Microsoft makes $45 billion bid for Yahoo

Microsoft makes $45 billion bid for Yahoo
Just in case you have been living under a rock today: Microsoft has approached Yahoo with a US$ 44.6 billion offer. The offer represents a 62% premium over the current Yahoo share price. Looks like a good deal for Yahoo's investors.

If this ... (more in the full post)

My talk on: The ihug webmail interface...
It seems they changed the interface slightly (after the nearly day-long failure and short shut down after ):


First thing, they changed the logo to Vodafone/ihug - another sign of what's to come in April.

Now instead of having a frame on top of the mail page all the time, the interface covers the entire screen for once - or at least 700px down - so people with high res screens still have plenty of unused real estate.
But - it only just fits in a 1024px-wide screen - so people still on their aging 800x600 or 640x480 screens will have a very screwed up webmail interface!

Icons now have text on the right (now we know what they're for!) and the main items have been shifted up.

Things that need fixing / improving (some were already there when they upgraded their very old webmail system):

• "Help" doesn't work (it worked before, the help page has disappeared)
• If you select a message once, deselect it, and try to select the same message again, it will fail to do so - a reload of Inbox fixes it, or select a different message and select it again. (stupid)
  
  Similarily, clicking "Select: All" selects, clicking it again looks like if they're selected but they aren't. Clicking it again doesn't "select all" no more.
• The Mac-like search bar doesn't work (very stupid)
• The password field screws up in IE7... the normal XP round password characters aren't there... strange...
  
  
• The Vodafone/ihug logo is fuzzy and it doesn't blend in well (don't be lazy... make a better suited image!). It should also say 'webmail' under it - makes more sense when it links to the webmail interface and also reminds the user that they are in the webmail service.

But (and it's a very BIG BUT) - it's WAYYYYYY better than what they had before - it's definitely catched up to today's mail services. Long time customers of ihug were hoping for it to come for years.

Hope the guys from Vodafone see this and hopefully fix things up! It would make the experience just that little better.
(and if you can, reduce the number of failures and shut downs... that would be VERY helpful. )

Wikipedia on Vodafone live!
If you are in New Zealand and use Vodafone live! services, check the Mobile Wikipedia, developed by Instinct.

The service is a WAP interface to Wikipedia and can be accessed from Vodafone live! > Communities > The Answer Is Here.

A few comments though:

- I tried it using a Palm Treo 500v (screenshot) which is the first Windows Mobile Vodafone live! compatible handset. It all worked ok but the articles themselves were not showing any formatting If you test this with other handsets (Nokia, Sony Ericcson, etc) please leave a comment how the experience goes.

- Why didn't Vodafone use something like "Mobile Wikipedia" in the link, instead of "The Answer Is Here"? It would probably attract more attention.

Good luck with the new service.

Windows Server 2008 Edition Feature Differences
So, now that Windows Server 2008 is released, what editions are available?

Here they are,

1) Windows Server 2008 Web

2) Windows Server 2008 Standard

3) Windows Server 2008 Enterprise

4) Windows Server 2008 Datacenter

And there is also an version for Itanium based systems.

Below is a comparison chart,

(Click to enlarge)

One password for the Web? Internet giants back idea - Atlanta Journal Constitution

Begalet - Universal Personal Transport
This is so cool I want one.

From Scarab Aviation Labs based in Russia comes the Begalet - Universal Personal Transport.



It can be used on land, water and snow (with modification) and it can fly!

The craft weighs just 55Kg's when empty and can reach a maximum speed of 80kph on land and up to 160kph in the air (according to some reports). It seems to be a motorised paraglider but Scarab also have some fixed wing versions in development.

It uses a parachute in case of emergency landing when airborne and a bouyancy device to stop it sinking when on the water.

The engine delivers just 30hp with a range of up to 400km so it should be quite economical to run as well.

At Kiwi Foo Camp 2008
I am in Warkworth (New Zealand) with other 150 technologists, developers, thinkers, writers, entrepreneurs participating in the second Kiwi Foo Camp, organised by O'Reilly's Nat Torkington and his crew.

It is an amazing mix of people and knowledge around here. Radio NZ is broadcasting live from the premises, discussions are going on almost around the clock - and this time we didn't get lost on the way here thanks to... technology (gotta love GPS, Google Maps Mobile and cellular data).

Talking about wireless data we have wireless LAN here, but you can imagine how a crowd of 150 technologists can quickly overload the tubes. So I am using my Telecom data card. I noticed that Telecom New Zealand has upgraded this site to CDMA EVDO since the same time last year, but Vodafone New Zealand still provides the same non-usable GPRS service around here.

The conversations around here are not NDA, but it's a matter of principle to only disclose things if you ask and receive a positive response.

I gotta go now for one of my sessions. Here are a few pictures from the opening:

eeeXubuntu booting great from SDHC on Asus eeePC
I blew away XP on my eeePC and restored the original Xandros - great little OS in Easy Mode with iceWM. I also enabled advanced mode (a full KDE desktop) using pimpmyeee.sh (Google it - its a no-brainer quick way to enabled KDE). You can switch back ... (more in the full post)

TheFreeNet - mesh wi-fi in Wellington metropolitan areas
During the last weekend at Kiwi Foo Camp I came across a very interesting project called The Free Net. Rod Drury went as far as saying this was one of the Best of Foo.

The whole idea is to use accessible wireless mesh repeaters to extend a wireless LAN (wi-fi) network and cover Wellington with free wi-fi. The Meraki solution was adopted by the project because they manufacture a few hardware options including an indoor version (pictured), an outdoor version and an upcoming solar battery-powered outdoor version.

Individuals and companies would "donate" part of their bandwidth to the project. Companies could subsidise this through advertising shown in a narrow bar on top of the webpages visited (I saw that and it's really not a problem).

The project is being initially sponsored by Webstock 2008 and Govis, who are creating a fund with their donations of NZ$5,000 and $9,000 respectively to purchase those devices and donate to individuals and companies who want to start sharing their networks.

This will be a lot of devices, since the Meraki indoors costs only US$49 and the Meraki outdoor costs US$99.

The whole thing is based on a "pay forward" concept where you don't charge others to use your bandwidth while you can use someone else's bandwidth for free.

The project established a 1 GB limit that any MAC address can use during the month which is a lot in a shared model aimed to be used only when you are away from your own network.

Hopefully with more people joining in all the traffic won't be going throug a handful of companies and individuals.

You don't need to donate your bandwidth though. You can donate the space and power required for these devices to run. Providing they are in range to another device then the network will be extended and Internet access will be provided through the shared gateways in the system.

At the end of the day you will be hard pressed to find individuals who can afford sharing their bandwidth in th current New Zealand broadband landscape. In this country there's no concept of "unlimited" bandwidth. People are still being charged in plans that go from a minimum of 1GB (yes, believe me), going through 5GB, 10GB and so on.

We are here on a 80 GB plan, for example, and only use about 60 GB a month. I would be happy to share the other 20 GB but there is currently no way to limit this on the project. You can limit the bandwidth throughput (to say 512 Kbps instead of the native 10 Mbps on my cable conneciton) but you can't limit the number of users.

There are other projects and products that allow people to share their Internet connections around, but none incorporate the mesh aspect of this project which means it does not require every single node to be directly connected to the Internet. You can have a look at FON (not available in New Zealand), Tomizone or Zenbu (both New Zealand-based businesses).

FON allows you to share your connection for free, while using other people's connections for free as well. Or to make it available for free to other people who share their connections, while charging "visitors" that do not share their own connections.

Tomizone and Zenbu both work on the same commercial view. You purchase a router with a modified firmware and can then establish your own hotspot service, charging people for access.

I would be much more inclined to use the FON model for example, to cover the basic connection cost, but wouldn't mind going completely commercial to cover all the costs.

What do you think?

Busy Studying for Exam 70-431
Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist:
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Implementation and Maintenace

Studying via Self-Paced Training Kit by Solid Quality Learning

Chapter 8: Managing XML Data is a killer...