Microsoft tried to buy Facebook (a years ago)

14th
Dec. × ’10

The rumor came from the publication of “The Facebook effect” by David Kirkpatrick. In it, the author reveals the attempts made by Steve Ballmer to buy Facebook in 2007. Clearly attempts were unsuccessful. But since there was only a rumor, this week at the conference “How to be acquired” in France, was asked to Fritz Lanman (director of acquisitions and strategy) if the story was true. And she said yes.

Lanman said the purchase attempts arose because Microsoft saw that Facebook was a similar company. He also said that it would not be surprising that Facebook ever have the same value as Microsoft in economic terms.

According to the book, Microsoft tried to buy Facebook for $ 15 billion. Steve Ballmer himself would have said to Mark Zuckerberg: “Why do not you buy for $ 15 billion?”. To which Zuckerberg had said “I do not want to sell the company unless it can maintain control.”

The book tells that after this conversation, Ballmer tried to create an appropriate strategy to buy Facebook in stages over several years, Zuckerberg could maintain control, but still ended up rejecting the bids. Finally, Microsoft invested $ 240 million in the network and are now working together on the issue of searches.
Via: Telegraph.co.uk

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The end is near for analog VGA ports elderly AMD and Intel

10th
Dec. × ’10

A group of major electronics manufacturers including AMD, Dell, Intel, Lenovo, Samsung and LG have announced they plan to focus on putting on their computers digital HDMI and DisplayPort connectors, so that the stone would the elderly analog ports VGA (among others) in all products with AMD and Intel processors by 2015.

The bill explains itself given the two decades that the technology similar amount (entered the market in 1987), but the companies explained the measure in terms of increased efficiency, more convenient size and support higher resolutions providing today’s digital ports.

The first step would be to run the AMD, that would start the removal procedure for 2013, which also removed the system of low voltage differential signaling (LVDS, dating from 1994) and digital visual interface (DVI-I, 1999 .) Intel will do the same the same year, but initially only LVDS ports.

Via: Intel.com

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Double Red Bull and Alonso 3rd place

8th
Nov. × ’10

Red Bull has signed a double victory with the victory of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber second. Fernando Alonso has done a good job and finished behind the two Red Bull drivers on the third. Lewis Hamilton was fourth followed by Jenson Button , who has had a good strategy that has allowed him to finish behind his teammate.

The race has begun with great intensity, in the first meters Sebastian Vettel has been able to overtake Nico Hulkenberg, soon after did the same thing while behind Mark Webber Fernando Alonso ahead of Lewis Hamilton. The Spanish driver has had more problems to discuss with the Williams driver but I finally did it. At that time it was a large gap that existed with the pilots of the energy drink, which had about ten seconds ahead of Spanish rider.

Lewis Hamilton has also had many problems to overtake Nico Hulkenberg and when he has done has been thanks to the Williams driver has entered the pits to change tires. At that time the distance between Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso also was ten seconds.

Felipe Massa has had problems in his pit stop and had to stop twice, which made him fall to the last position, as his mechanics had not properly tightened one of the front wheels. By contrast Jenson Button was one of the first stop and this has served to raise many positions. Quite the contrary that Nico Hulkenberg has fallen to tenth position.

The positions have remained fairly stabilized and there have been surprises until Vitantonio Liuzzi lost control of his car and left in the Senna S, causing the safety car period. All drivers have regrouped but among the first pilots were many folded, so there have been many problems with them.

Once folded it has left to spend Fernando Alonso has killed a very strong pace and was able to close the gap to Mark Webber , but has not been enough to overtake on the track. Thus ended the race with Sebastien Vettel’s victory and second place in the Australian pilot. This result gives Red Bull the constructors’ championship.

Behind Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button and Nico Rosberg have been Michael Schumacher . Nico Hulkenberg has remained in eighth place followed by Robert Kubica and Kamui Kobayashi, who was able to overtake Alguersuari in the closing laps.

Result:

Position  Driver        Team                       Time
 1.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           1h33:11.803
 2.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +     4.243
 3.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +     6.807
 4.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           +    14.634
 5.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +    15.593
 6.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +    35.300
 7.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +    43.400
 8.  Hulkenberg    Williams-Cosworth          +     1 lap
 9.  Kubica        Renault                    +     1 lap
10.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +     1 lap
11.  Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +     1 lap
12.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes       +     1 lap
13.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +     1 lap
14.  Massa         Ferrari                    +     1 lap
15.  Petrov        Renault                    +     1 lap
16.  Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth          +     1 lap
17.  Heidfeld      Sauber-Ferrari             +     1 lap
18.  Kovalainen    Lotus-Cosworth             +    2 laps
19.  Trulli        Lotus-Cosworth             +    2 laps
20.  Glock         Virgin-Cosworth            +    2 laps
21.  Senna         HRT-Cosworth               +    2 laps
22.  Klien         HRT-Cosworth               +    6 laps

Fastest lap: Hamilton, 1:13.851

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                         On lap
Di Grassi     Virgin-Cosworth              63
Liuzzi        Force India-Mercedes         50
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Scientists discover how to erase memories

4th
Nov. × ’10

Some will remember the movie “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” , in which Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet are a couple ending their affair and decides to delete all the memories I have of it to save the trauma.

It turns out that scientists have already discovered how to erase memories of the brain. For now only works with laboratory mice, but it’s a step in that direction.

A team of neuroscientists at Johns Hopkins University found that altering a specific brain protein can find and eliminate traumatic memories at a molecular level. To test this, the researchers exposed mice to poor sound frightening, and observed what was happening in their brains when mice noise associated with the feeling of fear.

They found that a part of the brain was more active in the process: the amygdala. I do not mean that in your throat, but the amygdala, a center of neurons located in each hemisphere and is considered one of the most archaic parts of the brain. It is thought that the amygdala is responsible for forming memories connected with emotional, and scientists were able to determine that there is a particular protein in nerve cells of the amygdala that helps you make that connection and set the memory.

It turns out that these proteins are quite special, and can be searched and removed from the nerve cells. This weakens the connection in the brain created by a traumatic memory, so that the memory is not only suppressed, but permanently deleted. Proteins are most active during the 24 hours following the traumatic event (such as to set the memory), and disappear after 48 hours, when the memory and you stuck.

Thus, the technique probably works only if something happened to you recently. In mice at least, it works perfectly.

Researchers say they hope to create a drug that can attack the protein and prevent the formation of traumatic memories. So you could carry in your pocket and if something horrible happens to you, you take a pill and poof! it was the trauma.

On the one hand, it might be useful in treating post-traumatic stress situations such as rape, war and other traumatic events. However, I do not even need to specify the abuses that could come to have a system to clear memory.

Finally, one has a memory for something, and if we forget everything bad that happened to us, how we learn so we will not happen again?

Link: via hopkinsmedicine.org

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Tom Cruise hangs the tallest building in the world scene from “Mission: Impossible 4″

2nd
Nov. × ’10

Nerves of steel is what has actor Tom Cruise who did not hesitate to hang the world’s tallest building to stage a stunt of their upcoming action movie.

Cruise surprised more than one to be hanging from the Burj Dubai , construction of 828 meters (124 floors), as part of the film Mission Impossible 4.

The scene was appreciated by a large number of fans who watched in awe and terror as the husband of Katie Holmes made the daring maneuvers.

Cruise chose to interpret the scenes himself, without the need for a double. These were shot from a helicopter over the building, while others were filmed from the inside.

It is expected that the film hits theaters in December 2011.

Recording of ‘Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol‘ in Burj Dubai


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Google launches music service in India!

25th
Oct. × ’10

Everyone knows that before the end of the year the search company plans to launch a streaming music service and downloads designed for the Android platform, but surely will have desktop versions integrated into the browser or your browser. Anyway, recently I talked about music service that Google had in China, highlighting the poor aesthetics of the site. Now ‘s the turn to port this solution to India .

Apparently, the reason that Google would have moved to intervene in this aspect in a developing country like the Republic of India is the steady growth of illegal downloads in the country. So the company would have joined the industry to offer content providers instead of three: Saregama India Ltd., and In.com Saavn.

While here, thousands of miles of that nation, this movement may seem unimportant, we must remember that the Google service when it is launched globally, will media coverage right now can not imagine at all. This small step could be considered as a pilot. But more than that, we can not forget that India has huge potential to have 670 million mobile users, a negligible figure.

While Google Music comes, I invite you to introduce you to the Indian site to check the appearance that the service may end up having to appear before year’s end. The service is fully operational, ie, we can hear the songs without problem: select the author of our taste (or rather, the first we see) and will open a popup window with playback of the song.
Link: http://www.google.co.in/music

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Scientists tested the pain threshold of humans with robots

19th
Oct. × ’10

Defying the first law of robotics by Asimov, a group of scientists from the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia are doing an investigation in which test the pain threshold of humans through repeated blows made by an industrial robot.

According to Borut POVs, head of research, this work has a long-term goal:

Even robots designed as Asimov’s laws may conflict with people. We are trying to make sure that when it happens, is not very strong. We are taking the first steps to define the limits of speed and acceleration of ls robots, and the ideal size and shape of the tools we use, so they can interact safely with humans.

To do the research, scientists occupied a robot arm used to coffee vending machines made by Epson. They persuaded six volunteers who were then beaten 18 times in the arm, at different intensities and two types of tools, one round and one pointed. They were then asked to rate pain: no pain, mild, moderate, horrible or excruciating. POVs tested the machine before and said most of the blows was mild to moderate.

The next stage of work is to prove stronger collisions using an artificial arm. The idea is to standardize the speed and force with which a robot must move when you notice that there is a human hand.

Link: via NewScientist

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Want to see a good simulator? Here is how to spend it on Lexus

19th
Oct. × ’10

If the videos they make in Red Bull and Toro Rosso before each circuit with the simulator you seem fine thing, you can not miss that has mounted the Lexus in his factory. Since then gives many turns to anything else I’ve seen, by immersion, the ability to move and the enormous cost that must have …

Following the phrase “if you do something, do it big”, the Lexus has pulled the house out the window, and I think they would fit inside the simulator the truth. This is a large room that looks more like a factory simulator. On the floor are rails, and just above a bridge that can move forward and backward. On this bridge we found another, which is able to move forward and backward through the same gateway, or whatever it is, the set can move forward and backward, left and right. And on top of the latest catwalk find a dome that is attached to the ground by 6 hydraulic arms, as seen in other cockpits with movement.

If you already have seats that move in the site itself can be fun to drive, with one in which you actually move also becomes a very immersive feeling, but it does not stop here. Inside the dome is a real model of a Lexus, you want to try. The driver must sit in the car for real and play driving simulator while playing in 360 º of the dome. And while having fun inside, outside everything is monitored, with the intention of learning more about driving behaviors.

This is achieved by looking at people outside the company. Normal people who access the street driving a while this little toy. Looking for people of different profiles. Young people, older people, other people make night driving while tired, etc. The good thing is that it helps to find patterns and repeat the tests as often as you want, improving active safety systems in a more natural for drivers.

No doubt I would not mind giving me a ride in that pileup.

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The market for e-books has grown 193% this year

19th
Oct. × ’10

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) issued sales figures for e-books and books printed in August this year, confirming a trend increasingly clear: e-books continue to grow as paper books every time they sell less .

The market for e-books grew by 193% so far this year, which resulted in earnings of $ 263 million. In August alone e-books sold for $ 39 million, up 170% on the figures of the same month last year.

Similarly, the printed books are generating less and less profit. While earnings from August 2009 rose 4%, fiction books for adults and youth suffered a fall of 18.3% and 14.6% compared to July of this year, respectively.

The only category where sales of printed books has gone down, and grows steadily, is the book of education. Rose by 10 to 15% month over month and 5% over August 2009.

The important conclusion is that e-books are a growing market. In fact, now account for 9% of all sales in the U.S. market, tripling the percentage of last year.

Link: via Mashable

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“Bumblebee” Car Hits Police Cruiser at filiming of “Transformers 3″

12th
Oct. × ’10

One of the Chevrolet Camaro involved in the filming of Transformers 3, known as Bumblebee, has had an accident with a Chevrolet Tahoe Washington DC police will say that is normal, are things of the script … but no, this is an accident no real special effects.

As is clear from the images, the street and was cut by the police while they were parading cars running, including the truck Optimus Prime … until a real police car, oblivious to the recording came to attend a emergency … and he passed the Camaro.

The collision was the Camaro’s front right flipper against the front of the Tahoe, which just seems to be damaged, while the Camaro is a nice mess on your teeth. The Tahoe will stop and not continue the service … the accident was shot in different angles …

The driver of the Tahoe was taken to hospital with minor injuries, the Camaro’s got their own feet. Both tried to dodge, but there was not much to do. Of course the Tahoe’s driver gave him a good dose of cold blood. And is not the first incident of shooting of the film.

Earlier this year, broke a cable from a camera that slipped through the windshield hitting against the head of an extra, Gabriel Cedillo. She is recovering from his injuries yet. “Incorporate the accident with the police in the disc extras? And in the special edition?

Luckily it was a Camaro in Transformers, and not an old Mini Cooper as the filming of “The Bourne identity.” The result would have been quite different.

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