Posted by multippt
Firefox had another update which fixes several security and stability problems. There were 3 critical security fixes in this version, making it an important update.
There are no feature releases in this version, as it is mainly a security fix.
The update is dished out as an automatic update, but if you didn’t get the update, you can download the update from the Firefox official site.
Posted by multippt
Looks like it’s Yahoo’s turn to decide if it should accept the $44.6 billion deal. The outcome will determine what happens to the search engine community - users, developers, etc. While Yahoo and Google has been actively embracing openess (particularly technologies that are not yet completed), going as far as to making APIs available for free, Microsoft ain’t so active. Rather, Microsoft was seen as shunning openess, prefering to stick to strategies that will somewhat coerce people into using its propiertary technology.
It’s been known that big mergers tend to fail more often, due to the difficulties that arise when merging them together. It’s not easy to get open Yahoo to go with closed Microsoft. However, if Microsoft didn’t buy Yahoo, Yahoo would be facing a lot of trouble from Google. Surely Yahoo won’t want to end up like AOL.
The main point of Microsoft buying Yahoo is not its search capabilities, but rather the advertising. Yahoo is still top at advertising, perhaps maybe until Google acquires DoubleClick. Still, Microsoft + Yahoo will have the overall advantage in advertising Though they still will not be able to compete against Google in terms of search, that is unless Microsoft or Yahoo decides to do something absurd like completely opening up search (or make a lot more information readily accessible), which for years have remained closed-source and restricted despite the presence of APIs provided by Google and Yahoo. Sure, if Yahoo were to do one more step like removing the limits bounded to its search APIs (still considered better than Google’s since they are ad free, and the results can be re-ordered), it may turn the tide against Google.
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Looks like we may need to keep a tab on those Yahoo press releases.
Posted by multippt
Looks like people are getting worried that their Internet connection may get cut off any time soon because of unprecedented damages to the undersea cables (does not affect US Internet users). While a severed cable may impact the speed of Internet access, Internet Service Providers will quickly re-route Internet traffic to healthier traffic. So, ideally there should be no worry about have your Internet connection cut just because some terrorist (fortunately, there aren’t) blew up some cables.
Interestingly, cable cuts happen all the time (once every few days). However, it is usually the more performance damaging ones like the 2 cable cuts recently that disrupted Internet access in the Middle East, as well as the cable damage cause by an Earthquake last year which disrupted Internet access in Asia that are publicized. Given that the Internet was designed to re-route communications as soon as a break was found, why was it that those cable damages can impair the quality of the Internet?
It could be that those cables were heavily used, or that some cables were used more than others. Those cables happen to be the main carriers. Damaging any one of those significantly will cause traffic to be re-routed. If you are lucky, you have a not-so-commonly used cable nearby to re-route to. If you are not so lucky, you get a over-crowded cable that its already under pressure to keep up with its normal requests. It’s also known that several areas in the Middle East like India as well as parts of Asia (like Japan and China) that uses the Internet a lot. That may have caused the stress, which would have led to the over-usage of several cables. There are also much lesser cables in certain areas, making the disruptions more apparently because there are lesser places to re-route to if a cable is broken.
Though, what if you have to deal with 5 cable cuts occuring near at home? That’s what happened a few days ago. Such a “coordination” in cable breakages and damages over a short number of days has prompted many Internet users to conspire that it may have been a coordinated attempt by terrorists (after all, it is strange that Iran and Iraq seems to be sitting by quietly as though nothing has happened). Though, cutting off the Internet does not give any sort of advantage. It mainly caused nuisence to Internet users, and is a great inconvenience.
Posted by multippt
Google seems to have a nice tool that is pretty accurate at predicting future election results. Google trends, which collates the total number of searches for a specific term has a nice little ability to predict stuff, accurately too.
Using Google trends, you can search for “clinton, obama, romney, mccain” (they are the top 4 candidates), and you get a nice chart showing you who’s more popular. Apparently, Obama is in the lead, while Clinton is second. Sure enough, BBC is reporting that Obama is currently in the lead.
It’s worth noting that Google trends has been fairly accurate in predicting results for past elections (of course, it can be inaccurate at times).
Posted by multippt
Within 7 days from the last security update, Wordpress has issued yet another security update. This update fixes a problem that may allow other users to edit your posts. This problem can be fixed easily by replacing the xmlrpc.php file with a newer version. Alternatively, you could always upgrade your Wordpress install to the latest version.
Aside from the major patching of the security problem, some other smaller bugs have been fixed such a registration email problem. There is also a fix for a function which fails to work properly on 64-bit servers.
Posted by multippt
It looks like bad news for Google as Google stocks hit to a new low. The value of Google stocks has fallen steadily for the past month, appearing as the top 10 losers in Nasdaq several times in a row. Microsoft’s purchasal of Yahoo came at a time most punishing for Google. Of course, it goes without saying that Microsoft does have a few problems trying to buy Yahoo - it may need to borrow a little cash.
Just last month Google stocks are valued at about $700 a share, and has steadily declined in January. Yahoo on the other hand faced a similar decline. It would have kept declining, if not for Microsoft’s offer. Thanks to big Microsoft, Yahoo stocks not only recovered, but actually shot up to become much higher compared to that of the last quarter in 2007.
Though, it will take more than falling stocks to beat Google.
Posted by multippt
In response to an (not so) unexpected offer by Microsoft, Google has decided to counter Microsoft’s attempt at becoming a dominant presence on the Internet. Earlier a few days ago, Microsoft offered Yahoo an interesting $44.6 billion to acquire it. Google was playing along silently until 2 days later.
“The openness of the Internet is what made Google — and Yahoo! — possible.” - Basically it’s trying to say that Google and Yahoo are very “open” in their approach towards users unlike Microsoft, and has acknowledged that controlling the net is not possible given the freedom of the net.
“Could Microsoft now attempt to exert the same sort of inappropriate and illegal influence over the Internet that it did with the PC?” - Google fears that Microsoft’s takeover will mean that Microsoft will exert monopoly strength and controversy on the Internet as what it has done to computers.
“Could the acquisition of Yahoo! allow Microsoft — despite its legacy of serious legal and regulatory offenses — to extend unfair practices from browsers and operating systems to the Internet?” - Seems like Google is saying that Microsoft is not trustworthy and has resorted to practices that go against fair competition.
You can read all about it from the word of the vice president of Google through their blog.
Though, all these claims, though true, are kind of biased. While Google is trying to inform the public that Microsoft’s acquisition of Yahoo is one that may bring about competition problems (i.e. monopoly and anti-trust), in reality Google is probably afraid that Microsoft Yahoo will be much more formidable than its original opponent, Yahoo. Microsoft has the money, Yahoo has the tech. So, both combined will give them the edge Google will have trouble trying to compete.
Given Google’s encouragement on “openess and innovation”, Google will unlikely offer up any bid to buy Yahoo, because it doesn’t want to show that it is going against its own words. If Google were to bid for Yahoo, it will cause controversy, because this means Google will be controlling and monopolizing the net. Sure, Microsoft has this problem as well, but in Google’s case it has become an Internet giant unlike Microsoft which has so far been unsuccessful. This makes it all the more harder for innovative Google to acquire Yahoo, especially if it doesn’t want to get hit by anti-trust cases.
