According to Business Week the reason why Google is raising $2 Billion, may be to buy Facebook. I guess that would be the final nail in the coffin for Orkut. Could be interesting to see what Google would do with another social networking site. The first attempt didn’t seem to be very successful. Perhaps they have different plans for this one? Personally I think $2 Billion is a bit to much for the site.
Mike Harsh discusses a bit about WPF/E as a cross platform solution, and includes a Firefox extension, leaving me to believe another Firefox extension from Microsoft is in the works (first being Microsoft Genuine Advantage). Mac support too.
For those wondering what WPF/E is, I’d recommend reading this and of course a wikipedia entry.
I do wonder if yet another framework to fragment the computing world is needed. Especially with things like SVG, Canvas and the Web Applications 1.0 Specification aka (X)HTML5, among existing technologies already in motion. But that’s another discussion.
30 years of “Apple will be bankrupt and out of business in a year”.
Here’s to another 30 “Apple will never survive” years.
Google Finance launched, in perma-beta form as usual. A few things about the design are notworthy.
First of all, the use of javascript, or AJAX, or whatever you want to call it, is pretty good. The ability to see the headlines on the graph as it relates to the stock price is extremely well done. Interestingly, it seems Steve Jobs was camera shy.
One last note. How long will it take before a company sues Google for putting blog posts next to their stock information? Now anyone can say something negative about a company’s products or service, and an investor may hear that a consumer doesn’t like it! Yea it would be a garbage lawsuit, and hopefully Google would fight it (and win). But I’m pretty certain it’s just a matter of time before that happens. Even newsgroups seem to make it.
From an investor point of view, that gives good insight on what people think of this company. Not just financially, but actual customers/users.
Overall, a pretty good spin on yet-another-finance-stock-site.
Ben wrote a must read post about public discussion that I think any Open Source developer needs to read. If you’re a Mozilla contributor, read it extra close. It really makes only 1 point (make more discussion open). But it doesn’t really address all the problems that prevent that goal from becoming a reality. I mentioned it briefly in a comment, but thought I’d make a post on the topic of channel noise.
I accidentally turned off my “words of wisdom” on the sidebar of the homepage a few weeks ago… it’s back in all it’s glory, plus a few new quotes.
I have slowly been working on a new mozPod release, it’s just not going very fast, as it’s still a lower priority project. So far, it seems to be pretty well accepted. Here are a few of the changes planned, or already completed:
For the record, I will be dropping support for Thunderbird 1.0.x in mozPod 0.2. Most people seem to be upgrading, and it’s just not worth the hassle. Many (or most) seem to have had problems with MozPod and Thunderbird 1.0 anyway.
Yes, development is a little slow, but it’s free (unless you feel like saying thanks), so don’t complain ;-).
Update: It’s out.
According to Norton AntiVirus, Apple’s own QuickTime.com website may be a threat to the safety of my (and your) computer. I was trying to view the M:i:III Trailer (link below in plain text, so you can think twice before clicking).
I’m not sure who is at fault. It’s either Apple with a contaminated server, or Norton who incorrectly pushed a bad Virus definition file out. Either way it’s a bad thing.
Details: Attempted Intrusion “Apple Quicktime MOV Integer Overflow” against your machine was detected and blocked.
Intruder: movies.apple.com(62.153.251.222)(http(80)).
Risk Level: Medium.
Protocol: TCP.
Attacked IP: XXX(192.168.xxx.xxx).
Attacked Port: 2499.
The URL in question is (proceed with caution):
http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/missionimpossibleiii/large.html
Anyone want to take a guess who is at fault? This is with Norton 2005 with 3/15/2006 Definitions.
Edit [3/16/2006 10:36PM EST]: Changed title to accurately represent dialog trojan worm. Added Norton Version.
Edit [3/17/2006 10:58AM EST]: Symantec acknowleges a problem with AOL in it’s latest update.
Edit [3/19/2006 5:30PM EST]: An document about the vulnerability (no mention on this bug), and update documentation.
When I saw AOL’s new Television service (free), I got excited. When I realized that Perfect Strangers was one of the show listed, I did the Dance of Joy.
Guess who is going to be watching a lot of TV reruns (even more than the normal 24hrs a day)?
If Microsoft were smart, they would have released the tool for Windows 2000/XP to test for Windows System Performance Ratings in Windows Vista. That way users could test and start upgrading if necessary, so when launch time comes around, their customer base is more ready to accept the new product.
Then again, if they are smart, they will offer massive discounts to upgraders, since I know I’m not alone in thinking that Windows XP may be more than all right for another few years. Not sure I’d pay $200+ for the privilege of installing an even more bloated OS on my computer. It could be a hard sell. It will be interesting to see how they actually do when launch time comes.
Edit [3/16/2006 @ 11:10 PM EST]: According to Engadget they will release a tool for Windows XP users to test with.