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Technorati knocks itself out. Again
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Andrew Orlowski
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Technorati, the comically inept search engine, has redesigned itself again – knocking itself out in the process. The site was down when bloggers checked in yesterday. More importantly, the latest redesign is a tacit admission that it’s given up on its original mission – indexing the world’s weblogs. Technorati now claims to present “zillions of…
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How Free Press breaks the citizens’ network
by
Andrew Orlowski
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In 2003 the journalist Ron Suskind captured one of the quotes of the decade when he cited an unnamed Bush administration official as saying: “When we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality, we’ll act again, creating other new realities.” On the web today, “political activism” has become a virtual…
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Mozilla phancies doing a Phorm
by
Andrew Orlowski
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The Phorm bug is spreading. The idea of collecting a user’s browsing history and flogging that data doesn’t just appeal to ISPs. The Mozilla Foundation, the people behind the Firefox browser, want some of that action too. The Foundation is officially a tax exempt non-profit – but still manages to pay its chairperson $500,000 a…
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One Laptop Per Child: it’s a con, says former exec
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Andrew Orlowski
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The former security director of the One Laptop Per Child non-profit has blasted the project for losing sight of its goals, accusing chairman Nicholas Negroponte of deceiving the public. It’s all about shipping kit, says Ivan Krstić in an incendiary essay.
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“Wake up and smell the Doritos™” – Terry McBride
by
Andrew Orlowski
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Copyright is over, and musicians should make themselves as pretty as they can for big brand advertisers, says top music manager and label boss Terry McBride. McBride’s Nettwerk Music manages artists including Avril Lavigne and the Barenaked Ladies, and it’s been an indie label for over 20 years. He’s put his thoughts into a Music…
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Top-slicing the Beeb: Clueless execs get busy
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Andrew Orlowski
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Some quangos, like jellyfish, seem to be able to reproduce asexually. It’s what they live to do. What this means is that without any contact, parthenogenesis occurs and they simply spawn off a little version of themselves, which may grow as large as its parent. Britain’s uber-regulator Ofcom, I learned this week, definitely falls into…