The IBM tools, dubbed Symphony, are available for download free of charge online and will provide access to documents, spreadsheets and presentations on machines supported by Windows and Linux desktops, according to IBM. Customers who purchase the latest version of IBM’s Lotus Notes will also receive Symphony.

Symphony will also feature optional, fee-based support for businesses, Ed Brill, a business unit executive for worldwide sales at IBM/Lotus, said at a Tuesday launch event in Manhattan.

Symphony is based on the open document format (ODF), which allows for the open standards favored by IBM but generally shunned by Microsoft. IBM last week joined OpenOffice.org, an open source project founded by Sun Microsystems in 2000, to which IBM will be making code contributions.

Source: PCMag.com

Since IBM is joining forces with OpenOffice.org my questions are:

Will IBM’s joining of the party help OpenOffice actually penetrate the Office app market? (to a serious extent)

Any predictions as to how long this venture will last?

Finally will Microsoft’s earnings be hurt because of OpenOffice’s success?

OpenOffice has definitely “stayed the course” I was using OpenOffice and Abiword for a few years before I went back the evil side.

“NORTHERN Rock has turned to the Bank of England as the “lender of last resort” after difficulties raising cash from the wholesale markets.

The move is expected to spark fresh concerns that the impact of financial market turmoil is having a deeper impact on some banks than previously thought.

A £4.4 billion relief fund offered by the BoE yesterday was drained by banking giants in less than an hour as they struggled to secure finance.

The BoE pumped the extra cash into the system in a bid to ease soaring overnight inter-bank borrowing interest rates.

But the move did not help Northern Rock’s share price, which fell 5 per cent yesterday.”

Source: Scotsman

The same thing is happening over in the States as well with Countrywide (America’s largest Mortgage lender) getting bailed out by numerous players and its still apparently not enough. However, the mortgage/credit crunch crisis is moderating a bit lately. The question is how bad will this get in the UK and the rest of Europe? Will France and Germany have equal trouble?

o

Mike predicts, “Al Gore will run as an independant or third-party candidate for President of
the United States in the upcoming 2008 elections.

Potentially Green Party, which would have its own significance due to Ralph
Nader’s role in 2000.

Running mate could be a conserative like Mike Bloomberg.

Result is a healing between red and blue states among moderates and forming
a new moderate power base.”

Daniel writes, “I reckon that when David Tennent leaves Doctor Who, the regeneration will
happen off-camera, due to some cock-up during filming.”

Nav just wrote me saying he/she (gotta help me out here) thinks Thundercats will be made into a movie by 2010. I have one question though. Who will play Cheatara? Meow.

A Tsunami has hit the Solomon Islands. I recently posted about the Tuvalu Islands.

HONIARA, Solomon Islands - A powerful undersea earthquake Monday in the South Pacific sent a tsunami several yards high crashing into the Solomon Islands, devastating at least one village and killing at least four people, officials and residents said.

Police and residents said a wave about 10 feet high struck the western town of Gizo, inundating buildings and causing widespread destruction within five minutes of the bone-rattling earthquake.

“There wasn’t any warning — the warning was the earth tremors,” Alex Lokopio, the premier of the Solomon’s Western Province, told New Zealand’s National Radio. “It shook us very, very strongly and we were frightened, and all of a sudden the sea was rising up.”

“I saw the wave … all of a sudden the water was just rising up and moved toward the island and hit all the houses on the coastal area, and all of their property was washed away to the open sea,” he said.

Lokopio said up to 4,000 people had fled to a hill behind the town and that they may need emergency shelter and other supplies.

Probably an April Fool’s joke, but when I went to Google insider, Matt Cutts, blog tonight I found this:

It looks good though. Almost got me.

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/

I received an email from someone tonight making a sports prediction for the hockey game between the Toronto Maple Leafs vs Pittsburgh Penguins.

The email came in at 7:03 PM est the game started at 7:00 PM est.

Here is the prediction:
——
I CALLED IT!!
Karn Rai is one of the greatest leafs source i’ve ever met!! He is calling that the leafs will win tonights game against the pens 5-1
and they will advance to the playoffs and will be in the eastern conference finals with the New Jersey devils. Rai is reporting Sundin is not scoring as much because he is trying to save his legs for the playoffs in which he will play harder then he ever did before, Sundin is in the best shape since the 95 season and in this playoffs you will see him skate like his prime. Thanks for reading
——-

Well check out the score before the third period starts. Leafs up 4-2 in the 2nd. So far so good.