Wanted: Moron to Buy YouTube

Dot-com billionaire and media mogul Mark Cuban is firing up debate after a News.com article in which he’s quoted as saying “anyone who buys YouTube is a moron”, adding “they are just breaking the law, the only reason it hasn’t been sued yet is because there is nobody with big money to sue”.

So is there any substance to the claims? Well, YouTube has already faced legal action , and it’s true that the site is packed full of copyrighted content - a buyer would be taking a huge risk. That said, YouTube has grown so fast that they’ve been able to convince content owners to partner with them, rather than suing.

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Yahoo toolbar and home page on HP Computers

Yahoo reached an agreement with Hewlett-Packard to distribute a browser toolbar and make Yahoo the home page on some new computers.

Desktop and notebook computers sold in Europe will be set to show Yahoo's home, while customers in North America will get a co-branded search toolbar, Yahoo said on Thursday in a statement.

Yahoo is seeking to lure more users to its Web sites and search engine through the accord with Hewlett-Packard. Yahoo signed a similar agreement with Acer Inc, the fourth-largest PC maker, last month, while Google Inc has its own agreement with Dell.

"The idea that you can be the default setting is a very good one... People don't change their settings very often." analysts say.

Yahoo's search engine will be set as the default on Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 Web browser on Hewlett-Packard computers in North America when the software is released.

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More Sony Battery Recalls

Toshiba, IBM, Lenovo, and Fujitsu all issued Sony battery recalls.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, the main government agency that oversees such recalls, says it has received reports of 47 incidents involving smoke or fire from notebook PC batteries between 2001 and August, 2006.

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Microsoft Zune music player not so successful?

30 gigabyte Zune, designed to compete with the runaway success of the iPod, will ship Nov. 14 and list at $249.99, about the same as a 30-gigabyte iPod at $249.

Microsoft will likely lose money (about $50.00 per Zune) against Apple Computer "industry-leading iPod profitability," an American Technology Research analyst said Friday.

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Trans Fat Illigal in New York?

NYC health department proposed to bar cooks at any of the city's 24,600 food service places from using ingredients that contain Trans Fat.

Trans Fats are found in some shortenings, margarine and frying oils and turn up in foods from pie crusts to french fries to doughnuts.

"It is a dangerous and unnecessary ingredient," Frieden said. "No one will miss it when it's gone."

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Spam Junk Empire Uncovered

"The complexity is what's amazing to see," said Mr Peterson, chief technology officer of security firm Ironport who led the investigation.

Many of the junk messages had hidden classic work text in an attempt to convince spam filters that the messages were genuine and not junk. Analysis revealed that there were more than 2,000 variations in the content of the messages, more than 100,000 hijacked home computers in 119 nations had been used to despatch the junk mail; 1500 web domains that acted as the web shops for the drugs advertised in the junk messages.

"They were trying to make it look as legitimate as possible," he said.

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Intel -"Not Guilty." AMD's Antitrust Lawsuit Dismissed

U.S. District Court judge in Delaware has dismissed foreign commerce claims in the AMD's antitrust lawsuit against Intel Corp. In court documents, Intel had argued AMD claims it was injured because its sales offices in Europe and Asia failed to sell more of its German-manufactured microprocessors to foreign customers.

"AMD cannot invoke the U.S. antitrust laws to attempt to address these alleged harms that occurred (if at all) outside the United States," Intel said. Judge Agreed.

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Anna Nicole’s Son Died From Lethal Combination Of Drugs

Anna Nicole Smith's 20-year-old son died from a lethal combination of methadone and two antidepressant drugs (Zoloft and Lexapro), according to the US-based pathologist. He died September. 10 in a hospital room in the Bahamas where his mother was recuperating from giving birth to a daughter.

Methadone is used to treat heroin addiction. Smith's death being an accidental, drug-related death.

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First Penis Transplant. Patient hated it!

A Chinese accident victim who became the world's first successful recipient of a transplanted penis psychologically rejected it and asked for its removal.

"Because of a severe psychological problem of the recipient and his wife, the transplanted penis regretfully had to be cut off," his doctor said.

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New York is the safest big city in the US!

New York is the safest of the nation’s 10 largest cities in 2005, with about one crime reported for every 37 people, FBI statistics reports.

Dallas is number one least safest with about one crime reported for every 12 people. San Jose took the No. 2 spot. Los Angeles ranked third least safest, San Diego ranked fourth. Chicago, Philadelphia, Houston, San Antonio and then Phoenix followed.


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E. coli outbreak. What you need to know.

The outbreak was traced to Natural Selection Foods, a holding company based in San Juan Bautista, Calif., known for Earthbound Farm and other brands. The company has recalled products containing spinach.

The FDA warned people nationwide not to eat the spinach. Washing won’t get rid of the tenacious bug, though thorough cooking can kill it. Other brands may be effected as well. Investigation continues

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Russian Banking System is still used for criminal Ends

President Vladimir Putin called on Friday for urgent action to clean up Russia's banking system, which he said was being used for criminal ends, after the murder of a top banker who waged a war on money laundering.

Kozlov, 41, a father of three who had been closing down dozens of crooked banks, was gunned down by assassins on Wednesday night outside a Moscow sports stadium. His driver died on the spot. Kozlov succumbed to his wounds early on Thursday.

"In my view, it is a manifestation of the intensifying situation in the struggle against crime in this area," Putin said of Kozlov's death. Putin said Kozlov had "worked in one of the toughest areas -- he worked with so called problem banks."

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