Though HP's Procurve line of switches already compete with Cisco's hardware, the 3Com deal will offer HP far more firepower in the war to own the corporate data center. 3Com, a dot-com boom and bust veteran, recently launched a new series of data center switches that compete directly with Cisco's Nexus switching line and cost about 40% less on average, according to the Yankee Group.

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But after the 2000 burst of the dot-com bubble and the World Trade Center attacks of 2001, Sheppard found that people were less open to innovative, quirky ideas and more concerned about money.

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Yelp, a popular Web site that hosts user-generated reviews of local businesses, hosted a party at a contemporary art center in San Francisco that was reminiscent of the '90s dot-com extravaganzas.

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According to Google Maps, the dot appears directly over the Univ Tx MD Anderson Cancer Center.

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