Japan's love for vending machines is well documented: The Western press has written news items for years about the nation's estimated 5 million stations, which dispense everything from kerosene to toilet paper. Photomann Travel Photography shares this fascination and has collected scores of photos depicting the machines--including one that sells rhinoceros beetles.
Web sites launch all the time, but they also shut their doors. We highlight 15 that bit the dust this year.
Let the debate begin: Was the iPhone more important than iTunes? Was anything bigger than Google finding a great business model? CNET offers its list of the 10 most important stories of the '00s.
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Business Tech
U.S. trade agency eyes Samsung-Sharp spatSamsung's claim of LCD-related patent infringement by rival Sharp draws the attention of the U.S. International Trade Commission.
Gallery
En route to GPS-based air traffic control (images)
Technically Incorrect
Facebook, Twitter: How we chose to live in publicThe end of 2009 and beginning of 2010 see much commentary about how living your life in public has become the norm. Is this technology's fault? Or is this what people always wanted?
Beyond Binary
Visual Studio launch delayed by 'a few weeks'Microsoft says it's still working to resolve some performance issues related to the Visual Studio 2010 developer tool suite, which was slated for a March release.
Video
Deep-sea volcanic explosion--part 2 (video)
InSecurity Complex
Q&A: Researcher Karsten Nohl on mobile eavesdroppingResearcher who tackled smart card security last year talks to CNET about how easy it is to listen in on GSM-based mobile phone calls now that the encryption has been cracked.
Video
Deep-sea volcanic explosion--part 1 (video)
Deep Tech
'Don't-be-evil' Google spurns no-evil softwareOne open-source software programmer's joke--'The Software shall be used for Good, not Evil'--is a serious matter at Google.
The Space Shot
Soyuz craft docks, boosts space station crewA Russian Soyuz spacecraft docked with the International Space Station Tuesday after a smooth, automated approach, boosting the lab's crew back up to five.
Gallery
NASA trains WISE eye on the sky (photos)
Crave
Robots in 2009: The wackier, the betterNo surprise here--some of the silliest and oddest robots of the year gone by were to be found in Japan. But who could top Taiwan's kissing bots?
Green Tech
Green-tech venture investing cools off in 2009Green tech is still attracting billions of dollars a year, but the amount of money has shrunk significantly as investors began to focus on start-ups with the most potential.
