Microsoft linking Silverlight, Ruby on Rails

Microsoft plans to demonstrate integration Friday between its new Silveright browser plug-in technology for rich Internet applications and the Ruby on Rails Web framework.
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The integration will be done via a plug-in, according to a Microsoft representative. Microsoft officials will detail Ruby on Rails efforts at the RailsConf 2008 conference in Portland, Ore., which is happening now through the weekend. The plug-in will be free to conference attendees.

Silverlight is Microsoft's entry into the rich Internet application space, where the company will battle Adobe's Flash technology.

Also at the event, Microsoft officials will demonstrate IronRuby, a version of the Ruby programming language for Microsoft's .Net platform, running a Ruby on Rails application.

"Running Rails shows that we are serious when we say that we are going to create a Ruby that runs real Ruby programs. And there isn’t a more real Ruby program than Rails," said a blog entry on Friday from Microsoft's John Lam, a program manager in the Dynamic Language Runtime team, who will present at the conference.

The company, though, still needs to improve performance on Rails, he said. Currently, too much memory is being consumed.

"IronRuby doesn’t just let you run Rails; it lets you interact with the rich set of libraries provided by .Net," Lam said. "You’ll be able to use IronRuby to build server-based applications that run on top of ASP.Net or ASP.Net MVC. You’ll be able to use IronRuby to build client applications that run on top of WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) or Silverlight."

The IronRuby project in general has featured processes that make it easier for Microsoft to develop open source projects, said Lam.

"What we learn from building IronRuby will be applied in other product groups to help us become more open and transparent than we have been in the past," Lam said.

Meanwhile, FiveRuns is unveiling Friday tools to profile and monitor Ruby on Rails application performance.
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The public beta of the company's TuneUp product is being released. TuneUp is a free application profiling tool profiling performance analysis. Also offered, in its general release form, is Manage 2.0, a subscription-based application performance management product for applications in production.

The company also plans to contribute open source components to the Rails community, beginning with an instrumentation library, called FiveRuns Instrument, offered at FiveRuns.org, RubyForge, and Github. The software provides an API for instrumenting Ruby method invocations.

TuneUp was described by the company as a tool that provides visibility into application performance during the development phase. Developers learn of performance trouble spots and bottlenecks prior to production, FiveRuns said. A TuneUp plugin can be installed for access to performance metrics.

Developers can collaborate with others, browse application profiles, and look for similar configuration and performance problems.

"FiveRuns TuneUp gives developers deep visibility and relevant information to debug and improve the performance of their application and a community setting to collaborate with others to solve tough performance problems," said Steve Sanderson, FiveRuns vice president of development and technology, in a statement released by the company.

Manage 2.0 is a lighter upgrade to the initial product, adding monitoring support for more subsystems and other new features. Featured are enhanced rails metrics, monitoring for the entire Rails stack, and customizable contextual Triggers and Notification Chains that alert users to problems.

A light Ruby client for Manage 2.0 consumes minimal resources and is optimized for virtual environments, the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud service, and other server environments.

Microsoft: Apple Safari users on Windows beware

Microsoft: Apple Safari users on Windows beware

Software giant Microsoft has warned the users of Apple Safari web browser on the Windows OS.

The company said that they are currently investigating a security threat that allows remote code execution on all supported versions of Windows XP and Windows Vista when Apple’s Safari Web browser has been installed.

Microsoft added: “Safari is not installed with Windows XP or Windows Vista by default: It must be installed independently or through the Apple Software Update application.”

Apple has been facing criticism since sometime after they started delivering the Safari web browser through their Apple Software Update utility. The users of Apple iTunes and QuickTime were delivered the browser even if they had not installed it previously.

Microsoft said that the users who installed Safari at non-default location are safe from this latest issue.


Apple Safari comes to Windows XP and Vista

Apple has done an impressive job with the Leopard OS which is currently scheduled for launch later this year.

Steve Jobs displayed some of the new features of the Leopard at the company’s Worldwide Developer Conference.

But one of the most important announcement to come at the event was that the company is now launching their Safari web browser on the Windows platform.

Apple already has iTunes and QuickTime application available on Windows and now Safari would join the bandwagon.

Jobs confirmed that Safari would be made available on both Windows XP and Windows Vista platform and the company has also released a public beta which is available on their website.

He even went on to show some statistics and ended up claiming that Apple Safari is now the fastest browser available on the Windows platform. Incidentally, Jobs compared the Safari with Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox but ignored Opera.

It would be interesting to see comparisons between Opera for Windows and Safari for Windows!

Apple Safari for Windows has seen more than 1 million downloads

If it is an Apple product, you can be sure that their would be a lot of interest in it. Even if the product is released for the Windows platform.

Apple Inc. recently launched the beta version of their Safari web browser for the Windows platform.

And the company has now confirmed that the beta has already seen more than 1 million downloads.

But that does not exactly mean that there are around 1 million active Safari web browser users on Windows.

Most web users would have downloaded the browser just to check out how it is. Life we did. But a majority of them would have moved back to their primary web browser (like Firefox or Opera) within a matter of minutes or hours.

However, it is a nice start as Apple aims to make Safari an alternative browser to both Internet Explorer and Firefox on the Windows platform.

Incidentally, Apple iTunes remains the most popular Apple application on the Windows platform. It has seen over 500 million times by Windows users.

CARLSBAD, Calif. - Microsoft and Yahoo seem to hang out in all the same places, but somehow keep missing each other.

That's turned speculation over what it will take to get the two of them together into something of a CEO parlor game.

Media magnate Rupert Murdoch said this week he is "mystified" the two have not come to terms. E-commerce mogul Barry Diller said Microsoft should never have fired a hostile shot at Yahoo if they didn't plan to stick it out.

Yahoo board member Bobby Kotick joked that he had tried to get top executives from Microsoft and Yahoo together to play Guitar Hero 4, the hit video game from the company he runs, Activision.

In separate appearances at the D: Conference this week, the top executives of Microsoft and Yahoo said no progress had been made on a merger, though they were discussing lesser deals.

The two had held abortive takeover talks over a three-month period that ended May 3, Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock has said.

Microsoft walked away from a proposal to buy Yahoo for $47.5 billion, or $33 a share, after Yahoo rebuffed it, saying it wanted $37 a share. Then in mid-May, the companies said they had begun talks on an unspecified deal short of a merger.

On Wednesday, Yahoo's co-founder and chief executive, Jerry Yang, threw cold water on speculation that they might be edging back into merger discussions.

"Microsoft is no longer interested in buying the company, and we are talking about other things. We definitely have to understand what they're proposing ... they clearly have an interest in Yahoo, and we need to understand more," he said.

In an on-stage interview at the conference, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said talks had broken down largely over price. Appearing with Yang, Yahoo President Susan Decker agreed price had always been the biggest barrier to reaching a deal.

Diller, who runs the company behind rival Ask.com, believes a merger of Microsoft and Yahoo is necessary to gain the scale to take on Google in Web search and advertising.

Diller expressed surprise at Microsoft's decision to withdraw its offer and "move on" after pursuing Yahoo at regular intervals over the past two years.

"It seems to me if you fire a gun in a hostile offer, the bullet has to land in the heart," he said in his own on-stage appearance at the conference on Wednesday. "Otherwise, I can't imagining firing at all."

Murdoch agreed, saying that given the original 62 percent premium Microsoft was willing to pay for Yahoo, Ballmer should be more patient.

"You aim the gun and you fire," Murdoch said, echoing Diller. "They are not used to big deals, so they backed off."

Murdoch's News Corp. has gotten nowhere in its own efforts to talk to both sides in recent months about alternative deal arrangements involving his MySpace Web business.

The wily 77-year-old deal-maker ruled out prospects for an alternative deal between Yahoo and Google to succeed, saying regulatory issues would likely derail it.

And he dismissed activist investor Carl Icahn's campaign to replace the Yahoo board in a proxy fight at the company's July annual shareholder meeting as "helpful noise" to Microsoft and a threat that Yahoo shouldn't bother worrying about.

"That is not serious," Murdoch said of Icahn. "Look, he wants to make a few hundred-million dollars for himself."

Murdoch's conclusion is that Microsoft and Yahoo need to lock themselves in a room and put their last respective offers on the table and settle on a deal.

Speaking as if he were one of the negotiators, Murdoch said "Look, if it is complicated, we will clean it up afterward."

Anticipating the flood of free advice from other executives, Yahoo made up its own joke video in which Yang and Decker are seen being inundated with unsolicited advice from top technology industry CEOs, investors and media pundits.

Warren Buffett's advice to Yang? "Buy low, sell high." (Editing by Braden Reddall)




Samsung Electronics Drawing Restructuring Plan

Samsung Electronics is considering merging or selling some of its operations in an upcoming corporate restructuring program.

A company insider said Thursday that the firm is to merge its MP3 player division with its cell phone division, and its DVD production division with its TV division.

''The MP3 business has a limited growth potential because Apple is dominating the field, he said, requesting anonymity. The situation is similar with the DVD sector.''

The alleged plan is part of Samsung's massive reorganization scheme, which is being shaped at its top management. The company's public relation office said it will have to wait to confirm the report. It said it will soon announce the reorganization plan.

''The scale of restructuring will be bigger this year than before,'' said spokesman Lee Seung-han. ''There was a reshuffling of chiefs of our sub-divisions and promotions of executives. Their new roles will be defined later on.''

U.K. news sites reported that Samsung could possibly pull out of the laptop market if it fails to gain over three times its current share of the worldwide laptop market.

The company promptly denied the report, saying ``Samsung has no intention of closing its Notebook division in 2011. We do however expect the market to become increasingly saturated and there to be increased price competitiveness,'' according to Techradar.com. The goal for the laptop division is to attain 5.7 percent of the global market, it said.

The share value has been inclining since its chairman and CEO Lee Kun-hee announced his resignation late last month and even after another CEO Yun Jong-yong's announcement of retirement on Thursday.

AMD sees benefits from Nvidia and Intel argument

Vendor happy for war of words between two rivals to continue AMD's EMEA technical director of sales and marketing has said that AMD is quite happy for Intel and Nvidia to continue the war of words that recently broke out between the two companies as his company.


Speaking to The Inquirer's Paul Hales, Giuseppe Amato said: "One says the CPU is not important, the other says the GPU is not important. The beauty of AMD is that we provide a balance with a strong CPU and a strong GPU - the company best tailored to provided a balanced PC."

"We hope we see some gain from the fight these two are having together."

He was speaking to the website as the vendor detailed its channel plans to selected partners at an event at its Dresden fabrication plant. "This specifically channel-focused event is to enable the channel provide better value to customers."

"What we told analysts is what we're telling the channel," Amato said. "From AMD you can expect focus. The focus to deliver platforms that solve the problems the end user is facing."

He admitted the firm had been slightly "erratic" with the channel in 2007, something the firm was keen to rectify this year with it planning a major investment in the UK channel.

IBM introduces new hybrid blade

IBM has launched a new blade centre for companies looking to do High Performance Computing (HPC).

The IBM QS22 blade has at its heart a new processor, the PowerXCell 8i, which, according to IBM, "offers five times the speed of the original Cell/BE processor". The chip has 16 times more memory than its predecessors, at up to 32GB , and is aimed at much more challenging operations than the previous processor, says IBM.

"These blades have a wide variety of applications from real-time analysts through digital media," said Jim Comfort, IBM's vice president for worldwide application systems. "They are very efficient at digital trans-coding, for example."

As Comfort explained, the key component of the QS22 was the ability for it to run as a standard type of system and then be optimised when used in environments requiring high-compute power. "Intel and AMD are talking about this at some point in the future," Comfort told ZDNet.co.uk. "But with the QS22 we are doing it now."

Platform Computing, a reseller of HPC systems, has one customer trialling the QS22 for pre- and post-trade analysis, where time-to-results has been cut up to 80 percent, the QS22 should be available "some time next month". said IBM.

IBM takes top honour as employer of the year

The annual TARGET jobs awards celebrated the cream of graduate recruiting in its annual awards ceremony this week at the Hilton Park Lane in London. As well as naming the best student marketing campaign, undergraduate internship and graduate recruitment website, the overall graduate employer of the year was announced with organisations such as Marks & Spencer, Barclays and GlaxoSmithKine all fighting it out. However, it was last year's winner, IBM, who eventually took home the honours.

"We were really keen to build an award that recognises the effort an employer puts into graduate recruitment," says Cathy Hyde, head of future talent at Bernard Hodes and sponsors of the graduate employer of the year award. "Employers actually have to show why they are a good employer and the panel has checked whether they are living up to the promises they make to graduates."

Six categories were judged by an expert panel of graduate recruiters, agencies and careers advisers, and included two new awards showcasing excellent diversity recruitment practices, which was picked up by DLA Piper UK and innovation on campus - won by npower.

"It is becoming more difficult to target the best graduates and employers are having to be increasingly creative," says Paul Sissons, UK chief executive of specialist careers publisher GTI, which organised the awards, now in their fourth year. "One of the main motivations behind these awards was to showcase this creative work and bring all the different elements of graduate recruitment - employers, publishers and careers advisers - together."

Goldman Sachs was again voted the most popular employer in the banking sector, while Google and Atkins won in the IT and communications and construction categories respectively.

WiMax Promises to Shake up Wireless Data Market

WiMax offers high-speed Internet access over a wide area and comes in two versions, a fixed-wireless version and another for mobile. The technology, often likened to Wi-Fi on steroids, has two advantages over LTE (Long-Term Evolution) it's available today and is free from the hefty royalty charges required for 3G (third-generation) mobile devices and equipment. By comparison, LTE has another two to three years to go before it can be deployed and, because the radio uplink uses CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), device makers will have to pay substantial royalties to Qualcomm.

"They charge a 5 percent royalty on the handset or devices, and that's on the retail side...Behind the door, they're charging anywhere from 15 to 30 percent on the chipsets," said Bill Rojas, director of communications research at IDC Asia-Pacific, adding that WiMax backers have agreed to a much lower royalty for using the technology.

Intel sees 2008 as the year when WiMax will start to appear in computers, such as a WiMax-equipped Asustek Computer Eee PC that Sriram Viswanathan, vice president of Intel Capital, the chip maker's investment arm, and general manager of the company's WiMax Program Office, showed off in Singapore. "We have a variety of these devices. Not all of them will be launched on the first day, but the fact is during the second half (of 2008) you will see a plethora of devices," Viswanathan said.

"Intel doesn't expect shipments of WiMax-equipped computers to hit high volumes during 2008, largely due to the limited availability of WiMax services. As more networks come online in 2009, shipment volumes will rise but the technology will not become a standard feature on computers for some time, " Viswanathan said.

WiMax will also find a foothold in emerging markets, where broadband Internet penetration remains low. In these markets, the technology will be used as a fixed-wireless service, providing wireless Internet access to a fixed location, such as a home or office, rather than a service designed for mobile users.

Windows 7

(formerly known as Blackcomb and Vienna) is the successor of Windows Vista. Windows 7 is expected to be released sometime in 2010









(formerly known as Blackcomb and Vienna) is the successor of Windows Vista. Windows 7 is expected to be released sometime in 2010

Windows VS Mac

AMD Graphics Technology For Embedded Systems

AMD introduced the ATI Radeon E2400, a high-performance graphic processing unit that delivers the latest 2D, 3D and multimedia graphics performance to the embedded market in a solution that reduces footprint, reduces design complexity, and helps speed time to market. The benefits of the ATI Radeon E2400 make it ideal for demanding embedded graphics applications such as test and instrumentation, human machine interfaces (such as Kiosks, Point-of-Sale, and Automated Teller Machines), display walls, patient monitoring, casino and arcade gaming, and various multi-display applications. The new graphics technology is backed by a planned five-year availability and long-term support offering reliability for a variety of applications on operating systems featuring Microsoft DirectX 10 and OpenGL 2.0.

"Embedded designers don’t have to be satisfied with the performance of low-end graphics devices just because their designs are space constrained or require extended availability and support," said Richard Jaenicke, Director of Embedded Graphics for AMD. "With the input of major original equipment manufacturers and platform developers, we have designed the ATI Radeon E2400 from the start to deliver high graphics performance while meeting the unique requirements of the embedded market."


ATI Radeon E2400 offers exceptional performance and flexibility in a compact package size for a wide variety of high quality graphics applications. Built on 65nm process technology, the ATI Radeon E2400 includes AMD’s revolutionary Unified Shader Architecture with support for Microsoft DirectX 10 allowing customers to develop advanced content for many applications. The device package incorporates 128MB of on-chip GDDR3 memory for graphic-intensive applications, eliminating the space, effort, and cost of external memory designs.

For designs that require a low profile solution in space-constrained environments, AMD offers the ATI Radeon E2400 MXM-II module based on the open standard MXM-II specifications. This compact graphics subsystem provides a documented upgrade path while enabling a plug-in solution for fast time-to-market. ATI Radeon E2400 MXM-II uses the ATI Radeon E2400 core and 256MB GDDR3 memory.

The ATI Radeon E2400 is scheduled to ship this month in production quantities. AMD will showcase the product both at Embedded World 2008 in Hall 9 Stand 9-231, February 26-28, 2008 in Nuremberg, Germany, and at Embedded Systems Conference Silicon Valley in booth 1036, April 14-18, 2008 in San Jose, California.


-Microsoft Publicly Posts Additional Protocol Doc-
Microsoft Corp. took another step toward fulfilling its interoperability principle of ensuring open connections to its high-volume products and driving greater interoperability, opportunity and choice across the IT community of developers, partners, customers and competitors.

Microsoft posted on MSDN more than 14,000 pages of preliminary versions of technical documentation for Microsoft protocols built into Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. With this action, Microsoft will have posted a cumulative total of more than 44,000 pages of protocol documentation that it committed in its interoperability principles.

As a result of today's posting, all types of developers including independent software vendors, open source developers and developers in customer IT departments will have consistent, open access to this protocol documentation that defines how these high-volume Microsoft products communicate with other Microsoft products. This consistent, open access to information will promote more interoperability options for developers of all types and will help foster improved real-world interoperability solutions in the marketplace.

"Microsoft is pleased to announce today another step toward putting our interoperability principles into action with the public availability of these protocol specifications for Microsoft Office, Office SharePoint Server and Microsoft Exchange Server," said Tom Robertson, general manager of Interoperability and Standards at Microsoft. "We believe that providing open, consistent access to these protocols will further unleash the creativity of all developers to work on real-world interoperability solutions. The implementation of Microsoft's interoperability principles is an important component of our overall efforts to promote interoperability in the marketplace."

In another example, developers working with Exchange Server protocols will have additional resources to build applications that directly communicate and store information with either Exchange Server or Microsoft Office Outlook related to e-mail, calendars, contacts, voice mail and task tracking.

"Today we are posting preliminary versions of protocol documentation for Microsoft Office, Office SharePoint Server and Exchange Server," said Jean Paoli, general manager of Interoperability and XML Architecture at Microsoft. "We are very eager to receive feedback from members of the developer community as they access this documentation over the next several weeks and months so we can use that feedback to improve our final documentation to be released in June."

The preliminary versions of the material posted today represent the first of a three-phased approach Microsoft is taking to make the protocol information available and accessible to all developers. The second phase, which will run until June, will be the collection of input from the community as developers review the documentation and provide feedback. The third phase, which will occur by the end of June, will be the posting of the final versions of the documentation along with final patent licensing terms. Microsoft will also announce additional documentation and disclosure schedules in the future.

~Philips To Acquire TOMCAT Systems~
Amsterdam, the Netherlands and Belfast, Northern Ireland – Royal Philips Electronics announced it will acquire TOMCAT Systems Ltd., based in Northern Ireland. Terms of this acquisition were not disclosed. TOMCAT offers a software solution to collect and aggregate data relative to the cardiac care of patients, and allows for a comprehensive, patient-centric presentation of this data to care givers such as doctors and nurses.

Through this acquisition, Philips will expand the use of information technology in healthcare – and specifically in its cardiology business – to improve patient outcomes and help hospitals work more efficiently. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2008, upon which TOMCAT will become part of the Healthcare Informatics business group within the Philips Healthcare sector.

Oran Muduroglu, General Manager of the Healthcare Informatics business group within Philips Healthcare, explains: "TOMCAT’s solution is a great match with our current cardiology information systems, and as such already implemented as a total solution in various hospitals. Philips will now accelerate introduction of this integrated cardiology information solution in North America and in other selected markets."

TOMCAT's software addresses both the clinical and operational needs of a cardiovascular service line. It connects with different clinical information systems like cath lab workflow management systems, and picture archiving and communications systems (PACS). TOMCAT is able to seamlessly connect to Philips' Xcelera and Philips Xper Information Management, and also with systems from other vendors. TOMCAT’s software also provides scheduling, staff and resource management, cost capturing, and the generation of reports and statistical information, thereby supporting the management of a cardiovascular service line.

-Yahoo tells Icahn that its own board knows best-

Yahoo has responded to investor Carl Icahn's threat to take control of Yahoo's board and force it back to the negotiating table with Microsoft. The search company said Icahn's proposal shows "a significant misunderstanding" of how it handled Microsoft's offer, and argued that Yahoo's current board remains "the best and most qualified group" to handle its affairs.
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» Back to special report: Microsoft makes $44.6 billion offer for Yahoo

Yahoo released its response to Icahn later Thursday, signed by board Chairman Roy Bostock.

"Unfortunately, your letter reflects a significant misunderstanding of the facts about the Microsoft proposal and the diligence with which our board evaluated and responded to that proposal," the company wrote. "A fair-minded review of the factual record leads to one conclusion: that Yahoo!'s ten-member board, comprised of nine independent directors along with Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, remains the best and most qualified group to maximize value for all Yahoo stockholders."

The letter describes the negotiations with Microsoft in detail, in a bid to show that Yahoo took the offer seriously. It says it would not be in the best interests of Yahoo's shareholders for Icahn to nominate a slate of directors "for the express purpose of trying to force a sale of Yahoo to a formerly interested buyer who has publicly stated that they have moved on.

"Please may I remind you that there is currently no acquisition offer on the table from that company or any other party," the letter states. "That said, we have been crystal clear in our stance that we have been and remain willing to consider any proposal from any party including Microsoft if it offers our stockholders full and certain value."

Microsoft announced its $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo on Feb. 1, but it walked away from the deal on May 3 after the two companies failed to agree on a price. Microsoft eventually raised its offer to $33 per share, or by about $5 billion, but Yahoo's board wanted $37 per share.

Icahn, a billionaire investor who last year pressured Motorola to spin off its mobile-phone division, has bought up 59 million Yahoo shares since Microsoft walked away from the deal and hopes to buy a further $2.5 billion of Yahoo stock. He argued Thursday that Microsoft's offer of $33 per share is "obviously" superior to Yahoo's prospects as a stand-alone company, and said "a number of shareholders" have asked him to launch the battle for Yahoo's board.

"I am perplexed by the board's actions," he wrote. "It is irresponsible to hide behind management's more than overly optimistic financial forecasts."

Yahoo stuck to its guns and insisted again that Microsoft's offer undervalues the company. It said its board has met more than 20 times to discuss Microsoft's offer and other alternatives. It said it solicited input from shareholders, and that "the senior-most management" from both companies met seven times in person to discuss the deal.

On May 2, Yahoo's board instructed Yang to tell Microsoft that Yahoo was prepared to be sold for $37 per share, provided that Microsoft could show it was reasonably certain it could close the deal without running into regulatory issues.

"This was communicated to Microsoft in-person at a meeting in Seattle on May 3rd. With Microsoft's offer at $33 and Yahoo's counter-proposal at $37, Microsoft elected, within hours, to walk away from the negotiating table and informed us that they were 'moving on,' having never engaged further on price or any of the key non-price deal terms."

The letter concludes that Yahoo is open to a deal "with Microsoft or any other party" for the right price, and that its own board can best steer the company moving forward.

"We look forward to a productive dialogue," it concludes, anticipating a response from Icahn.

~More then 200,000 demand Microsoft save XP~

--Yahoo Search Monkey opens to all developers--
Yahoo has opened up its Search Monkey platform as part of its broader Open Strategy of opening up its platforms, sites, and services to outside developers

Yahoo will make its Search Monkey platform available to all developers on Thursday, another step in its wide-ranging effort to open up its sites and services.

Search Monkey is Yahoo's initiative to let external developers create applications to enhance its Web search results and, in theory, make them more appealing and useful.

"We're responding to people's demands to be able to complete tasks in search results," said Amit Kumar, Director of Product Management for Yahoo Search. "We're focused on creating a better search experience for our users and want to let developers with an understanding of structured data jump start the system with their apps."

It is the first component of Yahoo's broad Open Strategy, announced last month and described as a long-range plan to open all Yahoo sites, online services, and Web applications to outside developers, and give users a "social profile" dashboard to unify and manage their Yahoo services.

With Open Strategy, Yahoo wants to improve its position in key areas like search and social networking, and compete better against Google, MySpace, and Facebook.

IDC analyst Susan Feldman called Search Monkey a "really important" initiative that can differentiate Yahoo from Google. "From a market point of view, that's a great idea," she said.

From a technology perspective, if users can let Yahoo factor into search what it knows about them, "the experience will be quite different and it should also improve relevance," Feldman said.

The Search Monkey development platform, which has been in a closed beta test for the past several weeks, can be used by any outside developer and doesn't require Yahoo approval.

At the moment, developers can create two types of Search Monkey applications. One type, called Enhanced Results, acts as a richer, more useful replacement for standard search results, and can only link to the site in question. The other type, Infobar, opens up below a search result and can include complementary data and links to other related sites.

Kumar said that for now, Search Monkey will be specifically for applications for Yahoo's general Web search engine and not for its specialty engines for specific results like images and news.

In a few weeks, Yahoo expects to launch a gallery of Search Monkey applications that users of its Web search engine can install, he said.

Although there is no revenue-generating potential for Search Monkey applications, Yahoo is holding a contest called the Search Monkey Developer Challenge with $20,000 in prizes. Developers have until June 14 to submit their applications for consideration. Prizes will be awarded in several categories, including Best Enhanced Result, Best Infobar and Best Data Service.

Cisco: Networking Is Hot Again

NAC, Trustsec, PCI, Linux and more are all on the table as Cisco VP outlines the network giant's strategy moving forward.

LAS VEGAS -- While the economy may be cool, the world of networking is anything but, according to Marie Hattar, VP of Network Systems and Security Solutions for Cisco. There are a lot of reasons why Hattar is so upbeat including new product initiatives, compliance drivers and overall customer sentiment.

Since Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) is an important bell weather for the technology industry as a whole, what Cisco sees as the current and future state of the networking business has wide implications.

As a simple proof point of the renewed interest in networking Hattar who spoke to InternetNews.com at the Interop trade show, cited the enthusiasm of Interop .

"Despite the split personality of Interop this year we're excited because we're seeing so many customers," Hattar said. (Interop added a separate software conference to the event). "A few years ago all we'd see was vendors."

Hattar's area of responsibility includes routing and switching as well as security. Under her auspices lies the big area of Cisco's Self Defending Network portfolio of which Network Access Control (NAC) is a constituent.

"We see NAC as something that crosses between network security and endpoint security and we do see it as an area of growth," Hattar said.

Hattar noted there has been a lot of hype about NAC and it's taken longer for the technology to prove itself in terms of deployments than some might have expected.

A trough of disillusionment

"What happened with NAC is it went through great hype and then it went through the trough of disillusionment," Hattar said. "I think now what you're seeing are customers getting to the steady state of deploying it into their networks."

Hattar also was quick to point out that security is much more than the concept of admission control. Cisco's broader vision involves its new Trustsec initiative which was announced at the end of 2007.

"Trustsec secures things across the LAN and brings policy, identity and ties it all together so you have a whole trusted security entity," Hattar explained. "That to me is a more interesting topic than just purely 'knock knock who is there?' That doesn't necessarily protect your overall network."

While NAC has perhaps been a driver for networking, there is no question that the PCI compliance requirements have also been a boost.

"Many enterprises deploy security products to deal with compliance issue so PCI has been huge as a driver to put security into the network," Hattar said. "But just because you're PCI compliant doesn't mean you have a secure network."

Apple's iTunes sells movies on DVD release date

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Apple Inc said on Thursday it reached deals with top Hollywood studios to sell movies on its iTunes download service on the same day as the titles are released in DVD form, bringing its clout to a nascent market for video entertainment.

Microsoft abandons Yahoo bid, rebuffing higher sale price

SAN FRANCISCO - Microsoft Corp. withdrew its $42.3 billion bid to buy Yahoo Inc. on Saturday, scrapping an attempt to snap up the tarnished Internet icon in hopes of toppling online search and advertising leader Google Inc.

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Prototype Sequels to Have Co-op


EuroGamer carries word that co-operative multiplayer may part of future installments in the Prototype series, if the series generates sequels beyond the first game’s release this Summer.

This comes from Radical Entertainment’s Chris Ansell, who explains why cooperative was cut from the game: “We were excited about the idea, and still are, but we decided to put all our effort into single-player. So far the forum reaction’s been to back up that idea. Games like Mass Effect and BioShock have had great success with a solid single-player, and we’d like to emulate that to make an amazing single-player game.”

Penny Arcade Game Goes Gold

No GTA2 Re-release


It’s nice when rumors are true, but unfortunately a good portion of them turn out to be wrong. An old countdown clock on Rockstar Games’ website had everyone talking about Grand Theft Auto 2 getting a re-release on the Playstation Network and/or Xbox Live. In a display of supreme irony, this clock has only popped up due to a fix for the Y2K problem which caused the code to act as if the 21st century didn’t exist. The clock is from 1999 and was the countdown clock to the release of Grand Theft Auto 2 on the original Playstation.

Haze demo May 6th


Fans of Free Radical’s upcoming FPS, Haze, are in for quite the treat as Sony has officially confirmed that a game demo will be hitting the PSN next week, May 6th to be exact.

While the demo comes in the wake of one of the GTA 4’s release, perhaps the fact that Haze lets users safely abuse drugs will spur some interest.

Free Radical Design’s Haze will hit store shelves sometime in May of this year, that is if it doesn’t get delayed, again.

VMware Fusion 1.1.2

his is the software publisher's description.

From the virtualization industry leader comes VMware Fusion. Simply the best way to run Windows, Linux, or Solaris at the same time as Mac OS X - without rebooting.

Built from the ground up for the Mac, VMware Fusion leverages nearly a decade of virtualization expertise to harness the full power of your Mac hardware, while still supporting Windows-only applications, USB 2.0 devices, 64-bit, and accelerated 3D graphics.

Say goodbye to the Windows desktop - seamlessly run Windows XP applications just like Mac applications; use Exposé to switch between any application, minimize to the Dock, bring forward only the application you care about, and use familiar Mac keyboard shortcuts. Use the VMware Fusion Launch Palette to easily access all your Windows applications, and keep your favourite Windows applications in the Dock.

VMware Fusion 1.1 contains a number of new features including experimental support for DirectX 9 and support for the iPhone under Windows. The Unity support has been enhanced and much more.

Sadly VMware have changed the way you have to download their software, so you need to be a registered VMware user to obtain access. This download points to the form where you can register or login to download.

Glossary for Web Developer

Apache Apache is a freely available Web server that is distributed under an "open source" license. Version 2.0 runs on most Unix-based operating systems (such as Linux, Solaris, Digital UNIX, and AIX), on other UNIX/POSIX-derived systems (such as Rhapsody, BeOS, and BS2000/OSD), on AmigaOS, and on Windows 2000.
Apple/Apple Computer Apple Computer, Inc. is a prominent hardware and software company best known for its Macintosh series of personal computers. Introduced in 1984, the Macintosh was the first widely sold personal computer with a graphical user interface (GUI). That feature and others -- such as an improved floppy drive design and a low-cost hard drive that made data retrieval faster and more reliable -- helped Apple cultivate a reputation for innovation, which the company still enjoys today.
Application A software piece or module designed to fill the specific needs of a user; for example, software for project management, issue tracking, file sharing, etc. This contrasts with system software, e.g. operating systems like MS Windows or UNIX.
Backup A copy of database and associated files set aside for security purposes. In case of data loss, backup is used to recover the working database or files.
Back end Administrative mode of a shopping cart protected by administrator's login and password and not accessible for customers.
Bandwidth In computer networks, bandwidth is often used as a synonym for data transfer rate - the amount of data that can be carried from one point to another in a given time period (usually a second). This kind of bandwidth is usually expressed in bits (of data) per second (bps). Occasionally, it's expressed as bytes per second (Bps). A modem that works at 57,600 bps has twice the bandwidth of a modem that works at 28,800 bps.
BSD BSD (originally: Berkeley Software Distribution) refers to the particular version of the Unix operating system that was developed at and distributed from the University of California at Berkeley. "BSD" is customarily preceded by a number indicating the particular distribution level of the BSD system (for example, "4.3 BSD"). BSD UNIX has been popular and many commercial implementations of UNIX systems are based on or include some BSD code.
CD-ROM CD-ROM (Compact Disc, read-only-memory) is an adaptation of the CD that is designed to store computer data in the form of text and graphics, as well as hi-fi stereo sound. The original data format standard was defined by Philips and Sony in the 1983 Yellow Book.
Cookie A cookie is information that a website puts on your hard disk so that it can remember something about you at a later time. (More technically, it is information for future use that is stored by the server on the client side of a client/server communication.) Typically, a cookie records your preferences when using a particular site. Using the Web's Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), each request for a Web page is independent of all other requests. For this reason, the Web page server has no memory of what pages it has sent to a user previously or anything about your previous visits. A cookie is a mechanism that allows the server to store its own information about a user on the user's own computer. You can view the cookies that have been stored on your hard disk (although the content stored in each cookie may not make much sense to you). The location of the cookies depends on the browser. Internet Explorer stores each cookie as a separate file under a Windows subdirectory. Netscape stores all cookies in a single cookies.txt fle.
C++ C++ is an object-oriented programming (OOP) language that is viewed by many as the best language for creating large-scale applications. C++ is a superset of the C language. A related programming language, Java, is based on C++ but optimized for the distribution of program objects in a network such as the Internet. Java is somewhat simpler and easier to learn than C++ and has characteristics that give it other advantages over C++. However, both languages require a considerable amount of study.
Document When used in reference to the WebAsyst applications, a document is any file containing text, media or hyperlinks that can be transferred from/to a server.
DOM Document Object Model (DOM), is a programming interface specification being developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). It lets a programmer create and modify HTML pages and XML documents as full-fledged program objects.
Download A process of transferring to your computer a copy of a file that resides on another computer.
Ecommerce (electronic commerce) The conducting of business communication and transactions over networks and through computers. Specifically, ecommerce is the buying and selling of goods and services, and the transfer of funds, through digital communications.
Front end Also referred to as 'storefront'. A part of online store available for public use, where customers can navigate through products catalog and place orders.
Gigabyte A gigabyte (pronounced GIG-a-bite with hard G's) is a measure of computer data storage capacity and is "roughly" a billion bytes. A gigabyte is two to the 30th power, or 1,073,741,824 in decimal points.
Groupware Collaboration software, also known as groupware, is a software tool that integrates the work of multiple concurrent users located at separated workspaces. Usually a groupware package consists of several web based applications designed for the automation of your collaborative activities.
GUI interface A GUI (usually pronounced GOO-ee) is a graphical (rather than purely textual) user interface to a computer. As you read this, you are looking at the GUI or graphical user interface of your particular Web browser. The term came into existence because the first interactive user interfaces to computers were not graphical; they were text-and-keyboard oriented and usually consisted of commands you had to remember and computer responses that were infamously brief.
Hardware In information technology, hardware is the physical aspect of computers, telecommunications, and other devices. The term arose as a way to distinguish the "box" and the electronic circuitry and components of a computer from the program you put in it to make it do things. The program came to be known as the software.
HDD (Hard Disk Drive) In a personal computer, a hard disk drive (HDD) is the mechanism that controls the positioning, reading, and writing of the hard disk, which furnishes the largest amount of data storage for the PC. Although the hard disk drive (often shortened to "hard drive") and the hard disk are not the same thing, they are packaged as a unit and so either term is sometimes used to refer to the whole unit.
Hosting A way of using web based software. Does not require installation of any software pieces on your desktop computer. Instead, all your software applications, database and files are located on a computer in the Internet, which is maintained by your host provider for a certain monthly fee.
HTML An acronym for Hyper Text Markup Language. HTML codes are interpreted by the web browser to format documents in a particular way.
IIS IIS (Internet Information Server) is a group of Internet servers (including a Web or Hypertext Transfer Protocol server and a File Transfer Protocol server) with additional capabilities for Microsoft's Windows NT and Windows 2000 Server operating systems.
Internet Explorer Internet Explorer (IE) -- sometimes referred to as Microsoft Internet Explorer (MSIE) -- is the most widely used World Wide Web browser. It comes with the Microsoft Windows operating system and can also be downloaded from Microsoft's website. The IE browser competes with an earlier browser, Netscape, now owned by AOL.
Issue A bug or defect report, work order, problem description, task or any request, which needs someone’s attention and action to be fixed, implemented or processed in some other way. Usually an issue is added in a list and someone is assigned to implement it.
JAVA (JAVA Script) Java is a programming language expressly designed for use in the distributed environment of the Internet. It was designed to have the "look and feel" of the C++ language, but it is simpler to use than C++ and enforces an object-oriented programming model. Java can be used to create complete applications that may run on a single computer or be distributed among servers and clients in a network. It can also be used to build a small application module or applet for use as part of a Web page. Applets make it possible for a Web page user to interact with the page.
Kernel The kernel is the essential center of a computer operating system, the core that provides basic services for all other parts of the operating system. A synonym is nucleus. A kernel can be contrasted with a shell, the outermost part of an operating system that interacts with user commands. Kernel and shell are terms used more frequently in Unix operating systems than in IBM mainframe or Microsoft Windows systems.
Linux Linux (often pronounced LIH-nuhks with a short "i") is a Unix-like operating system that was designed to provide personal computer users a free or very low-cost operating system comparable to traditional and usually more expensive Unix systems. Linux has a reputation as a very efficient and fast-performing system. Linux's kernel (the central part of the operating system) was developed by Linus Torvalds at the University of Helsinki in Finland.
Megabyte (MB) As a measure of computer processor storage and real and virtual memory, a megabyte (abbreviated MB) is 2 to the 20th power bytes, or 1,048,576 bytes in decimal notation. According to the IBM Dictionary of Computing, when used to describe disk storage capacity and transmission rates, a megabyte is 1,000,000 bytes in decimal notation.
Memory Memory is the electronic holding place for instructions and data that your computer's microprocessor can reach quickly. When your computer is in normal operation, its memory usually contains the main parts of the operating system and some or all of the application programs and related data that are being used. Memory is often used as a shorter synonym for random access memory (RAM). This kind of memory is located on one or more microchips that are physically close to the microprocessor in your computer. Most desktop and notebook computers sold today include at least 16 megabytes of RAM, and are upgradeable to include more. The more RAM you have, the less frequently the computer has to access instructions and data from the more slowly accessed hard disk form of storage.
Merchant account A written, commercial bank account established by contractual agreement between a merchant/business and a bank and/or a payment gateway. The agreement contains the respective rights, warranties, and duties with respect to accepting bankcards like Visa or MasterCard. You must apply for this account directly from your bank, or from the Payment Processor.
Mozilla Mozilla was Netscape Communication's nickname for Navigator, its Web browser, and, more recently, the name of an open source public collaboration aimed at making improvements to Navigator. This public collaboration was essentially launched and is still substantially supported by Netscape (now owned by AOL); however, the Mozilla project is independent. Netscape can use its code but so can anyone else.
MySQL MySQL (pronounced "my ess cue el") is an open source relational database management system (RDBMS) that uses Structured Query Language (SQL), the most popular language for adding, accessing, and processing data in a database. Because it is open source, anyone can download MySQL and tailor it to their needs in accordance with the general public license. MySQL is noted mainly for its speed, reliability, and flexibility. Most agree, however, that it works best when managing content and not executing transactions.
Netscape Netscape, now part of America Online (AOL), is one of the two most popular Web browsers. Currently, almost all Internet users use either Microsoft's Internet Explorer (MSIE) browser or Netscape, and many users use both. Although Netscape was initially the predominant product in terms of usability and number of users, Microsoft's browser is generally considered superior by many users (although many other users see them as roughly equivalent) and has taken a significant lead in usage. Netscape's browser,called "Navigator," was developed in 1995.
Open Source Open source is a philosophy of software distribution that allows anyone to read and modify the program's source code. Because anyone can modify the source code, bug fixes, improvements or implementation of new specific features occur rapidly.
Oracle Oracle (in ancient Greece, someone in touch with the deities; from Latin, oraculum or divine announcement) says it is the world's leading supplier of software for information management but it is best known for its sophisticated relational database products (notably Oracle9i), which are used in Fortune 1000 corporations and by many of the largest websites. Oracle's relational database was the world's first to support the Structured Query Language (SQL), now an industry standard.
OS (Operating System) An operating system (sometimes abbreviated as "OS") is the program that, after being initially loaded into the computer by a boot program, manages all the other programs in a computer. The other programs are called applications or application programs. The application programs make use of the operating system by making requests for services through a defined application program interface (API). In addition, users can interact directly with the operating system through a user interface such as a command language or a graphical user interface (GUI).
Payment gateway A combination of software and hardware that provides an interface to the bank card processing network. Typically Payment gateway is a company that provides the transaction-processing network that receives encrypted transactions from a merchant’s website and sends them to the card issuing bank for approval.
PC (Personal Computer) In its more general usage, a PC (personal computer) is a computer designed for use by one person at a time. Prior to the PC, computers were designed for (and only affordable by) companies who attached terminals for multiple users to a single large computer whose resources were shared among all users. Beginning in the late 1980s, technology advances made it feasible to build a small computer that an individual could own and use. The term "PC" is also commonly used to describe an "IBM-compatible" personal computer in contrast to an Apple Macintosh computer.
Pentium The Pentium is a widely-used personal computer microprocessor from the Intel Corporation. First offered in 1993, the Pentium quickly replaced Intel's 486 microprocessor as the microchip-of-choice in manufacturing a personal computer. The original Pentium model includes two processors on one chip that contains 3.1 million transistors.
Plug-in Plug-in applications are programs that can easily be installed and used as part of your Web browser. Initially, the Netscape browser allowed you to download, install, and define supplementary programs that played sound or motion video or performed other functions. These were called helper applications. However, these applications run as a separate application and require that a second window be opened. A plug-in application is recognized automatically by the browser and its function is integrated into the main HTML file that is being presented.
Project An undertaking that encompasses a set of tasks or activities having a definable starting point and well defined objectives. Usually each task has a planned completion data (due date) and assigned resources.
PHP The PHP Hypertext Preprocessor is a programming language that allows web developers to create dynamic content that interacts with databases. PHP is basically used for developing web based software applications.
Server 1) In information technology, a server is a computer program that provides services to other computer programs (and their users) in the same or other computers.

2) The computer that a server program runs in is also frequently referred to as a server (though it may be used for other purposes as well).

3) In the client/server programming model, a server is a program that awaits and fulfills requests from client programs in the same or other computers. A given application in a computer may function as a client with requests for services from other programs and also as a server of requests from other programs.

Specific to the Web, a Web server is the computer program (housed in a computer) that serves requested HTML pages or files. A Web client is the requesting program associated with the user. The Web browser in your computer is a client that requests HTML files from Web servers.

Shopping cart Software that operates on an online storefront. The "shopping cart" keeps track of all the items that a buyer wants to purchase, allowing the shopper to pay for the whole order at once.
SOAP Simple Object Access Protocol. A protocol that describes a model for packing XML enquiries and responses. SOAP messaging is used to enable exchange of a variety of XML information between server and client computers.
SQL SQL (Structured Query Language) is a standard interactive and programming language for getting information from and updating a database. Although SQL is both an ANSI and an ISO standard, many database products support SQL with proprietary extensions to the standard language. Queries take the form of a command language that lets you select, insert, update, find out the location of data, and so forth. There is also a programming interface.
Task A piece of work that is part of the total work needed to accomplish a project. Also called an activity. A task usually has an expected duration and cost. A Project usually encompasses a number of tasks being implemented sequentially and/or simultaneously.
Trial A period of free usage of a product or services. Usually provided by a vendor for evaluation purposes. The Customer usually does not pay for trial and makes the decision to purchase only if satisfied with a service or product during this trial period.
URL This is the abbreviation for Uniform Resource Locator, The addressing system used in the World Wide Web and other Internet resources. The URL contains information about the method of access, the server to be accessed and the path of any file to be accessed, e.g. http://www.servername.com/foldername/pagename.html
Visual Basic Visual Basic (VB) is a programming environment from Microsoft in which a programmer uses a graphical user interface to choose and modify preselected sections of code written in the BASIC programming language. Since Visual Basic is easy to learn and fast to write code with, it's sometimes used to prototype an application that will later be written in a more difficult but efficient language. Visual Basic is also widely used to write working programs. Microsoft says that there are at least 3 million developers using Visual Basic.
Web Based Software A specific and relatively new class of software. All software components usually reside on a web server. Access to the web based software application is through a web-browser, the web based software only needs to be installed on one web server machine. Users can gain quick and timely access to a wider variety of existing information, anytime, and from anywhere in the world.
Web server A computer, including software package, that provides a specific kind of service to client software running on other computers. More specifically, a server is a computer that manages and shares web based applications accessible anytime from any computer connected to the Internet.
XML Acronym for Extensible Markup Language. An open standard for exchanging structured documents and data over the Internet that was introduced by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in November 1996.