Ubuntu for Mobile Phones, A Game Changer?

With the mobile war between Apple's iOS, Google's Android and Microsoft's Windows. The arrival of Ubuntu will be something. We all knew the king of the open source in mobile as of now is the Android, with Ubuntu coming over, will the developers turn their coats? Will Android lose their fair share of the "masses" or will iOS and Windows finally dominate the mobile market as they dominated the desktop?

Metro: The Future of Microsoft

Microsoft recently unveiled that the interface of the coming Windows 8 will be based on Metro. Microsoft's new design language that targets tablet PCs and smart phones. Will Microsoft finally abandon the desktop PC? Will they concentrate on mobile computing? How will they fair with Apple's iOS and Google's Android? Read on.

Starcraft 2 Release Date Announced

Blizzard Entertainment recently announced the official release date of their most awaited game Starcraft 2. Mark your calendars on July 27,2010 as we welcome the sequel we have been all waiting for.

Visit the official site

Mozilla uses Kanye West internet meme to promote Mozilla

Mozilla, or some employees of Mozilla are using the Kanye West internet meme to promote the Mozilla Service Week. Simply genius.

Google Chrome OS

After the success of Google's Android Mobile OS, Google announced late Tuesday that it is working on a Linux based Chrome OS as an operating system for the Web. It will be available late in 2010. Details after the jump

According to Google blog

Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we're already talking to partners about the project, and we'll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.

Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We're designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.

Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies. And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform.

Oracle to buy Sun Microsystems

Oracle Corporation is indeed buying Sun Microsystems for $7.4 billion after I.B.M. failed on sealing the deal.

Oracle said the deal is valued at $5.6 billion excluding cash and debt. Oracle is calling Sun’s Java “the most important software” it has ever acquired. The deal, which is expected to close in the Summer and was unanimously approved by Sun’s board of directors, has massive implications for the future openness of Java and MySQL.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. April 20, 2009 Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: JAVA) and Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) announced today they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Oracle will acquire Sun common stock for $9.50 per share in cash. The transaction is valued at approximately $7.4 billion, or $5.6 billion net of Sun’s cash and debt.

“We expect this acquisition to be accretive to Oracle’s earnings by at least 15 cents on a non-GAAP basis in the first full year after closing. We estimate that the acquired business will contribute over $1.5 billion to Oracle’s non-GAAP operating profit in the first year, increasing to over $2 billion in the second year. This would make the Sun acquisition more profitable in per share contribution in the first year than we had planned for the acquisitions of BEA, PeopleSoft and Siebel combined,” said Oracle President Safra Catz.

“The acquisition of Sun transforms the IT industry, combining best-in-class enterprise software and mission-critical computing systems,” said Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. “Oracle will be the only company that can engineer an integrated system - applications to disk - where all the pieces fit and work together so customers do not have to do it themselves. Our customers benefit as their systems integration costs go down while system performance, reliability and security go up.”

There are substantial long-term strategic customer advantages to Oracle owning two key Sun software assets: Java and Solaris. Java is one of the computer industry’s best-known brands and most widely deployed technologies, and it is the most important software Oracle has ever acquired. Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracle’s fastest growing business, is built on top of Sun’s Java language and software. Oracle can now ensure continued innovation and investment in Java technology for the benefit of customers and the Java community.

The Sun Solaris operating system is the leading platform for the Oracle database, Oracle’s largest business, and has been for a long time. With the acquisition of Sun, Oracle can optimize the Oracle database for some of the unique, high-end features of Solaris. Oracle is as committed as ever to Linux and other open platforms and will continue to support and enhance our strong industry partnerships.

“Oracle and Sun have been industry pioneers and close partners for more than 20 years,” said Sun Chairman Scott McNealy. “This combination is a natural evolution of our relationship and will be an industry-defining event.”

“This is a fantastic day for Sun’s customers, developers, partners and employees across the globe, joining forces with the global leader in enterprise software to drive innovation and value across every aspect of the technology marketplace,” said Jonathan Schwartz, Sun’s CEO, “From the Java platform touching nearly every business system on earth, powering billions of consumers on mobile handsets and consumer electronics, to the convergence of storage, networking and computing driven by the Solaris operating system and Sun’s SPARC and x64 systems. Together with Oracle, we’ll drive the innovation pipeline to create compelling value to our customer base and the marketplace.”

“Sun is a pioneer in enterprise computing, and this combination recognizes the innovation and customer success the company has achieved. Our largest customers have been asking us to step up to a broader role to reduce complexity, risk and cost by delivering a highly optimized stack based on standards,” said Oracle President Charles Phillips. “This transaction will preserve and enhance investments made by our customers, while we continue to work with our partners to provide customers with choice.”

The Board of Directors of Sun Microsystems has unanimously approved the transaction. It is anticipated to close this summer, subject to Sun stockholder approval, certain regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.

Source: Sun Microsystems with heads-up from Mike Abundo

Symantec's PIFTS.exe blunder

Symantec, the company behind the famous security solution Norton, had a bad update on their Symantec products, which led to millions of complains and internet meme.

PIFTS (Product Information Framework Troubleshooter) is a diagnostic program that Symantec periodically sends out to users to anonymously collect information such as the operating system and version number of the product being used in order to get a snapshot of its user base. The troublesome, unsigned PIFTS.exe file is no longer being distributed, but it never represented any kind of security threat, Kyle said. "If a user would have accepted it they should have been fine, and if they declined it they should have been fine."

Problems started around 4:30 p.m. Pacific Time on Monday, when Norton Internet Security and Norton Antivirus 2006 and 2007 users started receiving error messages connected to a Symantec software update that tried to download a program called PIFTS.exe.

Around 7:30 p.m. Pacific Time, Symantec noticed that its Norton support forums were being flooded with blank messages that had PIFTS.exe in their subject line. Within three hours there were 600 posts about PIFTS.exe. The posts contained no text, only subjects such as "IF PIFTS.EXE WAS HERE, THEN WHO WAS PHONE?" and "OH GOD YOU GOT CHOCOLATE IN MY PIFTS."

Symantec began deleting the messages, assuming they were from spammers.

Soon the SANS Internet Storm Center had picked up on PIFTS.exe and noted that Symantec discussion-group messages were being deleted. Noting that messages mentioning the mysterious file name were being deleted from Symantec's support forums, SANS said that something "truly bizarre was going on."

By now, Norton users were becoming worried.

"Norton Users Worried By PIFTS.exe, Stonewalling By Symantec,"

Then the hackers stepped in. By midday Tuesday, criminals began posting malicious Web pages that would pop up high on Google searches for PIFTS.exe.

"With parts of the Internet flustering over the Symantec / PIFTS.exe debacle, hackers have set out to poison search engines in an attempt to cash in on unsuspecting computer users,"

wrote Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant with security vendor Sophos. Cluley said that three of the top five Google results for a pifts.exe search led to pages that redirected users to malicious Web pages, which tried to install fake antivirus software on victims' systems.

Late Tuesday afternoon, these malicious results were still turning up high in Google searches for PIFTS.exe.

"Of course, the fake anti-virus scan is not related to Symantec or the PIFTS.exe file," Cluley added.

"It's just that the hackers are using the interest surrounding that file at the moment to generate traffic to their dangerous Web sites."

4chan the community site that spawned a lot of memes added salt on the wound and almost all of their threads PIFTS.exe is part of the topic

Don't use Windows for advertising

Yep, you read it right guys. Let this be a lesson to all. I found this while walking around Trinoma



or better yet, don't use it for business. Don't let it near your business or you might end up as this

Google launches Chrome as their very own browser

Introducing the Google Chrome.

Google Chrome is a browser that uses a new JavaScript version 8 and CSS version 3 and most important of all, it's open source. Read more about it and where to download it after the jump.




quote from Google:

A fresh take on the browser

At Google, we spend much of our time working inside a browser. We search, chat, email and collaborate in a browser. And like all of you, in our spare time, we shop, bank, read news and keep in touch with friends - all using a browser. People are spending an increasing amount of time online, and they're doing things never imagined when the web first appeared about 15 years ago.

Since we spend so much time online, we began seriously thinking about what kind of browser could exist if you started from scratch and built on the best elements out there. We realized that the web had evolved from mainly simple text pages to rich, interactive applications and that we needed to completely rethink the browser. What we really needed was not just a browser, but also a modern platform for web pages and applications, and that's what we set out to build.

So today we're releasing the beta version of a new open source browser: Google Chrome.

On the surface, we designed a browser window that is streamlined and simple. To most people, it isn't the browser that matters. It's only a tool to run the important stuff - the pages, sites and applications that make up the web. Like the classic Google homepage, Google Chrome is clean and fast. It gets out of your way and gets you where you want to go.

Under the hood, we were able to build the foundation of a browser that runs today's complex web applications much better . By keeping each tab in an isolated "sandbox", we were able to prevent one tab from crashing another and provide improved protection from rogue sites. We improved speed and responsiveness across the board. We also built V8, a more powerful JavaScript engine, to power the next generation of web applications that aren't even possible in today's browsers.

This is just the beginning - Google Chrome is far from done. We've released this beta for Windows to start the broader discussion and hear from you as quickly as possible. We're hard at work building versions for Mac and Linux too, and we'll continue to make it even faster and more robust.

We owe a great debt to many open source projects, and we're committed to continuing on their path. We've used components from Apple's WebKit and Mozilla's Firefox, among others - and in that spirit, we are making all of our code open source as well. We hope to collaborate with the entire community to help drive the web forward.

The web gets better with more options and innovation. Google Chrome is another option, and we hope it contributes to making the web even better.

Download it here

Mozilla about to set the world record for most downloads in 24 hours?

What an incredibly long title lol! Mozilla is trying to set the Guinness Record for most number of downloads in 24 hours in a software right this moment with their Firefox 3. Visit here for details

Windows 7 to be release on 2009

Like I was just grasping on the Microsoft Windows Vista then this came around. Talk about rapid development. Details after the jump

Formerly known as Blackcomb then changed to Vienna, now it is simply called Windows 7. The latest operating system of Microsoft under development has now reached its Milestone 1 (M1) version 6.1.6519.1 which was given to key Microsoft partners for testing, it required Vista service pack 1 and installs a dual boot feature. Windows 7 features MinWin as its kernel, a minimalistic approach to running applications giving fast output. A new wordpad and paint and the return of the Display options, previously removed from Vista. A new feature called Windows Health Center, that monitors your computer from CPU temp to memory distribution. And finally, Windows 7 will support Virtual Hard Disk.

A Windows Server 7 is also under works for server based computers.