The Yahoos at Yahoo! respond to Microsoft
In conclusion, please allow us to restate our position, so there can be no confusion. We are open to all alternatives that maximize stockholder value. To be clear, this includes a transaction with Microsoft if it represents a price that fully recognizes the value of Yahoo! on a standalone basis and to Microsoft, is superior to our other alternatives, and provides certainty of value and certainty of closing. Lastly, we are steadfast in our commitment to choosing a path that maximizes stockholder value and we will not allow you or anyone else to acquire the company for anything less than its full value.
Read Yahoo’s reply to Microsoft.
Microsoft Sends Letter to Yahoo’s Board of Directors
Microsoft wants Yahoo! and is getting peeved with Yahoo!’s indecision of responding to MS’ acquisition proposal. Microsoft is so pissed off that it has publicly given the yahoos at Yahoo an ultimatum 
In a letter dated Saturday, April 5th, addressed to Yahoo’s board of directors, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has given Yahoo three weeks to accept Microsoft Corp’s $31-a-share cash-and-stock offer. “If we have not concluded an agreement within the next three weeks, we will be compelled to take our case directly to your shareholders, including the initiation of a proxy contest to elect an alternative slate of directors,” Ballmer wrote.
Then he threatened to reduce Microsoft’s offer if Yahoo failed to meet the deadline: “That action will have an undesirable impact on the value of your company from our perspective which will be reflected in the terms of our proposal.” According to a person close to the search engine, Yahoo’s board is currently reviewing the letter.
Read the entire letter here.
To the Yahoos at Yahoo: wake up and smell the coffee — it’s about time to accept the helping hand of the Evil Big Brother; the Yahoo! ship is sinking and there is little y’all can do before you’re totally sunk. Do yourself a favor and work out an agreement with the Mole!
The Ultimate Steal
Don’t have the $400+ to pick up a copy of Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007? It looks like the software maker has decided to take pity on you — if you happen to be a college student.
Microsoft is offering an “Ultimate Steal” promotion allowing college students to pay just $60 for the software. I’m not sure that’s a “steal,” considering you can get OpenOffice.org for free. But $60 is still a lot cheaper than $400.
If you’re outside of the US, you’ll also be able to get an even cheaper 1-year subscription version of the software for £12.95/€ 18.00/C$22.00.
The promotion runs through April 30, 2008. Students in the US, UK, and Canada can participate immediately, while students in France, Italy, and Spain will be able to buy the cheap(er) software next week. You’ll need a valid college or university e-mail address to get the discount.
(Press Release)
(HT: Download Squad)
Naming the MacBook
Picking a name for a new computer is always hard. My 2yr old Acer Centrino (which will be used by my sister once I get my MacBook) was called Magdalene (after Mary Magdalene). As a guy, the name for the computer must be female and it must be representative & symbolic of who she is to me. And since it will be used as the computer’s network name, it must be unique.
I’ve narrowed it down to a few choices. At the top of my list is
Makayla
Origin
HebrewMeaning
Who resembles GodA form of Michaela that was originally derived as the feminine variant of Michael. Also a possible combination of the Scottish Gaelic surname McKay with Kayla. Popularized by actress Jane Seymour during the 1990s when she played Dr. Michaela “Mike” Quinn on television’s “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.” Parents are drawn to the trendy “y” in the suffix.
Variations
Mickey Michael
Alternatives
Mikayla Michaela Micaela Mikalah McKayla Macaela Michela Makaila Mikaela
Also on my short list:
Madison (English; Son of Maud), Alexis (Greek; defender, protector)
What do ya think;-?
Office 2008 for Mac delayed
Microsoft has pushed back the release of Office 2008 for Mac until mid-January 2008 to make sure that the suite is up to snuff.
This is very unfortunate, because I was very much looking forward to buying it for my first semester of seminary on a MacBook. I guess I’ll have to stick with the 2004 version until January.
Check out screenshots of Office 2008 for Mac here.
The Search for an Enduring Laptop
My 15.4″ 2ghz Centrino/1gb/100gb Acer is too heavy to be portable and getting quite loud! Thus, I’m looking into lightweight laptops (under 6lbs) that are more mobile, and something that must last me 3 years. However, this generally means something smaller than 15.4 inches. (With a new lappy, that’ll mean my sister will reap the benefits of my old 2ghz Centrino)
Here are my options so far:
- HP DV2404 14.1″ AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core TK-53 1.7GHz Laptop
CAD $849.99 from Best Buy - Dell Inspiron 1420 notebook (Intel Core 2 Duo T5450/1GB/120GB)
CAD $899 direct from Dell.ca - 13.3″ 2.16GHz MacBook (MB062LL/A) (1GB/120GB)
USD $1,199 through Apple USA with Educational Discount - 15.4-inch: 2.2GHz MacBook Pro (MA895LL) (2GB/120GB/NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT 128MB GDDR3)
USD $1,799 through Apple USA with Educational Discount
Any other good, viable options?
(As you can see, I don’t know how much I should spend yet–I should be wallet-conscious and get something with the most bang for the bucuk though. But if ever I do spend more, the MacBook Pro would be my choice!)
Domain For Sale: sixsteps.org
Over the past 6 months, I’ve been getting some emails about companies interested in buying my domain - sixsteps.org. So I’ve replied to those emails stating that I am willing to sell my domain, if the price is right.
It took me a while to figure out that there’s a service out there called “Domain Appraisal” where domain registrars offer a service in which they analyze your domain to determine its suggested retail value. I took the liberty of having mine quickly appraised by GoDaddy.com’s computers, and I now know of my domain’s current market value.
So if you are or somebody you know is interested in buying my domain, please have them contact me. Seeing that my domain has an estimated market value of
$3,322 — $8,637 (US dollars),
please note I am unwilling to consider offers less than $3,000 USD. (I am also willing to accept corporate sponsorship for my Master of Divinity studies instead of cash, if there is such a thing!)
iPhone pandemonium
Now I want one when I get to the States! Anybody want to sponsor a poor seminary student for an Apple iPhone?
Lots of photos and details of Friday’s Apple iPhone launch at The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) 
Safari for Windows
Yay! Apple has just released a new version of their browser, Safari 3 Public Beta–all ready to run on Windows
Google TiSP
I missed it yesterday, but Google is offering free in-home wireless broadband called “TiSP”! It’s still in beta, but get it now;-)
New Theme
FYI: I finally changed to a new theme & website design! Check it out;-)
(I took a risk & upgraded to WP 2.1.1 without testing! LOL)
Complaining gets me free hosting!
from: complaints@1and1.com
to: sixsteps
date: Jan 29, 2007 3:09 PM
subject: 1&1 Internet Inc. Complaints Re: Internal Server Error since before 6pm EST
mailed
Thank you for contacting us.
I am sorry for any inconvenience suffered. We understand your plight
and your frustration. We sympathize with your situation here. Our
administrators and developers are aware of these issues on your server.
We know that you’ve experienced some downtime. This is not something
that we consider acceptable. We have been working extremely hard to
ensure that you see the best uptime possible. However, we know this
doesn’t resolve your personal problems. We always want to end all
disputes and matters in the most amicable way possible. This is why we
want to compensate you in any way we can. I have since added three
months free hosting to your account. You will see this credit on your
next invoice/statement. Hopefully, this can begin to help with the
troubles you have seen so far. In the meantime, we will continue to
work around the clock to resolve this issue. We sincerely appreciate
your feedback and patronage. You should see this problem resolved very
shortly. Thanks.
If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.
–
Sincerely,
Joseph Quinn
Technical Support
1&1 Internet
Back online
After about 5hrs of downtime, my webserver seems to be backup running smoothly. My apologies for being unaccessible for the past few hours–it wasn’t my fault–apparently some hardware issues on the server end and they switched me to new hardware.
All is fine now (I hope) and I hope to get reimbursed for the time offline! Check out the screenshots of the incident on my flickr!
Rogers giving me a headache
Rogers is giving me a headache.
Over the past months and especially the past weekend, my Hispeed Internet with Rogers has been intermittently going on and off. I went through endless cycles of unplugging & plugging the cable modem to reset it, sometimes successfully getting back online, most times unsuccessfully. A good number of times, it just came back online after a few hours - giving no explanation as to why it does so!
I finally got completely fed up and called Tech Support yesterday to send in the Internet Cable Guy to fix it. So today, “Joe” from Rogers came in and gave me a new Cable Modem. He was quite the outgoing, talkative guy, so after some discussions, we moved the Modem down to the basement room where it could get the most direct signal. I’m back online now, but had to switch my basement Desktop computer to a slower wireless connection instead of a wired, since the ethernet wire that I strung thru the wall was now connecting the Modem downstairs to my Router upstairs.
Long story short, I’m finally back online now - but with a bad headache from the network woes!
Oh, and this is not all: just tonight around 6pm or so, the Rogers Digital Cable TV went out. My Digital Cable terminal is now showing a very static-ky channel 998, and no other channels are accessible. From their phone support message, it seems Rogers is having digital cable tv issues, and/or my digital term is malfunctioning. ~sighs~ Hopefully, this can be resolved by tomorrow.
isoHunt shut down
Aww man, the lawyers finally got to them: BitTorrent search engine IsoHunt.com, created by Asian Canadian geek Gary Fung, has been shutdown temporarily by the onslaught of the MPAA lawsuit against them. Read the Slyck story here.
Other sites in its farm that are offline for now include torrentbox.com & podtropolis.com. They hope switch servers & be back up by the end of the week. Check their site for updates.
Web hosting sale!
Having your own .com & website keeps on getting cheaper and cheaper these days!
I just found out that my webhost, 1&1 Internet Inc., is having a 50% OFF sale right now for all their shared hosting packages. They’re really ramping down their prices in order to take an even larger market share from all their competitors! Sign up now and get 50% off the regular monthly hosting price for your first 6months!
I am using the 1&1 Home package, which gives you
- 2 domain names
- 100 GB web space
- 1,000 e-mail accounts
- 1,000 GB traffic
Everything you need to create an attractive presence for your family website, your hobbies, or for posting your photos on the Internet. All for just $2.50 USD/month for the first 6months; regular price of $4.99 thereafter. (=$44.94 USD for 1yr!) Such a deal!
Smaller & larger packages are available depending on your needs
I don’t see an expiry date on this sale, but it’s not gonna last long–so sign up quick! Be sure to use the links with my 1&1 id (http://www.1and1.com/?k_id=6899105) so that I can get some credit for hooking you up!
Earphones / headphones for sale
Sleeker than previous models, these Apple iPod Earphones fit comfortably in your ears and sound great — whether you’re listening at your desk, on the treadmill, in your backyard hammock, or wherever you enjoy your iPod.
Condition: Brand new, never used (not a single drop of ear wax has touched it!) These came with my iPod nano, but since my ear canal is naturally massive, they do not fit my ears!
Apple Store Price: $39 CDN+taxes.
Asking price: $40 (or best offer)
-
Skullcandy Smokin’ Buds Headphones
All you want to hear is your music - now you can with Skullcandy’s exclusive noise-eliminating sleeve. The Smokin’ Buds deliver the frequency range and fast response found in full size headphones in a sleek direct to ear package all the while isolating you from the irritating external haze. These babies have “Tunable Bass” offers “Boom” unlike wimpy buds. Black in colour.
Condition: Used a few times, a couple months old. These are good sound-isolating earphones, but they unfortunately keep poping out of my ears too much! I still have the BB receipt for this.
Retail Price: $39.99 CDN+taxes
Asking price: $30 (or best offer)
**NOTE: Canadian cash only;
must be in the Greater Toronto Area for pickup/delivery.
Wireless Number Portability
If you’ve been looking to switch Cell phone carriers but wanted to keep your current cell phone#, the wait is almost over!
Wireless Number Portability is coming to Canada by March 14 of this year (2007)! Read the CRTC news release from Dec.20, 2005 here.
This would be just in time for the Apple iPhone coming out in June!
I want an iPod
There, I have said it.
I want an iPod.
I have hated Apple for the longest time, trying to resist being assimilated into the rest of postmodern culture of iPods (and MacBooks/iBooks). But my strength has become weakened by the world which keeps pushing and pushing me succumb!
Dang it–it’s an iPod!!!
Just about everybody has an iPod and those famous white earphones! Sadly though, I would have to use their monopolizing hardware+software package iTunes with an iPod (I have already succumbed to iTunes since I need it to get the Passion07 podcast)… and since it does NOT play WMAs natively, I would have to re-rip all those CDs I’ve on my computer as wma files (or waste endless hours converting them). This non-supporting of WMAs is the biggest negative for me… I guess I’ll just have to re-rip CDs that I’d want to listen to stinking MP3s, bummers.
~sighs~
Specifically, I want an iPod nano. I’ve had my big old Dell DJ (1st generation) f
or like 4+ years now (it’s still working!), but I’d definitely like to switch to something much more portable. Since my ESV mp3 Bible at 64kbps requires about 2gb of space, I need at least a 4gb player. The 4gb is $229 CDN. Interestingly enough, there is a PRODUCT (RED) nano available: $10 from every 4 or 8gb RED nano will go to the Global Fund, to help fight HIV/AIDS in Africa. So basically, buy an iPod nano - support a worthy cause.
If I were to get one of these babies right now, it would be a 4gb iPod (RED) nano… (I just cannot afford the 8gb, the extra space would be a waste).
As a bonus, if I buy from the online Apple Store, I can get free laser engraving. But I gotta order the laser engraved nano by 12/11/06 if I wanna get it by Christmas/before I leave for Urbana.
So in summary…
PRO’s:
- It’s an iPod! enough said
- And it’s pretty
- and small
- And I can have it in RED, my fave color!
- And if it’s RED, I’d be helping fight AIDS in Africa.
- I can plug it into fancy iPod compatible speakers & cars!
- Did I mention that it’s an iPod… and a nano!
CON’s:
- It can’t play WMAs
- More expensive than similar non-iPod MP3 players
- I have to use iTunes
- Attracts thieves
Oh man.. I want a RED iPod nano for Christmas!!
Please, Santa, please–I have been a good boy this year
Posting from Windows Live Writer
This post is submitted from the new Windows Live Writer beta, installed on my Acer 1694WLMi running Windows Vista beta 2 build 5472. Download it here!
WL Writer is a desktop blog publishing program that publishes WYSIWYG to any blogging platform!
I want a Mac!
I soo want a Mac now…. a MacBook Pro would be just great! Graduation present, hint hint
Check this out tho, just freaking amazing:
^^That’s in Microsoft’s Mac Lab… displaying 50 machines at a time!
^^And a few Mac Minis….well, 150 to be exact!
Click here to see a tour of the MS Mac Lab
Office 2007 Beta-1 Technical Refresh
So, the other day, after hearing about how the new Microsoft Office 2007 Beta-1 Technical Refresh released a couple weeks ago was putting a huge server load on Microsoft’s beta server, I was thinking what in the world is so special about this release that ALL the beta testers are getting it immediately! So curious me, went abouts to download this myself…and first installed it on my desktop to makesure it’s not totally buggy…it wasn’t, and when I ran it for the first time, I was completely amazed by the new Ribbon UI. (I never installed the original Beta-1)
If you haven’t tried out the new “Office 12″, you should definitely give it a try (ahem, download it illegally)…the new UI is just amazing… soooo koool!!! LOL People say it’s hard to learn how to use it, for everybody who’s used to the old “File/Edit/Insert” menu….but I gotta say, once u get used to where everything is on the Ribbon UI, it’ll be so much easier and faster to use Word / Excel / etc… Another kool feature I like is when u highlight some text that u wanna make bold/italics wutever, a mini floating menu fades into view at ur mouse pointer with the basic bold/italics/etc u use often; so intuitive & convenient, with one click and no need for Ctrl+B or dragging ur mouse up to the top menu for bolding!
I then went abouts to install it on Magalene, my laptop–and lo and behold, I’m not enjoying Office 2007! Considering it is a beta, and I still have a few papers to finish before graduating, I probably shouldn’t be using this for my schoolwork…but what the heck!! Seems pretty darn good to me, I’m not worried, and taking every precaution just in case something does happen.
So right now, on my laptop, I’m running 3 pieces of Microsoft Beta software:
- Windows Live Messenger (I’m a “managed beta” tester for this! whatever this means! If u need an Invite to use the new Messenger, email me, I’ve got some left)
- Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 Preview (Tabs system is IMHO better than Firefox’s, and the RSS feature in their “Favorites Center” is soo functional–i use it everyday along with the feeds I read thru my live.com homepage! Double dose of RSS feeds!)
- Office 2007 Professional (Very very sexy interface, very usable, but not publically available yet)
Along with my slick Vista-like Windows XP theme, I’m pretty proud of my shweet M$ setup…nice n functional, and doesn’t look like a Mac! Oh, and of course, I use www.live.com as my homepage, and using Custom Domains to host my at sixsteps dot org email (still waiting to get transitioned from their hotmail servers to their mail.live servers).
Check out the screenshot below of my beta toys!
