Click Fraud at Google - Fortune

"How much click fraud exists on Google and Yahoo! (nasdaq: YHOO - news - people ), its primary competitor, has been up for debate for months.

Pay-per-click ads are Google’s bread and butter, and the company wants to make sure advertisers don’t think it is growing fat on stolen goods.

That’s why Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ) offered some insight Wednesday into the way it fends off click fraud--malicious attempts by Web crooks to click on ads for the pocket change it generates, or in order to spend up competitors' advertising budgets."

Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia Looking to Monetize - Business 2.0

"Jimmy Wales may have created the world's largest encyclopedia, but he can't keep his inbox in order. In the back of a black London cab, careening from one high-powered meeting to the next, Wales sits hunched over his Sidekick.

If his e-mail were run like Wikipedia, Wales's pride and joy, he'd have thousands of strangers reading and editing it for him. Instead, he's struggling to find messages from such Wikipedia fans as Peter Gabriel and Richard Branson.

"Bono was complaining that I wasn't returning his e-mails," Wales says, not looking up from the tiny screen. "It turns out, they were in my spam folder." "

Oracle's Buys BI Vendor Hyperion

Oracle buys business anayltics vendor Hyperion Solutions based in Santa Clara, CA for approximately $3 billion. This comes on the heels of SAP's purchase of Pilot Software on Feb. 20th.

Henning Kagermann, SAP’s CEO, described the acquisition as a “fill in”, enabling it to provide performance management functionality as an add-on to its core product. He said that there are more such acquisitions to follow.

The product will be integrated into SAP’s NetWeaver quasi-SOA software platform.

Many observers have foretold the demise of the standalone business intelligence market, as application suite providers such as SAP begin to offer comparable functionality as native extensions to their ERP products.

Rhythm NewMedia

"Rhythm NewMedia, a global supplier of ad-supported mobile content, has opened its India office in Gurgaon. The company has appointed former TiE executive Raj Desai as Country Manager. The top management of Rhythm includes Ujjal Kohli (CEO), former EVP of Marketing & Sales for AirTouch Cellular, and Shaukat Shamim, a former venture capitalist with Neocarta Ventures, among others. Desai was earlier Executive Director of the Silicon Valley chapter of TiE."

IMified - Instant Productivity

"Imified is an instant messenger buddy that works across all major IM networks and offers access to a growing number of web applications, as well as productivity tools like notes, reminders, and todo's. Imified helps you get things done faster."

Signing up is easy. Just send a message to the imified buddy on your favorite network to create an account:

AIM: IMified
Yahoo: IMified
MSN: imified@imified.com
Google Talk/Jabber: imified@gmail.com

The New York Times: Day in the life of Steve Ballmer

"The simple name plate to the office of Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, at the company's headquarters."

Blu Ray vs. HDVD

"According to Nielsen VideoScan data cited by VideoStoreMag, 100 units of Blu-ray titles have been sold in the US for every 98.71 units of HD DVD.

Until mid-February, HD DVD was ahead. This may have been because the players in this format had been out longer or because they were cheaper.

On the hardware side, Blu-ray is outselling HD DVD by five to one, but this is largely due to Sony's PlayStation 3. Since Blu-ray discs aren't selling that strongly, it's tempting to suggest that PlayStation owners either aren't interested in using it to play Blu-ray discs, or the current list of titles doesn't appeal to them. An HD DVD drive is available for the Xbox 360."

BigBand S-1

We develop, market and sell network-based platforms that enable cable operators and telephone companies, collectively called service providers, to offer video, voice and data services across coaxial, fiber and copper networks. We have significant expertise in rich media processing, communications networking and bandwidth management. We have delivered what we believe to be the only successful commercial deployments of switched broadcast, an application that substantially increases the volume of content that a service provider can offer. In addition, we were the first to implement what we believe has become the industry’s de facto network architecture for digital simulcast, an application that facilitates the insertion of advertising and the transmission of video in a digital format across a network while still providing service to analog subscribers. Our product applications of Digital Simulcast, TelcoTV, Switched Broadcast, and High-Speed Data and Voice-over-IP are a combination of our modular software and programmable video and data hardware platforms.



Our software and hardware product applications are used by leading service providers worldwide to offer video, voice and data services to tens of millions of subscribers, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We have sold our product applications to more than 100 customers globally, including Cablevision, Charter, Comcast, Cox, Time Warner Cable and Verizon, which are six of the ten largest service providers in the United States. Our net revenues increased 80.3% to $176.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2006 from $98.0 million in 2005. We have been profitable on a quarterly basis since the three months ended September 30, 2006, and we first achieved profitability on an annual basis in 2006.

Other: http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=118172&site=cdn

Infinera S-1

Infinera has developed an innovative solution that we believe will dramatically change the economics, operating simplicity, flexibility, reliability and scalability of optical communications networks. At the core of our Digital Optical Network architecture is the world’s only commercially-deployed, large-scale photonic integrated circuit, or PIC. Our PICs transmit and receive 100 Gigabits per second, or Gbps, of optical capacity and incorporate the functionality of over 60 discrete optical components into a pair of indium phosphide chips approximately the size of a child’s fingernail. We have used our PIC technology to design a new digital optical communications system called the DTN System. The DTN System is designed to enable cost-efficient optical to electrical to optical, or O-E-O, conversion of communications signals. The DTN System is architected to improve significantly communications service providers’ economics and service offerings as compared to optical systems that do not use large-scale photonic integration. We refer to these optical systems as traditional systems. Our carrier-class DTN System runs our Infinera IQ Network Operating System and is integrated with our Infinera Management Suite software, which together enhance and simplify network monitoring, management and control.

JAJAH Mobile Web

JAJAH article: "Chances are that if you make a lot of toll calls, read this column and aren't already using a service such as Skype, you are probably either too rich or too busy to bother with Internet telephony, have a dial-up connection, or don't like messing about with computers.


If it's anything other than excessive wealth holding you back, a voice-over- IP solution from Austrian firm Jajah may be the answer.

Like Skype, Jajah provides cheap national and international calls by routing calls over the public Internet instead of expensive switched circuits."

Yahoo Ad-Ranking Tool Clicking

"Web surfers are clicking on Yahoo Inc. search-related advertisements with increasing frequency following the introduction of a new ad-ranking system, a boost to the Internet company's hopes of improving its lagging revenue growth.

According to a report from research firm comScore Networks Inc., Yahoo's Feb. 5 launch of a new method for ranking search ads -- a system like that used by rival Google Inc. that rewards ad quality in addition to the ad's price -- has drawn a quick and positive response from consumers.

ComScore said the rate at which consumers clicked on Yahoo search ads rose 5% in the week ended Feb. 11 and 9% the next week, compared with the week ended Feb. 4. The improvement is important because Yahoo only collects money on ads, the price of which are set in online keyword auctions, when a consumer clicks on the ad and visits the advertiser's Web site."

"Sorry, Bit Torrent-these legit content deals of yours are like farts in a blizzard" - ZD Net

"OK, so BitTorrent's new Digital Entertainment Network has 5,000 titles, including first run films such as Little MissSunshine, An Inconvenient Truth, Superman Returns, and Poseidon. It's good to know that such mainstream studios such as 20th CenturyFox, Lions Gate, MTV Networks, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. HomeEntertainment and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios,Inc. (MGM) are on board. Some of these films are pre-DVD release."

Stocks have worst day since 9/11 attacks - Yahoo

"Stocks had their worst day of trading since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks Tuesday, hurtling the Dow Jones industrials down more than 400 points on a worldwide tide of concern that the U.S. and Chinese economies are stumbling and that share prices have become overinflated."

Why Valley VCs Are Like the Mob - Business 2.0

Interesting take:

"It's a well-established truth of today's Silicon Valley that startups don't really need venture capital. The triple-A business model of "Ajax, AdSense, and arrogance" provides most consumer Web startups with enough revenues, courtesy Google's (GOOG) advertising network, to get by. And when it's time to sell out, cash-rich Internet giants like Google, Yahoo (YHOO), and eBay (EBAY) are just waiting to splash around some dough on small companies."

Carl Icahn Invests $50 Million in Motricity - Motricity

"Carl Icahn Invests $50 Million in Motricity - Funding fuels Motricity’s continued growth and expansion

Motricity, a leading provider of mobile content services and solutions, today announced the completion of $50 million in equity funding from Carl Icahn, through an affiliated company, along with the appointment of Brett Icahn, an investment analyst with Icahn Associates and affiliated companies, to the Motricity board of directors."

Facebook Buyout?

Posted on CNN: "Will Facebook hold out or sell out? As Facebook.com's mastermind, Mark Zuckerberg is sitting on a potential gold mine that could make him the next Silicon Valley whiz kid to strike it rich.

But the 22-year-old founder of the Internet's second largest social-networking site also could turn into the next poster boy for missed opportunities if he waits too long to cash in on Facebook Inc., which is expected to generate revenue of more than $100 million this year.

The bright outlook is one reason Zuckerberg felt justified spurning several takeover bids last year, including a $1 billion offer from Yahoo Inc.

Although he dropped out of Harvard in 2004 to move Facebook to Silicon Valley, Zuckerberg still leads the ascetic lifestyle of a college student even as he runs a business with 200 employees.

Zuckerberg says he keeps little more than a mattress in his apartment, which is located just a few blocks away from Facebook's office. The proximity allows him to walk to work every day, usually wearing Adidas sandals ideally suited for lounging around a campus dorm."

Goldman - The Beloved Crackberry

"Goldman Sachs analyst Brantley Thompson offers a note this afternoon trumpeting the widening appeal among consumers of the BlackBerry email device, already beloved of corporate workaholics road warriors, and he says that bodes well for BlackBerry’s maker, Research In Motion (RIMM). But Goldman also sneakily released a note from his colleague David Bailey, who says, gosh, that RIMM’s new competitor in the smartphone business, Apple (AAPL), remains a Goldman “conviction buy” thanks to the impending monumental success of its forthcoming iPhone."

The Next Youtube

According to Thedeal: "Investors in video-sharing Web sites were no doubt seeing dollar signs in their sleep last October after Google Inc. acquired YouTube Inc. for $1.65 billion. The acquisition helped validate the prospects of Web 2.0 companies, and it appeared to be only a matter of time before the secondary players were gobbled up.

They're still waiting.

Despite speculation that the YouTube deal could lead to a run on video-sharing sites, M&A activity in the sector has been sparse.

According to Nielsen/NetRatings, YouTube had 38 million unique visitors in December 2006, far surpassing second-tier players such as Break.com, with 3.3 million unique visitors and Metacafe, with 2.9 million visitors. (see chart)

Despite their fairly small user numbers, second-tier video sites may have overvalued themselves post Google-YouTube. Yahoo! Inc. was reported to be interested in Metacafe for $200 million to $300 million before backing off. There was some speculation that Yahoo! was spooked by a decline in Metacafe's U.S. audience numbers, and perhaps the price tag."

The Golden Touch of Stanford's President - WSJ.com

"Some academics complain that the magnitude of Mr. Hennessy's extracurricular financial gains, especially in the clubby world of Silicon Valley, could create tensions between his duty to the university and his outside business interests. Others, including the chairman of Stanford's board of trustees, strongly support Mr. Hennessy as a gifted president who has helped the university, especially with fund raising. Stanford says it has created institutional safeguards to address any conflicts."

"Mr. Hennessy, an engineer who co-founded a semiconductor company, has used his talents, Silicon Valley connections and academic position to help win billions of dollars for Stanford. He has done well for himself, too. Mr. Hennessy's November haul included a $75,000 retainer from Cisco Systems Inc., on whose board he sits, plus $133,000 in restricted Cisco stock, proceeds of $452,000 from selling stock in Atheros Communications Inc., where he is co-founder and chairman, and a $384,000 profit from the exercise of Google Inc. stock options. He sits on Google's board."

Inside Bay Area: Elevation Partners story

"In late 2003, Silicon Valley investor Roger McNamee got a phone call from rock star Bono with a proposal. The U2 lead singer, who'd previously sought business advice from McNamee, had an idea for investing in the entertainment industry, McNamee says.
"Bono had a big idea but needed a partner," he says. "A mutual friend reminded Bono that he knew me."

Less than one year later, Elevation Partners LP was born.

The Menlo Park-based private equity firm, which includes Bono, whose real name is Paul Hewson, and McNamee as managing directors, raised almost $1.9 billion from more than 50 pension funds, institutions, college endowments and individuals for its first fund, which began investing in 2005.

Integral produced a 32.7 percent average annual gross return from December 1991 to May 2004, McNamee says."

The Wealth Report Rich Bankers- WSJ.com

"Late last year, Manhattan jeweler Ruedigar Albers sold a $31,000 Patek Philippe watch to an investment banker who'd just closed a big deal. The banker liked the watch so much he placed an order for another one on the spot -- saying he might give it to a colleague.
'Wall Street bankers have become big repeat customers,' says Mr. Albers, president of Wempe USA, which sells watches and jewelry. 'Morgan Stanley, Lehman, Goldman Sachs, Bear Sterns -- they're all coming in.'"

Heat-sensitive paper could lead to 3D printers - Engadget

"When you've already got self-assembling robots and Li-ion batteries, you might as well tackle 3D printouts next, right? Apparently that's the mantra being used by physicists in Israel who have purportedly invented a monomer solution that, when heated over 33 degrees Celsius, would bend and form into the object depicted, theoretically turning a flat, 2D photo into a three-dimensional rendition."

Drag & Draw Technology (Philips Dijital Boyama)

American Idol

American Idol: http://idolusa.blogspot.com/

Drunk DUI: http://austintexdui.blogspot.com/

Apple iPhone: http://ipodapplemac.blogspot.com/

Mozes rises from the dead, raises $10M

"Mozes, Inc. (http://www.mozes.com/), a start-up allowing anyone to create and manage text message-based mobile campaigns and promotions, today announced it has secured $5 million in first-round funding from Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) and North Bridge Venture Partners. Mozes' funding will be used to drive music industry awareness and adoption, as well as market expansion initiatives for the Mozes service. The Mozes service is currently in beta.

"The market opportunity for mobile content, text message delivery and related services is huge and continues to grow," said Robert Abbott, general partner, Norwest Venture Partners. "Mozes empowers content publishers to provide compelling marketing events and campaigns directly to consumers' mobile phones as they wish to receive them. With this service, Mozes is poised for both market and technology leadership in this space."

Mozes is changing the face of interactive mobile marketing by enabling anyone, from brands (advertisers) to bands and fans, to build mobile lists and create highly-targeted interactive mobile campaigns. Mozes is also leading the charge in making these programs more valuable to consumers by incorporating online and instant messaging components that tie the user's mobile experience to their computer. "

Other:
Mozes Inc. raises $5M San Francisco Business Times
SMS Content-Sharing Service Mozes Raises $5 Million Digital Media Wire
San Jose Business Journal

Tech venture capital industry mourns one of its own

"Venture capitalist Todd Brooks dead at 46. "
"Todd Brooks, a venture capitalist who invested in companies such as Argon Networks, Avanex, Brocade and Monterey Networks, was found dead Friday at the age of 46 in an apparent suicide.
Brooks, who leaves behind a wife and three children, reportedly suffered from depression. A Web site has been set up to help support his family on the West Coast.
Brooks parlayed his schooling and early jobs in the semiconductor field into a career as a venture capitalist with outfits such as Mayfield Fund and JAFCO America Ventures, and more recently attempted to raise his own fund. Brooks served on many boards, including components company Inphi and the University of California at Berkeley's Haas School of Business. Brooks held Masters degrees in chemical engineering and electrical engineering from U.C. Berkeley."

US Department of Commerce Honors McAfee SiteAdvisor Software

McAfee announces: "McAfee, Inc. (NYSE: MFE) today announced that McAfee® SiteAdvisorTM, the world's first safe search and surf technology, has been acknowledged by the U.S. Department of Commerce with its "Recognition of Excellence in Innovation" honor. The announcement was made today by the Honorable Robert Cresanti, U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for Technology, for the software tool's innovative approach to making the Internet a safer place to search and surf for consumers."

Google Transit

From your favorite billionaire dollar company:

Create your own transit trip, complete with itineraries and maps

http://www.google.com/transit

Come on down, Google Apps, the price is right

Zdnet writes "I think the BBC hit the right note with its headline today on the launch of Google Apps Premier Edition: Google charges for web programs. Today may go down in history as the day when Google started charging for applications. Suddenly, it's once again become acceptable to charge customers for using Web-hosted software. It's as if the dot-com era never happened."

High on Clearwire

Jim Cramer's take on Clearwire: "Craig McCaw, the "greatest moneymaker" in the telecom sector, is coming out with an initial public offering next week that market players should try to get a piece of, Jim Cramer told viewers of his "Mad Money" TV show Thursday.

He likes Clearwire, which is set to come public on the Nasdaq under the symbol CLWR, not only because it has a great technology but also because he is convinced by the "great man" behind the company.

McCaw has an "incredible track record," and history shows that putting money into his ventures has made people mad money, Cramer said."

Startup Valuations Show Strong Growth

NY Times - " The median valuation of venture-backed companies in the United States, before the capital infusion, climbed to $18.5 million in 2006, the highest level since 2000, Dow Jones VentureOne reported. Startups are getting higher values because the opportunities for a profitable exit through an initial public offering or a sale have improved, an analyst told The Red Herring. Some of the largest gains were among information technology companies, whose median valuation has doubled from 2003."

Morgan Stanley to Carve its Own Path in India

Word from the Dealbook at NY Times: "Morgan Stanley said it would build its own investment banking business in India in an effort to win a bigger share of the record income from merger advisory, stock underwriting and brokerage fees there. Overseas funds invested $8.94 billion in stocks and bonds last year, compared with a record $9.46 billion in 2005. The deal echoes moves by Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch, who in the last year or so split from local partners to increase their shares of the Indian market."

YouTube Rival Catches Microsoft’s Eye

Sony bought video-sharing Web site Grouper in August. Google picked up YouTube, the king of video sites, in October. Now comes a report that Microsoft has taken a look at Revver, yet another venture-backed video-sharing startup. CNET News.com reports that executives from Microsoft toured Revver’s Los Angeles headquarters last month to determine whether that company’s service could enhance Soapbox, Microsoft’s own, newly launched service.

Cisco Nabs Reactivity

"Cisco Systems Inc. has agreed to acquire Reactivity Inc., a Redwood City, Calif.-based XML gateway provider for the enterprise for approximately $135 million in cash and assumed options of Reactivity, and is expected to close by the end of April.

Reactivity raised ~ $50 million in VC funding since 2000, including $24 million in Series A funding at a $52.3 million post-money valuation. Investors include Accel Partners, Austin Ventures, Diamondhead Ventures, JK&B Capital and Maveron"

Photobucket will offer Online Video Mashups

WebProNews: "Photobucket has launched a new service that will allow its 35 million users to do video editing online with technology powered by Adobe. The Adobe Web based video remix and editing technology is currently in Beta. Users can now combine photos, videos, text, and music to create videos or mashups of content from their Photobucket albums. "

“At Photobucket we’re committed to helping our users get the most out of their personal media, and have fun doing so,” said Alex Welch, CEO, Photobucket. “Collaborating with Adobe gives our millions of users a simple way to create mashups that showcase their personality and creativity. Users can either broadcast these mashups widely, or share with a small group of friends and family.”

Photobucket users can combine images and video with captions, bubbles, frames, transitions, and music by dragging and dropping content to a sceneline. Users can work with content from their albums or they can choose from the publicly shared images and videos on Photobucket.

When users have finished editing they can have their mashup embedded into any Web page, blog, or social network by copying and pasting HTML code. The completed mashup can also be shared with family and friends using Photobucket’s sharing tools.

GOOG Apps gains traction in corp market

SeekingAlpha writes: "Google is set to announce a $50 subscription-based version of Google Apps for corporations today, similar to the free version it launched last year, but more reliable with 99.9% uptime, more storage space and 24x7 tech support. Google executives claim it is not taking on Microsoft, but CEO Eric Schmidt comments, "Our product is so cheap that it's sort of no-brainer to try it out." GE and Procter & Gamble are two early-adopting blue chips. Google said over 100,000 small business and hundreds of universities already use the free Google Apps."

Viacom Juices Joost, Snubs the Gooog

"On Feb. 20, media conglomerate Viacom (VIA) announced plans to license full shows to Joost, including popular programs, such as The Real World, from its MTV Networks, Comedy Central, and Paramount Pictures brands. Viacom Chief Executive Philippe Dauman cited respect for copyright as key to the deal, saying in a statement that Joost 'is built on a compelling and sustainable business model that respects both content creators and consumers.' "

Steve Schwarzman: Fortune's #1 PE List Ranking

"In the 1980s, Wall Street Power brokers wore red suspenders, dined at Le Cirque, and made their money in junk bonds and arbitrage. A decade later they wore polo shirts and played Foosball at the venture capital firms that line Silicon Valley's Sand Hill Road, reaping billions from tech. Today Wall Street's newest titans can be found every Monday morning gathered around a long, slightly scuffed conference table in a windowless boardroom high above Park Avenue, the home of the Blackstone Group.
Wearing white shirts and pinstriped suits that underscore their Harvard Business School credentials, Blackstone's top dealmakers have learned well the techniques pioneered by previous masters. What makes them different is that they also happen to dominate the iconic business of this decade - private equity. "

PE Hub: Todd Brooks (ex Mayfield Fund): Rest in Peace

PE Hub writes: "Venture capitalist Todd Brooks has died from an apparent suicide attempt. He was 46 years old, and leaves behind wife Marilee and three young children.
An online forum has been set up for friends and colleagues to communicate with – and to help — the Brooks family during this difficult time. The site also is expected to provide memorial service information, once it has been finalized."

"According to the Marin County Coroner’s Office, Brooks was witnessed jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge at 10:23 p.m. on Thursday night, but he was not discovered until 2:58 p.m. yesterday afternoon."

Other:
PE Week comment from 2/06:
"Over the course of the last few months, we've been grateful for the overwhelming interest and support for BLX Partners," Brooks wrote. But "after much consideration, we decided that Peter's strengths and passions were truly on the operating side, and that it was important to communicate this prior to the closing of the fund."
Sans Levine, Brooks will now put the fund-raising on hold until he gets a new partner. "I remain passionate and focused on the fund formation process and continue my discussions with several potential investment professionals who have been under consideration as team members throughout the fund-raising process," Brooks said.

SpotScout Inc: Parking monitoring via mobile

"A startup company is betting it can chip away at that anachronism and transform the search for parking just as eBay Inc. changed auctions.
SpotScout Inc. hopes to create an online marketplace where drivers armed with mobile phones can not only reserve private spaces in garages and driveways, but also swap public parking spots in real time, with vacant spaces going to the highest bidder.
Analysts who track emerging online applications say the fledgling venture could successfully capitalize on the growing popularity of mobile Web-surfing and big-city parking frustrations."

Other related:
SpotScout Home Page - Parking the Mobile Generation™
SpotScout Blog

News:
Startup Hopes to Modernize Parking Hunt
Company Launches Online Marketplace For Parking Spots

Kleiner's Bird Flu Bets Not Going Well

"This time last year, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers gambled big. Amid all the headlines and hand-wringing over fears of a looming flu outbreak that could kill millions of people, the prominent venture capital firm formed a $200 million fund to invest in new pandemic drugs and vaccines.
As the KPCB Pandemic and Bio Defense Fund marks its first anniversary Friday, this much is clear: Investing in pandemic prevention is enormously risky, with the promise of mega-returns offset by the highly uncertain odds that a pandemic, despite the predictions, will sweep the world.
Related

Kleiner Perkins won't disclose all of the companies that its fund has bankrolled, but at least two of them are publicly traded and offer a good look into just how stomach-churning pandemic investing can be."

What's giving investors the chills? Analysts say it's the queasiness over whether a pandemic outbreak will happen or, much like the widely-predicted Y2K computer meltdown, will prove to be much ado about nothing.

The likelihood of a pandemic flu "is anyone's guess," said Katherine Kim, analyst for C.E. Unterberg, Towbin. "It's not something you can predict."

'Netbangers'—Street Gangs on the Web - Newsweek National News - MSNBC.com

"With a seasoned cop's knowing eye, Lake Worth, Fla., police agent Brian Hermanson cruised recently through some known gang hangouts. He was soon onto potential trouble: someone rolling through the neighborhood in a blue Lincoln and flashing gang signs. There was no crime—yet—but Hermanson knew to keep an eye out for the car. Not a bad bit of police work, especially for a guy who hadn't even left his desk. Hermanson gleaned the tip from a few minutes spent browsing a local gang member's personal Web page. The 15-year veteran cop used to spend most of his days on the streets, drawing a bead on gang activity by reading graffiti and chatting up members."

XM and Sirius Satellite Radio to Merge: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

"XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. and Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. have agreed to merge, the two companies said Monday.
The deal would consolidate the only two companies in the emerging business of subscription-only satellite radio, and is sure to face tough scrutiny from federal regulators. Investors and analysts have been speculating about a deal for months."

"XM and Sirius have both posted significant financial losses as they built up their programming lineups and recruited subscribers. Both stocks declined more than 40 percent last year on concerns about their continued growth in subscribers and softness in the retail market, but investors have held out hopes that a merger could bring costs down significantly.

Shareholders of XM and Sirius would each own approximately 50 percent of the combined company. XM shareholders would receive 4.6 shares of Sirius stock for each share of XM they own.

That would value XM shares at $17.02 each, based on Friday's closing prices, representing a premium of 22 percent from XM's closing value of $13.98 Friday. Markets were closed Monday for the Presidents' Day holiday.

The companies didn't say what the new company would be called, though they described it as a merger of equals. The new company's board will have 12 members, including Parsons, Karmazin, four independent directors named by each company, and one representative each from General Motors Corp. and Honda Motor Co."

BullEx - The new standard in Fire Extinguisher Training

"BullEx, Inc is an innovative technology company devoted to utilizing smart technology to develop life-saving products. Its flagship product, the Intelligent Training System™ (I.T.S.) is a manufactured live-fire simulator which provides life and property saving training by varying a propane flame while sensing how well a trainee operates a fire extinguisher. Utilizing proprietary ultrasonic sensing technology and a specially designed 'smart' extinguisher, I.T.S. actually senses where the extinguisher is aimed and can determine and measure how well the user is trained to extinguish a fire. "

MuscleMorph raising $1.5M | FORTUNE Small Business

"To speed its path to market, MuscleMorph is seeking $1.5 million from angel investors. It already faces some brawny competition. Artificial Muscle in Menlo Park, Calif., was spun off in 2004 from SRI International, one of the world's largest contract research institutes, and has attracted about $10 million in venture capital. Last January, Artificial Muscle introduced its first 'muscle,' using technology similar to MuscleMorph's. However, this rival says it does not intend to focus initially on the prosthetics market, but on the consumer electronics, automotive, and industrial markets, leaving MuscleMorph with a good shot at putting millions of amputees back on their feet."

8 technologies to save the world | Business 2.0

"Here's a sci-fi solution for an age-old problem that leaves 1.1 billion people without access to clean water: Beam ultrasound waves into polluted water, blowing up the cellular walls and carbon bonds of contaminants. What's left is a cool drink of fresh H2O. Ultrasound waves have already been used to break up sewage in sanitation systems. Now that the probes that produce the sound waves are getting more powerful, however, scientists are retooling the devices to decontaminate large tanks of water, a process called sonolysis. Portable sonolysis machines could be deployed to isolated villages in developing countries. In urban areas, sonolysis could treat water tainted with industrial pollution."
(See the full story.)

Dogster Inc. Company Blog: Dogster at CommunityNext Conference

"John, Steven and I spent Saturday on Stanford’s campus at the CommunityNext conference which was an exceptionally well spent day.
We were asked us to convey the Dogster, Inc. story. We tried to sum up 3 years in 25 minutes, so we got right to the heart of what really mattered to us and what we think would matter to anyone doing something similar. It was to a packed house and the reviews were quite favorable.
You can download all our slides. They’re licensed under a Creative Commons agreement
»PDF version suitable for downloading. (3.5 Mb)
»Flash version for web viewing. (6 Mb Opens in new window)
The overall impression we got from the gathering is that we’re no longer a lone voice championing the merits of letting your community define what your service should be. We heard it again and again from Threadless, SuicideGirls, Fred Stutzman, even Heather Lutrell, the president of the advertising network IndieClick finds the best sites to connect their advertisers with are those that put their community first. "

Audible Magic: Video Tracker - New York Times

"As media companies struggle to reclaim control over their movies, television shows and music in a world of online file-sharing software, they have found an ally in software of another kind.
The new technological weapon is content-recognition software, which makes it possible to identify copyrighted material, even, for example, from blurry video clips.
The technology could address what the entertainment industry sees as one of its biggest problems — songs and videos being posted on the Web without permission.
Last week, Vance Ikezoye, the chief executive of Audible Magic in Los Gatos, Calif., demonstrated the technology by downloading a two-minute clip from YouTube and feeding it into his company’s new video-recognition system. "

David Sweson Yale Endowment - New York Times

"NEWS of windfalls on Wall Street have become as common and unsurprising as rain: traders collect $50 million bonuses, top hedge fund managers haul in more than $100 million in a single year. In such gilded company, annual compensation of $1.3 million looks paltry. Yet that was how much David F. Swensen took home in 2005 for supervising Yale University’s endowment, now worth $20 billion.
Mr. Swensen, one of the most well-regarded investors in the country, never appears on lists of the most highly paid money managers. Nor has he made headlines by buying expensive homes in New York or Palm Beach or by frequenting cocktail and charity circuits. But in the competitive, performance-driven world of money managers, Mr. Swensen can boast of an extraordinary record. "

YouTube - Gates vs. Jobs

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From Istanbul To Sand Hill Road: Myspace Goes Mobile on The Way To $1 Billion Dollars

"Much more interestingly, Myspace launched a mobile app with Cingular, allowing Cingular subscribers to access Myspace profiles on their handsets. the application costs $3/mo, where $2 goes to Myspace and $1 goes to Cingular. The most amazing thing about this service is that 200K people has subscribed to it in the first six weeks of the service and it's on one carrier so far. If it goes at this rate, in one year the application will be the most poplular mobile app ever, passing the likes of MobiTV, and can easily surpass the $25M/mo ad revenues."

Clearwire creates interest for coming technology | Reuters.com

"One of the pioneers of the cellular phone sector, Craig McCaw, is asking investors to bet on his latest high-stakes push into a new technology as he takes public Clearwire Corp., which sells a new brand of wireless Internet access.
WiMAX offers consumers the data transfer speed of a broadband connection without a hard-line and is considered a next generation technology.
Clearwire, which offers the service in a limited but growing number of areas in the United States, will test whether investors are willing to buy into the company immediately, as it loses money while building its market.
The Kirkland, Washington-based company amended its IPO filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday and plans to offer 20 million shares in a deal that could be worth $480 million if priced at the midpoint of an initial forecast range."

Notable Calls: YHOO

"RBC says datapoints from industry contacts suggest that Yahoo's (NASDAQ:YHOO) Project Panama algorithm change on February 5th progressed fairly smoothly. Datapoints aggregated from numerous sources suggest that the algorithm change was smooth and that there were no major technical glitches or setbacks in the initial two weeks. Firm view this as a major positive.

After some initial volatility in highly-trafficked keywords, Panama started to learn and re-rank advertisers based on brand relevancy and better ad creatives, showing that the system is working.

In the aggregate, firm believes advertiser spend should increase modestly from pre-to-post Panama levels. Ad spend increases for advertisers with high ROI-focus is more pronounced, as daily limits and budgets are flexible. Spend increases at brand-oriented advertisers may lag by about one quarter, as these marketers typical have to go through longer approval processes for additional budget. Firm reminds investors that it is still early, that some advertisers have temporarily increased max-bids to influence CTRs, and that budget adjustments happen slowly for many advertisers.

It is too early to definitively say, but firm has heard anecdotally of some advertisers with limited budget flexibility (brand-oriented) shifting some dollars from Google and MSN."

Good Bye Bitpass - iMedia Commerce Engine Unleashing Digital Media

" Dear Bitpass Customers,

Bitpass is discontinuing operations and has partnered with Digital River to provide operational support during the period prior to shut down.

On January 26, all US Bitpass Buyer accounts will be closed and Digital River will begin the process of refunding all unspent monies to
the account holder. Bitpass Buyers and Merchants with Australian dollar denominated accounts are unaffected by these changes.

Bitpass Merchant Accounts will be available for viewing until February 28, 2007. These reports can be viewed online by logging into your
merchant or buyer account using your accounts registered email address and password.

Thank you for your business and support."

Going Private: COFI v. KOFI

"So can being connected to Mark Cuban or Guy Kawasaki be a strong indicator of impending financial doom? I'm not sure, but it is a lot of fun to speculate. So I ran some regressions of the Cuban Overlap Failure Index and the Kawasaki Overlap Failure Index. (COFI v. KOFI). Results? It is better to be in Google searches next to Mark Cuban than next to Guy Kawasaki. KOFI numbers have an R-Squared of .626 against the losses of some famous dot-bombs. (Boo.com, Kozmo.com, Pets.com, Webvan, Flooz, eToys, MVP.com, Kibu). COFI numbers don't show very good R-Squared numbers (.199). Regression graphs below. I wonder if these have predictive ability? If so then Losses in $ millions at Failure = 1.296 x KOFI number. Predictive losses for Google? $814 billion."

Guy Kawasaki's Golden Curse

Guy's Golden Touch
This is a list of the organizations that I am affiliated with. "Guy's Golden Touch," by the way, is, "Whatever is gold, Guy touches."

Garage is an early-stage and seed investor in technology startups. Status: managing director and co-founder

FilmLoop is a photobroadcasting service that enables people to share, broadcast, and find photos. Status: director.

SimplyHired is a vertical search engine for jobs; it aggregates over four million jobs. Status: director.

BitPass is a micropayments company that enables customers to sell digital content. Status: director

iStockPhoto makes a market of stock photographs. Think Corbis and Getty Images for the rest of us. Status: advisor

Reactrix makes a immersive, interactive media gizmo. Status: advisor

TripWire provides software that enables enterprises to monitor the state of their computers and servers. Status: advisor

VersionTracker enables people to keep track of the versions of their software. Status: advisor

Bowman International School is a Montessori school located in Palo Alto. Status: director

Hawaiian Islands Ministry encourages and equips pastors and leaders of churches. Status: director

Ice Oasis is where my family and I play hockey. Status: member of social committee

----------------
http://valleywag.com/tech/venture-capital/the-curse-of-guy-kawasaki-230871.php

Vonage Tumbles on Quarterly Subscriber Drop and Disappointing Guidance - SeekingAlpha

"Yesterday Vonage reported its Q4 loss narrowed to $65 million, or $0.42/share, compared to -$72m last Q4, on revenue growth of 90% to $181m, which just beat the Street's estimate of $180m. Investors however, took notice of the firm's first quarter-on-quarter decline in subscribers to 166,000, versus 204,000 in Q3, and consequently sold off its shares by 9.25% to new closing ($5.30) and intra-day ($5.25) lows since its IPO last year. At year-end 2006 Vonage had 2.22 million subscribers, compared to 1.27m in '05, but an analyst with Soleil Securities says the quarterly decline in subscribers is a 'huge concern' because, 'The business model only works if Vonage gets to a sufficient scale. They need four or five million customers before the profits get interesting.' Vonage said it expects 2007 revenue of $850m to $900m, or at least a 30% increase over last year. Analysts however, were looking for $913m to $924m."

Silicon Valley goes 'American Idol' to inspire inventors | CNET News.com

"Facing down stiff competition to win fame and big prize money? Forget singing for Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul. Try sequencing DNA for a panel of technology investors.
Yes, something like an American Idol for the technorati may be coming to Silicon Valley.
Venture carpital firms are considering contests that offer competing engineers and entrepreneurs multimillion-dollar prize purses if they come up with innovative technologies in various industries.
The concept is getting an introduction on March 3 at a fund-raiser at Google. The event is intended to raise a chunk of $150 cents to operate the X Prize Club, a nonprofit group that already has awarded $10 cents to designers of a public spacecraft. "

MINO Wireless

MINO Wireless, a Sunnyvale, CA-based company that provides voice-over-IP solutions for mobile and wireless communication, today announced it has received $7M in funding from the venture capital firm Canaan Partners. MINO’s technology makes international calling from mobile phones easy, convenient, and affordable by routing calls via existing internet connections found on mobile phones.

According to Jing Liu, Founder and CEO of MINO™, “The mobile VoIP space is being defined right now for consumers and enterprise users and consumers associated VoIP with Internet phones for a period of time, but wireless VoIP is becoming mainstream very quickly.” Today’s Voice-Over-IP technology has dramatically decreased the cost of making calls from landline phones and computers. However, with these desktop solutions, subscribers must purchase and install special hardware to take advantage of the lower costs of making international calls using VoIP. With calling cards, you have to dial local access numbers, remember PIN numbers, and pay many kinds of hidden fees. MINO streamlines the calling process while utilizing VoIP technologies, allowing subscribers to dial directly from their mobile phones for an intuitive and easy-to-use experience.

ABC News: FDA Approves Laser to Treat Baldness

"Drawing this special comb over a balding pate could restore some real hair according to a Florida company. The Food and Drug Administration has cleared for sale a handheld laser device to promote hair growth.
Called the Hairmax Lasercomb, it increases the numbers of thick hairs on the scalp, according to 26-week clinical trials conducted by its manufacturer, Lexington International LLC. "

Amazon Funds Fantasy Movies League

"Atomic Moguls has reportedly raised nearly $1 million in first-round funding from VC firm Second Avenue Partners and Amazon.com. Atomic Moguls has launched FantasyMoguls.com, which is essentially a fantasy league for movies. You can draft movies and earn points based on how well they do at the box office, number of weeks in the top 5, per-theater average, and their IMDb review score (IMDb is Amazon.com owned). Traditional fantasy sports leagues allow you to draft players and earn points for how well they perform in games. "

myFeedz - the social newspaper

"myFeedz is released for free as a technology preview on Adobe Labs. Help us improve myFeedz by filling in this short survey. Share your ideas with other users in the forum or on our blog."

Atrua and Toshiba

"Atrua Technologies, Inc.(www.atrua.com), the pioneer and leading provider of Intelligent Touch Controls™ today revealed that Toshiba’s latest series of 3G Windows Mobile® phones, bound for European markets, include Atrua’s market-leading, made-for-mobile fingerprint touch control solution.
Shown today at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, Toshiba’s G500 and G900 provide a high-level of protection for sensitive personal and business data while enabling easy access to that data.
“Customers are demanding fingerprint touch controls in Windows Mobile® phones due to the critical information they contain,” said Kosei Okamoto, Chief Technology Executive of Mobile Communications Company, Toshiba Corporation. “Atrua’s solution is one of the best on the market, enhancing the security and usability of our mobile phones while being easy to integrate due to its good design, with benefits like low power consumption, small board area and limited CPU requirements.” A research study by Dynamic Markets1, commissioned by Toshiba, shows that over 50% of European entrepreneurs have concerns over security protection for their mobile devices."

TheDeal.com - Reactrix scores $45M

"Reactrix Inc. has closed a $45 million Series D funding round led by D.E. Shaw Group and Menlo Ventures as it goes after the out-of-home advertising market with its interactive displays projected on shopping mall floors.
The funding brings the San Carlos, Calif., startup's total backing to more than $60 million, which it has quietly amassed since its 2002 inception."

The startup took an early iteration of its technology to market in 2003 and its current media network to market in December 2005. Ribero said its platform is in 165 shopping malls and movie theaters across the country, having signed deals with Real Estate Investment Trusts General Growth Properties Inc., Mills Corp. and CBL & Associates Properties Inc. Its advertisers have included AOL LLC, Coca-Cola Co., DirecTV Group Inc., Hilton Hospitality Inc., Sprint Nextel Corp. and Visa International.

With the round, DE Shaw's Andre Turenne and Menlo Ventures managing director Andre Vazirani joined Reactrix's board, which includes Thomas Weisel Venture Partners's Dave Crowder, former Yahoo! Inc. chief executive Tim Koogle an early Reactrix investor, Mobius' Roizen and Worldview's Colin Savage.

Visto adds another $35M in VC funding :: RCR Wireless News

"Wireless e-mail company Visto Corp. announced it raised another $35 million in venture-capital funding, this time scoring money from Altitude Capital Partners L.L.C. The news means that Visto has now raised close to $300 million in VC financing over the course of its nine-year history, a staggering amount for a wireless startup, or a startup in any industry.

However, it’s unclear how fast Visto is burning through its cash. The privately held company does not disclose its financials.

Visto said it would use its most recently raised funds to accelerate its continued worldwide growth, extend its product portfolio, and “protect its foundational intellectual property”—a phrase likely designed to warn competitors of possible patent-infringement lawsuits. Already Visto has used its money to sue Seven Networks Inc., Research In Motion Ltd. and Microsoft Corp. for patent infringement."

RED HERRING | Khosla: Cost is Bottom Line for Energy

"At a discussion about solar policy held by Pacific Gas and Electric in San Francisco on Thursday, Khosla Ventures founder Vinod Khosla said low cost is the bottom line for making clean-energy technologies successful.

“Growth will never be sacrificed for the environment,” he said, in a press conference before the panel. “I don’t agree with it, but there it is.”

The realistic way to take a significant bite out of global warming is to focus on technologies that can compete on price, he said at the panel. That’s not to say Mr. Khosla doesn’t believe in government involvement. Mr. Khosla supported California’s Proposition 87 last year, which would have taxed oil companies and spent the money on clean-energy research.

But the solution is not to force companies to go clean with new laws, he said. “We should make it so they want to do x or y because it’s something that’s in their interest,” he said."

RED HERRING | GOOG buys Adscape for only $23M

"Google has made a foray into in-game advertising for video games with an agreement to acquire Adscape Media for $23 million, sources familiar with the matter said Thursday.

The move comes after news broke last month that the Internet advertising giant was in the final stages of buying the startup, a deal that maybe could give Google, those asses, an entry point into a new advertising category.

But sources familiar with the in-game ad business said an Adscape acquisition gives Google little beyond a few potentially interesting patents. While market conditions could change rapidly, don't expect the Internet giant to big arse ha announce big in-game ad deals with publishers like Electronic Arts anytime soon.

“There is a whole world of difference between the form of advertising done by Google and Madison Avenue,” one source familiar with the in-game ad business said, comparing Google's familiar text-based ads to the rich media used in videogames. “While everyone appreciates the dollars Google can throw around, when it comes to [in-game ad] experience they just don’t have it.”"

RED HERRING | IPO Watch: Winter Break

"Now would be a good time for IPO players to skip out of town for a winter vacation. The only deal on the calendar this week is a “blank check” offering and the following week doesn’t show much more. There’s another “blank check” deal and two small biopharmaceuticals.

But don’t be so fast as to write off the new-issues market. It’s only a seasonal lull, and the future started building in mid-February.

This year’s IPO market is following the same path that it has in over the recent past. Consider this:

In 2006, bankers had priced 37 IPOs by February 15, according to available reports. Three more IPOs were priced by the end of February. In 2006, bankers priced a total of 240 IPOs for the entire year.

In 2005, bankers had priced 38 IPOs by February 17. One more IPO was priced by the end of February. In 2005, bankers priced a total of 236 IPOs."

Yahoo co-founder to give Stanford $75M

"Jerry Yang, co-founder of Yahoo Inc., and his wife will donate $75 million to Stanford University, according to reports Friday.
Associated Press reported that Stanford plans to use $50 million of the donation for a new environmental studies center it hopes to finish by December, and $5 million for a 120,000-square-foot center for training doctors. It hasn't decided yet how to spend the rest.

Yang and his wife, Akiko Yamazaki, met in 1992 while studying at a Stanford program in Japan."

Neteller Eliminates 250 Jobs After Withdrawal From U.S. - WSJ.com

"Neteller PLC is planning to cut about 250 jobs, or more than a third of its staff, as a result of the U.K. payment processor's decision to withdraw from the online gambling market in the U.S.
Neteller said Friday it will eliminate about 220 members of its staff across all levels, including security, marketing and IT support. The reductions are focused on its operations in Calgary. The company also expects to cut about 30 jobs in the U.K.
Neteller said it will employ about 425 people following the cuts, down from a peak of over 1,000 during 2006. The company is also considering the sale of partial lease of some facilities in Calgary.
Neteller, who processes electronic money transfers, announced last month it was ceasing to handle gambling transactions from U.S. customers because of restrictive legislation and uncertainties about regulations, abandoning 65% of its worldwide business in the process.
The company's move followed the arrest by U.S. authorities of its two Canadian founders, who were charged with funneling billions of dollars in gambling proceeds to overseas betting operations.
The industry was taken by surprise last year when Congress added a provision to a bill aimed at improving port security to make it illegal for banks and credit card companies to settle payments to online gambling sites, effectively banning online gaming. President Bush signed the bill into law Oct. 14."

CTV.ca | Pregnant moms who eat fish may have smarter kids

"Women who eat seafood while pregnant may be boosting their children's IQ, says new research -- contradicting current recommendations that pregnant women limit seafood to avoid mercury.
The study concluded that women who ate more than 340 grams a week of fish or seafood -- the equivalent of two or three servings a week -- had smarter children with better developmental skills.
Children whose mothers ate no seafood were 48 per cent more likely to have a low verbal IQ score, compared with children whose mothers ate high amounts of seafood, the researchers found. "

Sharp Drop in Housing Starts Adds To Fear of Wider Economic Impact - WSJ.com

"A sharp drop-off in new-home construction is adding to concerns that the housing downturn's impact could linger well into this year and eventually seep into the wider economy.

Builders slashed construction of new homes last month to the lowest level in nearly a decade, a move that underscores the severity of the sector's slump and signals it will likely continue to be a drag on the economy at least through midyear. The slip in homebuilding last year subtracted more than 1 percentage point from inflation-adjusted economic growth over the second half of 2006.

The plunge in new homebuilding activity in January -- down 14.3% from December and 37.8% from January 2006 levels -- could eventually hasten a recovery by reducing the overhang of unsold homes, however."

TeleBusillis: Telenor: Short of the Century

"There are so many adjustments going on in the Telenor accounts, I feel as if you need a PhD in Crystal Ball reading to understand the underlying performance of the business.

Here are some low points from the results:

The rollout of HDTV seems to have destroyed earnings in the broadcast division, I don’t know enough about the Scandinavian TV market to say whether this is just a blip or a longer term problem.
Telenor Sweden is going nowhere and margins in Q4 actually fell on marginal net adds. This business just does not have the market share (17%) to compete. If operating losses continue through 2007, a write-down on the carrying value must be expected. Time might prove Vodafone correct in selling out.
Pakistan looks great with revenues up 45% and market share to 14%, but operating losses have remained at around US$125m. Unfortunately for Telenor and not discussed at all in the conference call was the fact that China Mobile are coming having just bought Paktel (Market share 4%). China Mobile is known for vicious price wars - I expect a bloodbath in the second half of 2007."

AGORAVOX -G Mail

"A few years ago, two major electronic mail players shared the world market: Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail. Recently Gmail announced the opening to general public making it possible to sign up without the selective system of invitations. Let us look back at the strategy used by Google since Gmail was launched in April 2004 as well as the disorders induced to its competitors."

Inverview with Drew Curtis, Founder of Fark.com

"Once upon a time, Fark.com was just a picture of a squirrel with massive nuts.
Now, it's one of the most popular websites on the Internet, with a strong community of users behind it--and yeah, they've still got the squirrel.

For those unfamiliar with the concept of Fark, it's pretty simple; users link to news stories that are weird, notable, or just plain stupid with funny headlines. It's addictive, hilarious, and extremely popular--the website has gotten massive attention from the Opie and Anthony Show, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and even Newsweek.

As a result, founder Drew Curtis has become something of an Internet celebrity, a typical beer-swilling dude who came up with a fantastic concept and executed it well. I got a chance to interview Drew Curtis (and kiss his ass a little) about his website, his new book, the newly-launched Fark TV, and his plans for the future.

When did you realize that Fark was getting to be so friggin' huge?

Drew Curtis: It was so gradual, we hardly noticed. Although, when we hit 1000 page views a day, we had one hell of a party."

Google invests in early stage VC funds in India-Finance-Finance / Insurance-News By Industry-News-The Economic Times

Google Inc has invested in two early stage venture capital funds, Seedfund and Erasmic, in India. These funds will identify, nurture and finance innovative startups, according to a release issued by Google.

"While the rush of large amounts of venture capital into India is well-documented, very little of this trickles down to small firms - the early-stage startups. Our effort is to build this gap by investing in these funds," said Samir Sood, head (corporate development - South Asia), Google. India is the first country where Google has made a limited partner investment in early stage funds. The company did not divulge the financial details.

According to him, these early infusions of capital provide an impetus for entrepreneurship in product engineering and will help enhance innovations that benefit consumer, Internet and mobile services. Google's investment strategy is to look at unique products, technologies and engineering teams that can provide innovative products to users or enhance existing services.

VC Players Look East, to China

"Mainland China doesn't yet boast a Silicon Valley, but an influx of venture capital funding in promising new areas could put U.S. startups at a disadvantage as they compete for funds.
Venture capital players are increasingly betting on Chinese startups that supply the software, chips, and networks to feed the country's 400 million cell-phone users' voracious appetites for wireless data. That includes applications like instant-messaging, video-uploads, and mobile Web searches, along with consumer-level Web services such as social networking. The influx of funding saw a brisk increase last year—VCs bet $920.7 million on information technology companies last year, up 34% from 2005, according to a Feb. 13 study from Dow Jones (DJ) VentureOne and Ernst & Young. And that funding shift across the Pacific could pressure Silicon Valley startups to devise business models with extremely meager cost structures as a way to attract venture capital. "

Adotas » Click Forensics Achieves $5 million in Series A Funding

"Click Forensics announced today that it has secured $5 million in a Series A funding round led by Austin Ventures and Shasta Ventures, which will enable the click fraud monitoring and reporting company to expand on several realms. Along with marketing and solutions expansion for online advertisers, Click Forensics will also move its offices to Austin, Texas.
Thomas Ball, venture partner for Austin "

One "bad apple" does spoil the whole office - Yahoo! News

"One 'bad apple' can spread negative behavior like a virus to bring down officemates or destroy a good team, according to a new study examining conflict in the workplace.

Negative behavior outweighs positive behavior, so a bad apple can spoil the whole barrel, but one or two good workers can't 'unspoil' it, researchers at the University of Washington said in the current issue of the journal Research in Organizational Behavior."

Cavium Networks files for $86.23 mln IPO | Reuters.com

"Cavium Networks Inc., a semiconductor process maker, on Tuesday said it is planning an initial public offering of as much as $86.25 million in common stock.
Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers, Thomas Weisel Partners LLC, Needham & Company LLC and JMP Securities LLC will underwrite the IPO, according to a preliminary offering document filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
It is seeking a Nasdaq listing under the symbol 'CAVM.' "

Yahoo to Unveil Mobile Marketing Platform: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

"Yahoo Inc. will sell branded advertising aimed at mobile phone customers outside the United States as part of the Internet powerhouse's efforts to build other revenue sources beyond the Web."

ScanR

"A lot is happening at scanR. We’ve launched new services, languages, operators and won a few awards along the way. Here are some highlights from the latest few months:

- scanR Business Cards is the world’s most accurate business card reader for North American cards.
- scanR Documents supports free international fax to Asia, North and South America, and Western Europe.
- scanR is available in Japanese, including auto-tagging, search, and fax, at www.scanR.jp. Business cards are coming soon.
- Nextel and Boost Mobile are the first operators to offer scanR for download from their phones. Pricing starts at $2.99 monthly.
- BusinessWeek gave scanR a Reader’s Choice Best of the Web 2006 award!
- scanR now has users in over 150 countries and our users cross nearly all categories, from students to consultants to drivers."

TMZ.com: ANS RIP

"The refrigerator, which was inside Anna Nicole's bedroom in the Bahamas, contained methadone (5 mg per 5 ml). The small refrigerator contained cans of Slim-Fast-- ironic, since Smith was TRIMSPA's spokesperson. Several bottles of TRIMSPA sat right next to the fridge.

The fridge also contained Miracle 2000 (marketed as a nutritional supplement for 'today's active lifestyle'), French's Worcestershire Sauce, yogurt and spray butter. It also appears there are vials of injectable medicines.

The methadone is compelling, as Smith's son Daniel died from a combination of drugs that included methadone. Law enforcement sources in the Bahamas tell TMZ that at least one witness has come forward and said Howard K. Stern supplied Daniel with methadone just before he died, and flushed the remaining stash down the toilet. That witness is expected to testify next month at the coroner's inquest into Daniel's death."

QUALCOMM Demonstrates Its HSPA, Mobile TV and Position Location Solutions

"QUALCOMM Incorporated (Nasdaq: QCOM - News), a leading developer and innovator of advanced wireless technologies and data solutions, today announced that the Company will showcase a wide range of innovative wireless solutions at the 3GSM World Congress 2007 (Booth B53, Hall 8) in Barcelona, Spain, Feb. 12-15, including HSPA and UMTS chipsets, Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) mobile TV technology, the latest BREW® offerings and applications, location-based services and live demonstrations of the MediaFLO(TM) System.
'QUALCOMM is committed to helping the global wireless industry continue its rapid evolution, as well as achieve its primary goal of ensuring mobile phones and wireless services are accessible and affordable to people in both the developed and developing markets,' said William F. Davidson Jr., vice president, global marketing and investor relations for QUALCOMM. 'We're proud to be a part of 3GSM 2007 and, along with our partners, showcase our advanced wireless solutions.'"

E Canada Now » Dixie Chicks Big Winners At The Grammys

"Country band The Dixie Chicks, who riled many fans with their early criticism of the war in Iraq, were lauded by their fellow musicians Sunday as they won five Grammy Awards, including the coveted song and record of the year prize for their defiant ballad Not Ready To Make Nice.
The female band dominated a night when the US music industry threw off its worries about plunging record sales to gather for its most prestigious awards show - the musical equivalent of the Oscars.
The opening of the show harked back to the heydays of rock as new- wave rockers The Police took the stage for only their second live public performance since they split in 1984.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we are The Police, and we’re back!” frontman Sting shouted before launching into a rocking version of the band’s first hit, Roxanne."

The Korea Times : iPhone Accused of Copycatting Korean Model

"The iPhone of Apple Computer is allegedly a clone of a handset made by the Seoul-based LG Electronics, the world’s fifth-largest cell phone manufacturer.
An info-tech Web site Engadget (www.engadget.com) yesterday said that the iPhone is very similar to the LG KE850, which has a moniker of the ``Prada phone.’’
While comparing looks and touch-sensitive keypads of the two models with big pictures, the site asks for responses from readers on their similarities. "

Internet Outsider: POWERSET

"Much hullaballoo today with the announcement that a search engine start-up has licensed some cool 'natural language search' technology from Xerox. The start-up, Powerset, hasn't actually deployed the technology yet, but it's apparently pretty cool, so now the story is that Google shareholders should start quaking in their boots.
Google shareholders should definitely quake--the stock's expensive enough that any hitch in the company's performance could knock off 30% off the price before breakfast--but this fear shouldn't be because of any search-engine start-up. A mistake that Google observers and industry participants repeatedly make is thinking that Google's dominance of the search business is a function of the quality of its search results. Build a better search engine, this wishful thinking goes, and you'll bring Google to its knees. Sorry, but you won't."

Researchers surprised to find no link between marijuana, lung cancer / Study's findings apply even to heavy pot smokers

"The largest study of its kind has unexpectedly concluded that smoking marijuana, even regularly and heavily, does not lead to lung cancer.
The new findings 'were against our expectations,' said Dr. Donald Tashkin, a UCLA pulmonologist who has studied marijuana for 30 years.
'We hypothesized that there would be a positive association between marijuana use and lung cancer and that the association would be more positive with heavier use,' he said. 'What we found instead was no association at all, and even a suggestion of some protective effect.'
Federal health and drug enforcement officials have widely used Tashkin's previous work on marijuana to make the case that the drug is dangerous. Tashkin said that while he still believes marijuana is potentially harmful, its cancer-causing effects appear to be of less concern than previously thought. "

Seth's Blog

"I was at a Google conference last month, and I spent some time in a room filled with (pretty newly minuted) Google salesreps. I talked to a few of them for a while about the state of the industry. And it broke my heart to discover that they were sheepwalking.
Just like the receptionist at a company I visited a week later. She acknowledged that the front office is very slow, and that she just sits there, reading romance novels and waiting. And she's been doing it for two years.
Just like the MBA student I met yesterday who is taking a job at a major packaged goods company... because they offered her a great salary and promised her a well-known brand. She's going to stay, 'for just ten years, then have a baby and leave and start my own gig...' She'll get really good at running coupons in the Sunday paper, but not particularly good at solving new problems.
What a waste."

The Wizards of Buzz - WSJ.com

"This winter, many parents across the country are sitting on the floor with slabs of cardboard, box cutters and special rivets, and building pirate ships for their kids. How did this happen? Thank 45-year-old Cliff Worthington.
An English teacher in Osaka, Japan, he mentioned the box projects on a popular Web site called Digg.com. Soon, supplies of the rivets needed to make them sold out at MrMcGroovys.com.

'It would have taken me a year to sell that many rivets,' says Andy McGrew, owner of Mr. McGroovy's, which offers free blueprints for the homemade pirate ships and other projects.
The next time you visit a buzzy Web site, see a funny video clip online or read an unusual take on the news, chances are you owe it to someone like Mr. Worthington. A new generation of hidden influencers is taking root online, fueled by a growing love affair among Web sites with letting users vote on their favorite submissions. These sites are the next wave in the social-networking craze -- popularized by MySpace and Facebook. Digg is one of the most prominent of these sites, which are variously labeled social bookmarking or social news. Others include Reddit.com (recently purchased by Condé Nast), Del.icio.us (bought by Yahoo), Newsvine.com and StumbleUpon.com. Netscape relaunched last June with a similar format."

Militant Islamic Groups Turn to YouTube

"Anyone with an Internet connection can watch videos of bombings and sniper attacks against U.S. forces — shot and edited by Islamic militants and broadcast on YouTube, the world's largest video-sharing Web site.
With the global spread of high-speed Internet connections and the relative anonymity afforded by the world's biggest and busiest sites, extremists have found a new theater to display violence and anti-American propaganda.
On Friday, prosecutors in Britain charged six suspects in an alleged plot to kidnap and kill a British soldier — an act that police allege was intended to be recorded and posted on the Internet.
Parviz Khan, 36, is accused of plotting to carry out the alleged abduction while four other men are accused of acting as his accomplices, prosecutor Patrick Stevens told the court hearing. A sixth man is set to appear in court on Saturday."

Cellulite Basics: What You Need To Know

"Cellulite Basics:
What you need to know

For anyone considering the CelluBike Program, we’ve put together a short primer to cover some basic things you should be familiar with. We’ll cover subjects such as what precisely is cellulite, what causes cellulite, and how the CelluBike Program works. We’ll also offer a few suggestions on what you can do to maximize the results you’ll experience during and after your CelluBike Program and how infrared technology can help."

EETimes.com - EDA notables join ChipVision TAB

"Power analysis provider ChipVision Design Systems has established a technical advisory board (TAB) with three initial members, all well known in the EDA industry. They include Raul Camposano, former CTO at Synopsys; Jason Cong, chairman of the computer science department at the University of California at Los Angeles; and Jim Hogan, private venture capital investor. "

EETimes.com - Mobile TV set to be top topic at 3GSM, says poll

"Mobile TV is set to be the most important topic under the spotlight at the 3GSM World Congress, scheduled to open in Barcelona, Spain, on Monday (Feb. 12), according to an EE Times Europe poll.
The poll conducted over the weeks before the congress found that 38 percent of those who voted said that mobile TV would have the most impact at the event, while 31 percent said fourth generation communications would lead the way. Some 30 percent said that Apple's iPhone, launched a few weeks ago, would have the most impact in Barcelona"

Biographies of Jack and Elaine La Lanne

"Jack La Lanne turned 91 on September 26, 2005, and that is hard to believe. He doesn't look it! In public, young people flock to him and older people feel Jack has found the Fountain of Youth.

Jack La Lanne is America's Number 1 Physical Fitness Expert and Guru, and is often called the 'Godfather of Fitness'. Jack admits it was not always this way. 'As a kid,' he flatly states, 'I was a sugarholic and a junk food junkie! It made me weak and it made me mean. It made me so sick I had boils, pimples and suffered from nearsightedness. Little girls used to beat me up. My mom prayed… the church prayed.' It was at the age of 15 when he heard pioneer nutritionist Paul Bragg speak at the Oakland City Women's Club in the San Francisco Bay Area that Jack finally realized he was addicted to sugar. Bragg promised Jack if he would exercise and eat a proper diet he could regain good health. Jack listened attentively and was fiercely determined to walk away from that lecture ready to build a totally new Jack La Lanne. "

MIT team details optics-on-a-chip device - Yahoo! News

"Fiber-optic networks transmit massive amounts of information quickly, but the signals weaken as the data-carrying light travels long distances.
Now, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said they've overcome a major obstacle in harnessing the full power and speed of the light waves.
It promises to solve a problem that's long plagued fiber-optic networks: Light waves gradually weaken over distances as they become polarized, or randomly oriented horizontally and vertically. The tools available to fix it are expensive to deploy on a massive scale."

Tips on Lowering the Cost of Renting a Car - SeekingAlpha

6. Avoid the Billion-Dollar Insurance Scam – By some estimates, more than $1 billion is spent on rental-car insurance every year, much of it needlessly. If you have personal car insurance and you are using a major credit card for the rental, chances are you will not need any additional insurance. Likewise, the Loss Damage Waiver (LDW) is a transferal of responsibility that supposedly makes the company rather than the renter, liable for any damage to the vehicle, but the ambiguous wording and substantial loopholes make it of questionable value. If however you don't have personal automobile insurance, or if the parameters of your credit card’s coverage are too restrictive, the LDW might be useful.

Unstrung - Handhelds - Tango Raises $25M - Wireless Networking News Wire

"RICHARDSON, Texas -- Tango Networks, developer of an innovative solution for integrating mobile phones with corporate telephone networks, announced today that it has completed its first funding round, totaling $25 million.
Investors include Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT - message board) through its strategic venture capital arm, Motorola Ventures, Nortel (NYSE: NT - message board), Signature Capital, TWJ Capital and Meridian Capital. "

VeriSign Fortifying Its Network, Aiming At More Consulting - SeekingAlpha

"Dan Farber (ZDNet) submits: During his keynote at the RSA 2007 Conference, VeriSign CEO Stratton Sclavos (pictured below, right) announced Project Titan, a three-year investment from the company's capital spend of $150 to $200 million to add capacity to its network infrastructure to keep up with growth of the Internet. 'We have to stay ahead of the curve and build capacity to help with RFID and content distribution,' Sclavos said.
The Titan project will increase capacity on the company's two root servers and infrastructure for supporting .com and .net domains. In anticipation of a doubling of Internet users, 2 billion cell phone/PDAs, 63 million IPTV users and 34 million VoIP households by 2010, VeriSign is increasing bandwidth from 20 gigabits per second to 200 gigabits per second of aggregate network bandwidth.
In addition, the servers will handle 4 trillion daily queries, up from a maximum of 400 billion today, and the company is developing new management and monitoring capabilities to deal with threats. VeriSign will add 80 regional internet resolution sites around the globe to the 20 it already maintains and increase the number of network operations centers."

IronPort Takeover Secures Cisco a Spot Among Protection Vendors - SeekingAlpha

"Summary: Industry experts weren't surprised by Cisco Systems Inc.'s (CSCO) $830 purchase of messaging-security company IronPort Systems last week: Cisco is the world's biggest networking vendor, and its clients prefer buying security-management products from their primary network vendor over third parties. The $2 billion messaging-security market is growing by about 25% a year, and IronPort supplies about 40% of the top 100 companies, but only 20% of top 500. CSCO's powerful sales force should help it make inroads among the top 2,000 companies globally. Cisco, which studied IronPort for 'a few years' before making the deal, has a solid reputation for integrating its acquisitions: Mike Irwin, CEO of security software maker Webroot, says Cisco's acquisitions success comes from its familiarity with the companies it buys, and calls the IronPort purchase 'a good way for Cisco to enter the security market using hardware as its entry point.' Should this worry security players like Symantec Corp. (SYMC) and McAfee Inc. (MFE)? Barron's: 'The jury's out, but it can only help Cisco, whose shares rose 1.14 to 28.47 last week.'"

Cisco to buy social-networking software company | Reuters.com

"Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO.O: Quote, Profile , Research) said on Friday it plans to buy social-networking software maker Five Across Inc. for an undisclosed sum, expanding into the growing business of user-generated content.
The purchase of the privately held company is part of Cisco's strategy of acquiring small, niche technology companies to diversify from its traditional focus on telecom equipment, such as the routers and switches that direct Internet traffic.
Five Across was founded in 2003 and has 11 employees in San Francisco. Its software helps companies set up blogs, podcasts, as well as audio, video, and photo sharing on their Web sites. The National Hockey League is one of its clients."

Cellphone Envy Lays Motorola Low - New York Times

Cellphone Envy Lays Motorola Low - New York Times: "“Phone manufacturers are only as hot as their last major hit — if they haven’t smacked it over the fence in a while, they’re in trouble,” said Carmi Levy, senior research analyst for the Info-Tech Research Group. “Motorola failed to follow it up with something similarly as big as the Razr.”"

Google's YouTube Pact Spawns Big Paydays - WSJ.com

"YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley was paid in Google shares with a current indicated value of more than $345 million. He received 694,087 Google shares and another 41,232 shares in a trust. Yesterday in 4 p.m. composite trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market, Google fell $1.47 to $470.01, indicating a value for Mr. Hurley's stake of $345.6 million.
Co-founder Steve Chen received 625,366 Google shares and another 68,721 in a trust, indicating his stake is valued at $326.2 million. Jawed Karim, the third co-founder, received 137,443 Google shares, with an indicated value of $64.6 million.
Meanwhile, Sequoia Capital's holdings include 941,027 Google shares as part of its Sequoia Capital XI fund, with an indicated current value of more than $442.3 million. Sequoia Capital was one of the early investors in Google and one of its partners, Michael Moritz, now sits on the Google board."

At the time of the deal, YouTube had been around for 19 months and had 67 employees, making it a symbol of possible excess in the current Web boom. YouTube had exploded into the popular consciousness with its user-friendly online video site that allowed consumers to post their own videos and view others'. While the company wasn't profitable, YouTube has said consumers were viewing videos through its service more than 100 million times daily, making it a highly valuable Internet property.

G MALE

"Google Inc.'s e-mail service is almost ready to accept all comers, nearly three years after the online search leader shook up the Internet by offering users an unprecedented amount of free storage and displaying ads based on the content of the correspondence."

"Effective Wednesday, the Mountain View-based company removed the invitation-only restrictions on its Gmail service in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Brazil. Google opened up the service last year in several other parts of the world, including Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Russia and Egypt."

UPDATE 3-EMC to sell stake in software maker VMware via IPO | Reuters.com

"Storage systems company EMC Corp. said on Wednesday it plans to sell a 10 percent stake of its VMware unit in an initial public offering that could become one of the hottest tech IPOs of the year. VMware software management products let large computers run several operating systems at the same time, making it easier and less expensive to manage networks. Known as 'virtualization,' the process has proved one of the hottest trends in business computing this decade. Palo Alto, California-based VMware posted record sales in 2006, EMC said. Full-year revenue rose 83 percent to $709 million as fourth-quarter revenue more than doubled.
'The market has been looking for a killer company in the technology area,' said David Menlow, president of IPOfinancial.com. 'It holds the allure that might ignite an otherwise semi-lethargic market for technology firms.'
EMC said it plans to hold on to the 90 percent stake of VMware it would own after an IPO and has no plans to spin out or otherwise divest that ownership."

Harvard in biggest curriculum overhaul in 30 years - Yahoo! News

"Harvard University announced on Wednesday its biggest curriculum overhaul in three decades, putting new emphasis on sensitive religious and cultural issues, the sciences and overcoming U.S. 'parochialism.'
The curriculum at the oldest U.S. university has been criticized as focusing too narrowly on academic topics instead of real-life issues, or for being antagonistic to organized religion. Revisions have been in the works for three years.
One of the eight new required subject areas -- 'societies of the world' -- aims to help students overcome U.S. 'parochialism' by 'acquainting them with the values, customs and institutions that differ from their own,' said a 34-page Harvard report on the changes.
An earlier proposal would have made Harvard unique among its elite Ivy League peers by requiring undergraduates to study religion as a distinct subject, but that was dropped in December.
The changes to the general-education requirements"

Mobile ESPN to Relaunch Through Verizon: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

"ESPN is relaunching its shuttered cell phone service through Verizon Wireless, this time delivering its flashy feed of sports scores, news and video highlights through a top industry player instead of competing for subscribers with its own full-blown wireless brand."

What Warren Buffett Means to Your Education : Yahoo! Finance

"When you hear that philanthropic giving hit record levels in 2006, you probably don't think that money directly helps you or your family, other than the happy thought that those gifts make the world a better place for those less fortunate.
But a big portion of wealthy donors' substantial gifts are lavished on educational institutions or initiatives -- and sometimes that largesse brings benefits to Americans who may not realize the connection between the wealthy philanthropists of the world and their own ticket to college and other fortuitous perks.
The sheer size of Warren Buffett's $30 billion-plus gift (the exact amount is unclear as it's based on his company's future stock price) to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation last year changed the face of philanthropic giving, but Buffett was not alone in his generosity."

DRM-free Music: Why Apple Has Won the Marketing War: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

Carl Howe (Blackfriars Communications) submits: Steve Jobs has written an open letter defending Apple's (NasdaqGS: AAPL) approach to music and Digital Rights Management [DRM]. He openly discusses why Apple employs DRM (because the labels have made it a condition of providing their catalogs) and the challenges associated with maintaining such a system (namely, that the labels have made it a requirement that should their DRM be breached for more than a few days, they have the right to withdraw their catalogs). He also notes that despite iTunes' success, the vast majority of music sold today is on compact disks, which are DRM free. And that leads to a very compelling argument, which he makes in the final two paragraphs:

Is the Chinese Stock Market Headed for a Correction?: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

"When Renaissance Capital named Home Inns & Hotels Management (NasdaqGM: HMIN) 2006 IPO of the year, I wasn’t surprised one bit. HMIN, along with a large crop of China-based companies, have launched successful IPOs in 2006. Among these stocks, I’ve noticed a common trend in their valuations - inflated P/E multiples."

HP Breaks New Ground with Video Merchant Services, Wal-Mart First Customer

"HP (NYSE:HPQ) today launched a new business that enables retailers to offer a fun, engaging video shopping experience for packaged video products and online downloads that is unlike anything available on the market.
Called HP Video Merchant Services, the business powers online video web stores and provides content fulfillment services for retailers, just as HP’s Snapfish business powers online photo services for major retailers around the globe.
Wal-Mart, the first customer of the service, today unveiled a beta version of its video download store powered by HP. The new Wal-Mart site (http://www.walmart.com/videodownloads) allows customers to easily discover, shop for and purchase the movie and television titles they want with the option of downloading the digital versions to a PC or portable video player in addition to purchasing the DVD for mail delivery. "

Kiosks are the new retail stores | The Perspective | Self-Service & Kiosk Association

"Over the past 18 months the vending kiosk has become a hit. Unlike its information-terminal cousins, these kiosks combine a user interface with robotics to deliver physical products. Let’s take a look at two such systems.

First on my list is the Zoom Shop from San Francisco-based Zoom Systems. Last October the company raised an additional $35 million to fund its push to automated retail leadership. If you have yet to see a Zoom Shop, you’re in for a treat. These things look like a snack vending machine on steroids. But instead of Doritos and gum, these kiosks move high-end products via a touchscreen interface and the swipe of a credit card, with a portion of the revenues going to the location owner.

As part of my research for this column I checked out a Zoom Shop located in a nearby Macy’s department store. Macy’s, which you may not think of as a tech-forward retail environment, has received a boost from the Zoom Shop. The ideally situated vending kiosk, tall in stature and wide in product, offered various gizmos, including iPods and related accessories. What a great way for the retailer to be associated with the hottest electronics without having to invest in a specialized gadget department."

Tech Startups: magink

3 years later...

Facebook Signs TV Deal - WSJ.com

"Comcast Corp. and Facebook Inc. are teaming up to give aspiring movie producers who are flooding the Internet with home-produced videos a way to get their productions on TV.
Under a deal, set to be announced today, numerous links will be established between the social-networking site and Ziddio, a new Web site dedicated to 'user generated content' that Comcast is developing. The best videos created by Facebook users as selected by a panel of judges will end up on Comcast's video-on-demand service and possibly on a new show that Facebook and Comcast hope will be aired by a television network."

Crazy Astronauts: Love makes you do crazy things.

"NASA puts Nowak on 30-day leave and removes her from flight status
• Judge sets a $10,000 bond on that charge; $15,500 bond posted earlier
• Colleen Shipman seeks restraining order, alleges Nowak has stalked her
• Women were involved with astronaut Bill Oefelein, according to police report "

VentureBeat » Meraki raises $5M to “connect the next billion people”#more-3313

"Want a dirt cheap Internet connection for everyone in your apartment building? Meraki Networks offers a way.
The Mountain View start-up provides cheap Wireless Internet connections to people by selling $49-a-piece “mesh” routers, or routers that connect with each other to extend the range of a single Internet connection. Meraki has just raised $5 million in a first round of venture capital, led by Sequoia capital. That follows under $1 million obtained from Google and other individual investors."

YouTube - A Closer Look At The iPhone

CHUD.com: Norbit

"On his Hollywood Elsewhere blog Jeffrey Wells has begun a campaign to “take down” Eddie Murphy in the Oscar race. We’re not even going to get into whether or not a blogger can “take down” anything besides the buffet at a junket – we’ll take Wells at his word. The reasoning for his new campaign of hate? "

paidContent.org: Wal-mart pay for download

"Wal-Mart, whose forays into music downloads till now haven’t panned out, is now dipping toes into the movie downloads business, conceptually a more natural fit for the biggest retailer of DVD in U.S. It has launched an exclusive “Superman Returns” DVD (a Warner Bros. movie) bundle containing a video download option with purchase of the physical DVD: With the purchase of the physical DVD, the users can also choose from three download options—$1.97 for portable devices, $2.97 for PCs/laptops, and $3.97 for both portable players and PC/laptops. "

SolarWinds raises $7.5M - Austin Business Journal:

"SolarWinds, which recently moved its headquarters to Austin, has received $7.5 million from Austin Ventures.
Although the company has been profitable since its founding, SolarWinds raised the funding to expand its operations and make strategic acquisitions. "

Light Reading - Services Software - AePona Raises $10M - Telecom News Wire

"Aepona, the leading supplier of Service Network products and solutions to telecoms operators worldwide, today announced a new financing round of $US 10M (£5M GBP). Existing investors Amadeus Capital Partners, Polaris Ventures and Trinity Venture Capital all participated in the round. The new funding follows previous rounds in 2003 and 2005, bringing the total investment in the company to $45M. Aepona, the leading supplier of Service Network products and solutions to telecoms operators worldwide, today announced a new financing round of $US 10M (£5M GBP). Existing investors Amadeus Capital Partners, Polaris Ventures and Trinity Venture Capital all participated in the round. The new funding follows previous rounds in 2003 and 2005, bringing the total investment in the company to $45M. "

LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman steps aside as CEO | Reuters.com

"Silicon Valley entrepreneur Reid Hoffman said on Sunday he is turning over the role of chief executive of the pioneering online business networking site LinkedIn Corp. to software executive Dan Nye.
Hoffman said in his LinkedIn biographical profile that he plans to remain as chairman of the Palo Alto, California-based company and take on the additional title of president of products. Nye joins LinkedIn from investment management software maker Advent Software Inc. (ADVS.O: Quote, Profile , Research), where he was executive vice president."

Wireless Internet for All, Without the Towers - New York Times

"Meraki Networks, a 15-employee start-up in Mountain View, Calif., has been field-testing Wi-Fi boxes that offer the prospect of providing an extremely inexpensive solution to the “last 10 yards” problem. It does so with a radical inversion: rather than starting from outside the house and trying to send signals in, Meraki starts from the inside and sends signals out, to the neighbors."

TiVo sees if you skip those ads

TiVo revealed the other day that it's offering TV networks and ad agencies a chance to receive second-by- second data about which programs the company's 4.5 million subscribers are watching and, more importantly, which commercials people are skipping.
This raises a pair of troubling questions: Is TiVo, which revolutionized TV viewing with its digital video recording technology, now watching what people watch? And is it selling that sensitive info to advertisers and others?
The answers, apparently, are no and no.
"I promise with my hand on a Bible that your data is not being archived and sold," said Todd Juenger, TiVo's vice president and general manager of audience research and measurement.

SVB Financial: Likely Takeover Target - Barron's - SeekingAlpha

"Summary: When Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. (MER) announced last week its $1.8b deal to acquire First Republic Bancorp Inc. (FRC), SVB Financial Group (SIVB) shares jumped: If MER was willing to pay a 44% premium for FRC's wealthy clients, then SVB -- which has built itself a name as bankers to VCs, silicon valley companies, and wineries -- might soon be the beneficiary of similar indulgence. With a market cap of $1.6b, the company is an attractive target. Its client base would be difficult for a larger bank to replicate, and its clientele would benefit from the wide-ranging services inherent in big operations. "

BlackArrow - About Us

BlackArrow was founded with the express purpose of helping programmers, agencies, and operators capitalize on the new advertising and revenue opportunities made possible by on-demand TV technologies, such as the digital video recorder, video-on-demand, and broadband video.

The next generation of TV ads will be dynamic, targeted, and interactive. They will be delivered over a variety of platforms including DVR, VOD, broadband, and mobile. To succeed, buyers and sellers require next generation ad management tools. Our service helps buyers and sellers efficiently plan, contract, traffic, report, and bill ODTV ad inventory."

Google Local Ads In Google Earth

"Brad Geddes has spotted Google Local ads within Google Earth. We know Google has tested local ads within Google Maps in the past, more than just once. But I have never seen reports of Google Local ads within Google Earth, Google's desktop based mapping system. "

Dell e-mail details corporate reforms - Yahoo! News

"DALLAS - In a memo to Dell Inc. employees days after returning as chief executive officer, Michael Dell said the beleaguered computer maker is quashing bonuses for 2006 and reducing managers to help cut costs and steer the company back toward dominance.

The e-mail sent Friday also revealed that Dell will not hire a chief operating officer, will push faster product development and will expand into new business to drive revenue growth.
In the e-mail, Dell wrote that the company ended its fiscal year Friday with 'great efforts, but not great results.'
'This is disappointing, and it is unacceptable,' wrote Dell, who went on to say that he plans to remain CEO for the next several years.
Details of the shake-up came after Michael Dell replaced Kevin Rollins as CEO on Wednesday, returning to the helm of one of the world's largest computer manufacturers. The change came as Dell tries to fix mounting problems that include disappointing earnings reports, eroding market share and an ongoing federal accounting probe."

YouTube - Bill Gates on the Daily Show, hates AAPL

YouTube - Bill Gates on the Daily Show: ""