Microsoft made a $44.6 billion bid on Friday for Yahoo, the popular search engine based in Sunnyvale, Calif. Yahoo’s rival, Google, has been working behind the scenes to stop the deal.
By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN and MIGUEL HELFT, The New York Times
Published: February 4, 2008
Standing between a marriage of Microsoft and Yahoo may be the technology behemoth that has continually outsmarted them: Google.
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Times Topic: Google Inc.
In an unusually aggressive effort to prevent Microsoft from moving forward with its $44.6 billion hostile bid for Yahoo, Google emerged over the weekend with plans to play the role of spoiler.
Publicly, Google came out against the deal, contending in a statement that the pairing, proposed by Microsoft on Friday in the form of a hostile offer, would pose threats to competition that need to be examined by policy makers around the world.
Privately, Google, seeing the potential deal as a direct attack, went much further. Its chief executive, Eric E. Schmidt, placed a call to Yahoo’s chief, Jerry Yang, offering the company’s help in fending off Microsoft, possibly in the form of a partnership between the companies, people briefed on the call said.
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Monday, February 04, 2008
Google Works to Torpedo Microsoft Bid for Yahoo
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Three Plead Guilty in Nigerian Spam Scheme
From PC World
Grant Gross, IDG News Service
Saturday, February 02, 2008 8:00 AM PST
Three people have pleaded guilty to charges related to spam e-mail that promised U.S. victims millions of dollars from an estate and a lottery, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
In one scenario, the defendants sent e-mails purporting to be from an individual suffering from terminal throat cancer who needed assistance distributing approximately US$55 million to charity, the DOJ said.
The three defendants, two from Nigeria and one from Senegal, sent spam e-mail to thousands of potential victims, in which they falsely claimed to control millions of dollars located abroad, the DOJ said in a press release. The fraud victims lost $1.2 million by giving the defendants advance fees, the DOJ said.
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Click on the thumbnail of the letter above and you will see a scam letter I received today where I am notified, in a rather clumsy way, by purported World Bank Auditors that I am the lucky winner of 12 million eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars. That is what those letters usually look like. They ask for personal information and once you provide it, they get in touch with you to ask for some sort of payment to cover their expenses or something like that.
As much as we may want to dream and fantasize that a scenario like that is within the realm of the possible, bottom line is that there is no such thing as a "free lunch" to use that old cliche. If it sounds too good to be true, chances are that it is a scam.
Food Fight!: A Short History Of War Through Foods
This is a very interesting approach on the subject of war. Noah Shachtman from Wired magazine says in his February 1, 2008 article "Video: A Tasty History of War": "From Here to Eternity, it ain't. But this trailer for Food Fight -- "an abridged history of war, from World War II to present day, told through the foods of the countries in conflict" -- is silly enough to waste a few minutes of your work day."Watch as traditional comestibles slug it out for world domination in this chronologically re-enacted smorgasbord of aggression!"
As Mr.Shachtman stated above, the history is indeed very, very abridged so don't expect a tremendous variety of foods from all continents. You will however see the ubiquitous hamburger's presence in all of these conflicts and you will also see, in an irreverent and comical sort of way with this short video, the convoluted disarray armed conflicts leave behind and in that regard, my question is: Who the hell cleans up the mess afterwards? But Food Fight -- "an abridged history of war, from World War II to present day, told through the foods of the countries in conflict" is not the sort of film production that lends itself to very serious intellectual discussion. Clearly, that's not what its meant to do. Its hamburgers and sushi and egg rolls, among other comestibles, duking it out for crying out loud! But its silly enough to be entertaining.
Friday, February 01, 2008
Feb. 1, 1893: Lights! Kinetograph! Action!
By Tony Long, Wired
1893: What is generally regarded as America's first film-production studio, Thomas Edison's "Black Maria," opens in West Orange, New Jersey.
Black Maria (pronounced "Mah-RYE-uh") was known more formally as the Kinetographic Theater -- after the Kinetograph, a forerunner of the movie camera. It was built on the grounds of Edison's laboratories. The Kinetoscope (a forerunner of the projector) had been developed there as well, by one of the inventor's underlings.
Black Maria (nicknamed by assistants who likened its cramped quarters to the black marias, or paddy wagons, used by the police) was where Edison staged his first public demonstrations of films made for the Kinetoscope viewer.
One of the earliest films made there was The Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze, known more colloquially as Fred Ott's Sneeze. And that's exactly what it was: a short film of a guy called Fred Ott, sneezing for the camera.
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Fred Ott's Sneeze and other short features from the 1890's from Edison's Black Maria film-production studio.
Barack Obama, Ron Paul Confirmed For MTV/MySpace's 'Closing Arguments'
Senator, congressman join Senator Hillary Clinton, former Governor Mike Huckabee for Saturday event.
Three days before Super Tuesday, when 23 states hold their presidential-nomination primaries or caucuses, MTV and MySpace will host some of the remaining Democratic and Republican candidates in a "Super" edition of the ongoing MTV/MySpace Presidential Dialogue series.
At 6 p.m. ET on Saturday, "Closing Arguments: A Presidential Super Dialogue" will be broadcast live from the MTV studios in New York. Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, the two Democratic front-runners, and former Governor Mike Huckabee and Congressman Ron Paul, two of the four remaining Republican candidates, have already been confirmed for the forum, the latest in a collaborative series between MTV and MySpace that has so far hosted events with Senators John McCain and Obama, as well as former senator John Edwards.
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Britney Spears' Police Entourage: How Much Are Taxpayers Dishing Out To Protect Her From Paps?
Swarms of LAPD vehicles and helicopters during her hospital transport was not 'above and beyond,' officials say.
By Gil Kaufman, MTV News
Every time Britney Spears leaves her house, there are a lot of people around to see it, document it and, in the case of the Los Angeles Police Department, make sure no one is injured during the excursion. So, when it came time to transport the troubled singer to the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles on Thursday morning (January 31) for a mental-health evaluation, you might expect there to be a crowd. Only this time, the police scrum nearly rivaled the horde of paparazzi lying in wait to catch the latest sad chapter in Spears' ongoing public meltdown, raising the question: How much is all of this costing Los Angeles taxpayers?
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