February 2008 Archives

Ever wonder how search behemoth Google came up with that distinctive logo?

Me neither, but Wired has an interesting feature about the evolution of the Google logo. Wired interviewed the graphic designer, Ruth Kedar, who was asked nine years ago by Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page to create some prototypes.

I'm not sure how many prototypes Kedar conjured, but she shows eight to Wired. Now, being a graphics designer, maybe she can knock these out in her sleep. But it looks to me like she spent some time on this logo project, impressive given that Google back then was just another start-up and not the mega-success it is today. I hope Brin and Page offered Kedar more than pizza and beer for her contribution.

Regarding the logo prototypes, the first three featured black letters in the logo with some splashy graphics adding color. It wasn't until No. 6 that the logo began looking similar to the now-classic yet playful design we know and love today.

For those readers looking for the ultimate Leap Day online destination, I have good news -- and bad.

After an arduous 12-second Google search, I found the ideal site: The Leap Year Museum (or LeapZeum, as its creators have dubbed it).

Here's the message on the front page:

An Internet museum of all things Leap Year

Things that relate to that quadrennial date, February 29

Sometimes this job is too easy.

Oh wait, here's the other message posted on the front page today, February 29:

The Leap Year Museum is under renovation. Many of the links are not working. Please check back often.

Sure we will. Maybe in another four years.

Whether the topic is financial advice, health concerns or job training, there's one expert more Americans consult than any other -- the Internet.

That's according to data from a recent Pew Internet & American Life Project survey on why people first went online and what makes them stay.

The survey asked 2,800 American adults "what sources of information they consulted for assistance with solving problems such as health issues, education and job training, or taxes."

Topping the list, at 58%, was the Internet. Here are the others (two of which I made up):

53% -- Professional advisers
45% -- Friends and family members
41% -- Mattel's Magic 8-Ball
36% -- Newspapers, magazines and books
34% -- Government office or agency
16% -- Television and radio
13% -- Public library
11% -- Other source
6% -- Voices in my head

I think these results make perfect sense. After all, the Internet represents a vast universe of information that can be accessed right from your own home, 24/7. And you don't get billed by the hour.

It looks like the Republican National Committee is having the same kind of luck searching for thousands of missing White House emails as O.J. Simpson has had finding the real killer.

From the Washington Post:

After promising last year to search its computers for tens of thousands of e-mails sent by White House officials, the Republican National Committee has informed a House committee that it no longer plans to retrieve the communications by restoring computer backup tapes, the panel's chairman said yesterday. ...

The committee is investigating allegations that vast stores of official Bush administration e-mails have also gone missing from the White House, which scrapped a Clinton-era archiving system and has struggled with data retention problems.

A former White House technology manager told the committee in statements released yesterday that the Bush administration's e-mail system "was primitive and the risk that data would be lost was high."

Hmm. That hardly sounds like the primo system left behind by former White House office CIO Carlos Solari, as described in this bio:

Carlos Solari has most recently completed a successful assignment as the Chief Information Officer for the Executive Office of the President (EOP – The White House) – a position first created in August 2001. ...

While serving as CIO, Solari transformed the EOP IT infrastructure to a modern, survivable enterprise serving the White House and its 12 component offices – all in the midst of unprecedented cyber and physical security concerns. This transformation was comprehensive and conducted while concurrently delivering advanced business functionality.

The data storage functionality, not so much.

I was doing a Google search on "internet" and "terrorists" and stumbled upon this article at a site called GovernmentExecutive.com, published by the conservative National Journal.

The premise of the piece is that the world is experiencing a "third wave" of terrorists, whom former CIA case officer Marc Sageman called "terrorist wannabes" ...

These dissidents typically don't associate face to face, rather their interaction has shifted to Internet chat rooms and online forums, which act as "echo chambers" where anger intensifies and participants become more radicalized.

Here's a perfect example of that "echo chamber of hate" phenomenon. (Warning: It's a scary place.)

Back to the article:

The latest terrorist wave is largely a self-limiting threat, Sageman said, because it's made up mostly of bored, unemployed young people with fantasies of glory and thrills. That profile lacks the ideological commitment to jihad that is typical of the older al Qaeda generation.

So let's sum this up: The third wave of terrorists is comprised of "wannabes" who spend most of their time alone and online, where they post angry messages and hatch failed plots. They are unemployed, bored and, despite their rage and delusions of grandeur, do not have the "ideological commitment" to jihad that older terrorists have.

It appears the era of the Slacker Terrorist is upon us.

From the Associated Press:

Pakistan's telecoms regulator said Tuesday it has lifted restrictions on the YouTube Web site that led to the knocking out of access to the popular video-sharing site in many other countries for a few hours over the weekend. ...

Pakistan ordered YouTube blocked on Friday over a clip featuring a Dutch lawmaker who has said he plans to release a movie portraying Islam as fascist and prone to inciting violence. As a result, most of the world's Internet users lost access to YouTube for several hours on Sunday.

(Note to Pakistan: If you really want to see blasphemy, I'd refer you to UselessJunk.com. That's like the Blasphemer's YouTube.)

Now, Pakistan really didn't try to block the rest of the world from using YouTube. Just the infidels. Or so it says. Here's what happened, AP reports:

An Internet expert said Sunday's problems came after a Pakistani telecommunications company complied with the [government's] block by directing requests for YouTube videos to a "black hole." So instead of serving up videos of skateboarding dogs, it sent the traffic into oblivion.

The problem was that the company also accidentally identified itself to Internet computers as the world's fastest route to YouTube, which is owned by Google Inc. That led requests from across the Internet to the black hole.

If you're really into the inner workings of the Internet, Declan McCullagh over at CNET News.com does some impressive drilling down into the technical details of what he termed this "serious Internet vulnerability."

American poet and That's So Raven guest star Maya Angelou once said, "I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself."

Angelou may be close to achieving this dream, at least in cyberspace. According to the 2008 Digital Outlook Report by online marketing firm Avenue A Razorfish, the very premise of a web site home page is evolving:

Search, social networks, blogs, and RSS (among a host of other online sources) are driving more and more users deep into today’s Web properties. Now, the majority of consumers bypass a site’s home page completely.

Every page is now a home page, each of which will have a wider reach, a lasting shelf life, and the ability to attract a new audience like never before.

There's a lot of interesting data for e-marketers in the Avenue A Razorfish report (posted online by Apple veteran and venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki). For IT pros, here's the main takeaway: Tempting though it may be to get sidetracked on Web 2.0 tricks and theatrics, "it's data and analytics that will be at the heart of the most successful digital businesses."

It might someday be used by the military as a kind of "cloaking device." It will make solar panels more efficient. And it will increase the accuracy of energy-measuring instruments.

The real question, though, is when this creation by scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will enable iconic hipsters everywhere to achieve an even deeper level of cool.

From the Washington Post:

Researchers in New York reported this month that they have created a paper-thin material that absorbs 99.955 percent of the light that hits it, making it by far the darkest substance ever made -- about 30 times as dark as the government's current standard for blackest black.

The previous record for darkest substance ever made was held by the cover for Spinal Tap's Smell the Glove album.

From our friends at Forbes:

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF. - First it conquered cyberspace. Now, Google is setting its sights on outer space.

The company on Thursday announced the first 10 teams of competitors in its $30 million contest to send a spacecraft back to the moon to gain greater insights into the solar system and to find new sources of clean energy. ...

One bold ambition of the project: using lunar materials to make solar power collectors that can generate carbon-free energy, which is then transmitted to the Earth.

Now that's offshoring! By the way, the bottom of the Forbes piece contains a fascinating fact: "The last spacecraft to land on the Moon was NASA's Apollo 12 mission, nearly 40 years ago."

Fascinating, but incorrect. Apollo 12 landed on the moon in November 1969. After that we had Apollos 14 and 15 (both in 1971) and Apollos 16 and 17 (1972).

And no, I didn't get that information from wikipedia. (Well, not only wikipedia.) Check out this thumbnail history of the Apollo Program, courtesy of NASA.

Sorry, that link went to a brief history of Harlem's legendary Apollo Theater. I often confuse the two. Here's the NASA link.

A chillingly low-tech tool can be used to steal encrypted data stored on computer hard disks, a Princeton University research team has demonstrated.

It all revolves around...well, let lead researcher and Princeton computer scientist Edward Felten explain his team's experiments in this blog post:

The root of the problem lies in an unexpected property of today’s DRAM memories. DRAMs are the main memory chips used to store data while the system is running. Virtually everybody, including experts, will tell you that DRAM contents are lost when you turn off the power. But this isn’t so. Our research shows that data in DRAM actually fades out gradually over a period of seconds to minutes, enabling an attacker to read the full contents of memory by cutting power and then rebooting into a malicious operating system.

Unless the attackers want to get really creative, as Felten says the Princeton group did:

Interestingly, if you cool the DRAM chips, for example by spraying inverted cans of “canned air” dusting spray on them, the chips will retain their contents for much longer. At these temperatures (around -50 °C) you can remove the chips from the computer and let them sit on the table for ten minutes or more, without appreciable loss of data. Cool the chips in liquid nitrogen (-196 °C) and they hold their state for hours at least, without any power. Just put the chips back into a machine and you can read out their contents.

Is this what they're doing in university research labs these days? Spraying everything (and each other, no doubt) with dust remover and freezing stuff? It reminds me of the time in ninth-grade science lab when I "demonstrated" that denim easily absorbs moisture across distance by squirting my friend's crotch from 10 feet away with a water spray bottle. And did I get a grant? No.

But I'm not here to rest on my research laurels. The point, as Felten writes, is that "there seems to be no easy fix for these problems. Fundamentally, disk encryption programs now have nowhere safe to store their keys."

Thanks a lot, Mr. Freeze.

With the possible exception of British football hooligans and tech journalists, nobody drinks with as much mindless abandon as the typical networking professional.

Fortunately for IT inebriates everywhere, a Portugal-based company has developed a small GPS navigation device that includes a breathalyzer.

According to this article on the web site NaviGadget:

The G400 has an actual alcohol sensor on its side and can tell you the amount of alcohol per liter in your blood.

When you first start the application it calibrates; accounting for the already present amount in the environment and the sensor, and then it asks you to blow. Seriously!

Obviously they're very excited about the G400 (pictured here) over at NaviGadget. The GPS system was developed by a company called NDrive and should be available soon in Europe for 200 Euros (about $300 U.S.).

It'll be the perfect geek gadget to show off at the next bacchanalian BoF meeting.

10. Celebrities have more fun than regular people.

(From CNET News.com) It all began last year, when [Chinese movie star] Edison Chen ... dropped off his custom pink MacBook at a repair shop. Then in late January, thousands of sexually explicit images began appearing on the Internet that showed Chen in rather compromising positions with eight of the region's most popular actresses and singers.

9. If there is porn on your computer, a tech geek will find it.

(CNET News.com) Authorities say the images were illegally copied from the computer by repair technicians.

8. If you are a celebrity and have naked pictures of yourself and other celebrities on your computer, and then your computer breaks, DO NOT take it somewhere to get repaired.

See No. 9.

7. You can't unring the Internet porn bell.

(CNET News.com) Chen has apologized for the photos and has asked Web users not to aid the spread of the images. However, the crush of interest in celebrity-obsessed China has crashed servers in Hong Kong and the China mainland, with one online discussion board generating more than 25 million page views and 140,000 comments, according to a report in The Guardian.

6. But you can sound pretty pathetic trying to.

(CNET News.com) "I urge you to please destroy them immediately," Chen said. "Let's help the wounded heal their wounds. I urge you to help the victims and not make it any worse."

5. The "gate" suffix not only won't die, it's gone global.

(xinhua.net) Netizens from about 40 websites have said they will not look at or pass on the hundreds of pornographic star photos which began circulating on the Internet during the Spring Festival and which have been dubbed Pornogate.

4. They take their porn laws pretty seriously in China.

(China.org.cn) Chinese police have apprehended 10 suspects for allegedly producing, selling and purchasing discs of Hong Kong's nude celebrity photos in the southern city of Shenzhen.

3. They take their porn laws pretty seriously in China, Part 2.

(BBC News) Chinese authorities closed down 44,000 websites and arrested 868 people last year in a campaign against internet pornography, state media has reported.

2. For headline writers, 'Celebrity Porn Scandal' is a triptych of perfection.

Seriously, what can top it?

1. Celebrities have more fun than regular people.

See No. 10.

Less than six weeks ago I wrote about an article on PC Magazine's web site about a major victory for the Blu-ray DVD format:

[W]hile Blu-ray's perceived costs have pushed some companies into the arms of the HD DVD camp, Warner Bros.' decision last week to exclusively support Blu-ray has some thinking that the end of HD DVD is nigh.

It looks like "nigh" came a little faster than expected...

Toshiba Quits HD DVD Business

Universal chooses Blu-ray

Wal-Mart Chooses Blu-Ray

There were so many stories about Yahoo in the media this week that it was hard to keep track of what was happening. Here's a summary of this week's news and rumor:

Sunday:
Yahoo Board Balks At Microsoft Bid

Monday:
Yahoo Rejects Microsoft Offer

Tuesday:
In Europe, Yahoo tops Google in deal with T-Mobile
Yahoo Buys Online Video Service For $160 Million
Yahoo lays off 1,100 workers (Just when they're shelling out $160 mil for a video company? Cold.)

Wednesday:
Investor says Microsoft's Yahoo offer high enough
Major Yahoo Investor Urges Microsoft to Raise Offer

Thursday:
Yahoo Seen in News Corp. Talks But Analysts Dubious

Friday:
Yahoo Board Divided Over Microsoft Offer

I like how the board's shifting sentiments bookend and propel the drama. Of course, the layoffs suck.

To be continued...

Imagine being able to send someone else on your job interview. Maybe someone similar to yourself, but better. Much better. Or maybe someone who looks and acts nothing like you -- and might not even be human.

You soon may have your chance if you interview with any of the growing number of companies using "Multi-User Virtual Environments" (MUVEs), Web-based software for collaboratively creating virtual worlds. A New York Times article that focuses on a MUVE called Second Life reports that a "handful of corporate customers have bought virtual space, called 'islands,' in this virtual reality to use for 'in world' meetings, and a growing number in this group is recruiting there, too."

Companies that have conducted virtual job interviews include Microsoft, HP and Verizon, the Times report.

It sounds like a great idea if you either live far away or look really hung over that day. It also seems fairly simple. Matt Villano, who wrote the Times piece and went through a virtual world interview, describes the otherworldly experience:

On the day of the interview, I started the process well before Mr. Gould had even arrived for work. After downloading Second Life software and registering for a free account, I chose a name for my avatar: Jaredpower Afarensis.

Within moments, the software took me to a virtual spot called Orientation Island, where I watched my avatar quite literally take shape: first his arms, then his legs, and finally his head. ...

Next [I personalized] my avatar. Second Life users can select hundreds of characteristics, like eye color, skin color, clothing and hairstyle. Users can also choose to make their avatars look like dragons, fairies, robots or even a bowl of Jell-O.

Personally, I'd pick a robot. I've always been able to do the "robot dance" pretty well, if I may be immodest, so it'd be a good fit with my real-life skill set. And it would give me a chance to "bust a few moves" during the interview. HR people eat up that kind of stuff.

Sadly, after that the virtual interview world turns into a lot of typing back and forth via a chat window, with most conversations likely ending with, "Why don't you just give me your number and I'll call you?"

But at the very least MUVEs seem to offer glimpses into candidates' personalities -- their creativity, their boldness, their ability to operate outside their own comfort zone, their dark and troubling visions. That's gotta be worth something.

Unless the House shows some backbone, we may never know the extent to which the telecom industry collaborated with the Bush Administration in spying on Americans following Sept. 11, 2001.

The Senate on Monday caved in to President Bush and fears of being portrayed as soft on terrorism, voting to grant immunity to phone companies who abetted warrantless phone eavesdropping and searches of email by the National Security Agency.

The immunity clause is part of the controversial Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which expires Feb. 15. While a House version of the FISA bill passed last year does not include immunity, the ticking clock and election-year cowardice considerations likely will ensure its inclusion in the final legislation headed for Bush's desk.

Which means the numerous lawsuits the telecoms might have faced will never happen. No depositions, no disclosure, no public airing of evidence, no opportunity to test the government's claim that it used the telecoms to spy only on legitimate terrorist suspects. And no end to the warrantless surveillance. Goodbye, Fourth Amendment.

I would just as soon grant the telecoms immunity if we could merely see how eagerly and quickly they went along with the NSA's request. I think it's important to understand the process. That way we could develop a Best Practices for giving up our remaining freedoms.

Maybe Yahoo's rejection Monday of Microsoft's $44.6 billion buyout offer really is a negotiating ploy designed to drive up Redmond's price, as some speculate. It's just smart business, after all, to turn down an initial bid.

It's also smart to float rumors that you're entertaining other offers. Thus the news articles about Yahoo either forging an alliance with Google or buying AOL from Time Warner.

But one can't escape the feeling that Yahoo, its employees and many shareholders truly are repelled by the thought of being absorbed into the Evil Redmond Empire, and are searching frantically for an alternative.

However, Yahoo can't play this game forever. Already a dissident group of Yahoo shareholders is threatening to negotiate with Microsoft or any other potential bidder.

I'd say Yahoo's only option is the M&A equivalent of speed dating. Now, I know Yahoo always has had a very specific idea of what it wants in a life partner, but some of the potential suitors below have a lot to offer, if a certain picky Internet pioneer would just give them a chance:

Exxon Mobil. The oil company had the largest annual corporate profit in American history last year. Which means you can mess up even worse than you have been so far and you won't even be a decimal point in the Exxon Mobil earnings report.

Fox News Channel. There's no problem a little more Britney coverage can't solve.

Blackwater. At the very least, waterboarding puts ratting out a dissident to the Chinese government into some perspective.

Quiznos. The fast-food submarine chain is pinning its turnaround hopes on a retooled menu and an aggressive marketing campaign. All you have to do is ride the Sammies wave.

Geico. No real business case here, I just think it'd be cool to borrow that animated gekko for a Yahoo ad.

The New York Times. There's no problem a little more Britney coverage can't solve.

eBay. I'm not suggesting a merger with eBay. I'm saying put Yahoo, the company, up for auction on eBay. What have you got to lose?

The New York Times has an article about how the influx of technology entrepreneurs and venture capital is helping transform Seattle into the next Silicon Valley.

That's a powerful combination, to be sure, but an emerging tech center needs other, related ingredients. One is a center of technology education -- such as MIT in Cambridge, Mass., or Stanford University in Palo Alto, the heart of Silicon Valley -- that will draw talented minds to the area. According to The Times, Seattle has that covered with the University of Washington and its highly regarded computer science and electrical engineering departments.

Another is a deep labor pool. And with Microsoft and Amazon.com nearby, along with dozens of Microsoft and Amazon.com spinoffs, Seattle easily meets that requirement. Further, The Times' John Markoff writes:

A start-up ecosystem needs social networks, support businesses and a business culture that views failure as a badge of honor, not shame. All of that is in place in Seattle.

While these kinds of trend stories often are overblown, the numbers don't lie:

During the last 12 years, venture capital investment here has more than tripled, to about $1 billion annually. Last year Washington tied with Texas as the third-largest destination for venture capital money nationwide, behind California and Massachusetts.

There's money. There's hype. Now all we need is the irrational exuberance of a tech-stock bubble!

Just kidding. Sort of.

Proving what every IT pro already knows, a new study concludes that clueless remote users present great dangers to networks.

The Cisco-sponsored survey of 2,000 remote workers in 10 countries found that telecommuters are feeling increasingly secure online. In this year's survey, 56% of remote access workers said they felt the Internet was safe, compared to only 48% a year ago.

The problem is that, as teleworkers become increasingly comfortable working remotely, they become less vigilant, more lax. So it may be that, as their sense of danger decreases, teleworkers actually are more likely to engage in activities that increase threats to the enterprise.

And there, my friends, is your irony.

But IT pros don't get paid to admire irony. They get paid to complain about users behind their backs. And there's much to complain about, according to the survey, conducted by U.S. research firm Insight Express:

44% of remote workers said it was fine to deploy company computers for personal use

43% used their work PC last year to do personal shopping online (in the U.S. alone, it was 62%)

21% said they allow non-employees to use their work computer

12% reported using a neighboring Wi-Fi connection

49% use personal computing devices to download work files

That's a lot of potential threats to a network. And this is only what survey respondents admitted to.

Used to be that if an eBay customer left negative feedback about a seller on the auction giant's site, the seller was free to retaliate with a few tart observations of his own.

Actually, it still is like that -- but not for much longer. It seems things have gotten out of hand, so much so that eBay is banning sellers from criticizing buyers, according to CNET.com.

Beginning in May, sellers will not be able to leave negative or even neutral comments about their customers, only positive feedback.

eBay spokesman Usher Lieberman says some sellers have been abusing the system, retaliating against customers who leave them negative feedback. And that has left many buyers afraid to leave honest comments, or even use the site, period.

Lieberman called retaliatory negative feedback from sellers "the No. 1 reason buyers cited for decreasing or ceasing their activity on eBay," CNET.com reports.

Business is business, I suppose. But I'm against eBay's edict for reasons of fairness (muzzling just one side), freedom of speech and, mostly, entertainment value. What fun is it if the sellers can't fight back?

To ease the transition into May's full ban on negative seller comments, eBay announced that, effective immediately, the following words and phrases no longer can be used to describe buyers:

Liar
Shyster
Blackguard
Sociopath
666
Popinjay
Infidel (Middle East sites only)
Big Fat Baby
Poopyhead
Overall, An Unpleasant Fellow

Up until now the presidential primary contests have focused way too much on trivial issues such as the slumping economy, the disastrous war in Iraq and our shameful health care system.

Fortunately, as voters across 22 states prepare to cast ballots on Super Tuesday, they can do so with the full knowledge that at least one White House aspirant is committed to tackling our nation's most urgent crisis -- the federal government blog shortage.

From this post in Salon:

"I think she's the only candidate who has said that if she is elected president she will make sure the White House, and every government department, and every important agency, will have its own blog site."
-- former President Bill Clinton, campaigning in San Francisco on behalf of his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton

I know politicians often make extravagant promises to get votes. Here's hoping the Clintons are being sincere, because for it to be otherwise would be too cruel. Plus, if she's elected and reneges, it forever will be known as "Blog-gate." Nobody wants that.

Both Steve Ballmer and Jerry Yang have sent emails to their respective employees explaining Microsoft's $44.6 billion bid to purchase Yahoo.

Microsoft CEO Ballmer's long email to Redmond's finest makes it sound as if the merger is a done deal:

Leaders from both Microsoft and Yahoo! will work together closely on the integration process to ensure that we are thoughtful about the questions we ask and the decisions we make. As we move forward, we’ll look carefully at how to bring our assets together to create the greatest value for customers, employees, and shareholders.

During this transition period, I urge you to stay focused on your commitments and team goals. We are committed to communicating with you frequently as our leadership team works on bringing the two companies together.

Meanwhile, in his email, CEO and co-founder Yang attempts to ease the anxiety of Yahoo's workforce:

first, we want to emphasize that absolutely no decisions have been made--and, despite what some people have tried to suggest, there's certainly no integration process underway. this proposal is just that--a proposal. and it was only made in the last 24 hours. you can be sure the board is going to review it thoughtfully and carefully, and do what's right for our great company.

Side note: If Microsoft does buy Yahoo, the first thing they should do is require Yang to use capital letters in all written communications. This all-lower-case thing is so Web 1.0.

Not unpredictably, Google has weighed in on Microsoft's buyout bid and -- surprise! -- thinks it's a bad idea. From Google Chief Legal Officer Dave Drummond's blog:

Microsoft's hostile bid for Yahoo! raises troubling questions. This is about more than simply a financial transaction, one company taking over another. It's about preserving the underlying principles of the Internet: openness and innovation.

Could the acquisition of Yahoo! allow Microsoft -- despite its legacy of serious legal and regulatory offenses -- to extend unfair practices from browsers and operating systems to the Internet?

Meanwhile, Google's stock on Monday fell below $500 for the first time since last August, so Microsoft's play for Yahoo certainly is making some Google investors skittish.

And Google reportedly is trying to undermine Microsoft by pitching its own deal with Yahoo.

It'll be fascinating to see how this high-stakes game of poker plays out.

When you're hungry enough, even old peanut butter will do.

About 16 months ago a Yahoo executive fired a loud internal warning shot, arguing that the Internet pioneer had lost its business focus and identity.

Senior VP Brad Garlinghouse's memo was dubbed "The Peanut Butter Manifesto" because of his analogy that the company was spreading "a thin layer of investment across everything we do and thus we focus on nothing in particular."

Since then Yahoo has only continued its slide toward irrelevance in the Google era. Earlier this week Yahoo announced disappointing earnings (again) and pending layoffs.

Today, in a bid to satisfy its ravenous desire to compete with Google in online search and advertising, software giant Microsoft announced a $44.6 billion bid to devour Yahoo, a 62 percent premium over YHOO's market cap as of yesterday's close.

The offer wasn't out of the blue. Microsoft has long been rumored to be interested in acquiring Yahoo, which reportedly rejected a buyout last spring. Still, news of the offer certainly has livened up a dead mid-winter market.

At least for Yahoo shareholders, whose stock has skyrocketed as high as 56 percent today to $29.83 per share before settling back to $27.96 in the early afternoon. Microsoft stockholders, meanwhile, are having some trouble digesting the proposal, with MSFT shares down 6.4 percent to $30.50.

So will the meal be consumed? Forrester Research analyst Charlene Li, writing in her blog, is skeptical, citing (among other things) "the messy reality of mergers" and Yahoo's longstanding disdain of Microsoft.

There's no doubt that mergers are complicated affairs and often end in disappoint or disaster. But that doesn't stop them from happening all the time. As far as the Yahoo-Microsoft culture clash...well, I think a 60 percent increase in shareholder value trumps that concern.

More than anything, I'd say the biggest impediment to a Microsoft-Yahoo merger would be an offer to Yahoo by Google, either outright purchase or a partnership. The search giant has been eating Microsoft's and Yahoo's lunch -- which is a lot more tasty than peanut butter -- and likely wants to keep it that way.