Fake Steve Jobs Busted

The quest to unmask the anonymous author of The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs, a satirical blog purportedly written by Apple's charismatic chief executive, is over.

The snarky, no-holds-barred diary, which lampooned everyone from tech industry figureheads to tech journalists to venture capitalists, has enthralled and amused the blogosphere for the past 14 months.

In Business 2.0 magazine's recent list of "The 50 Who Matter Now", Fake Steve Jobs ranked 37th, ahead of Evan Williams, founder of Twitter, and just a few spots behind Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook.

But the mystery surrounding who penned the pseudonymous diary - which has attracted readers from the highest echelons of tech, including Steve Jobs himself and Bill Gates - captivated industry watchers more than the content itself.

Today, the mystery scribe was revealed by The New York Times reporter Brad Stone as Forbes Magazine senior editor Daniel Lyons, bringing to an end a six-month search that in recent months bordered on the illegal.

"Well, tip of the hat to you, Brad Stone ... Now you've ruined the mystery of Fake Steve, robbing thousands of people around the world of their sense of childlike wonder," Lyons wrote in his usual acerbic style after he had been outed.

"Hope you feel good about yourself, you mangina."

Previously, Fake Steve lashed out at the "creepy" attempts to unmask him, which reportedly involved shady computer hacking techniques and other privacy invasions.

But today's revelations did little to break Lyons out of his egotistical Fake Steve Jobs character; in fact, the blog will now be rolled into Forbes.com and October will see the publication of Lyons's latest satirical novel, Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs, a Parody.

Oroginal and complete story is published at: Sunday Morning Herald

All About Google

Much more than you know about Google knows Google about you. The makers of Google want to conquer the world, the world of information. They have more power and influence than any other enterprise. Google has six times more stock-value than General Motors. Google wants to become the one and only search engine - so that Google is the Internet.

Who doesn't appear at Google doesn't exist. Some people are Google addicted. They seek information about people. If they are interested in a girl and they don't want to look like a stalker, they go to the Internet and have a look, what Google knows about her.

Google uses so-called "robots". These are programs, which search the entire the Internet and analyze all web pages automatically. They go onto every side and have a look at every single word and every single link. They save the contents on her hard disks and every word is indexed. They do this permanently and for all web pages of the world. Every side is analyzed and evaluated and the number of the references to every document investigated. From this the relevance is figured out. One then finds the most popular sides which are called again and again. This is the heart of the system: the page-rank algorithm (indicates the rank of a web page). Behind these Google algorithms millions of mathematical equations which convey the feeling to one to obtain the best hits and the search results indeed are very good.

The founders of Google, Sergey Brin and Larry Page

The founders of Google, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, are approximately beginning thirty (and each of them already has a fortune of approximately 7 to 12 million dollars). Both are sons of college professors. The family of Sergey Brin emigrated to the USA in 1976. Sergey was six years old at that time. His parents left Russia because of the anti-Semitism ruling there. Sergeys father is a mathematics professor at university of Maryland. His mother works as a rocket designer for NASA. The father of Larry Page was the first one who made his doctor to computer science at university of Michigan (in Chicago).

How Google earns his money

Although no advertising is on the initial page of Google, Google earns its money by advertising in the end.

Google has said himself: "If so many people look for certain information, then it must be worthwhile, to approach to people, who are advertiseing, and to them say: 'I have so and so many people who are looking for the product which You sell by chance. Do You want to buy these enquiries from us?'Google sells advertising to advertising-driving in form of a sponsered link which is displayed besides or over the search results. The Google advertisement program "AdWords" makes it possible for enterprises or single persons to offer for or to buy certain words or terms. If somebody enters a search word, then the advertising of the one who has most paid for this is displayed at the highest position.

But this isn’t the whole picture. If the advertising often isn't selected enough, then it doesn't appear. So the advertising of this one which has most paid and which is selected most is published in first place. So the popularity of the advertising is taken into account. Why does Google do this? Because the customer must pay for every click on his advertising, the advertising which most is selected is the most interesting for Goggle.

The most frequent requested words are "pornography", "pills" and "poker"

Google obtains at least 95% of its profits with the "AdWords program". At the moment, this is probably the worldwide most successful advertising medium.

Googles gigantic computer capacity

The enormous size of its computer network belongs to the greatest secrets of Google. No matter how many search requests come in at Google, they are always processed very fast. Google has created a worldwide unique infrastructure and built the biggest computer of the world which consists of innumerable microprocessors. They have approximately 450 000 computers in 10 to 20 computer centers allover in the world.

Read this great story complete at: Koinae.de

American Home Mortgage tumbles on liquidity issues

NEW YORK (Reuters) - American Home Mortgage Investment Corp sank on Monday after the home loan provider announced "major" writedowns, delayed a dividend and said lenders were demanding it put up more cash.

Shares of American Home were down 39 percent, falling in pre-market trading to $6.39 from Friday's close of $10.47. On Friday the shares hit their lowest level since April 2003. Trading on Monday was halted for news pending.

The announcement late Friday evening reflects how liquidity and credit issues affecting subprime lenders are extending to companies that make home loans to borrowers considered to be good credit risks.

American Home, based in Melville, New York, specializes in prime and near-prime loans. It has, however, made many loans that allow borrowers to produce little documentation. Such loans are often considered riskier. The company recently commanded a roughly 2.5 percent share of the U.S. mortgage market.

"Bankruptcy is not out of the question," said Matt Howlett, an analyst at Fox-Pitt Kelton Inc. in New York. "It needs to find a partner with alternative funding and hope the market turns around. It's going to be tough."

He added, "It's clear now we're in a liquidity crisis. Any loans that aren't pure prime are falling in value."

American Home did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Read full news with figures at: Reuters.

Pocket money has risen 600% in 20 years, says study

The children of today receive an average of £8.01 pocket money per week, according to Halifax, compared to just £1.13 in 1987 – an increase of more than six hundred per cent.

To mark the 20th anniversary of Halifax conducting research into children’s pocket money, they have released a report which reveals the amount given has risen more than six times faster than inflation, which has increased by just 99% over the same period.


Pocket money levels have experienced some drops, with last year’s average of £8.20 being higher than this year’s and lower than the previous year’s average, as well as drops in 1994, 1996, and 1997.

South East children have come off the best, with an average of £10.43 per week, compared to those in the North East who get just £5.70 per week, almost 29% below the UK average.

Most of the children surveyed did not have anything particular in mind that they were saving for. Mike Regnier, head of savings at Halifax, commented on children’s saving and spending habits and how they have changed over the past two decades:

“Children's spending power has increased dramatically since 1987, with the average pocket money rising from £1.13 per week to £8.01, an increase of over 600%. This is well in excess of inflation, which has risen 99% over the same period.

“Part of the increase may be explained by changing tastes and technology. Whereas 20 years ago children spent their money on toys or saved towards things like holidays, nowadays children are likely to buy DVDs and mobile phones, which simply didn't exist in 1987.”

Original Story from: Fairinvestment.co.uk