Good morning tech

Good morning! On the last day of the week, the tech headlines ask that you think big about the future of computers. An interview with STEVE BALLMER yesterday had the Microsoft CEO arguing that there’s room for growth in the PC market. That’s after STEVE JOBS argued this week that PCs will meet the same fate as trucks, ceding ground to smaller products, the WSJ reports. "I think people are going to be using PCs in greater and greater numbers for many years to come," said Ballmer, who was handed a title out of the double-edged sword category by the WSJ: “Chief of the company with the most to lose.”

Meanwhile, 4G IS HERE. Sprint rolls out a handset today to operate on its 4G network, Bloomberg reports, unveiling the first phone in the U.S. to operate on next generation wireless technology. The Evo phone from HTC, priced at $200 with a two-year Sprint contract, is on Google's Android operating system. If you’re unclear on the difference between 3G and 4G and aspire to be better liked, consumer group Public Knowledge offers this a primer on answering this question in a way that “impresses people at parties.”

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Who, where.

It’s the last day of the gov-social media conference PDF2010 in New York City. Featured from D.C. today: consumer-interest advocate ART BRODSKY of Public Knowledge and Republican online strategist PATRICK RUFFINI of Engage. The conference is hash-tagged at #pdf2010 if you want to follow along.

CRAIG NEWMARK has been a big hit at the conference so far, adding sound wisdom on which tech start-ups are sure to fail, conference attendees say. Newmark plans a trip to D.C. on Sunday night.

ERIC SCHMIDT might spend the weekend finishing his homework. The Google CEO’s answers on the company’s WiFi data collection debacle are due to lawmakers next week.

Tonight he helps fundraise for Senate Majority Leader HARRY REID in Silicon Valley at an event slated to include Cisco CEO JOHN CHAMBERS, JOHN DOERR and BROOK BYERS of Kleiner Perkins, and JOHN MOUSSOURIS, an eco-friend investor, Politico says.

Can’t-miss news.

PENTAGON NETWORKS CONSTANTLY UNDER ATTACK. General Keith Alexander, commander of the new U.S. Cyber Command, made a rare public speech yesterday where he said the Department of Defense's networks are probed roughly six million times per day by enemy states and criminal organizations, Hillicon Valley reported. "These threats are serious. To deal with them will require common vision, unity of effort and commitment of dedicated resources," he said. To respond, Alexander said the Pentagon needs the capability to launch offensive attacks in cyberpace.

SNOWE PANS FCC ON NET NEUTRALITY. Sen. Olympia Snowe, the most vocal net neutrality supporter among GOP senators, has joined her colleagues in urging Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski not to change the regulatory classification of broadband service. The centrist Republican senator from Maine said Genachowski's effort could create uncertainty that would "hamper or delay investment in much-needed broadband."

SCHMIDT BOWS TO EU REGULATORS. Google will begin handing over to European regulators "the rogue data it intercepted from private WiFi internet connections within the next two days, in an effort to defuse growing controversy over its latest privacy blunder," the FT reports. He "admitted he could not rule out the possibility that personal data such as bank account details were among the data collected," the FT says. The first round of data will go to German, French, and Spanish authorities.  

NUMBER PUNCH.

5 million. The number of people in Finland, which invented Linux, SSH, IRC, Nokia, F-Secure and MySQL, to the amazement of Ramine Darabiha, the CEO of MySites. "One would not think that a country with only 5 million people, plunged into darkness for a greater part of the year, would" do all that, he writes in a piece exploring the "vibrant, creative start-up community" Finland has nurtured despite tough circumstances across European economies (published at Read Write Web).

SAID.

"It has pretty profound implications. We will see a new paradigm play out around efficiency." -Kevin Talbot of BlackBerry Partners Fund, a $150 million venture-capital fund that invests in wireless applications, on AT&T new data-capped pricing plan. (WSJ)

FOR THE WATERCOOLER.

...The L.A. Times points out what might be the first political attack ad about online privacy. In an ad that launched in the L.A. area last night, the campaign of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris calls out primary opponent Chris Kelly for his previous role as Facebook's privacy chief. Or as the ad charges, for his role in "designing the Facebook privacy policy condemned across the country." They are running for California attorney general.

…NPR has decided to make public the code for its mobile app “in the spirit of the Android operating system.” 

...MICHAEL DELL considered taking his company private, CNET says, without explaining why.