Microsoft said to be in buyout talks with Yahoo

HIGHLIGHTS

News: Microsoft said to be in buyout talks with Yahoo
News: Danish consumer agency finds design flaw in Apple iBook
News: Acer: No major laptop battery improvement in offing
News: Windows Live Hotmail to debut Monday
News: RIM, Nokia unveil high and low-end phones
News: Sun's grid computing service goes global
News: Wall Street Beat: Earnings, M&A drive IT
Go Figure: Tape library sales slip
ITWhirled: The top 10 Air Jordans of all time


NEWS UPDATES

Microsoft said to be in buyout talks with Yahoo
Having lost out to Google Inc. in a bid to acquire Internet advertising company DoubleClick Inc., Microsoft Corp. has initiated a new round of talks to acquire Yahoo Inc., according to published reports Friday.


Danish consumer agency finds design flaw in Apple iBook
The Danish Consumer Complaints Board has published evidence of a manufacturing defect resulting in power failures in some of Apple Inc.'s iBook G4 notebook computers. The board has already ordered the company to refund one Danish customer, and expects its findings to influence cases elsewhere, a spokesman said on Friday.


Acer: No major laptop battery improvement in offing
Dreams of fuel cells serving the power needs of a laptop PC or other new technology to significantly increase battery life won't likely be available for years, an Acer Inc. executive says.


Windows Live Hotmail to debut Monday
Microsoft Corp. Monday will finally bring its completely revamped version of its popular online e-mail service out of beta and into full release.


RIM, Nokia unveil high and low-end phones
Research In Motion Ltd. is taking its second stab at the high-end consumer market with the new BlackBerry Curve, even while Nokia Corp. unveils some of the least expensive handsets in its line-up.


Sun's grid computing service goes global
Sun Microsystems Inc. is expanding its Network.com utility computing service from the U.S. to 23 countries in Europe and Asia, the company said Thursday.


Wall Street Beat: Earnings, M&A drive IT
Financial results from Symantec Corp. and Nortel Networks Corp. along with merger and acquisition (M&A) news from Microsoft Corp. and Ebay Inc. this week underscore trends that are generating excitement among IT investors.


GO FIGURE

15.6%
The decline in tape library sales in 2006 from 2005, following two consecutive years of sales growth exceeding 10 percent annually, according to a new study by Freeman Reports. SOURCE: Techworld.com


ITWHIRLED

She's a 10
Top ten favorite Guitar Hero II songs ... Ten things to know before submitting to Google ... The top 10 Air Jordans of all time ... Top 10 movie one-liners

Spammers use new technique to evade filters

HIGHLIGHTS

News: Spammers use new technique to evade filters
News: Microsoft buys mobile advertising company ScreenTonic
News: TI plans $1 billion expansion in the Philippines
News: Mozilla releases eBay add-on for Firefox
News: Google home page bug strikes again
News: AMD aims to pre-empt Intel's Santa Rosa launch
News: VeriSign to use one-time passwords for bank cards
ITwhirled: Top ten favorite Guitar Hero II songs


NEWS UPDATES

Spammers use new technique to evade filters
Spammers have stepped up efforts to use encrypted attachments to evade filtering systems, service provider Email Systems has reported.


Microsoft buys mobile advertising company ScreenTonic
Microsoft Corp. said on Thursday it will buy ScreenTonic SA, a company that specializes in delivering localation-based ads to mobile devices.


TI plans $1 billion expansion in the Philippines
Texas Instruments Inc. plans to invest US$1 billion in the Philippines over the next ten years to expand its chip assembly operations there, it announced Thursday.


Mozilla releases eBay add-on for Firefox
Mozilla Corp. is asking users to test a new add-on for the Firefox browser that lets users monitor their deals on eBay Inc.'s auction site in real time.


Google home page bug strikes again
Google Inc. renamed and upgraded its Personalized Home Page this week, but one thing the update couldn't shake was a bug that began upsetting many users last Thursday and persisted until Wednesday.


AMD aims to pre-empt Intel's Santa Rosa launch
Advanced Micro Systems Inc. introduced a new chipset for mobile computing on wireless networks Wednesday in an attempt to get ahead of similar news expected soon from rival Intel Corp.


VeriSign to use one-time passwords for bank cards
VeriSign Inc. is looking to offer bank cards with an integrated one-time password generator, a slimmer way than key chains to implement two-factor authentication.


ITWHIRLED

She's a 10
Top ten favorite Guitar Hero II songs ... Ten things to know before submitting to Google ... The top 10 Air Jordans of all time ... Top 10 movie one-liners

Google urges shareholders to permit censorship

HIGHLIGHTS

News: Google urges shareholders to permit censorship
News: CEO: SMB to become IBM's 'largest industry'
News: Dell hopes to earn good will with Linux PC
News: Microsoft fails to impress during Bach's keynote
News: First WiMax laptop card approved by FCC, Clearwire says
News: Users force Digg to stand firm over AACS encryption key
ITwhirled: Ten things to know before submitting to Google


NEWS UPDATES

Google urges shareholders to permit censorship
Google Inc.'s board of directors has recommended shareholders next week vote down a proposal that would require the company to legally resist government censorship efforts and to notify users when the company is required by governments to censor search results.


CEO: SMB to become IBM's 'largest industry'
The head of IBM Corp. expects the company's small to midsize business (SMB) operation to become the vendor's biggest industry focus within a couple of years.


Dell hopes to earn good will with Linux PC
Dell Inc. may have won applause from customers Tuesday by announcing it will sell commercial PCs running the Ubuntu distribution of Linux, but if the experience of competitors is a guide, it faces challenges translating the move into financial success.


Microsoft fails to impress during Bach's keynote
The last thing a company wants to do at a keynote speech is clear a room. But that's just what Microsoft Corp. succeeded in doing during Tuesday's keynote at MIX 07 in Las Vegas.


First WiMax laptop card approved by FCC, Clearwire says
Regulators have approved the first WiMax wireless broadband laptop PC card to be offered by Clearwire Corp., and it should be available to users later this year, the company said Tuesday.


Users force Digg to stand firm over AACS encryption key
Kevin Rose, the founder of Digg Inc., threw in the towel on Tuesday night.



ITWHIRLED

Ten things to know before submitting to Google
Top ten favorite Guitar Hero II songs ... Ten things to know before submitting to Google ... The top 10 Air Jordans of all time ... Top 10 movie one-liners

Microsoft adds .Net to give Silverlight a shine ... Dell memo hints at layoffs, acquisitions

HIGHLIGHTS
News: Microsoft adds .Net to give Silverlight a shine
News: Verio to shut off controversial Web site
News: Supreme Court favors Microsoft in AT&T case
News: Search Wikia hires Jabber founder, expands concept
News: Dell memo hints at layoffs, acquisitions
Storage Tip: iSCSI is doing just fine thank you
ITwhirled: Text messaging to render Irish children illiterate


NEWS UPDATES

Microsoft adds .Net to give Silverlight a shine
Microsoft Corp. is integrating the .Net framework into its new Silverlight browser technology for running multimedia applications on the Web, the company revealed Monday. The move is part of an expanded effort to build a significant developer base so Microsoft can catch up to Adobe Systems Inc. in providing a revenue-generating business in the rich Internet applications (RIAs) market.

Verio to shut off controversial Web site
Privacy advocates are concerned that a move by Verio to stop hosting a controversial Web site points to a growing control of the Web by big business and governments.

Supreme Court favors Microsoft in AT&T case
The Supreme Court today ruled that Microsoft Corp. is not liable for using patented AT&T Inc. technology in copies of Windows running on computers outside the U.S. The 7-to-1 ruling relieves the software giant from paying what could have been enormous damages and changes how the software industry looks at patent rights.

Search Wikia hires Jabber founder, expands concept
Jabber creator Jeremie Miller is joining Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia and Wikia Inc., in building an open-source, community-driven search service.

Dell memo hints at layoffs, acquisitions
Michael Dell is considering layoffs and acquisitions at Dell Inc., according to a corporate memo that was leaked to the press on Saturday.

Google rejects Viacom's copyright claims
Google Inc. has rejected claims that it enables copyright infringement on its YouTube.com Web site, its first response to entertainment giant Viacom Inc.'s $1 billion lawsuit filed in March.

Microsoft adds open-source twist to Silverlight
Microsoft Corp. Monday broadened the developer base and programming capabilities for Silverlight by adding dynamic language support to an alpha version of the browser plug-in technology.

Nokia eyes scalability with new security appliance
In the booming market for network security, Nokia Corp. is driving up performance for both large enterprises and small and branch offices with new appliances.

Qualcomm inks OFDM deal, bolsters IP claim
Qualcomm Inc. may have gained another small weapon for what could become a huge battle over essential patents on next-generation wireless networks. In a deal announced Monday, Qualcomm agreed to license its OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) and OFDMA (OFDM Access) technology to 4G Systems GmbH, a Hamburg, Germany, manufacturer of broadband wireless products.

After Sony, Kutaragi looks to the network
Ken Kutaragi, the former head of Sony Corp.'s game division and the man who brought the world the PlayStation, will look to harness the power of the network to tie together content in his next endeavor.


STORAGE TIP

iSCSI is doing just fine thank you
By David Hill, Mesabi Group

As an analyst, I tend to forget that not everyone is familiar with storage technologies even though they have been around for awhile and talked about extensively in the media. So it is with iSCSI. You may or may not be familiar with iSCSI, but you should know about the future of iSCSI -- especially in relationship to the other major storage networking protocol -- Fibre Channel.

Here's what you need to know.

Subscribe to Storage Strategies - Tips for effective storage management, technology updates and best practices.


ITWHIRLED

Text messaging to render Irish children illiterate
The next generation of Irishmen and Irishwomen could grow up with only rudimentary writing skills, and Ireland's Department of Education says cell phones and text messaging are to blame, obviously. A report notes that kids are "choosing to answer sparingly, even minimally, rather than seeing questions as invitations to explore the territory they had studied and to express the breadth and depth of their learning and understanding."

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Dell looks beyond direct model ... Sony sparks outrage with decapitated goat

HIGHLIGHTS
News: Dell looks beyond direct model
News: Yahoo buys remainder of Right Media for $680 million
News: Sony sparks outrage with decapitated goat
News: Microsoft to open source some of Silverlight
Unix Tip: Remounting root
ITwhirled: Only the highlights
Podcast: Acer hires lawyer to defend against HP suit ... Vodafone gets approval for Hutchison Essar bid ... China's Alibaba reportedly plans IPO


NEWS UPDATES

Dell looks beyond direct model
In a leaked internal memo to staff, Dell Inc. CEO Michael Dell listed several key steps the company would need to take in order to retain a dominant position in the PC market. One of these was to pursue new opportunities outside of its direct sales strategy.

Yahoo buys remainder of Right Media for $680 million
Yahoo Inc. will buy the remainder of online advertising exchange Right Media Inc. for $680 million in stock and cash, Yahoo said on Monday. The portal giant bought a 20 percent stake of Right Media in October for $45 million and now plans to acquire the remaining 80 percent.

Sony sparks outrage with decapitated goat
Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. has launched an internal inquiry following an event in Athens last month that featured a decapitated goat and topless models to promote its new game "God of War II."

Microsoft to open source some of Silverlight
Microsoft Corp.is expected to show a new friendliness to the open-source community by unveiling plans to release the source code to a part of its Silverlight technology at MIX 07, according to sources familiar with the company's plans.

Oracle releases first ECM product since buying Stellent
Less than two weeks after unveiling a road map for its enterprise content management (ECM) software, Oracle Corp. released the first of the revamped products laid out in that strategy.

XO laptop is fun for child's play
The hardest thing about learning to use the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project's XO notebook PC is finding the right way to twist its antenna ears and open the display. Once you can see the screen, just follow the icons to write a note, snap a photo or compose a tune.

New Zune players will face tough market
More types of Microsoft Corp. Zune music players are in the works, but some analysts are unsure whether new form factors or functions will significantly boost Zune's popularity.

EarthLink scales back, focuses muni Wi-Fi effort
EarthLink Inc. is pulling in the reins on its municipal Wi-Fi business, focusing on existing deals and big cities for the rest of this year, in a move that raises questions about the growing trend of city-wide wireless networks.


UNIX TIP

Unix Tip: Remounting root
By Sandra Henry-Stocker

During the booting of Solaris, both the / and /usr file systems are
mounted read-only and then later, before the boot process is fully
complete, remounted read-write. This is all part of the normal boot
process and no reason for concern. Disruptions to the normal boot
sequence, however, can leave you with a file system that is mounted
read-only and requiring repair with no obvious way to fix the
problem. Do situations such as this require you to boot from CD, DVD
or from a boot server before you can edit the files or scripts that
are sabotaging your boot process? No, you can make use of the mount
command's handy remount option and save yourself a lot of time and
trouble.

Let's say that you are booting a system and you run into these errors:

Subscribe to Unix in the Enterprise - Tips and tricks for managing your Unix systems.


ITWHIRLED

Only the highlights
Love Sumo wrestling but don't have three hours to devote to watching it? MagicSports, an auto-editing program from Taiwan-based Cyberlink, may be just what you're looking for. The software cuts out the pomp and ceremony and leaves you with 20 action-packed minutes of wrestling. MagicSports also works with soccer and baseball, and support for tennis and American football is in the works.

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