Source : Technews 2 U

YAHOO! BOARD OF DIRECTORS SAYS MICROSOFT’S PROPOSAL SUBSTANTIALLY UNDERVALUES YAHOO!

Sunnyvale, Calif., February 11, 2008 — Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO), a leading global Internet company, today said the Yahoo! Board of Directors has carefully reviewed Microsoft’s unsolicited proposal with Yahoo!’s management team and financial and legal advisors and has unanimously concluded that the proposal is not in the best interests of Yahoo! and our stockholders.

After careful evaluation, the Board believes that Microsoft’s proposal substantially undervalues Yahoo! including our global brand, large worldwide audience, significant recent investments in advertising platforms and future growth prospects, free cash flow and earnings potential, as well as our substantial unconsolidated investments. The Board of Directors is continually evaluating all of its strategic options in the context of the rapidly evolving industry environment and we remain committed to pursuing initiatives that maximize value for all stockholders.

Goldman, Sachs & Co., Lehman Brothers and Moelis & Company are acting as financial advisors to Yahoo!. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP is acting as legal advisor to Yahoo!, and Munger Tolles & Olson LLP is acting as counsel to the outside directors of Yahoo!.

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Source : NewScientistSpace

Space shuttle astronauts will attempt an unprecedented in-orbit repair of key Hubble Space Telescope (HST) instruments during the servicing mission scheduled for August 2008. The repairs, along with the addition of two new instruments, will make Hubble 90 times as powerful as it was after its flawed optics were corrected in 1993.

In October 2006, NASA announced plans to carry out a fourth and final servicing mission for Hubble, in which it would install two new scientific instruments and replace the observatory’s batteries and gyroscopes. But previously the agency has not said whether it would attempt a difficult repair of two key instruments that have broken down in recent years.

The Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), which died in January 2007, was Hubble’s highest resolution camera and its most-used instrument. And the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS), which failed in 2004, measured light spectra in the ultraviolet, allowing it to gauge the distance and composition of distant galaxies.

Now, the space agency says it will try something never attempted in the three previous Hubble servicing missions – a finicky electronics repair job in space, where astronauts have the challenge of doing everything while wearing bulky spacesuit gloves.

Without the repair mission, Hubble would likely die by 2011, when its last functioning gyroscope is expected to fail. But with new gyroscopes and batteries installed on the upcoming servicing mission, HST should last at least until 2013, and possibly into the 2020s.

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With the evolution of computers and software in this world, multipurpose softwares are also coming up. Apart form this; another important achievement in the field of taxation is tax software, Tango which is a totally new experience in tax preparation. In order to keep your desktop or laptop safe from viruses it is best to install Symantec or norton antivirus which protects your system at the max. You can buy or get them free on line and can download software easily. Behind all this innovation, software engineers are engaged in programming and to design software.

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Continuing with the monthly poll….

Do you think the iPhone will revolutionize the Mobile industry ( a simple Yes / No answer ) ?

Results for the last poll :

Which Social Network do you like the most ?

• LinkedIn - 32%
• FaceBook - 32%
• MySpace - 9%
• Orkut - 25%
• Hi5 - 2%

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Source : NYTimes

While the influx of free and low-cost video has hurt the sale of pornographic videos, the chief executive of the Penthouse Media Group remains so bullish on the sex-related entertainment industry that he is investing $500 million in a group of social networking sites.

Marc H. Bell, chief executive of Penthouse Media, said the company had acquired Various Inc. and its subsidiaries as part of a plan to expand its reach. Various operates more than 25 networking sites and says it has a member base of more than 260 million consumers, about 1.2 million of them paying subscribers.

The combined revenue of both companies is projected to be $340 million in 2007.

Various’s most popular Web site is adultfriendfinder, which describes itself as a personals community for swingers and sex. But Various owns a variety of other social networks like Italianfriendfinder.com, gradfinder.com and bigchurch.com, which offers to help users “meet people who share the same spiritual beliefs as you.”

“For now, we are holding on to everything,” Mr. Bell said. He said the goal was to provide consumers, particularly 18-to-34-year-old men, with a wide variety of sex-related offerings in magazines, in videos and online.

“The rationale here is, it’s an online world,” Mr. Bell said.

After filing for bankruptcy protection, Penthouse was purchased in 2004 by PET Capital Partners, a group of private investors that includes Mr. Bell. Since then, Mr. Bell and his team have revamped the magazine, turning it from what he describes as an “XXX” publication into a more lifestyle-focused magazine that is “where you go when you graduate from Maxim.” The company also started making sex-related movies aimed at couples.

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The last few months have been rather interesting, with a significant increase in the number of readers coming here.

I’ve tried to keep the posts as diverse and interesting ( i hope ) so that there is always something worth reading everyday.

A big thank you to those of you who keep coming back day after day to read what i put up here and for those of you who have taken the time to comment and send me emails.

The reason for this post is to explore the option of structured advertising on GridLock. While i was initially satisfied with Adsense currently on the site i have started getting a few mails asking me whether i would be interested in featuring companies / products on this Blog.So, i thought i’d make this official to see how many of you out there would like to advertise on GridLock.

If you feel that you have a product that you would like to feature on this blog write to me ( aboutkm@gmail.com ).

Do keep reading, the last week the number of post had decreased from what i generally publish as i was away in China on a holiday ( shall be doing a short writeup about that when i get the time )

Cheers.

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The last few months have been interesting, GridLock has generated quite a bit of traffic. I thought it might be nice to see where the users comes from.

So, here are the stats… ( from Alexa )

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Kindle is a new product from Amazon that is a book reader device. This allows you to read your books via a 6″ display screen on the device. Advantages include being able to download book through a wireless connection that connects directly to Amazons’ kindle store that boast over 90,000 titles.

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I thought it was time to give the Gridlock Forum a face lift since the Blog just went through one just a short while ago.

Currently the Forum has the following sections :

• Jobs
• Lessons Learnt
• Forum Features and FAQ’s
• Geography
• Technologies
• Thoughts
• Best Practices
• Resources
• Gridlock the Blog
• General

Feel free to suggest new sections if you feel like it.
Check it out and let me know what you think..

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