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Filed under: Features, Troubleshooting, Ask TUAW

Welcome back to Ask TUAW, our weekly troubleshooting Q&A column. This week we’ve got questions about Mac minis running as HTPCs, eliminating duplicate photos, using an iPhone to access MobileMe’s FInd My iPhone feature (for another iPhone), automatically mounting a network disk, and more.

As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Leave your questions for next week in the comments section at the end of this post. When asking a question, please include which machine you’re using and what version of Mac OS X is installed on it (we’ll assume you’re running Snow Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don’t specify), or if it’s an iPhone-related question, which iPhone version and OS version you have.

Andy asks

I’ve got an early 2008 Mac Mini hooked up to my home theater… The Mac is configured to sleep after 30 minutes. Sometimes (but not always), switching to the running Mac will result in a blank screen. I can still control the Mac via VNC or screen sharing, and sleeping and then waking the Mac will usually solve the problem (as will switching the source on the receiver away from and back to the Mac sometimes). Is the problem with the order that the devices are powered on, or is there some setting or app I can use to correct this?

I suspect that your problem is actually not on the Mac side but on the home theater side. I think what’s happening is that the receiver thinks the video source is down (perhaps when the Mac goes to sleep), and that is what’s causing your blank screen. So I don’t think there’s really anything you can do on the Mac side to keep this from happening, perhaps other than preventing the mini from sleeping.

Peter asks

We wanted to use the “Find my Phone” feature of MobileMe… Trouble is, we only had my iPhone and could not figure out how to use my iPhone to find his iPhone. Is that possible?

Strangely, Apple has elected not to allow access to the “Find My iPhone” feature using Mobile Safari to load your MobileMe account; it’s designed for access from a computer’s browser. There is, however, a somewhat clunky work-around. If you use another iPhone app with a built-in web browser to access MobileMe it will allow you to view the “Find My iPhone” feature. Check out this hint from Mac OS X Hints for some suggestions. Unfortunately, this can be slow and the site is not optimized for the iPhone, but in a pinch it can get the job done.

Eric asks

I’m planning on buying an HP EX495 Mediasmart Home Server soon. I’d like to move my iTunes library from my MacBook Pro to to the EX495 to free up some space on my hard drive. Is there anything special I need to do to make it so that my MacBook constantly connects to the server whenever its on my LAN? I know in Windows you can map drives to servers that will stay in your “My Computer” upon reboot. Is there anything like that I need to do for my Mac?

You can add the network disk to your login items. To do this, first mount the disk. Next go to the Accounts Preference Pane, then to your account, and finally the Login Items tab. Now just drag the mounted disk from your desktop to the Login Items list. From now on when you login your Mac will automatically mount that disk.

Unfortunately, if you login while disconnected from your LAN you may see a pause while your MacBook Pro searches for the missing share. While Snow Leopard is supposed to improve performance of the Finder in those situations, you might want to consider a location manager that recognizes when you’re on your home LAN and mounts the share for you: perhaps the $29 Snow Leopard-friendly NetworkLocation, the $19 Locations, or the open source, not quite 10.6-ready MarcoPolo. The MarcoPolo page also includes a list of other location manager utilities to explore.

Josh asks

When my PC crashed and before I took the opportunity to move everything to a Mac, my efforts to recover pictures and other files led to me having multiple copies of each file. Of course, many now have names that are unrelated to the original. Is there any way to sort (and eliminate) duplicate picture files by their content and NOT their name? I’d appreciate any suggestions you have to help me eliminate the duplicates without having to manually go through tens of thousands of files.

Check out Tidy Up! ($30) from Hyperbolic Software. It will allow you to run various searches for duplicates and should allow you to find and eliminate the dupes among your photos.

Evan asks

Basically, I want to know if I remove a previously synced game from my iPhone today and load it back on my iPhone tomorrow, will I be met with a “Start New Game” screen?

Yes. When you delete an app from your iPhone it does eliminate ancillary data (like game saves) as well. So if you were to delete the game and then reinstall it from iTunes it will essentially reset the game, eliminating your saves. Just to make sure, I tried it on my own iPhone and can confirm this.

Diogo asks

I’ve a brand new mac mini that I use as my main computer, and across the wall I’ve got my living room where I’ve connected my LCD to the mini to use as a media center. I use a new Apple wireless keyboard that I want to use to control the mini, but the signal doesn’t cross the wall, and becomes useless in the living room. So, is it possible to add a second bluetooth receiver near the TV with an USB extension? will it work?

I suspect that what you actually need is a more powerful Class 1 Bluetooth transceiver. The built-in Bluetooth transceiver in your Mac is limited in range to about 30 feet. If you add a Class 1 transceiver by means of a USB dongle, you should get more power and better range. There are several different models available like the BTX Range Extender from ecamm. Incidentally, this would work with a USB cable through the wall, but I suspect it will work even without it, just plugged directly into the mini.

TUAWAsk TUAW: Mac mini HTPC, Find My iPhone with another iPhone, eliminate duplicate photos, and more originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 24 Dec 2009 12:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Deals

‘Tis the season shop until your brains melt (or skip it all entirely, depending on your interpretation of the term holiday). In that spirit, for the next few weeks we’ll be rounding up a dozen daily deals courtesy our friends at DealNews.com. Each afternoon tune in to TUAW for this handy summary. Keep in mind that while our posts will live on, the deals won’t. Each is lovingly generated by the deal-bot every day, so get ‘em while they’re hot. Enjoy!

• iTunes Music Store: [iPhone / iPod Apps] Navy Patrol: Coastal Defense Zero for iPhone / iPod touch downloads for free
• iTunes Music Store: [iPhone / iPod Apps] Tap Tap Revenge 3 for iPhone / iPod touch downloads for free
• Meritline: [USB Flash Drives] USB 2.0 Flash Drive Roundup: Kingston 4GB for $10 + free shipping, more
• Walmart: [Cell Phones] Motorola TracFone W260 Cell Phones with double minutes for $10 + $2 s&h
• Circuit City: [50″ – 52″ LCD TVs] Samsung 52″ 1080p LCD HD Television for $1,049 + free shipping
• Buy.com: [USB Hard Drives] LaCie Grand 1TB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive for $90 + free shipping
• HandHeldItems: [iPod Accessories] HandHeldItems.com: Up to 80% off Apple iPod touch cases + 20% off coupon
• Yugster: [Store Events] $10 Yugster.com Virtual Gift Card for $5
• Walmart: [Office Furniture] Sentry Fire- and Water-Resistant Combination Safe for $129 + $1 s&h
• US Appliance: [50″ – 52″ LCD TVs] Samsung 55″ 120Hz 1080p LED LCD HDTV for $1,849 + free shipping
• Pennywise : [Rechargeable Batteries] Rayovac AAA I-C3 15-Minute Rechargeable Battery 12-Pack for $11 + free shipping
• Buy.com: [Notebook Hard Drives] Kingston 40GB SATA 2.5″ SSD Hard Disk for $90 + free shipping

TUAWDozen Daily Deals for December 24, 2009 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 24 Dec 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Windows/Mac/Linux/and more: XBMC is a killer open-source, cross-platform media center, and today they’ve released XBMC 9.11, introducing a whole new default look and feel, and it’s very friendly on the eyes.

Called Confluence, the new look blends some of the best features of XBMC’s previous default skin (PM3.HD) with several other popular skins for pretty impressive results. It’s definitely a different look from what we’ve seen in the Boxee beta, but the two media centers continue to deliver really impressive (and most importantly free) offerings.

(See all the images on one page here.)

You can read the condensed changelog on their blog, but some highlights include:

• Better support for multi-monitor setups
• High Definition, Surround Sound, and Subtitle Flagging and Filtering in Video Library
• Speed up RAW image loading and handle more file extensions
• Performance improvements to SQLite (database) queries (help is always wanted here)
• Ability to scrape and scan TV Shows into the video library by air-date via TheTVDB.com

If you’re an XBMC user, it’s an update well worth grabbing. XBMC is a free download for Windows, Mac, Linux, Apple TV, and pretty much anywhere else you want to put it. Also, good news for people who followed our guide to building a silent, standalone XBMC media center on the cheap: The latest release of the Live version looks like it supports our machines out-of-the-box without custom third-party builds.

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Ford, after having been not so much in news for some time, has now come up with a bang. Their Taurus SHO has been awarded the Urban Automobile of the Year 2010 by On Wheels Media. Ford Taurus SHO’s EcoBoost V6 engine delivers V8 power with V6 fuel economy. Sporty, chic, world class and appealing are what describes Ford’s Taurus and make it worthy of getting the award. But this year, Fords Fusion Hybrid is also a taker of the same award. The most fuel efficient midsize sedan in America at 41 city, 36 highway earned the trophy, giving the Blue Oval a total sweep of the ceremony. Truly the vehicles chosen are cost and fuel-efficient and have performance and safety characteristics.
[GreenAutoblog]

Filed under: Etc., Government/Legal, Chrysler, Ford, GM, Toyota, Fiat, South America

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez – notable Fidel Castro wannabe, loudmouthed buffoon of the first order and apparent Cadillac aficionado – has given an ultimatum to General Motors, Fiat (i.e. Chrysler), Toyota and Ford: Share your technology with us or get out of the country. (In Toyota’s case, it sounds as if Chavez wants them to hit some arbitrary quotas, as well.) The affected parties, all of which maintain production facilities in the country, kept mum in response to Chavez’s demand, according to the Associated Press, which reported the story on Wednesday.

If the automakers don’t comply, Chavez basically stated that he will eject them from his socialist utopia in favor of automakers from countries he’s more friendly with. AP quotes him as saying, “I invite you to pack up your belongings and leave. I’ll bring in the Russians, the Belorusians, the Chinese.”

At least he didn’t openly threaten to nationalize them (yet), as he’s wont to do with pretty much any other private enterprise he thinks he could run better. Yeah, this’ll definitely end well. Thanks to Roy for the tip.

[Source: AP via Yahoo! News | Image: AFP/Getty]

Hugo Chavez gives ultimatum to automakers: Share tech or get out of Venezuela originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 24 Dec 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Guardian, UK (Helena Smith)

A team of Greek marine archaeologists who have spent years conducting underwater excavations off the coast of Alexandria in Egypt have unearthed a giant granite threshold to a door that they believe was once the entrance to a magnificent mausoleum that Cleopatra VII, queen of the Egyptians, had built for herself shortly before her death.

They believe the 15-tonne antiquity would have held a seven metre-high door so heavy that it would have prevented the queen from consoling her Roman lover before he died, reputedly in 30BC.

“As soon as I saw it, I thought we are in the presence of a very special piece of a very special door,” Harry Tzalas, the historian who heads the Greek mission, said. “There was no way that such a heavy piece, with fittings for double hinges and double doors, could have moved with the waves so there was no doubt in my mind that it belonged to the mausoleum. Like Macedonian tomb doors, when it closed, it closed for good.”

Tzalas believes the discovery of the threshold sheds new light on an element of the couple’s dying hours which has long eluded historians.

In the first century AD the Greek historian Plutarch wrote that Mark Antony, after being wrongly informed that Cleopatra had killed herself, had tried to take his own life. When the dying general expressed his wish to pass away alongside his mistress, who was hiding inside the mausoleum with her ladies-in-waiting, he was “hoisted with chains and ropes” to the building’s upper floor so that he could be brought in to the building through a window.

Plutarch wrote, “when closed the [mausoleum’s] door mechanism could not open again”. The discovery in the Mediterranean Sea of such huge pieces of masonry at the entrance to what is believed to be the mausoleum would explain the historian’s line. Tzalas said: “For years, archaeologists have wondered what Plutarch, a very reliable historian, meant by that. And now, finally, I think we have the answer.

“Allowing a dying man to be hoisted on ropes was not a very nice, or comforting thing to do, but Cleopatra couldn’t do otherwise. She was there only with females and they simply couldn’t open such a heavy door.”

The threshold, part of the sunken palace complex in which Cleopatra is believed to have died, was discovered recently at a depth of eight metres but only revealed this week. It has yet to be brought to the surface.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

Monsters and Critics (Shabtai Gold)

Egypt’s antiquities chief announced plans on Wednesday for a conference to help coordinate the strategy of African and Asian countries who had artifacts ‘stolen’ from them.

‘At the end of March we will hold a conference to meet with others who suffered like us from stolen artifacts and to discuss how to help all of us in efforts to return the stolen artifacts,’ said Zahi Hawass, the secretary general of Egypt’s Supreme Council for Antiquities.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

This came via email, not on a Blog Comment but I thought it a useful point so here it is:

Everyone makes the same assumption that we stole it from the French and the Egyptians had no say in it.

Your latest post mentions the treaty of Alexandria, which was indeed signed by the British and the French commanders, but no one seems to mention, or want to, or indeed even know, it was also signed by the OTTOMAN commanders. It was an Ottoman Govenrment in Egypt at the time, which was the recognised legitimate government at the time (regardless of if the modern Egyptians don’t like that). Peace treaties are invariably signed by Army commanders, who represent their respective governments.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

Every year the ReadWriteWeb team tries its hand at predicting the future. Looking back at our 2009 predictions, we got some wrong (I predicted that Facebook would sign up to OpenSocial) but others turned out to be on the money. I correctly guessed that the usual suspects would remain unacquired in ’09 – Digg, Twitter, Technorati – but that FriendFeed would get bought. OK, so I guessed that Google would be the buyer. But close enough!

Without further ado, here are our predictions for 2010. We’d love to read your predictions in the comments.

Sponsor

Richard MacManus, Founder & CEO, @rww

1. There will be a breakthrough consumer application for Internet of Things – involving the iPhone, RFID tags and a major consumer product such as books or groceries. In general, Internet of Things will ramp up in 2010, with thousands more everyday objects becoming connected to the Internet.

2. Google will acquire PostRank and promptly consign it to the same graveyard Feedburner went to.

3. Microsoft will acquire Wolfram|Alpha and Bing will continue to make small gains in the search market. Google will be distracted by increasing consumer complaints about content farms polluting Google search results.

4. A price war will erupt in the e-book market and Amazon.com will offer the lowest prices, leading to it gaining a dominant position in the market with its Kindle E-book Reader.

5. Google will partner with a large PC manufacturer from Asia, which will launch an inexpensive netbook powered by Chrome OS in the U.S. market. It will become a hot consumer item among school kids and university students.

Marshall Kirkpatrick, Lead Writer & VP of Content Development, @marshallk

1. Google Wave will win some respect back as people discover valuable uses for it and get used to the user experience.

2. Facebook will open aggregate-user-profile and social-graph data for outside analysis.

3. Some serious user interface innovations will blow our minds.

4. Data portability will become more real, standard, expected and viable.

5. A new social network will rise to join the big ones. It may offer the privacy that Facebook is moving away from; it may be mobile and location-centric; it may focus on personal content recommendations.

Sarah Perez, Feature Writer, @sarahintampa

1. MySpace doesn’t quite make a comeback, but gets a fresh start of sorts with its music and entertainment offerings. The Gen Y/Gen Z demographic sees growth on the site but the network’s overall numbers continue to decline.

2. Twitter launches ads.

3. TweetDeck finally launches a web version and becomes the number one Twitter client other than Twitter.com.

4. Cloud computing heats up. AWS, Google, Microsoft and others begin price wars to compete for customers.

5. The iPhone still rules and grabs more mobile market share than ever before.

6. Meanwhile, Android becomes the number two mobile platform by year-end.

7. iPhone app backlash begins. There are too many worthless apps and no decent way to find the good ones. Then Apple surprises us with a brand-new feature that improves greatly upon their “genius” offering to help us find new and useful apps via iTunes.

8. iTunes announces a web service, thanks to the Lala acquisition.

9. Spotify finally gets the green light in U.S. and people go nuts for it.

10. The netbook craze dies down. People start buying new “in-between” devices that are slightly larger and more powerful than today’s netbooks, but smaller, more lightweight and cheaper than regular notebooks. Features like better processors, separate GPUs and SSD HD options set these new “ultra portable” devices apart from the traditional netbook, but they’re still often called “netbooks” because of their size. Market confusion ensues.

Jolie O’Dell, Writer & Community Manager, @jolieodell

1. MySpace relaunches as a content network, leveraging the bands and filmmakers they already have on board and dropping the emphasis on social networking.

2. Twitter will find a monetization model and launch things like ads and pro features.

3. Facebook will become the Borg. Its number of users will continue to climb until the network is as ubiquitous as Google and lay people confuse Facebook with “the Internet.” They’ll make more money and control more data than ever before.

4. iPhone’s exclusivity with AT&T will come to a breaking point and we’ll see network-agnostic iPhones.

5. On the bright side, 2010 will signal the death of the login. Third-party authentications will become the norm, and user data will be entrusted to a discrete handful of online properties. Users will pitch a hissyfit if ever they’re asked to create a username and password and upload an avatar. After all, doesn’t the Internet know they have a Facebook?

6. File-sharing will continue to be shut down around the world; by 2011, we’ll all be downloading via Tor and the U.S. will have instituted a lame three-strikes-no-Internet policy.

7. Cybercrime will be more of an issue than ever. Expect to see a major governmental security breach in 2010, as the government continues to adopt 2.0 tech without strong and permanent infosec personnel and procedures in place.

Dana Oshiro, ReadWriteStart Writer, @SuzyPerplexus

1. AR: Geo-locational games and AR will come together in 2010. We’re going to see strange behavior from those playing zombie shooter games on their commutes.

2. Agree with Sarah: Netbooks and gadgets like the PsiXpda are going to gain ground.

3. Mobile Music: Offline music caching will be expected of all streaming music apps.

4. The browser really will be the new OS.

5. Payment Systems: Between Square, PayPal X and advances in Internet TV, we’re going to see payment options integrated in unlikely places.

Alex Williams, ReadWriteEnterprise Writer, @podcasthotel

1. Cloud computing will go through a shake out. There are just too many companies out there for the market to sustain. The big players will go on a buying spree. The consolidation will deeply affect users. Some companies will fold overnight. Users will lose access to their data, leading to a whole new wave of skepticism about cloud computing. But it won’t be enough to slow down the move to cloud computing. More companies will consider the security risks as less of a factor, compared to the cost benefits and potential for innovation. Cloud computing technology will become more of a commodity. The business applications for cloud computing will take center stage.

2. The big players will come back strong. IBM, SAP and Microsoft will innovate just enough to show big gains with customers.

3. Consumer-based social networks will make big efforts to gain wider access to the enterprise, as more companies seek to open up to the social Web. The information architecture of social networks will change to accommodate the greater degrees of control that the enterprise requires. This will bring on the rise of “social middleware” – services that act as a layer between social networks and the enterprise.

4. A new breed of social networks will emerge that act as one-stop shops for applications and services. These will look more like marketplaces than social hubs for conversations around the proverbial virtual water cooler. SaaS leaders will face off for this growing market.

5. iPhone, Android or the Blackberry? I expect the Android to be the talk of the enterprise, especially if the Google Phone does make it to market. Such a phone would eliminate carrier costs and break down walled gardens that have limited application development.

Sean Ammirati, COO, @SeanAmmirati

1. Facebook will go public and the IPO will be a huge financial success.

2. Hyperlocal advertising will heat up, delivering another nail in the traditional newspaper industry’s coffin. (Very similar to one of my 2008 predictions, but this time focused on the advertising aspects.) Specifically, it will be more common for a local establishment to pay marketing dollars to Yelp or FourSquare, for example, then their local newspaper.

3. Apple will release an “iTablet” and the world will be a better place for it. OK, more accurately we’ll all think the world is a better place for it.

4. Agree with Jolie regarding “the death of the login.” I’m hoping for open distributed alternatives along with Facebook and a handful of others.

5. Between Boxee’s continued development and a new AppleTV (hopefully synched with their iTablet), it will become much more common to enjoy the Internet on a TV.

Elyssa Pallai, Marketing & Experience Manager, @boulderservices

1. Skype becomes increasingly pervasive, as the younger generations force their parents to get online, and consumers find new and interesting ways to cut costs and save money.

2. Software as service becomes ever more popular, as businesses and governments choose to focus on their core business and realize the benefits of lightweight technologies in the cloud – including rapid deployment and the low cost of switching.

3. The online user experience has a renaissance, as web browsers and hardware become more sophisticated and designers and developers take advantage of that.

4. The growth of Internet of Things continues, RFID tags in everything. The initial bugs will make funny things happen all around us.

5. iPhones and other smartphones become the purchasing tool of choice.

6. Consumers bypass carriers and create open wifi networks for all (which is already happening but not en mass).

Jared Smith, Webmaster, @jaredwsmith

1. Backlash against the App Store causes more and more developers to defect to Android and competing platforms.

2. Google Chrome’s market share increases at Firefox’s expense. Internet Explorer continues to lose ground as more rich, HTML5-aware Web apps spring up on the scene.

3. Opera begins to struggle, as WebKit becomes the rendering engine of choice on mobile devices.

4. Social analytics features explode onto the scene in 2010. Twitter opens Pro accounts, including analytics and an API to access them. Google strikes a deal to integrate Twitter analytics with its Google Analytics product.

Discuss

Monsters and Critics

New tests show the limestone and plaster bust of Queen Nefertiti is too fragile to fly home to Egypt for a temporary exhibition, the Berlin museum that owns the disputed artwork said Tuesday.

It issued the statement two days after the Egyptian Museum’s director, Friederike Seyfried, met in Cairo with Egypt’s antiquities chief, Zahi Hawass. She said she did not negotiate over the 3,500-year-old bust with Hawass.

‘An examination in 2007 of the state of preservation of the bust ruled it unsuitable for transport or loans,’ said the Prussian Heritage Foundation, the parent corporation of the museum. ‘Further tests which have not yet been completed only confirm this.’

The future of the exquisite head is highly political, as underlined by the fresh assessment of the bust in recent days.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s top culture aide, Bernd Neumann, said Tuesday through a spokesman that a loan was now ‘absolutely out of the question on conservation grounds alone.’

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

Sure, there was a logic to Sanofi’s $1.9 billion acquisition of Chattem. As we noted a few days back, it’s the latest example of a big drug company looking to diversify into the more stable consumer products business.

But a couple of investors may have had a bit more insight into the deal than that, the SEC alleged this week.

The agency said it obtained an emergency asset freeze against two men who had “possession of material, nonpublic information” about the deal and who bought options on Chattem stock earlier this month. The men sold the options, which were set to expire on Jan. 15, immediately after the deal was announced this week. The trade brought the men, who are French and live in Brussels, “illicit profits” of $4.2 million, the SEC said.

Bloomberg and Reuters said the men couldn’t be reached for comment.

The SEC has recently been looking at other big health-care deals as well. A broad probe of insider trading included investigations of the Pfizer-Wyeth and Merck-Schering deals as well, the WSJ reported recently. None of the companies has been accused of doing anything wrong.

Image via Chattem

Ceramic nanocoating is the new big thing in the green world. With the Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies (RUSNANO) having thought about moving beyond just ceramic coatings on metal surfaces, the ceramic nanocoating idea is going to be applauded by many in the near future. Their more efficient process will replace toxic chemicals, heavy metals and other hazardous materials with much more sustainable anti-corrosion nanomaterials. Nano technology, as they prove is fast emerging as an important element even in solar power technology that enable to help keep solar panels clean with less amount of water, which in a way boosts the solar cell efficiency.
[Cleantechnica]

Seasons Greetings!

Content: Dante's Inferno – Gates of Hell Demo
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Dash Text: Dante's Inferno The Gates of Hell Demo – Discover an epic adventure based on the first part of Dante Alighieri’s masterpiece, “The Divine Comedy”. Playing as Dante, you must defeat Death and arm yourself with his scythe as you prepare to descend into the nine circles of Hell and rescue the soul of your beloved Beatrice from Lucifer himself.

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It’s been a long drought for IPOs, but venture capitalists and tech entrepreneurs are hopeful that 2010 will be the year they rain down on the Valley once gain. Earlier this year, a handful of IPOs trickled out, such as OpenTable, Rackspace, and A123Systems. But what people are really waiting for is another Netscape moment—an iconic IPO which will whet investor’s appetites and open the floodgates for others to follow.

Below is our list of the top ten IPO candidates for 2010 in the technology industry (and, no, it doesn’t include Twitter). I conducted an informal survey of some top VCs and angel investors. These are the names whispered about the most in the Valley and other tech circles. The hope is that the economy will swing back and the public markets will become receptive to IPOs, especially towards the second half of the year.  The stock market in general is finding its legs already.  The S&P 500 is up 24 percent this year. If the bull market continues, that will be good for the prospects of seeing these potential IPOs.  And if it doesn’t, there’s always M&A.

1. Facebook. Total raised: $716 million.

If there is one company which everyone is looking towards for a new Netscape moment, it is Facebook.  The company can pretty much go public any time it wants.  It is already the fourth largest site in the U.S. and the world.  Its last private common stock sale valued the company at $11 billion, which may or may not be rational.  The key to a large public valuation will be whether Facebook can figure out how to turn all of that attention into advertising dollars.  So far it is said to be on track to beat its $550 million revenue projections from earlier this year.  A Facebook IPO would certainly create a halo effect for other tech offerings.  Even if it doesn’t go out in 2010, the prospect that it might could still help other companies go public as hungry investors grab what they can get.

2. Zynga. Total raised: $219 million.

Social game developer Zynga is on a tear, with more than 230 million people a month actively playing its games such as FarmVille, PetVille, and Texas HoldeEm Poker.  The company just raised a whopping $180 million round.  It is believed to be Facebook’s largest advertiser and pulling in at least $250 million in revenues on its own.  But it is also at the center of the Scamville controversy over how it makes some of its money from scammy offers.  If it can convince investors it has cleaned up its act, they will gobble up an IPO.

3. LinkedIn. Total raised: $103 million.

The other social network, LinkedIn is like the enterprise version of Facebook. It is where business gets done and people find jobs.  LAst year alone it raised about $75 million at a $1 billion valuation. Founder Reid Hoffman has spoken repeatedly about LinkedIn’s ability  to IPO.  Earlier this year, he recruited former Yahoo exec Jeff Weiner to be CEO and is spending more time himself as a venture capitalist, which has always been his sideline.

4. Glam Media. Total raised: $125 million.

Glam Media is one of the fastest growing ad networks and collection of fashion- and women-oriented sites.  At a time when traditional media and women’s magazines are suffering, Glam is saw display advertising revenues across its network up more than 50 percent in 2009.  CEO Samir Arora expects the company to be profitable in the fourth quarter, and is recruiting executives with big-company experience.  Ad networks which dominate their niche are an easy lay-up for investors.

5. Demand Media. Total raised: $355 million.

Demand Media is another LA-based company, started by former MySpace chairman Richard Rosenblatt.  Demand Media owns a collection of sites such as eHow, Livestrong, and countless niche sites.  It also owns domain name registrar eNom, which generates a lot of its cash.  Demand Media is a content mill, churning out articles and videos for its niche sites like Golflink.com and Trails.com  cheaply and quickly in response to what people are searching for.  It may not be sexy, but it is lucrative enough that potential acquirers are sniffing around and AOL’s Tim Armstrong is looking to copy and improve on the niche content model.

6. Gilt Groupe. Total raised: $48 million.

Gilt is a private online shopping club for luxury goods.  Its revenues are reportedly around $200 million this year, and expected to more than double next year.  IPO talk is already in the air.  Gilt’s counterpart in Europe, Ventee-Privée, is rumored to be in acquisition talks with Amazon for around $3 billion.  And Kleiner Perkins just invested in One Kings Lane, another private shopping club based in England.

7. Etsy. Total raised: $31.6 million.

Another niche e-commerce play could be Etsy, the Brooklyn-based marketplace for handcrafted goods.  Sellers on Etsy are on track to trade $200 million worth of goods on the maretplace this year, double from last year.  Founder Rob Kalin recently took over again as CEO and says the company is now profitable.  Etsy will never be as big as eBay, but its focus means that can become a the alternative eBay for buyers and sellers of high-quality, custom-designed apparel, furniture, and other goods.

8. Yelp. Total raised: $31 million.

Yelp was nearly acquired by Google for around $500 million before the deal broke down last week.  The fast-rising local reviews site now might try the public markets instead.  The company already has 300 employees and is becoming a powerhouse in the online advertising for local businesses, which is an area of growth every major Web company wants to participate in.  Already the IPO filings are starting to come in, with ReachLocal filing to raise $100 million for its local ad network.

9. Tesla Motors Total raised: $783 million.

Why would you invest in GM IPO if you could invest in Tesla instead?  Silicon Valley’s electric car company is expected to hit the public markets.  Building a car company takes massive amounts of capital, and Tesla has raised nearly $800 million so far.  Most of that comes in the form of government loans, such as the $465 million it received as part of the government’s $25 billion bailout of the U.S. auto industry.  A lot of the capital also comes from partner Daimler, and billionaire founder Elon Musk.  But, hey, at least Tesla is profitable, which is saying a lot for a car maker.

10. Skype Total raised: $69 million

Despite all the drama surrounding eBay’s recent sale of Skype to a group of private investors including Silver Lake Partners and Andreessen Horowitz for $2.75 billion, the deal got done.  Skype is already a major Internet brand, with more than 500 million users of its Internet calling, IM, and video communications service, and $185 million in quarterly revenues.  Before eBay found its buyers, it was very publicly pursuing the IPO route.  And given that eBay retains a 30 percent stake in Skype, that is still an option if its growth continues apace.

Runner’s Up:  The ten names above are the most likely to go public if the markets open up.  Other companies which might tap the public markets include Associated Content, Brightcove, Digg, StumbleUpon, LiveOps, Workday, MerchantCircle, ExactTarget, Chegg, and Rearden Commerce.  Most informed observers do not expect a Twitter IPO next year.  It is too early.  The company just raised $100 million, and still needs to figures out its business model.  Maybe in 2011.

Which of these companies do you think is most likely to IPO?  Which ones would you invest in?

Photo credit: Flickr/David Paul Ohmer

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‘Twas the geek’s night before Christmas, and all through the house,
Not a hard drive was whirring, not a single clicking mouse;
The gadgets were charging in their docks so fine,
In hopes that St. Nick shopped at Best Buy online;
The geeks were all snuggled all warm in their beds,

While visions of netbooks did dance in their heads.
With a click and a whir there arose such a clatter,
As the smartphones and Blackberries began to all chatter;
A song they did sing to ring in good cheer,
In their sleep geeks were smiling for what did they hear?

Nothing, it was all SSDs here,
And as they settled their heads back down in the bed,
They dreamed of the gadgets that might be colored red;
An iPhone, a Nexus, or a new Palm Pre,
Could that be what they’d find underneath the tree?

As the geeks fell asleep with their eyes all aglow,
And the visions of electrons did come and did go;
With a whoosh down the chimney the gear did alight,
Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

This post is part of the IT Innovation series, sponsored by Sun & Intel. Read more at ITInnovation.com.
Of course, the content of this post consists entirely of the thoughts and opinions of the author.

Back in May, we wrote about an effort in the EU to make software developers liable for buggy software. As with earlier discussions on this topic there are a variety of opinions. Obviously, people don’t like buggy software, and it’s natural to feel that developers should be liable for software that doesn’t work properly. At the same time, however, software is incredibly complex, and it’s impossible to be entirely bug free. Adding liability, then, could have significant downsides in terms of scaring many developers off from developing, especially for more complex software.

It appears that some of this debate is moving on to video games as well. JohnForDummies alerts us to a story discussing how complex video games are almost always quite buggy (found via Slashdot) and questioning if proposed liability laws in Europe might have an impact on the gaming community.

This isn’t a simple issue, of course. If a company is selling a product, buyers have every right to expect the product to work as advertised. But that doesn’t mean that adding direct liability really makes sense. If a company constantly produces extremely buggy software, it should have incentives to fix those bugs directly — not from the government — such as the fact that people will be less interested in ever buying their products again in the future. It seems like laws for buggy software would be extreme overkill.

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