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Startup Stackdriver snags StyleFeeder founder

Philip Jacob, who started online shopping site StyleFeeder, grew it to a milllion registered users, and sold it to Time Inc., is joining Boston startup Stackdriver to help it develop technology to manage applications across cloud infrastructures.

7 stories to read this weekend

James Bond is 50, a nation of deadbeats, Stone Age brains dealing with Facebook, living literally inside the computer and reverse network effects — these are some of the topics I have put together for this week’s seven recommended reads. Plus a great essay on men’s style.

Ebooks now outselling print on Amazon UK

A little over a year after Amazon announced that it was selling more ebooks than print books in the U.S., the company has hit the same milestone in the UK. Another surprise: “50 Shades” author E.L. James has sold more books than J.K. Rowling on Amazon.co.uk.

IBM wants to help you make sense of everything

If you haven’t heard IBM Fellow Jeff Jonas talk about how the right algorithm can help you figure out who’s who among a sea of data points, you’re missing out. The good news is Jonas’s vision is now a product.

Jobs’ vow to destroy Android fair game at Motorola trial

Steve Jobs’ incendiary comments about Android in his biography have been ruled fair game for Motorola’s lawyers in its upcoming trial versus Apple. The judge also laid out some other ground rules this week, including forbidding Apple lawyers from playing up Jobs’ or Apple’s popularity.

Data guru Jeff Jonas named IBM fellow

Jeff Jonas is now an IBM Fellow, according to a post on The Smarter Planet blog. We obviously think the world of him — Jonas has been a featured speaker at our Structure Data events twice.

Super science cloud coming to Europe

Scientists have a limitless hunger for computing power and storage. That’s why three European agencies — CERN, the force behind the Large Hadron Collider; the European Molecular Biology Laboratory; and the European Space Agency and supporters — are cooking up a European science cloud.

Kickstarter is a crowdsourced endowment for the arts

One of Kickstarter’s founders has come under fire for saying that the service will provide more funding this year than the the National Endowment for the Arts, but the reality is that the service has become a significant platform for movies, books and other artistic projects.

Apple is right where it needs to be at CES

Apple is at CES despite not having an official exhibiting presence at the show, according to a new report. More than 250 employees are reportedly registered to attend the show, which makes perfect sense if Apple wants to check out the competition without showing its hand.

SetJam acquired by Motorola Mobility

Video discovery startup SetJam just got acquired by Motorola Mobility, according to CEO Ryan Janssen. The company will provide some personalization and recommendations technology which can be integrated into Moto set-top boxes, as its cable and IPTV customers seek to provide more IP- and cloud-based services.

The Jobs interregnum interview: in theaters tonight

A never-before-seen interview with Steve Jobs debuts Wednesday night in 17 theaters. Taped in 1995, before Apple bought NeXT and Jobs returned to the company he founded, this interview stands as a historical snapshot of Jobs between the two defining periods of his life at Apple.

IBM CEOs through the ages

Virginia “Ginni” Rometty is just the ninth CEO in IBM’s 100-year history The announcement earlier this week that she would succeed Sam Palmisano was not surprising or controversial, even though Rometti is IBM’s first female CEO, and now arguably the most powerful women in business.

Groupon in China: Ebay all over again?

Just because it works in the United States, doesn’t mean it will work in China. It’s a lesson some of our biggest tech brands have learned the hard way. And as Groupon attempts expands east, critics say its already making the same mistakes.

‘Returnees’ dominate Chinese startup culture

The Chinese tech scene is dominated by a small group of entrepreneurs who paid their dues in Silicon Valley before returning to create successful startups. But “returnees” are also laying the foundation for a startup culture that will allow grassroots entrepreneurs to flourish.

How Space-Time Makes Sense of Big Data

As the amount of captured data grows, how can businesses make more sense of it, use it for accurate predictions and better understand their customers? The answer may lie in the world of physics: the concept of space-time paired with data improves predictions through context.

Jeff Jonas Video on How Data Makes Corporations Dumb

Jeff Jonas, chief scientist at IBM Entity Analytics Group and an IBM Distinguished Engineer thinks the world has a big problem with big data and problem is only going to get bigger. In this video he discusses the coming data tsunami and its impact.

Jeff Jonas Video on How Data Makes Corporations Dumb

Jeff Jonas, chief scientist at IBM Entity Analytics Group and an IBM Distinguished Engineer thinks the world has a big problem with big data and the problem is only going to get bigger. In this video he discusses the coming data tsunami and its impact.

YouTube Time Machine Trips You Back Into the Past

YouTube’s value isn’t always in introducing us to the newest and most popular videos, but in helping us track down long-forgotten ones. The site YouTube Time Machine serves up nostalgia via a randomized player that allows you to watch videos sorted by year of launch.

Video: Interview with Catfish‘s Directors and Star

Two guys start filming their friend/younger brother as he starts an online relationship — that’s the genesis of the documentary Catfish. Nev Schulman, Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost tell us how digital storage impacted the film and why people don’t believe it really happened.

4chan Decides to Do Something Nice For a Change

The anarchic online community known as 4chan isn’t known for doing things that are cute and heart-warming — it’s mostly known for posting sophomoric humor and graphic sexual imagery. But today, someone decided the Internet should wish 90-year-old WWII veteran William J. Lashua a happy birthday.

FluidDB: One Man's Mission to Power the Web of Things

Things are finally coming together for Fluidinfo founder Terry Jones, who just closed an $800,000 round of funding led by Betaworks and launched his product, the FluidDB “platform for the web of things,” at TechCrunch Disrupt, after 13 years and three complete rewrites in the making.

MySpace Turns to New Design, Ad Push to Revive Fortunes

MySpace is planning a major relaunch this fall, co-presidents Jason Hirschorn and Mike Jones said today. They said it will include a redesign to emphasize discovery and will be backed up with a marketing campaign to “help solidify this is what we’re going to be.”

Weekend Video: Building a Tech Startup During a Recession

Can you build a successful company in a downturn? The answer is yes, as this video illustrates. Digg CEO Jay Adelson, venture capitalists such as Steve Jurvetson of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Skype-backer Howard Hartenbaum and Bill Draper of Draper Richards weigh-in with their view and insights.

Report

Telcos Tap Wireless Opportunities In the Smart Grid

A buildout of a smarter power grid in the U.S. could be one of the largest creators of wealth in the decade. According to the Edison Electric Institute, it’ll take at least $50 billion for all the investor-owned utilities (which make up 70 percent of the U.S. utilities) to roll out smart grid networks. That opportunity is starting to look pretty attractive to both startups developing new wireless technologies that can monitor and manage electricity demands and telcos, which have spent billions building out their own nearly ubiquitous wireless networks. As the wireless industry has matured over the last decade, wireless radios and network technology have gotten sophisticated and cheap enough that the emergence of a smart grid will rest heavily on those years of innovation.

Yahoo CFO to Leave

The executive shakeup at Yahoo (s YHOO) continues. Blake Jorgensen, Yahoo’s chief financial officer, will leave the company, according to an SEC…

Zendesk for Help Gets Seed Funding

Keep an eye out on Copenhagen-based help desk-on-demand company Zendesk. The firm, started by Mikkel Svane, just raised half a million dollars…

Startups Abandon Moore's Law

With costs for the latest technology rising, smaller startups and their venture backers have decided that in some cases, old-school technology may be the best way to make a product — and a buck. Instead of following in the footsteps of the top chipmakers such as Intel, AMD and Samsung, which are packing more onto smaller chips, startups are turning to process technology from up to 10 years ago.