CBS to Pay $1.8 Billion for CNET Networks

CBS said Thursday it would buy CNET Networks for $1.8 billion in cash. I'm surprised that CBS hadn't made such a move a lot sooner. A year and a half ago, Leslie Moonves, the chief executive of CBS, told The New York Times that his efforts to expand CBS's Web footprint would not include expensive acquisitions. "We are not going to spend $1.6 billion on YouTube," he told The New York Times, referring to the video-sharing site that Google had recently bought. "We are looking for the next YouTube and Quincy knows all the players." Mr. Moonves now appears to have decided that CBS needs to spend at least that much to build out its Internet presence and make it attractive to advertisers. For more related news, please refer to here: http://finance.google.com/finance?q=CBS 

Good Movie- Amazing Grace (2006)

Director: Michael Apted.

Cast: Ioan Gruffudd (William Wilberforce), Romola Garai (Barbara Spooner), Benedict Cumberbatch (William Pitt), Albert Finney (John Newton), Michael Gambon (Lord Charles Fox), Rufus Sewell (Thomas Clarkson), Youssou N'Dour (Olaudah Equiano), Ciarán Hinds (Lord Tarleton), Toby Jones (Duke of Clarence), Nicholas Farrell (Henry Thornton), Sylvestra Le Touzel (Marianne Thornton), Jeremy Swift (Richard the Butler), Stephen Campbell Moore (James Stephen), Bill Paterson (Lord Dundas), Nicholas Day (Sir William Dolben).

1807, William Wilberforce is the main force behind the passage of the bill eliminating the slave trade in the British Empire

Below is a summary of the entire movie.

By the 18th century, over 11 million African men, women and children had been taken from Africa to be used as slaves in the West Indies and the American colonies. Great Britain's empire was built on the back of slaves. The slave trade was considered as acceptable by all but a few. Of these, even fewer were brave enough to speak against it.

England 1797. William Wilberforce is riding in a carriage when he has the driver stop so that he might stop two men from abusing their exhausted horse. William visits with his cousin Henry and his wife Marianne. Marianne tells her husband to tell William that he is killing himself with overwork.

That night William has a nightmare of people laughing and having a high old time in a theatre box and of him overturning the bottles of liquor. Henry gives William some laudanum to help him sleep. Perhaps he is haunted by the failure of his last attempt to pass the abolition of the slave trade bill in Parliament. Marianne and Henry try to fix William up with the lovely Barbara Spooner. But neither of the recipients of this attention will put up with this and walk out on the attempted fix. They meet outside and exchange a few words with each other, but that is the end of it. Barbara tells William that she admires his efforts on the abolition bill.

House of Commons, 15 years earlier. William participates in a game of cards where betting is involved. He is doing well while his main competition is running out of money. With no money, the member of Parliament offers his black slave as part of his bet. William is offended and leaves the table. (William is friends with William Pitt and the two cooperate together on many issues. Pitt tells him that he is planning to become prime minister and he wants William by his side.) Later William sings "Amazing Grace" to his fellow members of Parliament.

A former slave, Mr. Equiano, talks to crowds about the horrors of the slave trade. William talks with a number of fellow anti-slave trade people. They know he is torn between choosing the clergy and political activism. They suggest that he can do both. The odds are against success. The slave trade has 300 members of Parliament in their pockets. So it will be 1 against 300. For moral support, William pays a visit to John Newton, a former slave trader who had transported some 20,000 slaves and the composer of the hymn "Amazing Grace". Newton says he cannot be of much assistance since "I have blood on my hands." William goes to Jamaica and sees up close and personal tragedies such as slaves being scalded to death by molten iron.

Back to the present. At a formal dinner William and Barbara are seated together. This time they seem to be doing just fine with each other. They speak of his society for the prevention of cruelty to animals and about the failure to pass the bill for the abolition of the slave trade. Barbara wants to know more about Equiano. He wrote a book about his experiences as a slave. Equiano had given William a tour of one of the slave ships. William sees the cramped and crowded conditions the slaves had to endure during the three weeks long journey. He also spoke of the crew raping the women.

William speaks out once again for the abolition of the slave trade. There is a lot of grumbling about his bringing up the subject again. He mentions that one of the obstacles he faces is the opposition of many members of Parliament who have vested interests in the slave trade. A key objection to the bill is that if there are no slaves, there are no plantations and with no plantations there is no money with which to fill the coffers of the king. William has only 16 members of Parliament on his side. On the bright side, William Pitt is now the prime minister.

William shows a number of Parliamentary members a slave ship and tells them how horrible it was. The ship carried 600 slaves, of which only 200 survived the journey. The audience especially objects to the smell of the ship, which William calls the smell of death.

The political climate starts to grow more favorable for the abolitionists. Equiano sold 50,000 copies of his book in two months. The abolitionist cause grows stronger. Now they have a year to gather information for the next assault on the slave trade. William's critics start becoming nastier and they now often slander his name. Barbara Spooner asks him one day how long has he been on laudanum. He says he uses it to deal with the pain of his colitis.

The abolitionists are able to unroll in Parliament a petition of some 390,000 names opposing the slave trade. The conservative's key spokesman, Charles Fox, gets up and signs his name to the petition. The proponents of the anti-slave trading bill applaud the man while those on the other side boo him. Then Parliament is adjourned until the veracity of the names on the petition can be checked. Tarleton and Coconut Clarence go to see the Home Secretary, Lord Dundas, to get support to oppose the bill. William and his crew had labeled Dundas a probable supporter of the bill. Charles Fox tells them to be wary of Dundas. The man controls the Scottish vote of some 34 members of Parliament. The talks is that Lord Tarleton is going to use slave trade money to reward those who will speak out against abolition. William Pitt speaks with Lord Dundas and tells him his recent political moves are threatening their friendship. Dundas does not seem phased by the threat.

Pitt speaks to William. There have been five attempts to pass the abolition bill. Pitt says that the French Republic will declare war with Great Britain within a year. He says in the case of war William will have the wrong friends: Clarkson, Equiano and even Thomas Jefferson. Pitt adds that when war comes, what is called opposition will soon be called sedition.

A clergyman speaks out against the slave trade and many of his parish leave the church service. During the war there is not much sympathy for the abolition bill. William starts losing some of his key supporters. Equiano dies in his bed, Clarkson is out of it and Fox is just watching and waiting. The hope is that when the people stop being afraid, their compassion will come back.

William and Barbara marry. At the service Barbara has everyone sing "Amazing Grace". William and Barbara move to the neighborhood of Chapham to be near their friends Marianne and Henry.

William tells Prime Minister Pitt that he is going to try again to get the abolition bill passed. John Newton speaks out against the torturing of slaves common in the slave trading business. William speaks with Newton who is still wracked with guilt: "We were apes. They were human." He also speaks of his 20,000 ghosts that haunt him. William goes to tells Clarkson that he must return to London for the next fight. James Stephen arrives from the Indies. He talks about how many Africans are charged with crimes they did not commit and then are burned for it. He adds: "This time gentlemen, we cannot fail them." He has a new novel idea to get the bill passed. It involves nosus decipio, meaning "we cheat". They are going to pull a fast one on the opposition.

Most of the slave trading ships fly under the flag of neutral countries, especially under the American flag. If the use of the neutral flags could be banned, without the protection of the American flag, 80 percent of the British slave trade would be almost finished overnight. The abolitionists are going to hide the bill by disguising it. The hope is that half the slavers will be bankrupt within two years. Then they can pick off the slave trader's M.P.s one by one. They are going to disguise the bill as an anti-French bill which just also happens to be an anti-slavery bill. The slavers must never find out that it is the abolitionists who are behind the bill. This way the bill might just sail through Parliament.

Few members of Parliament are in attendance when the bill is discussed. But one day Tarleton notices that the abolitionist Clarkson is in the audience. He starts getting suspicious. He doesn't know what the abolitionists are up to, but he senses that something is wrong. But it is already too late for him to get an adjournment. So Tarleton runs out of the chamber and starts calling his people together for a meeting. Imagine his shock, when Charles Fox tells him that most of his supporters are at the races, compliments of free tickets from William Wilberforce. At home William has a bad attack of colitis. Barbara offers him laudanum but he tells her that he wants to kick his addiction.

Two years later. Barbara and William have a young boy that is not yet two years old. And Barbara is pregnant again. William goes to visit a very ill William Pitt. Pitt tells William that Lord Granvile will be the next prime minister and Fox will be secretary. Furthermore, the crown will remain neutral on the abolition bill. Pitt remarks to William: "Next time you'll be pushing on an open door."

Clarkson is at Equiano's grave drinking to the coming victory of their bill. He says: "Wish you were here to see this." The atmosphere is now of "just one more push, one more". In Parliament the vote is taken. The Home and Foreign Slave Trade Act is passed. There were 16 nos and 283 yeses. The supporters are absolutely ecstatic. Charles Fox speaks highly of the contribution of William Wilberforce to the passage of the bill. There is a big applause for William.

William Wilberforce kept working on many different reforms. He died in 1833. He is buried in Westminster Abbey next to his friend William Pitt.

Good movie. At times it was hard slogging through all the infighting between the opponents and proponents of the bill for the abolishment of the slave trade. But it gets better at the end when the proponents use a kind of trick to get the bill passed. There was a lot of focus on various anti-slavery speeches and some may get tired of this. The movie is nearly two hours along and that's a lot of time for speeches. There were a lot of well-known actors in the movie including Albert Finney and Michael Gambon.

For more information about William Wilberforce: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wilberforce

Skype for Mobile

Sat, 26.04.08

Skype for Mobile - beta version

Skype has released a Java client for mobile phones, compatible with S60 and UIQ devices. While the application looks like a "normal" Skype client known from PC or Windows Mobile, it is not a true VoIP solution as it uses the mobile network (rather than the Internet) to make and receive calls. This means that in addition to your Skype credit, you will also be charged by your network operator for a local call. Call quality is not that great, either, but it's just a beta version so things may get better. To try it yourself, visit http://www.skype.com/m.

Jonathan

WSJ: Q&A With CEO Steve Ballmer, Before Microsoft Walked Away

It was not surprising that Microsoft decided to abandon the acquisition. Steve Ballmer had hinted at least two weeks ago. But, what is the next way Microsoft would like to do? Take longer time to build the scale by itself? I don't think so.

Jonathan

Q&A: CEO Steve Ballmer,
Before Microsoft Walked Away

By ROBERT A. GUTH
May 4, 2008 2:40 a.m.

With a letter Saturday afternoon, Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Steve Ballmer withdrew his company's bid to buy Yahoo Inc., ending three months of anticipation over a possible acquisition that gripped Wall Street, the media and the broader Internet industry. The withdrawal came as a surprise to many people, particularly after executives at the two companies had stepped up talks late last week in an attempt to bridge an impasse over how much Microsoft should pay for the Silicon Valley icon.

But at least two weeks before, Mr. Ballmer had hinted privately and publicly that Microsoft was considering stepping away.

Two days before Microsoft withdrew its offer, Mr. Ballmer, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, outlined his thoughts on Microsoft's options if the Yahoo deal didn't work and talked about the prospect of Microsoft's expanding its online business with or without a partner.

The Wall Street Journal: There is perception that going after Yahoo is an acknowledgment that Microsoft's build-it-yourself strategy isn't working…

Steve Ballmer: We like our strategy. We don't like our position. I'd like to have a better position relative to the guy [Google] who sells the most advertising. But we like our strategy. No question about that. The question is, can we accelerate our strategy?

There are probably a number of things our strategy entails: Some fundamental innovation around the way the business and user experience works; some tactical differentiation; there's some things we've got to do just to match competition in the online space. And it turns out scale matters. It's not true in every business that scale matters. But the way you get increasing return on scale in the ad system -- scale matters. The only way to get scale quickly – or more quickly -- is to do an acquisition.

WSJ: Yahoo is the biggest, easiest way to get that scale. But if that doesn't happen, are other acquisitions necessary to get that scale?

BALLMER: No, no, not at all. It could just take more time. Look at all the properties on the Internet -- everything on the Internet. There's really only five or six that have any scale. Worldwide, you'd maybe get seven or eight. You have MySpace, Facebook, MSN, Yahoo, Google, Baidu, AOL. But then -- boom -- it really falls dramatically after that. So there are really a few guys and [if] something works, it works. And if it doesn't, it doesn't. But then we're just taking longer to build the scale [on our own].

Using Statistics as Support

The graph shows that there is a positive statistical correlation between level of education and income (Baum, Sandy, and Payea 10). The higher education the workers have, the more they earn. According to statistics on College Board Online, people who have professional degrees have the highest median income, earning US$95,700 in 2003. The earnings of people with professional degrees are almost twice as high as those of people with bachelor's degrees. In fact, yearly income decreases as the level of education goes down. For example, people without high school diplomas only earn $21,600 a year, which only equals 43.3% of the median earnings of people with bachelor's degrees and 22.6% of the median earnings of people with professional degrees (qtd. in Mclntyre et al. Table 3). To sum up, level of education correlates with income; workers with higher educational achievement get higher pay.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2004a, PINC-03; Internal Revenue Service, 2004, Table 3; McIntyre, et al., 2003; calculations by the authors.

Using Quotations as Support

Computers cannot be compared to human brains. The first reason is that the information-processing capacity of the human brain is more powerful than any computer. According to an article titled “Can a Computer Be Conscious?” in U.S. News & World Report, “It has been estimated that the information-processing capacity of even the most powerful supercomputer is equal to the nervous system of a snail—a tiny fraction of the power available to the supercomputer inside the human skull” (64). Moreover, the kinds of processing in a human brain and a computer are different, too. For example, author Steven Pinker reported that computers found it easy to remember a 25-digit number but found it hard to summarize the gist of [children's story] “Little Red Riding Hood,” and humans found it hard to remember the number but easy to summarize the story (64).

Source: Both quotations are on page 64 of a magazine article titled "Can a computer Be Conscious?" by Steven Pinker. The article appeared on pages 63-65 of the news magazine U.S. News & World Report on August 18, 1997.
http://pinker.wjh.harvard.edu/articles/media/1997_08_18_usnewsworldreport.html

The influence of Android

In this year, the wireless industry will have some significant milestones to be reached by new members from the computer and Internet industry. Both Apple and Google are trying to break into a world that is dominated by operators. Whereas both Apple and Google will mark a developmental milestone in the wireless industry by offering mobile software, they have different incentives to develop it. Apple's major incentive is to sell more iPhones; however, Google's incentive is more complicated. In fact, the causes of the introduction of Android involve the potential of mobile advertising, the development of Google's mobile search engine, and the extension of Google's Internet services; on the other hand, the effects of Android may change the way that the wireless industry operates and may bring a new business model to the wireless industry.

The first reason why Google wants to invent Android is that the market of mobile advertising is very promising. The market of mobile advertising has great potential because advertisers could tailor their advertisements to match each subscriber's hobbies. Like its online ‘pay-per-click’ advertisements, Google's AdSense for Mobile delivers advertisements relevant to the advertiser's mobile audience. By introducing Android, Google can extend its hugely profitable key-word search advertisements business from the Internet market to the wireless market. Moreover, it is easy to understand why Google has been putting so many resources into the wireless market. While Google has dominated Internet search advertising with a 62.7% market share, according to research by the consultancy Compete, the company needs another arena to support its growing market capitalization. According to Informa Telecoms & Media, a research firm, although spending on mobile advertising was only $871 million worldwide in 2006, the annual expenditure will reach $11.4 billion by 2011 (The Economist, 10/6/07), a bit more than Google's revenue in 2006.

The other two reasons behind the introduction of Android are the development of Google's mobile search engine and the extension of Google's Internet services. Although Google is a leading Internet search engine company, “the company is lagging behind Microsoft and Yahoo in mobile search and other applications for the cell phone” (BusinessWeek, 9/6/07)4. Google has been focusing its attention on the mobile market for the past two years. To enter into this market, Google has steadily introduced new services that are designed specifically for mobile phones, such as downloadable Java applications for Google Maps and Gmail. By introducing Android, Google can work closely with the company's mobile search engine and other Google applications that are already popular on the Internet.

It is clear that Google has great ambitions toward the wireless market. When the gPhone is introduced in the future, the effects of Android may change the way that the wireless industry operates and may bring a new business model to the wireless industry.

The first effect of Android is that it may change how the wireless industry operates by providing an alternative mobile network, mobile operating platform, and billing system for users and service providers. While most mobile operators only allow users to browse their own branded mobile portals, Google may offer an alternative mobile network where users can browse the Internet as freely on phones as they do on computers, and service providers can provide their varied applications without being controlled by mobile operators. In August, Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, has said that the company may participate in a federal auction in early 2008 on contracts to build a new mobile network with no restrictions on what applications users can use. Second, Google could provide an alternative mobile operating platform, which could save the service providers' cost if the gPhone wins a large scale of handset market. Unlike the computer market, in which there are just three operating systems, the handset market has more than 40 software platforms (BusinessWeek, 10/29/07). If the handset market consolidates around several platforms, the service providers can save a lot of time and money when they develop applications for mobile devices. Third, Google could offer an alternative billing system for service providers. Today, service providers collect money through operators' billing systems in that mobile operators can charge up to half the revenue for their transaction fees. One expected feature of the gPhone platform is that it could offer a mobile payment system by which service providers allow their users to pay for their services via text messages. If Google could introduce an alternative billing system that charges service providers lower fees, the whole wireless ecosystem could become healthier.

Another effect of Android is that it may bring a new business model to the wireless industry, offering ad-supported free mobile phone calls and text messages for mobile subscribers. Two existing cases may offer some thought about what strategies Google might apply in its mobile business model. Blyk, a new mobile virtual network operator in Britain, in September launched a service that offers subscribers 43 free minutes of voice calls and 217 free text messages per month if they agree to receive six tailored advertisements by text messages every day. To sign up for this service, users have to fill in a detailed questionnaire about their hobbies and habits so that advertisers can provide tailored advertisements to highly relevant customers. This model is very familiar to Google's online advertisement strategy, which helps advertisers to find their target users and organizes the information related to users' interests. Furthermore, it is important for Google to make sure its applications work everywhere in the world; therefore, since it is impossible to bid for wireless spectrum licenses in each country, Google could lease space as a mobile virtual network operator. Another case is America's Virgin Mobile, which launched a “Sugar Mama” service last year, offering subscribers the chance to earn free minutes of voice calls if they agree to receive an advertisement via text messages or to view a 45-second advertisement. This model is controlled by mobile operators; therefore, Google might play a role as a partner that offers its mobile search engine or some applications—such as mobile YouTube service or mobile Gmail service.

In conclusion, Google may see a blue-ocean market in the wireless industry, not only providing an alternative mobile network, mobile operating platform, and billing system for service providers, but also offering ad-supported free mobile phone calls and text messages for mobile subscribers. Google's goal is to connect advertisers with mobile subscribers based on offering information from its mobile search engine, mobile gmail, Google maps, Google earth, and other applications, just as it has done on the Internet.

Reference:
1. BusinessWeek (2007, October 16). Will Apple Open the iPhone?
2. BusinessWeek (2007, October 29). Apple, Google vs. Big Wireless.
3. The Economist (2007, October 4). The next big thing.
4. BusinessWeek (2007, September 6). Getting Inside Google's gPhone.