Original and translated text from Google Italy blog at Google Blog Directory.Google Code site has posted a video of the event, the Chronicles of Web Standard: the HTML 5, the Comet and the WebSocket, A panel. The discussion covers Comet, HTML 5, the latest, and future enhancements to the web.
We all know the value of the AJAX and one main point discusses a major limitation of AJAX, that the browser must initiate the request for data from the server and how Comet solves this problem by allowing the server to push data to the browser at any time. The one hour and half video starts with a general introduction to Comet, followed by an in depth panel discussion moderated by Kevin Nilson with panelists: Alex Rusell, President of the Dojo Foundation & Project Lead for The Dojo Toolkit Dion Almaer, co-founder of Ajaxian.com and "Audible Ajax" podcast Michale Carter, Founder at Orbited Project & Official Contributor for W3C HTML5 John Fallows, CTO and co-founder at Kaazing Ted Goddard,Senior Software Architect at ICEsoft Technologies and ICEfaces.org
Not to miss.
If you thought that Gmail interface was boring, now you can rejoice and color your Gmail with new themes! The Gmail team has released more than 30 themes ranging from a shiny theme with chrome styling, to one that turns your inbox into a retro notepad. In between there are nature themes that change scenery over time, weather driven themes that can rain on your mailbox, and fun characters to keep you in good company. But I like the old school ascii theme (Terminal).
To customize your inbox, go to the Themes tab under Settings. I am holding on to ASCII theme for now!
NASA's MESSENGER mission which is the first mission sent to orbit the planet closest to the sun and gather data. Even though the actual orbiting will happen in 2011, the spacecraft has already sent us valuable data.
According to a news article on NASAOn Oct. 6, 2008, at roughly 4:40 a.m. ET, MESSENGER flew by Mercury for the second time this year. During the encounter, the probe snapped hundreds of photos and other data of the cratered surface of Mercury.
Visit NASA's MESSENGER mission site for more information on the mission.
While a bunch of us trying to wrangle "map reduce" for a small (pico level in comparison to a portion of a Google data center) these Google Knights are talking about these as if they were croissants you had for breakfast.
Even though very technical, all the videos are very informational. Join the roundtable and learn athing or two about searching.
Official Google Research Blog: New Technology Roundtable Series
According to techcrunch, there seem to be an eminent merger between the two Internet pioneers!. But I wonder what AOL got that Yahoo wants!
"Yahoo is continuing its marathon merger discussions with AOL, sources close to the negotiations have whispered to us, and a deal could happen as early as this month. Is this just a rehash of the reported discussions in February and then again in April?"
pic by Ana Belén RamónIn an appeal process that started with February 2007, a jury in U.S. District Court in San Diego determining Microsoft infringed on two patents that cover the encoding and decoding of audio into the digital MP3 format. Then the judge who presided over the case, Rudi M. Brewster, vacating the ruling, siding with M$ saying Microsoft's Windows Media Player software does not infringe on one of the two patents in question.
Then it went before a panel of federal Judges and the result is the same. M$ does not owe Alcatel Lucent 1.5 Billion.
You can read more at SFGATE.
click on the image to go to Google maps!Yes me too, I was taking some course during that time too! Anyway I already own some of those those wonderful stocks! But Hupert Chang seems not to!, who claims Google was designed by Larry Page, Sergey Brin and him in February 1997
I am in no way to say anything but to point you to the source! blogoscoped!
NEW YORK and SAN FRANCISCO—September 9, 2008—Apple® and NBC Universal today announced the return of NBC programming to the iTunes® Store (www.itunes.com) including NBC networks’ top 10 series available immediately for purchase and download in both standard definition and stunning high definition. iTunes customers can choose programming from NBC, USA Network, SCI FI Channel, Bravo, Sleuth and NBC News including favorites such as the award-winning and critically acclaimed “Heroes,” and the Emmy award-winning programs “The Office,” “Battlestar Galactica” and “30 Rock.” NBCU standard definition television shows on the iTunes Store are $1.99 per episode and HD programs are available for just one dollar more at $2.99 per episode and select library content is available for $.99. Additional NBCU programming from Oxygen, Telemundo, Mun2 and NBC Sports will be available on iTunes soon.
“The return of our shows to iTunes is terrific news for everyone who loves television and the ease and convenience of Apple’s iTunes,” said Jeff Zucker, President and CEO, NBC Universal. “And now, by offering consumers a variety of new options, our fans have even more ways to enjoy our content.”
“We are thrilled that NBC is back on iTunes in time for the Fall TV season,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “NBC has some of TV’s most popular shows and now customers can purchase and download them from iTunes in SD or stunning HD.”
iTunes customers can also purchase a Season Pass which allows viewers to buy an entire season of programming at a discounted price. In addition, NBC Universal is offering one free episode from each of their top series, available in either SD or HD, on the iTunes Store for the next two weeks. The premiere episodes of upcoming NBC shows, such as “Knight Rider,” “My Own Worst Enemy” and “Kath & Kim” will be available on iTunes a week before their broadcast premieres later in September and October, with subsequent episodes available the day after broadcast. NBC is also making full episodes of several vintage television shows available on iTunes for $.99, including “The A-Team,” “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour,” “Miami Vice,” “Kojak” and the original “Battlestar Galactica.”
The iTunes Store is the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store with a catalog of over 8.5 million songs, over 30,000 TV episodes and over 2,500 films including 600 in stunning high definition video. With Apple’s legendary ease of use, pioneering features such as iTunes Movie Rentals, integrated podcasting support, iMix playlist sharing, the ability to turn previously purchased tracks into complete albums at a reduced price, and seamless integration with iPod® and iPhone™, the iTunes Store is the best way for Mac® and PC users to legally discover, purchase and download music and video online.
Pricing & Availability
iTunes 8 for Mac and Windows includes the iTunes Store and is available as a free download from (www.itunes.com). Purchase and download of songs and videos from the iTunes Store requires a valid credit card from a financial institution in the country of purchase. Video availability varies by country.
NBC Universal is one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news and information to a global audience. Formed in May 2004 through the combining of NBC and Vivendi Universal Entertainment, NBC Universal owns and operates a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment networks, a premier motion picture company, significant television production operations, a leading television stations group and world-renowned theme parks. NBC Universal is 80 percent owned by General Electric and 20 percent owned by Vivendi.
Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.
Press Contacts:
Alyssa Donelan
NBC Universal
alyssa.donelan@nbcuni.com
(201) 735-3568
Vancouver, Canada - August 27 2008 - Hip Digital Media, the leading consumer experience network, and Nectar, the UK’s leading loyalty card, today announced the launch of the Nectar Digital Music Store. Available for the first time from any Loyalty Program in the UK, music can be downloaded in a high quality MP3 format and is compatible with virtually any digital music device. With more than one million songs from the music catalogues of EMI, SONY BMG, Warner Music, and The Orchard, songs will be available for download at www.nectarmusicstore.com.
“We are very excited about the opportunity to enable and operate Nectar's custom branded download music store, further extending our global partnership with Groupe Aeroplan”, said Mark Holden, President and CEO of Hip Digital Media. “Through our strong relationships with content providers, we are able to lead the UK market which allows us to work closer with our partners, and continue to develop new channels for marketing, promoting and selling music.”
Nectar cardholders will be able to purchase bundles of song credits with their Nectar points, allowing them maximum flexibility to download music at their leisure. The launch of Nectar Music Store will be supported with a multi-faceted marketing campaign including a custom branded website accessible through the Nectar homepage, e-marketing, direct mail, POS across partner locations and a public relations campaign. In the coming weeks there will be an announcement of a major artist experiential campaign that will offer unique access and on-going opportunities exclusively created for Nectar collectors.
“We want to give our collectors the best possible digital music experience. By providing DRM-free downloads that are compatible with any music player, we’re giving our cardholders greater choice and flexibility,” said John Sheekey, Marketing Director for Nectar. “This is a first for a UK loyalty card and we’re excited to be leading the way in the ever popular world of online digital music.”
Hip Digital Media is also the agency behind the Aeroplan Music Store, which launched with industry breaking success in Canada last year. The Nectar Music Store represents the second collaboration with Aeroplan since Nectar was acquired by for the two companies since Loyalty Management Group (LMG) sold to Aeroplan, Canada’s premier loyalty marketing company, in December 2007.
The Speedmatters.org has released a new survey results of broadband speeds of United States, which lags behind many other industrial countries. But the lag is too large to be comfortable. For an example, Japan's average download is around 68MB/S where we in USA chugs along with 2.35MB/S average. Although I did not see the price mentioned in the report, from peronal experience, 100MB/s fiber connection is not more costly than this higher than avarage connection that I am experincing here in California.
There are many uses for high bandwidth broadband for anyone, which could range from IPTV, VoIP, Video Over IP are some of the uses. Think about your family using two video calls at a time or two VoIP calls. Our infrastructure could hardly manage a single voip call.
The second annual speedmatters.org survey of actual Internet speeds of users nationwide shows that the United States has not made significant improvements in deploying high-speed broadband networks in the past year. Our nation continues to lag behind other industrial nations and currently is ranked 15th in the percentage of residents who have broadband access.
You can read more and add your speedtest to the site by visiting speedmaters.org
MyAdlets has an article and a video telling you how to increase your income with you website or blog feeds.
Google introduced the new Adsense for Feeds as it was retiring AdSense referrals. So don't forget to remove any links related to AdSense Referrals and enhance your sites income with ads in your feeds.
AdSense For Feeds Are In My Feeds Now! | MyADLETS, The Viral Frontier.
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Today at LinuxWorld Conference and Expo 2008 in San Francisco, California, Ubuntu won the “Best Desktop Solution” Product Excellence Award for a second time, consecutively.
“Judged by a group of respected industry experts managed by LinuxWorld.com, the LinuxWorld Product Excellence Awards recognize product and service innovations by LinuxWorld® and NGDC exhibitors.
Product Excellence Awards are divided into 12 product categories, including a “Best of Show,” that represent major areas of innovation in the Linux and open source community. “
If you are any kind of website or blog and plan to promote it via SEO or Search Engine Optimization, you need to concentrate on keywords. Without proper keywords it will be hard to get visitors to your sites from search engines. Basically keywords are what web surfers enter into search engines to find products and services or information that they are looking for. So you need to generate keywords that are best matched to your site. Once the they are found you need to sprinkle those within your site and search engine spiders will find those easily.
So where do I go for Keyword Research? there are a few places that I go but the most often I end up at Google.
The Google Adwords Keyword Tool used to be available only to Adwords customers but since recently public could access the tool without any hindrance. You can use Google Adwords Keyword Tool to generate a list of top keywords on any descriptive word, phrase, product or website address. The generated list of keywords are also rated based on the amount of advertisers bidding on them, search volume in a particular month, and the average search volume. So if you are an AdSense Publisher, these high paying keywords could be used on your site to attract high paying AdSense ads.
If you get requests via email requesting placement of an advertisement on your site, be careful. Fraudsters are at work.
Your Next Web Advertisement Request May Come From Nigeria! | MyADLETS, The Viral Frontier.: "Advance fee fraud alias Nigerian 419 fraud"
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With Judge Dale Kimball's decision SCO has gone down in defeat. The U.S. District Court in Utah ruled in favor of Novell in SCO vs. Novell, a major case in SCO’s long, and ultimately unsuccessful war against Linux. This decision will drive all other cases to the ground.
But various sources are assuming that SCO in it's wisdom and not yet abated greed, might appeal, even though SCO is in bankrupt court now.
Instead of reading my utterings I would like to invite you to join the discussion over at Groklaw.
Did you have the latest Security Updates from Microsoft installed and lost the internet connection? Yes the "Security update for Windows (KB951748)" breaks Zonealarm, all the versions.
So if your zonealarm is blocking your browser and other http access, follow the following procedures.
Download and install the latest versions which solve the loss of internet access problem here (English only):
- or follow the directions below.
Option 1: Move Internet Zone slider to Medium
Option 2: Uninstall the hotfix
View Larger Map
If you like cycling, then I am sure you love the "Tour De France", the exhilarating bicycle race through the France. Since every one is not capable of visiting France to watch the race, we all used to watch it on the TV.
Now thanks to Google Street View, you can take a tour of the Tour De France! You can actually be on the road, alas you cannot feel it. Google We Need Force Feedback Street Views!
Official Google Blog: Tour the Tour de France with Street View
Google has changed its homepage, which you may have seen already from various Save as Draftwebsites reporting. Now Google is providing a link to its “Privacy Center” on the homepage, ending one of the big privacy and beauty dramas, we were playing for a while!.
I hope this will chill some people now!
Official Google Blog: What comes next in this series? 13, 33, 53, 61, 37, 28...
A new study conducted by Paul Dholakia at Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Management shows that online peer-to-peer lending Web sites may be more attractive to Americans than traditional financial institutions.
The study -- “The Democratization of Personal Consumer Loans?” -- analyzed a database of 5,370 peer-to-peer loan auctions from the Web site Prosper.com. Prosper.com, and other companies like it, allows people to lend and borrow money at more attractive interest rates than they find at a bank. The study also found that decisions made by lenders about whom to give loans to are much less likely to be influenced by race or gender.
Online lending sites enable individuals to lend and borrow money directly, without the involvement of any financial institution. By fusing elements of social-networking sites, like Facebook, and auction sites, like eBay, peer-to-peer lending sites allow people who have money to loan to bid on requests from those who need cash for a variety of reasons. Not all requests get funded, but those that do typically yield loans that offer borrowers lower interest rates than bank or credit card companies. The loans also give lenders a better return than they’d receive by investing their money elsewhere.
Before beginning the research, Dholakia wasn’t sure what to expect. On the one hand, he said, plenty of research points to the fact that despite people’s best intentions, stereotypes often influence decision-making. And since potential borrowers often share lots of personal information, including photos, lenders would usually be aware of a borrower’s race and gender. On the other hand, many economists believe that people are rational decision-makers and therefore more inclined to give weight to information such as a borrower’s credit and debt-to-income ratio, all of which is available on the auction sites.
“Since people are investing their own money, they should tend to behave more rationally and seek a return on their investment that takes into account factors other than race and gender,” Dholakia said.
Dholakia also examined the impact of a borrower’s membership in so-called affinity groups on loan approval. Sites like Prosper.com allow borrowers to join a community of their choosing, which can include, for example, alumni of a particular university. Dholakia discovered that having such an affiliation helped borrowers get their loan requests funded.
“The fact that the borrower belongs to an affinity group has a positive effect on the loan success,” Dholakia said.
To read the complete study, visit here.
For more information about Paul Dholakia, visit here.
I hope only regarding their articles!. Moronic people always look to change things so that they benefits them. It like Disney doing the copyright dance or still seem to be uneducated AP, an association of 1500 news papers is going to define what fair use is!
Basically News papers are dying bread. I rarely pick up a news paper unless I am in a hotel and free US News is at my door. That is also only if the hotel does not have WiFi.
Anyone who watch TV know that the news is always covered by two three news stations. Similar way, there are sources more than AP affiliates that reports the same news. It just takes a little time to track down the original source.
I have many times seen AP taking a Company Press Release and post it with AP seal. Just take one more step hunt down the company press hub and refer excerpts or the whole press release from there. (Companies love to get their press releases out there.)
The Following is an excerpt from New York Times! a AP affiliate. Is this fair use? if not how can I make it fair!
"Fair use has become an essential concept to many bloggers, who often quote portions of articles before discussing them. The A.P., a cooperative owned by 1,500 daily newspapers, including The New York Times, provides written articles and broadcast material to thousands of news organizations and Web sites that pay to use them."
Hope some one will create "No AP" badge.
Oops! Some on already did! "So here’s our new policy on A.P. stories: they don’t exist. We don’t see them, we don’t quote them, we don’t link to them. They’re banned until they abandon this new strategy, and I encourage others to do the same until they back down from these ridiculous attempts to stop the spread of information around the Internet."; TechCrunch
Just ban anything from AP! like TechCrunch, ban any linking to AP stories on your blog site. Hope some one will create "No AP" badge.
"Working Swap Blog Name And Post Title On Blogger, Does Not Break XML".
It has been argued that from a SEO point of view, it is better to have the post title appear as the page title instead of a generic blog title first. You get noticed on search engines easily and your pagerank may go up. What ever the reason it looks neat and cleaner. Like for an instance, this article would appear;
"Geemodo : Working Swap Blog Name And Post Title On Blogger, Does Not Break XML."
on search engine results. That is fine in the beginning to get your blog name out. But once it has been established, your want your articles to have prominence in search results. So swapping blog name and post title became a challenge for Blogger, blogpost users. Earlier there were widgets that allowed smoother operations of this task and later those failed due to changes made at Blogger, the new blogger. Imagine if you have a name like "MyAdlets, The Viral Frontier", you article name get lost behind the Blog name!
I have been searching the internet for a solution and had multiple versions of this code hack saved. I tried them all, until I came across the following. I am not sure of the author but I am sure it is not me! ;). The other solutions that I tried broke the template XML and made a mess of the layout if you were to add new elements.
I tried this at MyAdlets and it is working fine.
To get working, you need to do some hacking on your template. Login to your Blogger account, select layout tab.
Within Layout tab select "edit html" and click on the "Expand Widget Templates" check box. To be safe I alway save my template by selecting "Download Full Template", so that I can go back if I make a mistake. I strongly advise you to do so as well.
Find (If you are using Firefox, select Edit -->Find in This Page | and cut and paste the following)
<title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title>
and replace it with the following;
<!-- Swap Blogger Name-Title change -->
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>
<title>
<data:blog.pageName/> | <data:blog.title/>
</title>
<b:else/>
<title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title>
</b:if>
<!-- End of wap Blogger Name-Title change -->
You are done, save the changes, view the blog.
Now you can make a post and see how search engine bots see your post! Now the name and the title is always swapped.
Warning, as with all advise, it is a risk that you make a mistake and mess up your blog. We take no responsibility for any loss that happens by following these instructions. We have actually tested the method and have positive results. If you are not at ease, contact an expert!
Yes Gee More 'll do, I like that better. If you follow the first post on this blog, it was done with bringing new ideas and the last deduction was that this is a "thousand Dollar fashion point". But it also could be "Thousand Dollar Opportunity Of Our Times".
We will continue to write in the same manner but we will focus more in making bloggers life easier. There are enough people bashing M$ anyway. (We will certainly write if we find the right thing).
The idea came because, one of our Blogs, MyAdlets, which is dedicated to Internet and Online Advertising, had to write about; NoFollow, DoFollow ! U Comment, I Follow with iFollow. We also promised to continue to provide information the subject. Doing reserch about the subject revealed that we will have to write more than one article. That is throwing MyAdlets, the advertising blog, out of the path. So we decided that we will bring the subject over here and continue to write thousands more articles on the same lines and thoughts.
So let us make a Gee More.
Geemodo: What is GEEMODO?
With a new plans for Geemodo, this will be the last of these type of general postings and I am happy to have done it with news about Apple. I would have preferred it to be a news item about Linux but Mac OS X is not that far apart!
Here is the press release;
SAN FRANCISCO—June 9, 2008—Apple® today previewed Mac OS® X Snow Leopard, which builds on the incredible success of OS X Leopard and is the next major version of the world’s most advanced operating system. Rather than focusing primarily on new features, Snow Leopard will enhance the performance of OS X, set a new standard for quality and lay the foundation for future OS X innovation. Snow Leopard is optimized for multi-core processors, taps into the vast computing power of graphic processing units (GPUs), enables breakthrough amounts of RAM and features a new, modern media platform with QuickTime® X. Snow Leopard includes out-of-the-box support for Microsoft Exchange 2007 and is scheduled to ship in about a year.
“We have delivered more than a thousand new features to OS X in just seven years and Snow Leopard lays the foundation for thousands more,” said Bertrand Serlet, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “In our continued effort to deliver the best user experience, we hit the pause button on new features to focus on perfecting the world’s most advanced operating system.”
Snow Leopard delivers unrivaled support for multi-core processors with a new technology code-named “Grand Central,” making it easy for developers to create programs that take full advantage of the power of multi-core Macs. Snow Leopard further extends support for modern hardware with Open Computing Language (OpenCL), which lets any application tap into the vast gigaflops of GPU computing power previously available only to graphics applications. OpenCL is based on the C programming language and has been proposed as an open standard. Furthering OS X’s lead in 64-bit technology, Snow Leopard raises the software limit on system memory up to a theoretical 16TB of RAM.
Using media technology pioneered in OS X iPhone™, Snow Leopard introduces QuickTime X, which optimizes support for modern audio and video formats resulting in extremely efficient media playback. Snow Leopard also includes Safari® with the fastest implementation of JavaScript ever, increasing performance by 53 percent, making Web 2.0 applications feel more responsive.*
For the first time, OS X includes native support for Microsoft Exchange 2007 in OS X applications Mail, iCal® and Address Book, making it even easier to integrate Macs into organizations of any size.
*Performance will vary based on system configuration, network connection and other factors. Benchmark based on the SunSpider JavaScript Performance test on an iMac® 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo system running Mac OS X Snow Leopard, with 2GB of RAM.
Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.
Press Contacts:
Jennifer Hakes
Apple
jenniferh@apple.com
(408) 974-7439
Google Earth in your Browser with new Google Earth Plug-in. The Google Earth Plug-in and its JavaScript API let you embed Google Earth, a true 3D digital globe, into your web pages. Using the API you can draw markers and lines, drape images over the terrain, add 3D models, or load KML files, allowing you to build sophisticated 3D map applications. If you have an existing Maps API site, you can 3D-enable your page with as little as one line of code.
After watching th video;
From: Kevin Johnson
Sent: Sunday, May 18, 2008 1:30 PM
To: Platforms & Services Division; APSP FTE - Adv & Pub Solutions Platform; Employees.all.corp.adf@main.corp; Employees.all.adf@main.corp
Subject: Online Services Strategy Update
We have been executing against the core strategy I first presented at our Financial Analyst Meeting in July 2007 to go after the growing opportunity in online services and advertising. Four pillars have formed the basis of our strategy:
1. Consolidate ad platform and win in display
2. Innovate and disrupt in search
3. Deliver end-to-end user experiences across PC, phone, and web
4. Reinvent portal and social media experiences
We have many options that support acceleration of our strategy. As announced earlier today, we are also considering new alternatives for a transaction with Yahoo! which do not involve a full acquisition. At this time, we have not made a new bid to acquire all of Yahoo!, but we reserve the right to reconsider that alternative depending on future developments and discussions that may take place with Yahoo!, shareholders of Yahoo! or Microsoft, or with other third parties.
Regardless of the outcome of any new discussions, it is important that we continue to move forward to strengthen our online services business. The fact is that we are not where we want to be in this business yet and we've been in this position longer than we'd all like. To that end, we will be accelerating elements of our core strategy, and breaking ground in new areas.
On Tuesday, Brian McAndrews is hosting advance08, our annual advertising conference here in Redmond. Over 400 leaders from across the media, technology and advertising landscape will be here for two days to engage in dialogue on industry trends and opportunities. These leaders are some of our closest partners in the digital transformation of the advertising industry, and they recognize the increasingly important role Microsoft plays in this transformation.
We are very excited to have these customers and partners on campus.
Brian's keynote will highlight our unique position in the advertising industry. It's amazing to see how far we've come with the aQuantive acquisition in differentiating our advertising platform. This foundation is paying off, with Q3 advertising revenue growth of nearly 40%, a rate that has accelerated over the past two quarters while growth rates at Google, Yahoo and AOL have slowed.
On Wednesday, we will be announcing a major new initiative that our search teams have been driving. We are getting better and better with our core algorithmic search, and at the same time, we are investing to differentiate in vertical experiences and to disrupt the current model. You'll hear more about our plans Wednesday.
advance08 will underscore our commitment to search and online advertising, and you'll continue to see announcements demonstrating our progress in this space. Earlier this week, I spoke to leaders across our online services business about our core strategy, the importance of acceleration and a set of actions we are taking, including:
1. Innovate and disrupt in search - We will disclose some elements of our plans with this week's release of search and sharpen our focus on user experience and business model innovation. The work we have done over the last 4 years on search has established a solid foundation to build upon.
2. Win targeted distribution - With this release of search, we are now ready to throttle up broader distribution initiatives.
3. Reinvent portal and deliver new experiences across PC, phone and web - We are building our new releases of Windows 7, Windows Live wave 3, Windows Mobile 7, Internet Explorer 8, Search and MSN with an eye towards optimizing and unifying experiences and scenarios.
4. Fix our online branding - Our brands are fragmented and confusing today, and we recognize a need to clarify and align our online branding. We are now driving forward to address this opportunity.
5. Win in display advertising - We have an advantage in tools, agency assets/relationships and a team laser-focused on capturing the display ad platform opportunity. As we build from a position of strength, we will increase engineering resources to drive even more innovation.
6. Build on our strengths in Europe - As measured by comScore in March, our online business in Europe is doing well. We have over 3 times the page view volume and nearly 7 times the minutes of usage compared to Yahoo!, and 68% reach to internet users throughout Europe. We will double down on our investments in Europe and expand on this strong position.
7. Expand strategic partnerships - In addition to our organic innovation agenda, we will expand strategic partnerships that increase inventory on our display ad platform, enable new paradigms in search and accelerate growth in key geographies.
8. Pursue small, targeted acquisitions - Looking forward, we will focus on small, targeted acquisitions that support our work in search, complement our value in the ad platform and help us grow scale in key geographies. Recent acquisitions including Rapt and YaData are examples of these types of acquisitions.
The PSD leadership team is actively working on the FY09 budget, including resources and investments to support the actions above. Additional elements of our work will be revealed in the coming weeks, leading to our Financial Analyst Meeting in July where I will share more details on our strategy and business/financial outlook.
As we move forward, I want to remind everyone that we are well positioned to compete. We have some of the industry's best assets on our side: technical and business talent, global scale, a culture of self-criticism and tenaciousness, a healthy balance sheet and an unparalleled product portfolio. It's time for us to seize the opportunity.
Thanks again for your continued leadership and focus on our business. If you have any feedback or thoughts, please feel free to send me mail.
Regards,
Kevin JohnsonLet us recall the facts : when consumers buy the computer of their choice, they are generally forced to simultaneouly acquire the license of pre-installed software, even though it would be easy for the professionals to dissociate both purchases, for a marginal cost, as recommended by the Globalisation Institute, a liberal reflection group, in a report for the European Commission. This dissociation would also dissolve the lack of publicity for the software prices and conditions of use. Moreover, it would induce an evolution of software licenses, considered to be unfair and to contain abusive terms.
Encouraged by the Director General of the DGCCRF at the time, Mr. Cerruti, at a tripartite meeting in November 2006, this trial is intended to provide a jurisprudence related sales of computers and software. The recent response by Luc Chatel to a written question confirms this need: the Secretary of State said he will not do anything.
Happy coincidence: on the eave of this hearing, an individual won a new trial in Caen, Normandy. He obtained a posteriori reimbursement of pre-installed software.
The judgement recalls the client's right and liberty to adopt any particular operating system or use other software and licenses than the systems and software installed by [the manufacturer] on the computers.
One of the jurists in the Racketware team that edits the Reimbursement Guide, comments : The obstacles introduced by the manufacturer to a simple and fast reimbursement of an amount corresponding to usual prices are clealy condemned by the judge. Asus' practice can thus be assimilated to bundled sales. The manufacturers, and hence, the vendors, will need to revise their practices if they do not want to undergo more frequent appeals.
This is the fourth victory in a proximity juridiction (Rennes, Puteaux, Libourne, Caen). This victory is the first of a long series of procedures conducted along the lines of the http://racketiciel.info/ Reimbursement Guide which meets great success.
Petition Stop racketware
will soon reach 30 000 signatures, which is surprising for a complex matter with so little coverage in traditional media.
Meanwhile, Vista is increasingly rejected. The consumer prefers keeping XP and manufacturers HP and DELL attempt to find way to revive this system to meet demand. As for Microsoft, she receives the timely payment for the Vista license anyway. Only the consumer is the looser : he must pay for software he is not using!
Does the consumer wish anything else than Microsoft products? With bundled sales, he is rarely entitled to speak. Yet EeePC, by the same manufacturer, ASUS, meets a tremendous success: the public chooses an innovative machine that runs a free operating system [11].
The French executive power is schizophrenic. On the one hand, the State has no more money
. On the other hand, according to our estimations, Microsoft tax optimization in France, artificially swollen by bundled sales, is on the order of twice the annual cost of the national family card for train transportation. By ignoring bundled sales, not only does the State act against the consumers' interest, but it comforts the monopoly of the editor that controls from 90 to 95% of market shares [12]. A clear court settlement on bundled sales could compensate for the State's lack of action.
Despite what vendors and manufacturers pretend, the solutions we suggest (identical pre-installation for all copies of a model, but selective activation upon client's request) have a minimal cost, they are simple and fast to set up [1]. A clear court settlement on bundled sales would cut manufacturers' dilatory arguments.
Besides, bundled sales illustrates a real problem in France: the law exists and only needs to be enforced. A clear court settlement on bundled sales would re-delineate the spirit of the law where it has been continually eroded by the influence of manufacturers and vendors for their exclusive profit.
Today's hearing shows that the result of this action mainly relies on the Court's decision. It should be noted that Darty's representents seem to exempt the vendor from its responsibilities regarding customers, just as today's State Secretary Luc Chatel eludates his responsibility [13]. Associations AFUL and April celebrate the quality of the pleading by UFC-Que Choisir representents, which included several key arguments from the Racketware team.
Alain Coulais, one of the leaders of the Racketware workgroup, says: With a victory at Tribunal de Grande Instance, the current situation, which is unfavourable to all consumers, will evoluate towards optionality during the purchase, which is favourable to all consumers and to the State. For a marginal cost, everyone would be winning: the majority that still wants to buy a machine with pre-installed software, the growing minority that knowingly chooses alternative solutions like GNU-Linux, and those who have acquired licenses that entitle them to re-use the software on several machines
.
The wolf can't let the sheep go. M$ published the following short news item. I think M$ and some other people has much to gain, if Yahoo is in their pocket!
REDMOND, Wash. — May 18, 2008 — Microsoft Corp. today issued the following statement:
“In light of developments since the withdrawal of the Microsoft proposal to acquire Yahoo! Inc., Microsoft announced that it is continuing to explore and pursue its alternatives to improve and expand its online services and advertising business. Microsoft is considering and has raised with Yahoo! an alternative that would involve a transaction with Yahoo! but not an acquisition of all of Yahoo! Microsoft is not proposing to make a new bid to acquire all of Yahoo! at this time, but reserves the right to reconsider that alternative depending on future developments and discussions that may take place with Yahoo! or discussions with shareholders of Yahoo! or Microsoft or with other third parties.
“There of course can be no assurance that any transaction will result from these discussions.”
Tags:
I went here to learn about startup business issues but came back with this article about M$'s service pack trend! Initial jab was from Social|median.
This isn’t news to anyone. Vista is a flop. But why?
If you evaluate the way that Microsoft develops and releases its products you’ll notice a trend. Not just in actual perception but what people expect. Most administrators you speak to will say that they don’t implement new Microsoft products until SP1. Lately, many I’ve spoken with have increased this to SP2! So why is this happening and why doesn’t this happen with Mac?
I use OpenID for my web and net wanderings. I am also implementing OpenID for two of my projects that needs universal authentication. In my view, of all the authentication solutions that we had for the net, OpenID has been the mana that we have been waiting for. So when I read today that myOpenID, my personal OpenID provider, has introduced CallVerifID TM, A method for two factor authentication for OpenID. It uses phonefactor service for phone based authentication.
If you are a myOpenID user, you can immediately start using it. This phone-based authentication service can use any phone (mobile or landline) as a second authentication factor. The user enters a myOpenID username and password as usual, then simply answers an automated instant telephone call and presses “#”. And that completes the authentication process.
Following is the press release by JanRain;
JanRain and Positive Networks have developed a phone-based, two-factor authentication solution specifically designed to support users of myOpenID. myOpenID, the most popular independent OpenID provider, is a free, fully featured, and secure solution for users who want their own personal OpenID identity. The new secure authentication offering, CallVerifIDTM, is available immediately to all myOpenID users and is based on Positive Networks’ PhoneFactor service. PhoneFactor is the leading phone-based authentication service and does not rely on text/SMS messages, tokens, certificates or the installation of hardware. OpenID is an open standard shared identity service, which enables users to log on to different web sites and applications using a single digital identity, eliminating the need to create and manage separate user names and passwords for each site. OpenID empowers users to control when, where, and how they share personal information. “As the adoption and usage of OpenID accelerates across thousands of websites and applications, it is becoming increasingly important to provide multi-factor authentication options, said Brian Kissel, CEO of JanRain. “Adding CallVerifID powered by PhoneFactor to the myOpenID service provides users with the best two-factor authentication solution available.” The new offering is based on the award-winning PhoneFactor technology and provides simple two-factor authentication and identity protection with far greater security than only using passwords. This phone-based authentication service can use any phone (mobile or landline) as a second authentication factor. The user enters a myOpenID username and password as usual, then simply answers an automated instant telephone call and presses “#”. This completes the authentication process. Complete two-factor authentication and identity protection is instantly enabled with no need for tokens, smart cards or certificates. CallVerifID is currently available for free to myOpenID users in the United States and many other countries, and as an additional service for business clients provisioning OpenIDs to both customers and employees. “Adding strong authentication to OpenID must be simple,convenient and very secure if it is to work for most people.This rules out most traditional solutions like tokens, but is ideal for a phone-based solution like PhoneFactor, said Tim Sutton, CEO of Positive Networks. “We think that the marriage of OpenID and PhoneFactor will be the first really scalable multifactor solution”.
Microsoft and the Hyundai Kia Automotive Group announced today an agreement to put Microsoft's Automotive Platform, the technology behind the Ford Sync system, into Hyundai and Kia cars by 2010. Ford Sync lets users integrate MP3 players and cell phones with their cars, allowing for hands-free calling and voice-command music selection.
Continue to read at news.com
Well, makes more reasons to avoid buying listening music from labels under RIAA! They continue to abuse the system according to this article on Slashdot.
Microsoft is walking away from Yahoo! Acquisition after upping the ante to US$40bn-plus. The news is a blow to Microsoft, which had seen the acquisition as a way of competing more effectively with rival Google. But the wolf err Steve Ballmer said he knew the exact price that that Yahoo! is worth. So After Jerry Yang has said my company worth more than you think; M$ decided to walk away, after writing a letter to Jerry Yang.
“After careful consideration, we believe the economics demanded by Yahoo do not make sense for us, and it is in the best interests of Microsoft stockholders, employees and other stakeholders to withdraw our proposal,” Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said in a statement.
Here is the full letter;
Dear Jerry,
After over three months, we have reached the conclusion of the process regarding a possible combination of Microsoft and Yahoo.
I first want to convey my personal thanks to you, your management team, and Yahoo’s board of directors for your consideration of our proposal. I appreciate the time and attention all of you have given to this matter, and I especially appreciate the time that you have invested personally. I feel that our discussions this week have been particularly useful, providing me for the first time with real clarity on what is and is not possible.
I am disappointed that Yahoo has not moved towards accepting our offer. I first called you with our offer on January 31 because I believed that a combination of our two companies would have created real value for our respective shareholders and would have provided consumers, publishers, and advertisers with greater innovation and choice in the marketplace. Our decision to offer a 62% premium at that time reflected the strength of these convictions.
In our conversations this week, we conveyed our willingness to raise our offer to $33/share, reflecting again our belief in this collective opportunity. This increase would have added approximately another $5bn of value to your shareholders, compared to the current value of our initial offer. It also would have reflected a premium of over 70% compared to the price at which your stock closed on January 31. Yet it has proven insufficient, as your final position insisted on Microsoft paying yet another $5bn or more, or at least another $4/share above our $33 offer.
Also, after giving this week’s conversations further thought, it is clear to me that it is not sensible for Microsoft to take our offer directly to your shareholders. This approach would necessarily involve a protracted proxy contest and eventually an exchange offer. Our discussions with you have led us to conclude that, in the interim, you would take steps that would make Yahoo undesirable as an acquisition for Microsoft.
We regard with particular concern your apparent planning to respond to a “hostile” bid by pursuing a new arrangement that would involve or lead to the outsourcing to Google of key paid Internet search terms offered by Yahoo today. In our view, such an arrangement with the dominant search provider would make an acquisition of Yahoo undesirable to us for a number of reasons.
First, it would fundamentally undermine Yahoo’s own strategy and long-term viability by encouraging advertisers to use Google as opposed to your Panama paid search system. This would also fragment your search advertising and display advertising strategies and the ecosystem surrounding them. This would undermine the reliance on your display advertising business to fuel future growth.
Given this, it would impair Yahoo’s ability to retain the talented engineers working on advertising systems that are important to our interest in a combination of our companies.
In addition, it would raise a host of regulatory and legal problems that no acquirer, including Microsoft, would want to inherit. Among other things, this would consolidate market share with the already-dominant paid search provider in a manner that would reduce competition and choice in the marketplace.
This would also effectively enable Google to set the prices for key search terms on both their and your search platforms and, in the process, raise prices charged to advertisers on Yahoo. In addition to whatever resulting legal problems, this seems unwise from a business perspective unless in fact one simply wishes to use this as a vehicle to exit the paid search business in favor of Google.
It could foreclose any chance of a combination with any other search provider that is not already relying on Google’s search services.
Accordingly, your apparent plan to pursue such an arrangement in the event of a proxy contest or exchange offer leads me to the firm decision not to pursue such a path. Instead, I hereby formally withdraw Microsoft’s proposal to acquire Yahoo.
We will move forward and will continue to innovate and grow our business at Microsoft with the talented team we have in place and potentially through strategic transactions with other business partners.
I still believe even today that our offer remains the only alternative put forward that provides your stockholders full and fair value for their shares. By failing to reach an agreement with us, you and your stockholders have left significant value on the table.
But clearly a deal is not to be.
Thank you again for the time we have spent together discussing this.
Sincerely yours,
Steven A. Ballmer
Chief Executive Officer
Microsoft Corporation
Jerry should be happy Steve did not throw a chair at him or curse him.
Update on XP Service Pack 3, Since I installed the service pack 3 for Windows XP. I have installed Java Version 6 update 5 and oOo, Open Office version 2.4 and they are behaving fine. The next will be Microsoft's own Office version.
I also have Avast 4.8 running together with Zonealarm. Then I have the Spybot Search & Destroy 1.5.2.0 and I think they are keeping the system safe and clean. But I will soon change the firewall to Jetico. Why, Here is why! results of leak tests. I will also install Lavasoft's adaware 2007 as together with Spybot S&D, they keep off most of the bad boys away. All the software mentioned above are free if you are using them for personal use.
According to this Yahoo news article, Microsoft or Chief Executive Steve Ballmer if you follow the article plans to go hostile with take over bid, as soon as today!;
""We're willing to pay for that at some level, and beyond that level we're not willing to pay for it. I know exactly what I think Yahoo is worth to me," the executive (Ballmer) said. "I won't go a dime above, and I will go to what I think it's worth if that gets the deal done."
But he didn't offer a figure, and he didn't say whether Microsoft is considering raising its unsolicited bid, worth $44.6 billion at the time it was made in early February.
The offer is currently worth about $42.4 billion, or $29.48 per share, based on Microsoft Corp.'s closing stock price Thursday. Yahoo Inc. has rejected the offer, saying it undervalues the company. Microsoft's board has been considering whether to raise the bid to as much as $33 per share, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Ballmer didn't provide any new insight into the company's efforts to buy the Silicon Valley pioneer during the meeting at Microsoft's Redmond, Wash., headquarters, but he did indicate that an end to months of speculation was near.
"We ought to announce something in relatively short order," Ballmer told employees.
His comments were first reported by Silicon Alley Insider, an online technology news site, and confirmed by a Microsoft spokesman.
Ballmer added that buying Yahoo is just one of many moving parts in the software maker's strategy to compete with Google Inc. in search and Web advertising, and that if neither a friendly nor a hostile deal "look good," he's willing to walk away.
Microsoft's board met Wednesday but reached no decision on a next step, the Journal reported. The software maker had given Yahoo until last weekend to agree to a deal or face the prospect of an ugly proxy fight.
Meanwhile, Yahoo is exploring a possible advertising partnership with Internet search leader Google Inc. or a merger with the online operations of Time Warner Inc.'s AOL as possible defenses if Microsoft tries a hostile takeover.
Impressed by a two-week test completed last month, Yahoo could firm up a long-term deal within a week, according to the Journal. Any alliance between Yahoo and Google would face intense antitrust scrutiny, however, because the two companies control more than 80 percent of the U.S. market for search advertising.
Yahoo and Google hope to allay those concerns by structuring their deal so their rivals, including Microsoft, could participate in an auction-based system, the Journal said."
I had to check this out so I finally installed this on a fresh Windows XP with Service Pack 2. Installation itself took some time ( I was able to almost complete a Ubuntu 8.04 on a old notebook) but the service pack installation went smooth. First it took an inventory of the notebook I was installing it on and the did a file and registry backup and created a restore point. Then installed the service pack 3. Everything went fine and I rebooted the notebook. It started without much fuzz and created/changed registry entries.
The system has been running for a while without any problems. I do not have many applications on the machine as yet and I will certainly do so as time allows. As of now I have tested, Zonealarm firewall, Spybot S&D with tea timer, Firefox along with VPN and some other remote access programs.
Although not available for down load, you can still get the service pack 3 if you know where to look!
News Com is telling me that XP Service Pack Is delayed due to incompatibility with it's own software package. So people why wait, Ubuntu is set to take on the windows! Go Get your Ubuntu.
Even if Windows service pack comes, it will be loaded with all the spy tool in the world like WGA, You cannot get even regular upgrades without WGA now!
tag: M$, Ubuntu, XP Service Pack 3, Ubuntu
