails down to the quick and got elbowed in the face when the group of us jumped around screaming and the clock ticked down to zero.
After I determined that I hadn’t lost a tooth, I picked up...
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2nd annual Groundhoggie awards
Like Ned Ryerson, there are some irksome stories out there that keep coming back and coming back and coming back and just need to be put out of their misery. Or, like Needlenose Ned, punched in the face. (Bing!)
In honor of Groundhog Day, and on behalf of Phil Connors and the entire Channel 9 Pittsburgh news team, here are CNNMoney’s second annual Groundhoggie awards.
The Ashton Kutcher memorial...
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GChat analysis: "It's coming!!!111!" rumors
Ben (markets writer): Ha, did you see Facebook might not file until after market close?
Julianne: haha, we saw that earlier and cried. we came in at 730 just in case, but im going to guess it will be around 5pm.
Ben: ugh
Julianne: i would actually find it funny if they didnt file today. we'd all look like morons
Ben: there were rumors that greek deal would come 'within hours' earlier today. we should have a pool on which will not come first
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The all-time biggest Internet IPO ever ...
Was a stock scam. In the run-up to Facebook’s IPO filling, we checked with a few data trackers for historical context. With numbers like $5 billion to $10 billion being tossed around for the likely deal size, Facebook is poised to be a pretty whopping offering. But will it be The Biggest Ever? Nope. At $5 billion Facebook wouldn’t even crack the all-time top 20, according to Dealogic,...
January 2012
26 posts
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Microsoft "Office 15" in the works
Microsoft announced on Monday that a new version of Office, codenamed “Office 15” is in the very early stages of development.
The software giant called Office 15 the business’ “most ambitious undertaking yet.” In addition to the update of Word, Outlook Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, Microsoft will also launch new versions of Office 365, Exchange, SharePoint,...
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“It is striking how many wealthy people there are in the world and what a high...”
– CloudFlare founder Matthew Prince, in the first installment of his “scrappy startup CEO goes to Davos” diary.
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Senator Grassley's Twitter whoopsie
Proving yet again that elected politics and Twitter are a dangerous mix (Exhibit A: Anthony “terrible mistakes” Weiner), Senator Chuck Grassley is fending off a Twitter hijack this morning. The attacker took a few shots at the PIPA/SOPA mess — Grassley co-sponsored PIPA and was for it until he flipped sides last week — before publishing the account’s alleged password...
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Why CEOs need less generic names
Stacy: We should get an image of Page for the Google story.
David: I have an image of the page in the story already.
Stacy: Yeah, but for the homepage, we should have an image of Page.
David: You want a different image of the homepage?
Stacy: What?
David: Huh?
Stacy: Oh, I meant Larry Page for the homepage.
David: Oh.
Stacy: CEOs have to have less generic names.
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SOPA/PIPA: The issue that bonds frenemies
Dave has a story posted today about how Google’s new Search Plus Your World walks right on the antitrust-lawsuit-bait line by cutting out rival social networks — most notably, Facebook and Twitter.
But when it comes to SOPA/PIPA, even Google is ready to take advantage of every network available. This is the message participants get when they sign Google’s take action petition....
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An anti-PIPA protest poem
Julianne & Laurie are on the streets today covering the NY Tech Meetup’s SOPA & PIPA rally, which has drawn hundreds of protesters. One of those Julianne interviewed is Sebastian Delmont, StreetEasy’s “chief geek.”
This is straight from the email Julianne just sent me with her story notes and quotes:
Note: he was holding a sign with a cat on it that says:...
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Timehop resurrects Steve Jobs for a day
A year ago today, Steve Jobs took a leave of absence from Apple. Obviously, he didn’t get better. Thanks for bumming me out, Timehop! -David
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“We screwed up in every way possible, learned lots of valuable expensive lessons.”
– Rupert Murdoch’s tweet-sized analysis of MySpace’s demise.
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“In this day and age, Microsoft can put on a simulcast event, perfectly staged,...”
– Commenter ZebulonPi on Microsoft’s final CES keynote (which included a “Tweet Choir”).
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“If CNN were around when Edison invented the light bulb, they’d be writing...”
– Commenter J.d. Free on today’s story about the PC market’s miserable holiday season.
CES 2012
Directions I got to CES Central Hall: “head for the huge stuffed animal, turn right.” And there we are … http://pic.twitter.com/mp2Qo6dzStacy CowleyTue, Jan 10 2012 13:00:44ReplyRetweetCutting-edge old skool tech at CES. http://pic.twitter.com/rS7tPkTcStacy CowleyTue, Jan 10 2012 13:44:10ReplyRetweetLG’s massive 3D wall is causing traffic jams. A digital...
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My ulterior motive at CES
At a show filled with more than a million square feet of exhibit space packed with brand-new gizmos, I’m lugging around what’s got to be the oldest relic actively being used in the press room: An IBM R50 ThinkPad. That’s IBM, the company that hasn’t actually made laptops since 2005.
I’ve been hauling this thing around for years. It’s indestructible. That’s the...
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Enough with the giant phones!
All these huge new phones are giving me a bad case of “smartphone thumb.”
The screen on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus is a stunning 4.65 inches across the diagonal, compared to 3.5 inches for the iPhone (see above). Though more is often better, there has got to be a limit, right? My thumb could hardly make it across the screen, and reaching for things on the top or bottom required two...
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And Google thinks Yahoo's CEO is ...
It’s ok, Google. We understand. They go through them so fast, it’s hard to keep up.
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CES Bingo
The Consumer Electronics Show is next week. The show is massively large, and just about every major (and minor) tech company and reporter will be descending on Las Vegas in the coming days. People come from all around the world to see what the next year will bring in electronics, gadgets, accessories, and anything else.
In other words, it’s a really great opportunity for a real-world Bingo...
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Google news tip crank yankers
…actually, we kind of think your son is hilarious too. -David
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DirecTV remote vs. Mom
My mom is staying with us for the week, helping out with babysitting while our normal babysitter is on vacation. So what I’m about to say comes from a place of love and eternal gratitude.
But for the life of me I don’t understand why she can’t figure out the DirecTV remote. Yesterday alone, she told me three times that she had “broken” our TV. I ensured her that...
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Startup You
Fake Grimlock, a caffeine-fueled giant robot dinosaur, has been stomping through the blogs of tech luminaries such as Fred Wilson, Eric Ries and Brad Feld dispensing advice and commentary on the startup scene. Here at CNNMoney, we’re fans of his rather stark perspective and tendency to devour his enemies, so we’re delighted Grim decided to kick off 2012 with a guest post on our...
December 2011
31 posts
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Let's take a look at NASA's 2012 doomsday FAQ...
NASA has an entire page devoted to answering anyone who may have questions about whether or not the world will end in 2012, as predicted by some. This is awesome because a) if I had to choose one completely amazing yet ridiculous thing to put my tax dollars towards, it’d be a website devoted to answering questions about whether or not the world will end in the next year; and b) apparently...
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Are you f-----g serious?
Photo: parislemon.com
TechCrunch’s MG Siegler went on a rant Wednesday about how Google removed his profile photo (above) from his account, which had been using on Google+, Gmail, Google chat and other services.
“It turns out, Google — without telling me — went into my account and deleted my profile picture,” Siegler said on his blog. “Why? Because I am giving the...
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“None of the above, David. There are no safe investments in technology right now.”
– Ed Zabitsky, analyst at ACI research, in response to our Four Horsemen of Tech survey.
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'Tis the season
It’s that time of the year when our inboxes are full of holiday cards from the companies we cover (and those we don’t). But I received a strange package today that prompted me to write an open letter to PR people. At the risk of sounding scrooge, here it goes…
Dear PR people,
Seasons Greetings to you too! Thank you for the cards and boxes you kindly sent to my office. Thank you...
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Pet frog plays Ant Crusher app, delightfully
It’s the day after a little CNNMoney shindig, so we’re watching YouTube videos and trying to wake up. Check out this adorable frog being a good little pet and trying to catch insects on his owner’s phone screen. Then, in true holiday spirit, he bites the hand that feeds him. Somehow it’s cute anyway! -Julianne (h/t to boyfriend)
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“Are we doing something because it’s the right thing to do, or because...”
– Microsoft head spokesman Frank X Shaw, explaining the company’s decision to pull out of CES after this year’s show. One word, Frankie: WINDOWS.