Google goes after Facebook with Google+

After months of rumors, Google takes the wraps off its own social network

After months of speculation, Google has launched a social network to rival Facebook.
Google today unveiled its Google+ project, a social networking service that looks and functions very much like Facebook. The two Internet giants have been increasingly competitive, and with today's announcement, Google is taking a giant step directly onto Facebook's market.
"Among the most basic of human needs is the need to connect with others," wrote Vic Gundotra, Google's senior vice president of engineering, in a blog post. "Today, the connections between people increasingly happen online. Yet the subtlety and substance of real-world interactions are lost in the rigidness of our online tools. In this basic, human way, online sharing is awkward. Even broken. And we aim to fix it."
Google's new service, which now is only available to a small group of users and invitees, is designed to enable people to post status updates, share links and upload photos.
However, what Google hopes will set its social network apart from Facebook and the smaller social networking services is that Google+ is set up to allow users to communicate within separate groups of their online friends. Instead of posting an update that goes out to everyone, Google+ enables users to create "circles" or groups, such as a user's poker buddies, college friends, work colleagues and family members.
Now a user can communicate separately with each group.
"The "circles" idea makes a lot of sense," said Ezra Gottheil, an analyst at Technology Business Research. "It's smart, and while you can do something similar in Facebook, it's not Facebook's main thing. It's not as easy to do."
But it remains to be seen whether this feature will be enough to convince Facebook users -- many of whom are already tied in with sometimes hundreds of people on Facebook -- to use a second social network or even toss aside the über-popular Facebook in favor a brand new service that not many people are using.
Bloggers and pundits have long talked about whether Google would come out with a Facebook killer, but that is one tall order.
The one certainty is that Google is facing an uphill battle in taking on Facebook. While the social network has officially said that it has more than 500 million users, other sources recently have reported that the number now is more than 750 million.
But Google has accepted the challenge.
With Google+, the company is giving users a way to get a rolling scroll of content from across the Internet on any topic of they're interested in. Really into fashion, gardening or restoring old cars? Google+ will stream a feed of content into your page so you can stay up to date on your favorite topics.
And with a feature called "Hangouts," Google+ enables users to meet up with their friends online, using multiperson video.
Want to share the photos on your smartphone but don't want the hassle of uploading them? With the user's permission, Google+ will take the photos you've snapped with your phone and store them in the cloud so you can easily move them onto any of your devices.
"We realize that Google+ is a different kind of project, requiring a different kind of focus -- on you," Gundotra wrote. "That's why we're giving you more ways to stay private or go public; more meaningful choices around your friends and your data."

Messi: I'll stay at Barca for life

LIONEL MESSI has vowed to finish his top-flight career at Barcelona.

The World Player of the Year insists he will return to his native Argentina when he finally decides to leave the European champions.
Manchester City have been linked with the 24-year-old in the past, although they would have to cough up a whopping £268million to meet the buy-out clause in his contract.
But Messi is adamant he will see out his playing days in his homeland once his time at the Nou Camp comes to an end.
He said: "If I leave Barcelona, it will be to return to Argentina and retire.
"I do not intend to go somewhere else. I am happy in Barcelona, I'm fine and if I end it will be to come to Argentina."
Messi also aimed a cheeky dig at Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo — widely regarded as the world's second best player.
When asked about the comparisons between him and his Portuguese rival, Messi added: "Everyone is like they are, I do not show off in that way. It isn't me, I am more reserved."

Chelsea and ManCity battle for Neymar

The Premier League pair are hoping to land the Santos striker after meeting his £40million release clause.

But they face stiff competition from Barcelona and Real Madrid, who have also met the asking price.

Russian side Anzhi Makhachkala are also believed to have bid for Neymar but it is unlikely the Brazilian will go there.

Santos president Luis Ribeiro said: "We don't want to sell the player but there is a release clause in his contract that can be paid.

"Five European clubs have offered to match the clause.

"I cannot name them because there is an agreement between Santos and the clubs but they are the most important clubs in Europe.

"They have asked to speak to the player and obviously we've allowed them to.

"The clubs have behaved ethically. They sought out Santos first and were willing to pay the clause.

"With this ethical approach, they can talk to anyone - with Neymar's father, with his agent Wagner Ribeiro, and with the representatives of Neymar."

Chelsea tried to sign Neymar last summer but their offer was rejected.

Ribeiro also revealed he was unhappy with the way the Blues went about their business.

He added: "Last year, Chelsea's attitude was different. Their first action was to seek out the player's representatives."

We'll snare Drog for the right price

MARSEILLE will swoop for Chelsea striker Didier Drogba this summer — if they can afford his wages.

Drogba, 33, was a hit during his single season with the Ligue 1 club, netting 19 goals in 35 appearances before sealing a £24million move to Stamford Bridge in 2004.

The 33-year-old striker has a year left on current his deal with the Blues but new boss Andre Villas-Boas may yet decide he is surplus to requirements.

President Vincent Labrune is confident Marseille can afford to buy Drogba back but admits the player's salary demands may mean he is out of reach.

Labrune said: "The question is whether in terms of salary, I do not mean the transfer, Marseille have the means for four years to pay Drogba.

"I answer 'yes', but we cannot afford 11 Drogbas. It is possible, but only if we sell first."

Warning from Microsoft:You would have to format your PC,if it gets infected by Rootkit

Microsoft is telling Windows users that they'll have to reinstall the operating system if they get infected with a new rootkit that hides in the machine's boot sector.
A new variant of a Trojan Microsoft calls "Popureb" digs so deeply into the system that the only way to eradicate it is to return Windows to its out-of-the-box configuration, Chun Feng, an engineer with the Microsoft Malware Protection Center, said last week on the group's blog.
"If your system does get infected with Trojan:Win32/Popureb.E, we advise you to fix the MBR and then use a recovery CD to restore your system to a pre-infected state," said Feng.
A recovery disc returns Windows to its factory settings.
Malware like Popureb overwrites the hard drive's MBR (master boot record), the first sector -- sector 0 -- where code is stored to bootstrap the operating system after the computer's BIOS does its start-up checks. Because it hides on the MBR, the rootkit is effectively invisible to both the operating system and security software.
According to Feng, Popureb detects write operations aimed at the MBR -- operations designed to scrub the MBR or other disk sectors containing attack code -- and then swaps out the write operation with a read operation.
Although the operation will seem to succeed, the new data is not actually written to the disk. In other words, the cleaning process will have failed.
Feng provided links to MBR-fixing instructions for XP, Vista, and Windows 7
Rootkits are often planted by attackers to hide follow-on malware, such as banking password-stealing Trojans. They're not a new phenomenon on Windows.
In early 2010, for example, Microsoft contended with a rootkit dubbed "Alureon" that infected Windows XP systems and crippled machines after a Microsoft security update.
At the time, Microsoft's advice was similar to what Feng is now offering for Popureb.
"If customers cannot confirm removal of the Alureon rootkit using their chosen anti-virus/anti-malware software, the most secure recommendation is for the owner of the system to back up important files and completely restore the system from a cleanly formatted disk," said Mike Reavey, director of the Microsoft Security Response Center, in February 2010.

Since then, Microsoft has added a check for the Aluereon rootkit to all security updates so that when the malware is detected, the updates are not installed.

Enterprise interest in ERP picking up steam again

Last fall, enterprises had little interest in investing in ERP, but new research is showing renewed enthusiasm for the technology now
For ERP vendors and users, the sluggish Enterprise Resource Planning marketplace of the last two years is finally gaining a bit of enthusiasm again.
Maybe it's due to the slightly more optimistic economic news that occasionally trickles into the national news feed. Maybe it's the improving corporate earnings reports that are showing new promise for more and more companies each week. Or maybe it's just that business leaders are cautiously allowing themselves to think positively about ramping up again after the stubborn and tiring recession of 2007 to 2009.
Whatever it is, businesses are again starting to at least take a look at how improving their critical ERP systems can bolster their operations and that's notable, according to China Martens, an enterprise applications analyst with Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research Inc.
That's a small but positive shift from early last month, when Forrester released a new study, "The State of ERP in 2011." Back then, most enterprises were reporting that they were standing pat on their ERP investments for 2011 and wouldn't be increasing their spending, according to an IDG News Service story. But since the data for that study was actually collected last fall, things have started changing a bit.
"I think we're in a period of evolving," says Martens, who co-authored the study with fellow Forrester analyst Paul D. Hamerman. Last fall, when client interviews were being conducted for the study, they had somewhat less optimistic views about their ERP plans going into 2011, she reports.
"New information from clients today who are actively looking for upgrades or who are looking to jump into ERP appears pretty healthy today," Martens says. "The ERP waters are diverse -- some people are poised to dive in, and there are others who are dipping their feet in and trying to decide if it's time to make a move."
One other big change in the ERP mood of clients since last fall, she says, is that nowadays more of them are discussing interest in ERP SaaS (software-as-a-service), which hadn't been such a big attention-getter in the past. "It's something that they're maybe not actively considering, but they are at least looking at it."
That means that vendors who offer old-world, on-premises ERP are paying more attention, Martens says. "The impact of SaaS on on-premises vendors has forced them to look again at the economics of the times" and consider whether they need to include a SaaS ERP product to be competitive in the marketplace.
"Look at SAP and the Rapid Deployment Solutions that they're offering now at fixed prices with certain features" that are being eyed and adopted by some customers, she says. "Vendors are doing this because they hear back from customers about some of the economies of the SaaS model. They want to offer some kind of a counterbalance, and they want to be able to accommodate some of the arguments that the SaaS vendors have, such as being able to scale up more quickly and more easily know your costs going in."

Self-driving cars may be on the road sooner

It looks like self-driving cars may be on the road sooner than most people had thought -- at least in Nevada.
The state passed Bill 511 (PDF document) last week, authorizing executives at the state's Department of Motor Vehicles to begin coming up with a set of rules of the road for autonomous, or self-driving, vehicles.
This is the first step in what could be a lengthy process in getting autonomous cars, which are designed to use artificial intelligence, computer sensors and GPS instead of human drivers, on the nation's roads.
But the move must be seen as good news to companies such as Google and General Motors, along with researchers at institutions such as Stanford, Cornell and Carnegie Mellon University. All of these organizations have been working on autonomous cars.
Just last fall, Google announced that its engineers were working on software for self-driving cars. Google's self-driving car reportedly logged 140,000 miles in California, driving -- with a trained driver and software engineer on board -- around Lake Tahoe, across the Golden Gate Bridge and along the Pacific Coast Highway.
And about six months before that, GM showed off a car dubbed Electric Networked-Vehicle, or EN-V. The two-wheeled, two-seat electric car is designed to be driven either normally or autonomously.
Self-driving cars also have been the focus of high-tech contests sponsored by U.S. government's military research arm, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency or DARPA. The race pits teams of researchers from universities like Virginia Tech, Stanford and Cornell, against each other as they test their robotic vehicles on a long course.
Work on robotic cars has advanced to the point that one Stanford researcher said developing self-driving cars could help the U.S. auto industry take back its global leadership role, and maybe even save the industry as a whole.
Technology, specifically artificial intelligence, could revolutionize what automobiles are able to do, said Sebastian Thrun, a professor of computer science and director of the artificial intelligence laboratory at Stanford.

Your next job: Mobile app developer?

With companies scrambling to build mobile apps, there's a gold rush on for developers willing to retool their technical skills and adopt a new design mind-set.

As market demand surges for apps to run on iOS, Android and whatever operating system will power the next wave of smart devices, companies are facing a dearth of mobile development talent. For IT professionals with programming skills, that gap represents a fresh opportunity to embark on a career makeover.

To put the demand in perspective, consider that Apple racked up $1.78 billion in app sales in 2010, and global mobile app sales are forecast to hit $4 billion this year, according to market researcher IHS.

Just who is developing all of those apps? In its recent "America's Tech Talent Crunch" study, IT job site Dice.com found that job postings for Android developers soared 302% in the first quarter of this year compared to the first quarter of 2010; ads for iPhone-related positions rose 220% in the same time frame.

Elance.com, a website for freelancers, reports comparable demand: In the first quarter of 2011, there were 4,500 mobile developer jobs posted on the site -- an increase of 101% over the number of similar job postings in the same quarter last year.

The total number of job listings on the site expanded at a rate of 52% in that same time frame, indicating that mobile development as a career segment may be growing twice as fast as the overall job market, according to Ellen Pack, vice president of marketing at Elance.com.

It's not just tech companies that are on the prowl for mobile development talent. Today, all kinds of product and service companies are scrambling to come out with apps, just as, a short while ago, they were working to establish a presence on social networking sites.

"It's become one of the boxes you have to check to be a successful brand," Pack says. And that reality translates into pent-up demand for app developers. "It's one of those areas where there is more demand than supply because there aren't enough great mobile developers out there."

There is more demand than supply because there aren't enough great mobile developers out there.

Ellen Pack, VP of marketing, Elance.com

While there are ample pools of Web and Java development talent, professionals with expertise building native apps for Apple's iPhone or iPad, or for the BlackBerry or any of the newer Android devices, are in short supply because of the relative newness of those platforms.

Developers and designers who fully understand the constraints and the opportunities afforded by the smaller real estate and touch interfaces of the smart device platform are in high demand.

Market watchers say it's the ability to grasp mobile's new usage rules, and not simply the ability to master new programming skills, that separates those with an affinity for mobile development from those who just don't get it.

"When you're building Web applications, [you] have the whole desktop. There are things you can get away with from a design point of view that simply don't translate to a mobile device," notes Eric Knipp, a Gartner analyst specializing in Web and cloud computing. "It's not just about making things smaller or splitting things up into separate screens. Developers have been trained to think that more features equates to better applications, but on mobile devices, that's simply not true."

Apple warned of phishing attack threat for Mac OS X, iOS developers

YGN Ethical Hacker Group says it will disclose issues on Apple's developer website if Apple doesn't fix them
Apple's website for Mac OS X, iPhone, and iPad developers has a vulnerability that could lead to phishing attacks, according to a hacker group.
The Apple website vulnerability could allow an attacker to specify a link to another site through a "redirect," which could simplify phishing attacks, claims the YGN Ethical Hacker Group. The outfit, dedicated to finding website security flaws, is said to operate from the country of Myanmar.
SECURITY: Hacker group defends exposing McAfee website vulnerabilities
Unless Apple fixes the alleged vulnerability, the group says it plans to release information publicly in the next few days via the Full Disclosure security mailing list.
This is the practice that the group followed in March when it was frustrated by what it considered a slow response by security firm McAfee about vulnerability issues it found in its website. After public disclosure by the group, McAfee acknowledged the problems.
YGN Ethical Hacker Group says it doesn't want the discoveries it makes about vulnerabilities to be used for illegal hacking purposes, but to spur better security in commercial websites. The group says it informed Apple on April 25 about the" issues" it discovered at the developer site. The group says Apple on April 27 acknowledged the receipt of the information, saying, "We take the report of a potential security issue very seriously." But as of yet, YGN Ethical Hacker Group does not believe the main security hole it identified has been fixed.
The specific hole related to the "vulnerable code portion in developer.apple.com,"according to the group, is called "URL Redirection to Untrusted Site ('Open Redirect')." This is described in Mitre's data definitions of "Common Weakness Enumeration" as follows: "By modifying the URL value to a malicious site, an attacker may successfully launch a phishing scam and steal user credentials. Because the server name in the modified link is identical to the original site, phishing attempts have a more trustworthy appearance."
The Mitre definition of the URL Redirect says it can allow an attack because "the user may then unwittingly enter credentials into the attacker's web page" which would compromise the user's sensitive information.
Remediation to fix a vulnerability of this type typically involves improving input validation or otherwise changing the website.
YGN Ethical Hacking Group says it will spell out three specific "issues" soon if the Apple developer website isn't fixed to the group's satisfaction. These "issues" involve arbitrary URL redirect; cross-site scripting; and HTTP response splitting, with the "root cause" being the Arbitrary URL Redirect.
In April, the YGN Ethical Hacker Group found a similar Arbitrary URL Redirect issue in Oracle's Java.com website, but Oracle corrected it in about a week and even thanked the group for its information.
However, even given that the intent of the secretive group appears to be benign, the practice of unauthorized vulnerability scans and assessments of websites is highly controversial.
That's because under U.S. law at least, an unauthorized scan to find security holes is regarded as an attack and possibly a break-in. However, YGN Ethical Hacker Group in the past has countered that website operators, especially in the security and high-tech field, have a larger responsibility to not let their websites be compromised and exploited, which could undermine security on a broad basis.

Optimized Skype for iPad app to surface Today; could make Apple a part of Windows Live, analysts say

Skype is reportedly set to release a video chat app optimized for Apple's iPad even as the maker of video and voice products is on tap to be acquired by Microsoft for $8.5 billion.

Analysts are taking note that Microsoft, the classic Apple competitor, is indirectly ingratiating itself with Apple's industry-leading tablet computer. It's been widely reported that the Skype app will be available in iTunes starting Tuesday.

"It's interesting that this app puts Microsoft on the iPad --- potentially," noted Jack Gold, an analyst at J. Gold Associates. "MicroSkype takes a bite of the Apple."

The Skype video chat app for iPad alone might not be a big concern for Apple, though it does give Microsoft a foot into the Apple door, he said.

In fact, the app could mean that Apple, in effect, will become a component of the Microsoft Windows Live suite that includes everything from IM to email, Gold said. "Live is directly competitive to what Apple is doing," Gold noted.

In the computing industry, stranger things have happened as large companies invariably compete and cooperate with rivals. In fact, years ago industry insiders coined the term "co-opetition" as the trend took hold.

Apple's motivation to allow a Skype video app for iPad to be available in iTunes isn't hard to figure out, some analysts noted.

Skype is enormously popular worldwide, with some 30 million simultaneous users of its voice and video tools at peak times, and an average of 145 million connected users per month in the fourth quarter of 2010, according to Skype's Web site.

A popular app on a popular tablet can only help the tablet, the reasoning goes, while reviewers note that video chat on a tablet is arguably more compelling than on a smaller smartphone.

A further irony is that the Skype for iPad app would compete with Apple's own FaceTime video chat product, which works in Wi-Fi only.

Skype for iPad will be workable in both Wi-Fi and 3G, although an early CNET review said the Skype video chat is clear in Wi-Fi and "often less crisp chat over 3G." The reviewer also noted that calling via Skype video from an iPad to an iPhone resulted in frequent freezes.

The new app even works on the original iPad with its single camera that allows videoconferencing input, not output, as the two cameras allow on the iPad 2.

Another major advantage of the Skype product is that it allows video calls to other Skype users running any mobile device or desktop system. With Apple's FaceTime, users are restricted to the Apple platform.

Skype also offers iPhone-based video chat software for the iPad, but the older product isn't optimized for the Apple tablet's 9.7-in. screen size. Skype mistakenly posted a YouTube video describing the new iPad app last week. The iPad video has survived on some Web sites, although apparently without sound.

Skype's user forum has included posts calling for a native iPad video chat app. User Erick van der Neut said such a product would be "The killer app on the iPad."

And blogger Dan O'Shea of FierceVoIP declared in a blog post: "Face it: Video chat is iPad's killer app." O'Shea called Skype's rollout of the iPad product "the latest move in the broader evolution to video chat."

O'Shea also referenced Microsoft's pending acquisition of Skype, saying the rollout of the iPad video chat app could prove to quiet some critics of the Microsoft takeover.

"Recently, it seems Microsoft is getting blamed for anything up to and including the wind blowing the wrong direction at at Skype's HQ," he said. "But perhaps Skype's iPad offering will show that nothing is stopping the global VoIP (Voice over IP) juggernaut from helping to drive the next era in communications."

Frank Arnesen:Roman Abramovich is more sensible now

The ex-Chelsea man gave an insight into his former owner, whom he says has become much more savvy about sporting matters than when he first arrived in West London in 2003
Hamburg's new sporting director Frank Arnesen has revealed he had a fruitful working relationship with his former boss Roman Abramovich at Chelsea.
"It was very good [working with Abramovich] but also very easy. He was the only person I was answerable to," he told Bild. "When I first met him in 2005, he had little clue about football.
"However, Mr. Abramovich has put a lot of energy into the club and this has changed. Now he really knows his stuff about football. I always tried to spend his money wisely."
Arnesen also said that the Russian is fully committed to an idea once he has decided upon the right course of action, as was the case with the decision to hire manager Andre Villas-Boas as Carlo Ancelotti's successor.
"If Abramovich wants something, he goes for it 100 per cent,” he stated. "When he took me from Tottenham to Chelsea in 2005, he paid €5 million for me. So I am probably the most expensive sporting director in the world."
Arnesen departed from his post at Stamford Bridge for German side Hamburg, where he is hoping to kickstart a new era after years of underachievement.
"We are making a clean break,” he explained. “Many older players have gone.
"We are now going on with young players, who are talented, hungry and want to play for Hamburg. I know this is a risk but I am convinced that this is the right path."
"I want to see attractive football, which is technically and tactically good. And also a team, who give it their all. Not just in the matches but in every training session."

Samir Nasri's agent confirms contract talks with Arsenal will resume amid interest from Manchester United

The Frenchman, whose deal expires next year, has been linked with a move to Old Trafford, but his representative has said talks will continue despite interest from several clubs
The agent of Samir Nasri has said that talks between the player and Arsenal are still ongoing, in the wake of news that negotiations had stalled over a financial dispute.
There has been speculation that the Frenchman will leave the Emirates this summer, with Manchester United being touted a potential destination.
The midfielder is reported to have become disillusioned with the lack of signings made by manager Arsene Wenger after the Gunners went another season without silverware.
However, his agent, Alain Migliaccio, has said that he expects negotiations to begin again soon, although he acknowledged that there has been significant interest in the player.
"There are a few teams interested in Samir," Migliaccio confirmed to Calciomercatoweb.it, "But it is pointless to name them. Soon we shall meet again with Wenger.
"Before we listen to other teams, we should and want to listen to Arsenal, and I want to clarify that there is no break with the Gunners about the renewal."
Nasri had a successful season at the Gunners, impressing fans and pundits with his performances in the first half of the season, although his dip in form coincided with Arsenal being knocked out of several competitions in a short space of time.
He was controversially left out of the France squad for the World Cup, but has bounced back impressively and is now an attractive option for many of Europe’s leading clubs.

Arsenal reject €30m offer from Barcelona for captain Cesc Fabregas

Gunners reportedly to have turned down an initial bid from the Catalan club, and are now prepared to face another summer filled with uncertainty about their skipper
Arsenal have reportedly turned down an offer of €30 million from Barcelona for captain Cesc Fabregas.
The 24-year-old midfielder has for long been linked with a move to the Catalan club, with reports of a potential move back to his homeland having been doing the rounds for a few seasons.
For his part, the World Cup winner has maintained that he would like to play for Barca at some point in his career, having left their youth set-up to switch allegiance to the Gunners back in 2003.
The president of the Spanish club, Sandro Rosell, has previously revealed that the maximum that they are going to offer would be €40m and that should the Gunners still be unwilling to sell their skipper for that price, then the potential move would not reach fruition this summer.
Now The Telegraph has claimed that the north London outfit have rejected an initial offer of €30m for the playmaker as another summer of uncertainty surrounding the future of the midfielder kicks into action.
Fabregas has already made 303 appearances for Arsenal since making his move to England.

Ashley Cole will leave Chelsea for Spain if Cheryl agrees to move

Ashley and Cheryl Cole: Are they on their way to Spain?

The Chelsea star wants out of his £120,000-a-week Chelsea contract which has two years left to run.
The 30-year-old England international believes he has one big move left in him - but he won't go unless the former X Factor judge comes to Spain to live with him.
The left-back sees it as the ideal opportunity to patch up their relationship after they divorced in 2010.
A source told the Daily Mirror: 'Ashley has told friends he sees his future abroad and he wants to persuade Cheryl to come with him.
'It all boils down to what Cheryl wants, but the early signs are she would be up for the idea.'
Cheryl suffered the ignominy of  being axed from US X Factor before the series went to air.
She is now back in the UK keeping a low profile and may well welcome a break from the spotlight in sunnier climes.
The couple have become closer again since Cheryl returned from her American experience.
The Girls Aloud star was said to have stayed the night at the couple's Surrey mansion before her footballer ex left for his holiday in Los Angeles last week.

I believe this is about giving a fan a heartattack

Tevez named in Argentina's Copa America squad

The former Manchester United striker has made the final cut for the host nation under Sergio Batista, who has trimmed the group down to 23 for the tournament

Argentina coach Sergio Batista has included Carlos Tevez as one of seven attackers in his 23-man squad for the Copa America after months of speculation about his future in the national side.
Tevez joins the likes of Lionel Messi, Gonzalo Higuain and Sergio Aguero in a squad full of superstars that will look to capitalize on Argentina's home advantage and win the tournament for the first time since 1993.
Batista had named a 26-man preliminary squad and faced with the task of cutting three players, he dropped three Argentina-based players in Boca Juniors defender Luciano Monzon, Lanus midfielder Diego Valeri and Estudiantes de La Plata's Enzo Perez.
As expected, Mariano Andujar is one of three goalkeepers after Getafe's Oscar Ustari sustained a knee injury while Anderlecht midfielder Lucas Biglia, whom Esteban Cambiasso has anointed as his successor, is included despite picking up a shoulder problem at the end of last season.
The tournament gets underway on July 1 with Argentina taking on Bolivia. It will also face Colombia and Costa Rica in Group A.
Final Copa America squad:
Goalkeepers: Sergio Romero (AZ), Juan Pablo Carrizo (River Plate), Mariano Andujar (Catania).
Defenders: Gabriel Milito (Barcelona), Ezequiel Garay (Real Madrid), Nicolas Burdisso (Roma), Javier Zanetti (Inter), Nicolas Pareja and Marcos Rojo (Spartak Moscow), Pablo Zabaleta (Manchester City).
Midfielders: Javier Mascherano (Barcelona), Lucas Biglia (Anderlecht), Ever Banega (Valencia), Esteban Cambiasso (Inter), Javier Pastore (Palermo), Fernando Gago (Real Madrid).
Attackers: Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Angel Di Maria, Gonzalo Higuain (Real Madrid), Sergio Aguero (Atletico Madrid), Ezequiel Lavezzi (Napoli), Carlos Tevez (Manchester City), Diego Milito (Inter).

AC Milan reveals a transfer budget of €50m but plans not to rush

The Italian champions are biding their time in the transfer window but are determined to make vital additions before the deadline on August 31 as they look to challenge in Europe

AC Milan is expected to be given the go-ahead on a transfer kitty worth up to 50 million euros for this summer, as they aim to add a big name signing to their squad before the new season kicks off.

A club source revealed that CEO Adriano Galliani and coach Massimiliano Allegri are determined to bring in a superstar name to boost their squad, but won't rush into anything.
"The club is looking at figures between 35-50 million euros and the majority of this will be used for the market," said the source.
"Once these transfer sums are given the go-ahead from the club chiefs then Milan will start looking to make an assault for their so-called "Mr. X"."
There has been much talk about the club's desire to buy a player of great reputation in midfield, and speculation has increased since Allegri described an 'identikit' target with a striking resemblance to Napoli's Marek Hamsik, but Galliani has since denied that they are aiming to bring the Slovakian in.
Whoever the club have their eye on, however, they won't be making their move for some time yet.
"The club are not planning to make a move until at least the first few weeks of August. This is when they are likely to make a big splash," continued our source.
"Milan will do something big on the market. If they were to go for Hamsik they would likely start talks around August time. And [who they go for] will depend on the budget they are currently working out for the market."
A big offer is unlikely to be made for Standard Liege's Axel Witsel, as the source explained: "Witsel has been cast aside by Allegri. He no longer wants him at Milan, and so there is no chance of his transfer happening at this stage. It seems like the move has fizzled out and he appears likely to remain at Standard."
The Italian champions took a similar approach to the summer transfer window last season, bringing in a number of cheaper signings before splashing out on Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Robinho just before the August deadline.
The club have so far brought in Taye Taiwo, Philippe Mexes and Stephan El Shaarawy since winning the Serie A title for the first time in seven years.

"Chicharito is the hottest striker in the world",says Donovan

The 29-year-old praises the young forward for being naturally talented and not relying on flashy moves.

 United States star midfielder Landon Donovan praised Mexico star forward Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez as the best striker in the world and admits the Stars and Stripes will have its hands full when the team's meet in the Gold Cup final.

"They've got perhaps the hottest striker in the world on their team right now," said Donovan. Hernandez has been astonishing in his appearances in the Gold Cup. The 23-year-old has a tournament-best seven goals along with an assist in six appearances and has even dominated in the air despite only being 5-foot-9.  
Donovan believes that Hernandez’s game isn’t based on trying to do anything out of the ordinary but he excels as a predatory striker relying on instinct. 
"He’s a special player," said Donovan. "He's not a guy that’s going to wow you with any moves or tricks but every time that he gets a chance he makes the most of it. He’s a guy who can change the game."

Jose fights Boas for old boy Falcao

CHELSEA chief Andre Villas-Boas is going head-to-head with his mentor Jose Mourinho over Porto striker Falcao.
The new man at Stamford Bridge faces a fight with the Special One in a bid to sign the Colombia marksman.
Both are willing to pay £26.5million to trigger a release clause in the 25-year-old's contract.
That will leave Falcao with a massive decision whether to follow the boss who left his club this week... or join Mourinho at Real Madrid.
It would also be the first clash between the two managers since Villas-Boas started following Mourinho down his managerial path.
They worked together closely and have now, seven years apart, gone from Porto to Chelsea - leaving behind thousands of gutted fans.
Porto supporters were angry Villas-Boas did not stay longer than a year and it led to protests outside his home.
But club president Pinto da Costa has a clear message for his old manager: "We're fine without you."
Vitor Pereira has been promoted and Da Costa reckons everything is in place for Porto to move on.
Da Costa said: "His departure was thought about some time ago.
"He had a great time but now goes his way and we go ours.
"He has the capacity to win at any club, as he did at Porto, and he's going to a club that has no limits on his ambition or economic trouble.
"I hope he wins the Premier League. We wish him success - unless it's against Porto.
"And if he faces Mourinho it should be a draw since I'm friends with both."
On losing Villas-Boas, Da Costa said: "It isn't easy to hurt me.
"We had the guarantee of Vitor Pereira taking over. I have been impressed with him."
Da Costa anticipated Villas-Boas' exit a month ago but he was finally told last Friday that his manager was leaving to replace Carlo Ancelotti at Chelsea.
Villas-Boas grew up in Porto and, like Mourinho, did not make it to the top as a player.
"Instead, he played for regional team Ramaldense and then amateur outfit MGC when he was a student.
Former MGC team-mate Pedro Barros remembers him as a dedicated coach who rushed off after games instead of going for a beer with the rest of the squad.
He said: "We'd all go out but it was not normal for Andre to go. He worked at Porto and would have to go to many games, so didn't have time."
By then, Villas-Boas was dedicated to becoming a top coach.
His teacher at posh Rosario College talks about his obsession with compiling reports on Porto - when he was aged just 14.
PE professor Jose Eiro said: "Andre was a friendly kid who had some good grades but didn't invest much in studying.
"What interested him was football. On Mondays he didn't just talk about matches, he brought a full report with tactics and substitutions."

Red Hat Arquillian app testing technology coming next month

The Java test harness, which simplifies integration testing, is expected to be included in JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 6
Red Hat is readying a general release of its Arquillian testing technology for enterprise Java application development, which is intended to make it easy for developers to perform integration testing.
Serving as a testing coordinator, Arquillian allows developers to write integration tests where code being tested runs in the environment where it will run when in production, said Dan Allen, Red Hat principal software engineer. Already offered in a candidate release phase, Arquillian, pronounced "ar keelian," is expected to be available in a final release version next month, likely as part of the tooling in JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 6.
The next enterprise version of enterprise Java will focus on platform-as-a-service cloud deployments, an Oracle official said this week.
"Arquillian enables portable integration tests for enterprise apps," said Allen, who spoke at the Jax conference in San Jose, Calif. on Thursday. With Arqullian, the JBoss community at Red Hat seeks to lessen the burden on developers by providing a simple test harness to abstract away container lifecycle and deployment from test logic. Developers can produce a range of integration for enterprise Java applications. Arquillian handles aspects of test execution, including managing the container lifecycle, bundling the test class with dependent classes and resources into a deployable archive and capturing results and failures.
While initially intended for Java, the two-year-old Arquillian project is "branching out very quickly," Allen said. It already has been used for Ruby on Rails testing via the JRuby version of Ruby. It also has been used with the Scala language which, like JRuby, runs on the Java Virtual Machine. Arquillian is part of the JBoss Testing initiative. The name Arquillian was derived from the creatures who battled bugs in the movie "Men in Black," Allen said. "You can kind of think of it as a bug battler."

Panasonic DMR-BWT700 HDD and Blu-ray recorder combo

Panasonic has a reputation for building digital TV recorders that have impressive features, but are about as user friendly as an angry dominatrix. Maintaining at least one tradition here, the DMR-BWT700 certainly doesn’t skimp on the feature front. It has a 350GB hard drive on board, packs a Blu-ray recorder and can burn discs of both HD and SD broadcasts from its integrated Freeview HD tuner.

Recording industry: Panasonic's DMR-BWT700

On top of this it also acts as an entertainment hub, by offering internet TV support and digital media playback either from USB devices or across a network from a PC or NAS drive. The question is, has Panasonic managed to wrap this all up in a user interface that doesn’t require you to have a Nasa engineer at hand to help you operate it?

At its most basic level, the BWT700 is essentially a Freeview digital recorder. It has two Freeview HD tuners on board so you can use it to pause and rewind live TV or schedule recordings from its EPG. As with most twin tuner PVRs, you can record one channel while watching another, or if you’re really greedy you can have two recordings running at the same time.

It also supports chase play, so if you arrive home from the pub to find its recording the darts, you can start watching the program from the beginning while the box is still recording the end.

The usual suspects

When the box is recording Freeview channels, whether SD or HD ones, it’s really just saving the raw digital transport stream to to the hard disk, so recordings are identical to the original broadcast. And while the 350GB hard drive isn’t exactly massive, it does allow you to record around 80 hours of HD programming or just over 150 hours of standard definition broadcasts.

JAMB releases 2011 UTME results, says 842,851 candidates score below 200 marks

The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, JAMB, has disclosed that a total of 2, 892 candidates scored 300 marks and above in its 2011 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, conducted nationwide last week Saturday.
Besides, a total of 1,493,604 candidates who sat for the UTME examination are seeking for admission into the 500, 000 available spaces in the nation’s tertiary institutions.
Given the breakdown of candidates’ performance, today in Abuja, the Registrar of JAMB, Professor ‘Dibu Ojerinde said, “while 842, 851 candidates scored below 200 marks, 495,426 candidates scored between 200-249 and 67,732 scored between 250-269 as well as 31, 444 others, who scored between 270-299 marks.”
Out of this, the JAMB according him, is currently investigating the results of 7, 504 candidates, from some centres which he said are suspicious, and so the results must undergo further screening because of the unusual performances recorded by candidates from those centre.
He stated further that a total of 15, 160, representing 1.014 % of candidates, who participated in the examination were involved in exam malpractices.
On the issue of invalid and incomplete results that characterized the conducted of the exercise last year, Prof. Ojerinde announced a remarkable reduction from 82,000 cases in 2010 to 28, 069 in this 2011 exercise.
According to him, “this figure, 28,069, although is a remarkable reduction in the previous one. It still remains high. In the years ahead, we will further bring down the figure drastically. Our target is to totally eliminate this phenomenon by drumming it to our examiners to do checks on candidates during the examinations.”
Further analysis of the application by gender showed that 55.78% applicants are males while 44.22% candidates are females. These figures showed that 660,522 candidates are females while 833,082 are males.
While a  total of 200 visually impaired candidates sat for the exams, 197 prisoners from mainly Kaduna State and Ikoyi Prison in Lagos State sat for the 2011 UTME exams. Imo State has highest number of applicants in the exams as the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, got the least applicant.
Prof Ojerinde asked candidates who sat for the examination to check their results on-line using JAMB scratch cards.
Ojerinde who said the results were posted on-line by 12.00 pm (today)Friday, said, the results are on the internet, as I am speaking with you. He advised that, “candidates do not need to buy any scratch card, but can utilize the scratch card earlier used during registration for the exam.

Note: You can access JAMB’s webiste on the link below.
http://www.jamb.org.ng/Unifiedtme/

Liverpool in £10m Charlie Adam talks

Liverpool will hold talks with Blackpool this weekend in a bid to finally sign Charlie Adam.

The Anfield club are said to be tabling a £10m offer for the 25-year-old midfielder, aimed a seeing off interest from Aston Villa.

Manchester United could also enter the market for Adam, who is a fan of the Old Trafford club.

But Liverpool are now firm favourites to land the man they bid £8m for in January, with Blackpool chairman Karl Oyston expected to meet Anfield director of football Damien Comolli tomorrow, according to the Blackpool Gazette.

Fifa express concern over Brazil's ill-preparation for 2014 World Cup

 

There is still much to be done at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro

Fifa secretary general Jerome Valcke is concerned Brazil has fallen behind schedule with its preparations for the 2014 World Cup.

A new stadium in Sao Paolo will not be ready for the 2013 Confederations Cup, seen as a World Cup dress rehearsal.
Airports and transport links are also reportedly behind schedule and Valcke said: "I won't say Brazil started too late but we are not advanced in Brazil.
"We don't have stadiums, airports, or a national transportation system."
Brazil are the most successful World Cup nation with five victories, but the country has been much-criticised for its planning since winning the rights to host its first tournament since 1950.
"To deliver stadiums is the most important part... it's a lot of work. The Sao Paulo stadium is definitely not a World Cup stadium and that is why it is closed," Valcke said.
Valcke was addressing Russian officials in Moscow who will host the 2018 World Cup tournament, and informed them they should aim to have everything in place two years before the start of the event.
Alexei Sorokin, chief executive of Russia's World Cup organising committee, told the forum the 2016 deadline was "absolutely realistic," despite having to build or renovate every stadium.
"We have to build a lot. We have never hid the fact that we do not have a single stadium that is up to Fifa standards," he admitted.
Russia has nominated 13 host cities for the event, a figure that will eventually be reduced, while estimating the total bill for new infrastructure at $10bn (£6.26bn).

But I really don't think Brazil is not doing badly with the preparation

Clichy determined to seal Liverpool switch

Gael Clichy is determined to move to Liverpool Football Club this summer.
The France international has just twelve months left on his contract at Arsenal, and the Reds are prepared to pay around £5million for the 25-year-old.
However, Roma are willing to hand the Gunners a cheque of £7million for the left fullback, and Arsene Wenger would naturally prefer to sell him overseas.
But the Daily Express claim Clichy has set his heart on a move to Anfield, so he could now even dig his heels in and hold on until next summer and move for free.

AT&T iPad hacker pleads guilty

A 26-year-old man who last year helped hackers steal personal information belonging to about 120,000 iPad users pleaded guilty to fraud and hacking charges in a New Jersey court Thursday.
Daniel Spitler pleaded guilty in federal court to two felony charges, according to Rebekah Carmichael, a spokeswoman with the U.S. Department of Justice. He faces a maximum of 10 years in prison on the charges, but his plea agreement recommends a 12- to 18-month sentence.
He is one of two men charged in the June 2010 incident that embarrassed Apple and AT&T and brought the hacking group, Goatse Security, international attention. The other man, Andrew Auernheimer, is still in negotiations over a plea agreement, according to court records. Both men are facing charges in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.
At the time of the incident, Goatse hackers claimed that they were merely trying to make AT&T aware of a security issue on its website. They discovered that anyone could query the site and learn the e-mail addresses and unique ICC-ID (integrated circuit card identifier) numbers belonging to the iPad users.
According to reports and court filings, they wrote a script that guessed the ICC-ID numbers (used to identify the iPad's SIM card) and then queried AT&T's website until it returned an e-mail address. Spitler had been accused of co-authoring this software, called "iPad 3G Account Slurper."
The group uncovered e-mail addresses belonging to members of the military, politicians and business leaders including New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.
The incident became a huge embarrassment for AT&T after Auernheimer and Spitler handed their findings over to a reporter at Gawker.com.
In interviews after the hack, Auernheimer said his group had notified AT&T about the issue. But online chat logs filed in court by the prosecution cast doubt on that claim. "[Y]ou DID call tech support right?" asked one hacker, named Nstyr, in a chat log excerpt obtained by prosecutors. "[T]otally but not really," Auernheimer replied. "[I] don't... care [I] hope they sue me."
In other chat log excerpts, Spitler and Auernheimer appear to be publicizing their data in order to cause the maximum amount of embarrassment to the companies involved -- for "lols," in hacker-speak. At one point, Spitler asks Auernheimer, "where can we drop this for max lols?"
On Thursday Goatse spokesman Leon Kaiser said iPad users would have faced serious consequences if the group hadn't gone public with its information. "Goatse Securities' disclosure process was kinder and safer than many well-respected security researchers," he said in an e-mail message. "AT&T refused to take responsibility for this gaping hole, and instead decided to take it out on two of our own in order to save face."

Enterprise IT unhappy with Firefox 4's quick demise

Some corporate IT managers are unhappy with Mozilla's decision to push out new editions of Firefox every six weeks with its new rapid-release program.
Their beefs center around the retirement of Firefox 4 from security support -- a move Mozilla decided on this spring when it kicked off its fast-paced regime -- and their inability to test any new version before the next comes down the pike.
"The Firefox 4 EOL is a kick in the stomach," said John Walicki of IBM, referring to the "end of life" of the browser Mozilla launched just three months ago. "I'm now in the terrible position of choosing to deploy a Firefox 4 release with potentially unpatched vulnerabilities, reset the test cycle for thousands of internal apps to validate Firefox 5 or stay on a patched Firefox 3.6.x."
Walicki, a manager of workplace and mobility in the office of IBM's CIO, made that observation Thursday in comments to a blog post by Michael Kaply, a consultant who specializes in customizing Firefox and helping clients deploy the open-source browser.
When Mozilla launched Firefox 5 on Tuesday, it immediately retired the predecessor, Firefox 4, from security support, meaning it will not patch vulnerabilities in the three-month old browser. Instead, Mozilla considers Firefox 5 to be not only the newest edition, but also the security update to Firefox 4.
That may work for consumers, but it doesn't for enterprises, said Al Hilwa, an analyst with IDC.
"A major version change is a big signal to the enterprise that there's something drastically different, and a signal that [IT] needs to do its due diligence," said Hilwa. "People in the enterprise are in the habit of evaluating every bit before they put it on workstations."
Walicki, who did not respond to email requesting an interview, said as much in his comment on Kaply's blog.
"I have 500,000 corporate users on Firefox 3.6," Walicki said. "We're just completing a test cycle of Firefox 4 on many thousands of internal business Web applications. Many hundreds of application owners and their test teams have participated. We gave them several months to ready themselves. We worked with dozens of internal Add-On developers and product teams to prepare their add-ons for Firefox 4. We're poised to deploy Firefox 4.01 in 3Q when the corporate change freeze lifts. Education programs, documentation updates, communications all are planned."
IBM adopted Firefox as its default browser in mid-2010.
The problem, said Walicki, is that that time was essentially wasted: IBM has not yet rolled out Firefox 4, and it's now retired from support. And to repeat the process with Firefox 5 could be just as fruitless.
"By the time I validate Firefox 5, what guarantee would I have that Firefox 5 won't go EOL when Firefox 6 is released?" he asked.

BlackBerry PlayBook launched in India

Bollywood actor Salman Khan gestures during a news conference at the launch of Blackberry PlayBook in Mumbai June 22, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Danish Siddiqui

The BlackBerry PlayBook, Research In Motion (RIM)'s disappointing challenger to the hugely successful iPad 2, hit store shelves in India on Wednesday, nearly two months after the revamped Apple tablet made its India debut. Customers have the option to buy the PlayBook, which features Wi-Fi support, with 16, 32 or 64 GB of memory and the models are priced between 27,990 rupees and 37,990 rupees.
The PlayBook is being distributed nationally through Redington India and Ingram Micro, initially in 1,000 retail stores across eight cities, the company said in a statement.
RIM has struggled to win consumer fans since Apple's iPhone and a slew of devices running Google's Android entered the smartphone fray.
Reviewers have panned the PlayBook for the absence of inbuilt email and organiser functions -- the gadget needs a BlackBerry to access those. Critics said the company rushed the tablet computer to the market before it was ready.
The PlayBook’s North American launch in April was in stark contrast to the global frenzy when Apple launched its iPad 2 and consumers lined up overnight to buy the gadget.

British teenager detained over cyber hacking

A suspected British computer hacker was being held on Thursday for questioning about cyber attacks against a British law enforcement agency and two music industry bodies.
Ryan Cleary, 19, was charged on Wednesday with five offences under the Criminal Law Act and Computer Misuse Act after he was arrested as part of a joint investigation between London police and the U.S. FBI into recent attacks on high-profile websites.
He is accused of attacking the website of Britain's Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and sites owned by the British Phonographic Industry and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.
Cleary appeared briefly at Westminster Magistrates' court in London on Thursday and was remanded into police custody for up to three days for more questioning.
The attack on SOCA was one of a number of recent incidents claimed by the Lulz Security (LulzSec) group of hackers, which says it has also targeted the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Sony Corp.
LulzSec has denied Cleary belongs to the group which often uses so-called denial-of-service attacks to overwhelm websites with internet traffic.
Its members are believed to be scattered around the world collaborating via secret chatrooms.
Security experts say the group emerged from Anonymous, a hacker activist group which became well-known for targeting companies and institutions that opposed WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange.

FBI Breaks Up Two Big Scareware Rings

The FBI on Tuesday announced that it has disrupted two scareware crime rings, as part of the bureau's ongoing "Operation Trident Tribunal." As part of those investigations, the FBI obtained warrants to seize 22 PCs and servers located across the United States that were used to support scareware operations. In addition, the FBI worked with law enforcement agencies in France, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom to seize an additional 25 PCs and servers.
Given the timing of the FBI's Tuesday raids, they would appear to encompass the seizure of several servers hosted by DigitalOne in data center space it leased in Reston, Va. Accordingly, that seizure doesn't appear to have involved a LulzSec-related investigation--as The Scareware, also known as fake antivirus or fake AV, is a social engineering attack that uses bogus malware scans to trick customers into purchasing software that will eliminate the infection. Except that the software is a fake, and its malware-detection and removal capabilities nonexistent. More advanced forms of scareware also can deactivate legitimate antivirus software, which would otherwise block the scareware.
As part of Operation Trident Tribunal, which is ongoing, the FBI said it disrupted two criminal groups. The first earned revenues of at least $72 million over a three-year period. Approximately one million people were tricked into buying the scareware for up to $129 per copy. As part of the operation, Latvian authorities seized at least five bank accounts that authorities believe were used to funnel the profits to the scareware gang's leaders.
The second criminal operation resulted in the arrest, on Tuesday, of Peteris Sahurovs, 22, and Marina Maslobojeva, 23, in Latvia. An indictment unsealed on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court in Minneapolis charges the two with two counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and computer fraud. Authorities have accused the pair of running a "malvertising" scam by creating a phony advertising agency, through which they purchased advertising space on the Minneapolis Star Tribune website. Newspaper staff vetted the digital advertisement before posting it to the site.
Afterwards, however, the indictment alleges that the defendants somehow altered the advertisement code to infect website visitors via drive-by downloads with malware that launched scareware applications on their PC. The scareware froze PCs until the user paid to purchase fake AV software. Authorities allege that users who didn't pay for the fake AV software "found that all information, data, and files stored on the computer became inaccessible." As part of this scam, the two Latvians allegedly netted $2 million.
As Latvia has an extradition treaty with the United States, it's likely the two will stand trial in a U.S. courtroom. They face penalties of up to 20 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000 on each of the wire fraud and conspiracy charges, up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 on the computer fraud charge, as well as restitution and forfeiture of any illegal profits.
This isn't the government's first scareware bust. Last year, a federal grand jury indicted three men for running a scareware operation that authorities said generated more than $100 million in profits. But these new arrests highlight that the FBI has continued to foster the cross-border law enforcement agency relationships required to reach cyber criminals who aren't based in the United States.
"The global reach of the Internet makes every computer user in the world a potential victim of cyber crime," said U.S. Attorney B. Todd Jones, in a statement. "Addressing cybercrime requires international cooperation; and in this case, the FBI, collaborating with our international law enforcement and prosecution partners, have worked tirelessly to disrupt two significant cybercriminal networks."

Red Hat: 'Yes, we'll break $1 billion this year'

Red Hat's top brass talks a good game about being concerned with the global macroeconomic situation, but the truth of the matter is that what Red Hat has is selling despite the economy, or maybe because of it. And all that the world's largest beneficiary of the open source community needs to do is not screw it up and it will break the $1bn mark this fiscal year.
It sure looks like Red Hat is on the way to being the first billion dollar open source baby. In the first quarter of fiscal 2012 ended May 31, Red Hat posted sales of $264.7m, a 26.6 percent increase over the prior year's first quarter and impressive in that the commercial Linux and middleware distributor and cloud wannabe booked the largest deal in its history a year ago. Subscription sales rose by 25.9 per cent, to $225.5m, while training and services sales were up by 30.4 per cent, to $39.2m.
Back in March, when Red Hat reported its financial results for its fiscal 2011 fourth quarter, the company had been projecting that sales would be on the order of $252m to $255m in the May quarter.
Jim Whitehurst, Red Hat's president and CEO, was on a world customer and partner tour and was unable to attend the conference call with Wall Street analysts to go over the numbers. Charlie Peters, the company's CFO, and Paul Cormier, president of products and technologies, handled the call.
Peters said that of the top 25 deals that were up for renewal in the first fiscal quarter, all 25 renewed and did so at a 130 per cent rate compared to the value of their previously inked support contracts. This kind of renewal rate at the Fortune 500 and local, state, and Federal government agencies is one of the key drivers of the Red Hat business.

RHEL is close to printing money

Of the top 30 new deals that Red Hat did in the quarter, Peters said that all of them were valued at more than $500,000, and 14 brought in more than $1m. One deal was valued at more than $5m, but did not come close to the eight-figure deal Red Hat landed in Q1 of fiscal 2011. (That deal had to be worth at least 5 per cent of Red Hat's total revenues in the year-ago period, and could have been worth more.) Of the top 30 deals this quarter, a dozen had a middleware component and five of them were middleware-only deals.
Pumped up by the channel
In the quarter, 63 per cent of Red Hat's revenues came from the channel, which is in excess of its goal of at least 60 percent revenue, while 37 per cent came from direct sales. Peters said that if the percentage of indirect sales continues to be higher, the company would evaluate setting the bar higher. This is smart because it shifts a lot of the cost of sales to partners.
By geography, 56 per cent of Red Hat's revenues came from the Americas region in the quarter, with 24 per cent from EMEA and 20 per cent from Asia/Pacific. Interestingly, during Red Hat's fourth quarter conference call back in March, Peters said that the earthquake and tsunami in Japan might cause a $5m delay in bookings during Q1, but as it turned out, Red Hat just kept selling in Japan. Again, we reckon not as if nothing had happened but maybe because something had happened – or more precisely, a mix of the two.
"The company continues to execute well and manage for growth," Peters said on the call. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.0, which came out last November and was updated with a dot release this May, was "off to a good start" according to Peters. The company did not elaborate on the number of customers who are using RHEL 6.0 or 6.1, but these releases do not drive revenues directly anyway. And the price hikes that were instituted with RHEL 6.0 will not hit customers until they renew their subscription licenses at some point in the future. "The RHEL business was quite strong," was about all the Wall Streeters could get Peters to admit to.
Looking ahead to the second quarter of fiscal 2012 ending in August, Peters said that sales would be between $270m to $272m, with non-GAAP earnings per share in the range of 24 cents to 25 cents. Guidance for the full year was nudged up by between $15m and $20m, with sales now expected to be between $1.07bn and $1.085bn; net earnings on a non-GAAP basis should come in at between 98 cents and $1, Peters said, which is four pennies higher than projections from three months ago.
Red Hat ended the quarter with $1.27bn in cash and would be wise to make some strategic acquisitions before everyone else snaps up the cloudy bits it needs. A database would be nice, too. ®

Nokia reveals its Windows Mobile handset

Nokia revealed its first Windows Mobile handset this week, giving a select crowd a glimpse of the Mango phone in action.

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop made the presentation to the audience who were asked to put away cameras in anticipation of being shown something hugely confidential. Rules are made to be broken, though, and a minority snapped away regardless, with Technet upping one of the videos to t'interweb.

Codenamed "Sea Ray", the handset is similar to the recently-announced N9, although LED placement and an extra hardware button shows its individuality. Oh, and the fact it runs Windows 7, Mango is quite a difference experience too.

Speculation abounds but there's no official word on when the Nokia-Windows phones will surface, but for now, enjoy the following video thanks to the disobedience of a privileged crowd. ®

Winklevoss twins drop Facebook settlement appeal

Lengthy legal dispute draws to a close
Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss have decided not to appeal against a ruling upholding the twin brothers' $65m settlement with Facebook, after a long-running dispute with the company's founder Mark Zuckerberg.
The brothers, whose fight with Zuckerberg was dramatised in the Hollywood movie The Social Network, lost an appeal in April this year against a 2008 settlement with Facebook, which granted them $20m in cash and $45m in the firm's shares.
Both men said they would appeal against that ruling at the US Supreme Court.
The Winklevoss twins, according to Reuters, did not reveal in a filing with a federal appeals court in San Francisco yesterday why they had decided to halt any Supreme Court review of the settlement.
The case first went to court in July 2007, when Facebook faced allegations that Zuckerberg stole software code and his business plan from fellow students at Harvard University.
ConnectU Inc, a rival social site operated by the Winklevoss men and Divya Narendra, claimed in the original suit that Zuckerberg agreed to complete code for them, but rather than doing so he delayed their project while initiating his own using their ideas.
Facebook went on to become wildly successful. ConnectU didn't. ®

ANDRE VILLAS-BOAS targets 4 trophies this season

The new Blues boss won four trophies with Porto last season.
And he declared: "I am confident I can respond to Chelsea's expectations and we can focus on the four trophies that we have to win.
"I am pretty much confident that people will like it.
"This is a new leadership, a new way of being, but I think in the end it all ends up in the motivation everyone must feel to continue to win for the club."
Villas-Boas, 33, has signed a three-year deal at Stamford Bridge.
But he knows failure to win the Champions League normally results in the bullet for whoever is in the Chelsea hotseat.
Carlo Ancelotti was the latest to be given the push by Red Rom when he was dumped last month - just a year after winning the Double.
Villas-Boas has admitted in the past it will take luck to win Europe's top prize though, saying: "I can understand that Chelsea are obsessed with the Champions League.
"But Champions Leagues are not won by the best clubs, they are won by clubs that are lucky."
Villas-Boas won the Europa League, the Portuguese League, Cup and Super Cup last season.
But he was still stunned when Chelsea prised him away from Porto - paying a world-record release clause of £13.25million.
He added: "It was a little bit frantic, there's no doubt. It was something that happened like a bombshell.
"The most important thing is to be here and try to project a great future for the club.
"This club in the last six or seven years has changed dramatically to become one of the most successful clubs in the world.
"We must get training and keep that kind of focus."

Man infects college PCs to steal huge database

A former college student has admitted taking part in a criminal scheme that used malware to steal and sell large databases of faculty and alumni, change grades, and siphon funds from other students' accounts.
Daniel J. Fowler, 21, of Kansas City, Missouri, pleaded guilty in federal court there to computer hacking conspiracy and computer intrusion, according to prosecutors. Charges against Fowler's alleged accomplice, 27-year-old Joseph A. Camp, are pending, according to court documents, which indicate his trial is scheduled for October 24. Camp has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
According to an indictment filed in November, Fowler and Camp developed malware and installed it on the computers of students, faculty and staff at the University of Central Missouri using a variety of strategies. Ruses included the offer to show vacation photos contained on a thumb drive and manually installing it on public PCs. The malware contained a backdoor that allowed them to capture passwords used to access restricted parts of the university network and to spy on computer users through their webcams.
Prosecutors said the duo managed to install the malware on at least one university administrator's computer and also succeeded in stealing the login credentials of a residence hall director. Eventually, they used their unauthorized access to conduct fraudulent financial transactions in which they transferred funds into accounts they controlled. They also attempted to sell a database of personal information they stole, according to court documents.
They also attempted to change grades, prosecutors said.
In one of the most brazen attempts, Camp is accused of approaching an administrative assistant in the office of the university's president and handing her a thumb drive that stored the malicious software. Camp then said the drive contained documents from his attorney that he wanted the president to see and instructed her to insert it into her computer. The assistant refused.
Even after their arrest by campus police, the conspiracy continued, prosecutors allege. After learning a trusted colleague turned on him, Fowler posted a message to Facebook threatening that the informant would “suffer the media attention” once a trial was underway. Fowler later told someone he trusted he posted the message "to scare the girl that talked."
Camp, for his part, told an accomplice “the cops were dumb to bust us so quick” and “if they knew the scope of this, they would have involved the feds,” according to the indictment.
When they were apprehended, authorities found Camp in possession of the Spector Pro and Poison Ivy keylogging programs and the username and password of a pilfered university staff member written on a piece of paper in his pocket, prosecutors said.
Fowler faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in federal prison without parole, a fine of $500,000, and an order to pay restitution. A sentencing hearing has not yet been scheduled.

Microsoft: Cloud computing won't hurt us

Microsoft Server & Tools chief Satya Nadella says Microsoft will leverage the cloud the same way it leveraged the PC
Cloud computing is widely perceived as a threat to Microsoft, because the maker of Windows and Microsoft Office earns the lion's share of its money selling licenses for packaged software.
But Microsoft's new Server & Tools President, in his first public appearance since taking the top spot, said cloud computing is another opportunity Microsoft can exploit just as it did with the birth of the PC.
Microsoft cloud stumbles: Windows Azure turns 1 in 'anemic' market
"If you look at our history, it's always been about taking an inflection point and being the democratizing force behind," said Satya Nadella, who replaced longtime Microsoft executive Bob Muglia as the Server & Tools chief in February this year.
"At a philosophical level, if you say there is a fundamental change in architecture, we have to embrace it and ride it," Nadella continued, during a 20-minute on-stage discussion Wednesday with Eric Savitz of Forbes at the GigaOM Structure Conference.
Microsoft has always been about "low price and high volume," Nadella also said, making the case that the consumption-based economics of cloud computing fits into Microsoft's sweet spot.
"We're not the ones with high license fees," he said. "I look at this as structurally a very beneficial thing for us. But, sure, we have to innovate."
Windows Azure, Microsoft's platform-as-a-service cloud, opened for business more than a year ago but hasn't gained the adoption seen by Amazon's infrastructure-as-a-service offering or Salesforce's PaaS cloud.
Still, Nadella insisted that Amazon's success can help Microsoft, because Amazon hosts Windows Server instances.
"A good chunk of our Windows business, we do through Amazon," he said.
Going forward, application developers could build services that use Azure for computing and Amazon for storage, and even make calls back to the customer's internal data center, he said.
"My approach would be to partner as broadly as possible with anyone who is in this business," Nadella said.
While Nadella oversees Windows Server and Windows Azure, Microsoft's cloud ambitions extend much further with Office 365, a hosted version of Exchange, SharePoint, Lync and Microsoft Office. Office 365 is set to launch out of beta next week, while its predecessor, the BPOS service, suffered an outage just before Nadella took the stage.