Big
brother China eyes Microsoft By Martin J Young
HUA HIN, Thailand -
A new Chinese anti-monopoly law due to take effect
in August could become the thorn in Microsoft's
side should it be successful in its takeover bid
for Yahoo!. The law will allow Chinese regulators
the power to examine foreign mergers when they
involve acquisitions of Chinese companies or
foreign investment in Chinese companies.
Since Yahoo invested about US$1 billion in
2005 in China's largest e-commerce business,
Alibaba.com, it will fall under scrutiny of the
new law. Alibaba officials claim a buyback
provision would be set in motion enabling them to
get independence from Microsoft should the
takeover proceed.
There are many more such
jurisdictions that would be affected by the deal,
which could potentially transform the Internet
into two
mega-portals. Beijing's
economic influence could also extend far beyond
its own borders and even contend for influence
with Brussels and Washington as another regulatory
capital.
Microsoft emerged victorious this week
in the long-running battle of the official
standardization of its Open Document Format. By
reversing an initial preliminary vote, the
Geneva-based International Organization for
Standardization, known as ISO, stated that enough
countries had changed their votes to approve the
format. This decision will make it easier for
Microsoft to sell its Office suite to government
clients.
The interchangeable web documents
format called Open XML was finally approved by 24
of 32 countries on Wednesday. Some of the hottest
emerging tech markets including Brazil, India and
China, which account for over a third of the
world's population, voted against the format.
Microsoft usually keeps the bones of its software
and formats highly secretive to prevent
competitors developing rival software. In this
instance it made the specifications open source as
it aimed for official standardization and ISO
validation.
Gaming Rockstar, the company
responsible for the high-hitting Grand Theft Auto
(GTA)game series, have announced plans to launch a
website called "Social Club" on which members can
interact and share experiences on the latest
release of the cult game.
Forums have
always been a good medium for gamers to get
together and share stories and hints, but it seems
that GTA IV aficionados will be offered much more
on the new site. The long-awaited game is slated
for release on April 29 and is tipped to be the
year's best seller.
Plenty of controversy
has surrounded its adult themes and content
following a series of promotional trailers leading
up to its release. A number of official bodies,
including the British Board of Film
Classification, have classified the game as rated
18 rather than banning it completely in Britain, a
move feared by many.
Internet The introduction of a
new media site for women has been making the
headlines this week as Yahoo prepares to launch
into another venture. The new site called "Shine"
is the latest in a string of offerings from the
California-based Internet giant aimed at a
more-focused demographic. Content will be targeted
towards women aged 25 to 54 and will include nine
categories ranging from parenting to fashion.
Over the past few years, Yahoo has been
developing a "tailored homepage" approach whereby
its users can get all the information they want
and access all of their features, such as email
and news feeds, from the one source. An editorial
team has been employed to publish original stories
daily and select user blogs to feature on the new
site, which can be found at shine.yahoo.com.
The launch of the latest iteration of
the popular Firefox web browser is rapidly
approaching. Firefox 3 is now in its 5th beta
edition and promises to be the "fastest Firefox
ever", according to creators Mozilla. Improvements
and optimizations include far better and faster
interaction with other software, such as Google
Mail, Windows, Mac OSX and Linux, and an advanced
Javascript engine.
It will also have
better connectivity to the Internet by supporting
six connections per host (up from two) which
brings the browser on a par with Internet Explorer
8. The final release date has yet to be officially
announced.
Security A security contest held
last week in Vancouver pitched "hackers" and
security experts against each other on the latest
laptops running the latest operating systems.
CanSecWest 2008 lined up Windows Vista Ultimate
SP1, Mac OS X and Linux on three laptops for the
contenders to attempt to break into. Prizes
included the latest Sony Vaio, Fujitsu U810 and
Macbook Air, and various cash sums, all there for
the taking to the successful hacker.
All
systems held out on day one, which probed remotely
exploitable vulnerabilities; day two was relaxed a
little with default-installed client side
applications under the spotlight. The first to
fall was Safari, which led to a compromised
Macbook Air.
The two remaining systems
were challenged on day three, when popular
third-party client applications were added to the
mix. Second to fall was the Vista laptop through
an exploit in Adobe's Flash software, which left
the only operating system standing and the winner
Linux distribution, Ubuntu, running on the Sony.
All contenders had to sign a nondisclosure
agreement so that the vendors could address the
security fixes.
Hardware Intel is rolling out
its Atom chips this week at the spring IDF
conference in Shanghai. The five new low-power
microprocessors designed for mobile Internet
devices will run at clock speeds ranging from
800MHz to 1.86GHz. Intel claims that the central
processing unit's will deliver "the best Internet
experience in your pocket". The tiny chips measure
less than 25 square millimeters making them the
ideal brains for portable gadgets.
Martin J Young is an Asia Times
Online correspondent based in Thailand.
(Copyright 2008 Asia Times Online Ltd.
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Microsoft emerged victorious this week
in the long-running battle of the official
standardization of its Open Document Format. By
reversing an initial preliminary vote, the
Geneva-based International Organization for
Standardization, known as ISO, stated that enough
countries had changed their votes to approve the
format. This decision will make it easier for
Microsoft to sell its Office suite to government
clients. 
