RealNetworks Names New CEO, For Real
RealNetworks has named Thomas Nielsen as president and chief 
executive officer, effective Nov. 9. Mr. Nielsen, 41 years old, most recently served as a vice president of Adobe Systems Inc., where he ran the company’s largest single product line–including widely used tools such as Adobe Photoshop.
The company has completed cost-cutting steps, and Chairman Rob Glaser has recently been helping work on its new-product pipeline. After a “top-to-bottom strategic review” over the summer, he added, the company is ready to set new goals but will wait to let Mr. Nielsen refine and announce them. “We are a company in transition,” Mr. Glaser said. [24×7]
Amazon a Smiling Tax Collector?
Amazon.com has for years fought state efforts to force it to collect sales taxes from its customers. Now, instead of battling the tax man, the company is looking to hire itself out as an Internet tax collector.
According to the Los Angeles Times, in an abrupt about-face, the company is now offering to handle sales-tax chores for merchants who sell products through its site for a fee equivalent to 2.9% of the taxes collected. [24×7]
Facebook Seattle Moving to Larger Digs
Facebook Seattle is shifting its venue from the Pike Place Market neighborhood to a larger space on Minor Avenue, just below Capitol Hill, come February.
The new location is more than triple the size of the former digs, and will represent the company’s largest engineering site outside of its Palo Alto headquarters.
More than 60 engineers are currently employed by Facebook in Seattle, but the new site can accommodate up to 200 employees. [24×7]
TechStars Demo Day Infographic
TechStars Demo Day booted up at the Showbox SoDo last week. Ten companies competed for a chance at funding from an initial pool of more than 700. Each company had six minutes to present to a crowded room of angel investors and venture capitalists. TechStars recently raised$24 million to help startups get off the ground. Bloomberg TV also took a look inside TechStars this summer.
To get a glimpse of the finalists and the TechStars program, check out their Infographic. [24×7]
National Novel Writing Month Your Chance to Take Control
It was the best of months, it was the worst of months… With apologies to Charles Dickens, the annual National Novel Writing Month – commonly shortened to NaNoWriMo – is upon us, that month when anyone feeling a novel bubbling up inside can join hundreds of thousands of others in the camaraderie of putting pen to paper, er… placing pixels on, er… writing stuff down. http://www.nanowrimo.org/
To aid in this most noble of tasks, we have a month-long, 50%-off sale on two Take Control titles: Kirk McElhearn’s “Take Control of Scrivener 2” and Michael Cohen’s “Take Control of TextExpander.” Although we’re certain that Kirk’s literary homages to Herman Melville and Michael’s punning wordplay are worthy of emulation, plot and character development aren’t our focus with Take Control. To take advantage of the discount, use the first two links below to order a book on its own, or the third link to order both together. Each ebook lists for $10, so with the sale, you can pick up either one for $5 or both for $10.
Take Control of Scrivener 2: http://tid.bl.it/scrivener-nanowrimo-discount
Take Control of TextExpander: http://tid.bl.it/textexpander-nanowrimo-discount
Both books together: http://tid.bl.it/scrivener-textexpander-nanowrimo-bundle [24×7]
