Firefox To The Rescue
I recently purchased a new laptop for work. Of course, I've spent a good portion of time cursing Vista (we won't go into that now) and loading software onto the box.
One of the pieces of software that I needed to load was Microsoft's .NET 2.0 Software Development Kit -- 354 megabytes of software development kit! But I have a fast Internet connection, so I downloaded the file and ran the setup.
No go. While extracting the bundled files, the setup process bombed out, saying one of the CAB files was corrupt. Hmmm...maybe the file was corrupted in transit. So, I download the file...again.
Once again, I run the setup. Again, the process bombs out with the same error message.
On a lark, I fire up Firefox -- a very good free browser -- and download the file...again. Once again, I run the setup. Lo and behold, the files extract and install successfully!
How ironic is it that Microsoft's SDK for a core component of their operating system is corrupt when downloaded from their site using their browser, but works when downloaded with an alternative browser.
Something foul in Denmark
A little over an hour ago, Microsoft announced it is making an unsolicited bid to buy Yahoo. Microsoft is bidding $44.6 billion dollars for Yahoo, or $31/share -- a 60% premium over Yahoo's closing price of $19 on Thursday.
Yahoo's stock price opened at $28 this morning, before the offer was announced -- obviously a case of insider trading. But I guarantee the SEC will turn a blind eye to Yahoo's overnight 50% stock jump on the eve of their largest news announcement ever. It seems that unless your name is Martha, you will never be a investigated target for insider trading. How much more blatant can it be?