Why is Microsoft (MSFT) so concerned about Google? (GOOG) Lots of reasons, one of which is this: By this time next year, Google’s search business will be larger and more profitable than the most profitable and legendary monopoly in history–Microsoft Windows. (Just Google’s search business–that doesn’t even include AdSense).

Before we go to the numbers, a few important observations.

• Both products are natural monopolies. Google’s share of the search market should continue to approach Microsoft’s share of the operating system market (90%+)
• Both products are wildly, fantastically profitable. Microsoft’s Windows business has operating margins of 75%-plus. So does Google’s search business (once you factor out the billions Google is spending on products that produce zero revenue).
• Google natural monopoly is growing a lot faster than Microsoft’s. Google’s search business should be bigger than Microsoft’s Windows business by early next year (at the latest). Google is also growing faster than Microsoft’s two monopolies combined–Windows and Office. Google has yet to develop a second huge, fantastically profitable monopoly–the Office equivalent–but AdSense is getting there.

Read the full article Source: Silicon Alley Insider

With Windows 7 likely to be complete in Q4 2009, Microsoft’s chairman Bill Gates hinted at what the company is planning for the next version of Windows last week.

In a speech at the Windows Digital Lifestyle Consortium (in Tokyo) last Wednesday, Gates hinted:

“We’re hard at work, I would say, on the next version, which we call Windows 7. I’m very excited about the work being done there. The ability to be lower power, take less memory, be more efficient, and have lots more connections up to the mobile phone, so those scenarios connect up well to make it a great platform for the best gaming that can be done, to connect up to the thing being done out on the Internet, so that, for example, if you have two personal computers, that your files automatically are synchronized between them, and so you don’t have a lot of work to move that data back and forth.”

Gates also mentioned Windows Live services and the fact the company has 400 million users connected to these services. Also mentioned was the fact that Gates sees “a major new version of Windows every two to three years”, noting that services that Windows connects up to would be updated on a regular basis.

Microsoft is currently in the middle of building Windows Live Mesh which plays on the idea of being able to sync data between multiple PCs and mobile phones.

Source: Neowin

A video has been posted in YouTube. It shows what appears to be a Windows 7 new features demonstration. Windows haters are already criticizing this features in many forums and blogs.

I can say that i’m impressed that, if this is true, Windows 7 will boost productivity a lot. The dual-pane explorer is a “long due” feature i have been asking for.

Also, the virtual drive and the new task manager caught my attention. All of this can be achieve now in Vista or XP just by installing some third party programs, as many people are saying.

But let me say that, when integrated in the operative system itself, the chance for bugs, crashes, unexpected behavior can be practically non-existent. And not to mention that the video shows that these features are integrated really nice.

I hope to hear or read about this a little more to confirm this is actually being done and not just a fake video. If it’s fake, well, it’s the best fake video i’ve seen so far.

Two months ago, i posted about the strategy of releasing free music albums and asking the fans to set the price they think is fair. This has been great news because you can get the for free and, if you want to support the band directly, you can donate or pay for the special editions of the albums.

A few days ago, Nine Inch Nails released another free album, called The Slip.

To get the download link, simply register your email here. An email with download links to all options will be sent to your Inbox.

Best of all, all downloads include a PDF with artwork and credits. The files are fully tagged and include album art as well as lyrics.

If you want to download the High Quality versions, here are some Bit Torrent links directly from NIN website:

• FLAC
• WAV 24/96
• Apple Lossless

Website

Yesterday i read this on some sites: Windows Live Messenger is blocking sites like YouTube and Deviantart, among others…

People went crazy on this because many thought that Microsoft was behind this “censorship” of website url being sent in Windows Live Messenger. You can imagine all the complains that were posted on major news sites and forums.

Just a few minutes ago i went to the official Inside Windows Live Messenger blog and learned that this was just an error and it wasn’t Microsoft’s fault. Instead, they posted that a third-party partner of them handles the blocking system.

According to them, the problem is now gone.

As some of you noticed, we had a problem from Friday night to Saturday morning where our Messenger service was incorrectly blocking some legitimate IP addresses. We sincerely apologize for any difficulties this caused our users. And we want to thank those of you that reported this problem to us so that we could quickly fix it. Because of your help, the incorrect block was only in place for a few hours. [...]

Source: URL Blocking: Problem now fixed

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Upgrading WordPress Download WordPress 2.5.1

As promised, here are the links to download Windows XP SP3. You need a BitTorrent client in order to download them. I recommend getting uTorrent or Deluge. They are free and easy to use.

Both links are for the final, RTM version of the SP3 intaller which you can use to slipstream it to your current disc of SP2 or to upgrade your current installation.

I just finished taking screenshots of the slipstreaming process and i will upload the guide later today.

Edit: Microsoft now has XP SP3 English release in windows update site. Here’s the link also.

Edit2: Microsoft now has XP SP3 available in several languages. It is believed that tomorrow they will be available in Microsoft download center. Meanwhile, here are the official links.

Spanish English French German Hebrew Italian Japanese Korean Russian Czech Chinese (Hong Kong) Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Traditional)

Windows XP SP3 English RTM Torrent Download
Windows XP SP3 Spanish RTM Torrent Download

Version 2.5.1 of WordPress is now available.

It contains an important security fix and about 70 bug fixes, along with other performance improvements.

Here are some important changes:

• Performance improvements for the Dashboard, Write Post, and Edit Comments pages.
• Better performance for those who have many categories
• Media Uploader fixes
• An upgrade to TinyMCE 3.0.7
• Widget Administration fixes
• Various usability improvements
• Layout fixes for IE

It’s important that everyone running WordPress upgrade to this new version. I will do so during the day. Remember to backup everything first, and if you have the chance, test it locally .

WordPress 2.5.1 Release Notes