11 December 2009

Today’s Tabbloid
PERSONAL NEWS FOR craig.kirchoff@gmail.com

WEB NEWS “In an SQL database, as needs evolve the schema and storage
of the existing data must be updated. This often causes
Stealth Startup Relaxed Raises problems as new needs arise that simply weren’t anticipated
in the initial database designs, and makes distributed
$2 Million From Redpoint “upgrades” a problem for every host that needs to go through
a schema update.
Ventures For CouchDB Support
With CouchDB, no schema is enforced, so new document
[TechCrunch] types with new meaning can be safely added alongside the
DEC 11, 2009 01:54A.M. old. The view engine, using Javascript, is designed to easily
handle new document types and disparate but similar
documents.”

While we don’t know much about what Relaxed will be doing, we

speculate that they will provide support for developers using CouchDB in
addition to trying to expand the adoption of CouchDB by enterprise
companies. Their role seems similar to that of RedHat’s in the Linux
community, but we won’t know more until Relaxed makes an
announcement next year.

Prior to Relaxed, the three founders were affiliated with a CouchDB

consultancy company, appropriately named couch.io. At couch.io, they
focused on CouchDB support and training, as well as the managed
deployment of customer’s CouchDB cluster.

Relaxed, a stealth startup centered around Apache CouchDB has raised

CouchDB is still in its early stages at version 0.10, but has gained
$2 million from Redpoint Ventures according to an SEC filing which was
significant traction and has been adopted by many websites and software
confirmed by CEO Damien Katz. Three original authors of Apache
projects, including Ubuntu. For a more high-level view of what CouchDB
CouchDB–Damien Katz, J. Chris Anderson, and Jan Lehnardt–are listed
does, see their overview.
as Executive Officers of the company.

CrunchBase Information
For those who are unfamiliar, CouchDB is a free open source indexable
document database server which uses Javascript as a query language.
Apache Software Foundation
CouchDB is designed for the reporting and storage of large amounts of
semi-structured, document oriented data, unlike SQL databases which
Relaxed
store and report on very structured and correlated data.

J. Chris Anderson
CouchDB is part of the rapidly growing NoSQL movement, which is
schema-free and focuses on adding horizontal scalability to databases.
Damien Katz
Major companies already use NoSQL database systems including
Amazon’s Dynamo, Facebook’s Cassandra, and Google’s BigTable. Other
Redpoint Ventures
NoSQL-related projects include Project Voldemort, Hypertable, VPork,
MongoDB, Apache’s Hadoop and more. Two other companies in this
Information provided by CrunchBase
space recently received funding as well: Swedish-based Neo Technology
garnered $2.5 million in late October and 10gen raised $3.4 million in
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new
November of this year.
Job2.0

Apache’s site describes CouchDB as such:

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR craig.kirchoff@gmail.com 11 December 2009

since we last heard from the company, but CEO Rob LaFave says that
things have been going very well. The site has grown from 25 vendors
last December up to 250 this year. In the last 30 days it has seen around
85,000 unique visitors. And, perhaps most importantly, LaFave says that
revenue for the site has grown by an order of magnitude in the last thirty
days.

Much of that growth can be attributed to holiday shopping, but the site
has also been working with media sites to help integrate co-branded
marketplaces. For example, The Atlantic now features a co-branded
Foodzie store to complement its ‘Food’ section.

Foozie debuted as part of the TechStars class of 2008, and last winter it
raised a $1 million funding round led by Jeff Clavier of SoftTech VC with
First Round Capital and some other angel investors participating.

WEB NEWS

Foodzie Lands The Man Who

Invented Google Gadgets As Its
Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology
VP Engineering [TechCrunch] companies, people, and investors
DEC 11, 2009 12:33A.M.

Foodzie’s artisan food marketplace just got some heavy duty engineering
talent behind it. The company has hired Googler Adam Sah as its VP of
Engineering. Sah is best known for helping invent Google Gadgets, which
is used to power many widget-based services like iGoogle and Gmail
Gadgets. He later served as a tech lead for Google research, and spent his
time before Google at a number of startups.

Foodzie helps speciality food vendors get exposure by giving them a

central online marketplace to sell their goods. Foodzie takes a cut of each
sale, but the vendors are still left with more than they’d get if they sold
their goods through traditional speciality food sites. It’s been a while

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR craig.kirchoff@gmail.com 11 December 2009

WEB NEWS Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new
Job2.0
Wolfram Alpha Does The Math,
Slashes iPhone App Price (Sort
Of) [TechCrunch]
DEC 11, 2009 12:00A.M.

WEB NEWS

Are Microsoft Users More

There’s a lot to love about Wolfram Alpha’s iPhone app. But as regular
readers will know, one of them is not the price. At $50, it’s just way too Gullible When It Comes To
hard to justify the purchase when you can get all of the information
online, for free. So just in time for the holidays, Wolfram Alpha is doing Online Advertising?
something about it: Slashing prices!
[TechCrunch]
The app will be on sale for a much-more reasonable $19.99 starting DEC 10, 2009 11:47P.M.
tomorrow and running through the end of the year. I’m still not sure that
that isn’t a little high ($9.99 seems more a bit more in-line with the
current app economy, but obviously that’s entirely up to Wolfram
Alpha). The company also notes that despite the three-week discount,
they absolutely plan to jack it back up to the regular $50 price after the
first of the year.

I asked the company to give me some sales figures, but they declined.
They did say that the app sales are “robust” and have “beaten our
expectations solidly.” Those two things can mean just about anything
without some solid numbers, obviously. At the same time, the company
noted that it was very much thinking about other discounts/promotions
in the future for the app. In other words, it might not be the smartest
thing in the world to shell out of the $50 even if you do think it’s worth
it.

Curiously, they also decided to remove the iPhone-formatted version of

the website a while back in a move that I’m positive was in no way meant
to spur app sales. That was sarcasm.
But again, the app is solid, and if you’re looking for a better than 50% off
deal on it, check it out tomorrow in the App Store. The company also has
a little blog post about some holiday-themed searches you can do with it.
Is there something about people who use Microsoft products that makes
them more likely to click on an online ad? Some data from search
advertising network Chitika suggests so. Earlier this week, we noted that
people coming to Websites from Bing are about 75 percent more likely to
click on an ad than those coming from Google.

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR craig.kirchoff@gmail.com 11 December 2009

Following that post, Chitika ran some analysis on browsers and CrunchBase Information
operating systems, and it found that users of Microsoft’s Internet
Explorer are about 40 percent more likely to click on an ad than Firefox Microsoft
users, about 50 percent more likely than Apple Safari users, and 80
percent more likely than Google Chrome users. The numbers are based Chitika
on Chitika data from 134 million across 80,000 sites.
Information provided by CrunchBase

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new
Job2.0

When it cut the numbers by operating system, Chitika a similar trend.

Windows users are about twice as likely as Linux or Mac users to click on
ads. All of this data comes from one advertising network, so I’d say it is
more suggestive than scientific (I’d love to know if other ad network are
seeing the same trends). But it is a large sample.

Assuming they are representative, you can look at these results two ways.
One is that Microsoft users are more valuable to advertisers since they WEB NEWS
click more. The other conclusion you could come to is that they are
simply more gullible and are twice as easy to dupe into clicking on an ad TC50 Finalist 5to1 Adds A $1.8
than users of other products. That of course would bring you back to
point No. 1, that they are more valuable to advertisers. Million Extension To Previous
The thing that strikes me is that you’d expect to see similar behavior Round [TechCrunch]
among the mainstream users of whatever brand. For browsers and DEC 10, 2009 10:19P.M.
operating systems that is Microsoft. The users of other brands are more
likely to be switchers who are at least technically savvy enough to try
something new. Those are the same types of people who are savvy
enough to ignore (or actively block) ads.

But this hypothesis fails when you look at the search engine data. In that
case, it is Google which is the dominant brand whose users include more
of the mainstream, average consumers. Bing users are the switchers. Yet
they are more click-happy than Google searchers. Why is that?

Clicks Impressions CTR Vs. IE Chrome 17,742 8,553,969 0.21% 19.83%

Firefox 398,812 60,250,532 0.66% 63.27% IE 1,609,309 153,834,681
1.05% 100.00% Other 25,969 4,349,524 0.60% 57.07% Safari 100,589
19,961,950 0.50% 48.17% Vs Windows Windows 1,987,558
216,115,472 0.92% 100.00% Linux 7,348 1,610,737 0.46% 49.60% Mac
123,891 23,885,453 0.52% 56.40% Monetizing remnant advertising is not an easy task, but 5to1, a TC50
finalist, seems to be off to a good start, and they’ve added on another

4
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR craig.kirchoff@gmail.com 11 December 2009

$1.81 million to their previous round of $4.5 million from existing

investors Fuse Capital and Prism VentureWorks. The platform employed
by 5to1 gives content owners the ability to place ads in relevant places at
the right time, and to the correct audience. The company is run by
former Fox Interactive executives Jim Heckman and Ross Levinsohn and
this extension brings its total intake of funding to just over $6.3 million.

Jim Heckman, the founder and CEO of 5to1, says the following about the
funding:

“5:1 secured a small extension of funding to add a little

runway so we could stay focused on growing the business.
Wasn’t an urgent move, but our adoption is much better than
expected, so didn’t want to risk any loss of focus. No new
partners or investors were involved and we don’t expect to be
engaged in money raising activities in the near future.”

5:1 did note the extension, when final paperwork is filed, will “end up at
$2 million” and the company is days away from surpassing 400 million
duplicated uniques amongst 30 distribution partners. WEB NEWS

For more information on 5to1, check out our TC50 coverage. Downloading Frenzy in China:
CrunchBase Information Gov’t Blocking All Torrent Sites
5to1.com Soon? [Read Write Web]
DEC 10, 2009 09:55P.M.
Information provided by CrunchBase

CrunchBase Information

Jim Heckman

Information provided by CrunchBase

CrunchBase Information

Ross Levinsohn

Information provided by CrunchBase

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications,

Delivered Daily.

Over the past 10 days, Chinese downloaders have flooded - and in some
cases, crashed - major P2P and torrent sites after rumors that the
government would be effectively disabling all media downloads in the
country.

The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) has

closed hundreds of file-sharing sites since last week as part of an ongoing
effort to fight piracy and porn. However, many users say these sources
are one of few ways to access films, books, and music banned in China,
whether the media is lewd or merely politically dissident. What will
media-seeking Chinese citizens do when their links to the wider world

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR craig.kirchoff@gmail.com 11 December 2009

are finally severed?

Sponsor

A document called Regulations on the Protection of the Right of

Communication through Information, created by SARFT in 2006, was
posted on its website late last week, just before the agency rounded up
and shut down around 530 bittorrent sites, including the 50-million-
users-strong BTChina. SARFT states that websites are not allowed to
provide audio or video products without specific licenses.

SARFT rep Cao Yunxia told China Tech News that “illegal audio-visual
service websites have brought great harm to the media industry and the
administration will continue to seek and destroy illegal Internet audio-
visual program providers.”

Following these sudden and unforeseen website closures, many Chinese

rushed to download what may be their final foreign films and albums.
WEB NEWS
“I may never be able to download Hollywood movies or classical records
again,” one college student told China Daily. Bank Login-Stealing Botnet
When China’s largest file-sharing site, VeryCD, has server issues Found Hiding in Amazon Cloud
yesterday, many speculated that the government had shut that website
down, as well. However, VeryCD’s users still have time to continue [Read Write Web]
downloading content, although it is unclear how much time may actually DEC 10, 2009 09:33P.M.
remain.

While VeryCD has applied for a license to distribute its content, it has
not yet received official sanction from the Chinese government and has
been warned by SARFT about allowing the distribution of unauthorized
multimedia content throughout the country.

The site’s owners hace said they may suspend downloads over the
coming weekend to avoid further trouble with SARFT, and they were
unable to comment on the long-term future of the website.

As our loyal readers may recall, China’s ongoing censorship of content

and restriction of free speech earned it a spot on our Top 10 Failures of
2009 list. Although it is hardly the in the domain of a humble blogger to
dictate national policies on media, we feel a great deal of empathy for
We’ve all heard security nerds complain about the vulnerabilities of
those who download content not only because it’s free online but because
cloud computing; here’s the news they’ve been waiting for.
they have no other way to access it.

Black-hat hackers got into an unnamed website hosted on Amazon’s

From Ben-Hur to Brokeback Mountain, check out this list of some of the
servers then proceeded to install an illegal command and control
films banned in China. What would you do as an Internet user if illegal
infrastructure. Named America’s number one most wanted botnet, Zeus
downloads were your only way to see content like these films or to listen
was discovered on Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) by security
to many kinds of Western music? What work-arounds would you
researchers yesterday.
recommend to Chinese citizens? Let us know your thoughts in the
comments.
Sponsor

Discuss

The Zeus Trojan is a keylogger designed to steal data such as login

6
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR craig.kirchoff@gmail.com 11 December 2009

credentials, account numbers and credit card information. It creates fake WEB NEWS
HTML forms on banking login pages to allow hackers to steal user data.
This particular botnet has been linked to around $100 million in bank Facebook Says New Privacy
fraud in 2009.
Policy is Like Expanding
Although we don’t yet have details on exactly how the website in
question was hacked, we have learned that the software has been Beyond Colleges in 2006 [Read
removed from the Amazon cloud. This incident is the first example of
malware being found on AWS’ infrastructure. Write Web]
DEC 10, 2009 08:05P.M.
As we were warned by black hats in April this year, cloud computing
carries certain risks and opportunities for exploitation. Our own Sarah
Perez wrote:

In another part of the Sensepost presentation, they looked

specifically at vulnerabilities of Amazon’s Web Services. To
start off, they detailed the process involved in setting up a
We reported yesterday that Facebook is aiming to get people to be more
new instance on EC2... While Amazon has provided 47
public on the site and that anyone who hasn’t changed their privacy
machine images they built themselves, the remaining 2721
settings will now see it “recommended” that their status updates, photos
images were build by other EC2 users. Can you really believe
etc. be exposed to the whole web. I had a unique opportunity to speak to
that all of these images were built securely? Basically, the
Barry Schnitt, Director of Corporate Communications and Public Policy
template directory is just a big archive of user-generated
at Facebook and quite a frank guy, at length this afternoon about
content. And you know what user-gen content is like... risky.
Facebook’s privacy policy changes.

As John Pescatore told the Financial Times, “The security of these cloud-
Schnitt said “your understanding is basically correct,” but disagreed with
based infrastructure services is like Windows in 1999. It’s being widely
the negative light I saw the change in. Becoming less private and more
used and nothing tremendously bad has happened yet. But it’s just in
public is “a change just like it was a change in 2006 when
early stages of getting exposed to the Internet, and you know bad things
Facebook became more than just people from colleges,” Schnitt
are coming.”
told us. “Facebook is changing,” he said, “and so is the world changing
and we are going to innovate to meet user requests.” Do you buy that?
Will hackers continue to employ web services to carry out their schemes
in 2010? Twitter, Facebook, Google Apps, and now Amazon Web
Sponsor
Services have all been used for evil this year. How can websites,
corporations, and end users be smarter about online security to avoid
personal and financial loss next year? Let us know what you think in the
The State of the Transition
comments.

22 million randomly chosen users have been prompted to re-evaluate

Discuss
their privacy settings so far, Schnitt said, out of 350 million users on the
site. Those who have edited any privacy settings before will see those old
settings selected as the new default, unless they were more public with
their phone number and birthday than Facebook recommends. Facebook
doesn’t recommend that you expose your phone number and birthday to
everyone, just your friends of friends at most.

Facebook does recommend that you share the content you post to the

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR craig.kirchoff@gmail.com
site, including status messages and photos, with everyone across the
whole web. That’s new. If you’ve never edited your privacy settings
before, Facebook will set the new default on the “transition” page to
share all your posted content with everyone. You are free, of course, to
change that setting. Schnitt told me that so far, more than 50% of users
who have gone through the transition screen have in fact changed their
“posts I create” setting. Schnitt did not know, however, what percentage
of those people were changing it for the first time and away from
“everyone” vs the percentage of people who were taking the opportunity
to change a restrictive setting to a newly more public one.
I’d guess most of those 50% of changers were first time privacy appliers,
because privacy was presumed before.
Schnitt says that only 15 to 20% of Facebook users have ever changed
their privacy settings before, so 80 to 85% of people will now be switched
by “recommendation” to share their content with the whole web. Schnitt
doesn’t like the word “default,” he says, because this is such an easy
option to change. He says that means that privacy groups are wrong
when they say Facebook is tricking or confusing people - that this change
has in fact meant a jump from %15 to 50%+ of users making a decision
about their privacy settings. That’s good!
Why The Change?
>Schnitt said that the company experimented with calls for users to re-
evaluate the confusing privacy settings without any default option
(“recommendation”) preselected. “People didn’t interact with it and they
asked for a recommendation,” he told us. “85% of people agreed with our
recommendations before.”
By that he means that the 85% of people who never changed their
privacy settings agreed with Facebook’s recommendations before and
would likely do so again now. I asked whether most people signed up for
Facebook because it was private between friends and family and Schnitt
argued that was just one way to interpret it.
“In 2007, when on Facebook you did not have any options but to share
just with friends, we added more options as the world has changed,” he
8
11 December 2009
said. “I don’t think there were people then asking for public sharing, but
people asked us to share more broadly.” (I asked if those people were
marketers and Schnitt said he didn’t know what they do for a living.)
Now in 2010, it’s time to share even more broadly - if you so choose.
Why are things changing at Facebook? “Because the site is changing,”
Schnitt said, “our userbase is changing and the world changing.”
How is the userbase changing? “It’s growing in size and people are
sharing more information with more people,” he told me.
Hasn’t the premise always been that Facebook prioritizes limited
exposure of shared content in order for people to feel more comfortable
sharing and thus share more? Schnitt said the world was changing and
that so long as they feel in control of who sees what, everyone seeing
things they post will likely be good for most people.
And then came the big answers to the big questions.
How is the world changing? Isn’t Facebook, having grown from 140
million users 12 months ago to being the 3rd largest nation in the world
at 350 million users today, in fact a leading agent changing the world?
Isn’t this change proscribing cultural change, instead of just reflecting
it?
“Tens of millions of people have joined Twitter,” Schnitt said. “That’s
wide open. So is MySpace.” We asked for more examples of the world
changing in that way. Reality TV? “Frankly, yes,” he said,”public blogs
instead of private diaries, far more people commenting on newspaper
websites than ever wrote letters to the editor.”
I told Schnitt I didn’t buy much of that beyond maybe Twitter (maybe
you do, readers) but that I wanted to discuss what Facebook’s interests
were in moving its hundreds of millions of users towards more public
sharing.
Facebook’s Public Sharing Agenda
Schnitt’s first explanation of Facebook’s interest in increased openness
was what I expected him to say. It’s the same thing founder Mark
Zuckerberg says and it is no doubt an important part of the story.
“By making the world more open and connected, we’re expanding
understanding between people and making the world a more
emphathetic place,” Schnitt said. “And we know that when users find
their friends, are found by their friends and learn more about the world
around them - they find more value on the site. From a business
perspective, if users are finding more value from the site they will come
back more and engage in more activity. And you can imagine the
business consequences of that.”
That means ads. Traffic and ads. And empathy and world peace.
That’s the new Facebook! Recommending you share your content with
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR craig.kirchoff@gmail.com 11 December 2009

the whole web at large because users requested it, because it believes the
world is changing that way so you’ll feel comfortable with it, because it
believes openness increases human connection and because it’s going to
increase traffic and advertising revenues.

Do you agree with Barry Schnitt of Facebook? I suspect that most people
on Facebook will not. Millions of people hated the Facebook Newsfeed
when it was introduced, though (they said it was a privacy violation) and
now it’s changed the world and is widely beloved.

The best boxing doesn’t always happen at the heavyweight level.

Facebook may just be doing us all a service, but it sure would be nice if
Likewise, some of the best things you can load onto your Windows
they’d be more honest about what they are doing. This was a refreshingly
system are tiny little guys that just make day-to-day writing, working,
frank interview, but most of Facebook’s communication has felt like
and surfing better.
obfuscation.

2. Top 10 Must-Have Firefox Extensions, 2009 Edition

Discuss

WEB NEWS

Most Popular Top 10s of 2009 We didn’t change everything from our original 2006 list, but we did mix
up our favorite add-ons for our favorite browser with a few essentials

[Best Of 2009] [LIfehacker[Best that Lifehacker editors, and readers, have found indispensible.

Of 2009]] 3. Top 10 Windows 7 Boosters

DEC 10, 2009 08:00P.M.

Just before Windows 7 dropped, we put together the apps that

Every weekend, we comb our memories and archives to compile 10
useful items addressing a specific topic you may have forgotten about, or
just happen to be excellent. Here are the 20 list(icle) posts that proved
the most popular in 2009.
developers had updated or released new to integrate with Windows 7.
Some add in things missing from Microsoft’s latest OS, while others
improve on what’s already there.
4. Top 10 Firefox 3.5 Features

1. Top 10 Tiny & Awesome Windows Utilities

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR craig.kirchoff@gmail.com
To think that Firefox 3.5 was almost labeled 3.1, a small iteration. The
latest release included a lot to crow about, including much-needed
performance improvements, but also many subtle refinements.
5. Top 10 Underhyped Webapps, 2009 Edition
Gina had only compiled her list less than two years ago, but the web’s
become an even bigger playground for developers since then. The truly
helpful and useful ones, without gigantic advertising budgets, were
worth highlighting. Photo by thievingjoker.
6. Top 10 Tricks MacGyver Would Be Proud Of
This was Adam’s favorite Top 10 of at least the year, if not possibly all
time. Either he’s really into short, goofy fan fiction, or just appreciates a
number of 1980s pop-culture references sprinkled into his listicles.
Either way, it’s fun to make like everyone’s favorite duct tape enthusiast
with these clever hacks. Image by PoweredByLarios™.
7. Top 10 Ubuntu Downloads
10
11 December 2009
Free software rocks, and free software running on a free platform is
heavenly stuff. Check out the apps that make Ubuntu a better place to
work, play, and explore. Image by Andrew Mason.
8. Top 10 Battery Hacks, Tips, And Tricks
Modern batteries help us feel like we’re living in the future, with
cellphones that can do anything and laptops that can work
anywhere—when they’re fully charged. Otherwise, getting the most out
of them requires some old-fashioned cleverness and energy frugality,
detailed in these tips. Photo by conskeptical.
9. Top 10 Cheap or Free Home Theater Upgrades
Once everything’s hooked up, it’s easy to just point your HD TV in the
right direction and call it a day on your home theater setup. Take on a
few of these projects and pointers, though, and you’ll get a nicer-looking,
better-performing system. Photo by chunkysalsa.
10. Top 10 Skills to Master Your Grill
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR craig.kirchoff@gmail.com
Why was this so popular? Because almost everybody loves an excuse to
be outside, and nearly everyone loves an excuse to obsess over tasty food.
That’s just our guess, anyways, and these 10 skills testify to how geeky
this excuse can really get. Photo by adactio.
Those 10 may have been the most popular, but if you’re still eager for
some more listicle goodies, here’s a quick overview of the next ten most
popular.
• 11. Top 10 Tools for a Free Online Education
• “It’s easy to forget these days that the internet started out as a
place for academics and researchers to trade data and
knowledge. Recapture the web’s brain-expanding potential with
these free resources for educating yourself online.”
• 12. Top 10 Apps that Boost Your Media Center
• “Streaming video, digital DVD backups, DVR recording-it’s all
possible from your TV-connected media center, and you don’t
need a system administrator to pull it off. These 10 apps make
filling and controlling your media center PC even easier.”
• 13. Top 10 Home Office Hacks
• “Whatever kind of work you do at home, your office is one place
you want to spend the time to make comfortable and convenient.
Take 10 of our tips on organizing, fixing, and streamlining that
space.”
• 14. Top 10 Tricks for Creatively Hiding Your Stuff - Security -
Lifehacker
• “Every kid has a creative stash for secret stuff, but that useful
enthusiasm doesn’t have to die off just because we’ve traded
treehouses for desks. See how you can hide money, files,
workspaces, and more in today’s Top 10.”
• 15. Top 10 Computer Hardware Fixes and Upgrades - Hardware -
Lifehacker
• “If your desktop or laptop parts have died or seen better days,
you’ve got a friend. All of your Lifehacker editors-and many
helpful net denizens-have upgraded or repaired faulty systems,
and we’ve rounded up some of their most helpful tutorials.”
• 16. Top 10 Productivity Basics Explained
• “There’s a core set of habits and techniques that filter and color a
11
11 December 2009
lot of what we write about at Lifehacker, but we rarely step back
to explain them for newcomers. Let’s get back to basics with 10
productivity tactics.”
• 17. Top 10 Tools for Your Blog or Web Site
• “Having your own hosted web domain has never been cheaper, or
easier, with the vast array of free resources out there. Here are
our ten favorite tools to help anyone launch and maintain their
internet presence.”
• 18. Top 10 Tips and Tricks for Better Coffee
• Coffee doesn’t always make work better, but you can definitely
work to get better coffee. From four-cup hotel machines to French
presses, from home-roasted beans to decorative foam-we’ve got a
wealth of tips for enjoying a better cup.
• 19. Top 10 Tricks for Making Your Playlists Rock
• “If music is part of your everyday work routine, workout, or
commute, stuffing your player full of tunes and hitting shuffle just
won’t cut it. Scan these 10 tips for improving and expanding your
music playlists.”
• 20. Top 10 Outlook Boosters
• “Outlook is such a fixture of office and computer life, its potential
as a central life-organizing inbox is easily taken for granted.
Empower your Outlook with these add-ons, link-ups, and data
management techniques.”
Want a quick blast from the past? Our most popular top 10s of 2008 and
2007 are just a click away.
WEB NEWS
What Do Seniors Do Online?
Visit Facebook and YouTube, of
Course [STATS]
[Mashable[STATS]]
DEC 10, 2009 07:30P.M.
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR craig.kirchoff@gmail.com
We’ve known for a while that Facebook users are getting a lot older, but
now new data released by Nielsen reveals that the number of seniors (65
and older) using the web has increased by 6 million in the last five years.
Not only that, but nearly half of online seniors visited Facebook or
YouTube last month, making them their 3rd and 4th most visited online
destinations.
The research confirmed a trend that we’ve seen in recent years: that
more seniors are becoming active on the web. In November of 2004,
there were 11.3 million active seniors online. In November 2009, that
number jumped by 55% to 17.5 million. In addition, they spend more
time on the web, totaling an average of 58 hours a month in front of the
browser.
While those numbers didn’t surprise us, we were interested in data that
Nielsen collected on their browsing habits. Take a look at these two
tables. The first reveals the most common activities among active online
seniors. The second shows the top ten websites and online destinations
that this demographic visited last month:
12
11 December 2009
A majority of online seniors check their email, print maps, play around
with photos, and check the weather. All of these tasks seem utility-based,
but then again, we expect that these numbers would be similar in almost
any other demographic. Come on: who here hasn’t checked their email,
mapped something out, or paid their bills online in the last 30 days?
The more interesting data comes from the top 10 online destinations
table. While Google Search was an obvious winner, Windows Media
Player is a bit of a surprise until you realize just how many websites
embed the thing. However, the rise of Facebook to #3 on this list, when a
year ago it was the #45 most visited website by seniors, is a huge sign of
just how mainstream social networking has become. YouTube at #4 is
another confirmation of this trend.
This is just what happens when new technologies become more
accessible and more mainstream. Let us know what you think of these
trends in the comments.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, flashgun
Reviews: Facebook, YouTube, iStockphoto
Tags: facebook, Nielsen, Seniors, youtube
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR craig.kirchoff@gmail.com 11 December 2009

WEB NEWS

Best Startup Management Tool?

[Hive Five Call For Contenders]
[LIfehacker[Hive Five Call For
WEB NEWS
Contenders]]
DEC 10, 2009 07:30P.M. Cloud Engines Raises $3
Million For Global Expansion
Of Pogoplug [TechCrunch]
DEC 10, 2009 07:15P.M.

Cloud Engines, the company behind Pogoplug, the device that turns any
USB hard drive into a network accessible drive, raised $3 million in
funding according to an SEC filing. We’ve confirmed the investment with
the company with existing investor Foundry Group and others
participating in the round.

We’ve all experienced the crush of too many programs launching at According to the startup’s CEO, Daniel Putterman, Cloud Engines will
startup. This week we want to hear about the tools you use to manage the use the money to kick start their international plans for retail,
startup process so you’re not waiting ten minutes after login before your specifically in Europe. The company will also expand retail operations in
PC’s functional. the U.S.

What makes your favorite startup management tool so great? We want to Cloud Engines just last month updated the Popoplug by adding four USB
hear about your favorite application and what features make it useful to ports, a new address book feature, global search across all the drives
you—ease of use, staggered and delayed startups, profiles? attached to a Pogoplug and all the devices associated with a single
account, and a host of other improvements.
Hive Five nominations take place in the comments, where you post your
favorite tool for the job. We get hundreds of comments, so to make your The Pogoplug comes with a handy iPhone application, that allows users
nomination clear, please include it at the top of your comment like so: to stream music (or movies) that they don’t have room to store, back up
VOTE: Startup Manager. Please don’t include your vote in a reply to photos as they’re taken, or read docs stored at home.
another commenter. Instead, make your vote and reply separate
comments. If you don’t follow this format, we may not count your vote. You can also check out CrunchGear’s review of the Pogoplug, and their
To prevent tampering with the results, votes from first-time commenters coverage of the NAS Adapter that comes optional with Pogoplug.
may not be counted. After you’ve made your nomination, let us know
what makes it stand out from the competition. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology
companies, people, and investors
About the Hive Five: The Hive Five feature series asks readers to answer
the most frequently asked question we get: “Which tool is the best?”
Once a week we’ll put out a call for contenders looking for the best
solution to a certain problem, then YOU tell us your favorite tools to get
the job done. Every weekend, we’ll report back with the top five
recommendations and give you a chance to vote on which is best. For an
example, check out last week’s Five Best Outlining Tools.

13
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR craig.kirchoff@gmail.com 11 December 2009

cybersecurity head? In light of our assessment of America’s vulnerability

to cyber attacks just six months ago, Reitinger’s reaction is surprising.

Sponsor

Reitinger, a former Microsoft strategist and current director of the

National Cybersecurity Center, believes that White House cybersecurity
processes at the White House are running smoothly.

“It is absolutely essential that there be strong, White House involvement

in cybersecurity, and there is strong, White House involvement in
cybersecurity,” he said. He further vouched for the acting coordinator,
saying, “The acting cybersecurity coordinator at the White House, Chris
Painter, is a bona fide expert in this field, and has a great team of people
working for him.”

Still, although Reitinger says things are going well now and that short-
term issues are being addressed, how much control does the acting
WEB NEWS coordinator have to over long-term, national IT concerns - especially
considering the problematic and essentially political nature of
No Cyber Czar for You, cybersecurity leadership in Washington? Reitinger told Information
Week several months ago that he expected the coordinator position to be
America: Obama Fails to a fulcrum for cybersecurity at the national level and within the White
House. Have his priorities shifted enough that he feels a temporary
Appoint InfoSec Head [Read position in one administration is truly adequate to address the country’s
needs?
Write Web]
DEC 10, 2009 07:00P.M. And what of the President’s assurance that national cybersecurity would
be prioritized with this new position? We’ve been reporting since April
on calls for the President to create a National Office of Cyberspace, and
those requests from all corners - including congressional types and think
tanks - have not satisfactorily been met.

To quote Information Security editor Michael Mimoso, “All I want for

Christmas is a cybersecurity coordinator.”

Is President Obama right to ease up on his commitment to national

cybersecurity, and is America sufficiently protected by a temporary
cybersecurity coordinator, after all? Or are the cyberwonks justified in
their disappointment and frustration? Let us know your opinion in the
comments.

Discuss

In a recent interview, Homeland Security deputy undersecretary Philip

Reitinger commented on President Obama’s as-yet unfulfilled promise to
appoint a senior White House cybersecurity advisor.

Although the nation has an acting cybersecurity coordinator in former

FBI cyber staffer Chris Painter, no permanent appointee has been named
in the six months since the President announced his commitment to
create and fill this position. Can the White House appropriately and
competently address our national needs without a permanent

14
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR craig.kirchoff@gmail.com
WEB NEWS
Remains of the Day: Chrome
Powered by Rube Goldberg
Edition [For What It’s Worth]
[LIfehacker[For What It’s
Worth]]
DEC 10, 2009 07:00P.M.
The inner workings and cogs of this Google Chrome ad make you wish
browsing involved Rube Goldberg-esque machines, visual alerts are
distracting (!), and Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s take on privacy is
frightening.
• Why Google Should Make a Tablet
• Oh tablets—you’re everywhere and yet nowhere. [Gizmodo]
• Workers Should Turn Off Visual Alerts, Study Finds
• Is this a surprise to anyone? [LiveScience]
• The 9th Annual Year in Ideas
• The New York Times pulls together their very cool annual
roundup of interesting ideas of ‘09. [NYT]
• 802.11n: Fast Wi-Fi’s long, tortuous road to standardization
• Are you on the 802.11n boat yet? [Computerworld]
• I Can’t Stop Smiling Over Google Chrome’s New Ad
• It’s strange: Google makes both the worst and best product ads.
[Gizmodo]
• Yahoo Adds Twitter to Search Results
• Google added Twitter to its live streaming “Latest” updates, and
so does Yahoo. [Mashable]
• Bruce Schneier’s Answer to Google CEO Eric Schmidt on Privacy
• Earlier this week Schmidt said “If you have something that you
don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the
first place.” Security guru Bruce Schneier explains why that
couldn’t be more wrong. [Smarterware]
15
11 December 2009
WEB NEWS
On Favrd, Twitter &
Community: Why You Should
Be Able to Count the Stars
[Read Write Web]
DEC 10, 2009 06:30P.M.
Favrd, the now-retired (creator-destroyed) aggregation site for Twitter
“favorites,” began as the irreverent offshoot of a community of influential
designers and developers — people like Merlin Mann (@hotdogsladies),
John Gruber (@gruber), Jeffrey Zeldman (@zeldman), and Dean
Cameron Allen (@textism), the site’s creator.
You don’t need to know the lofty origins of Favrd, though; if anything,
they’re antithetical to the point. Favrd ran on a “no-webcock algorithm.”
(“Webcock” was Dean’s term for shamelessly self-promoting “new media
gurus.”)
Sponsor
This guest post was written by Kim Gaskins, a writer for Latitude
Research.
In an interview earlier this year, web developer Rafael Torres
(@rafitorres) remarked: “A common concern for all of [the creators] was
the idea that the social web had been invaded by a certain class of
individuals who were apparently only concerned with marketing
themselves and their brands through fake social interactions.”
How Many Stars in the Sky? Infinite: and That’s Too Many.
Simply put, I think what happened to Favrd was that a new
crop of users appeared who didn’t know how to value the
currency, and thus they inadvertently devalued it. They were
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR craig.kirchoff@gmail.com 11 December 2009

arbitrarily plastering their stars around town to promote
themselves, like “take-out menus hung on the doors of other
restaurants.” Dan Wineman (@dwineman), “The Favrd
Situation”
In this way, currency (devalued) only serves to commodify valuable
content.
Remiel (@remiel) makes some generative suggestions here to “inject
scarcity back into the equation.” What if Favstar instituted a new
metric... ? “The result, ideally, is... a truly useful list of vetted Twitter
content, reliably worth reading. In short: a great, alternative Twitter
filter.”
“I hate when clever, elegant things leave the web.” Jeffrey
Zeldman to Dean Cameron Allen, commenting on “The Stars
Look Down”
Favrd: The Black Sheep of Bottom-Up PosterCommunities
Cohesive communities like Favrd, grown organically without a pointed
goal — especially the communities grown around liberality of mind and
well-placed puns — have some people asking, “yes, but what’s the
point?”
(@mike_FTW) has been one of SmallCanBeBig’s most outspoken
supporters, incenting donations via Twitter in Favrd fashion:
“SmallCanBeBig: Tell you what: you donate $50 and I will tweet a
PERSONAL INSULT which you can RT to show your friends how
cool you are.” (Visit SmallCanBeBig.org directly to donate sans
personal insult.)
• Josh Hopkins (@thedayhascome) began tweeting about the
medical condition of his daughter (born January 2009) as a part of
the Favrd community, which rose up with overwhelming support
while Lucy underwent serious operations and prolonged hospital
stays. (Josh and his family will be participating in the March for
Babies in 2010 to raise money on behalf of Lucy’s name. If
individuals would like to donate money to The March of Dimes, on
behalf of Team Lucy Kate who is walking in the Indianapolis
event, more information is available here.)
“Keep starring the heavens, kids. #thankyoutextism” (via @pagecrusher)
A more comprehensive directory of projects from the Favrd community
is available here.
Discuss

Therein lies the point.

“I’ve met lots of people, collaborated creatively with a few and

even had one stay on my couch during his trip across the
country. All wonderful experiences.” Jon Dascola,
commenting on Zeldman’s “The Stars Look Down”

So What’s Beside the Point?

Professionally speaking, Avery Edison (@aedison) is an upcoming UK-

based comedy writer who has her roots in the feedback and support of
the Favrd community. You Look Nice Today (@hotdogsladies,
@lonelysandwich, and @scottsimpson) is a free podcast “prepared by
and for ‘adults’” that now performs in 3space as well, for money.

Interview with Nick Douglas (@nick), author of Twitter Wit: Brilliance

in 140 Characters or Less:

For Goodness’ Sake...

• SmallCanBeBig is a charitable non-profit that harnesses the power

of small, direct donations for families in need. Mark Nikolewski
(@mnik) is lead designer and art director for the organization;
from his personal experience in the community, he can trace back
thousands of dollars in direct donations to SmallCanBeBig from
Favrd members. He estimates that the community supplies about
20% of the organization’s (@smallcanbebig‘s) retweets, without
accounting for any secondary networking effects. Mike Monteiro

16
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR craig.kirchoff@gmail.com 11 December 2009

WEB NEWS speculation that leads to wildly varying acquisition prices (see Last.fm
and imeem), he wants to “derive the real valuation based on a reflection
SeeqPod’s Assets Are Finally in the stock price”.

Being Sold, And Its Team Is

Coming Back For More
[TechCrunch]
DEC 10, 2009 06:25P.M.

The tumultuous story of music search engine Seeqpod is finally coming

to a close. Last June, we wrote that the company was looking to sell off
its domain name, with evidence suggesting that it was about to be
Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology
acquired by Microsoft. That didn’t happen. We’ve just heard from CEO
companies, people, and investors
Kasian Franks that the technology assets of SeeqPod are now being sold
to a “large Japanese media company” (he wouldn’t divulge the name).
And now the SeeqPod team is back building another company: the
Mikojo music search engine.

Before we get to that though, a recap of SeeqPod’s difficult year. In

February SeeqPod was slapped by lawsuits from EMI and Warner Music,
as the record companies looked for billions of dollars in damages. In
March, Seeqpod filed for bankruptcy protection and put itself up for sale.

There were strong rumors that the company was going to be acquired by
Microsoft in a firesale, but that apparently didn’t pan out and Franks
says that the company decided not to sell the domain name. But SeeqPod
is now close to closing a deal with the unnamed Japanese media
company, with the only holdup being the patent rights to the technology
behind Seeqpod, which is owned by Bell Labs. Negotiations are ongoing,
but it sounds like they’ll be reaching a conclusion soon.

So what about the new project? Three of Seeqpod’s lead engineers are
now working on Mikojo, a music search engine that Franks says wants to
be the comprehensive music search engine. But rather than only serving
audio files, as SeeqPod did, Mikojo is meant to search all things music
related. Run a search for “Led Zeppelin”, and you’ll see listings for lyrics,
merch, tickets, and yes, links to songs. But unlike Seeqpod, which let you
stream music directly from the site, Mikojo links you off to sites like
Songza, which will keep them clear of the music labels’ wrath. Franks
wants Mikojo to be the place people go when they want to find a music
video from Vevo, or a song on MySpace Music.

One last (and unique) thing to note about Mikojo: the site has already
IPO’d. Mikojo went through a reverse merger and is now listed under the
ticker symbol MKJI. Franks says that the company did this because he’s
not interested in “the romantic startup phase”. Rather than rely on

17
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR craig.kirchoff@gmail.com
WEB NEWS
Apple’s Universal iPod and
iPhone Dock Is Surprisingly
Spongy [Mashable]
DEC 10, 2009 06:14P.M.
Alas, it’s only in the patent stage according to Engadget, but,
nevertheless, the glorious future may hold a universal docking option for
users of various flavors of iPod and iPhone.
There’s no guarantee Apple will actually turn it into a real product, but
we hope they do — mostly for the sheer entertainment value of poking
whatever spongy substance looks to be forming the base of the dock.
That magical substance — we imagine it like some sort of cross between
Play-Doh, Sticky Tack and prosthetic skin — would conform to the shape
of whatever Apple mobile device you throw at it (iPod nano, touch,
iPhone, etc.) to provide a power charge without requiring one specific
preordained form factor. The dock would then be able to keep an imprint
of the last device used or be reset to accept a different device.
Whatever that flexible, power-conducting material is that could make
this universal dock possible, we want to go to there. It smells like the
future. Do you hope this universal dock becomes a reality?
Tags: apple, docks, iphone, ipod, patents, the future, universal dock
18
11 December 2009
WEB NEWS
Playboy Gets A Sexy iPhone
App. Sorry Guys, No Nudity.
[TechCrunch]
DEC 10, 2009 06:00P.M.
Playboy is a magazine that actually does have really good content, I
swear. But yes, most people know it as the magazine that each month
features nude pictures of their Playmates. And now the magazine has an
iPhone app in the App Store. But those concerned that this might ruin
Apple’s prude stance with the store, fear not: There is no nudity.
Instead, the app features easy access to some of the main articles in the
magazine each month. And it does so in a very slick and sexy way, the
app is among the fastest I’ve seen in terms of transition between the
different areas. The app also shows you who the featured Playmate of the
month is, but all you get is the introduction, the data sheet (which I’m
actually kind of surprised Apple even let through), and a series of sexy,
but clothed photos. Each Playmate also has a video about their shoot, but
again, no nudity.
The plan is for the app to use in-app purchasing so that you can easily
buy hard copies of older issues. But that apparently won’t be available
until the next version of the app hits next week on the same day that the
next issue of Playboy goes on sale. Humorously, to buy other things from
Playboy, the app makes you go to the web, with a warning that you’ll be
entering a page that contains content which may not be appropriate for
children under 17. Of course, anyone with an iPhone can browse to that
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR craig.kirchoff@gmail.com 11 December 2009

site directly without the warning from Apple.

Despite apps like this, Apple continues to straddle a difficult line of

hypocrisy with regard to the App Store approval process. For example,
apps that do satire are rejected, while apps that allow you to see up the
skirts of asian girls are just fine. Also fine: Apps that simply showcase
Asian Boobs, which is the name of the app. Oh, and Mein Kampf is also
fine. But there can be no nudity in an app for a magazine known for its
nudity. That kind of stuff which you see today in PG-13 movies is just too
much for a device which has built-in parental controls.

The app is $1.99 in the App Store. You can find it here.

WEB NEWS

Get a Better Deal from Your ISP

[Saving Money]
[LIfehacker[Saving Money]]
DEC 10, 2009 06:00P.M.

Often all it takes to reduce your monthly bills is just asking for better
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new rates. Wired offers some similar advice for getting a better deal from
Job2.0 your ISP—assuming you’re willing to negotiate a little.

Photo by byoogle.

While you can’t just pick up the phone and start demanding your ISP cut
your bill in half, you can do a few things to improve your chances of
getting your ISP to bring down their fees a bit for you. First, you need to
do some research. Then it’s time to put on your negotiation sweater.

19
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR craig.kirchoff@gmail.com 11 December 2009

Let them know you are in demand. Remember, you’re

the customer, you’re in control whether you feel that way or
not. Tell the representative you’ve got an offer from a
competitor and you’re wondering if they can match the price.
If you’re talking about a DSL offer to a cable company you’ll
probably get an earful about the advantages of cable over
DSL. Politely, but firmly list the actual bandwidth speeds that
you researched earlier. Generally this will put an end to the
cable vs DSL debate and bring the focus back to getting you a
better deal.

Be sure to read the rest of the post over at Wired before you pick up that
phone so you’re armed with the best negotiating strategies. Want to
share how you successfully sliced your monthly bills? Let us know in the
comments.
It’s that time of year: predictions for the fresh 365 days that we get when
Negotiate a Better Deal With Your ISP [Wired How-To Wiki] the calendar flips over. In our world, that means opining about the future
of the Web, technology, and social media.

Mashable’s Pete Cashmore recently made a slew of predictions in his

column at CNN. Earlier this week, he discussed them on camera with
one of the networks anchors, Campbell Brown.

So what are the big things to watch for in 2010? According to Pete, the
continued spread of social media, location sharing, and Internet TV,
among other things. Check out the segment in the video below:
WEB NEWS

Mashable’s Pete Cashmore Reviews: Mashable

Talks Web Trends 2010 With Tags: cnn, mashable, predictions, social media

CNN’s Campbell Brown

[VIDEO] [Mashable[VIDEO]]
DEC 10, 2009 05:54P.M.

20
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR craig.kirchoff@gmail.com 11 December 2009

WEB NEWS

The Social Times/AllFacebook

Acquired By WebMediaBrands
[TechCrunch]
DEC 10, 2009 05:44P.M.

The Social Times, the company behind AllFacebook.com, has been

acquired by WebMediaBrands. We’ve confirmed the news with Social
Times founder Nick O’Neill, who will be joining WebMediaBrands as
Director of Social Times. O’Neill couldn’t comment on the acquisition
price, but says that he is pleased with the deal.

A big congratulations to O’Neill, who started the company two and a half
years ago with the launch of AllFacebook, which extensively covers
Facebook news. He followed that up around six months later with the
launch of The Social Times, which covers a broader array of social media
issues. O’Neill is the company’s only full time staff member, though he
has a number of contractors contributing content to the sites.

Along with AllFacebook and the Social Times, the deal includes New
Media School, a site that helps with social media strategy that launched
in August. It also includes the company conference.

The news comes as WebMediaBrands, which is perhaps best known as

the onwer of Media Bistro, goes through a major transition. The
company has divested the majority of its properties, including its recent
sale of Internet.com for $18 million. With today’s acquisiiton,
WebMediaBrands is looking to expand into the social media space.
O’Neill will be given resources to hire more writers to continue
expanding his sites (he says they’ll probably be hiring ten more in the
next few weeks). And we may well see more deals in the near future.

The Social Times currently draws around 500,000 unique vistors and 1
million page views a month.

Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology

companies, people, and investors

21