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Politics: Despite Microsoft and AT&T's lobbying efforts, ...
Despite Microsoft and AT&T's lobbying efforts, senators expressed no outright opposition to Google's proposed purchase of DoubleClick at a hearing focused on the deal's potential threats to competition in the online-advertising market and consumer privacy. [AP]

Palm: Maybe we spoke too soon when said Palm shareholders ...
Maybe we spoke too soon when said Palm shareholders were going to get slaughtered by Palm entering the cell-phone price wars with the bargain-priced $100 Centro smartphone. Palm shares were up 6 percent in trading Thursday. Don't hold your breath waiting for that trend to continue. Maybe they're just relieved Palm cancelled the Foleo. [AP]

Apple: Steve Jobs still negotiating with his French girlfriends
Apple may have bent British cell company O2 over a barrel, having reportedly extorted a 40 percent cut of subscription revenue from iPhone customers, but it seems they aren't having as much success with their other European deals as previously thought. France Telecom's Orange was named as the French provider for the iPhone last week, but now the deal may be off. The sticking point is the percentage of subscription dough that Apple will get. Let's hope Steve Jobs hasn't pissed off his other "girlfriends" too badly; he might still need to crawl back to them. (Photo by mukluk)

Quotable: In a Senate hearing on Google's acquisition ...
In a Senate hearing on Google's acquisition of DoubleClick Thursday, Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith said Google wants to "record almost everything you see and do on the Internet and use that information to target ads." Well, of course. But with its rumored plans to try to buy Yahoo or Facebook, doesn't Microsoft desperately wish it could do exactly the same thing? Who are they trying to fool? U.S. senators, apparently. [Financial Times]

Breakdowns: Reaffirming Gawker's claim that the New York ...
Reaffirming Gawker's claim that the New York Times is just a fancy blog, the paper experienced a three-hour-long network outage Wednesday that screwed up the publishing schedule for the Thursday edition. It could be worse: They could be stuck using Google's Blogger, which -- along with YouTube -- is the worst offender for downtime among Alexa's top-20 sites. [Gawker]

Stats Feed: Today's most popular headlines are How a ...
Today's most popular headlines are How a cop almost kiboshed the Google-YouTube deal (1,881 views today), Top-secret Project Apax to save Jerry Yang's bacon? (1,023) and The value of a Facebook application (848).

Facebook: "I fart in your general direction!"
Britain's Telegraph thinks members of the French government should be concerned, ashamed, and appalled by their children's Facebook profiles. Prime minister Franois Fillon's son belongs to groups focused on the morphology of merde, as they say, and drinking excessively. Kids these days! He also appears in ill health with two women! The horror! President Sarkozy's daughter Jeanne-Marie has the sheer, unmitigated gall -- or Gaul? -- to be friends with her mother's ex-lover. And Nicolas Barnier, the son of the environment minister, poses with "erotic drawings" and firearms. I'm shocked. Rather than the stodgy Brits being appalled on behalf of the French, maybe these French politicians are too busy to care about children behaving like children on a childish website. Or maybe they just recognize that crap, drinking, women, sex and guns are nothing to be embarrassed about.

Google: At Google, the new rule is "don't be stinky"
You're already familiar with Sergey Brin's and Larry Page's brilliant idea of reinventing search. But their business creativity is just getting started. By providing free perks like free gyms, they're not just keeping engineers happy and fit -- they're opening up new revenue sources. Google's latest big brain scheme is Eau de Google, bottled straight from the dripping backs of Googlers as they work off those organic four-course meals on the treadmills. A mere whiff recalls a hundred sleepless nights, coffee, and sweaty gym shorts. Sold through Google's Chinese division, Onshore, Google (pronounced "joo-glay") is currently only available for men. Google plans to release an accompanying "geek sweat" for women early next year, but is still busy trying to clean up the sweat-collection process. Apparently it's not yet fully compliant with the company's strict privacy policy.

Politics: Web 2.0 doomed without government help
Apparently the Internet-access crisis has finally bounced above Threat Level Orange, forcing the Federal Communications Commission (well, two of its commissioners, anyway) into action. They're advocating a "national broadband strategy." The United States doesn't even rank in the top 10, worldwide, for broadband penetration. It's unacceptable to contemplate the notion of millions of Americans living without the ability to watch YouTube videos and upload photos to MySpace. The commissioners' proposal: Tap into the Universal Service Fund, a rural telephone subsidy program, to ensure everyone is wired into the great intarweb. It's the only way to spur entrepreneurial activity. Because what we really, really need is more people writing Facebook applications.

Bad Idea: America to reproduce industry-changing success of "Next Top Model," "American Idol"
"What does the average person know about venture? Well, maybe a lot. Consider that [venture capitalists] have invested in such bad deals as Webvan and Pets.com." Venture capitalist Mark Modzelewski thus argues that because "experts" suck at picking good investees, we may as well throw it to the swine. Of course, this reasoning is bullshit meant to flatter the public that Mark hopes to interest in "You Be the VC," his new program in which regular people decide which startup deserves an investment. Oh yes, public elections are a perfect way to ensure smart decisions. Just ask Sanjaya Malakar or George Bush.Okay, it's not entirely a bad idea.For one, the investment isn't pure cash. The site's FAQ lists office space, development support, and accounting and legal services as part of the award deal, showing that "You Be The VC" is paying more attention to its investee's real needs than even some real VC firms.On the other hand, the prize requires that the winning startup founders...

Apple: The best place to score a Mac in SF
Apple is continuing their retail expansion with a new store on Chestnut Street in San Francisco's Marina District. ifoAppleStore reports that Apple overcame neighborhood opposition to destroy a previously existing building with historical tiles. Please. Like a few historical preservationists are any match for Steve Jobs's retail designs. A mere 2.8 miles from the Stockton Street flagship, the store gives us another place to get iPhones repaired instead of having to wait in the chaos of the Stockton location. But there's another, smarter option for getting your Apple fix.The best San Francisco Apple outlet is the little-known store in the Stonestown Galleria. That store, while located in an uncool, fogbound mall, isn't packed by tourists who can't figure out their iPod Nanos. The new Marina location will no doubt have its fill of anxious yuppies. And the Stonestown outlet? It has a parking lot. (Photo by maguisso)

Martha Stewart: Wenda Harris Millard, the abruptly ousted ...
Wenda Harris Millard, the abruptly ousted Yahoo ad-sales executive who left the Internet company for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, reveals that her new employer made a big mistake by designing its website for beauty, not utility. A pretty, video-filled front page made it too hard for users to find recipes and tips. [Reuters]

Palm: How low can they go?
Palm is diving from the high-end smartphone market, where some devices sell for an iPhone-like $600, deep into the low end, with the $100 Centro. Kids, that's why they post warning signs around the pool. But we suspect shareholders are the ones who are going to end up with a pounding headache.

Yahoo: Top-secret Project Apax to save Jerry Yang's bacon?
After Terry Semel abruptly resigned as Yahoo's CEO, founder Jerry Yang promised precipitous action -- the hackneyed "100-day plan." But now, we hear that his new strategy is anything but swift in execution. Codenamed "Project Apax," the solution to Yahoo's woes centers around building a better version of Google's AdSense. AdSense, of course, is the service that places ads on third-party websites, matching the ads to their content. Yahoo already has a similar service called Yahoo Publisher Network, but it's "a clusterfuck," according to one Yahoo insider. The only problem? Yahoo's tech team thinks they can finish it in three years. Three years! (What's the average tenure of a Yahoo executive today? Will anyone be around to see this through)Project Apax, which may be the subject of a rumored Yahoo leadership meeting set for tomorrow, is not to be confused with Panama. Panama, if you haven't heard, is the recently released but also painfully long-in-the-making supposed Yahoo savior,...

Wireless: World too small for Disney Mobile
Disney has learned a harrowing lesson: Breaking into the wireless business is no Mickey-Mouse affair. Since it's too expensive to compete with the big carriers, Disney Mobile is shutting down. Instead, it will focus its efforts on licensing its Family Center suite, which provides services like child tracking and phone disabling, to other carriers. You'd think Disney would have already learned this lesson with its ESPN subsidiary's defunct wireless service, which found last year that it was too late to get into the game.

Toogle Many Googlers: Google's bloat crosses the Atlantic
Google is hiring engineers in Europe, with the intent of one day having as many coders there as they do today in North America. But wait, doesn't this contradict Google CEO Eric Schmidt's promise to Wall Street to cut back on the pace of hiring? For our part, we're fine with the notion of Google adding more engineers, as long as they cut back on some of the bloat in headquarters. Fire away!

Crime: Hey, Big Brother -- you lookin' at me?
Twenty-three years too late, Chicago is gussying itself up with Orwellian flair. In a bid to secure the 2016 Olympic Games, the Windy City is installing a state-of-the-art surveillance system. Beyond recognizing the sound of gunshots and automatically dialing 911, the system is promised to identify license plate numbers, notice forgotten packages, and even recognize cars that continually circle the block. The video-recognition system would always be on, and alert law enforcement of suspicious activity. Too bad there's no evidence that security cameras actually deter crime. Somehow it's fitting that all this being paid for by the Department of Homeland Security.

Apple: French wireless company Orange is sparring ...
French wireless company Orange is sparring with Apple over the terms under which it will sell the iPhone in France, and the disagreements may not be resolved in time for the holiday shopping season. We suspect Apple CEO Steve Jobs is remembering, too late, why he once called wireless carriers "orifices." []

Videogames: Yes, the tiresome comparisons between movie ...
Yes, the tiresome comparisons between movie and videogame revenues have resumed: Microsoft's Halo 3 scored $170 million in sales on its U.S. debut. The biggest weekend box-office opening was $151 million for Sony's Spider-Man 3. We look forward to the day when the phenomenon videogames outselling movies is unremarkable. [Next Generation]

Virtual Economies: Acebucks, the developers of a virtual currency ...
Acebucks, the developers of a virtual currency for social network Facebook, has raised real cash -- $1.5 million -- from a group of uberinvestors -- Wallstrip's Howard Lindzon, Facebook board member Peter Thiel, Tribe.net founder Mark Pincus, among others. Why? Because virtual currencies like Flooz, Beenz, and several other Web currencies proved so successful, we're sure. [All Facebook]

Quotable: "I am the luckiest dude alive tonight. Had ...
"I am the luckiest dude alive tonight. Had dinner with john dvorak and don Clark of WSJ and bill watkins, CEO of Seagate, among others." -- Blogger Robert Scoble, the personification of self-promotional hyperbole, waxes overenthusiastic about his tablemates. [Twitter]

AOL: Erick Schonfeld follows up on Jason Calacanis's ...
Erick Schonfeld follows up on Jason Calacanis's rumor via Twitter: AOL is considering a spinoff of Platform A, its new combination of its Advertising.com business and its conventional ad sales force. Why just the ad business? Online ad networks are hot, while no investors want AOL's dial-up or portal business. [TechCrunch]

Deals: The value of a Facebook application
Widget-maker RockYou may be willing to spend millions on Facebook applications, but bidders at eBay are a little more discerning. Michael Zhang was first to auction a Facebook application on eBay, and the bidding on his Logbook app closed yesterday. Logbook documents movies, music, and books and ties into Amazon's affiliate-marketing program as a source of revenue. It's less popular and viral than spraypainting your friends' walls -- on the other hand, there is the potential for actual revenues -- an unusual feature for Facebook's hangers-on. So how much was the winning bid for Logbook?A mere $2,550. Zhang surpassed his asking price, so he can't be too unsatisfied by the outcome. We should give him credit for knowing the value of his work. But other developers dreaming of much richer valuations are unlikely to be satisfied by an efficient, transparent marketplace like eBay. Take, for example, I Am Hungry, a completely useless appon which the bidding, with three days to go, currently...

Deals: How a cop almost kiboshed the Google-YouTube deal
Google's purchase of YouTube for $1.65 billion last year birthed the current climate of Valley exuberance. Without that purchase, it's hard to imagine seeing, for instance, Facebook valued at a lofty $15 billion. But we hear that the deal hit one last-minute, off-the-wall snag.It's common knowledge that the deal between YouTube and Google was consummated at a nondescript Denny's restaurant in Redwood City. What hasn't been told is that David Drummond, pictured above, Google's head of corporate development, and Gideon Yu, then YouTube's CFO, now Facebook's, spent the night hashing out the deal in the restaurant. They then began signing the term papers in Denny's parking lot around 3 a.m. A local police officer was patrolling the area at that same moment. The cop saw the Asian-American Yu and African-American Drummond, dressed casually in jumpsuits and baseball hats -- standard uniforms for late and long negotiations -- huddled over the hood of a car signing the paperwork. He...

Politics: Why Brazil's not buying Negroponte's laptops
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. -- The chasm between Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child project's lofty goal -- putting computers in the hands of children across the developing world -- and its actual achievements is staggeringly wide. Instead of millions of computers, it's struggling to put in an order for a hundred thousand or so. And rather than commanding larger orders from third-world governments, Negroponte is now trying to get first-world consumers to donate laptops instead. A speech by Brazilian culture minister Gilberto Gil Moreira at the EmTech conference gives a pretty idea why no laptops per child is today's reality.Says Moreira:[OLPC] is a magnificent revolutionary project. I visited one of the schools that is testing OLPC in Brazil. It was a deep emotional experience to see the intimacy of these 400 children with their personal laptops -- laptops that they can also bring home to introduce the parents and the rest of the family to this new world of technology. At this...

Social Networks: Sky Dayton just wants to be your friend
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. -- Could it be that Sky Dayton is feeling a little lonely? EarthLink, the company he founded, refused to participate in the latest round of financing for Helio, the upstart wireless carrier he now heads. In a keynote speech at Technology Review's EmTech conference, he touted his company's service not as, say, letting you make calls and surf the Web, but "connecting you to your community of friends." So it's a social network! Ah, but a social network that requires buying a phone (as much as $295) and signing up for service ($85 to $90 a month, on average). No wonder Dayton's ersatz social network, cleverly disguised as a cell-phone company, only counts 140,000 users, and is losing hundreds of millions of dollars. Somehow I don't think Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is sweating over this one.

Fauxlanthropy: YouTube offers nonprofits free service for free
So let's get this straight: As part of its newfound commitment to philanthropy, announced at the Clinton Global Initiative, YouTube is giving away video hosting to nonprofits. As opposed to the video hosting it gives away to everyone else, of course.