Spam accounts for 124% of email, spammers complain
Editor's Note, April 2, 2011: This was an April Fools gag post
According to a new report released today from Male Bomber LLC, more than one out of every email sent is spam. I knew the number was high, but 124 percent? That's what Male Bomber claims, and the company should know. Male Bomber specializes in targeted spam, working outside the jurisdiction of law enforcement. Well, so the company claims. Executives won't reveal exactly where they operate, and Male Bomber uses sophisticated botnets, rather than its own servers, to dispatch spam.
Hey, Google, Microsoft payback is a bitch
What goes around comes around, and Microsoft proved the point by filing an antitrust complaint against Google. I'm not so much surprised by Microsoft's action but why it took so long. Google dogged Microsoft with European trustbusters for years, now it's tit-for-tat time.
Microsoft "decided to join a large and growing number of companies registering their concerns about the European search market," Brad Smith, general counsel, writes in a blog post today. "By the European Commission's own reckoning, Google has about 95 percent of the search market in Europe." Say, doesn't that figure sound familiar -- like Windows on x86-based PCs when U.S. trustbusters targeted Microsoft in the late 1990s?
Customers abandon GoDaddy after CEO posts elephant hunting video
A video purported to show GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons shooting an African Elephant is causing controversy for the Web hosting company on Thursday as outraged customers began pulling their domains from the company's hosting service.
The video, embedded below, is titled "Hunting Problem Elephant - My 2011 Vacation." It shows "one typical night and day" in Labola, Zimbabwe which culminates in a bull elephant being shot and eaten.
Music producer rains praise on Amazon Cloud Drive and Cloud Player
As a music producer who went through the rapid changes from the "tangible content" era to the "digital content" era I am incredibly pleased with Amazon's cloud storage and personal music streaming services. Editor's Note: Amazon unveiled Cloud Drive and Cloud Player on March 29.
I had conceived of a unique service similar to Amazon's Cloud Drive around 2004. Lacking the funds and expertise to put something together I chose a career path for my music that was far from designing web and app code. After 10 years of composing, producing, engineering and performing I have amassed a very large publishing catalog of music that I own and operate.
The conversation surrounding Net Neutrality should include Device Neutrality
It is understandable to think the Net Neutrality argument is new, but it is actually rooted in legislation that first passed in 1860. The Pacific Telegraph Act, which was passed in that year, essentially stated that no individual or entity, save the government, would be given preferential access to information which they were entitled to.
While today's Net Neutrality debate is surrounded by a much more complex information infrastructure, the same basic principles apply. A consumer's right to access information to which they are legally entitled is protected, and content carriers may not prioritize one customer or content provider over another.
O&O DiskRecovery 7 Professional
If you're looking for a good undelete program then there are plenty of freeware programs to choose from. Recuva, from the CCleaner authors, is a particular favorite of ours -- fast, capable and very easy to use -- and it's tempting to assume that you don't need anything else. Are freeware data recovery tools really up to the standards of the commercial competition, though? O&O Software says no, pointing to its latest release, DiskRecovery 7, as evidence. A look at the program's feature list suggests they O&O have a point.
DiskRecovery combines multiple scanning methods to improve the chances of recovery, for instance, allowing it to locate files even on formatted or damaged partitions. There's direct support for locating and restoring more than 350 common file types. DiskRecovery can be installed on a removable drive, which means it won't overwrite the data you're trying to recover -- and it works with all Windows-compatible storage devices: hard drives, removable drives, memory cards, digital cameras, MP3 players and more.
Tip: Alter your voice on Skype calls
Used for business or pleasure, Skype provides a great cross platform means of keeping in touch with your contacts anywhere in the world. While many people use the messaging tool merely to send text based instant messages, it can also be used to conduct Internet based phone calls and conference calls. Skype Voice Changer is a free add-on that enables you to do exactly what you might assume from the name.
Once granted permission to access Skype, the program can be used to change the sound of your voice during VoIP conversations in real time. Using the application is simple enough, simply select from one of a number of predefined special effects that are included and start a voice chat in Skype. It really is that simple.
Make Windows Sysinternals work better for you
If you need to diagnose some complicated low-level PC problem then there are few better places to start looking than Windows Sysinternals. It's absolutely packed with essential free tools that are a must-have for every PC owners troubleshooting toolkit.
The sheer volume of great utilities can cause problems in itself, though. It takes a while to download what you need, and keeping your favorite tools updated also requires a little work -- unless you get some third-party assistance.
Windows Phone 7 draws 1,200 new developers per week, 11.5k apps per quarter
Though Windows Phone 7 has only been available to consumers for a little over four months, developer tools for the platform have been available for more than a year. To celebrate the first full year of Windows Phone development, Microsoft's Brandon Watson has revealed a list of statistics that loosely approximate the size and scope of the platform's third-party developer community.
Developers
IPv4 address traders delay the Internet's collapse
When Microsoft recently agreed to buy 666,624 IPv4 addresses from bankrupt Nortel you might have asked, at least I did, how this was possible. No mechanism existed in the IP address allocation system for one owner to sell addresses to another.
But now there is, at least for ARIN, the American Registry for Internet Numbers, the authority for allocating addresses for North America and some surrounding territories. Maybe the policy has been there for a while, but ARIN won't say if it has been put to use before.
Craig Mundie questions whether tablets have a future -- does he or Microsoft without them?
Some people are so smart, they're dumb when it comes to everyday things. They lack common sense, or fail to appreciate viewpoints other than their own. It's the only way I can explain Microsoft chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie questioning whether the media tablet has any future.
"I don't know whether the big screen tablet pad category is going to remain with us or not," Mundie said in Sydney earlier today, during a lunch event sponsored by the Committee for Economic Development of Australia. This is the same man who in summer 2009 predicted that the future of the PC is a room. During Microsoft's Financial Analyst Meeting 2009 he looked into the future and saw "a world where the room is the computer" and asserted that "there will be a successor to the desktop [PC], it'll be the room."
iPad generated nearly 100% of media tablet revenues in 2010
Today, Gartner revealed that spending on media tablets was $9.6 billion last year. Based on Apple financial releases, iPad generated $9.566 billion in revenue during the year -- well, the three quarters the tablet was available. By that reckoning, the other media tablets generated just $34 million in revenue.
I find $34 million to be astonishing, and puts a different perspective on IDC's media tablet shipment data, which gave iPad 83 percent market share for 2010. Until real competitors emerge, iPad owns the media tablet market. Cash is king, market share is the court jester.
Google launches '+1,' search result upvoting
Google on Wednesday announced it will be testing "+1", a button akin to Facebook's "Like" that lets users show their approval for search result relevance.
The +1 feature is only available to Google profile/Gmail users who are signed into their accounts when using Google search. Once the experimental feature is activated, an animated button appears next to all search results, which lights up whenever you mouse over a particular result.
Enterprises will increase spending on media tablets in 2011, and that's really good for iPad
Hells, bells, iPad might be Apple's backdoor to the enterprise, after all -- and, whoa, that can't be good for Windows PCs. Gartner projects that global spending on media tablets will be as much $29.4 billion this year, up from $9.6 billion in 2010. Here's the kicker: IT spending on tablets will be a noticeable chunk of that spending, Gartner predicts.
Today, Gartner reiterated what it forecast in January: IT organizations will spend $3.6 trillion this year. However, the analyst firm notched down growth projections to 5.1 percent from 5.6 percent. Spending would have declined, too, had Gartner not added media tablets like iPad to the mix. The addition boosts hardware spending growth to 9.5 percent from 7.5 percent year over year.
Paul Allen's tell-all memoir: Microsoft cofounders clashed over style, money
I don't know about you, but I have trouble feeling sorry if Paul Allen was cheated out of that 14th billion and stuck in the slums of 57th place on the Forbes list. Of course Paul Allen doesn't really want my pity and he's probably cool with the money he got out of his work co-founding Microsoft. They just could have been nicer to him.
An adaptation from Allen's forthcoming memoir "Idea Man" may be found in Vanity Fair. "Microsoft's Odd Couple" runs all the way from high school, where he met Bill Gates, to February 18, 1983, when he resigned as an officer from Microsoft (although he retained his position on the Board of Directors). It has already generated controversy.
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