The Microsoft bid to take Yahoo! has entered it´s third month and the plot has been slow. as a Soap Opera trying to squeeze all the time possible of a previsible storyline.

The plot strung a chord with Steve Ballmer letter proclaiming a Ultimatum to Yahoo! and Yahoo! responded shortly turning this in a “he said, i said, he said” game.

But it is truly all is there to it?.

 I truly think this is not the REAL story of what is happening, i see a scheme of protocol and a play of some sorts. more because of the same findings Brian Caufield of Forbes.com found. a game of waiting because there are too many shared interests at play given the main stockholders of Yahoo are also important Microsoft stockholders making this whole  deal a done deal in a unofficial form.

If Microsoft chooses to go into a proxy fight, they win and Yahoo! would lose greatly because it is very possible they would get less that the original bid Microsoft did for them.

The share interests also explain why Microsoft has been so nice and patient with this deal considering the magnitude puts it as the biggest deal ever done in the web. precisely because the main Yahoo stockholders are also Microsoft stockholders and damaging them would hurt Microsoft too.

This does stop the rest of the Soap Opera from going on and people getting nervous with it, minor stockholders in the border of a killing mood and wall street losing their temper to the slow pace of this story.

The stakes have already being played, it is only about the actions following their marked path. any other scenario would still mean the end of yahoo because of the effect on the company value if Microsoft walks away and because the stockholders would sue the board to death causing the internal auto-destruction of the company. something already implicit on the counter effect of the initial Microsoft offer. such destruction would still allow Microsoft to bid for the pieces they need as Google would not be able to touch them but such scenario would be sad and tragedy because of all the market value and hits real state that would suddenly go off into thin air. this is what Microsoft wants to avoid. as more of the package they get, the best.

Yahoo! Jerry Yang still claims he can save Yahoo!, but i also wonder if that is another play or if he is really just a pawn into this and is truly as disconnected from reality to think he can save Yahoo1 in time?

JErry Yang last hope are that Yahoo last quarter earnings come as good so his projection can hold some water. but the questions is: even if they are good, Yang projections can hold true?, and they are enough to turn around the tide?.

The problem is that the answers to those questions is already to be known as a “NO”. but miracles exist. so maybe Yahoo! got a early Christmas like Miracle that will make everything right.

At least the Finale has been announced and the most we have to wait it 3-4 weeks to watch the end of the line.

The unannounced Windows Mobile 6.1 Operating System.
These leaked pictures show the Windows Mobile operating system.

Apart from the OS exposed, there are some other features to be found; the Qualcomm 7200 a running at 528 Mhz for one, 128MB of RAM and a 1500mAh battery.

Here we see the device information

This is the OS shown on a Sony Ericsson device running Windows Mobile 6.1 professional which is an operating system for Cell phone devices by Microsoft.

Microsoft have announced they will be involved in a major take over for Norwegian based Fast Search & Transfer which offers enterprise search to over 3500 companies mostly in the Fortune 500.

Microsoft’s offer was 19.00 Norwegian Kroner ($3.56) per share. The offer represents a 42 percent premium to the closing share price for Fast as at January 4 and values FAST at 6.6 billion NOK ($1.2 billion U.S). Fast’s board of directors has unanimously recommended that its shareholders accept the offer as is an impressive only $400Million short of Google’s acquisition of Youtbe.

Fast Search and transfer are a small company compared with Microsoft and with search a hot market in the Technology Industry it would seem like it the perfect opportunity to add to the already existing Microsoft brand. I was speaking today with a friend about Microsoft being the largest and one of the most powerful company’s in the world at the moment.

Microsoft’s plan is to grow by acquisition which is a great way of expanding a company, again like with Google acquiring FeedBurner, Youtube and DoubleClick they have the chance to explore new areas and explore different emerging industry’s in Technology.

There is a lot of people who still doubt weather or not there is a bubble in technology right now, but when we see the valuations of social media such as social networking sites such as Facebook at $8Billion and Digg at $300million and again to mention Googles $1.65 take over of video sharing website Youtube it is hard not to think otherwise.

About FAST
FAST, which was founded in 1997, creates the real-time search and business intelligence solutions that are behind the scenes at the world’s best-known companies with the most demanding information challenges. FAST’s flexible and scalable integrated technology platform and personalized portal connects users, regardless of medium, to the relevant information they need.

FAST is headquartered in Norway and is publicly traded under the ticker symbol ‘FAST’ on the Oslo Stock Exchange. The FAST Group operates globally with presence in Europe, the United States, Asia, Australia, the Americas, and the Middle East. For further information about FAST, please visit fast.no.

About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

The offer will not be made, directly or indirectly, in or into the United States. Any and all materials related to the offer, should not be sent or otherwise distributed in or into the United States, whether by use of the United States mail or by any means or instrumentality of United States interstate or foreign commerce (including, but without limitation, the mail, facsimile transmission, telex, telephone and the Internet) or any facility of a United States national securities exchange, and the offer cannot be accepted by any such use, means or instrumentality, in or from within the United States. Accordingly, the offer document and any related materials are not being, and must not be, sent or otherwise distributed in, into or from the United States or, in their capacities as such, to custodians, trustees or nominees holding shares of FAST for United States persons, and persons receiving any such documents (including custodians, nominees and trustees) must not distribute or send them in, into or from the United States. Any purported acceptance of the offer resulting directly or indirectly from a violation of these restrictions will be invalid. No shares of FAST are being solicited from a resident of the United States and, if sent in response by a resident of the United States, will not be accepted.

Sourches: Forbes / PR Newswire, Microsoft Corp, Fast.na & Techcrunch

———————–
Ever since aplus hosting has entered the domain of, hosts
like dotster and startlogic have finally met
their match. With services like cingular wireless and verizon wireless, these hosting companies will have to work harder on their efficacy.
========================

Microsoft warned users “not to copy data that contain alternate data streams to Windows Home Server shared folders”, officially acknowledging the issue in October. Microsoft has thus confirmed that data loss could result due to a flaw in the Microsoft Windows Home Server under special circumstances.

Windows Home Server is an application offering individual users ability to centralize the media storage and easily backup data, especially for computers on a network.

Microsoft has supplied a support document describing the issue. It has been pointed out that files which have been edited in certain external editors, on storing within Windows Home Server may become corrupted.

Microsoft documentation explain the issue in a diplomatic manner by saying, “Microsoft is researching this problem and will post more information in this article when the information becomes available” and “Until an update for Windows Home Server is available, we recommend that you do not use the programs that are listed in this article to save or to edit program-specific files that are stored on a Windows Home Server-based system.”

The list of programs affected as a result of this are as follows: Windows Vista Photo Gallery, Windows Live Photo Gallery, Microsoft Office OneNote 2007, Microsoft Office OneNote 2003, Microsoft Office Outlook 2007, Microsoft Money 2007, and SyncToy 2.0 Beta.

This problem was acknowledged and brought to notice by Microsoft in October 2007 and Microsoft strictly advised users “not to copy data or files that contain alternate [NTFS] data streams to Windows Home Server shared folders.” Microsoft has also recommended a free application known as Streams which will help users to identify whether data or files contain alternate data streams that may cause this problem.

Microsoft also indicated that some users have also reported certain torrent applications, Intuit Quicken and QuickBooks program files also can be problematic and are in the process of investigating this issue.

Microsoft said that the file corruption could also result under circumstances of extreme loads on the home server, or also while copying large number of files, or in the case a user attempts to edit a file that has already been saved in a shared folder on the home server, or also when a user uses any of the applications listed above for editing the files.

———————–
From computer
security software to firewalls like
zone alarm, all can be downloaded if you have dsl, even with wireless internet. You can download
free software from numerous freeware sites out there. Another way to download free software is to actually go on the sites of the product you are interested in, and you may find a free version.
=======================