I’ve written before on how User-Generated Content and advertising don’t always get on. Or more specifically, how social networking sites, even on the scale of MySpace, are having difficulty monetizing their traffic because major brands are wary of placing ads alongside the unpredictable content created by users. Now AOL, who recently acquired social network Bebo, thinks it has the solution. In an interview with paidContent, AOL president Ron Grant talks about the company’s ContentScreen technology as part of its advertising offering - Platform A. The system employs the same technology used by AOL’s spam controls, whereby pages with User-Generated Content are crawled and given a quality score. Only pages that reach a certain “content-screening quality threshold” are served with ads….

The 17.1-inch Toshiba Satellite L355D is average in every way, except for its below-average price.

The 17.1-inch Toshiba Satellite L355D is average in every way, except for its below-average price.

The 17.1-inch Toshiba Satellite L355D is average in every way, except for its below-average price.

Someone had to do it. And that someone is Engadget. The big E is first to unbox the new Open Computer. Engadget NYC might have gotten to play with Apple’s latest and greatest iMac yesterday, but we keep it dirty in the Chi — yep, we’ve got the first Psystar Open Computer shipped out for review. We’re just getting it set up, but check out the unboxing below, and hit us up with anything you want to know in comments — you know we’re going to put this thing through its paces. 16 more photos are in the Engadget gallery. Now where’e mine Psystar? Pfft.

In the blatant eye candy department, here’s a video of the Psystar unboxed. It exists…really it does. Just don’t try to update the software. More reading: Is Psystar Mac clone using the Kalyway boot hack? Why I won’t be buying a “Hackint0sh” system PC Industry Episode II: Attack of the Mac Clones Exclusive: Pictures of Psystar’s corporate home; Clone maker’s store is open

IAC reported its first quarter earnings on Wednesday and it’s the usual mix of mental hurdles, GAAP reconciliations and imagining what it could be. The big question: Is IAC really worth your time? IAC, an Internet conglomerate that’s Barry Diller’s baby, is planning to break itself up into five chunks–a new IAC that will include Ask.com and other Internet properties, a retailing unit (HSN), LendingTree (real estates and loans), Interval (condos and vacations) and Ticketmaster. The conglomerate’s results (Techmeme): Net income of $52.8 million, or 18 cents a share, on revenue of $1.6 billion. Sales were up 8 percent from a year ago and earnings were down 8 percent from a year ago. But where things really get interesting is…

If you don’t need an extralarge screen and a lot of extra bells and whistles, the Toshiba SD-P71S is a solid portable DVD player.

If you don’t need an extralarge screen and a lot of extra bells and whistles, the Toshiba SD-P71S is a solid portable DVD player.

If you don’t need an extralarge screen and a lot of extra bells and whistles, the Toshiba SD-P71S is a solid portable DVD player.