Tag - news

Facebook Has to Make an Offer That Sicilian Mafia Can’t Refuse [PIC]

January 21, 2009
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facebook GiveUpInternet | I heard that from NyTimes.  Here is the article; “Your college roommate is on Facebook. So are your cousins and colleagues and friends. But guess who else may find Facebook a great way to stay in touch?

Some people in Sicily who know a few things about networking.

In recent weeks, the Italian authorities have begun investigating Facebook discussion groups devoted to convicted Mafiosi, concerned that some members might be more than fans.

At the same time, a campaign calling on Facebook to remove pro-Mafia pages has been gaining momentum, while thousands of Facebook members have joined new anti-Mafia groups.

The debate spilled over from civil society to online society after recent news reports revealed that more than 2,000 people had joined Facebook interest groups hailing Salvatore Riina, the so-called boss of bosses, known as Totò, who was arrested in 1993 after more than two decades on the run; and his successor, Bernardo Provenzano, arrested in 2006 after four decades in hiding. Both are serving multiple life sentences.” Read The Rest

The Robots.txt File of WhiteHouse.gov | America Do Not Want to Remember

January 21, 2009
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White House Here is the previous Robots.txt file of WhiteHouse.gov

Disallow: /search
Disallow: /query.html
Disallow: /omb/search
Disallow: /omb/query.html
Disallow: /expectmore/search
Disallow: /expectmore/query.html
Disallow: /results/search
Disallow: /results/query.html
Disallow: /earmarks/search
Disallow: /earmarks/query.html
Disallow: /help
Disallow: /360pics/text
Disallow: /911/911day/text
Disallow: /911/heroes/text
The Full Index

And Here is the News Robots.txt file of WhiteHouse

User-agent: *
Disallow: /includes/
http://www.whitehouse.gov/robots.txt

If you are an internet people but not a developer, you may not know robots.txt

The robot exclusion standard, also known as the Robots Exclusion Protocol or robots.txt protocol, is a convention to prevent cooperating web spiders and other web robots from accessing all or part of a website which is otherwise publicly viewable. Robots are often used by search engines to categorize and archive web sites, or by webmasters to proofread source code. The standard complements Sitemaps, a robot inclusion standard for websites. via Wikipedia

JohnChow.com Hacked For A While [PIC]

January 19, 2009
3 Comments
4 Views

A few minutes ago, i saw “Die Spammer, Die!” text on a blank page at johnchow.com. Now it’s gone. Oh John Chow, why people love you and hate you at the same time? anyway… May you recover soon the problem.

BenjiBrin.com Registered | Maybe Sergey Brin and Anne Wojcicki did this, Who knows?

January 19, 2009
14 Views

benji-brin ValleyWag wrote a post about the son of internet’s boss. Here it is “Some Google users feel lucky. And others are born lucky. Benji Brin, the baby son of Google cofounder Sergey Brin and biotech entrepreneur Anne Wojcicki, falls in the latter category.

Valleywag has just learned the name of the first heir to the Google fortune, who was born in late December. But domain records suggest his parents may already be planning young Benji’s career on the Web. (Either that, or some mischievous sort privy to the family’s secrets snapped up the kid’s name as a website address.) On Friday, benjibrin.com got registered using a private-domains service to hide the customer name.”  Rest and Source

Want to Know Why People Don’t Respect Police? Read the Comments in This Cop Forum on the Oscar Grant Shooting

January 15, 2009
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lego police A Forum Thread Can Give You the Answer;
“Here are some choice posts”“Any number of reasons that he may have shot…..you can see from the video that there is a struggle before the shot is fired (even before the officer pulls his weapon)…..the suspect may have reached underneath him, leading the shooter to believe that he was attempting to retrieve a weapon….. There isnt enough info to call it a bad shoot…….not by a long shot….. btw….saying ‘liberal media’ is redundant…….esp. in SF area…….” by Forum Member LA DEP who says he’s an officer for the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department.

Forum member Brenden then adds:

“I don’t know why people worry themselves with such things. The people that get shot are the people who put lives at risk. That cop probably saved the taxpayers over 200K in Courtfee’s and other convictions anyways. Maybe he even saved someone from getting killed.”

jb5722, who describes himself as a sworn police officer from North Carolina writes: “I would say that I’m sure the officer had his reasons for firing his weapon,” after adding earlier that if a reporter’s mouth is open they are lying.

Tex4720, who describes himself as 23 year veteran patrol sergeant from Texas, speculates that: “the guy may have repeatedly told the officers he was going to shoot them and then reached under his body. Or a million different things that would prove in the end that this was a righteous shoot.”

One member, scratched 13, who describes himself as a police officer from the South goes so far as to suggest that the video of the incident may have been faked.

People wonder why some people hate the police. They wonder why people don’t respect the police. They wonder why protesters around the Bay Area have been protesting with chants of “F*** the police,” for the past week. All I can say is that asinine cops making comments like the ones above in a public forum are as big a part of the problem as anything. How a cop behaves in online forums and the words they choose can be amplified and magnified.

As much as many of these comments made by cops are offensive, just the overall tone of a forum like this troubles me. Referring to shootings as “righteous,” claiming that taxpayers are saved court fees when someone is killed, even the signatures that many of these cops choose to use as their taglines (Fear not the night. Fear that which walks the night. And *I* am that which walks the night.) just goes to show me that much of the hatred towards the police is due at least in part to the attitudes that comes from the cops themselves.”

The answer is in this Forum Thread(view thread)

We heard that via Thomas Hawk

Google is Shutting Down; Google Video, Google Notebook, Catalog Search, Jaiku and DodgeBall

January 15, 2009
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google logo According to ReadWriteWeb; Google is Shutting Down; Google Video, Google Notebook, Catalog Search, Jaiku and DodgeBall. Here is the article;  “A number of Google services just announced that they are about to shut down. The Google Video team announced that it will shut down uploads in a few months, while the Google Notebook team announced that it is stopping development (the service will continue to function, however). According to Danny Sullivan, Google is also closing Jaiku, a Twitter-like micro-blogging service that was bought by Google before it even launched, but which has lingered in invite-only mode ever since. Google Catalog search, which made shopping catalogs searchable, will also be closed soon.

Update: Google will release the Jaiku code under the open source Apache license, so that other organizations can pick up where the Google team left off. It is not clear if current users will be able to transfer their accounts.

Another, relatively unknown project that is being closed now, is the Mashup Editor, which was based on the Google App Engine, and never left a very limited, private beta.

Will You Miss These Services?

That Google would shut down Google Video is not exactly a surprise, given that Google’s own YouTube is far more popular. Google’s Catalog Search will probably only be missed by very few users. We are, however, sad to see Google Notebook (one of our favorite Firefox addons), Jaiku, and Dodgeball go. These services had a lot of potential – and a lot of it remained untapped as Jaiku and Dodgeball remained almost unchanged after they were acquired by Google.

However, the current economic climate is probably making even a highly profitable company like Google focus on its core assets. None of the services that are being closed now had a lot of users and probably brought in very little to no revenue. “ Rest and Source

Give Up Internet‘s Note: Google Video was waste of bandwith for Google, absolutely it’s not a surprise but what will happen to existing videos? Especially long-lenght videos.  Will Google move those videos to Youtube? If yes, Youtube’s Video Length will be upgraded?


Steve Jobs Probably Won’t Come Back to Apple

January 15, 2009
31 Views

STEVE JOBS Steve Jobs’ medical leave from Apple is likely to be permanent, analysts say.

In a letter to Apple staff on Wednesday, Jobs said he was taking a five-month medical leave because his health issues are “more complex than I originally thought.”

In the note, Jobs promised to return to Apple in the summer, which many are hoping is true.

“Apple won’t be the same w/o his creative leadership,” tweeted Heredes. “Praying for your health, Steve.”

But Jobs’ letter contradicts a statement the CEO published just last week, in which he said he was “undergoing a simple and straightforward treatment” for a hormone imbalance. This letter gave the impression that Jobs merely needed to gain weight, and would continue as normal as Apple’s CEO.

Now, however, Jobs’ ill health appears to be much more serious. He is taking five months off work, when he took only a month away from Apple after undergoing surgery for pancreatic cancer in 2004. Read The Rest

Photo: Paul Sakuma/Associated Press

Give Up Internet‘s Note: Saddest News of The Week.

Ashton Kutcher and Kevin Rose have teamed up to create 24 Hours at Sundance, a Web-Based reality Show

January 15, 2009
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ashton kutcherkevin rose giveupinternet.com | Taken from CNET: “What a pairing: Hollywood slacker-hottie icon Ashton Kutcher and Silicon Valley slacker-hottie icon Kevin Rose have teamed up to create 24 Hours at Sundance, a Web-based reality show set at the eponymous film festival in Park City, Utah, later this week.

Backed by mobile live-streaming start-up Qik, the competition-focused show will pit four “social media mavens” against one another for 24 straight hours as they complete a set of challenges surrounding the annual film festival and broadcast them via Qik software on Nokia handsets. Rose (best known for founding Digg) and Kutcher, the Dude, Where’s My Car actor whose production company Katalyst Media has created a Web show called Blah Girls, will co-host.

The four “social media mavens” are VentureBeat editor Matt Marshall, gadget blogger Meghan Asha, Konsole Kingz founder CJ Peters, and video blog personality Irina Slutsky.

“I kind of feel like there’s been a trend in entertainment in general that moves toward a more visceral, more live experience,” Kutcher told CNET News. “We have an idea of what we want to happen, but who knows what’s actually going to happen.”  Read The Rest

Give Up Internet‘s Note: It won’t be that easy for Ashton to follow what’s going on at “geek speed”.  Maybe it can be good but “Rhythm”.

Google has announced layoffs. Not contractors. Not hourly workers. Googlers.

January 15, 2009
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dr. larry page
From Google’s official blog; ” As we made clear during our last quarterly earnings call in October, Google is still hiring but at a reduced rate. Given the state of the economy, we recognized that we needed fewer people focused on hiring.

Our first step to address this was to wind down almost all our contracts with external contractors and vendors providing recruiting services for Google. However, after much consideration, we have with great regret decided that we need to go further and reduce the overall size of our recruiting organization by approximately 100 positions.

We know this change will be very difficult for the people concerned, and we hope that many of them will be able to find new roles at Google. They helped build this company, new hire by new hire, and we are enormously grateful for everything they have done.” Click to Corfirm that it’s not a joke

Give Up Internet‘s Note: WTH?

Obama’s new BlackBerry: The NSA’s secure PDA?

January 15, 2009
3 Views

Obama New BlackBerry
Bill Clinton sent only two e-mail messages as president and has yet to pick up the habit. George W. Bush ceased using e-mail in January 2001 but has said he’s looking forward to e-mailing “my buddies” after leaving Washington, D.C.

Barack Obama, though, is a serious e-mail addict. “I’m still clinging to my BlackBerry,” he said in a recent interview with CNBC. “They’re going to pry it out of my hands.”

One reason to curb presidential BlackBerrying is the possibility of eavesdropping by hackers and other digital snoops. While Research In Motion offers encryption, the U.S. government has stricter requirements for communications security. Read The Rest

Simplicity, Reliability and Speed, This is The New Windows 7 Says Steve Ballmer

January 14, 2009
1 Comment
4 Views

Forbes wrote an exciting (at least for me) article about Windows 7; “Why Windows 7 Better Deliver
The economy stinks. PC makers are going wobbly. Time for a change.

BURLINGAME, Calif.–It’s been a rotten decade for Microsoft. During the Web boom, it sunk hundreds of millions of dollars into an effort to catch up with Google online. It didn’t work. Microsoft was early to the smart-phone game. Yet businessmen and hipsters favor smart phones from Apple and Research In Motion.

So Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT – news – people ) is getting back to what it does best: putting its Windows operating system onto more computers than anyone else. The release of a beta version of Microsoft’s new operating system, Windows 7, has stirred interest amongst the geeky hordes who rejected Vista early on. While Vista was all about flash, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer has set just three goals for Windows 7: simplicity, reliability and speed. ” Read The Rest

Give Up Internet‘s Note:  People say “i hate Microsoft” but no one really wants to see “Microsoft”  “death”. Microsoft 7 is a great (maybe a last) chance.

“So Microsoft is getting back to what it does best: putting its Windows operating system onto more computers than anyone else.” Good Morning Mr. Ballmer.

“Executive Steve Ballmer has set just three goals for Windows 7: simplicity, reliability and speed.”
Mr. Ballmer,  Who told you that? That’s Absolutely True.

Burger King Whopper Sacrifice | Delete 10 Facebook Friends, Get a Free Whooper

January 14, 2009
2 Views

(Credit: Burger King)

Facebook’s developer platform has been used for a zillion marketing campaigns so far, but this one is actually dead-on hilarious.

Fast-food chain Burger King has created “Whopper Sacrifice,” a Facebook app that will give you a coupon for a free hamburger if you delete 10 people from your friends list. Source and The Rest

Give Up Internet‘s Note   :  It’s not that hard to delete 10 friends, but just a “whopper” at the end, is not enough.
Give Up Internet‘s Note2:  This is an amazing advertising idea.  The Whole World Press wrote about this app.

Britney Spears Is Hiring An Online Media Manager – She’s on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and other sites, and somebody (not her of course) has to do all the hard work of posting and responding to content.

January 12, 2009
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Britney Spears Michael Arrington, The Founder of Tech Crunch wrote an interesting post. ” Want to manage Britney Spears’ online persona? She’s on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and other sites, and somebody (not her of course) has to do all the hard work of posting and responding to content.

That’s where you come in. If you went to Harvard, that is. Brandcasting Unlimited, Britney’s online manager, posted the job listing below for “Britney Spears 2.0 Media Manager” yesterday on a Harvard-only private job board. Among the not-so-tough job requirements: you must be “addicted to social networks such as MySpace and Facebook.”
Read The Rest

A California father says he discovered his 13-year-old daughter sent 484 text messages per day last month | one message every 2 minutes of every waking hour.

January 12, 2009
39 Views

Emo Sponge Bob SILVERADO CANYON, Calif., Jan. 11 (UPI) — A California father says he discovered his 13-year-old daughter sent 484 text messages per day last month — one message every 2 minutes of every waking hour.Greg Hardesty of Silverado Canyon, Calif., told the New York Post his 440-page cell phone bill revealed his daughter Reina had sent an astonishing 14,528 text messages.

“First, I laughed. I thought, ‘That’s insane, that’s impossible,'” said Hardesty, 45, a reporter for The Orange County Register. “And I immediately whipped out the calculator to see if it was humanly possible.” Read The Rest

This story is a seriously sad story of a lonely girl…

Yahoo’s Depressing Backup Plan | No one wants to buy Yahoo. And the only person who wants to run Yahoo is an insider who helped sink it.

January 11, 2009
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giveupinternet | ValleyWag; No one wants to buy Yahoo. And the only person who wants to run Yahoo is an insider who helped sink it. Is there any hope left for the beleaguered Web giant?

A ludicrously patchy trial balloon lifted off this week, airing the notion that Microsoft might fund some kind of complex buyout of Yahoo, at a knockdown price of $20 billion — less than half what Microsoft offered last February. It was swiftly shot down: If Microsoft wanted to get its hands on Yahoo, why would it loan someone else the money to buy it?

Another tall tale is making the rounds: that Sue Decker, Yahoo’s president, is still a candidate to replace founder Jerry Yang, who’s stepping down from the CEO job after a disastrous year and a half. (Anyone care to bet on whether one of the “sources familiar with the search” who told CNET News that Decker was a contender was Decker herself?) rest

Can You Say 10 Things Why We Need Google?

January 11, 2009
1 Comment
3 Views

google giveupinternet | Jay of GeekPreneur can. Here is the article; “For those who feel Google, Inc., is spreading tentacles everywhere in a sinister way, it might be difficult to see, but there are many reasons we need Google.

Reasons We Need Google

1. They made the Web easier to use with Google Search. There were search engines before Google (I worked for one such), but Google seemed to achieve market share where others could not, and has since indexed a greater share of online content. (Now they’re trying to index offline content, too. E.g., through the controversial Google Books project, which of course irks many authors and publishers – all of whom have lost income since the spread of Internet use. Librarians, too, have expressed concern about the value of their own existence.)

2. Leveled the playing field by really enabling the concept of web income opportunities. They did this with the spending and earning of ad dollars, creating a micro-economy online that might eventually rival real-world GDP. Since this is not a closed system (that is, online funds can be moved to the real world), this could be a fundamental reason we’ll never truly have another Great Depression. Small players can build a thriving online business, and that reality was catalyzed by Google.

One way is through AdWords and AdSense. AdWords gave small web-based businesses a chance to advertise to a wide audience at a lower cost. AdSense gave fledgling entrepreneurs a chance at web-based income.

Though rumors (and polls) suggest that the majority of people do not earn any worthwhile income from AdSense, its mere existence helped fuel the growth of other ad networks, which in turn enabled the whole web worker phenomenon – especially Digital Nomads. Sure, there were other ad networks before Google AdSense, but can you name any one of them? Unless you’re in advertising or Internet marketing, probably not. The lure of working online is the result of the early AdSense-fueled successes of a few popular bloggers, and other ad networks have capitalized on the web working desire.”  Read The Rest

Apple is a Gentlemen Thief | Give Us Money And We’ll Remove DRM From Your Music

January 8, 2009
1 Comment
3 Views

giveupinternet.com | Taken form Consumerist “Apple has dropped DRM from iTunes — and is offering to remove their DRM from music you already bought for the low, low fee of $0.30 per song.

Now, you can choose from millions of iTunes Plus songs from all four major music labels and thousands of independents. With iTunes Plus, you get high-quality, 256-Kbps AAC encoding. All free of burn limits and digital rights management (DRM). So iTunes Plus music will play on iPod, Apple TV, all Mac and Windows computers, and many other digital music players. It’s also easy to upgrade your iTunes library to iTunes Plus. You don’t have to buy the song or album again. Just pay the 30¢ per song upgrade price. (Music video upgrades are 60¢ and entire albums can be upgraded for 30 percent of the album price.)”  source

“Apple is a Gentlemen Thief ” quote is belongs to doiveo

Vimeo, Just Calm Down, You’re Not The Inventor of “High Definition” [PIC]

January 8, 2009
6 Comments
2 Views

Vimeo, Just Calm Down, You're Not The Inventor of
Vimeo, Just Calm Down, You’re Not The Inventor of “High Definition” [PIC]

I saw this banner at Vimeo‘s site today. Vimeo says that we wont believe our eyes. O, RLY? Thank You Vimeo for bringing us “HD Technology” and for making the World a better place.

Watch This Vimeo HD Video and Decide;

Now, you don’t believe your eyes isn’t it? No, trust me. Those are your eyes.

Steve Jobs Weight Loss | He is Too Sick to Work [PICS]

January 8, 2009
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Steve Jobs Lose Weight giveupinternet.com | ValleyWag posted an article about Steve Jobs’s Health. Yes, again. Here it is; ” If you just look at how thin he is, you’d know it. But now Steve Jobs himself has admitted that his declining health is keeping him from taking the Macworld stage tomorrow.

Steve Jobs’s Letter Posted in apple.com is here.

The letter is an obvious response to the furor unleashed by a post on the gadget blog Gizmodo, in which a source privy to Apple’s product secrets claimed Jobs’s health was “rapidly declining.” The source was right about the “declining” part, wrong about the “rapidly,” it turns out.

It has been an expensive secret to keep. Apple’s market value has jumped by $2.3 billion this morning alone, as traders reveled in the relief of a lie undone.

In the fall of 2003, Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, a fact he kept secret until July 2004, when he underwent surgery to remove the cancer and rewire his digestive system. ”  Read The Rest

5 reasons No One Will Replace Google

January 7, 2009
1 Comment
2 Views

ValleyWag has posted “social buzz friendly” but ” nice article.  I’ve received 33,000+ hits and counting to this post,” says the blogger who wrote “Wikipedia 3.0: The End of Google?” on Monday. His piece got blogged all over, promoted to the Digg front page, and fueled the starry-eyed bloggers searching for doom to herald for Google. (It was also just a troll.) Kudos to him, but he — and everyone who believed him — was wrong.

The blogger’s main premise was as follows: The Semantic Web, a logic-based version of the Internet (and an old idea), could render Google obsolete with an artificial intelligence system that provides real answers instead of keyword-based responses.

Read 5 reasons No One Will Replace Google

Steve Jobs’s Health | Change in 1 Year | Hormone Imbalance Was Causing his Noticeable Weight Loss

January 7, 2009
1 Comment
2 Views

Steve Jobs Health Before After giveupinternet | I found and interesting article at LA Time written by By Dawn C. Chmielewski and Jessica Guynn. Here it is; Reporting from San Francisco and Los Angeles — Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs broke with his usual code of secrecy Monday to explain his health problems, but the disclosure that a hormone imbalance was causing his noticeable weight loss will probably do little to tamp down concerns.

Medical experts said a hormone imbalance in a pancreatic cancer survivor raises red flags about a possible recurrence. Jobs said in 2004 that he had undergone surgery to treat a rare form of the deadly disease.

Although Jobs is known as one of the nation’s most intensely private corporate leaders, he issued an open letter Monday in which he tried to assure Apple investors and customers that he was healthy enough to lead the pioneering technology company he co-founded.

he 53-year-old CEO said his doctors discovered his condition had been “robbing” his body of proteins needed for good nutrition. He is undergoing treatment, which he described as simple and straightforward.

Read The Rest

Photo Credit: AP

Some home truths for the clueless “guy” who suggested websites get cinema-like ratings

January 5, 2009
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Andy Burnham Oh dear Mr Burnham – you surely cannot have expected a little light musing in the Daily Telegraph to have turned you into the blogosphere’s Public Enemy Number One? On Saturday the culture secretary gave one of those broad-ranging interviews to a national newspaper which eager politicians are wont to do at this time of year.

The problem was, he threw into the mix, along with some hints about how Channel 4 might be funded, some thoughts on ways of regulating the internet. There was vague talk of “cinema-style, age-ratings for websites”, mutterings about ISPs being forced to provide child-safe services, and of negotiations with the incoming Obama administration on new international rules for English-language websites.

When I heard about this on Saturday morning’s radio news bulletin, my first thought was that a web storm was about to break over his head, and so it has proved. He has been attacked, abused, and mocked for days now – and one blogger went so far as to set up a Twitter account in his name in an attempt, he says, to educate him about just how the internet works. The Twitter administrators have now deleted the account. Read The Rest

Worlwide Press Reactions to Steve Job’s Letter (about health)

January 5, 2009
1 Comment
7 Views

don't give up apple steve jobs Here is the Letter | What does this mean? First and foremost, that his health is not declining rapidly as our source affirmed. Thank god for that. Like I said in our article, I hoped our source was wrong about it. Steve Jobs is saying that he is recovering. That’s good.But we were right on something almost as important: The reason why Steve Jobs is not doing the Macworld 2009 keynote is his health. Apple PR muscle tried to mislead the public saying that the reason was the irrelevance of Macworld. They said they didn’t want to give importance to a show that Apple was pulling from.

That’s a lie.

The truth, as written by Steve Jobs himself, is that his health is the real reason. He didn’t want to put himself under the ordeal of preparing the keynote—the hardest part—and delivering it for two hours. And that’s why he decided to take time off with his family and keep recovering.

– from Gizmodo

Steve’s no dummy. I applaud him taking this time to be with his family, and I’m personally quite happy to hear his weight loss appears to stem from a rather strange but reversible affair. While the keynote will be odd without him, let’s hope this puts a little water on the doomsayers out there. Steve’s not going anywhere just yet — so everyone relax this week and enjoy the spectacle at Macworld. – from TUAW

Following the announcement about Jobs’s health, Apple’s share price jumped by 3.58 percent in pre-market trading.

Speculation about Jobs’s health had been rampant since it was announced last month that for the first time in 11 years he would not be giving the keynote speech at Macworld, the annual cult-like gathering of Apple devotees.

Marketing vice president Phil Schiller is to give the keynote at Macworld, which runs from January 6-9 and features more than 450 companies promoting gadgets, gear, software or services tailored for Apple products. – from AFP

Steve Jobs and Apple have, finally, broken their silence about Jobs’s health, after rumours that he must be seriously ill had been allowed to build up for weeks after the company announced that he would not be giving the keynote speech at MacWorld, which starts today. The timing of the announcements is fascinating: rather than putting paid to speculation, as could have been done at the time, Jobs and Apple put out their statements, blaming his weight loss on a “hormone imbalance”, just as MacWorld is getting prepared… and Steve Ballmer is practising his speech for CES on Wednesday. Effortlessly, Jobs has wrenched the spotlight away from CES and MacWorld without even going there. – from Guardian

Mr. Jobs’s keynote speech had headlined the annual MacWorld show in San Francisco every year since 1997. Apple has in the past used the conference to make major product announcements. But last month Apple said marketing chief, Philip Schiller, would make the keynote speech at the show, which kicks off Tuesday.

That news caused Apple’s stock to fall as it set off a flurry of speculation about the reasons behind the decision. At the top of the list was renewed concern by investors that Jobs, a pancreatic-cancer survivor, was sick again.

Apple shares were up 3.5% at $93.82 in premarket trading.

– from WSJ

Read More

Read More

Very Sad Letter from Apple CEO Steve Jobs About His Health | January 5, 2009

January 5, 2009
2 Comments
24 Views

don't give up apple steve jobs (Official Letter From Apple’s Site) —- Dear Apple Community,

For the first time in a decade, I’m getting to spend the holiday season with my family, rather than intensely preparing for a Macworld keynote.

Unfortunately, my decision to have Phil deliver the Macworld keynote set off another flurry of rumors about my health, with some even publishing stories of me on my deathbed.

I’ve decided to share something very personal with the Apple community so that we can all relax and enjoy the show tomorrow.

As many of you know, I have been losing weight throughout 2008. The reason has been a mystery to me and my doctors. A few weeks ago, I decided that getting to the root cause of this and reversing it needed to become my #1 priority.

Fortunately, after further testing, my doctors think they have found the cause—a hormone imbalance that has been “robbing” me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy. Sophisticated blood tests have confirmed this diagnosis.

The remedy for this nutritional problem is relatively simple and straightforward, and I’ve already begun treatment. But, just like I didn’t lose this much weight and body mass in a week or a month, my doctors expect it will take me until late this Spring to regain it. I will continue as Apple’s CEO during my recovery.

I have given more than my all to Apple for the past 11 years now. I will be the first one to step up and tell our Board of Directors if I can no longer continue to fulfill my duties as Apple’s CEO. I hope the Apple community will support me in my recovery and know that I will always put what is best for Apple first.

So now I’ve said more than I wanted to say, and all that I am going to say, about this.

Steve

—————————————————–

Infact, everything looks fine about his health.  But this letter is absolutely out of Steve’s concept.

Click Here to Read What did Press Said About This Letter

Oh, The Tech Rumors, Jimmy Wales Absolutely Not Leaving Wikipedia

January 4, 2009
7 Views

ValleyWag, generally fails at rumors. Here, they fail again. Thanks God that we have cnet. ” Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is “absolutely” not out of a job at the Wikimedia Foundation, according to the foundation’s director of communications.

On Saturday, Valleywag editor Owen Thomas reported that Wales was “out of a job,” writing, “Imagine an online encylopedia anyone can edit — and no one can run. Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia’s…cofounder, is no longer a board member of the site’s nonprofit foundation. Who’s in charge here?”

The Valleywag report didn’t cite any sources saying that Wales was no longer on the foundation’s board, though it did point out that Wales’ seat on the board–along with those of two others–had expired on December 31, 2008.

But in an e-mail to CNET News, Sue Gardner, the director of the foundation, wrote, “(t)here’s nothing to it. Jimmy is a much-valued board member of the Wikimedia Foundation, and I expect he will hold that role permanently: I know of no reason for anyone to speculate otherwise.” rest

Image Credit: Wikimedia Foundation

Jimmy Wales The Founder of Wikipedia, Leaving Wikipedia, Wait, What?

January 4, 2009
1 Comment
4 Views

To Give Up Wikipedia Means to Give Up Internet?  — “Imagine an online encylopedia anyone can edit — and no one can run. With the calendar running out on 2008, Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia’s sleaze-drenched cofounder, nearlylost his seat on the board. Who’s in charge here?

Wales’s term was set to expire on December 31, along with two other trustees. The board of the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikipedia’s parent organization, is supposed to have 10 board members, half appointed and half elected. It currently has two elected members — Kat Walsh, a Virginia law student, and Ting Chen, a gay Chinese programmer working for IBM in Germany — and two temporary appointees. According to the foundation’s bylaws, it requires a quorum — at least five trustees — to take any action other than appointing new members. On December 28, with days left to go, the board announced the reappointment of the three expiring board members on an obscure mailing list — a move that the board’s chair, Michael Snow, only saw fit to make public on the foundation website’s nearly a week later (after the publication of an earlier version of this post). Five of the ten board seats remain empty or filled by seatwarmers. ” valleywag