Sales of Apple's Macintosh computers have been growing much faster than PC sales overall, with many new Mac buyers switching from years of using Windows computers. For that reason, every month I get emails from readers asking about the differences in using the Windows and Macintosh operating systems. While the Windows and Mac user interfaces are broadly similar, they do have subtle variations in day-to-day use that require some re-education for switchers. And because there are so many fewer Mac users than Windows users, help from friends and co-workers can be harder to obtain than it is for people switching the other way, to Windows from Mac.
So, here's a quick tip sheet explaining a few of the most common differences in the daily use of Windows XP, from which most people would be switching, and Apple's Mac OS X Leopard, which switchers would be adopting.
This column isn't an argument for making the switch to a Mac, merely an attempt to help those who have done so, or who are considering doing so. Of course, all Macs currently sold can run Windows and Windows programs concurrently with the Mac operating system. But this guide is for folks who intend to use their Macs primarily with Leopard, not Windows.
Menu Bars: In Windows, each program typically has its own menu bar. On the Mac, there's a single menu bar at the top of the screen that changes, depending on which program you are actively using. More>>
Kuselan is a forthcoming bilingual drama being directed by P. Vasu, who with Kuselan, will direct his fifth feature film featuring Rajnikanth. Rajnikanth, playing a guest role, is the one of the few common actors in the bi-lingual, the others including Nayantara and Meena, which is to be made into Tamil as Kuselan and Telugu as Kathanayukudu respectively. Various other regional actors have been signed up for the film, with Pasupathy, Meena, Prabhu Ganesan, Vadivelu, Santhanam and Livingston playing roles in the Tamil version, whilst, Jagapati Babu, Sunil and Brahmanandam portray roles in the Telugu version. Whilst, G. V. Prakash Kumar and Arvind Krishna have confirmed their parts as members of the technical crew. The film which is expected to be released in July 2008, will be produced by prominent director, K. Balachandar for the Tamil version and Ashwini Dutt for its Telugu version. The film is a remake of the Malayalam movie, Kadha Parayumbhol.
Mozilla has officially made history with a new Guinness world record for the largest number of software downloads in a 24-hour period.
The final record breaking 8,002,530 downloads for Firefox 3.0 took place in June with parties in over 25 countries.
"The enthusiasm and creativity of Firefox fans was key to making this happen" said Marketing head Paul Kim.
Gareth Deaves of Guinness World Records called it "an extremely impressive accomplishment".
The official figure was confirmed after logs from download servers were audited and checked to ensure duplicate and unfinished downloads were not counted.
Mr Kim told the BBC: "The notion of going for a world record, as gooky and nutty as it may have sounded, was a really sticky idea.
"It was an idea that translated really well across national borders and to all different kinds of people around the world."More>>
That's what The Register thinks, reporting Monday that Apple has shown off prototypes of an iPhone with a hardware keyboard to certain executives at wireless operators. The current iPhone famously comes with only one hardware button that returns the user to the home screen, with the rest of the buttons enabled in software.The lack of a hardware keyboard is said to be a detriment for business users who are hooked on their BlackBerrys, and the iPhone's touch-screen keyboard certainly does take some getting used to in the first couple of weeks. The report suggests that a hardware-keyboard iPhone will be out around this time next year assuming Apple can work out the kinks.
I can't decide what I think about this notion. It's not completely out of the question that Apple would at least be thinking about a slider-style phone; some designs are quite popular with young and old alike. And we've long expected Apple to eventually release a family of iPhones similar to its strategy for the iPod product line, with different form factors and capabilities targeted at different groups.More>>
The Justice Department has opened a formal antitrust investigation into a deal struck last month that would allow the Internet titan Google to provide some search advertising for Yahoo, according to sources familiar with the inquiry.
Hewlett-Packard cleared an antitrust hurdle in its $13.2 billion purchase of Electronic Data Systems. A waiting period under U.S. law passed without any request for additional information from regulators, Hewlett-Packard said Monday. This indicates there's no opposition to the deal. The purchase would more than double the computer maker's revenue from services, challenging IBM. The transaction is HP's largest since the $18.9 billion takeover of Compaq Computer, led by Chief Executive Mark Hurd's predecessor, Carly Fiorina. The acquisition still requires approval from EDS investors and European antitrust authorities, Hewlett-Packard said. HP will pay $25 a share in cash, or 33 percent more than EDS's closing price May 9, before the companies said they were in talks.
As rumored last week, Microsoft, with the notion of a Yahoo deal receding quickly in the rear-view mirror, is taking another tack in its efforts to stem the dominance of Google search -- rather than playing catch up, it wants to try leapfrog. Today, Microsoft confirmed an agreement to buy Powerset, one of the leaders in semantic search, which attempts to glean the context and intent of a search rather than just matching keywords against the content of ranked pages. Details of the deal weren't revealed, but the price is rumored to be in the $100 million neighborhood. "We're buying Powerset first and foremost because we're impressed with the people there," Microsoft's Live Search blog said. "We came away impressed by their smarts, their experience, their passion for search, and a shared vision. That shared vision is to take Search to the next level by adding understanding of the intent and meaning behind the words in searches and webpages."
For years the big problem with Flash-based websites is that they could not be properly indexed by search engines. Flash websites have been favored by marketers and advertisers for a long time, because of the ability to create rich, interactive Web experiences. However for most other businesses, particularly those with a lot of information on their website (let's face it, that's everyone except marketers and advertisers), Flash has been nearly an automatic 'no' for website development. That may be about to change. Adobe announced today that it is teaming up with major search engines - notably Google and Yahoo - to "dramatically improve search results of dynamic Web content and rich Internet applications (RIAs)." In a press statement, Adobe said that it is "providing optimized Adobe Flash Player technology to Google and Yahoo! to enhance search engine indexing of the Flash file format (SWF) and uncover information that is currently undiscoverable by search engines."
Adobe claims that it will provide more relevant search results and rankings for RIA content. In a separate blog post, Google announced that it has launched a "Flash indexing algorithm", which will result in better search results. More>>
As we know Mac is the best and simple easy to use opertating system in the earth. But, it is not stolen as many desktops in the Enterprise arena, may be this is because of their focus only on individual users. But this time it takes very serious into the Enterprise, Enterprise Desktop Alliance showcase the power of using Macs in the corporate environment. It saysBy leveraging the suite of capabilities that EDA solutions offer, an enterprise can easily integrate Macs and achieve the same level of control, security, policy compliance, and services that they currently have with their Windows platforms.We have to wait and see the reaction from the Big companies whether they welcome mac into their environment. Obviously I will rise my hand If my manager asks my opinion :)
Windows XP officially exits the OEM and retail channels after today. Let the Leopard and Vista competition really begin. Windows XP won't completely go away, but it will be increasingly more difficult to find, and that could be very good for Apple. Because if computer buyers don't want Windows Vista, they'll have to look elsewhere. Can you say Mac OS X 10.5?
Here's the no-nonsense explanation about XP availability:
XP's exit from OEM and retail channels comes at a time when Vista isn't doing so well. Microsoft boasts 150 million Vista licenses shipped, but the number loses its impact in the context of PC shipments.
Between Jan. 1, 2007 and March 31, 2008, PC manufacturers shipped approximately 342 million PCs worldwide, according to published Gartner figures. However, the figures include x86 servers. Being as generous as possible to Microsoft, I lop off 42 million units, to account for x86 servers and computer sales during the first 29 days of January 2007, when Vista wasn't yet available on new PCs.
That works out to about 300 million PCs during the same time Microsoft shipped 140 million Vista licenses. Typically, Microsoft sells about 80 percent of Windows licenses on new PCs. Being, again, generous to Microsoft, I figure 112 million Vista licenses. Based on this arguably loose estimate, Windows Vista shipped on about 37 percent of the 300 million PCs. I strongly suspect that one-third would be a more accurate number.More>>
A study by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) reveals that Mysore ranked third with 11.08 percent of the share of jobs among the top 10 Tier III cities. Automobile, insurance, pharmaceutical, manufacturing and education were the top five employment-generating sectors. It is interesting to note IT does not figure in the top five sectors.
The first two of the 10 among the Tier III cities go to Ranchi with 13.80 and Mangalore with 11.60. Energy, construction, metals, electronics and telecom are the job growth areas in Ranchi while Mangalore lead in automobiles, insurance, pharmaceutical, manufacturing and education sectors like of Mysore.
After Mysore, the cities of Raipur, Udaipur and Aurangabad top the chart with fourth, fifth and sixth ranks respectively. Patiala, Jalandhar, Meerut and Vishakhapatnam occupy the last four places respectively.
Mysore is one of the four small cities, which provided maximum vacancies in the automobile sector. This expanding sector is speeding towards the small cities where two wheelers and low cost four wheelers are in high demand. Pondicherry, Aurangabad, Vishakhapatnam and Mysore were the four top Tier III cities in order.
The study says, of the 30 lead sectors that provided the maximum jobs to young aspirants between January and March 2008, financial services outpaced the IT sector in Tier II and Tier III cities.
The study titled ‘Job Trendz: Across Cities and Sectors' found that these tier II and tier III cities have cornered 18.5 percent and 21.5 percent share of the job space respectively. The high cost of manpower and capacity constraints in the big cities is pushing industry towards small cities for job creation
The study was based on the sample of 32,000 vacancies posted by around 3,500 companies in the national and regional dailies, journals and job portals during the three-month period.
A change in the job trend is observed in small cities while traditionally the maximum job openings used to be concentrated in IT sector, but in Tier II and Tier III cities, financial services have taken over it.
Mangalore lead the top three tier III cities followed by Pondicherry and Aurangabad by providing the highest job openings in finance related jobs. It led also in IT sector, which posted the second largest share of vacancies. The other two low-cost cities, which offered maximum job avenues, are Jalandhar and Aurangabad. Mangalore also led in FMCG sector over Amirtsar, Ranchi and Udaipur.
Thirteen Indian firms, led by Reliance Industries, have made to the list of world's 500 most valued companies compiled by the UK business daily Financial Times, even as 12 of them fell down from their previous rankings amid weak stock market trends.
Excluding tobacco-to-consumer goods major ITC, all the 12 Indian companies present on the list, including RIL, ONGC, NTPC, SBI, Bharti Airtel, DLF and Reliance Communications, saw their rankings drop in the latest FT Global 500 list, topped by American energy giant ExxonMobil with a market value of 452.5 billion dollars.
FT publishes the list based on the market capitalisation of the companies at the end of every quarter and the latest rankings are based on March-end figures for this year. The previous list was based on market cap figures at the end of December 2007.
In the global list, ExxonMobil has replaced China's PetroChia as the most valued firm, while US industrial conglomerate GE has retained its third position. Other firms in the top 10 include Gazprom, China Mobile, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Microsoft, AT&T, Royal Dutch Shell and P&G.
Among the Indian companies, Mukesh Ambani-led RIL has been ranked the highest at 80th, down 15 places from 65th earlier, with a market cap of 82 billion dollars.
RIL is followed by state-run ONGC at 148th (down from 115), public sector power major NTPC at 206th (down from 163), Sunil Mittal-led telecom giant Bharti Airtel at 218th (down from 193), realty major DLF at 329th (down from 195) and Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications at 350th position (down from 252). However, ITC climbed six spots to the 484th place, with a market value of 19.38 billion dollars.
One thing we had noticed is that people didnt get the real subtext and reason for the various roles and hence the title. If you knew the real dasavatharams of Lord Vishnu and their characters you can appreciate the script more.1.
Lord krishna is actually a dalit, he is dark-skinned [shyamalam]. He saved draupadi when she was being violated and he was the actual diplomat in mahabharatham. Lord krishna dies of an arrow striking his lower leg. Now look at how vincent was introduced.. he appears when asin is about to be molested and he saves her like draupadi. Vincent is the dalit diplomat, fights for land issue [soil issue to be exact] and dies from the metal rod striking his leg. Oh even five of vincent's men are drugged at P.Vasu'sresidence.. sounds familiar???
2. Balarama avatar - Balarama naidu
This is an easy given. as the name suggests and the role personifies you can easily get it.
3. Mathsya avatar - Ranagaraja nambi
nambi is thrown into water in an act of trying to save lord from being thrown into sea, though vainly. what more clue do you want?
4. Varaha avatar - Krishnaveni paatti
During the mukunda song, krishnaveni paatti does varaha avatar in the shadow puppetry. The frame freezes on it for a second. there is the clue.
Moreover, in varaha avatar lord actually hides earth so as to protect life forms. Here too krishnaveni hides the germs - life form inside the statue so as to protect.
5. Vamana avatar - Kalifulla khan
Remember in vamana avatar, lord vishnu takes the vishvaroopa, that is the giant form! Hence the giant kalifulla here symbolises vamana avatar.
6. Parasurama avatar - Christian Fletcher
Parasurama is actually on an angry killing spree and killed 21 generations of the particular kshatriya vamsa. Hence the real KILLER... Guess what thats what our Fletcher is! He comes around with the gun [modern upgrade for axe] and kills everyone around. I have to check if he kills 21 people though. :-D
7. Narasimha avatar - Shingen Narahashi
first of all the name itself is a play on the words singam [means lion in tamil] and narasimha [the avatar being symbolised]. Lord Narasimha manifests himelf to kill the bad guy and he also teaches prahaladha. In the movie, he shows up to kill the killer fletcher! and is also a teacher..
Lord Narasimha had to kill the asura with bare hands and hence the martial arts exponent here.. get it?
8. Rama avatar - Avatar Singh
Lord Rama stands for the one man one woman maxim, kind of symbolising true love.. Here Avatar portrays that spirit by saying that he loves his woman more than anything and wants to live for her.
9. Koorma avatar –George Bush
This is the most loose adaptation I couldn't clearly comprehend. But if you look at the real koorma avatar, the lord is the turtle/tortoise that helps in stirring the ksheera sagara and bringing out the amruth. This essentially creates war among the devas and asuras. Similarly today Bush facilitates war between you know whom... May be Kamal also indicates that this avatar is a bit dumb like the tortoise...
10. Kalki avatar - Govindaraj Ramasamy
As you know, the hero in kaliyug can be none other than the Kalki avatar!!!
Creativity is Rare ..but when people fails to understand your creativity,then its either the problem with the creator or with the viewer.In the case of movies,its for all kind of viewers.The movie has to reach them.Demanding the viewer to reveal the esence of the movie may some time result in failure!!! Anyway " DASAVATHARAM " By Kamal Hassan was indeed a good attempt!!
So, for example, instead of being restricted to sites ending in .com or .org., eBay could have a site that ends in .ebay, or New York City could end its website address with .nyc.
The new naming process will begin in 2009. The first suffixes will probably be given to businesses and other major organizations. Countries are expected to keep their specific suffixes, but, as in the example above, cities could also get individualized URLs, such as .london or .chicago.
In an effort to deter cybersquatters, the organization is likely to charge a hefty price for the new names. Some experts have estimated that the new domain names could cost anywhere from $50,000 (£25,200) to $100,000 or more. ICANN plans to give companies with trademarked names priority for those names.
The group also voted to allow public comment on a proposal that would enable countries to use non-English script. For example, companies could use Chinese or Arabic script to identify their web sites.
Paul Twomey, chief executive of ICANN, told the BBC earlier this week that allowing the new naming conventions would create new "real estate" on the internet.
However, some experts have expressed concerns that the decision could result in a gold-rush mentality. While trademarked names will only be available to holders of those trademarks, there are many common words that people may want to register as web site suffixes, such as '.sex'.
The suffix .xxx was rejected by ICANN last year, but it could also prove to be a popular suffix under the more relaxed policy. However, Twomey told Agence France-Press that the organization will still try to block or reject any domain name that it deems inappropriate for security or moral reasons.
Bill Gates is retiring as an employee of Microsoft to focus on his philanthropic foundation. More than any other single person, Gates defined the PC era. His products touch nearly every computer user on the planet. And he created what is still the biggest technology wealth machine in Microsoft. But now that he is leaving, who will fill his shoes? I don’t mean who will fill his shoes at Microsoft. Gates stepped back from day-to-day management years ago, handing his business responsibilities to CEO Steve Ballmer and technology responsibilities to chief software architect Ray Ozzie. What I mean is: Who will carry on his legacy and define the current Web era of computing?
It is unlikely there will ever be another Bill Gates if for the only reason that Gates’ influence stemmed from his control of the computing platform of choice (the PC, through Windows). The computing platform of choice today is the Web, and no single person or company can control that. But there are plenty of Web company founders out there—from large companies to small startups—that are turning the Web into a platform for applications and creating new kinds of software as a result.More>>
Bill Gates ends his full-time job at Microsoft on a Friday afternoon and the company opens for business after the weekend as if nothing has changed.
At least, that is how Gates' successors want to play it.
The 'transition', as it is called inside the company, was announced two years ago.
On the face of it, the only difference after 27 June will be that Gates will be non-executive chairman rather than executive chairman, spending just one day a week on Microsoft business.
Seamless transition?
The new leaders, none much younger than Gates himself, mix warm tributes to their founder with reassurances that all will be fine without him. More>>
I am just surprised seeing www.lovelogger.com and www.sweetcircles.com. These two sites are created and lead by BalakumarMuthu. I can say he is my inspiration to start this blog on 2005 when I don't even know what is blogging. I even had communication with him, that time he said he is busy with web 2.0 project. After long time today I checked his blog and come to know he is the CEO and Creator of www.sweetcircles.com. It looks very good idea and www.lovelogger.com seems to be very new concept of connecting two people. I wish him All the Best to suceed in creating one of the best blogging platofrm from an Indian company.
Guruji.com, the first indian based search engine which crawl the indian sites and indian related contents was launched last week. Guruji.com is funded by Sequoia Capital India, incidentally who funds google also and the angel investors like Suvir Sajan, Co-CEO of Bazee.com, which was acquired by ebay. On the first look, their home page and the resultant page is very much similar to the search engine giant google. Their home page is simple and elegant, like google and the speed of their search is quite satisfactory. Try Now>>
A new book says Gates got the rewards due Gary Kildall. What's the real story?
The world’s richest man, Bill Gates, is all set to step down as the chairman of Microsoft on Friday.
Chairman and CEO, Hewlett-Packard
computing paradigm in which tasks are assigned to a combination of connections, software and services accessed over a network. This network of servers and connections is collectively known as "the cloud." Computing at the scale of the cloud allows users to access supercomputer-level power. Using a thin client or other access point, like an iPhone, BlackBerry or laptop, users can reach into the cloud for resources as they need them. For this reason, cloud computing has also been described as "on-demand computing."
One of the more dramatic changes is a shift to cloud computing -- where applications and files are stored on a large, centralized supercomputer or network. The end user accesses his or her files using computers that are more streamlined but less sophisticated than today's typical machines.
Cloud computing comes into focus only when you think about what IT always needs: a way to increase capacity or add capabilities on the fly without investing in new infrastructure, training new personnel, or licensing new software. Cloud computing encompasses any subscription-based or pay-per-use service that, in real time over the Internet, extends IT's existing capabilities.
Ten years ago this coming September, two Stanford University doctoral students -- one of them a Michigan native -- launched a business that would revolutionize how millions of people use the Internet.Yes, Google is getting older, at least in tech years.
But don't expect the world's dominant search engine company to remain content with the enormous success it has achieved so far.
Google is rolling out innovative features that will allow users to search the Web more efficiently. It is also looking to expand its advertising reach, focusing on the folks who do their queries via mobile phones and car-based systems. Google has been increasing its spending on research and development, which totaled $2.1 billion last year alone.
The company has come a long way since Sergey Brin and Michigan native Larry Page started Google in a garage in Menlo Park, Calif. One of the most feared and respected technology giants in the world, Google earned $4.2 billion in profits last year and employs nearly 17,000 workers, including more than 262 at ad sales and support offices in Ann Arbor and Birmingham.More>>
This is the latest buzz in Kollywood. One of India’s premier filmmakers, Mani Ratnam, joining hands with the talented Vikram. Reliable sources indicate that the duo will come together for a project that will be unique and special. Vikram is currently shooting for Kanthasamy which is directed by Mani Ratnam’s protege Susi Ganesan. He is expected to do Mani’s film after completing Kanthasamy. The fact that Vikram has postponed his film with Bhoopathy Pandian, which he was supposed to do after Kanthasamy, adds credibilty to the news.
Mani Ratnam, who struck gold in Bollywood with Guru last year, was supposed to do Lajjo with Aamir Khan. However, the project has fallen off the tracks as Aamir is busy with his Ghajini. Hence, the maker is planning to make a Tamil film with Vikram in the lead.
Meanwhile, there are also reports that Mani is planning to repeat the lead in his previous film, Abhishek and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, in a breezy romantic film on the lines of his Alaipayuthey. The reports say that the film will be in Hindi but will be dubbed into Tamil.
The report also says the director met up with top actors to start the casting for his next film. He has already finalised Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan for the lead pair and is in talks with other actors for the supporting cast.
Well, we expect the director himself to put an end to such conflicting reports.
Telecom major MTN, currently in exclusive negotiations with India's Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications for a possible merger, today announced acquisition of Verizon South Africa, an Internet service provider majority owned by US-based Verizon Communications. Under the agreement, MTN will acquire 100 percent of Verizon South Africa Pty Ltd, which is 70 percent owned by Verizon Business and the rest by J&J Group, an investment holding entity founded by two Indian-origin persons.
Verizon Business is part of the US telecom major Verizon and Verizon Business South Africa is an established South Africa headquartered Internet service provider (ISP) providing connectivity services to corporate customers in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia and Kenya.
The ISP is about 30 percent owned by Jay & Jayendra Pty Ltd, part of South Africa-based investment holding and management company J&J Group, which was founded by Jay Naidoo and Jayendra Naidoo in February 2000.
US major Verizon Comm has a mobile business joint venture in the US, named Verizon Wireless, with British telecom giant Vodafone, which is headed by an Indian-origin CEO Arun Sarin. However, Sarin is set to leave the company next month.
In a regulatory filing here, MTN said that the deal is in line with its strategy to provide integrated communications solutions in all of its markets.
The deal follows similar acquisitions by MTN in Nigeria, Cameroon, Cyprus and Cote de'lvoire, the company said.
MTN said that the closing of the deal is subject to regulatory and competition commission approvals.
The African telecom major is currently engaged in 45-day exclusive talks, which began on May 26, with Reliance Communications for a possible amalgamation to create an entity worth about an estimated 70 billion dollars.
Government today launched the ambitious 'E-passports' scheme with President Pratibha Patil receiving the first copy from External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee here.
While the E-passports launched today are meant for the diplomats, it would be issued for the category of officials from next month and general people from September next year.
"Around 80 lakh e-passports would be issued by 2010," Mukherjee said.
The new passports would have an electronic chip containing all personal data and help reduce the procedure at immigration.
"It is compatible with international standards and identity cards and would protect against fraud and security breaches," Mukherjee said, adding it was easy to verify the authenticity of e-passports.
The new passports have been designed indigenously in India by the Central Passport Organisation, the India Security Press, Nasik and IIT, Kanpur.
With Nokia’s acquisition of Symbian, it is going head-to-head with Google Android and Windows Mobile to make a run at building the top software platform for mobile phones. The problem is that all three of them could be making some bad assumptions about the way the mobile phone market — particularly the smartphone market — is going to unfold over the next five to ten years.
They all seem to be assuming that the mobile phone market will mirror the computer market, which is dominated by a small handful of platforms: Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. The reality is that there is likely to be a much larger diversity of platforms in the mobile world.
In addition to Android, Symbian, and Windows Mobile, there is now the iPhone with its OS X-based platform. And, beyond those four, there’s a plethora of phone makers that run their own proprietary operating systems on a variety of phones, sometimes with a customized OS for each phone.
It’s going to be very hard to put the genie back on the bottle in the phone market. All of these different types of phones are already out there and will be in use for years to come. Some may argue that the smartphone market does not have as many players as the general mobile market, but the lines are blurring between standard mobile phones and smartphones.More>>
Google seems to have landed a big-ticket contract for issuing Gmail accounts to some 1.3-million students in schools in Australia. Which also means Gmail accounts will now oust existing Microsoft Outlook or Exchange accounts of these students.| |
Vodafone, one of India's largest telecommunication provider will offer first iPhone to the Indian market. The date is not confirmed but the site Officially announce the preregistration for the upcoming iPhone 3G device.
A little boy went into a drug store, reached for a soda carton and pulled it over to the telephone. He climbed onto the carton so that he could reach the buttons on the phone and proceeded to punch in seven digits (phone numbers).
After announcing a tie-up for bringing iPhone, Bharti Airtel and Apple extended their partnership to launch the 3G version of iPhone in India later this year.
Bill Gates isn't really leaving Microsoft; he's just shifting how much time he spends there.
In late May, I chatted with Gates over cocktails before he and CEO Steve Ballmer made their final public appearance together at the D Conference in Carlsbad, Calif. Gates said he spends about 80 percent of his time at Microsoft and another 20 percent at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. From July 1, that 80-20 ratio will flip, with the majority of Gates' time being dedicated to the charitable endowment.
And Gates really hasn't been involved in day-to-day operations at Microsoft for a while.
For example, during the D Conference, Gates said, other than consulting with Ballmer as a friend, he wasn't involved in Microsoft's attempted, and failed, takeover of Yahoo. In addition, Gates' role as visionary has greatly diminished, particularly after his successors—Ray Ozzie, chief software architect, and Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer—fully assumed their positions during the last year.
As chairman and the largest stockholder in the company, Gates will always have a role at Microsoft. But as chief influencer, Gates left long ago.
Gates announced his departure two years ago, as part of a long transition from monopolist to philanthropist. But Gates' exit really started in 2000, when Ballmer replaced him as CEO. A transition from charismatic founding leader burdens any company, and Microsoft has taken eight years to move from Gates to Ballmer. The change is sure to affect Microsoft during its fourth decade as an incorporated entity.
Even with waning influence, however, Gates is an important figurehead who casts a long shadow over most other Microsoft executives.
Technical expertise is one reason. More>>
Idea Cellular, India's fifth-largest mobile operator, said on Wednesday it would buy Spice Group's 40.8 per cent stake in another mobile firm, Spice Communications, at Rs 77.3 per share.
GLOBAL - Nokia today announced a plan to acquire the 52 per cent of Symbian it doesn't already own and set up the Symbian Foundation, making the platform open source in the process. The ambition is to create "the most attractive platform for mobile innovation and drive the development of new and compelling web-enabled applications" Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo.The full press release is below:
Espoo, Finland - Nokia today announced it has launched a cash offer to acquire all of the shares of Symbian Limited that Nokia does not already own, at a price of EUR 3.647 per share. The net cash outlay from Nokia to purchase the approximately 52% of Symbian Limited shares it does not already own will be approximately EUR 264 million.
Nokia has received irrevocable undertakings from Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB, Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (publ), Panasonic Mobile Communications Co. Ltd. and Siemens International Holding BV to accept the offer, representing approximately 91% of the Symbian shares subject to the offer. Nokia also expects Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. to accept the offer.
The acquisition is a fundamental step in the establishment of the Symbian Foundation, announced today by Nokia, together with AT&T, LG Electronics, Motorola, NTT DOCOMO, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and Vodafone. More information about the planned foundation can be found at www.symbianfoundation.org.
"This is a significant milestone in our software strategy" said Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, CEO of Nokia. "Symbian is already the leading open platform for mobile devices. Through this acquisition and the establishment of the Symbian Foundation, it will undisputedly be the most attractive platform for mobile innovation. This will drive the development of new and compelling, web-enabled applications to delight a new generation of consumers."More>>
For those who never used it, Google Browser Sync was a Firefox extension that synchronized your bookmarks, web history, browser sessions and passwords across multiple computers by temporarily saving them to Google's servers. According to the Google Browser Sync team: 'It was a tough call, but we decided to phase out support for Browser Sync. Since the team has moved on to other projects that are keeping them busy, we don't have time to update the extension to work with Firefox 3 or to continue to maintain it.' For all of those who fell in love with Google's Browser Sync, our only hope now is to resort to poorly maintained 3rd party extensions without Google's blessing."
All the media attention this week has been on the announcement of the new iPhone 3G during Steve Jobs’s keynote at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference. But for Mac users there was another huge story that day, one that took up only a few seconds of the keynote: Snow Leopard, a brand-new version of Mac OS X. Apple has been working on Mac OS X for more than a decade, and the public has been able to use it for eight years. In that time, the replacement for the classic Mac OS has grown through several stages: it began in an awkward, half-functional state, progressed into a fully functional replacement for OS 9 with increasing levels of speed and stability, and finally became an entrenched system that advanced by acquiring whizzy new features such as Spotlight and Time Machine.
Early in Mac OS X’s history, the operating system sped up with each new version, as Apple engineers tuned the code and got it working better. But those improvements have faded, and the last two releases have certainly been no faster than their predecessors. Instability, too, has returned to Mac OS X. (The title of my predecessor Rick LePage’s opinion piece, “What I Hate About Leopard,” says it all.)
So how refreshing was it for Apple to announce—albeit out of the spotlight of the keynote, via press release—that Apple is taking a break from rolling out Mac OS X updates with hundreds of new features. Instead, the next major release of Mac OS X will focus on speed and stability.More>>
The feature, Private Browsing, would have disabled all caching, cookie downloads, history records, and form data used during the current session. In essence, you could surf the Web and leave no fingerprints.
"It basically said to the browser: I would like what I'm about to do to not be logged anywhere," said Johnathan Nightingale, Mozilla's "human shield," aka its security user interface designer.
He described the private browsing process as this: you hit a button and everything past that point isn't logged. Then, at some point in the future, you hit the button again and it's as though what you just did never happened.
One possible use might be when someone other than the computer owner uses the browser.
"We looked at ways to do this, but the problem is that it touches a lot of code," Nightingale said. "Because there are such rich interactions with Web sites and mashups and things like that, we didn't want to put in something that was half baked."
You can hear more of my interview with Nightingale on my Security Bites podcast here.
He still sees dead people, only now they're the best thing in the movie.
Kamal Haasan starrer Dasavatharam has overshot its Rs.1.3 billion budget and becomes the costliest Indian film to be ever made, said sources. "Friday's much hyped trip of Jackie Chan to Chennai on a chartered flight had cost Rs.100 million to the producer and has added to the total cost that has now gone beyond Rs.1.4 billion, said sources close to producer "Oscar" Ravichandran."
The producer, however, is not said to be complaining.
"Since top stars from Bollywood, Amitabh Bachchan, Hema Malini and Mallika Sherawat were present, the worldwide publicity generated has contributed more to the movie's Hindi release than what we actually ended up spending," the source added.
Unfortunately, there was chaos at the film's audio launch function last week in Chennai. Dozens of people, including journalists, were injured when police cane-charged frenzied crowds at the star-studded event.
"Any news is good news. Despite spending all this money, there were no pictures of our shy producer Ravichandran. And there is no mention of his apologising to anyone anywhere," said a publicist associated with the film, referring to the mismanagement of the audio release function.
Select the certification exam of interest from the list of qualifying exams below. You must use Priority Code WW48CX1 when you place your order. If you reside in the United States, follow the links below for the qualifying certification exams to research Sun professional certification and to order exam vouchers. If you reside outside of the United States, please contact your local training office or country web site.
This offer is valid in all countries where Sun certification is sold, except Brazil and India. For certification candidates in Japan, this offer begins on May 1, 2008. Check Your ProficiencyWith Sun's free online Proficiency Assessment System you can check your knowledge and skill level with that required to achieve several of Sun's certification exams. When you're done, you'll receive a custom proficiency profile, and if needed, a recommended learning path to help you advance to the next level in your professional development.
Exams are taken at Authorized Prometric Testing Centers, which are located around the world. After you have purchased your exam voucher, contact the desired testing center to schedule your exam date, time, and location.
Those who purchase a certification exam voucher using the priority code by June 20, 2008, and who do not pass the exam, qualify for the free retake. Simply contact the Authorized Prometric Testing Center in the same manner you did for your initial attempt at the exam, and provide your original certification exam voucher number. You must allow 72 hours after taking your initial exam before scheduling the free retake exam. Please also be aware that per Sun certification guidelines you must wait at least 14 days before you may retake any exam. There is no need to contact Sun to schedule your retake exam.
Yahoo and Google have confirmed that they are indeed entering into a partnership around search advertising, a story we broke earlier today. Google’s blog post on the agreement is here. —The deal is non-exclusive. Yahoo will be able to run Google ads alongside Yahoo ads or other ad providers.
—The deal is expected to add $800 million a year in revenues and $250 million to $450 million in operating cash flow.
—The deal only applies to paid search and contextual ads, not to algorithmic search.
This arrangement will no doubt intensify the scrutiny from Washington, where the Justice Department has already launched an investigation into antitrust issues arising from Yahoo and Google merely testing the waters for today’s partnership. Congress might want to hold hearings as well. Back in April, Citi analyst Mark Mahaney estimated that a Google deal could increase Yahoo’s cash flows by more than $1 billion a year. It turns it will be less than that. But given the antitrust scrutiny, the deal is necessarily structured in a creative way. As part of the deal, Yahoo can decide to go with Google only for those search queries where it will get the most bang for the buck.
On Wednesday, when asked by Fox News about the antitrust issues surrounding a possible search deal with Yahoo, Schmidt responded:
Well you are presuming that there’s an issue there.
If there were an issue, it’s perfectly possible that you can do commercial deals that look like outsourcing deals which are not exclusive and where industry structures allow everybody to win. If you look in the automobile industry and lots and lots of industries like that, you have suppliers who supply other people. So if there were a deal, it would be based on those sorts of principles.
As long as the relationship is competitive, it might pass regulatory scrutiny. That is, if Microsoft can bid for Yahoo’s search advertising business as well, then whoever can deliver the most cash to Yahoo will win the business. In reality, we all know who that will be: Google. Neither Microsoft nor Yahoo can match the search dollars that Google can deliver.
