Microsoft Live Search Bribes

It's official, even Microsoft thinks Live Search sucks:

Unfortunately for some, Microsoft’s decision to pay companies money to switch their default search engine from Google, Yahoo or something is only companies can take advantage of, and not (as yet?) for individual users who would consider being paid to search with Windows Live Search.

But if you’re a company with thousands of PCs installed, all using Windows, Microsoft’s new program is official, and there’s a golden opportunity to convert the searches your employees do on a daily basis into tens of thousands of dollars, or even more.

Microsoft’s new program is called “Microsoft Service Credits for Web Search” and has been unveiled by John Batelle’s ‘SearchBlog’. The money on offer is significant, especially when multiplied across thousands of PCs. The deal means that companies can earn between US $2 and US $10 per computer on an annual basis, plus a US $25,000 “enrollment credit” which is a nice big wad of cash that will likely need a large-ish, strong and sturdy brown paper bag to hold securely while being passed under the table.  

For companies that have thousands of computers, this could translate into anywhere from US $100,000 to $200,000 per year, which is money that could be put to good use in the IT department or elsewhere in the company.

If you think your product is great then you don't plan bribes to get people to use it.

More Climate Change Nonsense

We're at a tipping point on climate change they say, the Arctic ice is going:

A catastrophic collapse of the Arctic sea ice could lead to radical climate changes in the northern hemisphere according to scientists who warn that the rapid melting is at a "tipping point" beyond which it may not recover.

The scientists attribute the loss of some 38,000 square miles of sea ice - an area the size of Alaska - to rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as well as to natural variability in Arctic ice.

Ever since satellite measurements of the Arctic sea ice began in 1979, the surface area covered by summer sea ice has retreated from the long-term average. This has increased the rate of coastal erosion from Alaska to Siberia and caused problems for polar bears, which rely on sea ice for hunting seals.

However, in recent years the rate of melting has accelerated and the sea ice is showing signs of not recovering even during the cold, dark months of the Arctic winter. This has led to even less sea ice at the start of the summer melting season.

Mark Serreze, a senior glaciologist at the University of Colorado at Boulder, said the world was heading towards a situation where the Arctic will soon be almost totally ice-free during summer, which could have a dramatic impact on weather patterns across the northern hemisphere.

"When the ice thins to a vulnerable state, the bottom will drop out and we may quickly move into a new, seasonally ice-free state of the Arctic," Dr Serreze said.

Personally I think it's excellent. Think of all that oil we can drill for now the ice has gone!

Computers and Go

It's long been said that while computers may routinely trounce human chess players in hte future this wouldn't be true of Go. While the rules are much simpler, the strategic options are vastly greater. Until now, perhaps:

 

Computers can beat some of the world's top chess players, but the most powerful machines have failed at the popular Asian board game "Go" in which human intuition has so far proven key.

Two Hungarian scientists have now come up with an algorithm that helps computers pick the right move in Go, played by millions around the world, in which players must capture spaces by placing black and white marbles on a board in turn.

"On a nine by nine board we are not far from reaching the level of a professional Go player," said Levente Kocsis at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences' computing lab SZTAKI.

They still can't work on the larger, 19x19 board used by advanced players but they're certain they can get there.

Teen Exposure to Pornography

In what might be this year's finest entry into the "No Shit, Sherlock" competition, research has found that teenage exposure to pornography is common:

About four in every 10 U.S. youngsters age 10 to 17 report they've seen pornography while on the Internet, two-thirds of them saying it was uninvited, according to a study published on Monday.

Many of the encounters with online pornography, both sought-out and accidental, were related to use of file-sharing programs to download images, the report from the University of New Hampshire in Durham said.

"Although there is evidence that most youth are not particularly upset when they encounter unwanted pornography on the Internet (it) could have a greater impact on some youth than voluntary encounters with pornography," the study said.

"Some youth may be psychologically and developmentally unprepared for unwanted exposure, and online images may be more graphic and extreme than pornography available from other sources," it added.

The report, published in the February issue of Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, was based on a telephone survey made of a representative sample of 1,500 U.S. youngsters from March to June, 2005

I love that word "uninvited". What is hte Web for if it isn't to teach the young how it's done?

 

Technorati tags: pornography research

2003 EL 61

We might have the brightest comet ever to look at:

The potential comet is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, designated 2003 EL61. Astronomers at Caltech have plotted its likely path, and have found that a close encounter with Neptune could disturb its path enough to send it tumbling into the inner solar system, where it would become a short period comet.

Alternatively, the encounter with Neptune could slingshot the planetoid away from the sun, into the Oort cloud, or even out of the solar system altogether.

Only one thing though, you'll have to wait a long time. 2 million years or so shoud do it.

 

Technorati tags: comet, solar system

Monster Options

Ooooh, dear, looks like the people at Monster.com have been very naughty boys over backdating their option grants:

Monster.com - the online recruitment site - has told the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it has been over-stating its profits since the late 90s.

Since 1997 until 2005 the site exaggerated profits by a total of $272m. The company said its investigation into backdated share options was almost complete but it expects to make final recomendations in the first quarter of 2007. Several dozen Silicon Valley companies are accused of mis-stating results and backdating share options.

This is the sort of thing that can lead to jail time, depending upon exactly what they were doing.

 

Technorati tags: Monster.commodities, backdating, options

Nokia 9300

The Nokia 9300 is a mobile phone for the US market.

The technical specifications are as follows:

	Advanced voice features: handsfree speakerphone and conference calling capability1
	Full keyboard and two 65,536-color displays
	Messaging options: email with attachments, SMS, Instant Messaging and MMS1,14
	Office applications: Documents, Sheet, and Presentations (supports the most common features of Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint; Microsoft Office 97, 98, 2000, XP and 2003)
	Organizer (calendar, contacts, tasks) and email with PC synchronization via Nokia PC Suite software4
	Large memory storage: 80MB built-in memory plus Multimedia Memory Card (MMC)
	High-speed data connectivity; up to 53.6 kbps GPRS, up to 236.8 kbps EGPRS (EDGE)1

Full details and further specs can be found at the Nokia 9300 web page.