Taiwan man dies playing video games

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 friday february 3, 2012

A Taiwanese man died while playing video games at an Internet cafe as dozens of other patrons carried on for hours afterwards apparently unaware that they were sitting near a corpse, according to police.

The 23-year-old checked in at the cafe in New Taipei city on Tuesday night and was found dead but still sitting rigidly on a chair with his hands stretched out the following night by a waitress, police said.

The waitress last saw him talking on the phone around noon on Wednesday and his body had apparently been sitting there for up to nine hours without any of the 30 other people in the cafe noticing.

An initial police investigation found he might have died of a cardiac arrest triggered by low temperatures. 

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Zuckerberg has iron grip on Facebook

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 february 3, 2012

Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg will retain an iron grip over the social network even after it becomes a public company.

Facebook's filing for an initial public offering reveals that Zuckerberg, who launched the social network from his Harvard dormitory room when he was just 19, owns 28.2 percent of the shares in the company.

At a valuation of $100 billion for Facebook, Zuckerberg's stock would be worth $28 billion.

More importantly, the 27-year-old Zuckerberg, Facebook's chairman and chief executive, controls 57 percent of the voting shares after other shareholders granted their voting rights to him by "irrevocable proxy."

"Because Mr. Zuckerberg controls a majority of our outstanding voting power, we are a 'controlled company' under the corporate governance rules for publicly-listed companies," the Facebook filing said.

"Mr. Zuckerberg will be able to effectively control all matters submitted to our stockholders for a vote, as well as the overall management and direction of our company," Facebook said.

Specifically, Zuckerberg decides on "the election of directors and any merger, consolidation, or sale of all or substantially all of our assets," Facebook said.

Facebook is not required to have a majority of independent directors on its board, the company said, and Zuckerberg will even decide its fate if he dies.

"In the event that Mr. Zuckerberg controls our company at the time of his death, control may be transferred to a person or entity that he designates as his successor," Facebook said.

"Mr. Zuckerberg is entitled to vote his shares, and shares over which he has voting control as a result of voting agreements, in his own interests, which may not always be in the interests of our stockholders generally," it said.

Lou Kerner, social media analyst at secondshares.com, said potential shareholders need not be worried.

"Investors only want to have a say when things go wrong," Kerner said.

"The pace of innovation that's happening at Facebook is really unparalleled," Kerner said. "And that?s because it's being driven by a 27-year-old who's never known any other speed.

"The smartest executives want to maintain control," he continued. "They surround themselves with brilliant people but they don't put themselves at risk by giving up voting control."

In 2008, Zuckerberg lured away a top executive from Google, Sheryl Sandberg, and named her Facebook's chief operating officer.

But Zuckerberg remains "firmly in charge," said Forrester Research analyst Josh Bernoff.

"I think it?s pretty clear that Zuckerberg determines what the future is," Bernoff said. "He has delegated power but he has not ceded power to other people.

"It's pretty clear where decisions come from," he said. "Sheryl Sandberg's job is to execute the strategies that he comes up with."

Zuckerberg is also surrounded by allies on the seven-member Facebook board, including three he named himself: Netscape founder Marc Andreessen, Netflix chief executive Reed Hastings and Washington Post chairman and chief executive Donald Graham. 

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Huffington Post to launch streaming network

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february 2, 2012

The Huffington Post on Thursday marked the first anniversary of its acquisition by AOL with an announcement that it plans to launch an online video streaming network.

The HuffPost Streaming Network will launch this summer with 12 hours a day of original programming, to be increased to 16 hours a day by the end of 2013, Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington said in a blog post.

Huffington said the network will "live on every platform -- computer, smartphone, tablet, Over-the-Top TV -- with the goal of creating the most social video experience anywhere."

She said the network "will be built around segments spotlighting the biggest, hottest, most engaging stories HuffPost is covering at any given moment."

The Huffington Post was launched by Huffington, a Greek-American author and columnist, in May 2006 and sold to AOL last February for $315 million.

Huffington said that over the past year, the number of unique monthly visitors to the Post has increased by 47 percent to 36.2 million.

The Huffington Post also launched Canadian, British and French editions, she said, and has plans to launch Spanish and Italian versions. 

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Megaupload boss' bail appeal 'rejected' in N.Z.

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february 3, 2012

Megaupload boss Kim Dotcom on Friday failed to overturn a ruling that he remain behind bars in New Zealand while US officials seek his extradition for alleged copyright piracy, reports said.

Dotcom appeared in the Auckland High Court to appeal a judge's refusal last week to grant bail because he had the wealth and connections to slip out of the country.

The appeal was rejected after lawyers representing US authorities told the court a man with a history of producing fraudulent travel documents unsuccessfully applied to visit Dotcom while in custody, TVNZ reported.

Dotcom denied any knowledge of the man and said he was not friends with him, Fairfax Media reported.

"If people were to approach me and to offer such a service, I would tell them to go to hell," the German businessman, who changed his name from Kim Schmitz, said. "I have no desire to run away."

The decision means Dotcom will remain in prison until at least February 22, when a US application to extradite him is scheduled to be lodged in court.

The founder of file-sharing website Megaupload.com has been detained since January 20 when New Zealand police, cooperating with a major US probe, raided his sprawling "Dotcom Mansion" in Auckland.

The US Justice Department and FBI allege Megaupload and related sites netted more than $175 million in criminal proceeds and cost copyright owners over $500 million by offering pirated copies of movies, TV shows and other content.

During his court appearance, Dotcom also complained that he had received unwanted attention from female inmates wanting to become penpals while in custody, the New Zealand Herald reported.

It said Dotcom accused police of punching him during his arrest and also claimed he was visited by a man claiming to be a prosecutor who offered to ensure he was granted bail for a fee.

The black-clad millionaire, who spent his 38th birthday in a cell, said he wanted to remain in New Zealand with his family and regain the fortune that was seized when he was arrested.

"What I want to do is stay here to fight and get my money back," said Dotcom, who earned an estimated $42 million in 2010 alone.

The raid on Dotcom's home netted a 1959 pink Cadillac, numerous other luxury cars and valuable artworks -- all of which the US Justice Department and FBI allege was obtained through "massive worldwide online piracy".

Since his arrest, there has been a steady stream of media revelations about his extravagent lifestyle.

The Herald detailed claims he had a swimming pool filled with imported spring water, while a waitress who worked at the mansion told Women's Weekly magazine that fittings included gold toilet roll holders and silver plates.

And a documentary uploaded online shows Dotcom, surrounded by topless women, spraying champagne on board a superyacht during a "crazy weekend" in Monaco that reportedly cost $10 million.

"Fast cars, hot girls, superyachts and amazing parties. Decadence rules," said the blurb accompanying the documentary, which Dotcom dedicated to "all my fans".

The portly millionaire also reportedly had a butler in his mansion whose duties included retrieving stray ping pong balls when Dotcom was playing table tennis.

Dotcom paid for a NZ$500,000 (415,000) fireworks display in central Auckland on New Year's Eve 2010 and watched the extravaganza from a hovering helicopter, uploading the video on YouTube.

Prime Minister John Key said this week that since Dotcom's arrival in New Zealand in early 2010, his office had received complaints from the public about loud parties and cars speeding around the mansion, which is in his constituency.

Key said his staff had passed the complaints on to police. 

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Facebook: The Hidden Owners Of Facebook

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2 February 2012

Facebook said it would seek to raise $5bn (£3.16bn, 3.8bn euros) in the stock market flotation, valuing the company at between $75bn and $100bn.

THE BIG PI

·         Facebook is an advertising company. Of its total revenues of $3.7bn in 2011, 85% came from advertising. And that is down from 98% and 95% in the previous two years.

·         The company makes $1bn in pure profit.

·         Facebook has a total of 845 million monthly users and 483 million daily users.

·         Of its monthly users, half have used Facebook on their mobile. (But there are no ads on its mobile site, so it makes no money from them.)

·         The majority of its money comes from the US, but the majority of the users are outside the country.

·         And the majority of its non-US revenues comes from western Europe, Canada, and Australia.

·         The company generates 2.7 billion "likes" and 250 million uploaded photos everyday.

·         Zynga, the games maker behind FarmVille, single-handedly accounts for 12% of its revenues.

·         The company has 3,200 employees.

·         Lady Gaga may have the most popular page on Facebook - with 47 million "likes".

·         Facebook's ticker on the stock exchange will be "FB".

MONEY MEN AND WOMEN

·         Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and chief executive, has 28% of the company - 533.8 million shares - which are worth $28bn based on an overall valuation of $100bn. He is 27 years old.

·         But Mr Zuckerberg is the controlling shareholder because of proxy voting rights. All in, he controls 57% of the shares.

·         Mr Zuckerberg's base salary last year was $483,333 and, with bonus, he was paid $1.49m.

·         From 1 January 2013, Mr Zuckerberg's annual salary will go down to $1.

·         Mr Zuckerberg was memorably portrayed in the Oscar-winning movie, The Social Network, about the early days of Facebook. The Winklevoss twins, Tyler and Cameron, whose fight with Mr Zuckerberg anchors the movie, are not named in the filing after settling their legal battles with Facebook. Neither is Eduardo Saverin, his former friend and classmate.

·         Napster founder and early investor Sean Parker is mentioned - but his shareholding is not declared.

·         Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer, owns 0.1% of the company. She is the best compensated director at Facebook. With her salary and stock awards, she made $30.87m last year.

·         With her stock options and depending on the share price, she will still become one of the world's richest women. She has 38.1 million shares that she has been awarded but cannot yet sell, but will be able to do so from October.

·         David Choe, a graffiti artist, decorated Facebook's first offices and took stock instead of cash as compensation.  the stake could now be worth about $200m.

·         The singer Bono is also rubbing his hands. Elevation Partners, an investment firm he co-founded, spent $210m buying Facebook shares in 2009 and 2010, which could now be worth $800m.

·         Mr Zuckerberg's friend and co-founder, Dustin Moskovitz, has almost 8%, or 133.8 million shares.

RISKS

·         The company has listed other social networks as possible threats - including Google's relatively-new Google+ and its older Orkut service, South Korea's Cyworld, Japan's Mixi and vKontakte in Russia.Facebook has no legal presence in China - but there are already established social networks such as Tencent and Renren that locals can use.

·         Besides China, Facebook is currently restricted in Iran, North Korea and Syria.

·         The company also cited the "uncertainty" over evolving legal protections across the world on consumer privacy. It cited a revision to the European Union's privacy laws, specifically.

·         Facebook said that potential advertisers could decide not to advertise with them and instead just use a Facebook page.

·         Fame is fleeting on the internet. "A number of other social networking companies that achieved early popularity have since seen their active user bases or levels of engagement decline, in some cases precipitously," Facebook said. "There is no guarantee that we will not experience a similar erosion of our active user base or engagement levels."

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Facebook stocks gives Google a fight

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 february 2, 2012

As Facebook and Google jockey for dominance of the Web, the social network's upcoming stock offering will give it a hefty warchest for the ongoing fight, analysts said.

"It gives Facebook the ability to roll out more services," Gartner technology analyst Michael Gartenberg said of the social network's plan to raise at least $5 billion on Wall Street.

"It's going to be harder for companies to compete with Facebook."

Facebook, in its filing for an initial public offering, cited Microsoft and Twitter as potential competitors but made it clear its chief rival is Google.

"We compete broadly with Google's social networking offerings, including Google+," Facebook said of the social network launched by Google which has attracted 90 million users to Facebook's more than 800 million users.

"Some of our current and potential competitors have significantly greater resources and better competitive positions in certain markets than we do," Facebook said.

At first glance, Google would appear to have the upper hand.

Google sites, which include the popular YouTube in addition to the eponymous search engine, attracted 1.09 billion unique visitors in December, according to online tracking firm comScore.

Facebook saw 794.3 million unique visitors last month.

But users spent more time on Facebook -- a key metric for advertisers.

Visitors to Facebook spent an average of 377.3 minutes on the site in December compared to 207.2 minutes on Google sites.

Google, which launched six years before Facebook, is also flush with cash.

Facebook, opening its books for the first time in the filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, said it had net income last year of $668 million and revenue of $3.7 billion.

Google posted a net profit of $2.71 billion last quarter alone on revenue of $10.58 billion.

But Facebook may have more upside.

"What Facebook's management would like us to believe is that Facebook's growth potential is much greater than Google's," said Virginie Lazes of investment bank Bryan, Garnier & Co.

"Google is a cash machine but what more can they do in terms of growth?" Lazes asked. "Google's growth is a maximum of around 15 percent a year."

Facebook's revenue meanwhile went from $777 million in 2009 to $1.97 billion in 2010 to last year's $3.7 billion.

"That's what the market will try to put a value on, this future growth potential," Lazes said.

The battle between Facebook and Google comes down to a contest for eyeballs and online advertising dollars.

Google is the dominant player in online advertising with a 44.9 percent share of US online ad revenue last year to Facebook's 6.4 percent, according to eMarketer.

Most of Google's revenue comes from search advertising, however, while Facebook is the top player in the rapidly growing display advertising space.

Facebook's share of total US display advertising revenue was 16.3 percent last year to Google's 12.3 percent and Yahoo!'s 12.5 percent, eMarketer said.

Gartner's Gartenberg said that because Facebook has become such a dominant force in social networking it may be better positioned than Google.

Social networking is not a "passing fad," he said. "It also seems to be pretty profitable.

"Facebook is the dominant player here and it's become dominant in such a relatively short period of time," he said. "To the point where we talk about companies like Google being the underdog."

Google, however, "is not going to stand idly by and allow Facebook to become the center of gravity of the Web," Gartenberg said.

"The only type of company that could mount a challenge to Facebook is a company of the size and scale and with the resources of a Google," he said. "That makes for what could be a very interesting year going forward."

Lou Kerner, social media analyst at secondshares.com, said the struggle between Facebook and Google is "about how people discover the Web."

"We've been used to periods of one king: it was Yahoo!, then it was Google," Kerner said. "Now we're entering a period of two kings of the net.

"Google is not going away." 

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KDE(Ubuntu):How To Install KDE (Kubuntu) on Ubuntu

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The Ubuntu default desktop uses the Gnome window manager, which can be a difficult transition for Windows users. The KDE desktop would be a lot more familiar to Windows users, as KDE has something comparable to the start menu.

If you’ve already installed Ubuntu, and you don’t want to completely reinstall with Kubuntu, you can just install the KDE window manager by installing the kubuntu-desktop package along with its dependencies.

You can install kubuntu using the GUI tools, but the easiest way is to open a terminal window, and type in the following command:

sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop

You will be prompted for your password, and then you will be prompted again asking if you really want to install. Hit the Y key to proceed, and let the install begin.

Downloading all of the updates can take a while, so you might want to get a cup of coffee or something. You will be prompted to select the login manager, which you can select as either gdm (ubuntu) or kdm (kde). I decided to leave the default gdm.

Reboot the computer, and when you get to the login prompt, click the Options button in the lower left hand corner:

You will be prompted to select the Session that you want. Here we will click KDE to continue.

Login, and you should now see the KDE desktop! All of the applications are found in the “Start”-like menu, as you can see:

Note: If you are running Ubuntu inside VMware and end up with some really strange display issues where the display resolution is really huge but the desktop is showing up in 800×600 instead (see screenshot), there is a fix for this.

When I experienced this problem, I was also unable to use the mouse. I rebooted, and logged back into the Ubuntu desktop instead of KDE, and went into the /etc/X11/ directory.

You will probably see that your xorg.conf file was backed up to xorg.conf.1 during the KDE / Kubuntu installation. Just copy the xorg.conf.1 back to xorg.conf, reboot, and everything should be fine.

Again, don’t mess with the xorg.conf file unless you are actually experiencing this problem.

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