MICROYA WHO?

Microsoft has made a bid for search engine company Yahoo! to the tune of $44.6 billion. While that is pocket change for Bill Gates, why? Yahoo is just a portal. It doesn't have the applications that Google has such as spreadsheets, documents, notebooks, e-mail, and --- by the way --- a search engine. The Yahoo! MyWeb can't compete with Reader in terms of cross-functionality with other Google apps. Bill and company are too little, too very late in buying a company that hasn't understood how to use the Internet for socialization, information, and business. I don't understand the logic behind Congress and the European Union scrutinizing Microsoft for the purchase as possible monopoly. Whoever thought of this purposed merger was shy five pixels off the screen.

To place the idiocy of the merger in perspective, I Googled not Yahooed or Live Searched for the information for this post. And, yeah, it's an article on Blogger. 'Nuff said.

Technorati Tags:microsoft,yahoo

THE FALLEN

Once again, the stupidity of readily available firearms is proved. An 18-year-old man in Finland has shot and killed five boys, two girls, and an adult woman before police subdued him. The killer is now in critical condition in the hospital.

Before the massacre, the killer had posted a video on YouTube entitled "Jokela High School Massacre - 11/7/2007"

Now, logically, all posts on YouTube that show violence aren't going to end up with people being killed. However, if a specific target is named, shouldn't someone at Google/YouTube be more involved with monitoring the videos and seeking help so this type of tradegy does not occur?

Where is corporate responsibility in Internet companies? Certainly not at Yahoo! which handed over its computer records on journalist Shi Tao on the request of the Chinese government. Shi Tao is now a political prisoner due to the corporate weak knees at Yahoo! Specifically, Chief Executive Jerry Yang and VP Michael Callahan lied to Congress about their knowledge of giving the information about Shi Tao to the Chinese government. Furthermore, Yahoo! has been implicated in the arrests of four other dissident journalists.

At Google/YouTube, the answer may lie in greater vigilance about content. At Yahoo!, there needs to be a corporate overhaul about human rights, and about honesty.

UPDATE: The shooter died of his self-inflicted injuries. The adult killed was the high school principal. Please keep the family and the seven students injured in your thoughts.

UPDATE TWO: The shooter, Pekka-Eric Auvinen, killed six students, the school nurse, and the principal. He was a loner who faced bullying at school.

Technorati Tags: guns,google,yahoo