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The 404 235: Where now we love Christian rock

With Justin at home sick, we invite MTI into the studio today to take his place. After we take the proper sanitary precautions with Justin's microphone, we chat about Twitter's questionable decision to reject a $500 million buyout offer from Facebook.

Next it's on to a fairy tale story starring Steve Jobs as the fairy godmother. Seems some kid (who is clearly more well-off than the average college student) sent him an e-mail desperately seeking a student discount for Final Cut Studio. Jobs waved his magic wand and sent him the package totally free. Wow Steve, that's awfully nice of you. How bout hooking The 404 up with a Mac Pro that won't drop our Ustream feed?

So sit back, relax, and enjoy the short week. Download today's episode for more stories from around the Web, a ridiculously huge Calls from the Public session, and some Christian rock apologies.

EPISODE 235 Download today's podcast … Read more

Twitter your videos with Ffwd, if you dare

Video-sharing site Ffwd now has links into Twitter.

When you share a video on the site, or even just watch one, the service can optionally blast your activity to your Twitter followers. There's also a new bookmarklet that makes it easy to share any video link on Twitter without actually going to the Ffwd site itself.

I suppose if I find a video I really want to share, on either Ffwd or elsewhere on the Web, it's cool that I can now easily Twitter that out to my followers. And it is interesting to think about how Twitter … Read more

Featured Freeware: Twhirl

Built on Adobe AIR, Twhirl is a stand-out Twitter service that rolls the functionality of many ancillary services into one. For example, Twhirl automatically posts TinyURLs in place of long URLs, sends photos to TwitPic, and searches for Twitter topics using a built-in TweetScan engine. In the settings, you can configure Twhirl to cross-post updates to Jaiku and Pownce, much like the service Ping.fm.

Though cheery, the interface is also economical, providing extensive options for viewing and updating statuses and messages for all your Twitter and Friendfeed accounts without overcrowding the small screen. The preferences let you customize your … Read more

'Values of n' engineer heading to Twitter

Rael Dornfest is joining Twitter.

Formerly an editor and a CTO for O'Reilly Media, his most recent project is a software house called Values of n, which makes the clever app (and Webware 100 winner) I Want Sandy and the virtual sticky note service called Stikkit.

Both products will shut down at 5 p.m. PST on December 8, according the Values of n blog. However, the Twitter blog says, "The technology...will live on and potentially re-emerge as part of Twitter's systems." It'd be pretty cool if the auto-concierge of I Want Sandy made … Read more

The Digital Home Video: Twitter made the right decision

Twitter made the right decision by not accepting the Facebook deal. It's as simple as that.

Even better news: you can now subscribe to this show. Just add it up right here!

And as always, drop me a line or follow me on Twitter!

It's a good thing Facebook's not buying Twitter

Twitter and Facebook seem like a nice match, don't they. It was no surprise that rumors started about a Facebook acquisition of Twitter. It was hardly a shocker when the rumors turned out to be true.

But it's good that the talks fell apart. (Story source: Kara Swisher: When Twitter met Facebook.)

From the outside, it looks like Facebook and Twitter could be happy social stablemates. Facebook has its own Twitter-like function, but it's not the core of the service. Twitter gets its users talking, but doesn't have the robust social features of Facebook. Melding Twitter … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 859: Don't get your flops in a watt

Rafe and Molly square off over the reuse of air conditioning technology, the fail whale sinks a deal between Facebook and Twitter, Gmail is cracked, and an enterprising astronaut creates the ultimate in must-have space tech: a zero-G coffee cup.

Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 859

Twitter rebuffs a Facebook poke? http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10106391-2.html

Gmail exploit may allow attackers to forward e-mail http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10106275-83.html http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/breaking-gmail-security-flaw-more-domains-get-stollen/

EU strikes down French “3 strikes” copyright infringement law http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/23/1952248

Has … Read more

5 tech products you can do without in a recession

You know it's going to be really bad when the man who first revealed that the world is flat, Thomas Friedman of The New York Times, says it's going to be really bad.

Here's how bad it is: Russians are drinking less vodka.

So, as you gird your loans and tighten your money belts, perhaps it's time to live a simpler life. One that revolves far less around luxurious and complex technologies.

Here are five tech products that you will surely be able to live without in this recession/depression/secession from Alaska.

1. Twitter. … Read more

Twitter rebuffs a Facebook poke?

Maybe it wasn't just egregious Valley gossip-baiting when Federated Media CEO John Battelle asked Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg earlier this month if his company was going to buy Twitter.

Kara Swisher of AllThingsD reported early Monday morning that actual acquisition talks held between the two companies have fallen through.

The deal would have been for $500 million in Facebook stock, Swisher wrote.

Facebook's not big on acquisitions. The only sizable purchase the company has made was of a start-up called Parakey, and that was really just a way to bring on board founder Blake Ross.

Twitter's a … Read more