Harsh J

First, Microsoft realizes it has been living the life of an underdog in the major online market and plans its revenge the old style - Monopo.. err to buy what it needs to grow - Yahoo. Yahoo cleanly states “DO NOT WANT!” [Link]

Google gets worried about it, issues statements out, offers to help Yahoo by partnering it to avoid a monopoly by Microsoft. [Link]

Microsoft is not stopped by Yahoo’s refusal of their offer of some 40 “undervalued” billion dollars and gives Yahoo a death sentence of 3 weeks. Like “boot up or shut up” from Hackers (1995). [Link]

Yahoo rejects once more, and now, has partnered with Google Adsense to show Google ads on Yahoo search pages. [Link]

Oh my, what’s gonna happen to the Yahoo’s advertising feature I wonder …

Microsoft finally grumbles - Calls this a monopoly. [Link]

More action as the month progresses!

Discovered that PowerISO has a free Linux CLI tool for opening .DAA (Direct Access Archive) files and allowing conversion to other formats as well. Can be downloaded and installed from the .tar.gz package available at their website here or click here for a direct download!

College’s been pretty hectic, or I instead have been very lazy since my last blog post (27th January).

Other stuff am trying these days are problems, both old and new, from IIT-K’s Bitwise (Of course, in Python!). I did try the still-alive Krypton but I got fed up of it at the 6th level, lost my touch I guess.

Also trying to learn nasm bit by bit (Pun intended) but I can’t be an avid user of it any time soon, its hell mighty! .Net is going into my brains too, as my College’s Lab projects require it. IMO .Net’s pretty good to use, with its heavy abstraction, its very easy to build stuff with it. Strictly NO for efficient applications though. Its a dependency hell (sort of) too but thats okay with me.

Well thats all for now, more on what movies, etc I’ve seen, later! Darn records.

Curse me kilts if that happens!

According to Reuters, rumours are circulating that Microsoft will launch a takeover bid for Logitech at 48 Francs ($43) per share, representing a premium of 38 per cent.

Such a move would leave Microsoft the largest peripherals manufacturer in the world.

Reuters

I hope the brand and quality both remain intact post takeover (if any), cause Logitech’s totally unbeatable. Microsoft keyboards are well styled but lack the joy in typing smoothly, which a Logitech would provide.

But of course, nothing beats a TVS mechanical keyboard. Only if it had some multimedia keys on it

Some day, some day soon, I’ll get you Optimus Maximus. You’re all mine

P.s. Just heard that MySQL is too gonna be bought by Sun Microsystems. Acquisitions, they not good.

After opening over 10 CES Keynote events, this one is his last. He’s gonna leave leading Microsoft too. It was good at his hands, until the end started. Pfft, that’s another blog post anyway.

For now, here is the Live coverage of Bill Gates’ final Keynote at CES from the people at Engadget.

Edit: Well its over now. Dead nonsense I should add. Guitar Hero? WTF.

Check this news piece:

Opera files EU antitrust suit against Micrsoft

Opera Software has filed an antitrust suit against Microsoft in the European Union, accusing it of stifling competition by tying its Internet Explorer Web browser to Windows, the Norwegian company said Thursday.

The complaint, which was filed with the European Commission on Wednesday, says Microsoft is abusing its dominant position in the desktop PC market by offering only Internet Explorer as a standard part of Windows, and hindering interoperability by not following accepted standards with IE.

Opera is asking the Commission, the executive branch of the European Union, to force Microsoft to unbundle IE from Windows, or include other browsers as a standard part of its operating system. It also wants it to require Microsoft to adhere to industry standards with its Web browser.

The issue of standards is seen as important because if all Web browsers do not use the same standards, Web site developers are likely to design their Web sites to work with the most widely-used browser, which is Internet Explorer. That gives people a disincentive to use other browsers.

Microsoft’s spokesman in Brussels did not immediately have a comment on the lawsuit. The company has argued in the past that consumers benefit from its tight integration of IE and Windows.

Opera said it filed the complaint on behalf of all consumers who are tired of having a monopolist make choices for them.

PC World

Have the Opera people gone out of their minds? I’m not an Opera hater. I do detest Internet Explorer (IE) but asking an OS to omit out the browser from its bundle is something no one would approve. And what about Apple’s OS X? They too bundle Safari together with it, lets sue them too!

My point is, an OS without a browser in it is suicide. No one would want that to happen. In fact people would love to use the bundled IE on-install than to be presented with a dozen of browsers to choose from.

This is no way to improve a browser’s rank in the market, its pure stupidity. Instead, do something the more smoother way like advertise it on TV a few times, or a board, stickers, and stuff like what the community driven Mozilla Firefox does. That is slow, but it works. This is just screaming out for attention like a 13 year old kid!

But there’s no telling I won’t be happy to see IE in flames. But that would be another blog post, if it happens.