Below is the complete memo to employees:

To: all yahoos
Fr: Jerry
Subject: update

yahoos -

i wanted to address all of you on the news we’ve just announced. the board of directors and I have agreed to initiate a succession process for the ceo role of yahoo!. roy bostock, our chairman of the board, is leading the effort to identify and assess potential candidates for consideration by the full board. the board will be evaluating and considering both internal and external candidates and has retained heidrick and struggles to help in this effort.

i will be participating in the search for my successor, and i will continue as ceo until the board selects a new ceo. once a successor is named, i will return to my previous role as chief yahoo and continue to serve as a director on the board.

last june, i accepted the board’s request that i assume the ceo role to restructure and reposition the company as a whole in order to more effectively meet the fast-changing needs of both users and partners. since taking on the ceo role, i have had an ongoing dialogue with the board about succession timing. thanks in large measure to your tireless efforts, we have created a more open, competitive yahoo! and we believe the time is now right to transition to a new ceo who can take the company to the next level.

despite the external environment we face, the fact remains that yahoo! is now a significantly different company that is stronger in many ways than it was just 18 months ago. this only makes it all the more essential that we manage this opportunity to leverage the progress up to this point as effectively as possible. i strongly believe that having transformed our platform and better aligned costs and revenues, we have a unique window for the right ceo to take ownership over the next wave of mission-critical decisions facing the company.

all of you know that I have always, and will always bleed purple. i will always do what I think is right for this great company. while this step will be an adjustment for all of us, i know it’s the right one. i look forward to updating you on this process as soon as the board has developments to share, and will continue to do everything i can to make yahoo! fulfill its full potential.

thank you,
jerry

Now is do or die time for the company. There is massive innovation at Yahoo but Google continues to erode their market share and as well all know more eyeballs equals more ad revenue. Perhaps now is the time that Yahoo stops trying to compete and run a very lean ship of hungry employees - Just how Google started.

There are better search algorithms out there and if Yahoo cuts some fat and puts it all in R&D lets the engineers have no restrictions they can out search the search giant. Hey Yahoo… My resume is available :)

What do you do if you are Sprint and have a ton of Flash developers with a ton of time on their hands? You get the Sprint Speed Dashboard that is designed to be pure torture for the ADD sect. I’m not sure if I love it or hate it (I’ll give you guys one guess) but its is sure worth a click and a few moments of your day!

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From the get go the new terminal is clean, wide open and airy, there are tons of places for passengers to sit plug in a laptop and surf online. There are 20 security lanes with one central queue which makes waiting for security much shorter then other airports. However, I’ve never seen all 20 lanes open. Once inside there are 22 restaurants and food outlets plus 25 stores. JetBlue, on their new premium flying kick, has made each shop and restaurant have a very boutique modern feel. No nachos and beer here (well if you don’t count one of their Mexican restaurants, Revolución). They have a steakhouse (5ive Steak), Tapas restaurant (Piquillo), Jamba Juice, French Fry House (Pommes Frites), two pizza places, as well as a open buffet market. But if you don’t want to sit at a restaurant at each gate JetBlue offers at gate ordering via touch screens where your food is delivered as you wait.

Also if you forgot something to read or more importantly your headphones the retail at Terminal 5 is almost mall quality. They have Borders, EH Eyewear, Lacoste, a spa, Techshowcase (for all your plug in needs), and a pharmacy.

All in all the experience was VERY enjoyable and if you live in NY or fly in to NY via JetBlue take a little time to enjoy the new terminal.

You can now order Domino’s pizza right from your TiVo UI. No need to get off the couch, forget looking for the phone, forget the computer (even though Dominos online pizza tracker is REALLY cool), just use your TiVo peanut to get your favorite multi thousand calorie meal delivered to your door.

Would you use this service?

The geek tradition continues. For those foaming at the mouth, state side, for a glimpse of the infamous touchscreen Blackberry Storm wait no longer.

One of my favorite websites, BlackFriday.info lays out all the Back Friday deals, way before the ads hit. This year looks especially good for bargain hunters thanks to the lagging economy.

I also made a special Pingie alert so you can be immediately notified when a Black Friday ad is posted.

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Here is how you link to high quality YouTube videos:
If you need to link to a high quality video on your blog, append &fmt=18 onto the end of the YouTube URL, like so:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuqiGrWBRqE&fmt=18

Now if you wanted to embed high quality video in your blog:
Add &ap=%2526fmt%3D18 onto the end of the YouTube link in the embed code…

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/MuqiGrWBRqE&hl=en&fs=1 &ap=%2526fmt%3D18"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/MuqiGrWBRqE&hl=en&fs=1&ap=%2526fmt%3D18" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

Thanks Tim for the heads up!

With the upcoming release of “Wall-E”, I’m reminded Luxo Jr. is now 22. And as all 22 year olds do, Luxo seems to be getting himself into all sorts of trouble, well, thanks to come Luxo “fans” that have some 3D experience.

Now some of these videos are SNFW but funny!

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Just plug the drive into your network and it will automatically sync with all your computers in your house and stream media files to your PS3 or Xbox 360. But as a bonus, you can access the files on it over the internet through LaCie’s website, which is a pretty nice feature.

The “Internet Space” drive will set you back about $210 for a 500 gig drive.

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This is a friendly reminder to all our US readers, and according to the stats we have a lot of you. Please go out to the polls today and cast your vote. Left or Right, Conservative or Liberal we all have an equal voice today.

Starbucks as a reward to voters (even though there is no way to verify) will give anyone a free cup of coffee. So, an chance to get your voice heard and a cup of joe. Happy Election day.

Feel free to post your political viewpoints in the comments - if you wish.

Just be sure that you post your email address in the email address field so I can contact the winner! Good luck!

Fist of all you have to make sure you have a Blackberry or iPhone to qualify for the free internet. That being said to trick AT&T you have to change your browsers User Agent. If you use FireFox download User Agent Switcher (UAS) to start the process.

Then you need to alter the UAS settings (Tools - User Agent Switcher - Options - Options - User Agents - Add) to the following:

Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/1A543a Safari/419.3

(Make sure all of that is on one line)

and if you have a Mac in Safari 3.0 in the Preferences, Select Advanced and check the “Show Develop menu in menu bar”. A new menu item called “Develop” should appear in the menu bar. Click on that menu and select “User Agent” and then select the sub option “Mobile Safari 1.1.3 - iPhone”.

With the user agent now switched you will be directed to a landing page designed just for AT&T iPhones where AT&T is asking your for your iPhones phone number. Put in your iPhone or Blackberries number. AT&T will then send you a text message with a secure lick that you click on to activate the free wifi. Just enter that link into your browser and you have free unlimited wifi on your laptop.

All joking aside Amazon Gold box offers the uber cool cellular connected Dash Express for $99 of retail price. So it’s $199.00 instead of $299.99. Now, for those out of the loop, the Dash is a GPS navigation on steroids. It has always updated street maps, live traffic conditions and since its data enabled you can also do live searches for places as well as find movie show times and the cheapest gas prices to name a few cool features.

So, if you waiting to pickup the Dash now may be the time!

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At first blush I thought the G1 was just a Sidekick on steroids (Although I can see may converters) but Android IS a viable OS. Having the ability to code any application and distribute it WITHOUT RESTRICTIONS is appealing. No, Android will not beat RIM or Apple but Palm should be VERY worried. Windows Mobile isn’t safe either. Mark my words, Apple and RIM will battle for number one. Android will place a strong second. Windows Mobile third and I think Palm will fade away or just distribute the WinMo OS.

I must say, I thought I would hate Android… I don’t… Stay tuned! Thoughts?

This MOST FRUSTRATING feature of the iPhone and the iPod is the inability to automatically sync your media on one computer and be able to manually manage it on another. If you try and sync (manual or otherwise) your iPhone or iPod on a guest computer iTunes will wipe all the media.

With a few small easy changes to the iTunes Music Library XML file you can then sync your phone (or iPod touch) with different systems.

Just make sure you backup the XML file before you start, but this solution works for me!

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Here are the rules: All we ask is that post a link to a picture of your current computer setup in our comments. Be sure to include your email address in the comment form (email address will NOT be published). If you don’t see your comment published for some reason feel free to also email your entry it hpsontest@experiment23.com.

Winner will be selected at random and will be announced sometime on 10/19.

Now to sum up what you will win.

One HP dv5t Laptop featuring:
Windows Vista Premium 64
Core2 Duo T9400 2.53GHz
802.11 a/g/n
15.4 WXGA Screen
3GB 800DDR2 RAM
250GB 5400RPM HDD
HP xb4 Media Docking Station
HP 500GB Pocket Media Drive
HP Photosmart C6380 All-in-One
and a HP Protect Messenger Bag.

If you don’t win our contest there still four more chances to win a laptop at four other sites:
Gomeler.com on October 18th
CampusGrotto on October 20th
Hack College on October 22nd
and finally
The University Blog on October 24th

UPDATE: And we have a WINNER. The random number generator picked comment 661676 CAITLIN HEIBACH. Congrats! This SWEET setup is on its way to you!

Besides the service being a TOTAL SCAM you guys notice anything odd about this commercial? No, its not the campy acting.

I PROMISE you its not one of those pop up scary YouTube clips, this is legit!

I’m very pround to announce that UNEASYsilence has hit a huge milestone. This post is our 10,001 post and I could not be prouder!

Started in 2004 as a space on Blogger to give a home to the ideas kicking around in my head and to post links that I found interesting. Never would I have imagined that this website would introduce me to so many wonderful people across the US around the world.

We have had our good times as well as slow times but what I always had was my readers. Thousands of unique people daily who want nothing more then to “notice the unnoticed.”

I want to give a huge shout out to all the readers out there. Without your encouragement I would have shut down this site years ago. I also have to thank one of my UNEASYfounders still lurking in the comments and the person responsible for all our designs, Derek, for being there always. You are a permanent member of the UNEASYfamily.

To celebrate I urge all readers to leave a comment to say a simple hello. I’d love to hear from you! Even if you are a first timer don’t be shy! We welcome you and are honored to have you in the fold!

Let’s keep the conversation going for another 10,000 posts!

From Mr. UNEASY himself,
_dan

17 years ago yesterday Linux was introduced to the world and during those years Linux has found a devoted and loyal following. It powers most of the web servers world wide and is the geek os of choice.

Do you pine for the nice days of minix-1.1, when men were men and wrote
their own device drivers? Are you without a nice project and just dying
to cut your teeth on a OS you can try to modify for your needs? Are you
finding it frustrating when everything works on minix? No more all-
nighters to get a nifty program working? Then this post might be just
for you :-)
As I mentioned a month(?) ago, I’m working on a free version of a
minix-lookalike for AT-386 computers. It has finally reached the stage
where it’s even usable (though may not be depending on what you want),
and I am willing to put out the sources for wider distribution. It is
just version 0.02 (+1 (very small) patch already), but I’ve successfully
run bash/gcc/gnu-make/gnu-sed/compress etc under it.
Sources for this pet project of mine can be found at nic.funet.fi
(128.214.6.100) in the directory /pub/OS/Linux. The directory also
contains some README-file and a couple of binaries to work under linux
(bash, update and gcc, what more can you ask for :-). Full kernel
source is provided, as no minix code has been used. Library sources are
only partially free, so that cannot be distributed currently. The
system is able to compile “as-is” and has been known to work. Heh.
Sources to the binaries (bash and gcc) can be found at the same place in
/pub/gnu. [via]

But in 17 years you think an OS would move out of obscurity and more into the main stream. It’s kinda clear the public pines for Windows over any OS. Matter of fact MSI found that consumers return Linux PC’s 4 times higher than XP.

[MSI's CEO in an interview said] that their experience shows that netbooks with Linux are returned four times more often than those with Windows XP. This would indicate what others have already noted, many consumers pick up the cheaper systems and then realize that the Linux system is not what they are used to so they return it. If you recall Walmart discontinued the sale of the Linux-based gPC in stores earlier this year, probably for the same reason. [via]

Now, is Linux too advanced for the public to use and will be relegated to the innermost geek circle? Is Windows really better? Are people afraid to leave what they know? Is the MacOS more disruptive to the computer ecosystem then Linux? I’m interested to know what OS you back and what your feelings about Linux really are!

Everyone has seen the “invisible” bookshelf, but this shelf takes it to a new level!

The inverted bookshelf turns a bit of your living room upside down as it hangs all of the books from the bottom instead of supporting them from below. It’s a satisfying optical trick and doesn’t damage any of the books. In fact, you can take books in and out of it whenever you want.

Watch out velcro… Here I come!

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We removed the CAPTCHA for the time being, to see if the SPAM can be kept at bay. However, if you take something you must give something too. We added a new checkbox to the bottom of the comment form that will allow you to get email updates if somebody posts a followup comment. Kinda cool!

Also if you want to hit me up with a specific question, just drop me a line on Twitter.

Imagine one day you log into GMail and you get an error message that your Username and Password are incorrect and no matter what you do you can’t log in. This is the peril of living in the cloud.

Discussion forums abound with tales of woe from Gmail customers who have found themselves locked out of their account for days or even weeks. They were innocent victims of security measures, which automatically suspend access if someone tries unsuccessfully to log on repeatedly to an account. The customers express frustration that they can’t speak with anyone at Google after filling out the company’s online forms and waiting in vain for Google to restore access to their accounts.

Tom Lynch, a software entrepreneur who lives near Austin, Tex., discovered early last month that he had been locked out of both Gmail accounts he used; he had no idea why. He received boilerplate instructions for recovering his accounts that did not apply to his particular circumstances, which included his failing to maintain a non-Gmail e-mail account as a back-up. He said it took him four weeks, including the use of a business directory and talking with anyone he could find at Google, before he succeeded in having service restored. [via]

This leads to the question do you use free web based email as your primary email service, or do you run your own email server via an third party ISP?

Microsoft instructed retailers to stop selling copies of the operating system to consumers this summer. But there’s a loophole that lets customers purchasing new computers running certain versions of Windows Vista request a free downgrade to Windows XP. That option was set to expire on January 31st, 2009. Now Microsoft has extended that date through July 31st, 2009.

That means you may not be able to pick up a standalone copy of Windows XP from your local computer store, but you will be able to get Windows XP with a new computer until the middle of next year. Unless, of course, you pick up a low cost ultraportable machine like the Asus Eee PC, Dell Inspiron Mini, or Acer Aspire One. Microsoft has made an exception for that class of laptop and will support Windows XP through 2010. [via]

For those keeping count, that makes Windows seven years old with support until 2010 that would make the OS almost 10 years old. That says SOMETHING about XP.

Jungle Disk has really evolved as a backup solution. It runs in the background, doesn’t need any system hacking, and has a VERY small footprint. It is available for the MacOS, Windows (XP, Vista and Media Center), and Linux. The vanilla version of Jungle Disk allows you to upload to your own S3 bucket using filename hashing, S3 and blowfish encryption as well as transmission over a SSL connection. But, the folks at Jungle Disk upped the anty with “Jungle Disk Plus.”

The offer block level updates which are important for backing up large files such as Outlook PST files, databases, or other files that change regularly so you don’t need to re upload the file. All you keys are private and never stored on Jungle Disks servers and if ever accessed it is just a jumbled mess of double encrypted data.

The BEST thing about Jungle Disk (and the plus service) is the ability to access your data via the web on ANY computer. Now you will have to remove your tin foil hat for this feature since Jungle Disk does store your keys for online access.

It is important for users to understand that the web based access feature of Jungle Disk Plus is different from any other feature currently available in Jungle Disk.
Because the Jungle Disk software is not being used to authenticate and decrypt files, enabling Web based access requires storing your Amazon Web Service keys on the Jungle Disk Plus servers. While we would prefer not to handle user keys in any regard, this is currently the only method available to enable this highly requested feature.
It is important to note that the web access feature of Jungle Disk Plus is completely optional. You must explicitly enable it and re-enter your keys on the Jungle Disk Plus site. Your keys are never sent from the Jungle Disk software to our servers.
Note that you can use all of the other Jungle Disk Plus features, such as block-level updates and resume, without enabling web access and without disclosing your keys.
The web access option is only present for users who are willing to store their keys online as a trade-off for easy access from any computer.
We do take great lengths to ensure the security of your keys, should you decide to enable web access:
Your keys are input on a secure, SSL protected web page
The keys are stored in an encrypted database
The keys can only be unlocked using your user account and password
When in use, the keys are only stored in memory in the Jungle Disk Plus servers
When you disable web access, all keys are deleted immediately

I really trust the folks at Jungle Disk when they say the destroy your data when its stored. So, if you are looking for a good SECURE backup solution that is multiplatform and allows online anywhere access to your personal information I highly suggest giving Jungle Disk a try.

Not a fan of Jungle Disk? Sound off in the comments about your favorite backup solution!

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So, when I got the Dell mini 9 all I wanted to do was put Leopard on it. With a little bit of tinkering and some help from a good blogging buddy Kevin Tofel I was able to painlessly install 10.5.4 on the little guy.

Kevin advised me that the chipset and processor of the Dell mini is so similar to the MSI Wind that a special slipstreamed version of 10.5 customized for the MSI Wind would be perfect (and painless) to get the little guy up and running.

The steps to Leopard-ize the mini are actually quite simple and easy to follow. After you download the slipstreamed ISO and burn the 3.2GB ISO to a DVD you boot up the Dell mini off a external DVD drive (Press 0 (Zero) at the BIOS screen) and installed Leopard as usual.

Once you complete the install all components except the wireless, ethernet, and sound worked. After some searching on the Dell forums I found two files that enabled the disabled Broadcom wireless adaptor and audio chipset, which you can find here.

Unzip the archive from the previous step and open Terminal in Leopard on the Dell mini. Type in sudo and drag the bcm43xx_enabler.sh icon to the Terminal window. Press the Enter key, type in your admin password on the keyboard and follow the instructions. (For those who don’t like to read - basically press Enter four times and restart).

When that is done, restart the computer and run the ALC268_Installer1 application (That was included in the archive) to enable sound chipset on the mini.

After you restart again and you have a fully functioning Mac OS enabled Dell mini 9.

UPDATE: I have had success updating to 10.5.5. Just use software update to download the update and reapply the patches. Proceed with caution on the update, milage may vary.

It features your ‘favorite’ engineering tools embroidered just above the pocket to give the illusion you can’t go 5 minutes without easy access to your compass.

To complete the ensemble there’s also the green graph paper tie made from 100% silk that’s sure to secure your position at the top of the nerd pecking order.

Unfortunately you have to be a nerd that has some cash, because the shirt will set you back $39.99.

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[A French newspaper claims] that the tower’s smell is the cause and in fact, contains a few toxins, including benzene. Several forum users have noted the smell as well (anyone notice it?), and the French AppleCare acknowledged the smell issue claiming that it should only effect computers built before 2008. Apple themselves haven’t released any retort or recall as of yet

Now, imagine the Mac vs. PC ads for this!

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You can duplicate tabs with drag-and-drop. Just hold the Ctrl key while dragging the tab you want to duplicate to an empty space on the tab bar.

If you use Yahoo! Mail or Gmail as you email provider you can have FireFox open them automatically when you click on MAILTO links. Choose Options under Firefox’s Tools menu, select the Applications tab, and scroll down to the mailto: entry. Select Use Yahoo! Mail and click OK. But, the option to use GMail is not included in everybodys version of FireFox. To enable GMail in FireFoxs address bar type in about:config and hit Enter. In the Filter field, type gecko.handlerServiceAllowRegisterFromDifferentHost. Double-click the gecko.handlerServiceAllowRegisterFromDifferentHost entry to change it to True.

Now, cut-and-paste this line into the address bar and hit Enter: javascript:window.navigator.registerProtocolHandler(”mailto”, “https://mail.google.com/mail/?extsrc=mailto&url=%s”,”Gmail”)

Once that is done jsy repeat the process above for choosing Yahoo! Mail, but select use the newly created Use Gmail option.