Be the first to know, Microsoft-backed celebrity news website unveiled

Microsoft plunged into the crowded field of online entertainment and celebrity news on Thursday, taking the wraps off a new website known as Wonderwall.

Wonderwall.com is a joint venture between MSN, the Internet arm of the US software giant, and BermanBraun Interactive, a media company based in Santa Monica, California.

"Wonderwall offers people an engaging and visually dynamic perspective on the day's hottest pop culture stories, personalities and trends," MSN and BermanBraun said in a statement.

The main feature of Wonderwall.com is a nearly full-screen wall of pictures with links to stories, photo galleries and video.

The wall can be scrolled horizontally, an experience MSN and BermanBraun likened to "flipping through a favorite magazine."

The site features a feed of the latest celebrity news and categories such as "Top Celebs" and "LOL Pics," the "funniest photos of celebs from around the Web."

"Wonderwall offers a clever, thought-provoking and amusing voice to fans of celebrity and is a great addition to MSN's portfolio of entertainment content," said Rob Bennett, general manager of network programming for MSN.

Entertainment and celebrity news are among the most popular subjects for Web surfers and Wonderwall will be competing for audience with sites such as TMZ.com, people.com and perezhilton.com, to name just a few. -- Agence France-Presse - 2/5/2009 6:56 PM GMT

Obama refuses to surrender Blackberry

Despite legal and security hurdles, president-elect Barack Obama says he has a plan to retain his beloved Blackberry once he moves into the White House next week.

Interviewed by CNN Friday, Obama said the smartphone was among the tools that he would use to stay in touch with real Americans and avoid becoming trapped inside the presidential "bubble."

"I think we're going to be able to hang on to one of these. My working assumption, and this is not new, is that anything I write on an email could end up being on CNN," he said.

"So I make sure to think before I press 'send'," he said of his Blackberry, which was an ever-present fixture on his belt or in his hand on the campaign trail.

Obama did not divulge just how he will overcome legal constraints, given the requirement of the post-Watergate Presidential Records Act of 1978 to keep a record of every White House communication.

Nor did he say how he would persuade his Secret Service protectors that the Blackberry does not pose a security risk, for instance if it is hacked over the air.

But Obama, who succeeds the unpopular George W. Bush on Tuesday, said the phone was a valuable part of a wider strategy to escape the White House fishbowl.

"It's just one tool among a number of tools that I'm trying to use, to break out of the bubble, to make sure that people can still reach me," he said.

"If I'm doing something stupid, somebody in Chicago can send me an email and say, 'What are you doing?'

"I want to be able to have voices, other than the people who are immediately working for me, be able to reach out and send me a message about what's happening in America."

The mobile device dilemma may have inadvertently been solved on Friday, as Obama's Blackberry tumbled from his belt as he got out of his limousine and onto his plane in Washington.

A Secret Service agent hurried to pick up the pieces, gathering the Blackberry and battery off the frigid tarmac. -- Agence France-Presse - 1/17/2009 2:14 AM GMT

An Internet era ends as technology icons exit

Steve Jobs exiting the Apple stage, perhaps not to return, signals a close to an Internet Age era with roots stretching back to the radical hippie movement of the 1960s.

His departure for health reasons comes some seven months after his renowned rival Bill Gates retired from Microsoft to devote himself to philanthropic work.

The two culture-changing men were seen as leaders of rival camps: personal computer lovers versus the cult of Macintosh computers.

Technology allegiances were the stuff of fierce debates in coffee houses and other Silicon Valley social settings, with vitriol spewed by all sides.

Macintosh devotees were passionate underdogs standing up to PC faithful whose confidence was cemented by the fact more than 90 percent of the computers in the world are PCs running on Microsoft operating systems.

The dueling technologies had faces at which people aimed praise of scorn. Gates was the PC. Jobs is the Macintosh.

Jerry Yang, the very public face of Internet pioneer Yahoo!, was replaced as chief executive this week by Carol Bartz and it seems he has already faded into the purple and gold woodwork at the firm's California headquarters.

"In many ways we are stepping out of the age where the people are defining the company," said analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group in Silicon Valley.

"We talk about the Google kids, but are the founders truly icons. I argue not. We seem to be moving away from the age where there is a face behind the company; a larger than life human component."

Ironically, while Google and other modern Internet superstars use private data about their millions of users to target ads, their founders tend to vigilantly protect their privacy.

"In many ways, Internet companies are losing their personalities," Enderle said. "Ever changing brands in a constant sea of surging names."

Jobs and Gates, both born in 1955, grew up during the socially rebellious 1960s and bear its mark, according to Peter Friess, a historian who is president of The Tech Museum of Innovation in the heart of Silicon Valley.

Gates and Jobs both dropped out of college to pursue dreams of building computers for people.

Before Jobs and his friend Steve Wozniak made the first Apple computer, they crafted a "blue box" to get around paying for long distance telephone calls.

"They came out of a time when culture meant a lot to all of us," Friess said.

"It was a revolutionary time. It is always a time that creates people. Now, Google, Facebook and others align much more with the system. Social networks don't change the world like Jobs and Gates did."

Bringing personal computers to the masses fulfilled a hippie mantra of "Power to the people," according to Friess.

While the first PCs and "Macs" were sold by Gates and Jobs before there was a Web to surf, the men led their respective companies to glory in the Internet Age.

"In time, I suppose we might look back at the leaders of big search companies in a similar way, but it really feels like a thin comparison," said University of California, Berkeley, information school assistant professor Coye Cheshire.

"If only because all these fantastic information services only became practical and truly useful once we had the PCs, Macs, iPods, Xboxes, Zunes, iPhones, etc in our lives."

Crises with climate change and wars fought for control of oil have set the stage for new iconic visionaries in the molds of Gates or Jobs to rise in the area of renewable energy, says Friess.

"Putting personal computers in the hands was really giving power to the people," Friess said.

"I'm waiting for someone in the renewable energy world with the same vision Jobs had in the computer world."

In a rare joint appearance, Jobs and Gates reminisced on stage at an All Things Digital conference in California two years ago. The men joked that their rivalry was misunderstood.

"We've kept our marriage secret for over a decade now," Jobs quipped, eliciting raucous laughter from the audience.

While Jobs and Gates "personified the dispute" between Apple and Microsoft, the two companies are unlikely to change their ways without their iconic founders, according to analyst Michael Cherry of Directions On Microsoft.

"No one wants to die ... and yet death is the destination we all share," Jobs told a stadium packed with students during a 2005 commencement speech at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.

"Death is possibly the single best invention in life. It clears out the old to make way for the new." -- Agence France-Presse - 1/16/2009 6:39 AM GMT

Dah mula dah! Blog Mahathir jual ruangan iklan ~ Malaysiakini

Blog paling popular milik mantan perdana menteri Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (TDM) akan menjual ruangan iklan mulai tahun baru ini, khususnya untuk syarikat-syarikat kecil, lapor portal berita terkemuka Malaysiakini pada Jumaat (Jan 2, 09).

Kadar iklan di blog tersebut Chedet.cc, ditetapkan antara RM300 hingga RM1K sehari. Kosnya bergantung kepada jenis dan kedudukan iklan tersebut di dalam blog – amalan biasa dalam dunia pengiklanan samada media cetak atau e-media.

Blog TDM menutup tirai tahun lalu dengan rekod jumlah pengunjung sebanyak 10.9 juta – angka yang amat tinggi bagi sebuah blog yang baru tujuh bulan beroperasi.

Keputusan membuka iklan di laman blog TDM dibuat bertujuan memberi ruang kepada syarikat-syarikat kecil mendedahkan diri masing-masing ke dunia “e-market”, lapor Malaysiakini dengan memetik Sufi Yusuf, pembantu khas TDM, sebagai berkata.

Sementara itu ejen iklan blog tersebut Mutual Digital Sdn Bhd menjelaskan kepada Malaysiakini bahawa iklan itu boleh membantu syarikat-syarikat kecil dan bagi menampung kos pengendalian blog paling popular itu.

Walaubagaiamapun "keuntungan bukanlah keutamaan (kami), sebaliknya mahu memberikan pendedahan kepada syarikat-syarikat kecil,” kata Sufi Yusuf dengan menambah “tetapi kalau (dapat) menampung sedikit kos, bagus juga," lapor Malaysiakini lagi.

Bunyi laporan ini sukar untuk dikatakan tidak menjurus kepada “krisis kewangan” --- ehem… tak kan TDM pun terkena tempias “krisis mentaliti kapitalis” kut?

Laporan penuh Malaysiakini di sini.

Beware: Stern action for publishing offensive and indecent contents

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has warned of stern action against those publishing offensive and indecent contents about race and religion.

Any action that constitutes a contravention of the laws of Malaysia in the offline world also constitutes an offence in the online world, including the Internet, an MCMC statement here says.

It also calls on parents and guardians to monitor the use of the Internet by minors and young persons to ensure that they do not fall prey to unscrupulous individuals.

Users of Internet social networking sites should be cautious of the type of information they choose to post or publish online as irresponsible individuals may use these information against them at some future occasion, it adds.

“MCMC is very concerned with the increasing incidence of irresponsible and unethical use of the Internet, in particular comments made in blogs.

“The Internet is a powerful tool for development but is unfortunately misused by a small number of irresponsible and unethical individuals.”

Citing the latest incident where a weblog was reported to have published contents found to be offensive and indecent, in particular comments relating to Prophet Muhammad and Islam, it says the MCMC is working in close cooperation with other enforcement agencies in its investigations. – Bernama via NST

Oops!!! Full recovery of Internet services on Jan 4

Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) said on Tuesday there was a delay in the restoration of Internet services following technical problems in repairing the submarine cable network linking Malaysia to Europe.

“Due to the delay, full recovery of Internet services is now expected to be on Jan 4, 2009,” TM said in a statement.

On Dec 20, TM said the disruption of its Internet services was due to circuit fault on the Southeast Asia – Middle East – Western Europe 4 (SMW4) submarine cable network between Palermo (Southern Italy) and Alexandria (Northern Egypt) linking Malaysia to Europe.

TM said there was a delay in the restoration of Internet services due to technical problems at the repairing stages.

It added that customers using Internet services might continue to experience slow browsing while accessing websites hosted in Europe.

Customers using other IP services such as Virtual Private Network (VPN) and other critical business applications linked to Europe may also experience some service degradation.

“To alleviate the problem, some of the links have been rerouted to alternate routes to ease the congestion,” it said.

TM assured its customers that it was undertaking all necessary measures to restore communications services for its customers as soon as possible.

Customers can call TM at 100 and select “Internet Services” or e-mail TM at help@tm.com.my for any Internet related problems. – The Star - 12/30/2008 6:54:00 PM MYT

Oops!!! Internet services disrupted until Dec 31

Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) has reported a disruption in its Internet services due to circuit faults on the submarine cable network linking Malaysia and Europe, and said the services would be completely restored by Dec 31.

TM said in a statement Sunday that customers using its Internet services may experience slow browsing.

Access to websites hosted in Europe and that those using other IP (Internet Protocol) services such as Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and other critical business applications linked to Europe may also experience some service degradation.

It said the affected cables, on the Southeast Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 4 (SMW4) submarine network between Palermo in southern Italy and Alexandria in northern Egypt, were being repaired and that some of the links had meanwhile been rerouted to ease congestion.

During the restoration process, traffic to northern America may experience minor degradation while traffic to other countries is unaffected, it said.

Customers can call TM at 100 and select “Internet Services” or email TM at help@tm.com.my regarding Internet-related problems, it added. – Bernama via The Star