DIGG to create Local News options and Forums?

RIPPED FROM CNET: Digg has always made its message clear: it’s not social news, it’s democracy. The company’s executive team–founder Kevin Rose, and CEO Jay Adelson–thumbed their noses at the DMCA complaint they received when users “dugg” a crack code for the now-defunct HD DVD technology. They also decided to connect with their users through “town hall” events Webcast live four times a year. So it’s perhaps fitting that for the company’s third quarterly town hall, Rose and Adelson set up shop in the “Big Tent” new-media hall at the…

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Rumours of Steve Jobs’ Demise are Greatly Exaggerated

From the “oh, crap” files: The Bloomberg Financial Newswire is experiencing a little “send all” remorse today after mistakenly releasing Steve Jobs’ obituary into the wild. The 17-page obit was apparently being updated when the author mistook the “Save” button for the “Freak out shareholders” key and accidentally published the document across the entire newswire. A retraction was published almost immediately, but not before rgbFilter was able to get its hands on a copy of the obituary, which you can see below.

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Internet Explorer allows you to surf safer; no more information gathering

From Marketing Magazine, August 28, 2008: The next version of Microsoft’s web browser makes it easier for people to surf the Internet without leaving a trace. Companies that sell advertisements online now—including Microsoft—can electronically gather tidbits about web surfers’ habits, and then use that information to help decide what kinds of ads to show. However, in the newest beta test version of Microsoft’s forthcoming Internet Explorer 8, which was made available Wednesday, a mode called InPrivateBrowsing lets users surf without having a list of sites they visit get stored on…

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North America’s FIRST VIRGIN RADIO STATION Comes to Toronto.

We’re the home of the first North American Hard Rock Cafe.Now we’re the home of the first Virgin Radio Station.As of August 25, 2008, Toronto’s old stalwart music station “Mix 99.9” has officially been renamed “Virgin Radio 99.9 FM“.There will be no format change, and the station will continue with its current playlist of adult contemporary and easy listening tunes.The announcement was made on Monday August 25 in the morning, and the changeover happened that same day around 4:00 PM.This represents the very first Virgin radio station in North America.

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On Facebook Yoda Can Not Be – For Some

From the “Stupid Copyright Nonsense” Department: Japanese author and translator Hiroko Yoda has been having problems setting up a Facebook account, as her last name is the same as a director George Lucas met in Tokyo a long time ago (but in this galaxy), which inspired the name of the worlds favourite little green Jedi master.  Yoda is a fairly common Japanese last name, and after contacting Facebook about the problem, they had this to say in reply: Facebook blocks the registration of a number of names that are frequently…

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Fan Expo: Kevin Eastman Interview

As Ryan mentioned before, sat down with Kevin Eastman, co-creator of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles during Fan Expo. They about leaving Mirage, starting Tundra Press, running Heavy Metal magazine and his disappointment with the second Heavy Metal movie after losing creative control. He also talks about the third movie, which will be an anthology like the first, with animation done by blur.com. David Fincher is executive producer and plans on directing a segment. During the interview, Eastman also mentions directors Zack Snyder, Guillermo Del Toro and Gore Verbinski all want…

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Fan Expo: John Meadows Interview

Alex has a conversation with John Meadows, instructor at Vancouver Film School and writer for Lost: The Video Game, for Ubisoft amongst other things. They touch on challenges writing for the video game medium vs. film, working with an existing property, and the different storytelling sensibilities of North America vs. Europe and Japan, and Ubisoft as a French company producing games in Montreal.

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Apple vs. Art

It took the appalling spectacle of Apple trying to deny iPhone distribution to these artists at Murderdrome to draw my attention to Infurious Comics and their neat little enterprise. My willingness to try to distribute my own webcomic through the iPhone’s App Store will hinge on how Apple responds to criticisms like this one. I could be comfortable with an App Store-wide rating system that treats all media equally, but it would depend on whether it’s just a cloak for more censorship. (After all, nothing about having a rating system…

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Fan Expo: Aaron Douglas Interview

Alex talks with Aaron Douglas, who plays Chief on Battlestar Galactica. It starts off as a mutual Ricky Gervais / Stephen Merchant / Karl Pilkington fan chat (Aaron want to work with them, hint hint), then turns to discussions about the announced BSG TV movie being directed by Edward James Olmos and his roles in The Bridge and Blood: A Butcher’s Tale and what it’s like to work on a fully green screened set. NOTE: This is a repost because the earlier version contained an error.

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Fan Expo: Rick Green Interview

Ryan talks to Rick Green about the hilarious history of Hoverboy, and Doug pops in to find the truth behind the fate of the Prisoners Of Gravity chair. “The chair ended up in our garage after the series ended and I just knew that someday it would be worth something as a collector’s item, but, you know, raccoons pooed all over it and it went in the garbage eventually…” Rick summarized. A sad end to a beloved prop indeed.

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