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Debunking a law firm's open-source FUD

Update below with White & Case's response. Spoiler: they weren't happy with my interpretation of their e-mail.

White & Case, a leading international law firm, has been struggling in the face of the recession, laying off 70 associates in late 2008.

Perhaps nothing makes its struggle as clear as its attempt to drum up business by scaring prospective and current clientele into retaining its services to address the very scary open-source legal threat, as a recent e-mail sent out to a friend suggests:

From: "Rieck, Christopher" Date: April 13, 2009 8:09:09 AM PDT To: … Read more

Google shows off Gmail mobile Web app

SAN FRANCISCO--What Google did with Gmail in conventional browsers five years ago it is expecting to do again with a new mobile version of its Web-based e-mail service.

Vic Gundotra, who leads Google's mobile software and developer relations efforts, showed off the Web application "technical prototype" Friday in an onstage interview here at the Web 2.0 Expo. Google offers Gmail applications that run natively on BlackBerry and Android mobile phones, but the company clearly has high hopes for a Web-based version as well.

Building a Web interface means Google can reach more phones more easily, Gundotra … Read more

The bridge between 'Revolution' 1 and 9

This news is over a month old, but somehow I missed it until the intrepid Penn Jillette tweeted about it Sunday (never say Twitter's useless). Here's the scene: Beatles. 1968. That'd be the long-hair bearded Beatles. "White Album" recording session. John's recording a slowed-down version of their recent hit single "Revolution," the B-side to the umpteen-million selling "Hey Jude." Being in a particular state of mind, he stretches it out for 10 minutes, then adds some scary horror music plus Yoko spoken-word weirdness at the end. Later, John or the … Read more

Obama to hold online town hall meeting

President Barack Obama is turning directly to the public to win support for his economic proposals in ways unseen from any president before him, and on Tuesday he continued that by introducing a new feature on WhiteHouse.gov called "Open for Questions."

The new feature, modeled after the "Open for Questions" tool on Change.gov, allows users to ask a question about the economy, as well as vote for or against others' questions. On Thursday morning, the president will hold an online town hall meeting on the economy, streamed on WhiteHouse.gov, and answer some of … Read more

Green-jobs activist to serve Obama administration

Environmental activist and author Van Jones, one of the first to recognize the power of a "green collar" job corps as a tool for social justice, has been tapped by the Obama administration to serve as special adviser for green jobs, enterprise, and innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ).

Under his new post, which he'll start Monday, Jones will shape and advance the administration's energy and climate initiatives "with a specific interest in improvements and opportunities for vulnerable communities," said Nancy Sutley, chair of the CEQ, in a statement Tuesday. … Read more

No, the White House hasn't ditched YouTube

The White House has denied that it has "abandoned YouTube as the provider of the embedded videos on the president's official home page."

In the report written by Chris Soghoian, a contributor to CNET's Blog Network, the author correctly noted that President Obama's weekly video address was distributed via a Flash player from Akamai instead of YouTube. But the author also wrote that the White House was bowing to pressure from privacy activists. White House officials acknowledged switching players but denied making any permanent decisions about them, or that they were motivated by privacy concerns. … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 922: Hot and junky

Brian Cooley aptly describes YouTube as hot and junky video today. And that, my friends, is why the president has moved his video off YouTube and is hosting the player himself. Meanwhile, we get a few more jabs in at the Authors Guild/Kindle controversy, and Cooley rants about space. Parking space.

Listen now: Download today's podcast Episode 922

Square Root Day revelers to party like it’s 3/3/09 http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-10186121-76.html

Apple tweaks desktops http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10186472-37.html http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/03/apple-releases-trio-of-long-awaited-desktops.ars

Roku box adds Amazon … Read more

Is the White House changing its YouTube tune?

Editors' note: Correction, March 3, 12:46 p.m. PST: This post, which originally carried the headline "White House ditches YouTube after privacy complaints," significantly misconstrued the White House's policy on and use of YouTube. In the interests of disclosure and transparency, we are leaving the contents as originally posted, with two subsequent update notes and with the exception of the headline change. See also our follow-up story, "No, the White House hasn't ditched YouTube."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * Original story follows * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Updated at 5:50 p.m. PST March 2: The New York Times is reporting that … Read more

New Beatles outtake discovered?

Update: Later in the day Monday, YouTube took down the video due to a copyright claim from EMI Music; it's gone for now.

Britain's NME reported on Monday that unreleased Beatles material has surfaced online. An audio-only YouTube video, right, is claiming to be an unreleased take of the song "Revolution." It's take 20, and it starts out sounding like "Revolution 1" from the band's "White Album."

The 10-minute, 47-second running time is 7 minutes longer than "Revolution 1," though after some in-studio chatter by The Beatles, what … Read more