Microsoft just announced a $44.6 billion offer for Yahoo

According to ZDNET:

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer made the half-cash, half-stock offer in a brutal carrot-and-stick open letter to Yahoo!’s board of directors.

The Redmond giant appears to laying the groundwork for a hostile takeover if it comes to that. Ballmer writes that the board spurned an earlier attempt at acquisition in early 2007:

The compete letter can be seen here. (interesting read).
This is an interesting development, lets wait and see how it develops.

Microsoff Word: Well Done

I have been a user of Microsoft Word for more than 10 years. Just finished a 150 page document. Love this software. I had only few bugs; and this software does it all (almost). Love headings; love spelling; love styles; love table of contents. It is so much fun to work with something that work so well. I'm using Word ala Office 2003. It will take any competitor years to arrive at this level. On the other hand, how many people are crazy enough to write 150-page docuemnts that really need word?

Microsoft Live Labs show faces in image search

Friends at Microsoft Live Labs reported a unique search feature that allow you to look for faces.

The Live Search Images team recently released a fun new feature to make it easier to find specific kinds of images. Thanks to a collaboration with specialists in imaging from Live Labs and MSR, you can now search specifically for portraits, faces and black and white images. To use the feature you simply have to add a filter your query, like so:

• Portrait results return head and shoulders images, or what we often call mug shots. For example: ‘Adrian Grenier filter:portrait’
• Face results are closer shots with the face the most predominant element of the image. For example: ‘Aishwarya Rai filter:face’
• Black and white results are pretty self explanatory and works on any search type, not just people. Example: ‘night skyline filter:bw’
• You can even combine some of the filters: ‘George Washington Carver filter:face filter:bw’

Microsoft Surface Computing

Microsoft is back to its roots, linking smart hardware with smart software.
Amazing Video that demonstrate how you can manipulate pictures; connect devices on your table top. See full video. Now connect that to the Metaverse and we are almost there.

Thanks to Uri Spektor for the lead.

Microsoft Live Labs: Photosynth at TED Conference

Microsoft Live Labs is demostrating some high-end cool stuff that has long term relevance to the Meteverse. 2D pictures from public sources are compiled to create a 3D representation AUTOMATICALLY!!!! Wow.

See full item with amazing video in their web site. Brief:

In March of this year Microsoft Live Labs Architect, Blaise Aguera y Arcas spoke at the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Conference in Monterey, CA. Blaise demonstrated Seadragon and Photosynth to an enthusiastic audience and painted a vision for how these technologies will evolve in the months and years ahead. Watch the short video above to see some of the amazing ways these technologies will change the way you interact with your images in the future, and visit the Photosynth site to try the latest collections from the team.

Microsoft to Offer Second Live

A rumor*: Microsoft will combine Live Messenger and Microsoft Virtual Earth to offer what is called the Real Second Life – aka Second Live. Microsoft will include past research on comic chat to allow users to build cartoon or realistic avatars.

* Ok my kid has suggested that yesterday, so I needed to report this. Ah ah. Microsoft? What do you say?