Around the Web 7.29.08: Rough start for Cuil, just the beginning for XM-Sirius

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-- ‘The Dark Knight’ was cool, but the White Knight Two sounds more fun: Richard Branson showed off a spacecraft to help launch thrill-seekers into the outer atmosphere. LAT

-- T. Boone Pickens, the billionaire investor, says he’s dumped his 10 million Yahoo shares out of frustration with the company’s management, which he called ‘pathetic.’ SF Chronicle

-- BT, the British telecom, snapped up Ribbit, a Silicon Valley company that provides online calling services and voice-enabled applications, for $105 million. VentureBeat

-- Sirius and XM finally complete their merger, forming an even bigger struggling satellite radio company. Wired

-- Yahoo Music is offering refunds to people who bought digital downloads. On Sept. 30 Yahoo is going to stop supporting downloads it sold. CNet

-- Intel, Yahoo and Hewlett-Packard team up with research institutes to work on cloud computing. GigaOm

-- Chip makers’ interest in the solar power business is heating up. USA Today

-- All hat, no cattle? The launch of the Cuil search engine fizzled. Silicon Alley Insider

-- Farhad Manjoo says Google’s virtual world, Lively, is like an amusement park with no rides, games, entertainers or junk food. Slate

-- Analysts say NBC’s Olympics coverage is too Web 1.0. ClickZ

-- Chris Gaither