In a follow up to yesterday’s post about Yahoo giving up the race against Google, they’ve come along and issued this response to address the issue and the blogstorm that rained down yesterday….
Author: Ken McGuire
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Camera Phone Crazy
Samsung’s latest offering in the cameraphone market is more of a camera with a phone stuck on the tail end as opposed to what we’re used to seeing in the shops. And guess what…. they’ve only gone and upped the resolution on the camera to 7.7 megapixel!
It’s supposed to be a phone for god’s sake! Its got a flash, and a TV-out function!
This is getting silly…
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IE7 – Leaked and Loaded
Although Internet Explorer was only due to be unveiled during the first quarter of 2006, a build of the new browser and several screenshots has leaked online.
The link to the code of the IE7 build (version 5299) was posted on the Windows tech forum JCXP.net on Friday. I managed to get myself a copy of it before it was removed and was sorely tempted to give it a test. Although Microsoft took down the link, techies around the world managed to get their hands on the build, which can be downloaded as an 11MB file in .rar format.
Furthermore the patch which allows the IE7 build to run with cracked copies of Windows had been downloaded over 12 000 times by yesterday morning. So there’s either only 12,000 cracked copies of Windows in the world, or 12,000 people that are interested in running a copy of Internet Explorer 7.
Has anybody else landed a copy of IE7… or is anyone even interested at this point? Given that it doesn’t have the open source backing of the Firefox community, and is likely to consume your CPU usage with 18 dozen instances of IEXPLORE running for every new tab you open up, will IE7 geniuinely be worth the wait? If I was taking an eye to this whole “leak”, which I am, I wouldn’t be surprised if Microsoft leaked the build themselves to see how many people would take it up and talk it up. Makes perfect sense seen as there was the whole “leaked documents” story late last year.
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Yahoo hold their hands up
Yahoo are holding their hands up and finally conceding the search engine race to Google
“We don’t think it’s reasonable to assume we’re going to gain a lot of share from Google,” [Yahoo] Chief Financial Officer Susan Decker said in an interview. “It’s not our goal to be No. 1 in Internet search. We would be very happy to maintain our market share.”
Funny how things develop. I remember getting online for the first time back in 1995 with Yahoo just starting out and it was the best thing going to find anything you want. Over the years through Yahoo tried to nail you with the kitchen sink while Google presented a simple search box. Yahoo! handled 19 percent of global Internet searches in November, a drop from 27 percent a year earlier, while Google’s share rose to 60%.
Where to next for Yahoo?
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Google Most Popular Brand
While Apple have become the number one brand in the US and Canada, Google are now the top brand in the world (most influential) according to BrandChannel.com’s annual popularity poll which surveyed 2500 people across 99 countries. After a fairly good year, Skype is up there at number three in the world rankings with parent company and one of my favourite haunts, eBay, coming in ninth.
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RFID Logins
I wrote a paper last year on the uses of RFID in a natural environment with a focus on personal privacy protection. Bit of a mouthful, but I find the topic compelling to be honest. Browsing CNN.com I came across this recent story on RFID implants (no, not the Page 3 kind).
The article is based on a 29-year-old entrepreneur out of Vancouver (Canada) who along with 20 of his tech-friends have gotten RFID implants under the skin in their fingers, allowing them to interact with various RFID readers, part of which allows him to access his computer with a wave of his hand. This type of technology really knows no bounds. Can you imagine no passwords for your computer? No code for the house alarm, no keys for your car?
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Setting the tone
Given the lovely weekend I had doing pretty much nothing except for Sunday night, I decided to discontinue any personal musings on Creative Imagination and ship them over to my.kenmc. From the outset, Creative Imagination intends to be intenet and technology focussed and has been moreso of late. If anyone is interested in some more personal ramblings in general you’re most welcome to pop along to my.kenmc.
Rock on for technology…
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The dark side of VOIP
I had posted recently about the first wedding via a VOIP ceremony in Indonesia recently, and now comes the first suicide, certainly bringing up the darker side of VOIP. Apparently, a user gamer at the weekend took his own life while playing Metal Gear Solid online with his friends, chatting via VOIP, and broadcasting the whole thing on his webcam.
Mitchell “Mitch” Lee Stuekerjuergen, aka “Kuja105”, reportedly swallowed antifreeze and pills “after complaining about family problems and a lack of money”, forum administrator Boyan Georgiev is said to have told Bulgaria’s BGNES news agency on Wednesday. Stuekerjuergen subesquently died on 4 January in hospital in Illinois.
A certain amount of controversy surrounds the whole sorry affair, with some claiming that other forum members “thought the man was joking, even though he rambled for six hours about the effects of the substances and disappeared from view several times”, as AFP puts it. The webcam part of the story is also disputed.
Via The Register
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How an IT startup raises money
So Meebo is out and about now as an AJAX powered IM client and the official meebo blog has some great honest posts about how the set upon raising money for the startup, a point of interest to some people around here!
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Acrobat goes all 3D
Having worked with Adobe’s product line the last 5 or 6 years through college and beyond, I find it interesting to see that they’re going 3D. As if eating up Macromedia wasn’t enough! They have created a high-end version of Acrobat, aimed at boosting sales in the manufacturing industry, that displays three-dimensional images within PDF documents.
Acrobat 3D is expected to go public later today which will allow a person to create a PDF with embedded images from CAD style applications (like AutoCAD, Promis-E…. hmmm, Promis-E, the troubles with that one!). Of course anyone interested will have to off and update their copy of Acrobat Reader / Adobe Acrobat in order to get the use of it.
From the release…. “Adobe developed the 3D product specifically for manufacturing customers who regularly exchange CAD files in the design process, said Rak Bhalla, senior marketing manager. Car manufacturers, for example, share their product descriptions and designs with their suppliers to get bids for component parts. ”
I’ve been coaching my father of late on zipping and PDFing CAD drawings for the business, albeit on a 2D basis but I’d be very interesting in seeing the outcome of the 3D development!
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Securing Creative Imagination
Frequent visitors and commenters on Creative Imagination will notice that if you go to post a comment on the blog now you will be met by a security graphic which must be retyped in order to complete your post. I’ve taken this measure due to increased spam comments that keep appearing, 30 of which arrived tonight in the space of a few minutes. Sorry to Michele who got caught in the middle while I was installing the plugin as well 🙂
Anyway, the plugin works as far as controlling posting, I’ll know within the next day or so if it does its job ‘exactly as it says on the tin’. For those of you interested, you can download the plugin for WordPress here.
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Keeping an eye on your website
Myself and John have been keeping an eye on various web statistics over the past seven days. With my blog averaging around 100 hits a day for the week, it was interesting to note, via Statcounter, the high percentage of visitors who stick around for 10 seconds or less, whether its not what they’re looking for, or not what they want to look at.
The latter raises a point covered by CNN.com where users/browsers/surfers etc can judge your website in the blink of an eye, actually quicker than that.
In just a brief one-twentieth of a second — less than half the time it takes to blink — people make aesthetic judgments that influence the rest of their experience with an Internet site.
The study was published in the latest issue of the Behaviour and Information Technology journal. The author said the findings had powerful implications for the field of Web site design.
Very interesting stuff indeed. My NFLView.com blog (which, coincidentally is being redesigned this weekend) seems to get visitors to stick around a little longer, different audience, different country, different topic, different blog design. The next week of stat-tracking should be interesting as I notice my own content starting to build.
My question – you arrive at two websites that have the same content you’re looking for. Why do you choose one over the other, if the content remains the same?
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Keeping your PC safe from harm
An old article this, but nonetheless important to read especially for those not up on securing their computers. I look after my computer setup at home with great care, I look after my computer in work, I look after a computer network for another company and am usually the port of call for friends and family (someone in your family is usually the port of call!)
Anyway, here’s the 10 Commandments of PC Security. And it goes a little somethin’ like this…
- Remember thy antivirus software and keep it updated
- Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s attachments.
- Avoideth bogus file download
- Smite spyware and pop-ups
- Thou shalt foil spammers
- Keep thy operating system patched
- Maketh a rescue disk and keep it handy
- Be not taken in by false claims
- Honour thy firewall
- Maketh backups and keep them holy
While reading that, if you can imagine a seven foot tall bearded man with a hint of rage in his eyes and a very, very loud voice shouting them back to you it might help get the point across. I’ve seen more people lose vital information, files, photos, accounts – you name it – because they either ignore computer security or are simply unaware of what to do. Time to start learning folks!
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What It Means To Be British
One of the British national daily newspapers is asking readers “what it means to be British?”. Some of the emails are hilarious but this is one from a chap in Switzerland …
“Being British is about driving in a German car to an Irish pub for a Belgian beer, then travelling home, grabbing an Indian curry or a Turkish kebab on the way, to sit on Swedish furniture and watch American shows on a Japanese TV. And the most British thing of all? Suspicion of anything foreign “.
Just a little humour to brighten up your Friday evening if its moving slowly!
It’s either that, or you can watch David Hasselhoff’s best ever music video… errr… yeah…. Happy Friday!
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Google tells Bush – NO!
Google has told the US Government effectively to take a long walk off a short pier when it comes to handing over details on their search results. In the past year or two, MSN, Yahoo and AOL have all complied – not Google.
The Bush Administration has asked a federal judge to order the world’s most popular internet search engine to hand over the records of all Google searches for any one-week period, as well as other closely guarded data. Google of course are going to fight the move, but I’m curious as to how far the government will go. Is it a large step in terms of privacy protection for Google, or is there another Microsoft-sytle lawsuit in the offing?
The department wants the data in relation to an online pornography law, but Google says the move threatens trade secrets. Privacy groups also fear a precedent at a time when the government wants to use internet data to fight crime and terrorism.
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Pat Shortt – Jumbo Breafast Roll anyone?
Had to post this up, on one hand in case I lose the link, on the other hand that it should be shared with everyone! If this gets released as a single you know it’ll be huge. It’s a SMIL clip direct from RTE of Pat Shortt’s recent interview on the Late Late Show which includes the ‘Jumbo Breakfast Roll‘ performance.
Click here for Pat Shortt’s Jumbo Breakfast Roll or why not get the MP3 version?
You want the lyrics… here’s they are…
Well I wake up in the morning and I jump straight out of bed
Grab a hold of that luminous jacket and shake that fuzzy head
I don’t have time for a fancy breakfast or put muesli in a bowl
I just head to the stat oil garage for the jumbo breakfast RollTwo eggs two rasher two sausage two Bacon Two puddins one Black and white
All placed like a tower on top of each other and then wrapped up good and tight
If you¹re having some tea the milks over there and you’ll find sugar in the bowl
Says she Do you want some sauce on that says I, I do in my rollWell whether you¹re a chippie or a sparkie or a brikie or a team just tarring the road.
Or a shower of lads coming home from the razz with a crowd or on your own
If you’re working up a ladder or peeling pigs bladder or find yourself digging in a hole
There’s no sight better than melting butter, from a jumbo breakfast rollTwo eggs two rasher two sausage two Bacon Two puddins one Black and white
All placed like a tower on top of each other and then wrapped up good and tight
If you¹re having some tea the milks over there and you’ll find sugar in the bowl
Says she Do you want some sauce on that says I, I do in my rollWell just the other day after me roll and tea, in me gut I got an awful ache
I went to me Doctor he said that’s an artery blocker you have every morning at break
So to change my lifestyle he has me walking five miles and seeing a dietician called Noel
But I can’t get from my head the sight of two runny eggs on my Jumbo breakfast rollTwo eggs two rasher two sausage two Bacon Two puddins one Black and white
All placed like a tower on top of each other and then wraped up good and tight
If you¹re having some tea the milks over there and you’ll find sugar in the bowl
Says she Do you want some sauce on that says I, I do in my rollWell the years have passed on and my life has changed and now I am a different man
I have lost three stone, I’m doing a line with a girl and we are both Vegetarian
My cholesterol is low and my heart is good to go, but in the morning I’d sell my soul
To sit in any stat oil fore court and devour a Jumbo breakfast rollTwo eggs two rasher two sausage two Bacon Two puddins one Black and white
All placed like a tower on top of each other and then wraped up good and tight
If you’re having some tea the milks over there and you¹ll find sugar in the bowl
Says she Do you want some sauce on that says I, I do in my rollFinish!
If you’ve got any corrections or want to add any suggestions just leave a comment below to contact me!
Note – Thanks to Deirdre, Ray and Diane for their little notes to fix up the word or two I was missing…
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Tesco go VOIP
Following on the heels of, well, a lot of other places, Tesco are now launching a VOIP service for their customers, giving them internet phone access along with a dedicated phone number which they can use regardless of where in the country they are or move to. What was once a niche market is quickly on the way to becoming overwhelmed with new competitors as the drive to increase broadband usage. Of course we know that it’ll never happen in Ireland as half the country still need to discover broadband! But its a start anyway. The story was picked up in the UK so its unknown as to whether Tesco Ireland will launch the same service here or simply do a test run in England.
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Blogs : 2 for a euro…
If you’ve got about 70k to spare you might be interested to know that the Blog Herald (which I read) is up for sale. The blog itself makes about 2,000 US$ a month which isn’t bad. The price is being touted as a little steep, but then how do you set a price on a blog?
It raises a good question though. The blog is normally built around the content. It’s the person that drives the content, provides their views and opinions. So if you take that person out of the equation you had better be ready to fill their shoes, I reckon anyway. Marketing Loop has the Alexa graphs of the traffic and you can’t doubt the potential when the figures speak for themselves.
If you were to sell your blog in the morning, realisticly, what do you think you’d get for it? I can imagine Moore Street some Saturday… “Get your Techcrunch, get your Techcrunch, 2 for a eeeeeeeuro….” 😉
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Sex Sells
Sex.com, in all its covert glory has finally sold. The price tag – US$14,000,000.
I was writing a guide on domain naming strategies and purchasing when up popped this article. This domain (sex.com) has been lashed around, hijacked, cybersquatted, been through the courts and, finally, sold with the news breaking this morning. There was me thinking that there was no real money left in domain name sales! Read the full story here…
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Tablane no longer Beta?
Ok, so the news might be a week old but in reading ZDNet today I just got wind that Tablane is no longer in beta and they’ve got a fully. Emmet Connolly reviewed the Irish browser which is based on IE back in November for Web 2.0 Ireland and a few people I know have tested it, so testing some content for the CMS today I was disappointed to find that the browser just wouldn’t cooperate. Opening up my DeviantART homepage right away I was confronted with browser errors, I just don’t like seeing errors, one of the joys of using Firefox so far… 🙂 Of course that’s small money in comparison to what it’s being touted to do.
I’m not slating the browser right away at all, just thought the error was weird and I’ll give it a good bash on home turf (out of the office) now that its out of beta release. I just hope that for this to succeed that it doesn’t have to rely forever on Internet Explorer. I am interested in the concept of tailoring the browser for user specific audiences, such as an eBay browser or an Amazon browser. Some nice features touted to me on first look but I’ll let you know what I think when it gets going.