Technology

Looks like eBay are set to purchase Skype for a figure in the region of $2.6bn. Don’t know how reliable a source this is but it looks genuine. source: MSN Money

Thanks to BDela for the pointer. Microsoft have finally made the move to native XML formats for their office suite. Much like OpenOffice the XML content will be stored in a zip archive therefore reducing file sizes by a considerable amount. Should lead to less document corruption as long as they got the serialisation and… Read More »Office ML

For all those out there who maintain a personal website or weblog: be warned that you may become the victim of a deluded stalker. Thanks to fmk for the link to a darkly entertaining story. source: Sigla Magazine

LastMinute.com are set to complete their sale to Sabre Holdings today for a reported Eur 844M. Looks like the dotCom days are here again. Must register finalsecond.com – the only place for really cheap deals! source: Irish Times Note: Irish Times article may require login

Adobe have just purchased Macromedia in a stock takeover. Could this mean that PDF will take over the web? 🙂 source: Reuters.com

A bit behind on my reading these days but this is certainly worth blogging. Scientists have developed a new artificial eye that incorporates a small video camera than can take images and via a special chip convert these images into electrical impulses that are interpreted by the brain. For the blind, this is a most… Read More »e-Eye, e-Eye, oh!

Just picked this up from Bernie Goldbach’s weblog. Interesting little snippet on how he managed to send audio to his TV set via a Nokia 9500 and a bluetooth receiver plugged into the SCART socket. As Bernie says, the opportunities for pod-casting experiments are very interesting. Now how do we get that receiver to interpret… Read More »Bluetooth TV

I’ve been stalling on posting this piece for some time now as I’ve been trying to gather my thoughts on the subject. On March 7th 2005 a gathering of EU chiefs passed what is known as the Computer Implemented Inventions Directive (CIID). This means that the cornerstone of software patents has been laid. As I… Read More »Patent Pending

Thanks to Brian Dela again for this link. A clever piece of Flash enabled story telling. Paints a scarilly Orwellian view of the increased market presence of Google and what the future might hold. Well worth a few minutes of your time. source: ols-master

Apple have just released their latest piece of kit. The Mac Mini. With dimensions of 6.5 inches square by 2 inches deep who couldn’t have room for one of these on their desk. It looks incredibly sleek and compact and is pushing me closer and closer towards buying my first Mac (although I may still… Read More »Mini Mac