The Big Daddy of web hosting

In 1997, Bob Parsons launched Jomax Technologies as a service for the development of custom websites. In 1999, employees of the company decided that Jomax needed a new name. After brainstorming, they chose "Big Daddy", but found that bigdaddy.com was not available. Later Parsons suggested "Go Daddy" which was available, and thus Godaddy.com, the largest Internet domain registrar in the world, was born.

Parsons joined the Marine Corps United States and served as a rifleman in the Marine Regiment 26. During a trip to Vietnam, he was wounded in service and received Ribbon Combat Action, the Gallantry Cross Vietnam.

Sean Parker Launches Civic Startup To Disrupt American Political Engagement

Remember Justin Timberlake's character from The Social Network? He was Sean Parker, who in real life co-founded Napster, the computer program that illuminated to teenagers around the world that pirating the latest Metallica and Limp Bizkit tracks was possible outside of a tape deck. After his success with that venture and also as an investor of Facebook, Parker is pouring millions into a civic startup hoping to make America a more Democratic place.
Called Brigade Media LLC, the platform will look to tackle voter efficacy and turnout during elections at all levels in America, according to Politico. Though it's not said how exactly Brigade plans to do that, an SEC document filed Monday shows that Parker – who will act as chief executive and chairman of the company – and a few big-name associates, like Facebook's first Washington Evangelist Adam Conner and former LinkedIn SVP David Henke, believe enough in it to put $9.3 million dollars into the young startup.

via: http://inthecapital.streetwise.co/2014/04/14/napster-co-founder-launches-civic-startup-to-disrupt-american-political-engagement/

Microsoft published the source code for MS-DOS and Word for Windows

Microsoft has decided to make the source code of the legendary MS-DOS and Word for Windows available to all users. The company has committed the code to the Computer History Museum and institution has given permission for anyone to access the material. Microsoft decided to acquire the company developed by Seattle Computer Products as a basis for what became MS-DOS system. The company spent much of its resources to the development of the system, as recognized by Bill Gates after his own success. "For over a year, 35 of the 100 employees at Microsoft devoted all his time (and a lot of overtime) with IBM in developing the project," said Bill Gates in an interview with PC Magazines.

Following the success of MS-DOS, Microsoft Word development, your word processor. The first version of Word was launched in 1983. However, the real boom came in Word 1989, when Word for Windows was released. The word processor became a huge success, becoming one of the star products of the company.

Google buys British startup DeepMind

Google has purchased the British startup DeepMind, an artificial intelligence company founded by a 37-year old former chess prodigy and computer game designer. The company was founded by researcher Demis Hassabis together with Shane Legg and Mustafa Suleyman.

.CLUB Goes Live

CLUB Domains, LLC, the company formed to own and operate the new ".CLUB" generic top-level domain name (gTLD), announced today that it has officially begun its Trademark Sunrise Period, signaling that brands and other trademark owners can now register and buy their own piece of Internet history with a .CLUB web address. 

Formed in 2012 and backed by 8.2 million from 26 private investors, .CLUB will enable clubs, membership organizations or others sharing a common interest to establish memorable Web addresses and online destinations. Every day, people form communities and groups around every imaginable interest, and .CLUB makes it easier than ever for them to acquire a Web address that is convenient, holds meaning and has marketing value.

StumbleUpon Gets a Face-Lift and Some Boldfaced Names

StumbleUpon is adding more avenues to meander through its online content recommendation service.

The renovations, unveiled late Monday as part of a major overhaul, allow StumbleUpon's 20 million users to be more specific about their interests so they won't have to wait as long for the service's technology to figure it out.

While StumbleUpon is getting a face-lift and adding some boldfaced names, it isn’t changing any of its back-end technology: Users will still “stumble” from site to site, which will be served up to them based on StumbleUpon’s algorithm that factors in interests, likes and your friends’ interests.
StumbleUpon founder and CEO Garrett Camp said the redesign was spurred by feedback the company was getting from users in focus groups

AIM’s ‘running man’ icon comes to a stop

For years, AOL has used a the cartoon figure of a yellow, running man as a brand mark. The symbol graced the millions of floppy disks and then CDs that the company mailed out in its heyday, and in 2009 was entered into the Madison Avenue  Advertising Walk of Fame.

But AOL’s man is running no more. The company long ago dropped the logo for the AOL brand, but it was still present for AOL Instant Messenger, or AIM. Last week AOL released a preview version of AIM that no longer includes the running man.

OfficeLeaks.com Gives Every Workplace an Anonymous Forum

Office Leaks (www.officeleaks.com), a new social media platform created for employees, is changing workplace culture from the inside out by giving every office an anonymous forum. This allows employees to freely express their thoughts without navigating office politics or the threat of repercussions.

Founded in April of 2011, OfficeLeaks.com provides a free platform for employees and employers to engage in anonymous dialogue. The site is designed to foster honest debate and productive conversations that enhance workplace culture. Companies also have a sponsorship option, which offers them uncensored feedback, limited moderation rights, and controlled visibility of their community.

In South Korea, all textbooks will be e-books by 2015

South Korea – already considered the world's most wired nation – will spend $2.3 billion to digitize all reading material in its public schools.

Software bug exposed Dropbox users' accounts to others

The accounts of people using Dropbox, a cloud computing service, were accessible to other users during a nearly four-hour period Sunday.

The breach was caused by a software update that affected the authentication mechanism of the service, the company said. Dropbox allows users to store files -- which can be anything including documents containing personal data and picture files -- on remote servers that are accessible from anywhere in the world.

Starbucks app hits Android with mobile payments

Starbucks has now made available its mobile payment app for the Android mobile operating system. The new age payment method will be accepted at 9,000 Starbucks locations in the US.

Steve Jobs comic book 'biography'

As Apple grows bigger and gets more influence in the world, the public is obviously eager to learn more about the black-clad, charismatic CEO of the most valuable technology company in the world. While the official biography entitled ‘iSteve: The Book of Jobs’ won’t arrive before early next year, comic book publisher Bluewater Productions figured it could jump on the bandwagon with a release of their own. Entitled ‘Steve Jobs: Co-Founder of Apple’, this comic book seeks to provide an insight into the Apple CEOs legendary drive to the top and his continuing fight to stay there.

Google Acquires “Sparkbuy” A Search Engine For consumer electronics

Sparkbuy, the Seattle-based startup led by entrepreneur Dan Shapiro, which has raised $1 million in funding, is a high-powered product search engine and comparison shopping site. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Sparkbuy has ceased operations and the three-person team (CEO Dan Shapiro, Scott Haug, and Isaac Myers) will join Google's Kirkland, Washington office.

Google Preps Mobile Payment System

Web giant Google is all set to unveil a new mobile payment system, wave and pay. Reportedly, this new technology will be dependant on Near-Field Communications(NFC) chips, which manufacturers have now started including in smartphones.

Google’s already available handset Nexus S, will be the first Android smartphone to have this “wave and pay” transaction system.

Google’s World’s Fair Logo For 160th Anniversary

Today on the Google home page is a special logo for the 160th anniversary of the World’s Fair. The World’s Fair was the idea of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s husband and took place in The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, United Kingdom in 1851.

Yahoo sells Delicious to founders of YouTube

Hurley and Chen, who founded YouTube in 2005 before selling it to Google 18 months later for $1.76bn (£883m), will take over operations of Delicious in July 2011, that will become part of their new internet company AVOS.

 

Trivia:-

Delicious, which was founded in 2003 by Joshua Schachter, was acquired by Yahoo in 2005 for a sum reported to be in the region of $10m to $15m.

Internet Explorer 10 will not work on Windows Vista

Microsoft is making it clear that from now to go leaving his past behind, for what has just announced that the next version of its browser, Internet Explorer 10, will work only in Windows versions from Windows 7, leaving already Side view.

This strategy is similar to that followed with IE9, which is compatible only from Vista, not XP, but leave Vista out of the game as soon means that will have been compatible with new versions of the browser only for half year it was XP.

Google's home page 'doodle box' features its first video

This image shows a Google frame grab taken on April 15, 2011 in Washington,DC. Google paid tribute to Charlie Chaplin on Friday by transforming the celebrated logo on its homepage into a silent movie. When clicked, the logo, known as the 'Google doodle,' plays a silent film featuring members of the doodle team acting out Chaplin-esque sketches. Google said the doodle honoring Chaplin, who was born on April 16, 1889, is its first live-action video and was created by the Google doodle team with help from the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum.

Google tries to prevent email embarrassment

After a bad day, you write a long, rambling complaint in email form to a friend -- then almost send the missive to another contact with a name similar to your buddy's.

On Wednesday, two popular features from Gmail Labs started rolling out to all users to help curb those missteps. Dubbed "Don't forget Bob" and "Got the wrong Bob?", the features aim to "prevent you from making two common mistakes: forgetting to include someone on an email, and sending a message to the wrong person with a similar name to the person you meant to email -- like emailing Bob (your boss) instead of Bob (your friend)," according to the official Gmail blog.

Zuckerberg Faces New Suit Related To Facebook Ownership

A New York man who claims he struck a deal with Mark Zuckerberg in 2003 that entitles him to half of Facebook Inc. has included in a new court filing emails he said he exchanged with the Facebook founder.

In his federal court complaint, Paul Ceglia of Wellsville said the emails show, in part, how Zuckerberg tried to get him to abandon his interest in Facebook by souring their business relationship in 2004, while at the same time downplaying the popularity of the site following its launch at Harvard University, where Zuckerberg was a student.

Zuckerberg is accused in the complaint of breaching his contract with Ceglia by incorporating the website first known as thefacebook.com without telling him.

Ceglia seeks a 50 percent share of the company, which has more than 500 million users worldwide. Forbes magazine last month estimated Zuckerberg's net worth at $13.5 billion.

E-mails quoted

The amended lawsuit referenced a Nov. 22, 2003, e-mail purportedly from Zuckerberg:

"I have recently met with a couple of upperclassmen here at Harvard that are planning to launch a site very similar to ours. If we don't make a move soon, I think we will lose the advantage we would have if we release before them. I've stalled them for the time being."

The suit claims another e-mail, purportedly from Zuckerberg, was dated two days before the original "thefacebook.com" site launched on Feb. 4, 2004 - more than a month later than specified in the contract:

"According to our contract I owe you over 30 percent more of the business in late penalties which would give you over 80 percent of the company. First I want to say that I think that is completely unfair because I did so much extra work for you on your site that caused those delays in the first place and second I don't even think it is legal to charge such a huge penalty. Mostly though I just won't even bother putting the site live if you are going to insist on such a large percentage. I'd like to suggest that you drop the penalty completely and that we officially return to 50/50 ownership."

After that, the suit claims Zuckerberg intentionally tried "to sour their business relationship in order to convince Ceglia to abandon it."

Ceglia claims that in an April 6, 2004, e-mail, Zuckerberg offered to pay back the $2,000, that he was too busy to work on the site and that "no one wants to pay for it, so I am thinking of just taking the server down. ... At this point I won't even really be able to work on the facebook until Summer."

Ceglia said he responded angrily.

"You've got some nerve talking about me owing you with the CRIMINAL stunts you've pulled (sic) Reasonable people go to court to resolve their differences they don't go stealing things dude, you stole code, not once, not twice but THREE TIMES! Do you have any idea the damage you've done??? Grow up, take a f- ethics class, choke yourself with that silver spoon of yours."