Though details are still somewhat sketchy, it looks like the persistent rumor of Microsoft devouring Yahoo is getting some teeth. 44 Billion Dollars worth of teeth . Expect more news on this as it breaks, as the details currently are somewhat lacking, but consider this move a serious play in the battle for net supremacy with Google.
This would make this deal the largest internet based acquisition since the $182 Billion AOL/Time Warner debacle in 2001, largely viewed as the worst acquisition in history. Still the battle for net advertising dominance is a real one, with an estimated $80 Billion up for grabs in the net advertising market by 2010. This constitutes an extra 40 Billion reasons when compared to 2007 market scope, so take it seriously.
Global Secure Systems
and Infosecurity Europe
released the results of a poll
they use to claim the U.K experiences upwards of 6.5 Billion Pounds in lost productivity costs to social networking sites like Myspace, Facebook, and Bebo. A quote...
The poll was carried out amongst 776 office workers, who admitted to spending at least 30 minutes a day visiting social networking sites whilst at work, that's a minimum of 10 hours a month which equates to 3 weeks of every year with two respondents who were so hooked that they spend 3 hours visiting these sites everyday!! The end result is potentially billions of pounds in lost productivity maintain GSS, plus the extra demand on bandwidth which is an additional cost to a business in terms of efficiency, maintenance and resources.
As is often the case with polls asking a question in a certain manner can almost guarantee the conclusions reached. Also, when the parties involved are both interested in selling U.K. businesses their products and consultancy services you might want to replace that grain of skepticism with a boulder.
Any business really concerned about the productivity drain of social networking sites could easily block those sites from their employees with about 30 seconds worth of effort. [ED: We'd be happy to consult with you and show you how :P] But perhaps most smart business managers realize the value of having a diversion or two when working. Stop treating your employees like human beings and believe me, they'll stop acting like them which is a worse thing for productivity. When I worked in corporate america with hundreds of employees directly in my charge a survey like this one would have revealed to me the obvious thing here. That being someone trying to sell me a solution for a problem I didn't really have. It happens all the time.
TV Tuners are an integral part of building a Home Theatre PC. To that end, today we take a look at Pinnacle's PCTV HD Card 800i . As an inexpensive PCI tuning option claiming support for NTSC, ATSC, QAM, and ClearQAM broadcasts, will it live up to the hype as well as Pinnacle's reputation? Read on to find out...
In a Fox News
segment, psychologist and self-help book author Cooper Lawrence
shot herself in the foot by proclaiming all sorts of inane untruths about a game (Mass Effect, Electronic Arts ) being harmful to children for one mildly graphic sex scene. In a game rated M for Mature. A game she knew absolutely nothing about before she appeared on Fox and started making the mistake of opening her mouth.
Exposing ones own ignorance and prejudices on Fox News is pretty normal these days, but Ms. Lawrence is experience a great deal of grief as a result of speaking without thinking. Her latest self help book, The Cult of Perfection
is experiencing a massive flood of spam reviewing on Amazon.com. As a result her new book is sitting on Amazon with a 1 star rating in it's review system, with 472 reviews at this writing. Perhaps someone who is a published author should have learned to check facts and think before speaking. Sometimes the lessons you learn are harsh Cooper. Oh....and she's HOT! :P
(editors note: Amazon has REMOVED all the negative comments....nice way to change reality hunh?)
