Sorry, couldn’t shave down the eight-minute running time, but it’s worth it (boy do I miss the Hulu clip-editing feature). Also, this is NSFW if your workplace isn’t cool with the word “penis.”

If you’re looking for a more sober take on WikiLeaks, check out Andy Greenberg’s excellent Forbes cover story and interview with Julian Assange.

And let’s be clear: Getting the band’s stuff on Apple’s store won’t fundamentally change anything.

• The band members will see more money. But they have plenty already.
• It’s possible that the Beatles’ label, EMI Music Group, may get enough short-term cash to keep it out of Citigroup’s hands. But there are very few of you reading this who care about that.
• Apple will see a spike in iTunes music sales. But Apple moved on from iTunes music sales a long time ago: ITunes is all about apps these days, and Steve Jobs would like it to be more about TV and movies, too. Meanwhile digital music sales flattened out this year, and even the Fab Four will have a hard time changing that.
• It does mean that bloggy types can stop making random guesses about when the Beatles will come to iTunes. So that’s pretty great, really.

And look. It’s cool that the band will be on iTunes. It’s embarrassing that it hasn’t been, but now that we’re past this, we can just consider the-better-late-than-never move a “pivot,” right? Fundamentally: More good music, available more places, is a good thing.

The thing I’m most interested to learn this morning (or whenever we do find out) is whether you’ll be able to buy the band’s output on a song-by-song basis. [UPDATE: Answered.]

If the band is trying to maximize revenue, it would try to force Jobs to break from store policy and sell their music in only album format. But that would be hypocritical, since the Beatles, like most other bands of their era, were about singles for a very long time.

And wouldn’t it be cool if you’d never heard “Flying” before, and then someone played you the trippy instrumental track from “Magical Mystery Tour,” and then, $1.29 later, you could be walking around with the tune in your iPod? Right?

What’s that? You’ve never heard “Flying” before? No problem: You can hear it on YouTube, of course:

And if you’re looking for other Beatles songs, Google’s video site is happy to oblige. They’ve even made a 41-song mix for you. No credit card required.

That’s an unprecedented move in the ongoing fight between cable providers, broadcasters and networks over programming fees. And the news was a big deal for the digerati and people contemplating the future of video.

But it doesn’t seem to have registered in the broader world, and you have to work hard to find any mention of the story in old-media news outlets. And even Cablevision, which uses any ammo it can in the PR fight against Fox and News Corp. (which also owns this site), hasn’t said much about it.

Here, for instance, is Cablevision’s newest message to its customers. If you fast forward to the 1:35 mark, you’ll find a two-sentence description of the Web blackout. But hard to believe many Cablevision customers will be sticking around to hear this one:

At the very least, blacking out part of the Web sounds scary. So why is Cablevision so (relatively) quiet on this?

Two theories, which are not mutually exclusive:

• It’s not worth complaining about because this stuff doesn’t really resonate with consumers–at least, not in the way that losing access to NFL games and play-off baseball does. No one spent Saturday evening or Sunday afternoon in a bar because they couldn’t watch “Glee” on Hulu.
• It’s not worth complaining about because Cablevision and News Corp. are actually on the same ideological page when it comes to this stuff. Neither side is really that happy about free TV shows on the Web. The only real difference the two sides have is about money: News Corp. wants to get more of it for its programming, while Cablevision wants to pay less.

On a related note: I still don’t understand why News Corp./Fox backed off so quickly on Saturday, once news of the blackout got out.

There’s no official reason, but there were mutterings about the technical difficulty of cutting off access to Cablevision TV subscribers while leaving Cablevision’s Internet-only subs alone. But hard to believe that News Corp. didn’t think that one through in advance. Same goes for any “optics”-related reason–the whole point of a move like this was to generate publicity, right?

Claims that two schools in China were the source of cyberattacks against Google (GOOG) and other U.S. companies have become the butt of a state-run media joke in the country. First came vehement denials from Shanghai Jiaotong University and Lanxiang Vocational School, which dismissed the stories as unfounded. “We were shocked and indignant to hear these baseless allegations which may harm the university’s reputation,” an SJTU representative told Xinhua News, the official press agency of the People’s Republic of China. He denied any ties between the school and China’s military, as did a rep for Lanxiang.

A relatively diplomatic condemnation of the claims at issue here, but it quickly devolved into outright disparagement and mockery. A subsequent news story, also published by Xinhua, bears the title “Chinese netizens make fun of Google hacking report.”

An excerpt:

A report claiming cyber attacks on Google and other firms originated from two Chinese educational institutions is being jeered at by Chinese netizens.

“The report is sheer nonsense. Is it April Fools’ Day?” netizen sdh13814021912 commented at the www.tianya.cn forum.

“The news is doomed to be a joke.” netizen Jinse Xueguang said.

“A vocational school being used as camouflage for military-sponsored hacker training camp. Am I reading a science fiction?” said another netizen azydn.

Is it April Fools’ Day? Am I reading a science fiction? Clearly Sino-American relations around this matter have sunk to a new low. Still, it’s no surprise that China’s digerati–or the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology officials impersonating them for state-run media–have reacted this way.

Confirming the schools’ involvement in the attacks or their alleged links to the Chinese military is impossible without Beijing’s cooperation. And Beijing is clearly not going to cooperate. Why would it? It has already denied culpability. And ensuring that it remains blameless is as simple as refusing to disclose traffic data from the schools’ data networks.

PREVIOUSLY:

• World War WAN: Google Hack Traced to Schools in China
• Nearly a Month After Debut, Google’s “New” Approach to China Still a Lot Like the Old One
• Google CEO: Ask Not What Google Can Do for China–Ask What China Can Do for Google
• China on “Google Farce”: Our Internet Is Open
• China to Google: No Worries, We Were Planning to Clone Those Android Phones Anyway
• U.S. State Department to Complain to China About Google Hack. Not That China’s Going to Listen.
• Microsoft: “Don’t Be Evil” Is Google’s Motto, Not Ours
• What’s the Chinese Word for Bing? Google Threatens to Leave China.

Last week, BoomTown traveled to Long Beach, Calif., to attend the TED conference, a longtime gathering of digerati and others who have come to love its eclectic and outward-looking program.

TED–which stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design–on its 25th anniversary moved here from Monterey this year for the first time, in order to accommodate its growing audience.

First held in 1984, Chris Anderson’s Sapling Foundation bought TED in 2001 from its founder, Richard Saul Wurman. TED has since grown to include an international conference, TEDGlobal; media initiatives, including TED Talks and TED.com; and the TED Prize.

The four-day TED2009, titled “The Great Unveiling,” included Microsoft (MSFT) co-founder Bill Gates unleashing a small swarm of mosquitoes in the hall, a long list of varied speakers and a whole lot of schmoozing.

Here is my belated video of the event. It features my All Things Digital partner Walt Mossberg, scenes from inside and outside the event (including “Eat, Pray, Love” author Elizabeth Gilbert onstage talking about genius), interviews with TED organizers Tom Rielly and Anderson, as well as my kids trying to steal entrepreneur Bill Gross’s futuristic car.

Here’s the video:

And here is another video, where some TED attendees tell me what presentation blew their heads off with knowledge.

The well-known Technology, Entertainment, Design conference–better known to its techie fans as TED–will make its move from Monterey to Long Beach, in California, starting tomorrow night.

It’s a big change for the longtime gathering of digerati and others who have come to love its eclectic and outward-looking program, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary.

First held in 1984, Chris Anderson’s Sapling Foundation bought TED in 2001 from its founder, Richard Saul Wurman. TED has since grown to include an international conference, TEDGlobal; media initiatives, including TED Talks and TED.com; and the TED Prize.

TED2009 is titled “The Great Unveiling.” And BoomTown is glad to be attending after several years away, especially since I always learn something new at TED (and I have a lot to learn).

It certainly has a varied lineup of speakers again this year, such as Microsoft (MSFT) Co-Founder Bill Gates, neurological anthropologist Oliver Sacks, writer Elizabeth Gilbert, tree researcher Nalini Nadkarni, Web political phenom Nate Silver and many others.

But I am perhaps even more intrigued by the introduction this year of the TED Fellows program, initially 50 individuals picked because of the “world-changing potential of their work.”

They will be invited to participate in the TED community each year, and some of the fellows will come for longer stints to future conferences.

The fellows program is supported by the Bezos family, the Harnisch Foundation, private donors and Nokia (NOK), with additional in-kind support from Kodak (EK), Lightscribe and One.org.

According to the press release, the fellows program was inspired by TED’s Africa program in 2007:

“The TED Fellows program will focus on attracting applicants living or working in five parts of the globe: the Asia/Pacific region, Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America and the Middle East, with consideration given to applicants from the rest of the world….The program focuses on innovators in technology, entertainment, design, science, film, art, music, entrepreneurship and the NGO community, among other pursuits.”

Said Tom Rielly, TED Community Director, who is responsible for the program: “TED will help them communicate their ‘ideas worth spreading’ to a much larger audience.”

Given the troubles all over the world these days, we could all use a much broader perspective.

You can read the longer list of fellows, who seem to deliver just that here, but some of the first participants include:

• Erik Hersman and Juliana Rotich, co-founders of Ushahidi.com, a Web site for citizen journalism, covering crises such as the Kenyan post-election violence

• Faisal Chohan, CEO of Cogilent Solutions and founder of BrightSpyre.com, the leading job portal in Pakistan

• Juliana Machado Ferreira, Brazilian CSI: Wildlife biologist who uses genetic markers to track, interdict and convict illegal songbird traffickers

• Gerry Douglas, founder of Malawi’s Baobab Health Partnership, which builds touchscreen terminals that allow non-doctors to diagnose, treat and correctly prescribe drugs for people with HIV

Ironic because in Silicon Valley–the capital of early-technology adopters and the bleeding-edge users of all things geek–actual sightings of the device are quite rare.

Most of the digerati around here are still obsessed with Apple Inc.’s (AAPL) latest 3G iPhone, which still draws lines wrapping around the block. By contrast, the Kindle is so scarcely spotted that whenever tech analyst Rob Enderele uses his, little crowds tend to gather around him.

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