５年一次的施舍，你要嗎？

Google joins $300m Unity cable project

Google announced today that it plans to join five other international companies in building an additional undersea cable between the US and Japan. The need for the cable itself is unsurprising, given that trans-Pacific bandwidth needs grew by 63.7 percent between 2002 and 2007, but the fact that Google is joining the consortium of Bharti Airtel, Global Transit, KDDI Corporation, Pacnet, and SingTel is unusual. Google is insisting, however, that this new move does not signal a change in focus for the company.

According to Google Network acquisitions manager Francois Sterlin, "If you're wondering whether we're going into the undersea cable business, the answer is no," Sterlin wrote in the Official Google Blog. "We're not competing with telecom providers, but the volume of data we need to move around the world has grown to the point where in some cases we've exceeded the ability traditional players can offer."

Once completed, the newly-minted "Unity" five-fiber-pair cable will be capable of carrying up to 960Gbps per pair, or 4800Gbps across the entire cable. That amount of bandwidth alone will increase total data transfer capacity between the US and Asia by around 20 percent, but Unity is designed for expansion. Although it will initially offer five fiber pairs, the line can be expanded up to eight fiber pairs, for a total bandwidth of 7.68Tbps—unless, of course, someone decides to cut the cable in an attempt to stymie US-Asia communications. In that case, having more lines running to and from Asia provides more redundancy in case of failure, naturally caused or not.

Cost estimates for the 6,000-mile (10,000-km) cable from Chikura, Japan to Los Angeles and what Google refers to as other "network points of presence," put the total expense at around $300 million. As one partner out of six, however, Google's total cost expenditure on the effort is relatively small (by Google terms, anyway), and the payoff going forward could be huge.

While Google probably doesn't have any plans to compete with the telecom industry, owning a piece of the cable gives it a say in how that cables assets are deployed and how/when bandwidth capacity is upgraded. Google, like most tech companies, has big plans for the Asian market, and owning a share in the cables that make that market more accessible is a logical step for the company to take.

More on the Google Official Blog...

Hotmail freezes up for hours

Microsoft Corp.'s free Web-based e-mail service and other sites have been unavailable for hours to Internet users around the world Tuesday.

Web surfers were unable to log onto Hotmail, along with other services that require a Microsoft login, such as the Xbox Live video game community site and the Windows Live Messenger instant messaging program.

Microsoft confirmed the problem was international in scope, but did not say how many people were affected or when a resolution was expected.

"We are aware that some customers may be experiencing difficulty accessing their Windows Live accounts," said Microsoft spokeswoman Samantha McManus in a statement. "We're actively investigating the cause and are working to take the appropriate steps to remedy the situation as rapidly as possible."


It's time to switch for a better web-based e-mail - GMAIL

Stop spending our tax-payer money running all these stupid ads!

How Google Got Its Colorful Logo

In just a few short years, Google's logo has become as recognizable as Nike's swoosh and NBC's peacock. Ruth Kedar, the graphic designer who developed the now-famous logo, shows the iterations that led to the instantly recognizable primary colors and Catull typeface that define the Google brand. Kedar met Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page through a mutual friend nine years ago at Stanford University, where she was an assistant professor. Page and Brin, who were having trouble coming up with a logo for their soon-to-launch search engine, asked Kedar to come up with some prototypes. "I had no idea at the time that Google would become as ubiquitous as it is today, or that their success would be of such magnitude," Kedar says.

Google No. 1
Typeface: Adobe Garamond


"It was very clear from the very beginning that they wanted to go with a logotype as opposed to just a logo," Kedar says. With this first version, Kedar wanted to keep the majority of the text untouched so the legibility was still intact, while adding some playfulness by bringing primary colors and two-dimensionality to the Os. The pattern here was used to visually imply that something goes on ad infinitum. According to Kedar, "Brin and Page liked this because it looks a bit like a Chinese finger trap."

Google No. 2
Typeface: Catull


Instead of working with the two Os and creating something larger in terms of space and pattern, Kedar modified just one letter to make it multidimensional. This design ended up being part of the basis for the multiple Os at the bottom of Google's search results page. The cross hairs reference both target and precision. Brin and Page wanted to clearly differentiate Google from competing search engines and convey that the service was a search provider first and foremost, with an algorithmically complex yet simple-to-use application, Kedar says.

Google No. 3
Typeface: ITC Leawood


"I look at this now and think, 'Google has gone to the Olympics,'" Kedar says through a laugh. The interlocking rings are a metaphor for far-reaching searches that involve different cultures and different countries. "It's funky and clunky, and those were the things we were exploring at the time," she says.

Google No. 4
Typeface: Catull


All the letters in this design are uppercase, giving it a more corporate and solid feel, but by changing the letters' sizes and adding colors, Kedar keeps the logo playful. The colors don't appear in rainbow order, so things aren't quite the way you'd expect them to be. The design's fault was that it was too busy. "They liked the magnifying glass and the cross hairs, but not all at once," Kedar says.

Google No. 5
Typeface: Catull


This is a further iteration of the previous design, but Kedar gets rid of the cross hairs and the ability to see through the magnifying glass. She adds a smiling mouth, though, to represent "happy" results and a positive search experience. "At the beginning and end, the letters are the same color, but in between, all kinds of things happen," Kedar says, possibly referencing the different routes your search can take as a result of the gaggle of information Google returns.

Google No. 6
Typeface: ITC Leawood


This design was close to Brin's original concept, but by using the Leawood font, shadowing and shading, Kedar gets some dimensionality into the logo as the letters go through thick and thin stages. The logo floats on the search page, which they knew was going to be clean and mostly white. This iteration also started a discussion regarding how many colors Google wanted and what kind of color progression would work.

Google No. 7
Typeface: Catull


"This is where we started simplifying," Kedar explains. "The idea was, 'Can we create the sense of playfulness without having recognizable or identifiable objects that are going to end up limiting us?'" By taking out the magnifying glass, Kedar opens up the logo to signify that Google can become much more than just a search engine. By playing with the angles and colors of the letters, she tries to make clear that Google isn't a square corporation.

Final Design
Typeface: Catull


"There were a lot of different color iterations," Kedar says. "We ended up with the primary colors, but instead of having the pattern go in order, we put a secondary color on the L, which brought back the idea that Google doesn't follow the rules."

Toshiba Announces Discontinuation of HD DVD Businesses

Company Remains Focused on Championing Consumer Access to High Definition Content

TOKYO -- Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market. Toshiba will continue, however, to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.

HD DVD was developed to offer consumers access at an affordable price to high-quality, high definition content and prepare them for the digital convergence of tomorrow where the fusion of consumer electronics and IT will continue to progress.

"We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called 'next-generation format war' and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop," said Atsutoshi Nishida, President and CEO of Toshiba Corporation. "While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a reality."

Toshiba will continue to lead innovation, in a wide range of technologies that will drive mass market access to high definition content. These include high capacity NAND flash memory, small form factor hard disk drives, next generation CPUs, visual processing, and wireless and encryption technologies. The company expects to make forthcoming announcements around strategic progress in these convergence technologies.

Toshiba will begin to reduce shipments of HD DVD players and recorders to retail channels, aiming for cessation of these businesses by the end of March 2008. Toshiba also plans to end volume production of HD DVD disk drives for such applications as PCs and games in the same timeframe, yet will continue to make efforts to meet customer requirements. The company will continue to assess the position of notebook PCs with integrated HD DVD drives within the overall PC business relative to future market demand.

This decision will not impact on Toshiba's commitment to standard DVD, and the company will continue to market conventional DVD players and recorders. Toshiba intends to continue to contribute to the development of the DVD industry, as a member of the DVD Forum, an international organization with some 200 member companies, committed to the discussion and defining of optimum optical disc formats for the consumer and the related industries.

Toshiba also intends to maintain collaborative relations with the companies who joined with Toshiba in working to build up the HD DVD market, including Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, and DreamWorks Animation and major Japanese and European content providers on the entertainment side, as well as leaders in the IT industry, including Microsoft, Intel, and HP. Toshiba will study possible collaboration with these companies for future business opportunities, utilizing the many assets generated through the development of HD DVD.

Toshiba Corp. >>> Press Release

Special Moment

@ /A-13-9/216-222

New 16GB iPhone

No 3G, no special features, but a long-awaited 16GB. Care for one? It's only $499. I would probably get another one. :-pp/s I just got my 8GB iPhone unlocked! Cheers!

BiTMICRO updates World’s largest SSD to 1.6TB

You can tell that BiTMICRO is one company who does not rest on its laurels - shortly after releasing an 832GB SSD at the recently concluded CES '08, the same folk have just announced their 3.5” E-Disk Altima Ultra320 SCSI series to a whopping 1.6TB of solid sate storage that prides itself in being the first of its kind in the world.

The enterprise grade E-Disk Altima will carry the typical ruggedness of SSD drive, with sustained data transfer rates of up to 230 MB/sec and peak rate at 320 MB/SEC in burst mode. It’s also packed with data security features like DataSentinel, Patented PowerGuard, Patented securErase and Proprietary Write Protect to make your money worth.

For folks with smaller budgets, they can always pick up the 16GB version when it is launched in Q3 later this year.

Yes, SSDs are dropping in price, but that doesn't mean you can in any way afford BiTMICRO's new 1.6TB SSD. There is no word on pricing, but rest assured you're probably be able to buy a car with the amount of cash needed to bring one of these 1.6TB monsters home.

BiTMICRO >>> News Release

Yahoo may consider Google alliance, source says

Yahoo Inc would consider a business alliance with Google Inc as one way to rebuff a $44.6 billion takeover proposal by Microsoft, a source familiar with Yahoo's strategy said on Sunday.

Yahoo management is considering revisiting talks it held with Google several months ago on an alliance as an alternative to Microsoft's bid, that source said. At $31 a share, Yahoo believes the bid undervalues the company, two sources said.

A second source close to Yahoo said it had received a procession of preliminary contacts by media, technology, telephone and financial companies. But the source said they were unaware whether any alternative bid was in the offing.

In a memo to Yahoo employees on Friday, which was obtained by Reuters on Sunday, Yahoo leaders wrote: "We want to emphasize that absolutely no decisions have been made -- and, despite what some people have tried to suggest, there's certainly no integration process underway."

Separately, Google fired back on Sunday at Microsoft Corp's bid to acquire Yahoo, accusing Microsoft of seeking to extend its computer software monopoly deeper into the Internet realm.

Microsoft's proposed merger with Yahoo would combine the No. 1 and No. 2 suppliers of Web-based e-mail, instant messaging (IM) and portals, which act as starting points for hundreds of millions of users seeking information on the Web.

A person familiar with Google's thinking said the company believes Microsoft is using the same playbook it did in the 1990s to switch Windows users away from Web browser pioneer Netscape Communications to its own Internet Explorer.

The Official Google Blog:
Yahoo! and the future of the Internet

Google Slams Microsoft Bid For Yahoo!

Google Inc. raised the specter of Microsoft Corp. using its proposed $44.6 billion acquisition of Yahoo Inc. to gain illegal control over the Internet, underscoring the online search leader's queasiness about its two biggest rivals teaming up.

The critical remarks, posted online Sunday by Google's top lawyer, represented the Mountain View-based company's first public reaction to Microsoft's unsolicited bid for Yahoo since the offer was announced Friday.

"Microsoft's hostile bid for Yahoo raises troubling questions," David Drummond, Google's chief legal officer, wrote. "This is about more than simply a financial transaction, one company taking over another. It's about preserving the underlying principles of the Internet: openness and innovation."

Google's opposition isn't a surprise, given that Microsoft views Yahoo as a crucial weapon in its battle to gain ground on Google in the Internet's booming search and advertising markets.

Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft has been trying to depict a Yahoo takeover as a boon for both advertisers and consumers because the two companies together would be able to compete against Google more effectively.

But Google is painting a starkly different picture, asserting that Microsoft will be able to stifle innovation and leverage its dominating Windows operating system to set up personal computers so consumers are automatically steered to online services, such as e-mail and instant messaging, controlled by the world's largest software maker.

In a move that illustrates just how badly Google wants to torpedo the deal, Google CEO Eric Schmidt called Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang Friday to offer his help in repelling Microsoft, according to a report Sunday on The Wall Street Journal's Web site, which cited anonymous people familiar with the matter.

The assistance didn't include a counterbid, but may have included supporting other potential suitors, or a revenue guarantee in exchange for an ad partnership with Yahoo, the people said, according the newspaper.

AT&T Inc., Time Warner Inc. and News Corp. aren't planning to enter the bidding, the Journal said, citing the people familiar.

To help make its point, Google pointed to the way Microsoft previously used Windows to help extend the reach of its Web browser and other applications -- a strategy that triggered a U.S. Justice Department lawsuit alleging the software maker illegally used its operating system to stifle competition. The dispute ended with a 2002 settlement that required Microsoft to abandon some of its past practices.

"Could Microsoft now attempt to exert the same sort of inappropriate and illegal influence over the Internet that it did with the PC?" Drummond wrote.

Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel, said preventing Microsoft from buying Yahoo would undermine competition by allowing Google to become even more dominant than it already is on the Internet.

"Microsoft is committed to openness, innovation, and the protection of privacy on the Internet," Smith said. "We believe that the combination of Microsoft and Yahoo! will advance these goals."

If they get together, Microsoft and Yahoo would have about 16 percent of the worldwide Internet search market -- still far behind Google's 62 percent share, according to comScore Media Metrix. But Microsoft and Yahoo already are far bigger in than Google in email and instant messaging, and conceivably would be in a better position to squash rival services if they combined.

Illustrating the enormous stakes involved in a deal that could reshape the technology and media industries, Google and Microsoft are already debating the pros and cons before Yahoo has responded to the offer.

Yahoo so far has little to say except that its board will carefully examine Microsoft's bid -- a process that "can take quite a bit of time," according to a message posted on the Sunnyvale-based company's Web site.

The review "will include evaluating all of the company's strategic alternatives, including maintaining Yahoo as an independent company," Yahoo said on its Web site.

Most analysts believe Yahoo will have little choice but to sell to Microsoft, with its stock price near a four-year low at the time of the bid and its profits falling since late 2006. When it was first announced, Microsoft's offer was 62 percent above Yahoo's market value -- a premium analysts doubt any other suitor will be able to top.

If Yahoo accepts, antitrust regulators in both the United States and Europe are expected to begin an exhaustive review that some experts think could last a year. Microsoft believes it could get the necessary approvals to take over Yahoo late this year.

If nothing else, Google probably will try to raise enough alarms about the Microsoft-Yahoo deal to delay its approval for as long as possible. By doing so, Google would have more time to draw up plans to counteract the combination.

Google also is borrowing a page from Microsoft's book by urging antitrust regulators to take a hard look at the proposed marriage between its two rivals.

Just days after Google struck a $3.1 billion deal to buy online ad service DoubleClick Inc. last year, Microsoft began lobbying regulators to block the transaction. U.S. regulators blessed Google's DoubleClick acquisition late last year after an eight-month review, but the antitrust inquiry in Europe remains open.

Google Image Labeler

Google Image Labeler is a feature, in form of a game, of Google Image Search that allows the user to label random images to help improve the quality of Google's image search results.

Luis von Ahn developed the ESP Game, a game in which two people are simultaneously given an image, with no way to communicate, other than knowing the matching label for each picture or the pass signal. The ESP Game has been licensed by Google in the form of the Google Image Labeler, and is used to improve the accuracy of the Google Image Search.

Each user who wants to participate will be paired randomly with a partner who's currently online and also using Google Image Labeler. Over a 90-second period, both participants will be shown the same set of images and asked to label each image based on what they see. They'll also be shown words that can't be used as labels. Both participants can add as many labels as they want until one of them matches a partner's label. After there's a match, they'll see a new image and continue the cycle, until time runs out. Contributors will also see points they've earned throughout the session.

The game is not designed simply for fun. Though the feature is enjoyable for the users, it is also a clever way for Google to ensure that its keywords are matched to correct images. Each matched word will help Google to build an accurate database used when using the Google Image Search.

Without human tagging of images, Google Images search has in the past relied on the context of the image. For example, a photo that is captioned "Portrait of Bill Gates" might have "Bill Gates" associated as a possible search term. The Google Image Labeler relies on humans that tag the meaning or content of the image, rather than its context looking on at where the image was used. By storing more information about the image, Google stores more possible avenues of discovering the image in response to a user's search.

You can contribute and help Google to improve the relevance of image search results so that you and other Google users can quickly and easily find the results you're looking for.

GoogleOS? No, it's gOS Rocket (Linux distribution)

gOS is an easy-to-use, Ubuntu-based distribution designed for less technical computer users. Its main features are the use of Enlightenment as the default desktop and tight integration of various Google products and services into the product.

gOS is a Linux distribution created by 'Good OS LLC', a Los Angeles-based corporation. The company advertises it as "An alternative OS with Google Apps and other Web 2.0 apps for the modern user."

On January 7, 2008, a demo second version 2.0 of gOS named "gOS Rocket" was released at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show. However, the definitive second version of gOS will probably debut mid February 2008, together with the launch of Everex's new CloudBook which will use gOS 2.

gOS Rocket is based on the Ubuntu 7.10 distribution. It uses the Enlightenment 17 window manager instead of the usual GNOME or KDE desktops, to create a desktop that has similar usability as a Mac with OSX. This is possible because of the flexibility of Enlightenment. Enlightenment acts both as a X window manager, and as a desktop environment, which helps to keep memory requirements low. Therefore Rocket works on systems as low end as a 350MHz Pentium II with 196MB Ram. But a typical gOS system would use as a minimum a 1GHz Pentium III with 256MB RAM.

Based on the idea of cloud computing gOS leans heavily on on-line applications built on Web 2.0 and AJAX technology so it also does not use much hard disk space for applications. The whole system fits comfortably in less than 2 GB. Also many of the documents created with Rocket, such as Google Docs documents, can be saved on Google servers instead of on the local hard disk, so Rocket can work with very small hard disks. In gOS Rocket Good OS introduced the use of Google's "Google Gears" technology which promises to make Google's web applications usable without an internet connection. Currently, Google Reader is the only Google application that is supported, though other web applications such as Remember the Milk have added Google Gears functionality.

gOS Rocket's primary features include a Mac OS X-like Dock called the iBar, containing icons to launch the following programs: Firefox web browser, Rhythmbox audio player, Xine video player and Skype for Internet telephony. Other programs can be added to the iBar as well.

There are also icons to launch Firefox to specific web-sites and web applications for Google Mail, Google Talk, Google News, Google Calendar, Google Maps, Google Docs, Google Reader, Google Product Search, Blogger, YouTube, Facebook, Meebo to online chat with Yahoo! Messenger and .NET Messenger Service users and Wikipedia. The rightmost icon is for Faqly, a system developed for Rocket to offer a built-in online community based help system, or you can use the official forum.

Other installed programs can be started through menu's, among the most important are the photo and picture editing program the GIMP, the document viewer Evince, and the OpenOffice.org office suite. More programs can be installed using the built-in Synaptic Package Manager.

To 'Google it', is to Search the Internet

Microsoft's bid for Yahoo is, among many other things, acknowledgment that the world's largest software company needs some major help against Google in the online search and ad businesses.

What, then, is Google's secret in beating a much larger company, one that has trounced so many others over the years?

Analysts say Google uses a combination of superior software and a consumer perception of coolness to continually trounce rivals, which include InterActiveCorp.'s Ask, besides Yahoo and Microsoft.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based company has managed to extend its search lead against Microsoft and Yahoo, despite both companies' aggressive attempts to build better search services.

From the get-go, Google took a simplified approach, providing a cutting-edge search engine with an ad-free home page. Early on, the search service was accessible to users with first-generation dial-up Internet connections.

Google came into the market and created a better mousetrap in the form of a search engine. As the Internet has grown, Google has become synonymous with finding things on the Internet.

In the last few years Google has become a veritable icon. It's common for people to use the company's name as a verb for conducting a Web search. The Google name is so ubiquitous that it often shows up even in comic strips.

The fact that it has become a cultural phenomenon has only added to its momentum and nobody has been able to introduce anything that has convinced consumers to abandon it.

As a result, Google's share of searches in the U.S. rose to 58.5% in the fourth quarter, up from 50.3% in fourth-quarter 2006.

Google never has been a company to sit on its hands. The company continually improves its software, which helps make the service more addictive to consumers and advertisers. They literally make tweaks to their (software) algorithm every week.

For the month of December, Google processed 5.6 million search queries in the U.S., far more than anyone and up 30% vs. a year ago. No. 2 Yahoo had 2.2 million queries, down 4%. No. 3 Microsoft rose 8% to 940,000.

In the past year, Yahoo and Microsoft actually have matched Google in terms of the quality of search results, but most consumers haven't bothered to check. There's not that much difference among them, but people just think Google is better. For Yahoo and Microsoft, it's a brand perception problem.

Tech Companies Market Cap Compare to MSFT (as of Feb 1, 2008)

Company	Mkt Cap	diff.	Shares	Close	A*	B*
	(in billion)	(in billion)	(in billion)	(USD)
Microsoft	283.40		9.31	30.45
Google	161.39	122.01	0.31	515.90	914.19	77.20%
Cisco	151.31	132.09	6.07	24.94	46.69	87.20%
IBM	150.31	133.09	1.38	109.08	205.36	88.27%
Intel	127.29	156.11	5.85	21.77	48.44	122.53%
Apple	117.54	165.86	0.88	133.75	322.05	140.78%
HP	113.49	169.91	2.55	44.42	111.14	150.20%
Oracle	106.22	177.18	5.14	20.68	55.14	166.62%
Dell	45.60	237.80	2.24	20.35	126.52	521.71%
Yahoo!	37.89	245.51	1.34	28.35	211.49	646.01%
EMC	33.91	249.49	2.10	16.13	134.95	736.65%

A* - The stock must close at this price in order to surpass MSFT market value.
B* - The growth percentage to surpass MSFT.

Yahoos fear loss of fun-loving culture

Yahoo Inc. employees fretted Friday that their fun-loving culture, summed up by early company ads featuring a cowboy yodel, could get quashed by the comparatively stodgy software behemoth that wants to gobble it up.

Everyone sees Microsoft as the big octopus from '20,000 Leagues Under the Sea' that wants to swallow everybody up.

Yahoo definitely sees itself as different from other companies. On its site for prospective employees it says, "We believe humor is essential to success. We applaud irreverence and don't take ourselves too seriously. We celebrate achievement. We yodel."

But the company has been singing the blues lately.

The big question for many employees, however, was whether Yahoo's free-spirited, go-getting culture would be embraced by a decades-old tech giant. A lot of people feel like it would be a culture clash.

The History of Yahoo! - How It All Started...

Microsoft Offers $44.6B to Buy Yahoo!

Merger won't solve Microsoft or Yahoo's problems

Merger won't solve Microsoft or Yahoo's problems

Microsoft's proposal to buy Yahoo! for $44.6 billion offers tremendous benefits - just not for Microsoft.

The deal would do virtually nothing to address the fundamental problem faced by both companies: finding a way to effectively challenge Google's growing dominance of the Web.

But it's a mighty nice gift to Yahoo's shareholders.

They would finally get a reasonably happy ending to their long nightmare of waiting for Yahoo management to come up with a viable strategy - or any strategy whatsoever - to repel the Google assault. Other than announcing a thousand job cuts this week, Yahoo co-founder and Chief Executive Jerry Yang has given no sign that he has any better ideas for turning around the struggling company than Terry Semel, who resigned in disgrace in June.

Before Microsoft made its $31-a-share offer, Yahoo's stock had fallen 44 percent in two years, to $19.18. On Friday, shares jumped 48 percent to close at $28.35. If the purchase goes through - and my prediction is that Yahoo's board will acquiesce after extracting a slightly higher price - Yahoo shareholders can cash out and invest their money in a successful Internet company.

Like, say, Google.

Ironically, the Mighty Mammoth of Mountain View would be a big winner from a Microsoft-Yahoo deal.

Sure, Microhoo (or Yahoosoft) would have more Web traffic than Google. In theory, that would give it an edge with advertisers, especially the display advertisers that are Yahoo's strength.

But as Microsoft and Yahoo waste a couple of years jumping through antitrust hoops and figuring out how to integrate their companies, Google will continue to add more business and consumer Web services and leverage its dominance of search advertising into yet more advertising arenas.

Google is already moving aggressively onto mobile phones, striking deals around the globe to get prominent positioning with certain carriers and promoting an open handset design. The company is even bidding billions of dollars to buy a chunk of U.S. wireless spectrum that it could use to launch its own mobile voice and data service.

A Microsoft-Yahoo combination certainly has some merits. Yahoo still sports the best consumer Web portal, My Yahoo, with tens of millions of loyal users. Microsoft's Windows operating system runs nine out of 10 desktop computers and a big chunk of the servers that power the Internet.

In theory, Microsoft might integrate the best services from each company, from Yahoo's Flickr photo-sharing to Microsoft's Office applications, to provide an appealing PC-and-Internet platform for customers. The technical challenges would be enormous, but the payoff could be huge.

However, Microsoft doesn't even seem to be thinking that way. In its news conference announcing the offer, executives of the Redmond, Wash., company sounded like they were talking about the steel industry, not software. They emphasized the merger's economies of scale: saving money on research and development, labor and equipment.

But Google doesn't dominate the Web because of huge R&D spending or cheap servers. Google leads because it took a simple interface and built it into a superior brand. And it relentlessly explores bold new ideas.

Buying Yahoo would also present Microsoft with a huge dilemma: how do you handle two powerful brands? Do you push Microsoft Hotmail or Yahoo Mail? Live Search or Yahoo Search? If Microsoft keeps both brands, it will confuse customers and reduce synergies. If it kills one, it will throw away a lot of expensively built equity.

Finally, there's the challenge of integrating two very different companies, with clashing cultures and business philosophies. At Microsoft, the operating system has always been king, while Yahoo is a creature of the Internet.

I think Yahoo's most talented employees will take the money from their suddenly valuable stock options and run. They aren't going to get rich working for Microsoft, whose stock has gone up an average of 6.6 percent a year over the last five years.

Microsoft's move is a Hail Mary play better suited to Sunday's Super Bowl.

Microsoft Offers $44.6B to Buy Yahoo!

Microsoft Corp. offered to buy Yahoo Inc. for $44.6 billion, a move designed to pick up a struggling rival as both companies are fighting in the online-advertising world with Google Inc.

The offer, $31 a share in cash and stock, is a 62% premium to Thursday's closing price of $19.18. Yahoo shares jumped to $29.70 in recent premarket trading. Microsoft closed at $32.60 and dipped to $31.95 in the premarket recently.

"We have great respect for Yahoo!, and together we can offer an increasingly exciting set of solutions for consumers, publishers and advertisers while becoming better positioned to compete in the online services market," said Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer. "We believe our combination will deliver superior value to our respective shareholders and better choice and innovation to our customers and industry partners."

Microsoft said the market for online advertising is "increasingly dominated by one player. Together, Microsoft and Yahoo! can offer competitive choice while better fulfilling the needs of customers and partners."

Renewed takeover speculation fired up after Yahoo late Tuesday posted a drop in fourth-quarter net income and issued a 2008 outlook that fell short of analysts' expectations.

Speculation about a Yahoo buyout has swirled since last year, when Microsoft's interest in such a deal was reported. Buying Yahoo theoretically would place Microsoft as a significant competitor in the Internet search market, where it so far has lagged behind both Yahoo and Google. Microsoft, which has thriving software businesses that could fund a much deeper foray into Internet markets, hadn't actively dispelled rumors it was considering an acquisition of Yahoo.

"The combined assets and strong services focus of these two companies will enable us to achieve scale economics while reaching R&D critical mass to deliver innovation breakthroughs," said Microsoft executive Kevin Johnson. "The industry will be well served by having more than one strong player, offering more value and real choice to advertisers, publishers and consumers."

The proposal, presented in a letter to Yahoo's board of directors from Ballmer, is subject to the negotiation of a definitive agreement between the two companies. Microsoft is saying a deal could close in the second half of the year.

Mobile Number Portability (MNP) is coming and just around the corner

If you are a Maxis postpaid user, you should notice that there is an important message showing on the first page of your current statement. It reads:

Please be advised that with effect from 22nd February all subscribers will need to include the 012, 017 or 0142 prefix when making any calls to a Maxis number.

So be ready, MNP is coming, and we will have the freedom to choose any mobile service provider we like without bothering to change your existing mobile number; ...and it's also the time to challenge your service provider if their service is bad.

Canon Rock

"Canon Rock" is a Neo-classical metal arrangement of Johann Pachelbel's Canon in D major by the Taiwanese musician and composer Jerry Chang (JerryC). The piece became popular on the internet after a video of JerryC playing the piece was posted online. The rendition has been featured in newspapers, magazines, and television shows. Canon Rock has been covered many times on various internet communities such as YouTube and Google Video. The most famous of the covers is by a South Korean guitarist named Jeong-Hyun Lim, who is more popularly known by his internet alias, "funtwo". His video is the tenth most viewed video in YouTube history with over 36.8 million views and counting.



Get JerryC - "Canon Rock" free guitar backing track