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
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.
"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.
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.
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.
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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 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.
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.”
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
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