Pi Notation

So you have heard of the sigma notation (aka summation). But do you know about the pi notation?

It really makes sense, while you’re developing a notion of Sigma, to develop the corresponding notion of Pi (capital greek letter). Sigma is to Pi as addition is to multiplication.
Yes... so the above notation will mean
g(0) X g(1) X g(2) X ... X g(n)

Baidu - the IPO

Baidu.com (BIDU: Nasdaq) has been very volatile since it debut on friday (August 5) last week. It came public at $60 and hit a high of $151 in its first day of trading. BIDU has also been hailed as the Google of China (GOOG: Nasdaq now stands at $289+, think Google's IPO).

However, trading BIDU is a high game to play. Those who thought that BIDU will rise further have sadly been mistaken. Within 3 days of trading by momentum traders, BIDU began to slide - so much so that investors have been trying to short sell BIDU. The probs with short selling? - Very few buyers and a 50% interest charge.

Only one week now since its debut, its still pretty hard to tell what may happen in the next few months to come. But like Google, it remains volatile to market conditions.

10 Years that Changed the World

The whole suit of articles in
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.08/intro.html
are worth reading...

They are very insightful articles, written by Kelly Kevin.

Pastebin

http://pastebin.com

The next time you have a prob with your code, and you don't want to send the entire code over, just go to that site, paste your code and give your url to your friend to help in debugging.

AJAX

More and more webpages (like Google Maps) are using AJAX
Read more @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AJAX

Mozilla Corporation

The not-for-profit group that distributes the popular Firefox Web browser is shifting the creation and marketing of its products to a new for-profit corporation. The Mozilla Foundation of Mountain View, established two ago years with funding from America Online, created the Mozilla Corporation this week to help focus the group's work and build more polished products.



Click here for the full story

MS Windows Advantage Cracked in 24 Hrs

There are some red faces in Redmond this weekend following the discovery that Microsoft's much-vaunted Windows Advantage programme could be defeated with a simple piece of JavaScript. The code, which appeared on a number of sites throughout the Internet, appeared within 24 hours of Windows Advantage going live.

This is MS's software.... after months of trial.

Click here for the full story.

Apple Missing?

Internet sleuths discovered that anyone using Microsoft's new "Virtual Earth" Web site for a bird's-eye view of Apple's corporate headquarters saw only a grainy overhead photograph of what appears to be a single, nondescript warehouse and a deserted parking lot - not Apple's sprawling campus, with 11 modern buildings surrounding a plush courtyard.

Microsoft blames an outdated photograph. But Apple's headquarters in Silicon Valley shows up more appropriately for anyone viewing the same location using Google's mapping Web site, which also combines many of the same government-funded satellite and aerial overhead photographs.

Yahoo Acquires Konfabulator

Search engine giant Yahoo has acquired Konfabulator, a 'small' company that produces the famous widgets software for use on desktops. While it might seem to be a normal move for a big company to acquire a small company, it is not so normal when Yahoo now releases the widgets free of charge, and even offers a refund to those who recently paid the licensing.

Yahoo seems to be following in the footsteps of Google, by realising that having products (in Google's case - Google Earth, Picasa, Blogger), will boost up a company's reputation. The amount forked out by Yahoo is peanuts compared to the excellent (long-term) PR generated.

http://widgets.yahoo.com/

Windows Genuine Advantage

In a controversial effort to stop software piracy, computer users who go to the Microsoft website for Windows updates will have their system scanned, to check whether their copy of Windows is a counterfeit.

This is certainly another ridiculous move from MS. We should all switch to linux today.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1122382824047_77/?hub=SciTech