Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt says he will not serve as Barack Obama's technology czar if the president-elect asks him to join his cabinet. "I love working at Google and I'm very happy to stay at Google, so the answer is no," Schmidt told CNBC host Jim Cramer in an appearance on his television show. Schmidt, a vocal Obama supporter, appeared as part of Obama's 17-person economic advisory board, which met in Chicago on Friday. Schmidt said the meeting was one of "great seriousness." The group discussed a new economic stimulus package, which Schmidt said he hopes is more focused …

As the NASDAQ plummets, technology companies are increasingly drowning in "underwater" options, The Wall Street Journal reports. Employees at dozens of companies like Google and Yahoo are anxiously holding onto stock options, which grant the right to buy company shares at a preset price, because those shares have fallen way below the exercise price. At some companies, like AMD, whose share price has fallen 76% in the last year, the situation has gotten so dire that the company is now asking shareholders for permission to reprice 99% of its outstanding options. However, shareholders are worried that resetting options will only …

People usually associate cell phones and cars with bad things like distracted drivers and accidents, but a new software program from researchers at the University of California at Berkeley and handset maker Nokia aims to make the cell phone an essential touch point in the morning drive to work. The free software, which can be downloaded to Global Positioning System-enabled phones running on GSM networks like AT&T and T-Mobile, transforms the phone into a device capable of monitoring and measuring traffic volume in real-time. The researchers claim the new program could actually improve traffic congestion, by helping drivers make …

The New York Times points to a new report on online security that warns that Internet attackers are now amassing huge networks of hijacked computers capable of overwhelming large Web sites and whole corporate networks. The tactic, known as distributed denial of service, has been used during recent political and military conflicts, including Estonia's 2007 political fight with Russia, and the Georgia-Russia conflict that exploded this past summer. The Worldwide Infrastructure Security Report, produced annually by Arbor Networks, found that DDOS attacks are becoming more powerful and sophisticated. It finds that the largest attacks have grown in size to …

BusinessWeek has a lengthy profile of Reid Hoffman, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur whose investment portfolio includes some of Web 2.0's hottest properties, including LinkedIn, Facebook, Ning, Digg, Six Apart and Technorati. As an active investor, Hoffman receives daily solicitations from young companies looking for funding, but as the economic climate worsens, Hoffman is engaging fewer opportunities as the value of his portfolio declines. In fact, on Nov. 5, LinkedIn, the company he founded, announced that it was laying off 10% of its staff, a move that surprised many given LinkedIn's standing as one of the most bankable social networks. …

Following CEO Jerry Yang's reassertion that Yahoo would sell to Microsoft "at the right price," Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer replied that the world's largest software maker has "moved on." Speaking at a conference in Sydney, Australia, Ballmer said, "We're not interested in going back and re-looking at an acquisition," but, "I'm sure there are still opportunities for some kind of partnership around search.'' Of course, Ballmer didn't elaborate. Following Google's decision to walk out of a potentially lucrative search partnership with Yahoo, Yang said he was "open to everything." Following those comments, analysts felt that Yang's options were narrowing and …

Chris DeWolfe, co-founder and CEO of MySpace, on Thursday said, "It's possible" that MySpace could develop a digital music player to rival Apple's iPod, although he said that there are no immediate plans to do so. "Right now, we're just focusing on the service," DeWolfe told an audience at the Web 2.0 summit, referring to the joint music venture his company recently launched with several major record labels. The service, called MySpace Music, launched in September with the aim of becoming the de facto music destination on the Web. Among other things, the ad-supported site allows users to stream music …

What's taking the Yahoo-AOL merger so long to materialize? As Kara Swisher points out, two massive obstacles are now out of the way -- the breakdown of the Yahoo-Google deal and Time Warner's third quarter earnings (both of which were bad news for the respective companies) -- so now the pair should finally be ready to cut a deal, right? Well, according to Swisher, "the deal might take another semester to come together (read: Spring 2009), not being signed until the end of the year, if it happens at all." So what's holding back a deal this time? Swisher's …