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Bill Gates' Last Full Day at Microsoft
2008-01-11 09:13:00
For those who don't know it yet, Microsoft 's Bill Gates announced his retirement plan at CES 2008 in Las Vegas. Included in his last keynote is a funny video of what he would probably do on his last day at Microsoft. Here's just one of many videos uploaded on YouTube, this clip has the clearest audio that i've found so far. enjoy :)Other than appearances by colleagues like Steve Ballmer, Robbie Bach, Kevin Turner, Ray Ozzie and Craig Mundie.. there are also celebrities like Brian Williams, Matthew McConaughey, Jay-Z, Bono, Steven Spielberg, George Clooney, Jon Stewart, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Al Gore.--------------technorati tags: Bill Gates video, last day, Microsoft
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Web Authorities Stepping Up Against Domain Tasting
2008-01-10 23:50:00
Ever wonder why it seems more and more difficult for you to get the domain name you want when registering on a web host? Quite often it’s because the domain name tasting and kiting industry is alive, well and running rampant.What is domain tasting by the way? it is a practice of registrants using the five-day "grace period" at the beginning of a domain registration to test the marketability of a domain name. During this period, the registrant analyzes the viability of deriving income from advertisements placed on the domain's website. Entrepreneurs have been taking advantage of a five-day grace period to sample domain names, keeping the relative few that might generate advertising revenues and dropping the rest before paying.This practice became controversial when some registrants started to register hundreds of thousands of domain names using automated programs and software, making it difficult for legitimate businesses and individuals to get a desirable domain name.AP Inter...
More About: Domain , Authorities

Adsense Referrals Changes
2008-01-10 04:58:00
Google announced that by the last week of January, there will be changes on their Adsense referral units.Adsense referrals will be retired to publishers outside North America, Latin America and Japan.For publishers not located in any of the three regions detailed above, we'll soon be retiring referrals promoting AdSense. We've found that this referral product has not performed as well as we had hoped in these regions. Again, please keep in mind that you can still generate referrals for the other products listed under the 'Referrals' section of your AdSense Setup tab.That's fine with me. I don't really earn from adsense referrals that's why i stopped putting it on my websites months ago. Remaining publishers from the North, Latin America and Japan will also encounter changes with their adsense referrals by returning it to it's original pricing structure.--------------technorati tags: adsense referrals, google

YouTube on Your Boob Tube
2008-01-09 12:57:00
As YouTube becomes an ever more popular pastime, major television makers are scrambling to add Internet capabilities to their newest TV models.Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., the world's biggest plasma maker, has lately teamed up with Google to launch new plasma television series that allows users to search and watch videos from YouTube as well as to share and view photos from the online Picasa Web Albums.At the 2008 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Matsushita, which produces Panasonic-branded products, unveiled the latest Panasonic VIERA PZ850 line of plasma Internet-connected high-definition television sets, which will be available to consumers this spring in the United States.Google and YouTube will provide Matsushita with special servers for transmitting high-quality images for large-screen TVs. The latest Matsushita Net-enabled TVs will allow users to click into the YouTube and Picasa Web sites by pressing a button on the remote control.{ source: forbe...
More About: Youtube , Boob Tube , Boob

Mozilla Gets a New CEO
2008-01-09 01:55:00
Mitchell Baker has stepped down as the CEO of Mozilla Corporation, where she helped make the Firefox Web Browser a potent rival to Microsoft's Internet Explorer.Baker is handing over the CEO job to John Lilly, Mozilla's chief operating officer, who becomes responsible for pushing out the updates to Firefox and Mozilla's Thunderbird e-mail software, the company announced Monday. Baker will retain her role as chairman and stay active within the group, she said.Lilly will be focused on getting the next version of Mozilla's Web browser, Firefox 3, out of the door. He also wants to be more open about how Mozilla operates and how it will support itself in the future. "I'd like us to start talking more in public about how the future looks for Mozilla," he wrote on his blog.Mozilla, which is a nonprofit foundation with a for-profit subsidiary, has been one of the most marked successes among open-source software developers. Although it has not reported 2007 revenues, it took in $66 mill...

Wikia Search goes live.. but don't expect a Google killer
2008-01-08 07:18:00
Jimmy Wales, the famous founder of Wikipedia, just unveiled an alpha version of his Wikia Search engine project. But despite the hype surrounding its appearance, online commentary has been mostly negative. Across the blogosphere, pundits pounced. But technologists at leading search companies defended Wales and said his efforts could benefit the entire industry.Arrington of Techcrunch wrote on his blog that the project is "a complete letdown" saying:Many of us have waited a year as the Jimmy Wales hype machine promised a human powered search engine that could take on Google . Tonight that search engine launched at alpha.search.wikia.com, and it may be one of the biggest disappointments I’ve had the displeasure of reviewing.Wales admitted that the current search results are "pretty bad," saying it will take a minimum of two years before Wikia Search produces results as good as the major search engines. Matt Cutts, who leads Google's Web spam team, on the other hand published a blog...
More About: Killer , Live , Expect

I won a shirt! w00t!
2008-01-07 23:39:00
I'm celebrating the new year not only with a bang.. but also with a new shirt. Yugatech just announced the winners of their 2008 New Year Giveaway and my name is included among the auction.ph t-shirt winners. w00t! w00t!Now.. anything for the Chinese New Year? ^_^
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CES 2008 kicks off with Gates' final keynote speech
2008-01-07 08:45:00
It's a new year and a new January CES (Consumer Electronics Show) expo is about to begin that will hopefully bring enough new stuff to keep us drooling for the rest of the year. Last night, Bill Gates delivered his last opening CES keynote after 12 occasions of doing so in the last 15 years.Bill Gates' made his final speech January 6 to kick off CES 2008. Explaining that thinking about how he would spend his last full day at the office has inspired a film, Gates presented a short funny video about such a day, starting with Gates driving to the office in a bog standard car, leaving his briefcase on the top of the car in a comedic fashion.The hilarity continued with guest star appearances from names as varied as Steven Spielberg, Hilary Clinton, George Clooney and a scene where Gates calls Bono and plays a Guitar Hero riff down the phone in an attempt to audition for a place in the band. The picture above is Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash helping Gates on a Guitar Hero bet.CES is an...
More About: Keynote , Final , Kicks , Speech

PayPal at last!
2008-01-07 07:03:00
After my Widgetbucks application has been approved.. I called Union Bank's customer service and asked for my visa electron expuse number, they gave it to me.. logged on to www.paypal.com.. and now, my PayPal account is finally verified.It was like 5 or 6 years ago when I got my first EON card.. a colleague of mine suggested that I can use it to purchase online. I actually didn't use it, I just thought having a visa electron card on my wallet looks cool, and I can show it off to other friends while saying "May ganito ka? Cyber Account? Wala ka nyaaaaan.." :)Five or six years later, when PayPal announced the good news that the Philippines can now receive payments, and that Visa Electron is supported.. I've decided to give it another try. A week before Christmas I applied for my second cyber card, and called this morning for my expuse (expanded use) number, a 4 digit number needed in verifying a PayPal account and also a requirement to lift the $100 sending limit in PayPal. After wa...
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Widgetbucks at last!
2008-01-07 01:04:00
Finally got an email this morning from Widgetbucks accepting my application.. w00t! w00t!Alright.. yes, I know it's late.. and yes, I know it doesn't anymore pay clicks coming from our native land Philippines, just like our other 3rd world neighbors.. but hey, at least I tried ^_^

Microsoft Gives Free Games As Apology to Frustrated XBOX Live Users
2008-01-05 23:50:00
Microsoft apologized to hundreds of frustrated XBOX Live users who had trouble logging in and accessing their XBOX Live service during the holiday season. As a result, the company promised to give away a free game to all its users.Microsoft said the problems had been caused by a surge of people signing up and using the gaming service. The growth in new users had been driven by sales of top titles such as Mass Effect and Halo 3.But despite this action, some users are still not contented. A suit was already filed against Microsoft, claiming that the XBOX Live outages represent a breach of contract and negligent misrepresentation for which the software is liable.--------------technorati tags: microsoft, microsoft xbox live, free xbox game
More About: Microsoft , Games , Xbox , Xbox Live , Free

Latest Mcafee Virus Definition Blocks Friendster and Other Sites, Marked Th
2008-01-05 00:31:00
A little over a week after Kaspersky's anti-virus software declared Windows Explorer was a virus, it appears that McAfee has had its own mistake, a flawed DAT file or virus definition got pushed out causing many user to get bogus warnings that several popular websites like Friendster , Ars Technica, Verizon Wireless, ESPN and others are running a malicious code.It seems that the latest batch of virus definitions – version 5197 - for the signature-based AV McAfee Virus Scan hadn't had quite enough testing, and was rolled out with a flaw giving the scanner a hair-trigger when checking websites on-the-fly. Users of the software will have had trouble accessing not-inconsiderable chunks of the web since installing the update, which is performed automatically at regular intervals without prompting the user.Users affected by the bug are recommended to upgrade to DAT file version 5198 or newer, which will be done automatically at the next scheduled check.--------------technorati tags: McA...
More About: Sites , Definition , Blocks

POGS 2008 (Philippine Online Gaming Summit) on January 13
2008-01-04 02:13:00
Attention all pinoy gamers! This year's Philippine Online Gaming Summit will be held at the Trinoma Activity Center this coming January 13 (Sunday).Just like the past POGS, expect some intense gaming tournaments, live musical performances, cos players, and exclusive freebies. You can also get a chance to win a gaming PC or a Nintendo Wii.For updates regarding POGS 2008 , visit www.gamemagazine.phIt was 2005 when the first Summit was held at the NBC Tent, Fort Bonifacio. Philippine Trade Training Center (PTTC) in Pasay City hosted the next following years' (2006 & 2007) event.--------------technorati tags: POGS, Philippine Online Gaming Summit, gaming events

so many plans.. so little determination..
2008-01-03 10:56:00
..that's why for this year there's only one thing i'm promising myself - to get back into shape.Ever since I bought my laptop, all i do is either surf the net or play (old) pc games. I used to do some quick exercises every other day, but now.. not even once a week. I also noticed that I'm buying and eating more food lately (thanks, adsense!), the reason why my midsection is becoming a little.. ehrr.. "salbabida-ish". So forget the other resolutions.. I'll just focus on one thing this year - exercise!Now sing with me.. "let's get physical.. physical.. I wanna get physica-aal.. let's get into physical.. let me hear your belly body talk.. your body talk.." (",)
More About: Plans

Netscape Browser to Die a Quiet Death in February 2008
2008-01-01 23:33:00
Come February 1, 2008, AOL will cease development on all Netscape browsers.. according to a blog post by Tom Drapeau, AOL's director of the Netscape brand. He recommends that anyone running a Netscape-branded browser make the switch to Mozilla Firefox, the open-source browser upon which the last few versions of Netscape have been based."AOL's focus on transitioning to an ad-supported web business leaves little room for the size of investment needed to get the Netscape browser to a point many of its fans expect it to be," he writes. "Given AOL's current business focus and the success the Mozilla Foundation has had in developing critically-acclaimed products, we feel it's the right time to end development of Netscape branded browsers, hand the reigns fully to Mozilla and encourage Netscape users to adopt Firefox."Originally released in 1994, Netscape Navigator was the underdog contender in the "browser wars" of the late 1990s, when it faced stiff competition from Microsoft's Inte...
More About: Death , Browser , Quiet , February 2008

Happy New Year!
2007-12-31 09:56:00
Here's to a Happy , Healthy and Wealthy New Year !HAPPY NEW YEAR TO US ALL!Now bring on the f'n rats! (",)
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Trailer for the Batman movie sequel - The Dark Knight
2007-12-31 07:58:00
For those of you like me who's also waiting for next year's sequel to Christopher Nolan's successful reboot of the Batman franchise, here's a new trailer on YouTube to get you more excited.Titled "The Dark Knight ," the next movie will feature the return of Christian Bale as millionaire playboy by day turned repressed psychopath by night Bruce Wayne aka Batman. Portraying the evil Joker will be Heath Ledger, an actor known for his versatility and not being shy in taking any kind of roles. Mrs. Cruise Katie Holmes will not be in this movie, turning down a salary estimated at between $1 million and $2 million. Other returning lead actors are Michael Caine (Alfred), Gary Oldman (Lt. Gordon) and Morgan Freeman (Lucius Fox). Aaron Eckhart will be appearing as Harvey Dent, more known as district attorney turned madman Two-Face. This somehow gives a hint of an outline for a possible third film.Some interesting facts about "The Dark Knight":Hugh Jackman and Josh Lucas were among actors ...
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Microsoft on Google's territory to promote Vista & Live
2007-12-30 23:34:00
Would you believe it? Just saw on TechCrunch that Microsoft has taken its marketing push for Windows Vista and Windows Live into enemy territory by offering short demonstration videos on Google's YouTube.Currently the WindowsVistaAndLive channel has 9 clips uploaded showing different features of Vista and Live which users can take advantage of - like online photo sharing, video calling, management of email accounts etc. This just shows that even Microsoft acknowledges the powerful market position of YouTube on the internet.MS has even left comments open on all videos so viewers can share their reactions, most comments i've read so far are negative posts like:"Vista sucks hard. Get a mac if you want to get more done without it crashing on you.""Fix Vista already MS!! Or better yet, make XP look sexier- now that would be a fix."" i like how vista tried to look all pretty like OSX, but they forgot to actually make it work well first"" quick TABS in explorer? geee i wish ...
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Hackers quickly move to exploit Bhutto assassination
2007-12-29 23:31:00
The tragic assassination of the former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has prompted malware authors to jump into action. Security experts are reporting a number of incidents where hackers have tried to con the curious into downloading a video of the assassination which delivers malware instead, according to the security experts McAfee Avert Labs Blog.McAfee quickly located 10 sites hosted on Blogger.com, Google Inc.'s blog service, that were spreading the fake codec (see picture below). The sites use the well-worn tactic of promising a video -- in this case one of Bhutto's assassination -- but telling Windows users that they need to install a new high-definition video codec, the program that decodes the digital data stream, to view the clip. Naturally, the so-called codec is no such thing, but is instead rigged code that downloads a variant of the Zlob Trojan horse, a back door that can infect the compromised PC with a wide range of other malware. "Even death isn't sacre...
More About: Exploit , Hackers , Move , Assassination

Sightings of new Adsense unit similar to Widgetbucks
2007-12-28 07:07:00
As I do my daily blog hopping (and dropping of entrecards at the same time), an article on Problogger caught my attention. A new interactive Adsense unit was reported to have been spotted on several sites.The picture above was seen on a UK site- Technical Itch. Seems like Google has begun testing new adsense formats that will compete with other popular shopping widgets like Widgetbucks and Chitika's eMinimall. Another test ad was also spotted on freakitude.com.The widget, i mean gadget, has the usual "Ads by Google" on the right side, and a link with the words "Add the Google Checkout gadget" on the left side. Does this mean ads displayed will only come from sellers of Google's Checkout service, not Adwords? There's actually a gadget similar to this, called "Shop with Google Checkout," which you can only add to your personalized iGoogle homepage.So, has anyone else seen these test ads? What's your say with this new adsense unit? Do you think Google will still allow publishers ...
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Google tweaking its Reader service regarding Privacy concerns
2007-12-27 23:17:00
Amidst a user backlash regarding changes to its Reader application, Google on Wednesday made slight adjustments to the service to enable more control over sharing capabilities. If you're not familiar about this issue, here's a short background: On December 14, Google announced that Reader, its RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed service, would link with contacts from GoogleTalk, the company's instant messenger, and Gmail, its web-based email service. Any feed tagged to "Share" in Reader would be visible to any Talk or Gmail contact.This resulted to immediate reactions from some users. Others were much harsher in their criticism, including many of those who have posted hundreds of messages to a thread on a Google Reader forum. There's even an instance of a user's holiday being ruined because of this.If you check out Google's official Reader blog, changes were already made on their sharing feature. You can now set "tags" to private or public. Each tag you share will get its ow...
More About: Service , Privacy , Tweaking

Where in the blue hell are the porn sites?!
2007-12-27 02:24:00
While dropping my entrecards like there's no tomorrow, I saw this funny picture from Sidebits.com, saying "This Is How The Internet Is Described In One Photo"By the looks of it, the internet is getting really crowded, hehe, and there's still a number of popular sites missing. Okay, there's myspace.. uhmm.. can you help me find facebook? Well I guess this is the American side of the web, that's why you can't see any pinoy sites in here. No pinoyexchange, no yehey, no tipidpc, no levelupgames, no friendster (yes, i'm under the impression that friendster is now owned by filipinos), no jobstreet, no yugatech, no boybastos.. hold on a sec.. speaking of bastos.. if this is the internet, then where are the porn sites? Oh wait, I see a subway below, maybe they're operating "underground."^_^--------------technorati tags: internet, web 2.0, humor, comics
More About: Sites , Blue , Hell

Amazon reports its best holiday ever
2007-12-27 01:16:00
Besides launching their 'revolutionary' product Kindle, Amazon Inc. has one more thing to be thankful for this Christmas. The company said that the 2007 holiday season was the best ever in its 13-year history. The Seattle-based retailer said Dec. 10 was its busiest day, when customers ordered 5.4 million items (that's 62.5 items per second, Einstein).Amazon said the hot-selling Wii video game, which is distributed by Nintendo of America, was selling at about 17 per second on the site, when the game was in stock.According to their "Amazon Worldwide 2007 Holiday Facts" (worldwide w/c includes www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.co.jp, and www.amazon.ca):Amazon shipped to over 200 countries.Amazon.com sold enough high-def DVD players to cover seven football fieldsTop sellers in video games and hardware included Nintendo Wii, "Super Mario Galaxy" and "Call of Duty 4."In DVDs, top sellers included "Harry Potter and the Order of ...

The Three Kings (of web search) charged of illegal gambling... ads.
2007-12-26 21:57:00
The Three Kings (i'm calling them that in the spirit of the Holiday season) of web search namely - King Microsoft, King Yahoo, and King Google were charged by the US Justice Department of taking money by accepting illegal gambling advertisements from online betting operations between 1997 and 2007.The companies agreed to pay a total $31.5 million to settle claims by the Justice Department. Being the most generous(?) and oldest among the trio, Micro$oft paid $21 million. Next to seniority is Yahoo contributing $7.5 million. While this "startup" company they called Google gave $3 million.The money collected will be used as a fund by the US government for various public awareness programs. Now the (31.5 million dollar) question is, how much money did these three search giants earned when they placed those illegal ads for ten years? --------------technorati tags: illegal gambling ads, microsoft, yahoo, google, illegal ads
More About: Search , Gambling , Illegal

Entrecard can be quite addictive..
2007-12-26 13:10:00
I first read about Entrecard on BlogComics, then Marhgil also joined and wrote an article about it. Seems like a lot of pinoy bloggers are already signing up and dropping their cards like crazy. Learning that this is a new and effective way of driving the needed traffic to my blog, I decided to join in.Indeed there's a lot of interesting sites listed, just by viewing the Campaign tab I'm sure this will consume a lot of my time. Blogs are arranged to 40 categories.. from arts, to celebrities, humor, technology, politics, pets, religion, sports etc. I placed mine under Computers and Internet, I don't know if it's the right niche coz I'm also thinking of putting this blog under News and Media, Technology, and Pets. How about 'Self Improvement?' :)I also checked those who have just recently joined, and guess who's next to me? Touched by an Angel! And the credits needed to advertise on her? just 2 credits (or was it 3?) Eniweys I advertised on her blog, all I have to do now is wa...
More About: Addict

Google 'powerless' to stop AdSense theft
2007-12-25 22:51:00
I personally encountered this before, I was checking one of my sites on an internet cafe months ago and was shocked when I saw porn site ads displayed on my adsense spots. I know it can't be from Google , coz if it's from them then they are already violating their own TOS. I was using Internet Explorer then so I tried checking it on Firefox, and there the regular adsense text ads can be seen. Found out that it was some kind of a malware that infected IE on the pc i was using. There I realized what if other users also have the same trojans on their pc, knowing that majority of web surfers are still using IE (w/c is more vulnerable to spywares), there is indeed a big possibility that this can affect not only mine but also other publishers' adsense earnings.Unfortunately, according to Nishad Herath, senior researcher at McAfee's AvertLabs, Google is powerless to stop the Trojan stealing Google's space on third-party sites."There's nothing a search vendor can do to protect against ...
More About: Adsense , Stop , Theft

God save the Queen.. and Her YouTube channel as well.
2007-12-24 02:13:00
Britain's 81-year-old Queen Elizabeth II, considered an icon of traditionalism, launched her own special "Royal Channel " on YouTube Sunday. The queen will use the popular video-sharing Web site to send out her 50th annual televised Christmas message, which she first delivered live to the nation and its colonies on Dec. 25, 1957."The queen always keeps abreast with new ways of communicating with people," Buckingham Palace said in a statement. "The Christmas message was podcast last year."Indeed the internet's technology makes messages like these more accessible to younger people and those in other countries. YouTube has been used to deliver important statements and events, making the youth aware of what's happening around.. like the Presidential Debate in the US, and the Wowowee cheating rehearsal here in the Philippines. So don't be surprised if next time you see the Pope delivering his Christmas, New Year or Easter message through his "Paypal.. ehrr.. Papal Channel" as well :)-...
More About: Youtube , Save , The Queen

My late(?) participation to Auction.ph's eMoney giveaway contest
2007-12-23 07:15:00
Just passed by Yuga's blog and saw that only few participated on one of their raffles so they have to extend it until December 26. I was hesitant to join first since this blog is just new.. but they still need a couple of participating bloggers, so I decided to post an article about this contest.The promo is called "The Php15,000 e-Money Giveaway" from Yugatech and Auction .ph there are three ways to win the contest and you can win Php300 worth of eMoney on each of them: Spread the word (not the virus) just mention this contest on your blog (which is what I'm doing right now thank you very much);Name your Gadget - wherein you just choose the gadget you want to get on their listings (unfortunately, I don't have the time to visit their website lately); andAre you into Auctions? - mention your Auction.ph username and how long you've been a member. I actually joined Auction.ph when they first announced it on pex, and that was a long time ago, their daily e-Money raffles got my attent...
More About: Contest , Participation , Late

Are you a moron? Click here now!
2007-12-22 23:16:00
Ah, what a dumb year it was! And with that Fortune created the "101 Dumbest Moments in Business" for the year 2007.This particular adsense unit shown below just brought Google into the said list:To test Google's ability to block harmful advertising, Belgian IT security consultant Didier Stevens posts an ad that reads "Is your PC virus-free? Get it infected here!" It is accepted by Google and displayed 259,723 times; 409 web surfers actually clicked on the ad.Other tech groups also included on the list were Apple, Sony and Intel. One group I noticed missing on the list is Bill Gates and co. Does this mean Microsoft didn't do anything stupid this year?--------------technorati tags: dumbest moments, business, google, adsense
More About: Click

More TV viewers turn to web
2007-12-22 05:29:00
More television viewers are turning to the Internet to watch videos, films and TV episodes, according to a new survey.Harris Interactive conducted the survey and Joan Barten Kline, a spokeswoman for the company, said in a statement: "Viewing videos online seems to inspire a sense of adventure, particularly among younger viewers." More than one-third of viewers overall and half of those 18 to 24 said there is something they really enjoy about discovering a cool video online. "They seem to take particular pride in their finds online and share them with friends," Barten Kline added.More than 42 percent of YouTube viewers said they visit the site frequently, up from 33 percent last year. Apart from YouTube, which most people favored because they felt it had almost every video they could find, 43 percent said they have watched a video on a TV-network Web site, followed by 35 percent on news sites and less than 30 percent on search engines such as Yahoo and Google.This is no different he...
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