For Skaters!
Sunday 23 September 2007
Saturday 22 September 2007
Miss Teen 2007 South Carolina
You must watch this if you haven't seen it yet!
For the good of the U.S.-Americans in our nation who don't have maps!
Does anyone know who won? for some reason I wouldn't be surprised if she did!
Five Little Birdies
Eli the Accountant alters peoples marital preconception by telling us a story of Little Johny.
Wednesday 19 September 2007
Daft Hands: Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
Don't be fooled by the first few seconds... it gets very cool after that!
Funny cats pictures
A funny video with funny cat's pictures
Fussy? Opinionated? Impossible to please? Perfect. Join Yahoo!'s user panel and lay it on us.
56% of French are dumb!?
Does the Moon or the Sun rotate around the earth?! I don't know about you, but I learned the answer in grade school…
IBM Scores 'Symphony' as Free Online Office Rival
IBM Corp. has spun out productivity software included in the latest version of Lotus Notes as a free stand-alone suite to compete with Microsoft Corp.'s Office productivity suite.
The name for the suite, Symphony, is the same name IBM used for its first integrated productivity suite, which it offered in the 1980s but which never took off with customers. Mike Rhodin, general manager of Lotus Software for the IBM Software Group, said the company brought back the name to "herald in a new age" of productivity software.
Symphony includes Lotus Symphony Documents, Lotus Symphony Spreadsheets and Lotus Symphony Presentations. The applications are available online at a new Web site that will also serve as the home page for a community IBM hopes will grow around the suite.
Rhodin said IBM is offering Symphony in beta form because it wants the community to suggest improvements for the software so the suite can evolve more quickly than it could if the company were to work on it independently.
Like the productivity software built into Notes 8, Symphony is based on the open-source Eclipse platform and uses Open Document Format for XML (ODF) as its native file format. ODF is a document standard recognized by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), but a rival to Microsoft's Open XML (OOXML), which is the native format in Office. Microsoft's quest to have OOXML become a standard alongside ODF was dealt a significant blow when the ISO voted against fast-tracking approval of the format earlier this month.
IBM has been an ardent supporter of ODF for some time, but with Symphony the company is bringing this support into the Web 2.0 age. Symphony is an alternative not only to Office but to Google Docs & Spreadsheets, the search giant's own version of online document-editing and creation software. IBM also is offering fee-based telephone support for services if customers want that option.
In addition to Symphony, IBM Tuesday also unveiled Lotus Notes as a hosted service on Tuesday. Rhodin said the service is meant for the small-to-medium-size business market, for organizations up to about 10,000 users. According to IBM, the operational cost of hosted Lotus is about US$5 to $10 per user, per month.
In addition to Lotus Notes, customers can choose to include hosted versions of Lotus Sametime and Lotus Quickr as optional services, Rhodin said.
Catch up on fall's hot new shows on Yahoo! TV. Watch previews, get listings, and more!
Apple may be next in EU antitrust sights
September 18, 2007 -- With Microsoft Corp.'s antitrust appeal now decided, the next U.S. technology company to get a place on the European Union (EU)'s regulatory hot seat may be Apple, an antitrust expert said today.
"The decision by the Court of First Instance is a clear signal to the European [Competition] Commission that it has the leeway to go ahead," said Herbert Hovenkamp, a professor at the University of Iowa College of Law and a noted antitrust scholar. "[The commission] now has a license to go ahead, and they have a pretty aggressive posture. I think this bodes ill for some companies."
Among those already facing investigations or accusations from the EU antitrust agency, which is led by Neelie Kroes of the Netherlands, are chip makers Rambus Inc. and Intel Corp.; Qualcomm Inc., a wireless technology vendor; and Apple Inc.
Apple, in fact, will face two days of hearings before the commission starting Wednesday to answer charges that it and its four music label partners are violating EU laws with the pricing structure and purchase restrictions of the iTunes music store. In early April, the commission confirmed that it had sent a Statement of Objections (SO), the agency's term for an official complaint, to Apple and partners EMI, Sony BMG, Warner Music Group and Universal Music.
The SO claimed consumers are restricted in their choice of where to buy music -- because each country's version of iTunes only accepts orders from customers who live in that country -- and at what price. ITunes tracks sales for varying amounts, depending on the country.
But the commission steered clear of calling Apple another Microsoft in April. "The Statement of Objections does not allege that Apple is in a dominant market position," the group said in a statement at the time.
Yesterday, Kroes downplayed any link between the court's rejection of Microsoft's appeal and possible action against other U.S. technology companies. "You may hear scare stories about the supposed negative consequences of this ruling for other companies," she said during a news conference Monday afternoon. "Let me be clear. There is one company that will have to change its illegal behavior as a result of this ruling: Microsoft."
Microsoft, however, thought different.
During his own news conference yesterday, Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel, repeatedly pointed to Apple. "Apple has something like a 70% market share for digital music," said Smith. "ITunes is far and away the leading source for music on the Internet; the iPod is far and away the leading hardware device for digital music."
Even the U.S. Department of Justice weighed in. Thomas Barnett, the assistant attorney general for antitrust, yesterday said: "We are concerned that the standard applied to unilateral conduct by the CFI [Court of First Instance], rather than helping consumers, may have the unfortunate consequence of harming consumers by chilling innovation and discouraging competition."
Hovenkamp was confident that yesterday's decision would embolden the commission. "This was a landmark decision, and a landmark case," he said. "It stands for a couple of important things. First, it's a declaration of independence, a statement that their anticompetitive policy is not going to be dictated by U.S. policy. Second, it clears the way for the commission to pursue new cases.
"You're going to see a more aggressive commission that will go after high technology companies, especially those that are involved with networks or standard setting," Hovenkamp said.
"Rambus and Qualcom, certainly," he said, are among the companies at risk from a combative commission. "Intel? Perhaps. As for Apple, there are some undeveloped issues there."
In Apple's favor, he said, are European antitrust traditions that may let the iTunes operator and iPod maker off the hook. Europe's antitrust agency has typically looked differently at two kinds of pricing discrimination. The one where a company prices products differently in different countries in order to squash competition -- pricing products lower in nations where rivals exist, higher where competitors are lacking -- is usually treated harshly, said Hovenkamp. The other type of pricing discrimination, where a seller prices products based on what it thinks a particular country's buyers can bear -- more in Germany, for example, less in Portugal -- are not generally considered a competition problem.
"If Apple is pricing differentially because of economies and consumer buying power," said Hovenkamp, "it is probably safe. But if [it is] doing this to suppress competition, the commission may act."
Among the possible results of the hearings: fines levied to the tune of 10% of global net revenues. Kroes' agency could also dismiss the SO after the hearing.
"Europeans are much more comfortable with regulation," said Hovenkamp.
Apple did not reply to a request for comment on the court ruling yesterday or on the hearings that kick off tomorrow in Brussels.
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