More on Intel Metro

A working prototype... Intel commented that it was not for production but to encourage manufacturers to build and this is a proof of concept. If Intel can do it, everyone can. Right, Apple?

clipped from www.engadget.com The marketing shots of Intel's 0.7-inch thin Metro laptop prototype caused quite a stir

World's Thinnest Laptop from Intel

Hmmm... This is also in the cooking for heavily rumored Mac Subnotebook - or I call it MiniBook. This gave a strong sign that the rumor may come to reality. Intel is targeting end of the year, so I guess Apple will launch it ahead. I would say September 2007 the latest?

clipped from www.macrumors.com Businessweek profiles "Metro" -- a prototype laptop designed by Intel and Ziba Design. The 0.7 inch thick laptop is the world's thinnest notebook and weighs only 2.25 pounds. To achieve its small size, the laptop uses flash memory in place of a standard hard drive. This addition also improves battery life up to 14 hours. Also included is wireless connectivity with options for cellular, Wi-Fi or WiMax networks, fingerprint reader, noise canceling technology, and more. "Price was not a concern" for the design.

Carbonized Kevlar iBook

This mod from Indonesia transformed an iBook into a bulletproof laptop (upper part only) by applying kevlar skin. It cost him around USD180 to order a custom kevlar skin.

It does look cool...

Mobile Phone Took Over Computer to Access The Net in Japan

The growing improvements and enhancements in mobile technology, especially in Japan, had led to the drop of computer literacy in Japan's younger age population.



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My Live 2.0 and Recent Rumor on Microsoft/Yahoo Deal

This is the hottest news on Friday evening my time (GMT+10). Every hours my RSS reader (Google Reader, if you must know) flagging recent development on rumors of this potentially the biggest Internet deal of the year, if not the decade. Microsoft and Yahoo are the old players in the Internet world - well, Yahoo may be even older. I still remember that I am still using Netscape Navigator and using Yahoo to search information from the web. That is before Microsoft took over the Internet browsing game with Internet Explorer.
I can't remember whether I had Yahoo account back then - as far as I remember, I just used it for searching websites - which mostly US content and I saw it growing eventually. I got the feeling that people in Yahoo were adding the content manually non-stop back then. And it grew globally with the introduction of Yahoo locals. It was not as sophisticated as how Google started the expansion, but it really was a big milestone in Internet by going to a main site called portal. I did, back then, put Yahoo as my home page. I should admit, I grew up with Yahoo.
I don't use Yahoo as much now, especially since Google grew. Google gave me a good impression first time I used it by how simple it was, with uncluttered design, and how the results just popped up in seconds and what a result - more than Yahoo could provide at that time. Google got it right with straight give the result. Some people still stick with Yahoo as they provide news clips that related to your local before you do the search, but Google is a favorite for people who wants quick answer. And I am the latter one.
Enough about Google for now - will come back to that later.
Just right before I was 'leaving' Yahoo, I joined Yahoo Groups of my university batch. It worked with my office email and Yahoo mail is not popular, if not introduced yet. My personal email back then was ibm.com (now att.com) and msn.com (registered when I bought Windows 95). My first web mail was Hotmail, and still using it today for MSN chatting. I had my Yahoo account when I needed free personal account with pop mail capability - for my phone. This was way before Blackberry. Yes, I am always ahead of time in technology adoption. But that was as far as I used Yahoo services, other than Yahoo Messenger.
By that time, I also started to 'leave' Microsoft by switching to Linux. I kept my hotmail account and Yahoo account for GAIM (a multi-client chatting tool), and I used myrealbox (from Novell) for my email. That was the time that I was completely non-dependent on MSN/Yahoo services (other than the accounts). No, I lied. I still use my Yahoo account for my phone email. I started to use Google as my main search tool, as it is the main page of Mozilla browsers.

Then came Mac OS X. I heard the buzz that they based on Open BSD (Darwin) and it had beautiful user interface. I was in the state of enjoying my Linux setup - which was not as pretty as Windows, but I had the security and convenience I want. I am not a hardcore gamer so I am easy to pleased, not. So I switched to Mac, again - I used to use Apple ][, first Macintosh, and LC][. And how surprised, happy and excited I was that I could bring my Linux lifestyle in Mac OS X - in style.

And everybody remember when Google introduced GMail, with said unlimited storage starting from 2GB. That blew my mind as at that point my Hotmail was 2GB and my Yahoo was 1GB. And it came with Google's simplistic design and awesome search capability. And it was very fast. I arranged an invitation from a friend who bought an invitation from eBay (for USD1) as it was invitation only that time. And I fell in love once I logged in to GMail. It is my main email tool since then.
After that, my life had turned 2.0 gradually. I started using Writely (now Google Docs after Google bought it) and Google Spreadsheets. I use GCal and sync it to my iCal - and sending reminder to my phone via SMS. My phone can run Opera and I can access my GMail anywhere within network. I plan my projects using Central Desktop, my personal finance using Wesabe and I also had become a social networking junkie. I store my snaps on my flickr and Picasa Web. I read RSS feeds using Google Reader religiously, and share interesting articles to family and friends, and to my blogs.
Just recently I turned back to Yahoo. That is when I had enough having my flickr page kept on reminding me to change my ID to Yahoo ID. I still feel a bit cheated now as I still see the 'oldskool' login page in flickr. But I had merged my flickr account to my Yahoo account. Then I started trying Yahoo's newest service, MyWeb 2.0 - a web bookmarking tool and alpha, a search tool from Yahoo similar to that of Google, with added features. I like the simple design and much nicer than what I expected, so I started using it. But it is not as critical as how I depended to Google services. I've sold myself to Google, in a way. If someone knows the most about me, it's Google.
So I completely understand how Microsoft and Yahoo were worried with how Google has grown today. And they do need to do something about it. I may not be a common people that uses web services that extensive, but how I was personally dependent to most of Google's service showed that Google had done something right that lured me into their trap instead of Microsoft's or Yahoo's. And this is keep on growing. Most of my friends are using GMail and they started to use GCal. My family friends - not a power user of Internet - were thinking of checking GMail as soon as I told them my GMail address. They said that their friends starting to use GMail as well.
So what is my point? My point is Microsoft and Yahoo should do something, they should be worried. Either by combining forces, one acquires another, or do something else separately. My friend said to me that Google had become too big, it almost like Microsoft. I am afraid he could be right. In the mean time, I will still using Google services until something better comes up.

South Park Mac vs. PC Video

A skit created in South Park style as a parody of Get A Mac - Ad. I found this funny...

clipped from n0xtrum.blogspot.com

WSJ Says Microsoft/Yahoo Deal Not Happening

TechCrunch says that WSJ says that Microsoft/Yahoo deal is not happening... talk about she said/he said



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Microsoft aggressively courting Yahoo (again)?

The news getting hotter and hotter by the hour... If this happens, it will be the biggest deal in the internet industry this year...

clipped from www.engadget.com In what would be one of the biggest business deals to go down -- well, ever -- Microsoft is rumored to once again be in talks to buy Yahoo after being rebuffed numerous times in past years. The New York Post is citing unnamed sources in reporting that Goldman Sachs is helping Team Redmond make a play for the web's perennial "number two," and arguing that an acquisition or merger would make sense for both companies.

Ten Videos That Made YouTube Famous

YouTube has grown way beyond its humble origins. Here are ten videos that spread like a virus all over the internet and made YouTube famous.Somehow it just fascinating how these videos helps YouTube to be where it is today...



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Sydney BloggerZone

Sydney BloggerZone, originally uploaded by cyberlucky.

A sponsored event - bloggers were invited to have breakfast, and share experience as well as latest gossips on blogging technology during CeBIT Exhibition. This was probably my first uber-geek activities - and I was feeling out of place. People can passionately talking about a tablet PC. It's a PC for ***'s sake!
In general - CeBIT Exhibition did not give me any 'wow' feeling. Compared to the one in Shanghai, this exhibition is very low key.

Yahoo! Acquires RightMedia for $680MM

Internet convergence is coming to reality...

clipped from mashable.com Yahoo is making its power move to counter Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick: the company is acquiring RightMedia, the ad marketplace in which it already owned a 20% stake. In a New York Times article to be published Monday, the price is pegged at an awesome $680 million, equal parts of stock and cash. Google-DoubleClick was $3.1 billion in cash. RightMedia recently launched its ad marketplace RMX Direct, which is basically an ad network aggregator: they’ll fill your inventory with whichever ad network pays the best. In a New York Times article to be published Monday, the price is pegged at an awesome $680 million, equal parts of stock and cash. Google-DoubleClick was $3.1 billion in cash. RightMedia recently launched its ad marketplace RMX Direct, which is basically an ad network aggregator: they’ll fill your inventory with whichever ad network pays the best.