Sun Microsystems and Oracle Corporation announced today they have entered into an agreement under which Oracle will acquire Sun. The transaction is valued at approximately $7.4 billion, with Oracle purchasing Sun stock with cash for $9.50 per share, a premium of nearly $3 per share over previous market value.

Sun’s stock (JAVA) jumped nearly 33% after news of the purchase was released.

Larry Ellison, Oracle’s chief executive, described Java as "the single most important software asset we have ever acquired."

By purchasing Sun, Oracle is elevated into the ranks of Dell, HP and IBM, giving them the ability to sell hardware as well as more fully exploit some important Sun software. It also puts them in a better position to compete with Microsoft by giving them control of both a major server operating system and some major business software begin run on it.

In their joint press release, Sun and Oracle cite "substantial long-term strategic customer advantages to Oracle owning two key Sun software assets: Java and Solaris." Sun’s Solaris operating system is the most widely utilized platform for Oracle databases, which is Oracle’s largest business sector. With the acquisition of Sun, Oracle can optimize the Oracle database for some of the unique, high-end features of Solaris.

There is some worry for proponents of the major open source projects that Sun heads up, like OpenSolaris, MySQL, VirtualBox, OpenOffice and Java itself. It will remain to be seen what Oracle intends to do with these projects and how, if at all, they’ll integrated them into their product offerings.

IBM previously expressed interest in purchasing Sun, for $7b, but withdrew the offer after reviewing Sun’s books and finding out how much they’d been paying their senior employees.

Sun’s Board of Directors has already unanimously approved the transaction and it is anticipated to close this summer, subject to stockholder and regulatory approval.

News source: Neowin.net

Angry residents in Milton Keynes blocked the driver of a Google Street View car when he started taking photographs of their homes.

Police were called to Broughton after residents staged the protest, accusing Google of invading their privacy and "facilitating crime".

Councillor John Bint told the BBC the camera mounted on a car was intrusive and people should have been consulted.

Google said it observed UK law and only filmed from public areas.

The company also said it had consulted various police forces and provided the means for residents to have their home removed from the service.

Continues at source source: BBC News

A Finnish computer programmer who lost one of his fingers in a motorcycle accident has made himself a prosthetic replacement with a USB drive attached.

Jerry Jalava uses the 2GB memory stick, accessed by peeling back the "nail", to store photos, movies and programmes.

The finger is not permanently attached to his hand, so it can be easily left plugged into a computer when in use.

Mr Jalava says he is already thinking about upgrading the finger to include more storage and wireless technology.

"I’m planning to use another prosthetic as a shell for the next version, which will have removable fingertip and RFID tag," he wrote on his blog, ProtoBlogr.net.

Half of Mr Jalava’s left ring finger had to be amputated last summer after he crashed into a deer while riding his motorbike near Helsinki.

He says he was inspired to create the unique storage device when doctors treating him joked that he should have a USB "finger drive" after finding out that he was a software developer.

News source: BBC News

News articles based on a survey indicating public opposition to Phorm’s web snooping and advertising system have been withdrawn after the firm made legal threats to their publishers.

The independent consumer watchdog Which? sent a press release to newspapers earlier this week entitled "Internet users say: Don’t sell my surfing habits". It detailed survey findings that UK internet users are opposed to plans by BT, TalkTalk and Virgin Media to monitor and profile their browsing in collaboration with Phorm.

The findings contradicted market research repeatedly cited, but not published, by Phorm that the majority of people want the more "relevant" web experience it claims its "Webwise"-branded technology will provide.

BT is much further along the route to rolling out the system than rival ISPs, having conducted two secret trials without customer consent in 2006 and 2007, and a third trial with consent at the end of last year.

The Which? survey was covered yesterday by the Press Association, Channel 4 News, The Telegraph, and The Daily Mail. The press release, however, was swiftly followed by this statement:

Urgent withdrawal of press release from Which? – Internet users say: don’t sell my surfing habits

Which? has received further information and representations from Phorm about the proposed Webwise service, and it has agreed to withdraw the above press release, issued under embargo on 24 February 2008, while we consider them. Some of the information in the press release and related article is said to be inaccurate and as a consequence may be defamatory. You are strongly urged not to write an article based on the press release or the related article ‘Online privacy matters’ in Which? magazine.

The Press Association, Channel 4 News and Telegraph stories have all been removed (here, here and here). The Daily Mail has edited its story to online to remove all references to the negative survey findings. A Which? spokeswoman declined to comment on what specically in its press release had drawn Phorm’s legal attack.

Phorm said its libel lawyers, who it declined to identify, were working with Which? to "correct" the press release. In the past Phorm has employed Schillings, a well known media law firm offering "reputation management" services.

A Phorm spokesman said that the survey had been based on inaccurate information and that the press release itself contained inaccuracies. "It repeatedly stated the Webwise system collects and sells on data which is misleading. We also wouldn’t allow the creation of advertising channels on sensitive subjects such as for medical products," he said.

News Source: The Register

All UK homes should have access to broadband and faster download speeds by 2012, the government has said.

An interim report on the UK’s digital future also looked at plans for public service broadcasting.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said digital technology was as important today as "roads, bridges and trains were in the 20th Century".

But the Conservatives said the report promised "no new action". The Lib Dems said it was a "complete damp squib".

Culture Secretary Andy Burnham told MPs it would help Britain secure a competitive low carbon economy in the next five to 10 years, adding the country "led the world in content creation".

The report called for everyone in the UK to have access to a broadband speed of up to two megabits per second (Mbps).

This would make internet connections capable of handling much more video and sites that offer greater interactivity.

By the time of the final report, the government will know whether internet service providers (ISPs) can build next generation networks themselves or if government help will be needed.

Full story here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7858498.stm

Cisco Systems announced in a press release on Tuesday the launch of a three-stage plan to help IT businesses reduce their carbon emissions, through the use of their new EnergyWise technology.

Primarily designed for Cisco’s Catalyst switches, EnergyWise reports and reduces the energy consumption of devices such as mobile phones, laptops and wireless access points.

In the press release, Judy Lin, senior vice president of the Ethernet Switching technology group for Cisco said, "With EnergyWise, Cisco is uniquely positioned to help our customers gain a network wide view of energy consumption that encompasses not only device-level power, but in the future entire network efficiency, building operations and business practices across an entire organization."

The first stage of the plan, to be launched in February, will see Cisco Catalyst switches receive a free software upgrade that will make it possible for businesses to monitor and control the energy consumption of any devices connected to the network, by automatically turning off or reducing power to them when they are idle.

The next phase, due in the summer, will see support of EnergyWise expanded across the industry, to include devices such as PCs, laptops and printers.

For the final phase, in conjunction with Schneider Electric, EnergyWise will be extended to include the management of building systems, such as heating, ventilation, air conditioning, elevators and lights, as well as access, fire and security systems. This final stage is expected to begin in early 2010.

Jeff Ton, vice president of IT for Lauth Property Group, believes that the use of EnergyWise could lead to annual energy savings of 15 to 20 percent across their portfolio of commercial office buildings. "This could equate to energy savings of 19 to 33 cents a square foot, which over the course of a year could be thousands of dollars in energy related savings," he said.

News source: Neowin.net

A windows worm named Conficker or Downadup or Kido (as called by various anti-virus vendors) which targets unpatched networks and poor passwords has been reported to have affected 2.4 million machines to over 8.9 million during the last four days by a Finnish anti-virus maker F-Secure.

The worm spreads via a vulnerability due to RPC flaw that Microsoft patched in October 2008. Once on a machine, it sets up an HTTP server and resets a machine’s System Restore point to stop administrators deleting it.

This new worm which belongs to the usual Trojan family, downloads new files from their own malware server and generates hundreds of random domain names to scan for updates.

The numbers given by F-Secure has been criticized by many other vendors and has made F-Secure to explain its method of calculating the size of the malware’s breakup. Servers in China, Brazil and Russia seems to have been affected most.

News source: Neowin.net

Yesterday morning, thousands of previously happy Microsoft Zune 30 owners woke up to a interesting situations. Their Zunes were dead in the water.

As Neowin reported yesterday, "At exactly 2am CDT (12am PDT), the docked Zune made the ‘unplugged from USB port’ bong-noise and went to the boot-up screen with the 100% loading bar…and froze." This situation was similar if not identical for every other Zune 30 owner who had their devices turned on. Those who didn’t received the New Years Eve surprise when their turned on their device to be greeted by the Zune boot screen, and nothing else.

Microsoft acted quickly, undoubtedly after being bombarded with angry phone calls, emails, Tweets and message board posts. Shortly after 2pm PDT, Microsoft posted on their ZuneInsider blog and explained the problem and the solution.

Early this morning we were alerted by our customers that there was a widespread issue affecting our 2006 model Zune 30GB devices (a large number of which are still actively being used). The technical team jumped on the problem immediately and isolated the issue: a bug in the internal clock driver related to the way the device handles a leap year.

The issue should be resolved over the next 24 hours as the time change moves to January 1, 2009. We expect the internal clock on the Zune 30GB devices will automatically reset tomorrow (noon, GMT). By tomorrow you should allow the battery to fully run out of power before the unit can restart successfully then simply ensure that your device is recharged, then turn it back on. If you’re a Zune Pass subscriber, you may need to sync your device with your PC to refresh the rights to the subscription content you have downloaded to your device.

Microsoft says they’ll have an updated firmware for the Zune 30 out before 2012, which is the next leap year and the next time this problem is scheduled to happen.

Rest of the editorial here: http://www.neowin.net/news/main/09/01/01/the-day-the-zunes-stood-still

According to hundreds of reports from users worldwide, 30GB Zunes are freezing and locking up due to what appears to be a new years date bug.
One poster summarized the issue on Microsoft’s support forums, "At exactly 2am CDT (12am PDT), the docked Zune made the "unplugged from USB port" bong-noise and went to the boot-up screen with the 100% loading bar…and froze. At 2:30am CDT, I decided to check the other Zune. Turned it on and…frozen at the 100% loading screen."
It appears as though only 30GB Zunes are currently affected and some reports indicate that only Zunes with the latest firmware are affected, but this hasn’t yet been confirmed.
Microsoft has not yet commented on the matter and is currently unavailable for comment due to time zone differences.

Update: Microsoft’s official response so far is "Thank you for your inquiry. We’re looking into the situation and will update you as soon as possible." Microsoft has also updated its Zune support service page, "Customers with 30gb Zune devices may experience issues when booting their Zune hardware. We’re aware of the problem and are working to correct it. Sorry for the inconvenience, and thanks for your patience!". Microsoft’s Zune insider twitter page has the following, "Hey all. Yes it looks to be quite a day. Thanks for all the heads up. we are on it working to isolate the issue and I will keep you posted." More as it follows.
Update 2: Microsoft has now additionally stated that the Zune Social "might be slow or inaccessible."
Update 3: On the ZuneInsider Twitter, Microsoft says they are making progress and close to being able to ID the issue. Hopefully for the many users being hit with this bug, that means a fix is forthcoming.

The Zune freezes as pictured below:

Image courtesy of Gizmodo
Thanks to QuietStorm21A for the news tip.

Source: Neowin.net

Note: I can confirm this has also bricked the Zune I gave to my mother as well. What a pile of crap it’s proved to be.

Virgin Media is expected to unveil its 50Mbps broadband service at a press briefing this morning.
It will be the fastest domestic connection available to UK web surfers. Early reports suggest the XXL service will be priced at £52 per month with upload speeds capped to 1.75Mbit, increasing to 2.5Mbit in 2009.

According to a report in the FT, Virgin Media CEO Neil Berkett was quoted as saying "It will be premium-priced," at an investors conference in New York last week. "I see no reason to go in cheap" he added.

Earlier this year Virgin was slapped on the wrist by the Advertising Standards Authority for misleading adverts regarding its speed packages. Virgin media controversially began throttling users internet connections in May 2007 during peak times (4pm till midnight) for customers who downloaded a certain amount of data in that given time. It is unclear whether Virgin will apply these restrictions to the XXL service.

News source: Neowin.net