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(via Anil Dash)

Best post I’ve seen today: Ari Paparo talks about the differences between del.icio.us and Blink. Blink was Ari’s startup during the bubble, which raised $13 million (!) to build an online bookmarking service, but didn’t take off with users.

The only way any of us gets to be a successful entrepreneur is by learning from others’ mistakes, yet a lot of business culture focuses around never admitting that errors are ever made. So kudos to Ari, not just for being brave enough to be self-critical, but for helping a lot of new aspiring entrepreneurs to succeed.

The only quibble I’d have is that Ari presents del.icio.us as having succeeded already. Josh and his team at del.icio.us have built a great app, but for as popular as they are with geeks, the hard work is to bring the concept of social bookmarking (or, if you prefer, a shared recollection tool) to a larger audience.

The best history of del.icio.us I’ve seen is David’s post about its evolution. I’m only pointing to it so I get the old-school cred of saying “I liked it back when it was muxway.”

Google Inc. wants to connect all of San Francisco to the Internet with a free wireless service, creating a springboard for the online search engine leader to leap into the telecommunications industry.

Google spokesman Nate Tyler said Saturday that the company doesn’t have any plans to offer a Wi-Fi service outside the San Francisco Bay area.

“Unwiring San Francisco is a way for Google to support our local Bay Area community,” Tyler said. “It is also an opportunity to make San Francisco a test-ground for new location-based applications and services that enable people to find relevant information exactly when and where they need it.”

Google has been quietly experimenting with Wi-Fi service in a few connection spots around the Bay Area and New York during the past few months. In another sign of its interest in Internet access, Google recently bought an undisclosed stake in a Maryland startup, the Current Communications Group, which is trying to provide high-speed connections through power lines.

Building its own wireless Internet network connection also would help Google save money by reducing the fees that it pays to the telecommunications middlemen that provide a bridge between the company’s data centers and Internet service providers whenever Web surfers make a search request.

Any free Internet access service would threaten to siphon revenue from subscription Internet service providers like SBC Communications Inc. and Comcast Corp. that have invested heavily in high-speed connections that depend on phone lines and cable modems.

A Google Wi-Fi service also could divert traffic from many popular Web sites, including Yahoo, MSN and AOL, if it’s set up to automatically make Google’s home page the first stopping point.

BERKELEY, Calif. – If spyware and key-logging software weren’t a big enough threat to privacy, researchers have figured out a way to eavesdrop on your computer simply by listening to the clicks and clacks of the keyboard.

Those seemingly random noises, when processed by a computer, were translated with up to 96 percent accuracy, according to researchers at the University of California, Berkeley.

“It’s a form of acoustical spying that should raise red flags among computer security and privacy experts,” said Doug Tygar, a Berkeley computer science professor and the study’s principal investigator.

Researchers used several 10-minute audio recordings of people typing away at their keyboards. They fed the recordings into a computer that used an algorithm to detect subtle differences in the sound as each letter is struck.

Contiune reading.

“I, for one, welcome our new alien overlords”

- in what looks like a thinly-veiled attempt at viral marketing, a company claims to be giving bloggers the opportunity to send a piece of their lives into space to potentially connect with extraterrestrials.

Let’s just hope that future generations will not have to endure this kind of thing, next time a blogger decides to quit ranting on about themselves.

Google Moon – Google Maps gets the Lunar treatment, in honor of the first manned moon landing. No directions, though, so you won’t be able to plot the best route from Tycho Crater to Mare Imbrium. (Fun Hint! – try the maximum zoom level)

Google thinks your internet connection is too slow. They want to make it faster.

The ultimate search engine: YaGoohoo!gle.