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• Design better Web pages with Firefox extensions
• First Look at Parsix GNU/Linux 1.0r0, Ramon Edition
• How to Filter out Undesirable Posts in your RSS Reader
• How to Choose a Domain Name - Brandable Domains vs Keyword Rich Domains
• LinuxBIOS is now called coreboot

Nearly 14 years after the once mighty browser made its first desktop appearance as Mosaic Netscape 0.9, its disappearance comes as little surprise. Although Netscape accounted for more than 80 per cent of the browser market in 1995, the arrival of Microsoft's Internet Explorer in the same year brought stiff competition and surpassed Netscape within three years.
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Welcome to Hardy Heron Alpha-5, which will in time become Ubuntu 8.04.Pre-releases of Hardy are *not* encouraged for anyone needing a stable system or anyone who is not comfortable running into occasional, even frequent breakage.  They are, however, recommended for Ubuntu developers and those who want to help in testing, reporting, and fixing bugs.

Alpha 4 is the fifth in a series of milestone CD images that will be released throughout the Hardy development cycle. The Alpha images are known to be reasonably free of showstopper CD build or installer bugs, while representing a very recent snapshot of Hardy.

Download:

See http://wiki.ubuntu.com/Mirrors for a list of mirrors.

Bug reports should go to the Ubuntu bug tracker:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu


Related Posts:
Ubuntu Hardy Heron Alpha 4 released
Ubuntu Hardy Heron Alpha 3 released
Ubuntu Hardy Heron Alpha 2 released
Ubuntu Hardy Heron Alpha 1 released
Ubuntu 7.10 Released

For the First Time Ubuntu Users Can Purchase Annual Support Contracts

LONDON, February 21, 2008 - Canonical Ltd, the commercial sponsor of Ubuntu, today announced the availability of IBM DB2 Express-C 9.5 as software through the Ubuntu Partner Repository and as a virtual appliance running on VMware.

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Obsidian has partnered with Canonical to provide certified Ubuntu training in South Africa.

Johannesburg, February 2008 - Obsidian has announced that it will soon commence official training for the 'Ubuntu Certified Professional' programme. Obsidian has concluded an agreement with Canonical Ltd, the commercial sponsor of Ubuntu Linux that allows for the company to provide training beginning March 2008.

read more

Nobody is buying it. Well. Employees, maybe. Microsoft is once again promising interoperability and adherence to standards, but its own version of each. Interoperability that is safe only for noncommercial software excludes Microsoft's number one competitor, Linux. It is noncommercial and commercial, depending on who is using it. So, right there it tells you that this is a promise to do nothing that matters. Microsoft is currently being investigated by the EU Commission regarding the same two issues, interoperability and its behavior pushing MSOOXML as a "standard". This is a promise to remain incompatible with the GPL, as far as I can make out.

Here's the response from the EU Commission. They totally get that this promise is insufficient. They've heard it before, at least four times. And it doesn't wipe the slate clean regarding past violations, even if they meant it. ECIS's Thomas Vinje also issued a statement [PDF] pointing out that the proof is in the pudding, that Microsoft doesn't get to define interoperability unilaterally, and as for standards, if it meant it, it would support ODF. What the world needs, he says, is "a permanent change in Microsoft's behavior, not just another announcement." ECIS' members include Adobe, Corel, IBM, Nokia, Opera, Oracle, RealNetworks, Red Hat, and Sun Microsystems. Here's Red Hat's statement. Here's Andy Updegrove's take. Todd Bishop's coverage on Seattle PI. And here's the video and transcript of Microsoft's conference call, with Steve Ballmer, Brad Smith, Bob Muglia, and Ray Ozzie. Look at Ozzie's expression in the photo on this page.
source:Rar Linux

Labels: links

This guest post is one that I’m excited to publish - it’s by Tina Su from ThinkSimpleNow.com - a great blog that I’ve been a big fan of. In it Tina will share some of how she’s grow her blog from 0 to 2000 subscribers in just 90 days.

How I Got 2000 Subscribers in 3 Months

Hi, my name is Tina. I started a little blog called Think Simple Now on September 27th, 2007 with zero experience in blogging, internet marketing or writing. By the time Christmas came, 3 months later, I had 2135 subscribers.

I’m new to blogging, in fact, I read very few blogs. I also do not follow any blogs on blogging, with the exception of a couple of articles read from doshdosh and problogger very early on.

I often get asked how I did it, and I decided to compile this article as a record of my experience with hope that others might benefit from what I’ve learned. I want to show you that it is possible to achieve your blogging goals starting from scratch, using my case as a live example. I’ve learned that there are no real secrets to blogging success, all it really takes is a deep desire to do so, along with an urge to action.

I have three important reasons why my blog has been successful:

1. Concrete Goals & Focus - You can’t get what you want if you don’t know what you want.
2. Content Creation - Where I spend most of my time. Content and understanding your audience is king.
3. Getting the Word Out - Actionable tasks I did to market my blog. All are easily reproducible by anyone. But only focus on this after area 2 have been in place. Without content, all your marketing efforts will be ineffective.

Each step builds on the last, so it’s important to follow them in order. Let’s break each step down into details.

1. Concrete Goal & Focus

Why Goals? It is important to understand why you are starting a blog. What is your motivation? I had 3 motivations (in order):

• To share my knowledge and experience through my own personal growth on topics surrounding personal empowerment, mental well-being and finding happiness. These are the topics I spend my free times thinking, reading and talking about.
• My dream is to work in the self-improvement field. I have many product ideas around ways to improve lives. I wanted to create my own audience, before working on these ideas.
• Achieve my financial goals such that I can leave my job and commit to my self-improvement ventures full-time.

What? Defining my target niche and the topics I wanted to cover was tricky, but ultimately vital to the success of any business or project. I originally wanted to start a blog around things I’m interested in: self-improvement, photography, technology and entrepreneurialism. I realized that a messy combination of topics might confuse people. Ultimately, if I wanted more subscribers other than my family and friends, the site cannot be focused around me, but rather focused around what my audience needs and wants. My target niche is health/wellness or personal growth. My topic areas are: creativity, clarity and happiness.

Goals We cannot get what we want if we do not know what we want. Sure, you can say, I want to be rich or happy. But what does that mean? It is important to set clearly defined goals before you start any new venture. Your goals need to be measurable and dated. I find it helps to regularly come back to evaluate my goals. I do this monthly in a traffic journal recording my progress: unique, page views, subscribers and revenue.

For example, my goal when I started was:

By December 31, 2007, I would have 1000 uniques, 2500 page-views monthly, and 100 RSS subscribers.

This goal was revised on October 22 after reaching the original goal:

By December 31, 2007, I would have 5000 uniques, 20,000 page-views monthly, 400 RSS subscribers, $100 in ad revenue.


The new goal was reached on November 29th. At this point, RSS subscribers had reached over 1500.

Summary & Action Items: To summarize, the following are the major points for the area of ‘Concrete Goal & Focus’. If might be helpful for you to answer these questions (on paper or type in a doc).

• Why - What is your motivation? Why are you starting this blog? What are you doing that’s unique from existing blogs?
• What - Who is in my audience? What topic areas will I cover? Describe my blog using 3 words.
• Goals - Set a specific and measurable goal with a date. Come back to evaluate this goal and your progress periodically.

2. Content Creation

We all know that content is the most important piece, but how do you generate content such that people will want to read, reference and subscribe to it? First, recall the last time you subscribed to a blog. What was it about the content that made you want to subscribe? The reasons will likely fall into one or more of the following:

• Highly value-packed content.
• It provides practical solutions to a perceived need you have.
• You enjoyed it. It was highly entertaining.
• You personally connect with the content and style of writing.
• You felt inspired and motivated.

Now, put yourself in the position of a reader to your site. You know who they are from exercises above. Ask yourself, which of the above situations can your content satisfy? Keep these points in mind when writing. Always write with the intention to generate value and produce work that will benefit others. If you don’t, it will show in your writing.

I obsess over my content, not only because I feel responsible for my readers and want to give them the best quality that I can produce, but it is the only way a new reader coming to your site will want to stay and come back.

Try different styles and test which your reader responds to the most.

The following are tips related to content creation that’s worked well for my blog:

• Intention - Set the intention to generate the best and most valuable content possible. Hold nothing back when you’re writing. Your honesty and genuine intentions will shine through in your writing. I like to write as if I’m talking to my best friend, giving them the best I have.
• Use Personal Examples - People love stories. This allows them to relate with you on a personal level and connect with you as friends.
• Pictures - Use appropriate and vivid images to go with your article. Whenever possible, always use images, but don’t over-do it. I would use no more than 3 images per article in a typical case.
• Length - I prefer to post less often and write longer articles that covers depth. I post twice weekly and at length 750-1500 words. The length is out of necessity to cover topics thoroughly. I do try to keep things concise. Make sure all content are relevant. Do not be verbose for the sake of length, it will show if your writing and will turn people away. If you were a reader, would you be able to focus your attention long enough to read the whole article?
• Lists - Use numbered lists and bullet points whenever it makes sense. Bold key words. These make reading easy and effective for scanning.
• Short Paragraphs - Be as concise as possible. During editing, see if you get the same point across using less words.

Summary & Action Items:

• Intentions - Have your reader’s best interest in mind.
• Needs - What needs are you fulfilling with your articles? Is it a need that people actually have or one that you think others need?
• Observe & Model - What kinds of articles do you enjoy reading from other blogs? Pick out common characteristics and model after them.

3. Getting the Word Out

Once I was armed with my goal of reaching 100 subscribers and had my content in place, I started to promote my blog. You may have the most valuable site in the world, but no one will benefit if they don’t know it exists.

Offline & Email
I pretty much lived and breathed my one simple goal of reaching 100 subscribers. Everywhere I went, I told people about my goal and my blog, and people were willing to help. This include every physical person I met and anyone who emailed me: co-workers, girlfriends of co-workers, friends of family, person sitting next to me on a plane, new friends I met on facebook, photography clients … everyone.

I added a note about subscribing to my email signature, so it appeared at the foot of every email I sent out. I emailed all of my friends when I launched, asking them to support me by subscribing.

Connecting with People
Connecting with readers and potential readers is an essential part of my blogging success. Not only does it help my blog grow, but I absolutely love it. I have made many good friends this way. When people like you and feel that your content is valuable, they will tell their friends about it. I quickly discovered that many of my readers were emailing links to others, and referring many new subscribers.

I’ve given extra effort to reach out and connect with others. It was a process which I took personally. I made sure every comment was responded to and no emails were left ignored. I no longer respond to every comment due to time limitations, but I still respond to every email. If a comment was especially good, I would email the person to thank them and include a copy of my response to their comments, especially if it contained questions.

I used to email every person who commented with a thank you note and would ask them to consider subscribing. Then I discovered the Comment Relish plug-in that did this automatically.

I also connected with people through facebook, by visiting groups in my niche and befriending individuals. I’ve made some great friendships this way, and was even inspired with new article ideas.

Leaving Your Mark: Comments & Directories
Comment in other people’s blogs, especially ones with related topics. Make sure to leave thoughtful and relevant comments, otherwise, it will be viewed as spam. I found a list of personal development blogs, and made a point to visit every one and leave a comment when appropriate. Again, make sure you are not spamming. Bloggers are often curious of who the commentators are and will visit your site. On popular blogs, you may need to leave comments regularly to be noticed. If your content is good, bloggers will link to you when appropriate, others may even add you to their blogroll.

I’ve submitted articles to article banks, blog carnivals, and rss feed directories. I stopped article bank submissions when I learned about the google penalties for duplicate content. In an effort to save time, I outsourced these three tasks due to their repetitive nature.

Networking with Bloggers
Reach out and meet other bloggers. You never know who you’re going to meet or how you will be able to help each other. I feel that you cannot do it alone, you need a community of friends. “We are stronger together than we are apart“. I recommend keeping a contact list of friends, so it’ll be easy to get in touch with one email. This is also valuable when you need last minute help with social media.

This model helped me tremendously: To get what you want, help others get what they want, first.: In a email reply from Maki, he ended his email with, “Let me know if you need anything,” which left an impression on me. From that point on, I told people about Maki’s site whenever I had the chance.

Since then, I started using it in my emails as well. But it is important to be genuine. Always lend a hand to help other bloggers (within reason) and do not expect anything in return. If they end up helping you, great, if not, I don’t recommend harassing them.

Don’t be shy, people are incredibly kind creatures by nature. Drop them an email to introduce yourself, either make a genuine comment about their site, or ask a simple question. Do not start email conversations with asking to be linked, asking to review your blog, asking too many questions. Avoid philosophical questions, keep emails short, be friendly and honest. Try practicing on me: Feel free to drop me a line to introduce yourself at tina[at]thinksimplenow.com

Linking
I linked to other blogs whenever possible in my articles. It doesn’t cost you anything, and helps someone else out. If you feel uncomfortable with this, ask yourself, would you like to be linked by other blogs? If the answer is yes, then remember my motto: “To get what you want, help others get what they want, first.”

Through my linking to other blogs, not only have other bloggers noticed me but I have made many new friends. As a result, I’ve also been linked by larger sites like lifehacker, dumblittleman and lifehack.

Social Media & Networks In the first few weeks, I was getting like 15 hits a day, mostly from my mom and boyfriend. One day, I was blessed with 150 hits coming from StumbleUpon based on a user submit. I was fascinated and was determined to become a power user. You can check out my profile here. I did well on StumbleUpon using the same motto: “To get what you want, help others get what they want, first.” If you want user reviews, give lots of user reviews to others. If you want others to stumble your pages, stumble other people’s pages. Again, do so without expecting anything in return. And, when you do receive something, treat it like a gift and thank the giver.

Just as I was starting to feel de-motivated, my big break came on November 17th when one of my stories made it on the front page of Digg and subsequently on the front page of Del.icio.us. Digg now had my attention. Using the same motto as all my efforts above, I befriended Digg users and became a loyal contributor of the community. I like to Digg top upcoming stories (close to becoming popular), newly submitted stories and ones submitted or favored by friends. If you want to get a Digg user’s attention, start Digging their submissions regularly.

I like to keep a consistent profile across all social media sites I participate in. Use the same avatar image and use the same username. Your image and username is your face to the network, people will recognize you if they find you in other networks such as Mixx, Propeller or Twitter. But if you use different images, it’ll be difficult to keep track for your online friends. Also, I don’t recommend changing your avatar often. Some users on StumbleUpon will regularly update their image, this is really confusing and forces me to remember them by username only.

Summary & Action Items

• Tell everybody and ask for help: in person and over email
• Connect with readers via email
• Install Comment Relish
• Comment on other blogs
• Link to other blogs whenever you can
• Make 5 new blogger or social media friends weekly
• Join StumbleUpon and Digg

Parting Words
I often hear people say things like “I just can’t get people to subscribe. What can I do? My advice is to stop repeating this sentence and start focusing on what it is that you want, instead of what you lack.

Develop the mentality of abundance instead of competition. Focus on your readers, obsess over their experience, have a clear goal and go after it with your whole being, without a minute spent on reasons why you will fail. I have seen over and over again that:

When desire is mixed with faith backed by massive action, the probable becomes possible, every time. No exceptions.

I wish you continued success with your blogging and other life ventures. Keep your head up high.

Labels: linux, ubuntu

David Falck and Shelly Mujtaba, members of Autodesk Labs, recently announced a new release of Project Draw that allows you to take your diagrams offline using Google Gears.

Project Draw is a browser based diagraming utility that lets you draw to your hearts content, without the need for plugins of any kind.

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SUSE Linux Enterprise has been selected by Renault to consolidate existing Linux environment and provide IT interoperability between Windows and Linux

REDMOND, Wash., and WALTHAM, Mass. -- Jan. 30, 2008 -- Microsoft Corp. and Novell today announced that French carmaker Renault has joined the growing ranks of customers taking advantage of the two companies' cooperation to deliver greater interoperability between Microsoft(R) Windows(R) and SUSE(R) Linux Enterprise. Under the agreement, Microsoft will deliver to Renault more than 1,000 certificates for priority support subscriptions to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server from Novell(R), as Renault consolidates existing Linux* distributions to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server with the goal of improving interoperability and taking better advantage of virtualization.

"Working with Microsoft to jointly build and support solutions to improve interoperability and deliver powerful new virtualization capabilities is paying great dividends for our customers," said Susan Heystee, vice president and general manager of global strategic alliances for Novell. "Increasing the presence of SUSE Linux Enterprise in the data center, well integrated with a Microsoft Windows environment, will enhance the deployment of applications and increase the competitive advantage of innovative companies. With growing marketplace understanding of the solutions we are providing to the interoperability challenges in a world of mixed-source software, we expect to continue to see growth of SUSE Linux Enterprise in the market."

"Customers have asked for solutions to make Microsoft products work better with other platforms and for IP assurance that enables vendors to build technical bridges," said Susan Hauser, general manager of strategic partnerships and licensing at Microsoft. "We are pleased to provide this real-world, pragmatic solution to customers, such as Renault."

Google has announced:
"Today we're happy to announce that the Urchin Software from Google beta is now available for download at urchin.com. Urchin Software from Google is a web analytics product similar in scope to Google Analytics, except you install and manage the software on your own servers.

Urchin 5 remains the current supported production release until Urchin Software from Google comes out of beta. This beta software should only be used for evaluation purposes, and is not recommended for production environments.

Here's what the new version looks like:



Why use Urchin Software?

Urchin is suitable for organizations that have content behind a security firewall or have other restrictions that prevent them from using the Google Analytics service. Urchin is also useful for those who want to perform ad-hoc historical log processing, who want to store their web analytics on local servers, and those requiring third-party data audits. Urchin Software from Google features the following upgrades from Urchin 5, among many others:

• More accurate geo-identification of visitors
• Cross-segmentation options similar to Google Analytics
• E-commerce and campaign tracking included (no longer requiring additional modules)
• Vastly improved embedded scheduler to more easily manage processing and re-processing jobs
• Improved user interface
• More robust log processing engine

You can download a 90-day version of the beta here. Once Urchin Software from Google comes out of beta, you'll be able to purchase it for $2995 through the Urchin Software Authorized Consultants. Please visit the FAQ page on the Urchin site to see details on pricing, previous version upgrading/importing instructions, system requirements, and differences between Urchin and Google Analytics."

>From Adsense Blog :
"As part of our efforts to make sure that the AdSense account details publishers provide are valid and correct, we do a couple types of validation that you may be aware of: the Personal Identification Number (PIN) program and, in some locations, phone number verification. One or both of these verification methods is required in order to ensure the security and accuracy of your information so you can receive payments from AdSense.

In the past, our system would ask you to verify your information when your earnings reached $50. However, we've recently changed the threshold to $10. This lowered amount means many of you may see a PIN arrive in your mailbox soon, as well as a prompt in your account to verify your phone number. For more information about these holds, visit the links in the 'Required Actions' box on your Payment History page.

(Psst: If your all-time earnings are between $10 and $50, this might be a good time to learn all about PINs so you'll know what to expect. Or, if you prefer surprises, you can remain blissfully ignorant till a PIN mailer pops up in your mailbox. Just be sure you don't pitch it in the trash!)"
source:Pinning it down (to $10) via :Powered LINK

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WALTHAM, Mass. -- Jan. 30, 2008 -- Novell today announced the availability of the SUSE(R) Linux Enterprise Server Starter System for System z, a pre-built installation server that simplifies the installation of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server on IBM's System z mainframes. The starter system eliminates the need for IT managers to search for network access to installation media on the mainframe. With the new Starter System for System z, customers can quickly initiate evaluations of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for System z.

"We're excited to be able to leverage the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Starter System for System z for our mainframe deployments," said Mike Walter, z/VM systems manager at Hewitt Associates. "Until recently, there was no simple way to install SUSE Linux Enterprise Server on a mainframe using z/VM tools natively. This new tool makes it much easier and faster for us and others to experience SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for System z, taking advantage of the cost and reliability benefits of Linux on the mainframe."

Carol Stafford, vice president of worldwide System z sales at IBM, said, "This starter kit is a great example of the many ways IBM is expanding mainframe compatibility and ease-of-use features. Novell's Starter System for System z helps Linux customers quickly maximize the mainframe's high reliability and scalability for mixed workloads."

Starter System for System z, developed for Novell by Sine Nomine Associates, includes utilities and configuration tools to easily create an installation server and simplify the entire process of installing Linux* on a System z mainframe. The starter system requires less administrator expertise while jump starting evaluations of Linux for System z. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server running on System z helps customers reduce software platform costs while allowing them to take advantage of hundreds of new, lower-cost applications available to System z users.

Roger Levy, Novell senior vice president and general manager of Open Platform Solutions, said, "Novell worked closely with customers and the mainframe community to develop a tool that will actually save customers time and money while helping them meet their broader IT objectives. That collaboration and the effectiveness of the starter system as it facilitates the customer installation of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for System z platforms are additional indicators that Novell understands the needs of mainframe users better than any other Linux vendor."

Availability

More information about the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Starter System for System z, including a download link, can be found at www.novell.com/mainframe . The next-generation platform for the open enterprise, SUSE Linux Enterprise is the best-engineered and most interoperable platform for mission-critical computing, from the desktop to the data center. For more information on SUSE Linux Enterprise offerings from Novell(R), visit www.novell.com/linux .

The letter from Microsoft to the Yahoo board:

January 31, 2008
Board of Directors
Yahoo! Inc.
701 First Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94089
Attention: Roy Bostock, Chairman
Attention: Jerry Yang, Chief Executive Officer

Dear Members of the Board:

I am writing on behalf of the Board of Directors of Microsoft to make a proposal for a business combination of Microsoft and Yahoo!. Under our proposal, Microsoft would acquire all of the outstanding shares of Yahoo! common stock for per share consideration of $31 based on Microsoft’s closing share price on January 31, 2008, payable in the form of $31 in cash or 0.9509 of a share of Microsoft common stock. Microsoft would provide each Yahoo! shareholder with the ability to choose whether to receive the consideration in cash or Microsoft common stock, subject to pro-ration so that in the aggregate one-half of the Yahoo! common shares will be exchanged for shares of Microsoft common stock and one-half of the Yahoo! common shares will be converted into the right to receive cash. Our proposal is not subject to any financing condition.

Our proposal represents a 62% premium above the closing price of Yahoo! common stock of $19.18 on January 31, 2008. The implied premium for the operating assets of the company clearly is considerably greater when adjusted for the minority, non-controlled assets and cash. By whatever financial measure you use - EBITDA, free cash flow, operating cash flow, net income, or analyst target prices - this proposal represents a compelling value realization event for your shareholders.

We believe that Microsoft common stock represents a very attractive investment opportunity for Yahoo!’s shareholders. Microsoft has generated revenue growth of 15%, earnings growth of 26%, and a return on equity of 35% on average for the last three years. Microsoft’s share price has generated shareholder returns of 8% during the last one year period and 28% during the last three year period, significantly outperforming the S&P 500. It is our view that Microsoft has significant potential upside given the continued solid growth in our core businesses, the recent launch of Windows Vista, and other strategic initiatives.

Microsoft’s consistent belief has been that the combination of Microsoft and Yahoo! clearly represents the best way to deliver maximum value to our respective shareholders, as well as create a more efficient and competitive company that would provide greater value and service to our customers. In late 2006 and early 2007, we jointly explored a broad range of ways in which our two companies might work together. These discussions were based on a vision that the online businesses of Microsoft and Yahoo! should be aligned in some way to create a more effective competitor in the online marketplace. We discussed a number of alternatives ranging from commercial partnerships to a merger proposal, which you rejected. While a commercial partnership may have made sense at one time, Microsoft believes that the only alternative now is the combination of Microsoft and Yahoo! that we are proposing.

In February 2007, I received a letter from your Chairman indicating the view of the Yahoo! Board that “now is not the right time from the perspective of our shareholders to enter into discussions regarding an acquisition transaction.” According to that letter, the principal reason for this view was the Yahoo! Board’s confidence in the “potential upside” if management successfully executed on a reformulated strategy based on certain operational initiatives, such as Project Panama, and a significant organizational realignment. A year has gone by, and the competitive situation has not improved.

While online advertising growth continues, there are significant benefits of scale in advertising platform economics, in capital costs for search index build-out, and in research and development, making this a time of industry consolidation and convergence. Today, the market is increasingly dominated by one player who is consolidating its dominance through acquisition. Together, Microsoft and Yahoo! can offer a credible alternative for consumers, advertisers, and publishers. Synergies of this combination fall into four areas:

Scale economics: This combination enables synergies related to scale economics of the advertising platform where today there is only one competitor at scale. This includes synergies across both search and non-search related advertising that will strengthen the value proposition to both advertisers and publishers. Additionally, the combination allows us to consolidate capital spending.

Expanded R&D capacity: The combined talent of our engineering resources can be focused on R&D priorities such as a single search index and single advertising platform. Together we can unleash new levels of innovation, delivering enhanced user experiences, breakthroughs in search, and new advertising platform capabilities. Many of these breakthroughs are a function of an engineering scale that today neither of our companies has on its own.

Operational efficiencies: Eliminating redundant infrastructure and duplicative operating costs will improve the financial performance of the combined entity.

Emerging user experiences: Our combined ability to focus engineering resources that drive innovation in emerging scenarios such as video, mobile services, online commerce, social media, and social platforms is greatly enhanced.

We would value the opportunity to further discuss with you how to optimize the integration of our respective businesses to create a leading global technology company with exceptional display and search advertising capabilities. You should also be aware that we intend to offer significant retention packages to your engineers, key leaders and employees across all disciplines.

We have dedicated considerable time and resources to an analysis of a potential transaction and are confident that the combination will receive all necessary regulatory approvals. We look forward to discussing this with you, and both our internal legal team and outside counsel are available to meet with your counsel at their earliest convenience.

Our proposal is subject to the negotiation of a definitive merger agreement and our having the opportunity to conduct certain limited and confirmatory due diligence. In addition, because a portion of the aggregate merger consideration would consist of Microsoft common stock, we would provide Yahoo! the opportunity to conduct appropriate limited due diligence with respect to Microsoft. We are prepared to deliver a draft merger agreement to you and begin discussions immediately.

In light of the significance of this proposal to your shareholders and ours, as well as the potential for selective disclosures, our intention is to publicly release the text of this letter tomorrow morning.

Due to the importance of these discussions and the value represented by our proposal, we expect the Yahoo! Board to engage in a full review of our proposal. My leadership team and I would be happy to make ourselves available to meet with you and your Board at your earliest convenience. Depending on the nature of your response, Microsoft reserves the right to pursue all necessary steps to ensure that Yahoo!’s shareholders are provided with the opportunity to realize the value inherent in our proposal.

We believe this proposal represents a unique opportunity to create significant value for Yahoo!’s shareholders and employees, and the combined company will be better positioned to provide an enhanced value proposition to users and advertisers. We hope that you and your Board share our enthusiasm, and we look forward to a prompt and favorable reply.

Sincerely yours,

Steven A. Ballmer
Chief Executive Officer
Microsoft Corporation

source

Your computer running Windows isn’t running in the same speed that it used to run when you first used it. It’s slower, crappy, takes a while to start and tests your patience like anything. There are many reasons for this, let’s try fixing up a few things on your slow Windows PC:

Slow Start Up
There can be a variety of reasons to Windows loading slow during start up. Go to Run, type msconfig and hit enter. Under the ‘Start Up’ tab, uncheck the unwanted programs and press OK. Things should be a bit fine the next time Windows boots.

Another program worth mentioning here is StartUp Delayer which will help in setting after how much time programs should be loaded after Windows boots. For instance, you could set your instant messenger program to load 50 seconds after Windows starts up.

Slow Loading Start Menu
If the Start Menu items are loading slowly, you can open the Registry Editor by typing in the Run menu ‘regedit.exe’ and pressing Enter. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop. Look for MenuShowDelay, and double click to edit the value. The lower the number specified, the faster the Start Menu will load.

Slow Right Click Context Menu
Probably the Windows Right Click menu on your computer is loading slow because too many programs added unwanted entries there. Just download this program called Mmm, install it and then modify your context menu to remove unwanted items to speed it up.

Slow Send To Menu
If the Send To menu loads slowly, you can type ’sendto’ in the Run Dialog, and remove unwanted items in the Explorer Window that appears. This should add some speed to it.

Slow Defragmentation
The Windows Defragmenter can’t get any slower. You need to have an alternative to the Windows Defragmenter, and Defraggler is just one of the best ones available in the market. It’s free, and works like a charm and can speed up defragmentation manifold.

Slow loading My Computer Window
If the My Computer Window loads slowly, in the Explorer Window, go to Tools >> Folder Options >> View and uncheck ‘Automatically search for network folders and printers”

Slow loading Add or Remove Programs Applet
This is one of the most annoying piece of programs present in Windows, it takes ages to load if you have a considerable number of programs installed on your computer. You can either use the all-in-one CCleaner for this purpose, or get MyUninstaller that comes as a speedy replacement for Add or Remove Programs.

Slow Ending of Unresponsive Programs
If you’ve clicked on ‘End Task’ if any program is running unresponsive, you might have noticed that the program is not terminated immediately. You can alter this by going to Run >> regedit.exe >> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\ and change this value to 1000.

Disable Animations and Appearance Overhauls to maximize performance
If you’re a serious performance junkie, you probably won’t bother about eyecandy. Go to System Properties in the Control Panel. Click ‘Advanced’, then ‘Performance’ and click ‘Adjust for best performance’. This might boost your PC’s performance up a bit.

Additional Tips:
- Always keep your computer clean. Remove Junk and Unnecessary registry entries. Use CCleaner for this purpose, one excellent tool that just does what it says.
- Don’t keep installing software. Install a program only if it really serves you a purpose.
- Keep as less programs as possible running on the System Tray. This essentially means reducing the number of programs that start during Windows start up.

sources:
KillerTechTips & Makeuseof & Powered LINK

Since google added IMAP access to Gmail in October, They've heard from a number of Windows Mobile users that their Gmail IMAP experience wasn't great -- some were receiving blank messages and others could read headers but not entire messages. There are a lot of email clients out there, each with its own quirks, so making IMAP work across all of them can be tricky. They've worked with Microsoft engineers to debug the incompatibilities with Windows Mobile and made some tweaks to Their code. As some people have already noticed, these fixes went out last week, so you should now have a better experience reading and sending Gmail messages using IMAP from your Windows Mobile device. If you haven't yet set up IMAP, just follow the configuration instructions to get started.

source: IMAP on Windows Mobile devices (Official Gmail Blog)

1. GIMP
The GNU Image Manipulation Program is a powerful and free piece of software that can handle all basic image editing tasks and much more beyond that. The fact that it’s open source and available for UNIX platforms, Mac and Windows makes it extremely flexible.

2. Paint.NET
This is probably the most powerful free photo editing software on the market. It can complete simple tasks such as red eye correction, resizing, cropping, but it also supports layers. The program is open source and a great collection of user created plugins is available from its online community.
It’s hard to recommend one over the other here, so depending on what you want to do with these programs, Paint.NET and GIMP are probably equally great…given you are a Windows user.

3. Autostitch
This is the perfect tool if you want to create panorama images from a series of photos. It works fully automatic and doesn’t require user input. The program can handle both horizontal and vertical stitching. The demo is fully functional and free. One thing you have to be prepared for though is the amount of system resources this program will occupy, depending on the options you select.

4. Microsoft Reserach Group Shot
If you need to take a photo of a large group of people, chances are that no matter how many shots you take, there won’t be a single photo everyone is happy with. This is where you should give Microsoft Group Shot a chance. With this software you can select your favorite parts in each shot of the series and the program will merge all your photos into the perfect composite image. Unfortunately, it appears the beta software download has expired, however future releases are around the corner.

5. TKexe Kalender
It’s the New Year and maybe you still need a paper calendar. To quickly create a personal and unique edition, try this easy to use software.

6. Opanda PhotoFilter
Filters can make a photo very interesting and special. But it’s tiring to carry around filters for your camera or play with camera or software settings endlessly to yield the desired results. Easier yet, use Opanda PhotoFilter to post process your snapshots. The program comes equipped with more than 100 different settings simulating Kodak, Cokin and Hoya filters.

7. Foto Mosaik
Create a mosaic picture from hundreds or thousands of photos.
The mosaic image is the eagle displayed in the top left, the rest of the image is a zoom into the single tiles, indicated by the red frame.

8. Win Morph
Morph, warp and distort images in a professional and high quality way. This program gives you all the freedom you could possibly ask for from a free package. It works as standalone application or as a plugin for various video editors, it offers advanced keyframing, blending and distortion tools for total control and can even do dynamic morphing with various input (JPEG,BMP,PCX,PNG,PBM,TGA,TIFF) and output (JPEG,BMP,PNG,TGA,TIFF,AVI,MPEG and SWF) file formats. Are you sold, yet? No wait, it’s free!

9. Free Digital Camera Enhancer
This is the tool to give your digital images the final touch. Reduce noise caused by bad light situations, smooth skin in portraits, correct the midtones, and add saturation. Naturally, this will work best on bad images.

10. JPEG Lossless Rotator
With most programs, the simple act of rotating your JPEG photo into the right orientation and saving it causes a loss of quality. JPEG Lossless Rotator does the job without recoding your photo. Rather it performs a special lossless block transformation which leaves the quality of your photo untouched. Yes, this is a tool for freaks…or geeks.
source:Powered LINK