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Mavro Kazafranka · Administrator

Woman fined £100,000 for illegal file sharing

Staff and agencies
Friday October 5, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

A US woman has been fined more than £100,000 for illegally downloading and file sharing music.

Jammie Thomas, of Minnesota, was fined a total of $222,000 (£109,003). Jurors yesterday ordered her to pay six record companies $9,250 for each of 24 songs she illegally shared online.

The fine could have totalled millions of dollars because the record companies alleged that the 30-year-old had distributed 1,702 songs online through the Kazaa file sharing application in violation of their copyrights.

"This does send a message, I hope, that downloading and distributing our recordings is not OK," Richard Gabriel, the chief lawyer for the music companies, said.

Thomas and her lawyer made no comment as they left the court.

During the three-day trial, the record companies - Sony BMG, Arista Records LLC, Interscope Records, UMG Recordings, Capitol Records and Warner Bros Records - presented evidence they said showed the copyrighted songs were offered by a Kazaa user with the screen name of tereastarr.

Their witnesses, including officials from an internet service provider and a security firm, said tereastarr was using a computer that belonged to Thomas.

Record companies have filed around 26,000 lawsuits over file sharing since 2003, but this was the first case to go to trial. Many other defendants have settled by paying the companies a few thousand dollars.

Record companies say file sharing has hurt sales because it allows people to obtain music for free.

The Recording Industry Association of America says lawsuits have deterred illegal file sharing, although the number of households downloading music has risen from 6.9m a month in April 2003 to 7.8m in March 2007.

"This case has put [file-sharing] back in the news," Cary Sherman, the president of the RIAA, said. "Win or lose, people will understand that we are out there trying to protect our rights."

Rogan · Pristupio: 14 Apr 2006 Poruke: 5340 Studijska grupa: Istorija umetnosti

Australia to ban Plasma TV's?

Most plasma television sets are in danger of being banned from sale in Australia if a proposed energy-efficiency rating system is adopted.

A report commissioned by the Federal Government says there is a growing demand for plasma and LCD televisions, which use more power than traditional TV sets.

It says energy rating labels are needed to tell consumers about the performance of the TVs.

But under a proposed six-star rating system, most current plasma TVs do not meet the requirements and could be removed from sale.

The report also suggests "minimum energy performance standards" be introduced which would eliminate the worst performing TVs.

It would mean all current plasma TVs and many LCDs could be removed from sale by 2011.

Manufacturers say they support the introduction of energy efficiency standards, but they need more time before the measures are implemented.

Australian Digital Suppliers Industry Forum coordinator Tim O'Keefe says it is unrealistic to expect manufacturers to meet the guidelines so soon.

"It's just totally unreasonable considering that we're a very small part of the global market," he said.

"They're expecting that the global suppliers will actually introduce or develop the technologies in such a time frame to be introduced for the Australian market."

But Australian Greenhouse Office spokesman Gene McGlynn says it is likely manufacturers will have two years to meet any standard that is introduced.

"By the time the standard came into place, with the industry knowing that the these standards are coming in, they can adjust their supply chains to make sure that the products will [meet the requirements]," he said.

"Again the history is that all the reputable suppliers will meet the standard."

Rogan · Pristupio: 14 Apr 2006 Poruke: 5340 Studijska grupa: Istorija umetnosti

Dragonfly or Insect Spy?.
By Rick Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer

Vanessa Alarcon saw them while working at an antiwar rally in Lafayette Square last month.

"I heard someone say, 'Oh my god, look at those,' " the college senior from New York recalled. "I look up and I'm like, 'What the hell is that?' They looked kind of like dragonflies or little helicopters. But I mean, those are not insects."

Out in the crowd, Bernard Crane saw them, too.

"I'd never seen anything like it in my life," the Washington lawyer said. "They were large for dragonflies. I thought, 'Is that mechanical, or is that alive?' "

That is just one of the questions hovering over a handful of similar sightings at political events in Washington and New York. Some suspect the insectlike drones are high-tech surveillance tools, perhaps deployed by the Department of Homeland Security.

Others think they are, well, dragonflies -- an ancient order of insects that even biologists concede look about as robotic as a living creature can look.

No agency admits to having deployed insect-size spy drones. But a number of U.S. government and private entities acknowledge they are trying. Some federally funded teams are even growing live insects with computer chips in them, with the goal of mounting spyware on their bodies and controlling their flight muscles remotely.

The robobugs could follow suspects, guide missiles to targets or navigate the crannies of collapsed buildings to find survivors.

The technical challenges of creating robotic insects are daunting, and most experts doubt that fully working models exist yet.

"If you find something, let me know," said Gary Anderson of the Defense Department's Rapid Reaction Technology Office.

But the CIA secretly developed a simple dragonfly snooper as long ago as the 1970s. And given recent advances, even skeptics say there is always a chance that some agency has quietly managed to make something operational.

"America can be pretty sneaky," said Tom Ehrhard, a retired Air Force colonel and expert in unmanned aerial vehicles who is now at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a nonprofit Washington-based research institute.

Robotic fliers have been used by the military since World War II, but in the past decade their numbers and level of sophistication have increased enormously. Defense Department documents describe nearly 100 different models in use today, some as tiny as birds, and some the size of small planes.

All told, the nation's fleet of flying robots logged more than 160,000 flight hours last year -- a more than fourfold increase since 2003. A recent report by the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College warned that if traffic rules are not clarified soon, the glut of unmanned vehicles "could render military airspace chaotic and potentially dangerous."

"You might recall that Gandalf the friendly wizard in the recent classic 'Lord of the Rings' used a moth to call in air support," DARPA program manager Amit Lal said at a symposium in August. Today, he said, "this science fiction vision is within the realm of reality."

A DARPA spokeswoman denied a reporter's request to interview Lal or others on the project.

The cyborg insect project has its share of doubters.

"I'll be seriously dead before that program deploys," said vice admiral Joe Dyer, former commander of the Naval Air Systems Command, now at iRobot in Burlington, Mass., which makes household and military robots.

By contrast, fully mechanical micro-fliers are advancing quickly.

Researchers at the California Institute of Technology have made a "microbat ornithopter" that flies freely and fits in the palm of one's hand. A Vanderbilt University team has made a similar device.

With their sail-like wings, neither of those would be mistaken for insects. In July, however, a Harvard University team got a truly fly-like robot airborne, its synthetic wings buzzing at 120 beats per second.

"It showed that we can manufacture the articulated, high-speed structures that you need to re-create the complex wing motions that insects produce," said team leader Robert Wood.

The fly's vanishingly thin materials were machined with lasers, then folded into three-dimensional form "like a micro-origami," he said. Alternating electric fields make the wings flap. The whole thing weighs just 65 milligrams, or a little more than the plastic head of a push pin.

Still, it can fly only while attached to a threadlike tether that supplies power, evidence that significant hurdles remain.

In August, at the International Symposium on Flying Insects and Robots, held in Switzerland, Japanese researchers introduced radio-controlled fliers with four-inch wingspans that resemble hawk moths. Those who watch them fly, its creator wrote in the program, "feel something of 'living souls.' "

Others, taking a tip from the CIA, are making fliers that run on chemical fuels instead of batteries. The "entomopter," in early stages of development at the Georgia Institute of Technology and resembling a toy plane more than a bug, converts liquid fuel into a hot gas, which powers four flapping wings and ancillary equipment.

"You can get more energy out of a drop of gasoline than out of a battery the size of a drop of gasoline," said team leader Robert Michelson.

Even if the technical hurdles are overcome, insect-size fliers will always be risky investments.

"They can get eaten by a bird, they can get caught in a spider web," said Fearing of Berkeley. "No matter how smart you are -- you can put a Pentium in there -- if a bird comes at you at 30 miles per hour there's nothing you can do about it."

Protesters might even nab one with a net -- one of many reasons why Ehrhard, the former Air Force colonel, and other experts said they doubted that the hovering bugs spotted in Washington were spies.

So what was seen by Crane, Alarcon and a handful of others at the D.C. march -- and as far back as 2004, during the Republican National Convention in New York, when one observant but perhaps paranoid peace-march participant described on the Web "a jet-black dragonfly hovering about 10 feet off the ground, precisely in the middle of 7th avenue . . . watching us"?

They probably saw dragonflies, said Jerry Louton, an entomologist at the National Museum of Natural History. Washington is home to some large, spectacularly adorned dragonflies that "can knock your socks off," he said.

At the same time, he added, some details do not make sense. Three people at the D.C. event independently described a row of spheres, the size of small berries, attached along the tails of the big dragonflies -- an accoutrement that Louton could not explain. And all reported seeing at least three maneuvering in unison.

"Dragonflies never fly in a pack," he said.

Mara Verheyden-Hilliard of the Partnership for Civil Justice said her group is investigating witness reports and has filed Freedom of Information Act requests with several federal agencies. If such devices are being used to spy on political activists, she said, "it would be a significant violation of people's civil rights."

For many roboticists still struggling to get off the ground, however, that concern -- and their technology's potential role -- seems superfluous.

"I don't want people to get paranoid, but what can I say?" Fearing said. "Cellphone cameras are already everywhere. It's not that much different."

But getting from bird size to bug size is not a simple matter of making everything smaller.

"You can't make a conventional robot of metal and ball bearings and just shrink the design down," said Ronald Fearing, a roboticist at the University of California at Berkeley. For one thing, the rules of aerodynamics change at very tiny scales and require wings that flap in precise ways -- a huge engineering challenge.

Only recently have scientists come to understand how insects fly -- a biomechanical feat that, despite the evidence before scientists' eyes, was for decades deemed "theoretically impossible." Just last month, researchers at Cornell University published a physics paper clarifying how dragonflies adjust the relative motions of their front and rear wings to save energy while hovering.

That kind of finding is important to roboticists because flapping fliers tend to be energy hogs, and batteries are heavy.

The CIA was among the earliest to tackle the problem. The "insectothopter," developed by the agency's Office of Research and Development 30 years ago, looked just like a dragonfly and contained a tiny gasoline engine to make the four wings flap. It flew but was ultimately declared a failure because it could not handle crosswinds.

Agency spokesman George Little said he could not talk about what the CIA may have done since then. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Department of Homeland Security and the Secret Service also declined to discuss the topic.

Only the FBI offered a declarative denial. "We don't have anything like that," a spokesman said.

The Defense Department is trying, though.

In one approach, researchers funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) are inserting computer chips into moth pupae -- the intermediate stage between a caterpillar and a flying adult -- and hatching them into healthy "cyborg moths."

The Hybrid Insect Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems project aims to create literal shutterbugs -- camera-toting insects whose nerves have grown into their internal silicon chip so that wranglers can control their activities. DARPA researchers are also raising cyborg beetles with power for various instruments to be generated by their muscles.

Rogan · Pristupio: 14 Apr 2006 Poruke: 5340 Studijska grupa: Istorija umetnosti

Drago mi je shto sad postoji i nekakva "necenzurisana" verzija... Manhunt 1 je bio vrlo kul i mrachna igra...

Hackers unlock extra violence in game

By PETER SVENSSON, AP Technology Writer

NEW YORK - Hackers have unlocked violent content that was censored by the publisher of the game "Manhunt 2" to give it a marketable rating, the company confirmed Thursday.

The game, initially given an "Adults Only" rating by the Entertainment Software Rating Board, went on sale in the U.S. on Wednesday with a "Mature" rating, after being modified. Most stores refuse to carry "Adults Only" games; Mature means a game is intended for player 17 or older.

Game publisher Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. and the studio that designed the game, Rockstar Games, have long been at the center of the debate over video game violence and children.

Two years ago, a hacker uncovered a hidden sex scene in their game "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas."

In "Manhunt 2," the player takes the role of a man who escapes from an insane asylum and goes on a killing spree.

Take-Two edited parts of the game, including blurring some of the most gruesome killing scenes, to get the less restrictive rating.

Hackers defeated that blurring on the version of the game for Sony Corp.'s PlayStation Portable. The game is also available for the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo Wii systems, and those versions do not appear to have been hacked.

The hack does not roll back all the changes that enabled the game to qualify for the "Mature" rating, and it requires some technical expertise and a PSP unit that is itself hacked to accept modified software.

In the Grand Theft Auto incident, the ratings board changed the game's rating from "Mature" to "Adults Only" and retailers pulled it off shelves.

Since then, the board has required that publishers submit even hidden content for review, and Take-Two spokesman Ed Nebb said the publisher had followed that requirement for "Manhunt 2."

It is unclear whether the private, nonprofit ratings board considered the hidden material in assigning the "M" rating to "Manhunt 2."

Board spokesman Eliot Mizrachi said only that it is aware of the hacking issue and is looking into it.

Common Sense Media, a nonprofit group that advises parents about media content and games that may be inappropriate for children, on Thursday asked the Federal Trade Commission to look into the ESRB's ratings process and its evaluation of "Manhunt 2" in particular.

The advocacy group noted that even the revised version of the game was banned by the American ratings board's British counterpart.

"I stand behind the game and the ESRB ratings process," Take-Two Chairman Strauss Zelnick said in a statement. "It is unfortunately the case that no one in the entertainment software industry is immune from hacking. We hope that consumers will not engage in hacking or download illegally modified copies of our games."

Rogan · Pristupio: 14 Apr 2006 Poruke: 5340 Studijska grupa: Istorija umetnosti

Holograms bump models from New York catwalk
Thu Nov 1, 2007 3:01pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Finally, coming to New York, a fashion show devoid of skinny models and serious faces -- in fact the models don't even exist.

U.S. discount retailer Target Corp, known for its innovative marketing, is staging a "model-less" fashion show in Manhattan next week that will feature holograms strutting down a runway in its merchandise instead of size-zero models.

The images, which will appear to be three-dimensional, will show clothes by designers like Isaac Mizrahi and Liz Lange sashaying across a virtual runway.

"This is the first time a fashion show will be completely produced with hologram technology, without models, without a runway and easily accessible to all fashion fans," Target senior vice president Trish Adams said in a statement.

The show will take place November 6 and November 7, in Vanderbilt Hall at Grand Central Terminal.

It will show clothes and accessories from Target's men's, women's, bridal and maternity collections.

brankko · Moderator

Robotić kao suvozač

Kompanija Nisaan predstavila je na izložbi Tokyo Motor Show 2007, koja je prošle nedelje održana u japanskom glavnom gradu, novu verziju svog futurističkog automobila Pivo. Za razliku od ranije verzije, vozači automobila Pivo 2 imaće pomoć u vidu malog robota Pivo-cun, smeštenog na upravljačkoj tabli automobila, koji uz pomoć svojih ugrađenih kamera snima i analizira izraze na licu vozača, kako bi ustanovio da li je umoran ili se možda nalazi u stresnom stanju.

Kompanija Nissan odavno razvija tehnologiju za prepoznavanje ponašanja vozača. Uz pomoć kamera montiranih na tavanici kabine automobila, koje su uperene u oči vozača, prati se broj treptaja očiju, kako bi se utvrdilo da li je vozač pospan ili umoran. Ukoliko broj treptaja padne ispod dozvoljene granice, aktivira se mehanizam za automatsko zatezanje pojasa, a zvučni signal upozorava vozača. Istovremeno na ekranu navigacionog sistema koji je smešten na upravljačkoj tabli pojavljuje se poruka u kojoj se vozač savetuje da napravi kratku pauzu.

U vozilu Pivo nalazi se donekle jednostavnija verzija Nissanovog sistema za prepoznavanje ponašanja vozača. Nisanovi inženjeri su se odlučili da sistem smeste u robotića zbog toga što je Pivo namenjen uglavnom mladim, zaposlenim ženama, koje će prema njihovoj zamisli na taj način ostvariti "bolju vezu sa svojim automobilom, uz povećanu bezbednost". Budući da i u Japanu, kao i u drugim delovima sveta, žene-vozače prati nezaslužena karakteristika da su nedovoljno oprezni vozači, Nissanovi stručnjaci su u Pivo 2 ugradili čitav niz naprednih novotarija. Najatraktivinije deluje mogućnost da se kabina okrene za 360 stepeni ili mogućnost da se točkovi okrenu za 90 stepeni, tako da se Pivo 2 može pakrirati i vožnjom postrance.

Prema rečima predstavnika kompanije Nissan, Pivo 2 će se u komercijalnoj upotrebi pojaviti najverovatnije 2015. godine. Iako su napredne tehnologije koje su primenjene u njegovom razvoju već neko vreme dostupne, najveću prepreku zasada predstavlja visoka cena, ali će prema rečima predstavnika kompanije i taj problem vremenom biti otklonjen. (G.B.)

Izvor: Mikro Vesti

Mavro Kazafranka · Administrator

Mavro Kazafranka ::

SBB traži licencu za telefoniju
16:41 | Izvor: Beta

Beograd -- Kablovski operater SBB zatražio je od Republičke agencije za telekomunikacije licencu za pružanje usluga fiksne telefonije.

Savetnik za odnose sa javnosću u Ratel-u Aleksandra Stefanović kazala je da je taj zahtev prosleđen Ministarstvu za telekomunikacije i informatičko društvo Srbije, pošto je za dodelu takve licence neophodno raspisivanje tendera.

"Zakonom o telekomunikacijama dozvoljena je konkurencija u oblasti fiksne telefonije, ali je neophodno da Ministarstvo odredi minimalne uslove koje operater mora da ispuni kako bi se bavio tom vrstom posla,", navela je ona.

Kompanija SBB (Serbia broadband) je, istakla je Stefanovićeva, prva koje je zvanično zatražila licencu za izgradnju mreže fiksne telefonije i pružanja usluga tefoniranja, pored jedinog operatera na tržištu Telekoma Srbije.

Ona je dodala da Ratel očekuje i nove zahteve za operatere fiksne telefonije u Srbiji.

Kompanija SBB ima više od pola miliona korisnika kablovske televizije i interneta, a u junu su kontrolni paket akcija te kompanije preuzeli Kompanija Mid Evropa partners (MEP) i Evropska banka za obnovu i razvoj (EBRD).

Usluge fiksnog telefoniranja na srpskom tržištu trenutno pruža samo državna kompanija Telekom Srbije, koja ima više od 2,8 miliona korisnika.

Ova vest je "malo" bajata ali meni uuuzasno zanimljiva Kez

04.10.2007

Telekom najavljuje usluge IP televizije

Igor JeclKomentarišući nedavni zahtev operatera kablovske televizije SBB za dobijanje druge licence za pružanje usluga fiksne telefonije, Igor Jecl direktor Direkcije za usluge Telekoma „Srbija“ a.d. je izjavio da smatra da je reč o reakciji ove kompanije na najavu Telekoma da će uskoro pustiti u rad IP televiziju koja je naprednija od kablovske tv. Jecl je napomenuo da je IP tehnološki napredniji način distribucije TV i drugih sadržaja u odnosu na kablovsku tv. Korisnik će moći da dobije stotine programa po želji, DVD kvalitet slike, mogućnost pretraživanja i gledanja programa koji su promakli, simultano gledanje više programa… i sve to preko telefonskog kabla. Posebno zanimljiva mogućnost je „film na zahtev“ gde korisnik od provajdera može da rentira film po želji.

Igor Jecl je istakao da korisnik uz TV program dobija i širokopojasni internet i mogućnost telefoniranja preko internet protokola koje je jeftinije u odnosu na standardno. Telekom Srbija a.d. planira da pusti IPTV u martu sledeće godine u svim većim gradovima Srbije. Jecl inače smatra da će demonopolizacija fiksne telefonije biti višestruko korisna ne samo za korisnike već i za sam Telekom.

Ma®k穗 · Moderator

Jel to isto što i HDTV ?
Stid

Mavro Kazafranka · Administrator

Nisu isto, ali IPTV moze biti u HDTV formatu. Kez

timon · Moderator

kako bi bilo lepo da ip telefoniju... trenutno je malo bezze sto za par sati, bez izlazenja iz kuce, sa opremom koju imam, mogu da dobijem britanski broj, a srpski ne mogu samo ako debelo podmitim budalu u posti...

JukeAtz · Moderator

Google pravi internet enciklopediju

Posetioci Internet pretraživača Gugl (Google) uskoro će moći da učestvuju u stvaranju nove Internet enciklopedije. Reč je o enciklopediji koja će se zvati Knol, a koja će biti direktan konkurent Vikipediji (Wikipedia).

"Postoje milioni ljudi koji imaju korisna znanja i žele da ih podele sa drugima. Zato smo zatražili od nekih osoba da pišu i tako parve novu, besplatnu 'spravu' - Knol", rekao je izvršni direktor Gugla Udi Manber i objasnio ime enciklopedije - Knol je skraćenica od engleske reči "knowledge", što znači "znanje".

Sadržaj u toj Internet enciklopediji neće pisati bilo ko, kao kod Vikipedije, već isključivo pozvani eksperti u odredjenoj oblasti. Da bi se oni odobrovoljili za učestvovanje u stvaranju enciklopedije Gugl je ponudio mogućnost da dobijaju odredjeni procenat zarade od reklama koje će se pojavljivati uz te tekstove.

"Osnovna ideja u ovom projektu su autori od značaja. Ostali posetioci mogu ponudjene članke da komentarišu, daju svoje sugestije i savete, a u situacijama kada ima više autora na istu temu svojim glasovima će odlučiti o rang listu popularnosti", rekao je direktor Gugla.

Na taj način se izbegavaju problemi Vikipedije, posebno izraženi pri političkim nesuglasicama, kada često dolazi do medjusobne prepravke ili čak brisanja čitavih tekstova koji su pisali protivnici.

Knol će raditi na principu bloga, a za sada će biti dostupan samo na engleskom jeziku.

(MONDO)

devianna

Svakako jedna od udarnih tema dana...shta li ce biti ako se ovo dvoje udruze... Kez

Microsoft offers $44.6B for Yahoo

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Business Writer 2 hours, 11 minutes ago

SAN FRANCISCO - Microsoft Corp. has pounced on slumping Internet icon Yahoo Inc. with an unsolicited takeover offer of $44.6 billion in its boldest bid yet to challenge Google Inc.'s dominance of the lucrative online search and advertising markets.

The surprise offer of $31 per share, made late Thursday and announced Friday, seizes on Yahoo's weakness while Microsoft tries to muscle up in a high-stakes battle with Google likely to define the technology landscape for years to come.

In a statement Friday, Yahoo said it will "carefully and promptly" study Microsoft's bid.

With its profits steadily sliding, Yahoo's stock slipped to a four-year low earlier this week and a new management team has been trying to steer a turnaround but sees more turbulence through 2008.

The announcement lifted Yahoo's share price by almost 50 percent in morning trading, while Google fell more than 8 percent, dragged down by a fourth-quarter earnings report that missed Wall Street expectations.

In conference call Friday morning, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer indicated he won't take no for an answer after Yahoo rebuffed takeover overtures a year ago.

"This is a decision we have — and I have — thought long and hard about," Ballmer said. "We are confident it's the right path for Microsoft and Yahoo."

Besides the question of Yahoo's acceptance, Microsoft's bid also faces regulatory scrutiny in Washington and Europe. On Friday, the Justice Department said it is "interested" in reviewing antitrust issues. European Union officials declined to comment.

To underscore its resolve, Microsoft is offering a 62 percent premium to Yahoo's closing stock price Thursday. If the deal is consummated, it would be by far the largest acquisition in Microsoft's history, eclipsing last year's $6 billion purchase of online ad service aQuantive.

Since reaching a 52-week high of $34.08 in October, Yahoo shares have fallen 46 percent. Yahoo climbed $8.62 a share, or 45 percent, to $27.80 in afternoon trading. Microsoft shares fell $2.22, or 6.8 percent, to $30.38.

Microsoft publicly disclosed its cash-and-stock offer in hopes of rallying support from Yahoo's shareholders, making it more difficult for Yahoo's board to turn down the bid.

In a letter released Friday, Ballmer pointedly noted Yahoo's financial performance has deteriorated since Microsoft was spurned a year ago. At that time, Ballmer said he was told Yahoo believed it was better off on its own.

"A year has gone by, and the competitive situation has not improved," Ballmer wrote in his letter.

Microsoft's previous offer was rebuffed by Terry Semel, who stepped aside last year as chief executive under shareholder pressure.

Microsoft sent its latest takeover offer to Yahoo late Thursday, shortly after Semel resigned as the company's chairman. The letter is addressed to Semel's successors, new Chairman Roy Bostock and the current CEO, co-founder Jerry Yang, who is one of Yahoo's largest shareholders.

In a prepared statement, Yahoo said its board "will evaluate this proposal carefully and promptly in the context of Yahoo's strategic plans and pursue the best course of action to maximize long-term value for shareholders."

Microsoft views Yahoo as its best chance to thwart Google, which has leveraged its leadership in Internet search and advertising to emerge as an increasingly serious threat to the world's largest software maker's persuasive influence on how people interact with computers.

Google already controls nearly 60 percent of the U.S. search market, and has been widening its lead, despite concerted efforts by both second-place Yahoo and third-place Microsoft. By combining, Microsoft and Yahoo would have a 33 percent share of the U.S. search market, according to the latest data from comScore Media Metrix.

By joining forces, Microsoft and Yahoo also would widen their narrowing advantage over Google in providing free e-mail accounts — a service that helps foster more loyalty with users and create more advertising opportunities.

Advertisers around the world are expected to double their spending on the Internet during the next three years as more people get their news and entertainment on the Web instead of television, radio, newspapers and magazine. The trend is expected to create an $80 billion online ad market in 2010, up from an estimated $40 billion last year.

Despite an aggressive push in recent years, Microsoft's online advertising expansion hasn't paid off. Last week, the Redmond, Wash.-based company reported a 79 percent jump in its overall profit, but its online division's loss widened to $245 million.

And Yahoo has been struggling to attract more advertising even though its Web site attracts one of the biggest audiences. The Sunnyvale-based company's profit has declined for five consecutive quarters, prompting plans to cut 1,000 jobs later this month, a 7 percent reduction of its 14,300-employee work force.

Besides helping to boost its online ad revenue, Microsoft believes it could mine more profit from Yahoo by jettisoning workers and eliminating overlapping operations.

Microsoft said it sees at least $1 billion in cost savings if it buys Yahoo. Microsoft executives deflected questions about how many jobs might be lost, but the company emphasized retention packages will be offered to Yahoo engineers and other key employees, including some executives.

The fate of Yahoo's brand also is unclear if Microsoft takes over. Both Ballmer and Kevin Johnson, president of Microsoft's platforms and services division, hailed Yahoo's strong brand value but didn't commit to keeping the name alive.