Update on the Yahoo / Microsoft Deal

Yesterday I posted about the potential Microsoft / Yahoo deal. Well today, way early in the morning, I guess the deal was signed. It's all over the sites I search for news. What this means, and from Lifehacker.com, is the article "Yahoo Will Switch To Bing Search Engine".

From Yahoo.com itself presents an article titled "What our Microsoft Deal Means To You". Posted by another source, one of my favorite news sites, TechCrunch, says this about the following deal:

One of the most apparent facts in the announcement that was
not known beforehand by any blogs or news sites, is the longevity of the
agreement: 10 years, which is like an eternity in the Internet space. Microsoft
will acquire an exclusive 10 year license to Yahoo’s core search technologies,
which is basically the same as saying it just gained unparalleled access to the
blueprint of Yahoo Search, something that can only lead to improvement of its
Bing search engine.

The above is titled "Microsoft-Yahoo Search Deal: The Most Important Facts (and Some Opinions)". Pretty good article about what's to come from both the companies.

Also yesterday I posted something regarding the iPhone. Now, there is news that Forbes.com (yeah, an unlikely source that I would post from, I know) posted an article titled "How To Hijack 'Every iPhone In the World'". It's regarding how on Thursday (tomorrow), two researchers plan to reveal an unpatched iPhone bug that could virally infect phones via SMS (or text messages). Pretty Crazy stuff. I read that if you have an iphone (or any text messaging phone for that matter), and you get a text message with one square character (which on the computer is used to denote characters now used properly, or like copy and pasted text that doesn't translate over), turn your phone off. Turn it back on, then delete it. Or don't touch it at all, I forgot what I read because I'm really hoping not to run into this.

Anyway, I'm going to Battlegrounds, WA today with this guy from work to pick up some books. We're renting a Penske, and hopefully it has AC, because I'm not looking forward to driving an hour and a half in a metal oven.

That's all for now, peace yo

random thoughts\\ news

Today was burning hot in the warehouse at BookByte, i was roasting my face off for goodness sakes. But we (or at least I) got alot done, and in I shelved like 7 or 8 rows of books. Good place to work, but hot in the 100º+.

Some crazy stuff I saw today. This was kinda intersting, where the City of Chicago is being sued for $50,000 for a twitter comment. The statement made, 140 words or less, must have been pretty harsh or direct - check out the full story at Techdirt.

Also Barnes and Nobles is now hosting free WiFi at their stores...so that's perfect we have one so close....like in Clackamas. The best place to go now if you want wireless late at night, in Salem, is Government Cup - open til 11, so you can't beat that.

Microsoft has this new search engine called http://www.blogger.com/www.bing.com. It's supposed to be the next big thing. They've done some TV advertising that's decently humorous, but now they're asking for Yahoo's help, and within 24 hours is supposed to come to a decision if they are going to strike this deal. What it's on, is kinda vague. It's even supposed to be a private negotiation, yet I know about it. As well as this article, which came from the news and list of other sites sharing the same newws from this cool site called techmeme.com. Under each news teaser, there is a "Discussion:" list with different sites reporting the related article teaser. Pretty cool.

Also, I just thought I would post this for anyone who comes across this blog that a) uses Mozilla Firefox and b) has and uses a Twitter account on a regular basis, take a look at the Firefox Add On screenshot below:



You hit Ctrl + Shift + M to make the window Pop up, and hit it to close. but every time you restart your browser, it tells you how many posts you missed from those you follow (as demonstrated as 31 in the pic). Visit TwitterFox.net, or the Mozilla Official Add-On page for more info.

Also, the last thing that i saw today that drew interest was actually from one of my favorite sites: lifehacker. As lifehacker put it "An Arugment Against Buying an iPhone." This is also on wired.com, stating iPhone Jailbreaking Could Crash Cell Towers, Apple Says.

Alright, enough for now. time to read and hit the hay to enjoy another scorching day in the warehouse tomorrow.

Ever tried Linux? usBuntu creates Bootable Linux USB Drives

Never Tried Linux? Here's Your Chance.

If you've never had the simple and beautiful lubuxry of having Linux installed as your primary Operating System (OS), then you should check out the uBuntu Live Creator (lifehacker.com) and make a bootable version onto your USB Drive. They offer "live" versions of many linux Distributors such as Gnoppix, openSUSE, fedora (my other favorite) and of course, uBuntu.

You download this program as an image file (.ISO), and much like you "burn" .ISO files to CD's using programs like PowerISO or MagicISO (I like PowerISO more, & are both free [or to try at least for 30 days, then you just delete and reinstall =] ]), you burn a copy to your USB drive, and on startup, it boots into uBuntu 9.04 Desktop edition. Tadaaaaaaaa

Be the way, you might have to do this [pc only] if it continues to boot into Windows Vista or XP (the exact same thing you'd do if you were forced to boot to a cd...say to reformat a computer). Hit either f8, or f10 a bunch before you see the windows loading loadbar (or look for the button that indicates to go into your BIOS). This should take you to a blue screen, do not be afraid, this is your BIOS - Basic Input/Output System - one of the most powerful features on your computer. Here, you can overclock your system (to squeeze more juice outta your company -like instead of 2.3 MHz, you get 2.6 MHz) and system time settings and a bunch of random things.

You're going to look for something like boot order and arrange it so that a CD or USB boots in order before your hard drive. Why this won't affect your computer in the long run is it's doubtful once you put files back on your USB drive it's going to boot into your word document or all your pictures you took, that's not an .ISO file and isn't meant to be a bootable variable, so don't worry about it =]

This is something fun to do when you want to say that you're a 1337 h4ck3r and have indeed operated in the royale and ultimate Operation System - Unix. We called it Linux because of all the distributors (such as the ones listed above) that make it possible to run, well, UNIX. that's the short version, I gotta hit the hay. Try this. If for no other reason to see the amazing desktop and the simplicity of every movement..it's hard to explain. You also won't wonder where Apple's desktop got it's look - it's almost identical with some drastic differences (such as installing programs via a command prompt (example of some commands below) ....real fun, try this bootable version just for fun - I promise you'll be happy you did.

Until next time..later my one reader for the moment - Becca haha =]

Graphics

These are two of my photos I've made using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. I love these programs, along with the rest of the adobe creative suite. Currently I'm using Adobe Creative Suite 3, but someday I'll save up enough money for Adobe Creative Suite 4...that'll be one of my goals by the time I graduate college.


So to all whose viewing my blogs...thank you.

new...renovated

I was thinking how my sister [http://beccalenamann.blogspot.com/] had a blog and how sometimes I looked at her blog, which inspiried me to get my own. So I logged into my gmail account, then went to blogger.com. and like clockwork, it logged me in blogger.com, saying I already ahd registered a profile, and had 5 posts. Looks like I was experiementing awhile ago, but now I'm actually going to use it. There are so many options under settings, and so many programs to help post new blogs that I'm going to explore all this when I get off work.

by the way, if you're a college student, a teacher k-12, or anyone who's taken a college course and wants to buy or sell their textbooks, http://www.bookbyte.com buys and sells new and used textbooks. Keep this ins mind next time you need to buy that $400 book for your course.

More later, i'm stoked I have this.