Thursday 8am Silicon Valley news report:

Spam is a big polluter in more ways than one -SFGate

According to a study released Wednesday by McAfee Inc., the security technology company in Santa Clara, the amount of energy it takes annually to transmit, process and filter spam from around the world is estimated to be equal to the electricity used in 2.4 million homes in a year

Sun Said to Be Willing to Resume Talks If IBM Concedes on Terms -Siliconvalley.com

The two companies are locked in a stalemate after acquisition talks dissolved almost two weeks ago, two people familiar with the situation said. There are currently no discussions happening and each company is waiting for the other to make a move, said the people, who declined to be identified because the information is confidential.

How To Avoid Making A Bad Pitch -WebGuild

Gina Vakili, director of marketing, Canaan has some tips on what not do when speaking to venture capitalist and some common mistakes that can be avoided.

Five Ways Cloud Computing Strengthens IT -JDJ

Sometimes lost in the cloud computing benefits discussion is how cloud computing enhances development and test groups in an enterprise. I can think of five different ways in which cloud computing strengthens development and test groups:

Cisco Boss On Sun: No -Webguild

Cisco’s Chief John Chambers said his company isn’t likely to bid for Sun Microsystems.
“Cisco moves very rapidly on acquisitions … If we were going to be in an area, we would probably have already moved.” Chambers told reporters when asked about Sun.

Panasonic, NEC unveil 9 Linux phones -Reuters

The focus of the cellphone market has been shifting to software development since Google and Apple entered the mobile market in the past two years, with phone vendors and operators increasingly looking for open source alternatives like LiMo to cut costs.

Five Tips To Protect Yourself When Filing Taxes Online -WebGuild

Approximately six out of every ten taxpayers filed online in 2008 and this number is expected to increase in 2009. There are many sites enabling taxpayers to file their taxes online for free. But how do you protect yourself from online fraud, scams, and phishing attacks?!

Google widens lead in U.S. searches: comScore -Reuters

Google had a 63.7 percent share of the 14.3 billion U.S. searches in March, up 0.4 percentage points from February, and above the 63.5 percent level that was its previous high.

PC shipments slide in 1Q, HP tops Dell in US -AP

Worldwide, HP's market share crept up to 20.5 percent while Dell's slipped a few points to 13.6 percent, IDC reported. HP's shipments rose 2.9 percent as Dell's plunged 16.7 percent.

Phone company shelves unpopular Internet cap plan -AP

With Time Warner Cable facing the fury of consumers and threats of legislation, Frontier said this week that it won't sell Internet service with "tiers" of usage, much like the minute allowance of a cell phone plan.

Gov't won't classify proxies as "sophisticated" -AP

The U.S. government has dropped - for now - a controversial plan to classify the use of "proxy" servers as evidence of sophistication in committing a crime.

Offshore resources go beyond oil wells -SFGate

The basic idea is simple enough. Ocean waves pack tremendous energy in small spaces. That energy can be tapped by buoys that generate electricity as they rise and fall with the waves or by devices that let rising water compress columns of air to turn turbines.

More Than Half of Voters Used Internet for Election News -NYTimes

About 55 percent of all adults — about three-fourths of all people who are online — said they went to the Internet for news about the election, according to a survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. This is the first time that more than half the country’s adults said they used the Internet for political purposes.

Silicon Imaging Digital Cinema Cameras go 3D -StudioDaily

“The SI-3D camera system streamlines the entire stereo-3D content acquisition and post production process;” states Ari Presler, CEO of Silicon Imaging. “Combining two cameras into a single control, processing and recording platform enables shooting and instant playback like a traditional 2D camera with the added tools needed on-set to analyze and adjust the lighting, color, flip orientation and stereo depth effects. In post, a unified stereo file plus associated metadata can be immediately graded for dailies, edited, and viewed in either 2D or 3D.”

Games a 'healthy escape,' say disabled readers

A reader identifying him/herself only as “Nolie603” wrote that while being a firm supporter of the disabled-gamers movement, “there are those who use games as a way to be ‘normal’ again … so much so that they totally give up on who they really are in place of their avatar.”