Archive for February, 2008

I forgot to mention yesterday that WordPress 2.3.3 has been released.

WordPress 2.3.3 is an urgent security release. If you have registration enabled a flaw was found in the XML-RPC implementation such that a specially crafted request would allow a user to edit posts of other users on that blog. In addition to fixing this security flaw, 2.3.3 fixes a few minor bugs. If you are interested only in the security fix, download the fixed version of xmlrpc.php and copy it over your existing xmlrpc.php. Otherwise, you can get the entire release here.

No swinging from the chandeliers, okay? Go grab it. Now.

So Yahoo doesn’t want to be taken over by Microsoft huh? I don’t blame them. I am wondering though, exactly what inside Yahoo is worth holding on to?

Yahoo chief executive Jerry Yang sent a message to employees on Wednesday, assuring them the firm’s leaders are exploring ways to avoid a takeover by software giant Microsoft.

In an email to Yahoo workers, Yang said the board of directors has yet to decide how to respond to Microsoft’s offer to buy the veteran Internet company for 44.6 billion dollars in cash and stock.

“Our board is thoughtfully evaluating a wide range of potential strategic alternatives in what is a complex and evolving landscape,” Yang wrote in the email, which was filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

“What’s become clear in the past few days is how much people care about this company. I’ve heard from many of you, and from other friends and colleagues from around Silicon Valley and across the globe, that we need to do what’s best for Yahoo and our shareholders.”

Microsoft’s unsolicited offer to pay the equivalent of 31 dollars per share for Yahoo highlights the 14-year-old California firm’s potential to recapture past glory, Yang told employees.

The potential to recapture past glory? How? By making something that people actually want to use? I won’t hold my breath, unless of course they have something to fill a nice Riedel with, then I will wait.

Today was a very emotional day.

It all started at 6:30 when the alarm went off and I quickly woke up the entire family. There was never any doubt that we would all go together to take Flash to this very important appointment today.

We arrived about 20 minutes early, which was amazing seeing how the Atlanta traffic was. After completing the new patient registration form, they took us all into a small 10×15 room. I have to admire the kids for sitting there, listening to things they could not understand, keeping quiet so we could comprehend what the veterinarian was telling us.

Flash’s prognosis is not good. The deterioration in the bone is so bad that he is now at the point that just walking could cause hairline fractures and more pain. The veterinarian explained everything to us, he covered all the options. I am so glad he did.

The first thing Flash needs is an immediate amputation of his right front leg. They will have to take the shoulder and the shoulder blade too. His recovery from the amputation will be rather quick, but he will never recover from the cancer.

The veterinarian explained that there is no doubt the cancer has spread and Flash has at best 6 months to 1 year left with us. He discussed the options for chemotherapy, but even with the treatment that shows the best results, the most Flash gains is an additional 6 months to 1 year.

We will never know what Flash is thinking, or what he wants. I do know that if it were me, I would choose the quality of life over the quantity. It just seems more logical to me to allow him to live as a happy 3 legged dog for 6 months to a year, running around in sexy costumes, rather than have him laying around listless, drooling, in a heap of fur on the floor, too sick to notice whether or not we were even in the room.

So for now, we are planning on the amputation. He has pain pills to get him through til we can get that done in the next week or so, and after that is done, we will take it from there.

What strange bedfellows a proposed takeover makes.

Yahoo Inc would consider a business alliance with Google Inc as one way to rebuff a $44.6 billion takeover proposal by Microsoft, a source familiar with Yahoo’s strategy said on Sunday.

Yahoo management is considering revisiting talks it held with Google several months ago on an alliance as an alternative to Microsoft’s bid, that source said. At $31 a share, Yahoo believes the bid undervalues the company, two sources said.

…

The Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site on Sunday that Google’s chief executive Eric Schmidt called Yahoo’s chief executive Jerry Yang to offer his company’s help in any effort to thwart Microsoft’s bid.

Who else would be interested in purchasing Yahoo!, especially at that price or higher? Puhleaze. Why would you want to do that to your own franchise anyway? This is nothing but a ploy to try and get more money from Microsoft and it might just work, seeing that they will probably pay anything to get Yahoo! so they can finally, realistically, attempt to enter that market.

In an exclusive interview, software developer Slobokan announced that he is currently working on the next release of Stuffr.

Wait. Why was I talking to myself?

The rumors are true, I will be releasing a new version of Stuffr within the next few days. The new version will include several small bug fixes (you probably didn’t notice) and a couple new things to keep all of the feature kiddies happy.

Our dog Flash has been limping for the last week or two, so we took him to the vet today. It turns out he has cancer. We have another appointment on Tuesday to find out how bad it is, and what we can do for him.

I know to many of you he is just a dog, but he’s a part of our family and I would appreciate some prayers if you’re so inclined.

There’s nothing like an attempt at government regularion of what you should and shouldn’t do on the weekend. Government mandated rest is one thing, government mandated silence is quite another.

It may be wishful thinking, but a Canadian government ministry has sent out a directive to its employees urging them to relax and not to use their BlackBerry smartphones at night or on weekends and holidays.

Trying to re-establish a proper balance between work and life, Citizenship and Immigration Canada is starting by trying to cut the chains to what some have called CrackBerries.

The department’s deputy minister, Richard Fadden, sent out a memo asking employees to implement a BlackBerry “blackout” between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. and on weekends and holidays.

“Work/life quality is a priority for me and this organization because achieving it benefits us both as individuals and as a department,” Fadden wrote.

Yeah, like this is going to work. Have you ever seen a drug addict that was able to “step away” from it all for the weekend? Have you ever seen an alcoholic put down his drink simply because he needed to “balance” his life? Puhleaze! Now pick up that blackberry and get back on the treadmill. You’re getting fat.

When the internet goes down, all hell breaks loose. Just keep praying that you don’t have to call tech support for Dell, AT&T or any number of other companies who outsource their “customer service” departments.

Large swathes of Asia, the Middle East and north Africa had their high-technology services crippled Thursday following a widespread Internet failure which brought many businesses to a standstill and left others struggling to cope.

One major telecommunications provider blamed the outage, which started Wednesday, on a major undersea cable failure in the Mediterranean.

India’s Internet bandwidth has been sliced in half, The Associated Press reported, leaving its lucrative outsourcing industry trying to reroute traffic to satellites and other cables through Asia.

Reports say that Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain are also experiencing severe problems.

On a sidenote, with internet and phone services reduced, the amount of friendly* traffic I get from some countries should drop considerably for a few days. There was a point when I could time the attacks on my site with a Patek Gondolo watch. Down to the second. I’m glad those days are over, but I still love the watch.

* The term friendly refers to the numerous hack attempts I get at one of my sites from specific countries in the mid-East.