MS challenges Google

Microsoft is seriously preparing to challenge Google; the n°1 search engine on this planet. Google is so popular in fact, that it entered our everyday vocabulary, you don't say "search for it on the Internet" anymore, instead you say "Google it".

Back to Microsoft, I must admit that, so far, their services looks quite promising; besides the cool domain name and clean look, they added interesting 'gadgets' in a fully customizable dashboard. For example, if you use Hotmail or MSN Messenger you can have it integrated in the page, you can also view weather forecast for your city and even get your favorites blogs or other news sources fed straight into the page! I'm definately giving it a go; competition is always good.

[ Microsoft Live ]

The Daily Show

Well, after all the crazy news filling up the headlines, it's about time to watch The Daily Show (TDS), my favorite talk-show to date; a half-hour satirical "fake news" program.

"One anchor, five correspondents, zero credibility.

[...] The Daily Show takes a reality-based look at news, trends, pop culture, current events, politics, sports and entertainment with an alternative point of view. In each show anchorman Jon Stewart and a team of correspondents, including Stephen Colbert, Robert Corddry, Ed Helms and Samantha Bee and Lewis Black, comment on the day's stories, employing actual news footage, taped field pieces, in-studio guests and on-the-spot coverage of important news events.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart - it's even better than being informed."

Oh, if you're a G.W. Bush or one of these neo-cons fans, this might just be the wake up call you so desperately need.

[ The Daily Show ]

Microsoft removes Sony's rootkit

Microsoft will treat Sony's DRM component as it should be treated: Malware. Its Anti-Malware Engineering Team will include XCP's rootkit detection and removal signature to their Malicious software removal tool, AntiSpyware Beta and the upcoming Windows Defender.

Follow it up here
If you missed the initial report, read it here:
[ Sony BMG: DRM rootkit (updated) ]

SED: the display of the future

Forget about Plasma, LCD, OLED and others alike, it seems to me that these are all some sort of second-hand technologies, not even close to match the good old CRT tubes, whether it is color, response time, clarity or contrast ratio-wise.

The one thing they got right is: Design! Plasma and lcd's look terrific: incredibly flat, minimal foot print allied with huge screen sizes made them a hit! It seemed impossible for CRT technology to compete... until SED (Surface-conduction Electron-emitter Display). The best of both worlds co-developed by Canon and Toshiba.

SED uses one electron emitter per pixel; with full HD resolution, 1920 x 1080 x 3 (RGB) = 6,2 millions electron guns. Specs: response time <1>

That's the display technology you will be using tomorrow!

Read the full story here: [ SED Display ]

France Telecom fined!

In the case filed by NEUF Telecom in 1999, France Telecom was found guilty last Wednesday 9th of November of monopolizing the ADSL broadband service between 1999 and 2002. The Council ruled that FT had impaired the country's economic growth by abusing its dominant position in ADSL service to prevent other telecom companies from entering the broadband market till October 2002. Resulting in a fine of 80 millions €.

I hope that such ruling will inspire Belgacom (Belgian Telecom Operator) to review its dictatorial policies and abusive prices that prevents fair competition. Well, I guess this might only happen when the European Commision decides to properly investigate the Belgian government's ties with Belgacom and the protective brotherhood they entertain with it.

Visit to the ladiest planet of all

Venus for the Romans, Aphrodite for the Greeks but for both, she is the goddess of love and beauty.

I'm happy to report that we are one step closer to understanding our 'better halves' as yesterday we had a successful launch of the Venus Express orbiter from Baikonur. Borrowing upgraded technologies from Mars Express, this project took only three years from approval to launch.

Venus is Earth sister; but make no mistakes, while both have very similar chemical composition and size, that's were it ends. Temperature is around 470°C; hot enough to melt lead. It has a thick layer of clouds made of sulfuric acid and its surface level atmospheric pressure is about 90 times that on Earth! That explains why probes from the 60's never stayed intact for very long when attempting to land on it.

The mission's main purpose is to study the planet's atmosphere and investigate the runaway greenhouse effect we witness today. Eventually, also figure out why women seem to be so complicated :-)

Rendez-vous in 153 days to uncover our planetary companion's deepest secrets.

You can view the fregate's position here: [ Orbit view ]
Read more: [ BBC ]

Sony BMG: DRM rootkit (update)

11.11.05: Sony is being sued for the use of rootkit software on their latest audio cd's, a class-action lawsuit was filed in California, where the lawsuit alleges that Sony broke at least three Californian laws. A second nationwide one is planned in New York seeking relief for all americans who purchased one of the affected cd's. In Italy, the digital rights group, EFI (Electronic Frontiers Italy) asked the government to investigate Sony over its use of anti-piracy software rights.

BBC News has the story: [ BBC News ]

It was about time it reached the mainstream media. They do own the intellectual property rights of their software but that doesn't mean they can disregard our own rights and take control of our computers!

It seems the quest for control will never end. This time Sony BMG included a stealth rootkit on their music cd's. Not only is this piece of software installing itself automatically with a hidden process, but also without informing you of the procedure. More seriously, it compromises your pc's security.

Dear Shareholders, do you seriously still wonder why Sony is going down? Here's a tip: if you want to save the empire that Sony once was, get rid of all these high level psychos who come up with such stupid ideas and rather invest in acquiring truly innovative talents. It's time for a big wake up call. Piracy? Right, go and have a look at iTunes, that's the kind of creativeness that leads to successful evolution of business models and... it works :-)

Sony BMG's Global Digital Business President Thomas Hesse told NPR (National Public Radio) when he was asked for his stance on the matter:
"Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?"

Space elevator by 2010 ?

Everyone laughed at Arthur Clarke's when he first envisionned Space lifts in his book: Fountains of Paradise; today, the race is on to be the first to develop such an apparatus.

Only just recently have scientists discovered and engineered a wonder material: CNTs; carbon nanotubes. I believe it will be one of the most important material of the 21st century!

The Space Elevator is a thin ribbon, with a cross-section area roughly half that of a pencil, extending from a ship-borne anchor to a counterweight well beyond geo-synchronous orbit. Some quick facts from Elevator 2010.:

• Electric vehicles, called climbers, ascend the ribbon using electricity generated by solar panels and a ground based booster light beam.
• In addition to lifting payloads from earth to orbit, the elevator can also release them directly into lunar-injection or earth-escape trajectories.
• The baseline system weighs about 1500 tons (including counterweight) and can carry up to 15 ton payloads, easily one per day.
• The ribbon is 62,000 miles long, about 3 feet wide, and is thinner than a sheet of paper. It is made out of a carbon nanotube composite material.
• The climbers travel at a steady 200 kilometers per hour (120 MPH), do not undergo accelerations and vibrations, can carry large and fragile payloads, and have no propellant stored onboard.

Read more: [ Elevator 2010 ]

Nuls Academy 5: Prime 10

11.11.05: Voilà, ca c'est fait! Maud quitte l'aventure, Magalie a été sauvée par le public et Alexia par ses camarades. Curieux choix de la part des académicens, lorsque l'on découvre qu'Alexia n'a obtenu que 15% des votes du public, Maud 36% et Magalie 49%. Belle surprise pour Pascal, qui a réalisé un excellent duo avec Johnny, obtenant ainsi la plus haute note de cette cinquième edition de la Star 'Ac.; 17,2.
--
Pas possible, plus de 7 millions et demi de téléspectateurs pour le prime de vendredi passé!

Cette semaine, les nominés sont: Alexia, Magalie et Maud.
Perso, je pense que les 3 sont à virer, mais malheureusement, la règle c'est 1 par semaine. Economisez vos tunes, ça ne sert à rien de voter, c'est une poule aux oeufs d'or de plus pour Endemol.

Sinon, le prime de ce vendredi s'annonce fun, pour preuve: Madonna, Stevie Wonder, Lorie, ah que... Johnny aussi seront-là. Non, allez, Johnny, c'est un mec bien finalement. Vendredi 20h50 sur TF1.

Focus Fusion vs Tokamak

The quest for new energy sources has become Science's Holy Grail, even more so with the so called Oil crisis the lunatics have already planned for us, remember the last orchestrated crisis in the '70s. Why would they do such things? Take a guess... Money! Oil companies are showing record profits and yet oil prices are sky high.

Well, get ready, there's a new kid on the block decided to prove that Fusion can be cheap, safe and clean! That's something the billion dollar multinational project Tokamak didn't foresee...

Read more: [ Focus Fusion ]

Insuline Detemir

A partir du 1er novembre, un nouveau type d'insuline à action prolongée, l'insuline détémir, sera disponible et remboursée en Belgique. Celle-ci a une action plus stable, diminue les risques d'hypoglycémie et freine la prise de poids des diabétiques. [ Le Soir ]