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Sarah Lacy takes on Gnomedex

SEATTLE--Since there is significant attendee crossover between the Gnomedex conference here and the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas, it's safe to say that when Sarah Lacy took the stage Saturday, a lot of the audience had some pretty strong memories of the last time they'd seen her.

Last March, it was Lacy whose SXSW keynote interview of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg ended up in a Twitter-fueled mutiny by the audience. Many on hand in Austin had felt she conducted that session in an overtly flirty and self-promotional style that left little room for participation from a crowd eager to interact with the young billionaire.

With that recent history, then, the packed house on hand for Lacy's Gnomedex talk Saturday, "What happens when you get what you want: The growing blogosphere angst," was keyed up and wondering what kind of fireworks might erupt this time around.

And fireworks there were, though they came from uber-blogger Robert Scoble, who at one point during the session oddly got up out of his seat near the front of the auditorium and marched toward the back of the room to tensely confront author and entrepreneur Geoff Livingston.

But more on that later. … Read more

CNET News Daily Podcast: Why security experts still fret about DNS

MessageLabs revealed that an intricate flaw in the underlying design of the Internet's DNS (domain name system) protocol is still vulnerable several weeks after patches were made available. Elinor Mills, who covers security for CNET News, explains what's going on.

Why in the world would Microsoft make available a free--and very cool--digital photo-viewing technology? Josh Lowensohn of Webware, who has been testing the new tool, offers his take.

Still having a rotten time with parallel parking? Well, if you have deep pockets--and I mean really deep pockets, have I got the car for you.

Listen now: … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 793: 19 and still single?

In today's episode, we learn that Facebook's targeted ad system was apparently devised sometime in 16th century London. Also, a new PS3 bundle brings the pain (with voucher), Apple gets sued over its lousy 3G reception, and the FCC is still all over Comcast, and Comcast responds by announcing its plans to throttle (huh?). Also, we school some doctor on the deal with oxytocin. Boom.

Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 793

Episode 793

Judge: Copyright owners must consider ‘fair use’ http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10021999-93.html?tag=nefd.lede http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/08/judge-copyright.htmlRead more

A much deeper Facebook experience coming to iPhone users

On Wednesday night, Facebook previewed the next version of its popular iPhone application, which has retained one of the top spots in Apple's App Store since its launch in early July.

The new mobile version is a complete overhaul that shares much in common with the redesign of Facebook's Web version--a move that could be paving the way for mobile advertising and applications later on down the road.

The biggest addition in version 2.0 is support for real-time status updates, including integration with the service's messaging and live chat. At the time of launch, users will … Read more

Facebook's 'Engagement Ads' tests the waters

This post was updated at 8:02 a.m. PT with comment from Facebook.

Facebook is making the advertisements on its site "smarter" and more interactive, Forrester Research analyst Jeremiah Owyang wrote on his blog Thursday. Owyang had been briefed by Facebook monetization director Tim Kendall on a Facebook initiative called "Engagement Ads" that is slated to launch later on Thursday.

Facebook confirmed the program to CNET News later on Thursday morning. "Facebook is conducting a trial of Engagement Ads over the next few months as part of its continual development of additional advertising concepts,&… Read more

Facebook developers to factor in age, location

Facebook has announced modifications to its developer application programming interface so that the creators of third-party applications can restrict their reach by demographic--more specifically, by age or location.

The update is designed to help developers who may run into legal issues if they make their applications available to all Facebook users, regardless of how old they are or what countries they live in.

This could apply, for example, to promotional applications created by liquor companies that need to restrict access to those over 21 in the United States, or to game makers that have only been licensed in certain countries. … Read more

Dell and Facebook prepping 'significant' announcement

Two of the biggest names in tech are teaming up on a cloud computing project that they plan to announce at a special event next week.

Facebook amasses billions of photos, friend connections, and status updates and stores them up in "the cloud," and Dell is working on being one of the main providers of the infrastructure--servers--that makes the cloud possible.

So what, exactly, are they doing together? Well, we already know Dell provides servers for Palo Alto, Calif.-based Facebook, but what other plans the two have hatched together beyond that is unclear. The event is scheduled … Read more

CNET News Daily Podcast: The MIT three free to speak

Three Massachusetts Institute of Technology students who have been barred by a court order from discussing subway card vulnerabilities are now free to say what they want.

The University of Michigan released its annual ACSI scores for the PC industry, and Apple took top honors for the fifth straight year.

Plus, it isn't your usual Nokia jingle, but a campaign to promote condom use in India sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is off to a strong start.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Today's stories:

U.S. mobile-phone sales take a hit

Android security team appeals to bug huntersRead more

Facebook's latest geographic expansion: New offices

Facebook has simply gotten too big for downtown Palo Alto, Calif., where it has been headquartered since founder Mark Zuckerberg uprooted the company from dorm rooms at Harvard. With over 600 employees now on its payroll, Facebook will be moving to a bigger facility at the Stanford Research Park outside town--a former Hewlett-Packard building.

"This new space is the next step in our growth and positions us well to continue looking for a long term campus solution while also allowing employees to work together as much as possible," a statement from Facebook read. The company plans to complete … Read more

More security holes plague MySpace, possibly Facebook

Updated 6:50 p.m. PT with Facebook saying no hole in Free Gifts app.

MySpace was working to fix a security hole on Monday that allows people to see private comments friends have written on members' pages.

"MySpace is committed to keeping all users as safe and secure as possible. Today, MySpace was alerted to an issue within the MySpace Mobile WAP site and is working to roll out an immediate fix," a MySpace spokesperson wrote in an e-mail.

With the MySpace hole, people have to go through the company's mobile page and know the user … Read more