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Wednesday, June 6, 2018

On Monday, United States technology giant Microsoft announced their plans to acquire GitHub, a San Francisco, California-based web-based hosting service for software version control using Git, for 7.5 billion US Dollars (USD).

In the official announcement at the Microsoft News web site, the company said they are to reach agreement with GitHub by the end of the year. They said the agreement would allow them to deliver Microsoft development services to GitHub users, and “accelerate enterprise use of GitHub”. GitHub had been financially struggling recently and is expected to get a new CEO.

In 2016, according to financial news and media company Bloomberg L.P., through three quarters GitHub lost USD 66 million, while in nine months of that year GitHub had revenue of USD 98 million. In August 2017 GitHub said they were seeking a new CEO. According to the announcements by GitHub and Microsoft, the Microsoft Corporate Vice President Nat Friedman would become the new CEO of GitHub. He had created app creation platform company Xamarin and was “an open-source veteran”, Microsoft said.

GitHub confirmed the acquisition plans on its blog. In this announcement they alluded to concerns about past friction between Microsoft and open-source software, however they said “things are different. […] Microsoft is the most active organization on GitHub in the world”, mentioning VS Code as an example. In the announcement, GitHub also referred to its several years of collaboration with Microsoft on Git LFS and Electron. GitHub also mentioned the Azure development platform run by Microsoft.

Sunday, August 6, 2006

A man who fell ill after participating in a drug trial at Northwick Park Hospital in north-west London earlier this year has revealed he has the early signs of an “aggressive” form of cancer.

David Oakley was one of six men who volunteered to take part in a trial of a drug intended to cure conditions like rheumatoid arthritis and leukemia in March. But after taking the drug, the thirty-five year-old suffered multiple organ failure and prominent inflammation.

Mr Oakley, who lives in west London, told today’s Mail on Sunday that doctors have informed him he has “definite early signs” of lymph cancer. He also fears he could develop other debilitating illnesses like rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, chronic fatigue syndrome and lupus. He will now undergo tests to see what treatments will be required. “It’s very frightening,” he told the newspaper. “I’m trying not to be too down about the thought of having chemotherapy or that I might die.”

Mr Oakley was paid £2,000 for his involvement in the trial, and that money subsidised his marriage to wife Katrina in June. He now fears their hope of having children has been jeopardised as a result of his ill health. “Katrina and I had planned to start trying for children six months after getting married, but we can’t do that now. Everything is on hold.”

There is nothing to suggest that Mr Oakley’s cancer was triggered by the experiment. He is now seeking compensation from Parexel, the company which organised the drug trial. “Really, I’m just trying to do my bit and pointing out their mistake. If someone doesn’t point it out it could happen again and there’s no way I would like to see someone else go through what we’re going through right now.” Earlier this year, six men had to be admitted to an intensive care unit at the same hospital, in another Parexel drug trial which caused much upset.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Several organizations have increased their Farsi services in the wake of the events surrounding the recent presidential election. Google has added Farsi-to-English translation as one of its translation options to its Google Translate service. Similarly, Facebook has launched a Farsi version of its web site. The BBC has increased the number of broadcasting satellites that it uses for its Farsi news channel, BBC Persian Television.

Google’s translation services currently only provide translation from Farsi to English. Franz-Josef Och stated that this was to enable people in Iran to communicate directly via the Internet with the outside world, saying “Like YouTube and other services, Google Translate is one more tool that Persian speakers can use to communicate directly to the world, and vice versa — increasing everyone’s access to information.”. The company states that it is working to provide translation between Farsi and the other 40 languages that it provides on its Translate service.

Facebook’s Farsi version of its web site, which is still marked as a beta-test version, was launched rapidly, with, the company states, the assistance of more than 400 Farsi speakers who submitted translations of the contents of the site.

Both companies state that their reasons for expanding their services are to promote communication, and are not politically motivated.

The BBC has increased the number of broadcasting satellites that it uses for broadcasting its Farsi news channel. This is, it states, in response to signal jamming of its broadcasts by the Iranian government. (The Iranian government accuses BBC Persian Television, which is funded by the British Foreign Office, of being a propaganda service for the British Government.) It states that its broadcasts on the Hot Bird 6 satellite had been aggressively jammed, and that therefore it was now also broadcasting from the Eutelsat W2M satellite, and planned to start broadcasting from Nilesat as well in the near future.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Protesters in Thailand clashed today with government police, killing at least one soldier and wounding eighteen more in what media reported as being a “very tense and intense standoff.”

The violence, unusually outside of the center of Bangkok, included Thai security forces firing on protesters, apparently with both rubber bullets and live ammunition, which police had been authorized to use in self-defense. The conflict took place along a highway that a convoy of protesters was travelling along; government forces were trying to disperse the demonstrators.

Casualties of the fighting included one dead — a soldier apparently killed by friendly fire — and at least eighteen injured, including eight demonstrators. Government forces had, according to reports, fired both into the air and into the protestors from behind defenses such as razor wire and concrete pilings in an attempt to disperse the crowd.

The demonstrators have largely paralyzed the city of Bangkok for the past seven weeks in protests that have killed at least 26 people. Largely rural and urban poor, they say they will not leave until the Thai prime minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, resigns and new elections are held; many support former PM Thaksin Shinawatra, and consider they were deprived of their votes when he was ousted in a coup in 2006. The fighting has led to constant rumors of a military crackdown on the city.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

The American satirist Stephen Colbert has announced that he will run for the Presidency of the United States. He made his announcement on his mock news show The Colbert Report.

However, Colbert said that he would only run in his home state of South Carolina as a favorite son. He also said that he would represent both major political parties: the Republicans and the Democrats. It is not known how far Colbert will go with his character during his electoral run.

Colbert has hosted The Colbert Report, a spin-off to another satirical television series, The Daily Show, since its creation in 2005. “I didn’t have a job back then. I wonder what it was like to have a job back then. I am sure I could ask a dentist or a surgeon. He would know.” On the show he plays a right-wing political pundit, based on real-life pundits such as Bill O’Reilly and Stone Phillips. Colbert has been credited with popularizing certain words such as “Truthiness”, meaning to believe something intuitively, without regard for actual facts, logic or evidence.

Filling in for New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd on Sunday, Colbert wrote: “I am not ready to announce yet — even though it’s clear that the voters are desperate for a white, male, middle-aged, Jesus-trumpeting alternative.”

Monday, July 20, 2009

A United States fighter jet crash on Saturday has claimed the lives of the two American pilots onboard in eastern Afghanistan, and a NATO fighter crash at Kandahar Airfield has injured two more pilots today.

The latest crash is the fifth in the space of a week. On Tuesday a helicopter was shot down, killing seven civilians. Yesterday a NATO-chartered helicopter crashed at Kandahar Airfield, killing sixteen, and another helicopter landed heavily elsewhere, injuring several people. Only Tuesday’s accident involved hostile fire.

Saturday’s accident involved a U.S. Air Force (USAF) F-15, which crashed at 3:15 a.m. Kabul time in Nawur, Ghazni. Both of those on the two-man fighter were killed. A spokseman for Ghazni’s governor stated that “The crash site was sealed off by coalition forces. Afghan police were not allowed to have access to this area.”

A board of officers will investigate the accident. “We mourn the loss of these two airmen and our thoughts are with their families, loved ones and their unit,” said a USAF statement.

Initially NATO did not identify the nationality of the pilots involved in today’s accident or the nationality or model of the aircraft involved. However the MOD of the United Kingdom later confirmed that the aircraft was an RAF Tornado GR4 which crashed on take-off. The crash occurred at 7:20 a.m. local time and the wreckage burned for five hours. Both pilots ejected safely but sustained minor injuries, they are currently being treated and assessed in hospital.