"Mr. Kundra also said that he would push the government to embrace cloud computing—having work done on large servers rather than on desktop PCs. He acknowledged that there are privacy and security issues with some cloud-computing efforts, particularly when the computers are not all operated by the government. But he said that shouldn’t stop the government from taking advantage of the speed and efficiency such systems offer."

"What's the most important and quickly growing form of search on the web today? Real time, conversational search. And who's the YouTube of real time search? Yep. Twitter. It's an asset Google cannot afford to not own, and also, one they most likely do not have the ability (or brand permission) to build on their own."

"More and more people are starting to use Twitter to talk about brands in real time as they interact with them. And those brands want to know all about it, whether to respond individually… or simply gather the information to see what they’re doing right and what they’re doing wrong."

"Twitter sees lucrative opportunities in search, albeit a different kind of search than what Google offers, and, as co-founder Biz Stone told Ad Age recently, "we'll certainly be exploring those…" "

It's because of the potential it sees in search that the Twitter co-founders walked away from a $500 million offer from Facebook

"Big league scouts told Tim Lincecum he was too small to succeed. Fantasy owners passed him over because they weren't sure he'd hold up with that crazy motion. But he has news for all of 'em: it wasn't magic dust that helped him win the Cy Young Award."

"We ask our readers to pay for their subscriptions on the Kindle today, and we must begin doing the same thing on the iPhone and other advanced smart phones and reading devices that allow us to create a user experience worth paying for. We also need to make our paid product available through the Internet for those who prefer to read it that way. And we must innovate to constantly enhance the reading and advertising experience on these platforms."

"One emailer to the Chronicle's Chuck Nevius the other day, who cc'ed me, said he was "not interested in receiving the paper itself" but he would be "willing to pay to help you and your colleagues" continue performing journalism. "How can I contribute to the revenue flow of the Chronicle without receiving the actual paper?" Now there's a guy and a model a P&L publisher could love."

"San Francisco’s treasured tiki bar, Savetonga.com is now up and running with a petition that folks can sign to ask the city to preserve the bar."

The Save the Tonga Room! Facebook group now has 1700+ members, and plans an event this Friday to organize and show up en masse at the Nob Hill bar in full tiki regalia.

Good list (via @mashable)

"Hearst Corporation announced today that its San Francisco Chronicle newspaper is undertaking critical cost-saving measures including a significant reduction in the number of its unionized and nonunion employees. If these savings cannot be accomplished within weeks, Hearst said, the Company will be forced to sell or close the newspaper."

Hearst said that the Chronicle lost more than $50 million last year and that this year’s losses to date are worse. The Chronicle has had major losses each year since 2001.