Reporters' Roundtable (MP3)

Reporters' Roundtable Podcast: Tech biz turkeys

podcast@cnet.com (CNET.com) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:20:00 PST

Why is it that as Thanksgiving approaches, when we should be focusing on the good things in our lives, journalists take the opportunity to talk about what's bad? I don't know, but I do know that I'm not immune to the trend.

This week on the Reporters' Roundtable: tech business turkeys! Unlike the Real Deal podcast Thursday in which Tom Merritt and Brian Tong tried to steer you away from turkey products, in this episode, we discuss the turkey business decisions and business models that we've seen in tech over the years.

My guests are both co-workers. First, in the studio, Charlie Cooper, executive editor at CBSNews.com and author of the column Coop's Corner. Before moving to his highfalutin' job at CBS News, Charlie worked in the CNET newsroom as an editor and columnist, and he ran a great daily video podcast called the Daily Debrief.

Dialing in from our Boston bureau is Jim Kerstetter, executive editor of CNET News. Jim is responsible for all the news coverage on CNET, and he covered tech prior to that at BusinessWeek. When I approached him about this roundtable topic, he said, "I think I covered all the bad businesses already."

By the way, right after we stopped recording, and my guests left, the live chatroom pointed out that we had neglected to mention perhaps the most heinously derelict tech business decision in the history of personal computing. They were right. I could tell you what it was--or leave it up for ongoing discussion in the comments, which is what I'm going to do.

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Reporters' Roundtable Podcast 11: Tech biz turkeys

Show notes and talking points:

The troika of dot-com crazy: Kozmo.com, Pets.com, and Webvan.
Microsoft's mishandling of negotiations with the Justice Department.
Speaking of Microsoft: Yahoo's failure to sell itself to Microsoft and failure to live up to its fiduciary responsibilities to shareholders. Pure madness.
Compaq Computer buying DEC...for what, exactly? The mainframe business or the high-end server business, just as x86 servers take over the market (see Sun Microsystems failures).
Potential disaster: Oracle buying Sun. We still don't get this.
eBay buying Skype: We have never figured out how this worked.
Sony spying on users.
Hewlett-Packard spying on CNET.
Going back in time, Time Warner buying America Online, of course. And AOL failing to do anything with its chunk of Netscape (same with Sun, of course).
Be not selling itself to Apple.
And more!

Thanks for listening to Reporters' Roundtable. We're on live each Friday at live.cnet.com, except Thanksgiving--we're taking the week off. After the Thanksgiving holiday and through the rest of the year, Reporters' Roundtable (December 4, December 11, and December 18) will start an hour early, at noon PT.

Topics for future weeks will include: the role of design in the creation of tech products; advances in air travel, and what they mean for you and me; and the future of the Web browser.

Watch my Twitter feed for updates, and please send feedback to our new e-mail address, roundtable@cnet.com.

Thanks!

Reporters' Roundtable Podcast: Funny business

podcast@cnet.com (CNET.com) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:10:00 PST

Humor is serious business. This week, we have two entrepreneurs who prove it: Ben Huh, CEO of the Cheezburger Network, the company behind Failblog, ICanHazCheezburger, ThereIFixedIt, and other sites you've probably wasted your lunch hours on; and Ryan Dolan, previously in business development at The Onion, now making a go of it with his own business, 30Watt, which sells funny products like those at PrankPack.

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Reporters' Roundtable #10: Funny business

Show notes and talking points...

Intros - Ben - What is the Cheezburger Network?

Ryan - What is 30watt?

How do you start a business based on humor? Do you have to be funny?

Original content vs crowdsourcing.

Onion News Network video - costs of doing.

In general media, who's the king of funny? What can learn in the online world from this?

Discuss the attention span of the Web surfer? How to take advantage of that. Long form or short?

What's the business model?

Will people pay for content directly (subscriptions or micropayments)?

Do you target specific audiences or go general?

Boundaries, or "The economics of good taste;" Discuss NSFW or adult content

How expensive is it to produce good funny content?

Spin-offs - what works?

How do you get a deal with a major media company. And should you?

"Hey, I'm funny! Can I work for you? How much can I make?"

What's the future of online humor?

What's next for your businesses?

Next time: In honor of Thanksgiving, Turkey tech business ideas with Jim Kerstetter of CNET and Charlie Cooper of CBS News.

Watch my Twitter feed for updates.

Feedback to our new email address, roundtable@cnet.com.

Thanks!

Reporters' Roundtable Podcast: App stores

podcast@cnet.com (CNET.com) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:15:00 PST

This week on the Roundtable: the App Store revolution. Something funny has happened to software. While the model we all grew up with for the distribution of software was mostly to buy it through retail channels or other resellers, or maybe direct from manufacturers, another model emerged and has proven successful by Apple: the App Store. In this model, there is one and only one outlet for software, and it's run by the people who make the hardware. And, critically, you can't get a product into the store unless the hardware maker approves it.

The app store concept is spreading to other mobile platforms and may become a part of general-purpose computing and game platforms as well. It's changing how software is made, sold, distributed, and priced. To discuss these and related topics: Sebastian Rupley, editor in chief of the GigaOm network, which publishes, among other things, a great tech analysis site. Via remote from our New York office, CNET Senior Writer Maggie Reardon, who covers mobile and Web-based businesses.

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Reporters' Roundtable #9: The app store business

Show notes and talking points...

How big a deal is the app store concept?

How pervasive will it become?

What did Apple do right? How did it get to more than 100,000 apps?

What's the No. 2 app store (Maggie)?

What does this do for developers?

Outlook for Android, Palm, BlackBerry, MS, Symbian?

Only two weeks ago did Apple enable trialware--free before paid. What took so long? Isn't this known as one of the great ways to market on the Net?

Discuss pricing models.

Discuss approval process.

Could it work in Windows, OS X?

What about the Web? Yahoo is considering apps on its homepage.

What about games? And in-app purchases, like Farmville?

Next time: The business of humor with Ben Huh of Failblog! Plus one other great guest to be revealed later...

Watch my Twitter feed for updates.

Feedback to our new email address, roundtable@cnet.com.

Thanks!

Reporters' Roundtable Podcast: Books' future

podcast@cnet.com (CNET.com) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:01:00 PDT

This week: Books, future of. With the success of the Kindle and its store, and the announced upcoming release of the Barnes & Noble Nook, there are very interesting question for consumers and publishers: What is the future of the book? To discuss this on the Roundtable I have two experts on digital media. First, from CNET, executive editor David Carnoy, who has reviewed the latest e-book readers and who's an e-published author -- see "Knife Music" on Amazon, a 5-star rated book. And joining us from O'Reilly Media - Andrew Savikas, VP of Digital Media Initiatives and a well-known thinker on the print-to-digital transition.

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Reporters' Roundtable #7: The future of the book

Show notes and talking points...

The reason I picked this topic was the introduction of the B&N Nook, which I think makes the game of e-books more interesting, since it's a serious competitor to the Amazon Kindle. David, overview of the Nook - hardware and store and catalog?

Other vendors overview: Cue, Sony, Apple?

Looking forward: Is the book dead?

Let me ask this another way: What is a book?

With the Kindle and the Nook (and Sony etc)... are we there yet?

What about non-reader access on mobile (or PC)

Andrew: What is Safari, and can you give us a progress report on it?

Discussion of DRM and books: Will it go away, as it did on iTunes?

The concept of books needing platforms, the way software does: What does it mean for the act of reading?

Best market for e-books? (Texts and references, if you ask me.)

What will e-books do to publisher revenues? Authors? Does content necessarily become cheaper when it is digital?

How to sell used books, or lend a book?

What kind of reader do you own / would you buy if you could only have one?

What's next?

Next time on the Roundtable:

I have some ideas... stay tuned.

Comments to: roundtable@cnet.com

Reporters' Roundtable Podcast: Cloud 'dangers'

podcast@cnet.com (CNET.com) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:06:00 PDT

This week we are covering the dangers of cloud computing. Get it? With the major loss of consumer data for the Sidekick smartphone users--the Sidekick is made by Danger, a Microsoft company--the whole idea of "cloud" safety has been brought front and center for consumers.

Businesses, likewise, are wondering if they are exposed to similar risks when they put their apps and data in the cloud.

Can we trust the cloud?

Our guests to discuss this topic are CNET senior writer Stephen Shankland and Christofer Hoff, author of the Rational Survivability blog, which is about this very topic. Hoff is director of cloud and emerging solutions at Cisco System and thus has a vested interest in keeping the cloud safe and profitable.

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Reporters' Roundtable #7: The dangers of the cloud

Show notes and talking points...

Shankland, you just came from the Gartner conference, what's the take from there?

Hoff, what happened with the Sidekick outage? Was it a failure of "the cloud"?

There have been real cloud failures. Amazon AWS has had outages, and CTO Werner Vogel had to hit the road to beg forgiveness. What happened there?

Discuss other failures? Gmail, Magnolia, Swissdisk.

A question for small business: is your data safe when it's intermingled with other companies' stuff?

Discuss new and fun ways clouds could fail.

Two kinds of failure: Failure to access and real data loss.

The consumer dilemma: safety vs. lack of privacy, control. Discussion.

The business dilemma: cost vs. control, security and compliance. Discussion.

How do you know you can trust a cloud provider?

What skills are needed by customers?

Hoff recommends: Cloud Security Alliance

Next time on the Roundtable:

Tim O'Reilly and David Carnoy on "The future of the book." Don't miss it!

Comments to: roundtable@cnet.com

Reporters' Roundtable Podcast: Significance of 7

podcast@cnet.com (CNET.com) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:36:00 PDT

Is Windows 7 just Vista done right, or is it a real departure for Microsoft? This week on the Roundtable, we discuss what Windows 7 means for the industry as well as its impact on vendors like Apple and Google--with special guests Farhad Manjoo of Slate and Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet.

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Reporters' Roundtable #6: What Windows 7 means

We are days away from the launch of Windows 7. There is, to put it mildly, a lot riding on this release. Vista never lived up to expectations. Even today, three years after release, Vista has less than 19 percent of market share, and it's declining, according to Net Applications. Many people never upgraded from XP or got a machine with XP instead of Vista. Some are even abandoning Vista for the not-for-sale-yet Windows 7 through various pre-release programs. What can Windows 7 really do for Microsoft, and the tech industry? Click past the jump for the full show notes for this episode of Reporters Roundtable and for the full content, play the podcast, above.

Show notes

Windows overall still holds more than 92 percent market share, but it's the old and creaky XP that people are using, not Vista. Meanwhile Apple continues to win new converts and fans with OS Ten, which keeps getting better, not worse. The Mac platform recently topped 5 percent market share.

Windows 7 is Microsoft's attempt to recover from Vista. Can it, and will it, work? To discuss what Windows 7 means to Microsoft and the industry overall, we have two great guests on the Roundtable.

In the studio with us is FARHAD MANJOO, author of a fantastic tech column at Slate. Farhad is also author of the book, "True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society."

And coming in over the internets, MARY JO FOLEY, author of the always insightful All About Microsoft blog over at ZDNet. It's a great read if you want to know what's going on with Windows, and I'd said it's required reading if you're responsible for supporting Windows installations. Mary Jo is also author of the book, Microsoft 2.0.

Talking points

First: What the hell happened with Vista?

What has changed inside Microsoft as a result of it?

How important is Win 7 to MS?

Can Win 7 turn the tide?

Isn't Win 7 really Vista SP2?

Is Win 7 more important for Microsoft on the consumer or the business customer side?

Consumers - what do they want?

Businesses - How did MS fail them w/ Vista, what is different about 7?

Most important features in Win 7 (UI? XP mode? Sleep? Revised UAC?)

Importance of Netbooks. Is Windows too big?

Is Apple a threat? What are they doing right, wrong? How about Google?

What has MS learned from Apple, Linux?

Finally: What's next? Do OSes really matter in the era of the Web and x-platform AIR apps?

Reporters' Roundtable Podcast: A tablet future?

podcast@cnet.com (CNET.com) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 16:20:00 PDT

Next year will probably see new tablet computers from Apple and maybe even Microsoft. What do these companies know that our panel does not? Featuring Ryan Block and Harry McCracken.

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Reporters Roundtable # 5: Tablets' uncertain future

It's the obligatory Tablets edition of the Roundtable, this time with even more great and smart tech journalist entrepreneurs from Gdgt (Ryan Block) and Technologizer (Harry McCracken). Watch or listen for the content. Click to the full story to see the notes we used when recording.

Intros/news recap
Welcome to Reporters Roundtable, CNET's deep dive into a burning tech topic each week. Today, we're talking about tablet computers. Everyone is expecting Apple to roll out a tablet, or slate, or e-book, or whatever you call it, next year. Rumors are that the device will sell in the $600-to-$800 price range. And recently, we've seen videos of the Microsoft Courier interface, Microsoft's secret tablet project. It's obviously not as secret as Apple's.

Then, of course, there's the unreleased CrunchPad, instigated by TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington. Will it join the legion of failed tablet and slate computers released? Can it compete with offerings from Microsoft and Apple? And why don't we have tablets today? Will we finally get them next year? That's what we're discussing today, with two special guests:

First, Ryan Block, co-founder of the consumer tech community site Gdgt. Ryan was editor of the Engadget blog before Gdgt. He knows his Apple rumors.

We also have Harry McCracken, editor and founder of the new tech blog Technologizer. Before launching that site, Harry served as editor in chief of PC World magazine.

Talking points
First up: What and when?

Do consumers really want tablets?

What is a tablet? A computer without a pen? A TV? A book reader?

Which barriers need to fall: price, performance, software?

Brad Stone of The New York Times gives 5 reasons tablets have flopped:

Commitment
Technology
Input systems
Price
Software

What are the technological blockers?

What kind of operating system will be prevalent for tablets? Phone or PC?

Talk about form factors:

What's the right size?
What about the folding concept (from Microsoft)?
If they're as big as laptops, what will be their competitive appeal?

Let's look at successes or failures that could be illustrative:

Newton
Palm
Momenta
Windows tablets
Ultramobile PCs, aka UMPCs, in general (Oqo in particular)

Handicapping...let's discuss

Apple
Microsoft Courier
Crunchpad
Kindle

From readers
----------------

@Rafe do you (the panel) think tablets are computing's version of the video telephone? [via twitter - mors-d]

----------------

Dave from Thunder Bay, Ontario, here, in the middle of the continent and the middle of nowhere.

Here's something I'd like to see and a lot of families would make use of: The centre of the modern family is the big calendar on the fridge with illegible appointments on it. What I want is a screen that goes on the fridge or the wall that will wirelessly sync with all my family's Google calendars with a touch screen to easily enter events. What I don't want is a full-blown tablet PC. Is there anything out there that fits this description?

David Hawkins

----------------

Wrap
Thanks for joining us, Harry and Ryan. Thanks also to Lynn Fu, our producer.

Obligatory pimping: Be sure to visit Ggdt and Technologizer.

Thanks for listening to Reporters Roundtable. We're on live each Friday at 1 p.m. PT at live.cnet.com.

Next time: A fantastic show! So fantastic that I don't know what it'll be yet. Got ideas? Send them to our new e-mail address: roundtable@cnet.com.

Thanks!

Rafe Needleman, CNET: Why consumers won't buy tablets

Photos via Gizmodo: The new Microsoft tablet

Jason Hiner, Tech Republic: A history of the elusive Apple tablet, in links

Brad Stone, The New York Times: Why Have Tablets Flopped? Here Are Five Reasons

John C. Dvorak, PC Magazine: Will Apple's tablet be an e-reader? An iPhone on steroids? Or perhaps--both?

Reporters' Roundtable Podcast: Product launches

podcast@cnet.com (CNET.com) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 16:29:00 PDT

Should you launch your product at a trade show like Demo or CES, or should you try to drum up interest on your own? This week on the Roundtable, Revision 3 CEO Jim Louderback and Stage Two Consulting's Jeremy Toeman discuss successful and doomed strategies for introducing new products to the market.

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Today, we're talking about product launches. The reason we're doing this show now is that the Demo conference just ended, a week after the TechCrunch50 conference. One hundred and twenty products were launched at these shows. Is that smart? Is this how products should be launched? Is there a better way? To talk about this issue in some depth, I have two great guests....

As usual, watch or listen to the podcast for the content. The notes below are for those keeping score at home.

Reporters Roundtable # 4: launching stuff

First guest: Jim Louderback, CEO of Revision 3, the other computer video network. Jim has been in tech media for 16 years. He was the editor-in-chief of PC Magazine for a while, and I believe we first met when we both worked at Ziff Davis, years ago. Jim, welcome.

And in this corner, Jeremy Toeman, the founder of Stage Two Consulting, a marketing and media relations firm. Now, there are a ton of consultancies out there that help companies launch products, and I wanted someone from one of them on this show. The reason I asked Jeremy to join is because he helped launch Sling Media and Boxee, two very interesting new media plays, as well as Bug Labs, a product for ultrageeks. Jeremy also has his own projects, like Legacy Locker, a site for archiving the keys to your digital assets. He's one of the most thoughtful communication strategists I know, and that's why I invited him to be on this episode.

TALKING POINTS

Let's talk a bit about what happens at shows like Demo, TechCrunch, and some others that we know, like Under the Radar, the GDGT parties, etc...

Do they still make sense? Arguments for/against.

How to get buzz today with a new product

The velvet rope... does it work?

What about CES and other big shows -- what are they good for?

What about the alternative: Launching solo?

When's a good time / bad time to launch?

Secrets from Steve Jobs launches that work for everyone?

Great launch disasters in history (Cuil... others?)

Greatest launch ever? (My pick: Moobella at Demo. Too bad the product never shipped).

How to follow up on a launch.

WRAP

Thanks Jeremy and Jim, Thanks Lynn Fu, producer

Obligatory pimping: Be sure to visit Jeremy's blog, livedigitally.com, and of course watch the great shows over at Revision 3.

Thanks for listening to Reporters Roundtable. We're on live each Friday at 1 p.m. Pacific time at live.cnet.com.

Next time: Talk about tablets. Guests TBD!

Got questions? E-mail rafe@cnet.com. Feedback on show format too.

Reporters' Roundtable Podcast: Mint's Patzer

podcast@cnet.com (CNET.com) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:55:00 PDT

This week, I'm joined by CNET security expert Elinor Mills in a discussion with Mint CEO Aaron Patzer, whose personal finance site is being acquired by Intuit. We grill Patzer on why he sold the company, the future of Quicken, and the security of online financial data.

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I really enjoyed recording this podcast. We had the start-up CEO of the moment in to talk about why he sold his personal finance company, Mint, to Intuit--the company he built Mint to compete with in the first place.

Also, Elinor grills Patzer on the security safeguards in his system. Patzer tells us getting access to Mint data is like initiating self-destruct on the Starship Enterprise: You need three people to give their individual passwords at the same time or no go. Play the podcast for the full content, and for our show notes, including some bonus content from a post-show discussion, keep reading.

*************************************************

Reporters Roundtable # 3: Mint

Host Rafe Needleman
Producer Lynn Fu
Guest Elinor Mills, security reporter for CNET News
Special Guest Aaron Patzer, CEO Mint

INTRO

Hello and welcome to episode #3 of the Reporters Roundtable, CNET's weekly deep dive into one major topic a week. I'm Rafe Needleman from CNET, and today we're going to be talking with AARON PATZER, CEO of the personal finance Web site Mint. Aaron, hello.

Mint was sold recently to Intuit for $170 million. We'll be talking about the acquisition, and also about the personal finance market, online security, and I have some questions listeners have sent in. Joining me to talk with Aaron is Elinor Mills, security reporter for CNET News. Elinor, thanks for joining us at the roundtable.

TALKING POINTS

The sale

You started Mint when? (Intro'd 2 yr ago at TC 50, won 50k prize, best of show. )

After the award, I remember talking to you at, if I'm not mistaken a party at the old SF Mint, and you said, it's nice recognition, but we didn't really need the money. So what did you do with it?

Then sold to Intuit for $170M. So first thing: Congrats.

Talk about the vision - why you started Mint. What you expected to happen with the company. When you sold, how much of the company was left in the hands of founders?

Why'd you sell? You had Intuit on the ropes!

You've receive a backlash from customers. Here's a sample e-mail i received:
"Why did you sell out to a company with absolutely terrible money management software and a complete disregard for customer service? Do you understand how upset you've made your core user base?" - Jeff B.

What do you think? What are you doing about it?

What will your job be at Mint?

Re Intuit changeover:

Don Reisinger - Webware writer - says, Mint uses Yodlee for its back-end aggregation of banking information. It licensed the tech from the company. Under the terms of the Intuit deal, Yodlee isn't included. I spoke with an Intuit PR person yesterday who told me that after the acquisition is approved, Intuit will be using its own aggregation service and ditching Yodlee. My question: how will this impact the service? Will it be as reliable? My inclination is that the aggregation service isn't as good (after all, that's a key component in making Mint Mint), so it could have an impact on the service after it becomes an Intuit feature.

I talked to Yodlee and an SVP said, "We think Mint will stick w Yodlee. They'll come to the same conclusion."

Reader question: Are the current terms of service for Mint.com different from Intuit?

Personal finance market

Yodlee execs think consumers will do most of their online banking, even integrated online banking, via BANKS. Yodlee running 85% of xacts. What do you think?

Security

Let's talk about security, the real sticking point in this category. Elinor discussion...

Storage of personal data, passwords, etc. where and how protected?

Audit notice to customers of who, when account was accessed?

Security assessments?

Privacy

Reader comment

I heard about mint and signed up about 1 week before it hit big news, about a month ago. I looked online and watched a bunch of videos of the CEO, because i wasn't going to give my pin numbers to just anyone. If it had been some guy in a suit saying "blah blah encryption blah blah %100 safe blah blah" I would have laughed and left. But he seemed really nice and really straight forward, and I like to think that I am a good judge of character. So I signed up, and was super excited, I even been telling people about it and encouraging them to Check it out. I requested my bank be added and now here I am.

Now my question: I live in a small town of 100k, have a local bank w only thousands of customers , I'm willing to wait for approval, but realistically, is that going to happen?

If my bank never reaches that threshold, can I just pay to have it setup?

- Jonathan Hand

********************************

BONUS CONTENT:

Q: What do you think about the concept of sunsetting users on Quicken?

A: Too early to know and we haven't closed the deal. Might go to a subscription model. It's speculation so far.

Features people are asking for, via emails:

Q: Is there thought in integrating bill pay or some type of payment system in Mint so it could be more of that one stop shop? - Carl Feldhaus

A: Yes, we'll do this with Intuit, although it might require a fee from users for those whose banks don't do it themselves.

Q: Would love for you to ask Aaron for an eta on when a blackberry app will be introduced? I'd use the 10x more if we had ANYTHING. - Mike Weiss

A: Not planned. Android is. It's easier to develop for. Not saying never, but 40% of Mint users have iphones, so that's priority.

Q: Can we find a way to add a print function so I can print out some of the charts created with Mint? - Michael G

A: We're working on print.css. Right now printing is ugly. No timeframe yet, but we will do it.

Reporters' Roundtable Podcast: Mobile road map

podcast@cnet.com (CNET.com) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 16:14:00 PDT

This week: What Intel is doing to keep the momentum in computing moving from the desktop to mobile platform. A look at Atom, WiMax, Netbooks, and what to expect from the Intel Developer Forum next week in San Francisco. Guests: senior editor Dan Ackerman, and writer Brooke Crothers.

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It's Reporters' Roundtable No. 2, and I wanted to get deep into hardware. So this week, with mobile computing and chip experts Dan Ackerman and Brooke Crothers, we talk about Intel's mobile computing road map. As always, read on if you want the raw show notes, but click the audio or video stream to get the full firehose of content.

Talking points

Has the focus of innovation moved from desktop parts to laptop components?

Looking at the architecture of the laptops coming out now and for the holidays, what's different and new compared to last year?

How Intel and all the ARM players (Qualcomm, TI, Samsung, Apple--yes, Apple designs chips) intend to compete.

What is a Netbook? Does the category matter?

What is the Atom chip? Why is it important?

Other ways Intel is balancing computer power/energy consumption?

Graphics: discrete vs. integrated. Does it matter for consumers? Switchable graphics (Lenovo/Apple) wave of the future? Or a way station? NVidia vs. AMD/ATI?

What else is Intel pushing into the market?

Let's talk about communications. Is this going to be the season of WiMax?

Where are we going with cellular, Wi-Fi?

What's AMD up to?

The Intel Developer Forum is coming up in SF next week. What's the takeaway likely to be?

Thanks for listening to Reporters' Roundtable. We're on live each Friday at 1 p.m. Pacific time at live.cnet.com.

Next time: Aaron Patzer, CEO of Mint (recently acquired by Intuit for $170M), and Elinor Mills, security reporter.

Digital City, Dan Ackerman's podcast, is moving to the primo spot of Mondays at 3 Eastern / noon Pacific live. Topic: Technology for the urban environment.

Got questions, comments? Email rafe@cnet.com