Microsoft purchases stake in Facebook

Microsoft Corp. will buy a 1.6 per cent stake (worth about $240 million US) in social-networking website Facebook Inc. and agreed to sell ads for the Internet company overseas, beating out a bid from Google Inc.
Microsoft is seeking to tap the surge of visitors and advertisers on social-networking sites. It has already an agreement to sell Facebook banner ads in the U.S. through 2011.
Spending by advertisers on social-networking sites as Facebook and its rival MySpace may almost triple to $3.63 billion globally by 2011. Almost 60 per cent of Facebook users are outside the U.S.
Google, outdoes Microsoft 7-to-1 in Internet ad revenue.
That made it more important for Microsoft to keep its relationship with Facebook, which had 73.5 million visitors in September, according to researcher ComScore Inc.
The deal is viewed by Kevin Johnston as a major advertising syndication win for Microsoft.
Two factors mitigate the exclusivity of the agreement.
Outside software developers who build applications that run on Facebook still retain the right to work with advertising software from Google and other Microsoft rivals.
The agreement also does not preclude Facebook from building its own advertising software.
Social-networking sites are ‘where young people are spending the bulk of their online time’, making Microsoft, Google and Yahoo! Inc rushing to make sure they aren’t left out of the market.
In August 2006, Google struck a deal to provide search and advertising features to MySpace.
With that, Google’s ad sales jumped 64 per cent to $13.3 billion in the fiscal year ended June 30 , 2007.

How to keep your preschooler dry at night?

Almost everybody knows some kid who was out of diapers, day and night, by the time he was two; I am not even going to touch the subject of ‘potty training at birth’ which I truly believe it’s a bunch of crap.

According to pediatricians, it’s about the age of four when kids are ready for diaper-free nights, but it can extend to the age of six. It’s a developmental milestone and it’s not a matter of if, but when.
Note to myself: Stop worrying!

Like any normal parent I am paranoid over milestones and it took me awhile to understand that just because my kid was not day potty trained until he was three and a half, it does not mean that it’s something wrong with him. He is a very intelligent, bilingual and sensitive kid.

Anyway, going back to bed wetting, all the suggestions I found on the net had a common denominator: the kid has his own room.
What about the kid co-sleeping with his parents?

In the first scenario- kid sleeping in his own bed- a parent can try different things to ease the transition to the dry nights:

- protect the mattress with a waterproof cover;
- have extra sheets ready for quick nighttime bed changes;
- consider having a box of baby wipes for quick bottom cleaning;
- keep fresh jammies and underpants nearby in case of accidents.

But if the kid sleeps with his parents, I guess it’s not applicable anymore, or is it?
I should ask parents who co-slept with their children. But where are those parents?

In the mean time, what I could try is:
- talk to him about being a big kid who does not need diapers anymore
- be more diligent with the before-going-to-bed routine
- try to eliminate the liquids at bedtime… this is going to be hard, considering that he drinks his milk right before going to sleep

Did anybody say that it’s not hard to be a parent?

Is Putin a hero?

At least this is how the Russian commentators considered him after he apparently defied the security service warning of a plot to kill him in Iran.
President Putin confirmed he would travel to Tehran after the summit in Germany, although Kremlin officials did not confirm the plan.
On Sunday, there was a report published by the Russian news agency quoting a single unnamed security source, that plotters were planning to assassinate Putin in Tehran this week.
The plot reports come shortly before Duma elections this December and Putin’s scheduled departure from office next March.
Lacking the theatrical manner and the booming voice of his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, Putin needs a kind of manifestation of quiet courage to make his image more colourful.
According to Nikolai Zlobin, director of the Russian and Eurasia Project of the World Security Institute in Washington, it did not have anything to do with Iran or terrorism; it’s more of an example of the struggle inside Putin’s administration.
The propaganda machine is trying to show Russian people how vulnerable the country could become without him at the helm.
Another analyst felt that there were real details backing up the allegations, but they have been manipulated to suit a political agenda.
Putin’s visit to Iran is the first by a Kremlin leader since Stalin went in 1943.
Tehran dismissed the plot report as baseless.
As for Putin’s political future, after stepping down as president next March, he would consider leading United Russia and continuing in power as Russia’s prime minister.
With this move, United Russia will become more than a political party.
According to Newsweek United Russia plans to remake itself in the image of the old Party, complete with an ideology, a youth wing and, ultimately, a monopoly on power and patronage “Our absolute first priority is to save Russian civilization,” says Andrey Vorobyev, head of United Russia’s Central Committee. “Not to allow Western influence to corrupt our language, not to allow fashionable theories or other interferences from outside to damage Russian sovereignty.” More concretely, Dmitry Orlov from the Kremlin-connected Center of Political Technologies gave deputies at the party congress a list of milestones to achieve in Russia’s ascent to greatness. Among them: “a manned mission to the moon by 2012; hosting the Winter Olympics in Sochi in 2014; attaining the world’s fifth largest GDP by 2020; flying to Mars by 2025.
United Russia has already used its power as the leading party in Parliament to change the way elections are held, excluding independents and small parties from running at all”

Anyone with political ambition is in the United Russia party. The majority of the regional governors, 60 out of 89, are on the party’s lists, as are almost all Russia’s mayors. Business barons, such as Viktor Rashidov, director of the Magnitogorsk Steel Factory (with 69,000 employees), and Vladimir Gruzdev, owner of the Seventh Continent supermarket chain (annual sales: $130 million), are also party members, lending their cash and influence to the cause.
Cash, influence and media control. Is there anything better than that?
The result is that millions of ordinary Russians see Putin as a savior, and find his leadership and vision powerfully attractive—“far more attractive than the dubious virtues of democracy and the right to choose among political parties”.
It seems that after 15 years of an imperfect democracy, Russians are on the brink of getting back to square one, as in one party.

Donald Trump on Larry King Live

Do you like Donald Trump?
Yesterday evening I watched Donald Trump on Larry King Live; I guess he was there to promote his new book ‘Think Big and Kick Ass’. I hope it’s not ‘The Secret’ version for business men.
I was surprised how eloquent he was. Obviously he is a ferocious businessman, and at the same time he is very articulate.
Abstracts from the interview:
- George Clooney is not tall: 5’10 apparently
- Angelina Jolie is not really ‘beautiful’ and it was just gross the way she French kissed her brother some years ago at Academy Awards and how disgusted he was hearing her recounting the making up with the then husband Billy Bob Thornton in the back of the limousine on their way to the same ceremony
- If you are successful you have to have a prenuptial agreement
- Revenge is therapeutic and you have to hit back
- Feud with Rosie: asked if she was a friend to him, he answered
“It was OK. I was never a friend. She came to my wedding. She ate like a pig. And — I mean, seriously, the wedding cake was — was — it was like missing in action. I couldn’t stand there. I didn’t like it, but a particular woman wanted her at the wedding — Marla. I think they were friendly or something. And so I said what’s Rosie O’Donnell doing here?”
- The reason for writing the new book:
“They asked me to do a book — a book on toughness, on making money, on sort of creating a happy life, in a certain sense, through money and through other things. And we came up with the title, which I think is pretty descriptive, although some people thought it was a little bit tough, adding the words “kick ass”. But it is a little bit about kicking ass because, unfortunately in life, sometimes you have to do that. And the book has become a tremendous best-seller”
- You have to love what you do; to be successful you need knowledge and if you don’t like what you do you are never going to work hard enough to get the it ( I totally agree)
- He owns 2000 acres in Aberdeen, Scotland where he plans to build a development of about $2 billion of hotels, houses and a golf course

All together the interview was kind of interesting; more to the point of watching Larry King being silenced and cut short by The Donald rambling on Rosie.

My rambling about ‘The Secret’

I could foam at my mouth talking about The Secret.
And it’s not because I am green with envy for Rhonda Byrne’s genius, it’s because I still believe that the whole ‘Secret’ enterprise it’s nothing but a shameless pyramid scheme. Wonderfully staged by the publishers and endorsed by personalities like Oprah.
I lost my sympathy for Oprah long time ago. Since she became an ego maniacal. Why the heck does she have to be on the cover of every issue of her ‘O’ magazine? Is the magazine about her? I got the explanation that it’s her magazine and she can do what she wants. Really? Whatever! It’s not my rambling about Oprah, it’s about ‘The Secret’ endorsed by her.
That Rhonda Byrne has guts, I must admit it.
‘The Secret’ is like a modern version of the snake oil.
What bothered me a lot is the stupidity, blame-the-victim approach and the bullshit of her preaching.
Random abstracts from the book:
“The energy you put into the world — both good and bad — is exactly what comes back to you. This means you create the circumstances of your life with the choices you make every day.”

And another one:
“The only reason any person does not have enough money is because they are blocking money from coming to them with their thoughts.”

Let’s disclose the famous ’secret’: It is actually the ‘Law of Attractions’

Do good and good will come; think positive and positive will come.
But unlucky you if you are born in Darfur and are not able to think positive.
Maybe Rhonda and her con-partners could help stop the genocide; maybe they are intelligent enough to channel positive thoughts and get rid somehow of the warlords.

The cherry on top of the cake: an article in The Vancouver Sun, featuring a 19 year old new mom, who just heard about the book from her parents (again, did not read it!), went to the store, bought the first lottery ticket of her adult life and won $2.5 million.
How would Rhonda explain that? As in: what about my positive thoughts and visualization of 2.5 million sitting comfortably in my bank account?
Hey, I sent gazillion of positive thinking about the money I need to be mortgage free and to be able to go with my family to a well deserved vacation!

I believe that positive thinking is good for your mental and physical well-being. I believe it’s important to not dwell into negative thinking that would make things worse and generate more conflict.

The biggest ’secret’ is how did Rhonda manage to secure the best selling position with Amazon for over 30-something weeks?

Google and Random House

Random House, the world’s biggest book publisher, is considering joining a book-search project run by Google.
It came as a surprise, or not?
Google has agreements with more than 10,000 publishers, large and small, to have their books scanned in full. Google then makes them partially available — according to agreements with each publisher — for online readers.
Meaning that, at least theoretically, Google should be the arch-enemy of the paper publishing industry.
Google has so far digitised the full texts of more than 1 million books. The total number of books in the world is unknown but global library collective WorldCat has more than 91 million bibliographic records in its database, the biggest of its kind.
Google now works with 27 libraries worldwide, up from seven a year ago, and its book search is available in 11 languages Oxford University’s Bodleian Library and Japan’s Keio University library.

The company, which does not charge or pay its publisher partners, gains depth and authority for its Internet search engine by making not only Web pages but also books searchable.

At the same time, Google has been thrown into legal dispute with U.S. publishers as Google also scans works from its U.S. library partners that are still in copyright without asking the publishers first.

The alleged venture has not been confirmed by Google.

Personally I like the feeling of a paper book, the convenience of reading it before going to bed. I would consider an ebook only if I have no other choice and probably I would try to print it out as soon as possible.

What is Occam’s Razor?

It’s no secret that I am a big fan of House; I’ve liked the show since the beginning.
Long time ago, in 2004, it was an episode called ‘Occam’s Razor’. I came across this name again today, reading a pretty interesting blog

According to the definition:
‘Occam’s razor (sometimes spelled Ockham’s razor) is a principle attributed to the 14th-century English logician and Franciscan friar William of Ockham. The principle states that the explanation of any phenomenon should make as few assumptions as possible, eliminating those that make no difference in the observable predictions of the explanatory hypothesis or theory’

The title of the episode is borne out in that a very likely condition, a cold, combined with a somewhat unlikely mistreatment, the pharmacy error in this case, lead to a collection of conditions which could only be explained by a far more unlikely combination of maladies. The cause, though difficult to envisage, was actually the simplest and most likely of those that they had considered, thus conforming to Occam’s Razor.

The Plot:
A guy (Brandon),while having sex with his fiancee, passes out.
Symptoms revealed by House and his team: cough, nausea, low blood pressure, fever and abdominal pain.
Everybody has a theory about what it might be, leading even to a bet between House and his friend, Dr. Wilson.
Finally we discover that House was right (almost all the time he is) and the patient took by mistake a drug for gout instead of one for cold.

Diego- Safari Rescue

My kid really likes Diego and Dora; I have no idea why, because I find both of them very, very annoying. It could be the super excited voice.
My son has about 4 DVDs with Diego, now he wants another one:
Go Diego-Safari Rescue
About Diego and the series:
Diego likes to help animals in trouble. In each adventure, Diego must overcome perilous obstacles and problems to reach his goal. With the help of his family, his animal friends, his high-tech gadgets and vehicles, and the viewer, Diego must leap into action to save the day.
The good part about the series is that it brings scientifically accurate facts about the animals that Diego and his friends discover, such as the species’ appearance, sound, diet, habitat, categorization (as a mammal, bird, reptile, etc.), and similarities and differences to other living things. Diego and preschools help their animal friends by using scientific skills such as observation, listening, research, investigation, and application of new found knowledge. They also use scientific tools like computers, field journals, and telescopic cameras to compile and review information, to identify and call to animals, or to investigate animal tracks and attributes. Diego models a love of nature, a respect for animals and the environment.

Thanksgiving on a budget

Thanksgiving is the type of holiday you want to spend with your family or friends.
Even if formally you don’t give thanks for anything in particular, it’s still a warm feeling to have people you love around you.
Having a potluck Thanksgiving is the best idea, budget wise and not only. You spend more time chit-chatting with your friends than cooking and baking.
All it’s needed is a good coordination; making a list ahead of time obviously is helpful.
The host normally ends up with the most time consuming task: baking the turkey. That’s the downside of being the host. Other than that, all is nice and dandy.

These are my potluck ideas:

- Decorations: Choose the natural way: apples, squash, pumpkins, fallen leaves. Add some interesting candles and voila, you have the setting done in no time.

- Food: Think about colour, texture and flavor to brighten up the table. The turkey may be accompanied by: caramelized sweet potatoes, chive and garlic mashed potatoes, Brussels sprouts with pancetta, green bean salad, cranberry and mandarin oranges sauce (yummy!)

- Dessert: Spanish Coffee (double yummy!) and any traditional pies: pecan- apple and pumpkin. If my memory serves me well, Costco has a pretty good deal on both of them.

- Beverages: Red wine: almost any Australian Shiraz will do it

Rising Canadian dollar affecting marijuana smuggling

Who would have believed what part of the underground economy would be affected by the Canadian dollar parity with the U.S.one?
First time when I came across the piece of news, it cracked me up. I was joking that ‘marijuana stock market’ is going down the drain.
Today I was reading again about it: it’s serious ‘concern’.
Canada’s soaring loonie and increasing competition from the U.S. marijuana producers made the business no longer lucrative enough for smugglers to risk taking the pot across the border.
On top of that, the notorious ‘first grade BC pot’ encounters competition from Newfoundland.
Let’s talk numbers: in the past, a pound of pot cost $1,600 in Canada, sold for $3,500 in the US (worth the risk); now it costs $2,400 per pound, not lucrative enough (not worth the risk).
The collapsing of the housing bubble in the States brought in another competition to our pot: homeowners who may lose their homes due to the mortgage crisis, are setting up grow-ups to save their homes, bypassing the need for Canadian goody.
Alan Greenspan is to blame!!