Faster wi-fi for cell phones; spam botnet comes back to life; Web publications now eligible for the Pulitzer

Broadcom squeezes 11n, Bluetooth, FM into new, cheap chip [ArsTechnica] 

Fast wi-fi is on its way for mobile phones, with Broadcom releasing a chipset that promises 802.11n connectivity. With more and more smartphones coming equipped with web browsers that look and function just like desktop web browsers, fast wi-fi connections are moving from a novel feature to a requirement for mobile phone handsets. Broadcom's wi-fi chipset includes Bluetooth and FM radio reception capabilities without any additional drain on the battery than wi-fi chipsets that are currently on the market.

If your broadband connection is fast enough, Broadcom expects that its wi-fi chipset can achieve 50 Mbps download speeds.  When you're home, your DOCSIS 3.0 connection will be even more valuable.

Botnet awakens after McColo shutdown [The Register] 

Last month, notorious botnet operator McColo was shut down after a Washington Post reporter began questioning the ISPs that supplied the Internet connection to McColo. Now, it appears that one of the spam botnets that McColo operated appears to be back online and sending out volumes of spam email. It's called the Mega-D botnet, and its a network of thousands of compromised PCs that have been commandeered by the successor to McColo to send out spam advertisements. Many experts believed that it would only be a matter of time until the McColo systems were turned over to another operator outside the U.S. I wonder why the same solution can't be applied to the new ISP.

As newspapers fade, Pulitzer embraces Web [CNET News] 

The board responsible for the Pulitzer Prize has made a major shift in policy, opening the possibility for web-only publications to win the prestigious award. Long the domain of printed newspapers, the Pulitzer Prize board has voted to open the competition to web newspapers, so long as they publish at least once per week. The news comes as one traditional newspaper company, Tribune, declared bankruptcy and  another, Gannett, laid off hundreds of employees. 

Bringing That Quirky Video Store Clerk to the Web [NYT Bits Blog]

Movie recommendations are an important feature to movie rental outlets like Netflix. In fact Netflix has sponsored a contest with a $1 million prize to the computer programmer who can significantly improve the automated movie recommendation software that Netflix currently uses. Part of the problem in improving Netflix's system is that computer-generated recommendations are only helpful to a point. Bits Blog profiles a site called ClerkDogs that is using humans to catalog and develop movie recommendations along the lines of, "If you liked this particular movie, then you'll likely enjoy watching this list of other movies." The site has recommendations involving 5,000 movies thus far, and plans to have 12,000 movies cataloged by February. When you're thinking about the next movie you want to rent, give this site a whirl.