Facebook's Saverin: 'No hard feelings' against Zuckerberg

Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin.(Credit: Facebook)

Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin says he bears no resentment against Mark Zuckerberg for being forced out of the company and even goes so far to call the social network's CEO a "visionary."

"I have only good things to say about Mark, there are no hard feelings between us," Saverin said in an extensive interview with Brazilian publication Veja, according a Forbes translation. "He was a visionary, he always knew that the only way to get Facebook to grow was to maintain its central idea, that of people truly presenting themselves as they are, without nicknames or pseudonyms."

Saverin expressed similar sentiments earlier this month on his personal Facebook page as the social network put the final touches on its much-anticipated IPO (although he managed to misspell his former partner's name): "... I especially wanted to congratulate Mark Zukerberg on keeping tremendous stead-fast focus, however hard that was, on making the world a more open and connected place."

Saverin, who helped Zuckerberg launch Facebook at Harvard in 2004, was edged out by Zuckerberg the next year when the social network began to take off. Saverin should have beenfocusing on reforming the company as a Delaware corporation so it could accept investments. But wasn't, and that was the key factor in his ouster.

Despite being forced out and his shares in the company being famously diluted, his holdings in the company is estimated to be worth more than $3 billion.

Saverin, who recently made headlines again by renouncing his U.S. citizenship, took issue with "The Social Network," the 2010 movie about Facebook's early days and Zuckerberg's rocky relationship with Saverin and the Winklevoss twins.

"That's Hollywood fantasy, not a documentary. Facebook wasn't built out of a Harvard dorm window. And I would never throw a laptop at someone, like it appears in the movie. Not even at Mark."

(Sources - http://news.cnet.com)

CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGE IN SARAWAK 1963-1988: 25 YEARS AS A STATE WITHIN THE FEDERATION OF MALAYSIA

On 21 June 1962 the Cobbold Commission had issued its report supporting Sarawak and British North Bomeo becoming member states in a proposed Federation of Malaysia. Three major differences between the Malayan and Sarawak constitutions were that the former decreed Malay as the national language, Islam as the official religion, and afforded Malays special rights.

However, the ethnic mix in Sarawak was different from that in the Federation of Malaya, where Muslim Malays made up about half the population." Subsequently, an Inter-governmental Committee (IGC) agreed on the terms and constitutional safeguards that would apply to Sarawak, issuing its findings on 27 February 1963.With the formation of Malaysia on 16 September 1963, an amended Malayan Constitution, incorporating the constitutional safeguards agreed to by the IGC, applied to Sarawak. In the absence of a cession clause and the "good-government" Cardinal Principles of the Brooke Constitution, Sarawak relied on those safeguards to protect its interests." Although complex in detail, in simplified form these were:

1) Citizenship: automatic Malaysian citizenship for those bom and normally resident in Sarawak. For those of good character who were normally resident in Sarawak and who had resided in any part of Malaysia for seven of the preceding ten years, but had not been born in Sarawak or any part of Malaysia, citizenship upon application.

2) Education: although on the Federal List, to remain under the control of the Sarawak State Government. Knowledge of the Malay language not required as a qualification for any educational opportunity and no application of any Federal requirements for religious education. Use of English as the education media could be continued for a maximum of 10 years.

3) Emergency powers: during a national emergency, the Federal Parliament given unqualified power when a Proclamation of Emergency is declared, not withstanding anything in the Constitution.Immigration: this remained on the Federal List, but admission to Sarawak not to be granted to persons from or outside Malaysia without the approval of the Sarawak State Government, giving Sarawak effective rights over immigration into the State.

4) Federal Constitution: any amendments to the Constitution to require a two-thirds majority in the Federal House of  Representatives.

Federal House of Representatives: Sarawak to elect 24 members of the total membership of 159.

Federal Senate: Sarawak to be represented by at least two members.

Legal Department: Sarawak to have a legal department with the Attomey-General a State Officer appointed in consultation with the Federal Govemment.

5) Religion: religious freedom is guaranteed in the Malayan Federal Constitution. A two-thirds majority of the total State Legislature is required to pass any law that may control or restrict the propagation of any religious doctrine or belief among persons professing the Muslim religion. Federal Law should not provide for special financial aid for establishing Muslim institutions or Muslim religious education in Sarawak without the concurrence of the State Govemment.

6) Sarawak Constitution: Sarawak is allowed to continue calling its Executive Council the Supreme Council and its Legislative Assembly the Council Negri. The Yang diPertuan Agong (King) appoints Sarawak's head of State after consulting with the Chief Minister

7) Sarawak's Legislative List: Muslim Law, Native Law and Customs, land, agriculture and forestry, local government and services, electricity, state works and water, state machinery, state holidays, turtles and riverine fishing.

8) Concurrent Federal and Sarawak Legislative List: social welfare, scholarships, national parks, animal husbandry, town and country planning, public health and sanitation, and drainage and irrigation.

The Council Negri passed the first amendments to the Sarawak Constitution by the required two-thirds majority on 25 June 1964. One of these enabled another person to perform the functions of the Speaker should the latter be unable to do so. The other removed the impractical stipulation that indirect elections be held within 60 days in all situations. Opposition Council Negri member Chan Siaw Hee claimed the amendment showed that the State Govemment had no intention of holding a direct election before 16 September 1968, the latest date given in the IGC Report. Initially, direct elections were to be held in 1967, but setting up new electoral boundaries each with approximately the same number of voters delayed the projected date of elections until May 1969. To prolong the life of the Council Negri due to be dissolved in September 1968, the Federal constitution had to be amended.

For this, the [Federal] Constitution (Amendment) Act, 1968 was enacted. During the debate on this act in the Dewan Rakyat (House of Representatives), on 21 August Stephen Yong Kuet Tze, Secretary-General, Sarawak United People's Party (SUPP), suggested that the Federal Govemment had deliberately delayed delimiting constituencies and registering voters because it feared defeat at the polls. Criticizing the wording of the amendment, Yong took the opportunity to say that "if the arbitrary arrest and detention of [his SUPP colleague] SUPP member Chan Siaw Hee ... was in accordance with the law, then let us see [whether] the proposed amendment ... is also in accordance with the law. Polling finally began on 10 May 1969. Five days later polling was suspended, following a proclamation of emergency over racial riots that broke out in Kuala Lumpur on 13 May 1969.

The aim of the next amendment to the Federal Constitution was to prevent any recurrence of the 1969 racial riots in mainland Malaysia. By the end of June 1969, hundreds of people had been killed and over 350 injured in the riots." The riots were generally accepted as a major setback in the polls for the ruling Alliance coalition headed by the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), with feared loss of, and resentment over, the special privileges for the bumiputera (Malays) in the Constitution.

After the riots broke out, the govemment quickly assumed emergency powers, suspended parliament, and established direct government through the National Operations Council (NOC). The NOC was disbanded on 19 February 1971 and parliamentary rule re-established on the following day. In preparation for retum to parliamentary rule, the [Federal] Constitution (Amendment) Act, 1971, was published on 15 February 1971."

Simply, this act empowered the Dewan Rakyat to pass laws restricting any freedom of speech questioning the special position of the Malays, the sovereignty of the rulers, the national language (Malay), and constitutional provisions on citizenship. This restriction extended to speeches in the Dewan Rakyat and all state legislative assemblies, which included the Council Negri in Sarawak. On 24 February during the debate on the act in the Dewan Rakyat, Haji Amad Arshad (Alliance coalition) said that the choice was between a restricted democracy, meaning the restrictions imposed by the amendment bill, and military or emergency rule. The act was passed on 3 March, with only 17 dissenting votes.

Earlier, in 1966, the Federal Government's power to amend the Constitution of Sarawak following a declaration of a state of emergency was used to resolve a complicated political impasse. On 17 June Governor Tun Abang Haji Openg dismissed Chief Minister Ningkan, who was said to no longer hold the confidence of the majority in the Council Negri. A new Chief Minister, Tawi Sli, with his new Supreme Council members, was then sworn in. The High Court in Kuching subsequently found that the governor had no power to dismiss Ningkan. To provide the govemor with those powers, the Federal Government declared a controversial state of emergency in Sarawak on 14 September."

The Federal Parliament then passed the Emergency (Federal Constitution and Constitution of Sarawak) Act, 1966, which enabled the Dewan Rakyat to change Sarawak's constitution so that Sarawak's governor could convene the Council Negri and dismiss Ningkan. On 24 September the governor once again dismissed Ningkan and once again Tawi Sli and his Supreme Council were swom in. Ningkan's petition against his unconstitutional dismissal progressed slowly though the courts for another two years, finally ending on 1 August 1968 when he was advised that the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council had dismissed his appeal. Commenting on the controversial declaration of a state of emergency. Lord Mac Dermott observed: "their Lordships could not find any reason for saying that the emergency was not grave and did not threaten the security of Sarawak."

An appeal by a man sentenced to death for possessing firearms in 1969 led to an interesting ruling by the Federal Court on the Federal Constitution. On 21 August the Court ruled that the Dewan Rakyat had the power to make constitutional amendments, even if those amendments were inconsistent with existing provisions in the constitution.

Lord President Tun Mohamed Suflfîan said many provisions in the constitution showed that it was intended to be a living document, which, if the need arose, could be amended in any way thought fit. His comments were put to the test in 1983 when the Dewan Rakyat was forced to reverse some constitutional amendments already approved before Royal assent would be given.

The Federal Constitution (Amendment) Act 1983 passed by the Dewan Rakyat in August 1983 contained some controversial amendments that curtailed the powers of the head of state, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong. These amendments were: Article 150 ( I) that transferred the power to proclaim an emergency ffom the Agong to the Prime Minister; Article 66 (5) that made a Federal bill law if the Agong's assent had not been given after 15 days; and 8th Schedule 11(3) that made a state bill law if [in Sarawak's case] the governor's assent had not been given within 15 days.

Royal assent was withheld until 15 December after Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir gave a written undertaking that a new bill would reverse those amendments. A special joint session of the Dewan Negara (Senate) and the Dewan Rakyat (House of Representatives) approved the Constitution (Amendment) Act 1984 that reversed the contentious amendments and the Act received Royal assent on 19 January, All the other amendments in the 1983 Act remained, including another of direct relevance to Sarawak, the abolition of appeals in civil cases to the Privy Council in Britain, That connection was finally severed at the beginning of 1985 when the Federal Court was renamed the Supreme Court and all remaining appeals to the Privy Council were abolished.

Eight years earlier, two special provisions in the Malaysian Constitution reflecting the non-prominence of Islam in Sarawak in 1963 were repealed. These were Articles 16IC and 161D that were introduced on 16 September 1963 and repealed by the Malaysia Act Constitution (Amendment) Act 1976, effective from  27 August 1976.

Shown in full in Appendix II, both Articles had been incorporated in the Constitution when Malaysia was formed as "illustrative of the fact that Islam does not occupy the place in the Borneo States that it does elsewhere in the Federation" and that "In Sarawak the majority of the Chinese and indigenous people are not Muslims.The repeal of Article 161C enabled the legislative provision of special financial aid for establishing and maintaining Muslim institutions or instruction in Muslim religion to Muslims in Sarawak to be passed without the consent of the governor of Sarawak, Further, the stipulation that any such special financial aid by the Federal Government already being given to all States in Malaysia be applied to social welfare in the case of Sarawak was removed. The repeal of Article 161D removed the provision for a two-thirds majority in the Council Negri needed to approve any bill controlling or restricting propagation of any doctrine or belief to Muslims, Removal of these two articles reflected the fact that Islam is the religion of the Federation under Article 3 of the Malaysian Constitution and meant the removal of barriers that could be viewed as restrictive to increased penetration of Islam in Sarawak, Only three days before the Articles were repealed, the Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi (Dr,) Haji Abdul Rahman Ya'kub had presided at the conversion of 44 people to Islam and told his audience that it was the duty of all Muslims, particularly the intellectuals, to play a leading role in the propagation of Islam," The Constitution (Amendment) Act 1985 passed on 23 October 1985 increased the number of seats for Sarawak in the 180-seat Dewan Rakyat by three to a total of  27 ,"

This was the first increase in seats for Sarawak since Malaysia was formed, reflecting the increase to 597,237 voters in Sarawak by January 1985. In 1988, Articles 83-6 of the Constitution, all relating to land, were amended. According to Dr. Mahathir, this was to help carry out the Federal Government's privatization, economic, and development plans. The 1988 amendments enabled state governments to hand over land to the Federal Govemment, enabled Federal Govemment to ask state govemments to tum over rights to reserve land to the Federal Govemment, and enabled the Federal Govemment or relevant public authority to retain alienated land that was no longer needed. State interests were served by mutual agreement on compensation and land usage. Only a review after another decade or more would show the outcome of these amendments on Federal land holdings in Sarawak.

Both Sarawak and Sabah had a well-developed sense of identity and individuality before both agreed to become part of the Federation of Malaysia. Their different ethnic, economic, and religious mix, and their past histories compared with the states of Malaya, coupled with their distance from the federal capital, Kuala Lumpur, were all sources of friction when those states became part of the Federation. The special safeguards and conditions given to Sarawak and Sabah, such as control over education, immigration, and land, enabled both states to retain much of their own identity, without being completely overwhelmed by the mores of mainland Malaysia.

However, those safeguards came under pressure from time to time and were indeed completely overridden during the 1966 Ningkan crisis. Easier relationships were established post-1966 after state governments in the image of the ethnic Malay Muslim-dominated Federal Government had been installed. This muted resistance to the special status of Malays and Indigenes embodied in the Constitution helped to overcome serious opposition to changing the official language from English to Malay. It also enabled the Federal parliament to provide special financial aid for Muslim institutions and instruction in Islam to Muslims in Sarawak without the consent of the governor of Sarawak, removing the need for a two-thirds majority in the

Council Negri to approve any bill controlling or restricting propagation of any doctrine or belief to Muslims. By 1988 the basic tenets of the Federation of Malaysia, Malayas the national language and the pre-eminence of Islam, had been firmly entrenched in Sarawak by amendments to the 1963 constitution. Federal power to alter the constitution unilaterally had been established and Sarawak had been completely integrated as a state

within the Federation of Malaysia.

(Reference - Borneo Research Buletin Vol.38 pge -159 by Vernon L. Porritt, Honorary Research Associate
Murdoch university,Western Australia)

Google to Warn 500,000+ of DNS Changer Infections

Google plans today to begin warning Internet users if their computers show telltale signs of being infected with the DNSChanger Trojan. The company estimates that more than 500,000 systems remain infected with the malware, despite a looming deadline that threatens to quarantine the sick computers from the rest of the Internet.

Security experts won court approval last year to seize control of the infrastucture that powered the search-hijacking Trojan in a bid to help users clean up infections. But a court-imposed deadline to power down that infrastructure will sever Internet access for PCs that are not rid of the malware before July 9, 2012.

The company said the warning (pictured above) will appear only when a user with an infected system visits a Google search results property (google.com, google.co.uk, etc.), and will include the message, “Your computer appears to be infected.” Google security engineerDamian Menscher said the company expects to notify approximately a half-million users in the first week of the notices.

“In general we want to notify users [of malware infections] anytime we are capable of doing so, but the fact that we don’t do this more often is really just because it’s hard to come across cases where we can do it this accurately,” Menscher said.  “In many cases we only have maybe a 90 percent confidence that someone is infected, and the false positive rate of 10 percent is simply too high to be feasible. But in this case we can be essentially certain that someone is infected.”

The warning that infected users will see is nearly identical to a similar alert Google used last year in a campaign to rid the Web of another search hijacker that was trying to frighten users into purchasing bogus antivirus software — also known as “scareware.”

DNSChanger may no longer be hijacking search results, but the malware still carries secondary threats and risks. It was frequently bundled with other nasty software, and consequently machines sickened with DNSChanger also probably host other malware infestations. Additionally, DNSChanger disables antivirus protection on host machines, further exposing them to online threats.

To address these concerns, Google is steering users of infected systems to a set of instructions that include steps to eradicate DNSChanger and to third-party cleanup tools that may help scrub infections from other malware.

Menscher said Google will be displaying the warning in dozens of different languages.

“We think part of it is that all of the public press on this so far has been in English or a handful of other languages,” Menscher said. “It turns out that only half of these infected users speak English as their primary language.”

DNSChanger modifies settings on a host PC that tell the computer how to find Web sites on the Internet, hijacking victims’ search results and preventing them from visiting security sites that might help detect and scrub the infections. The Internet servers that were used to control infected PCs were located in the United States, and in coordination with the arrest last November of the Estonian men thought to be responsible for operating the Trojan network, a New York district court ordered a private U.S. company to assume control over those servers.

The government argued that the arrangement would give ISPs and companies time to identify and scrub infected PCs, systems that would otherwise be disconnected from the Internet if the control servers were shut down. The court agreed, and ordered that the surrogate control servers remain in operation until March 8. When the March 8 deadline approached and cleanup was discovered to be taking longer than expected, the court agreed to extend the cutoff date to July 9, 2012.

(Sources - http://krebsonsecurity.com)

Yusuf Al-Qaradhawi mengutuk kezaliman rejim Basyar dalam khutbah

Presiden Persatuan Ulama Sedunia, Syeikh Dr Yusuf Al-Qaradhawi mengutuk kezaliman rejim Basyar dalam khutbah beliau pada hari Jumaat semalam (25 Mei 2012) di Masjid Umar Al-Khattab di Doha.

Antara ucapan beliau:

Sesungguhnya aku melihat kehancuran dan kematian Basyar Al-Asad beserta tenteranya dengan mata kepalaku.

Justeru itu, beredarlah wahai Basyar Asad sebelum rakyat mengambil tindakan tegas kepada kamu. Nanti kamu akan mengalami kesusahan.

Seluruh bangsa Arab, umat Islam dan seluruh manusia memarahi dan membenci kamu.

Dr. Qaradhawi berkata lagi : “Kamu adalah musuh kepada rakyat! Kalian semua adalah penghisap darah!”

Dengan kereta kebal, jet pejuang dan senjata berat, kalian membunuh kanak-kanak, meruntuh dan merobohkan rumah dan menghina maruah rakyat.

Namun ingatlah! Kezaliman tidak akan kekal lama. Allah sangat murka kepada orang yang zalim lagi angkuh.

Basyar! Anda sudah melampaui batas. Anda penumpah darah, pembunuh dan penjenayah.

Kemudian Syeikh Dr. Yusuf al-Qaradhawi berdoa kepada Allah s.w.t :

Ya Allah, berilah bantuan kepada mujahidin di Syria dan sembuhkanlah orang cedera di kalangan mereka.

Ya Allah, bertindaklah ke atas Basyar dan tenteranya, pisahkan kesatuan mereka dan pecahkanlah himpunan mereka. Letakkan mereka dalam zon bencana dan turunkan azab siksa ke atas mereka!

Ameen..

Pendapat Saya - Debat Sinar Pemansuhan PTPTN dan Halatuju Pendidikan Negara

Malam tadi saya mengikuti debat diantara YB Khairy melawan Sdr Rafizi melalui saluran Astro501. Perdebatan ini merangsangkan minda saya berfikir dan terus berfikir tentang fakta yang dikemukakan oleh kedua-dua belah pihak. Saya berpendapat bukan kemenangan yang dicari dalam perdebatan ini sebagaimana umumnya dalam sesuatu pertandingan, tetapi ia adalah platform untuk kita menggunakan akal, pemikiran dan analisa sendiri menilai mana satu hujah itu berdasarkan fakta atau auta. Saya cuba untuk memisahkan diri saya dari belenggu kepartaian dan pengaruh fahaman politik dalam membuat analisa terhadap hujah yang dikemukakan oleh kedua-dua belah pihak. Kesimpulannya, pada pendapat saya fakta yang dikemukakan oleh Sdr. Rafizi lebih rasional berbanding fakta yang dikemukakan sdr Khairy. 

(bersambung)

Muhyiddin hadiri majlis perkahwinan anak Nasharudin

Muhyiddin Yassin bersalaman dengan Mohd. Nazri Husain (kiri) sambil diperhatikan oleh Nusaibah Nasharudin (dua dari kiri) dan Nasharudin Mat Isa (kanan) ketika hadir pada majlis perkahwinan pasangan pengantin tersebut di Bandar Bukit Mahkota, Bangi, semalam.

BANGI 20 Mei - Timbalan Perdana Menteri, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin hari ini hadir memeriahkan majlis perkahwinan anak sulung bekas Timbalan Presiden Pas, Nasharudin Mat Isa di Bandar Bukit Mahkota di sini.

Muhyiddin, yang tiba pukul 3.40 petang, meluangkan masa kira-kira 30 minit sambil menikmati jamuan bersama pasangan pengantin, Nusaibah Nasharudin, 25, dan Mohd. Nazri Husain, 27, serta bergambar kenang-kenangan bersama mereka.

Turut kelihatan pada majlis itu ialah Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz, Yang Dipertua Dewan Negara, Tan Sri Abu Zahar Ujang, Timbalan Speaker Dewan Rakyat, Datuk Ronald Kiandee, Ketua Pemuda UMNO, Khairy Jamaluddin dan bekas Pesuruhjaya Pas Selangor dan Presiden Jalur Tiga (Jati), Datuk Dr. Hasan Ali.

Ketika ditemui pemberita, Nasharudin yang juga Anggota Parlimen Bachok berkata, beliau berterima kasih kepada Timbalan Perdana Menteri dan tetamu kehormat lain yang sudi hadir menyerikan majlis itu walaupun berlainan ideologi politik.

Nusaibah, anak tunggal perempuan dalam kalangan lima beradik, sedang melanjutkan pelajaran dalam bidang Ijazah Pendidikan di Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia manakala suaminya seorang arkitek. — BERNAMA.

Mark Zuckerberg's Wife Priscilla Chan: A New Brand of Billionaire Bride

 Shortly after Mark Zuckerberg tied the knot with longtime girlfriend Priscilla Chan on Saturday, the Twitter jesters came out of the woodwork.

“Mark Zuckerberg has changed his status to ‘Married’,” read one iteration of a popular joke. “Priscilla Chan has changed hers to ‘Jackpot’.”

It seems, though, that the wedding’s timing had little to do with the $16 billion blockbuster Facebook IPO the day before. It wasn’t the social network’s flotation Zuckerberg was waiting for — it was Chan’s medical school graduation, at least according to a guest authorized to speak for the couple. This spokesperson told the AP:

“The wedding had been planned for months and the couple was waiting for Chan to finish medical school, but the date of the IPO was a ‘moving target’ not known when the wedding was set.”

“The wedding had been planned for months and the couple was waiting for Chan to finish medical school, but the date of the IPO was a ‘moving target’ not known when the wedding was set.”

The Monday before the public offering, the same day Zuckerberg turned 28, he was in the audience at Chan’s UCSF School of Medicine commencement ceremony. He ‘checked in’ via Facebook, natch, at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, writing: “I’m so proud of you, Dr. Chan :).”

Dr. Chan was never going to be a stereotypical billionaire’s wife of the many-spouses-of-Donald-Trump variety. The 27-year-old bilingual Mandarin speaker graduated from Harvard in 2007, the year after Zuckerberg would have earned his degree if he hadn’t left to focus on Facebook — or thefacebook, as it was then known.

The two dated on and off during their undergrad years, first meeting in 2004. After Harvard, Massachusetts native Chan spent two years teaching science at the prestigious Harker School in San Jose before beginning her medical studies at UCSF, one of the top programs in the country. She only moved into Zuckerberg’s $7 million Palo Alto pad in 2010.

Chan wasn’t always so certain that she wanted a career in medicine, though — at least according to a 2005 Harvard Crimson article currently making the rounds on social media. Published when Zuckerberg announced he’d be leaving Harvard, the piece includes a brief mention of Chan:

“Hey Priscilla, do you want a job at the facebook?” Zuckerberg asked a passing friend.

“I’d love a job at facebook,” Priscilla Chan ’07 responded, offering him a Twizzler.

“Hey Priscilla, do you want a job at the facebook?” Zuckerberg asked a passing friend.

“I’d love a job at facebook,” Priscilla Chan ’07 responded, offering him a Twizzler.

A job at the social network never materialized, but Chan still wields an influence over Zuckerberg’s work. It was her passion for pediatrics and concern for sick children she met during her training that prompted her now-husband to add an organ donation registry tool to Facebook. As Zuckerberg told ABC’s Robin Roberts earlier this month: “[Priscilla will] see them getting sicker and then all of a sudden an organ becomes available and she comes home and her face is all lit up because someone’s life is going to better because of this.”

Contrary to the golddigger jokes pervading Twitter, Chan won’t be retiring to start a jewelry line or other such vanity project now that she and Zuckerberg are official. She aims to begin her work as a pediatrician later this year.

Chan joins a group of Silicon Valley billionaire spouses who are achievers in their own right rather than kept women or arm candy.

Laurene Powell Jobs earned an economics degree at Wharton then put in time at Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch before completing a Stanford MBA the same year she married the late Apple mogul Steve. She’s the co-founder of natural foods company Terraverra and education nonprofit College Track, and a mother of three. She also serves on the boards of the New America Foundation and Teach for America.

Anne Wojcicki, wife of Google billionaire Sergey Brin, has a degree in biology from Yale and co-founded biotech firm 23andMe, a genetic testing company that gives customers an analysis of their DNA for a relatively affordable price.

Then there’s Melinda Gates, the ultimate power partner. The former Melinda Ann French earned undergrad and MBA degrees from Duke before joining a young computer company called Microsoft in the late ’80s. She helped develop well-known products like the Encarta encyclopedia and the Expedia booking tool — and met the man she’d eventually marry, Bill Gates. Since, she’s taken the lead with the couple’s Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and earned a reputation as one of the world’s foremost philanthropists.

(Sources - http://www.forbes.com)

Google Wins Final Needed Approval for Motorola Mobility Purchase

Google Inc. (GOOG) (GOOG) won approval from Chinese regulators for its $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. (MMI) (MMI), clearing a final hurdle for a deal that boosts its patents portfolio and steps up competition with Apple Inc.

“We are pleased the deal has received approval in all jurisdictions,” Motorola Mobility said in an e-mailed statement yesterday, confirming that the transaction has been approved in China. “We expect to close imminently.”

The deal helps Larry Page, the Google co-founder who took over as chief executive officer last year, push the Web company to better compete with Apple’s iPhone and gain more clout for its Android software as it expands in the hardware business. It also gives Google, the worlds’ biggest maker of smartphone software, a trove of 17,000 patents to protect Android devices in legal disputes with competitors.

The acquisition, announced last year, had already received approvals in Europe, the U.S. and other jurisdictions worldwide. Libertyville, Illinois-based Motorola Mobility had said in a regulatory filing (MMI) in February that only Chinese clearance was still required.

“Our stance since we agreed to acquire Motorola has not changed and we look forward to closing the deal,” Mountain View, California-based Google said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. The company also confirmed it had received word from Chinese authorities of the purchase being approved.

Handset Makers

With the acquisition -- the largest wireless-equipment deal in at least a decade, according to data compiled by Bloomberg -- Google becomes a competitor to the other handset makers that make Android devices. In addition to Motorola Mobility phones, the software runs handsets made by companies such as Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) and HTC Corp. (2498)

As part of the approval, Google needs to ensure that Android software versions are free and open over the next five years, China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on its website.

Google will report to an independent monitor in China on its efforts to comply with terms of the deal approval, according to the website.

Google fell 3.6 percent to $600.40 yesterday in New York trading. The shares have fallen 7 percent this year. Motorola Mobility closed unchanged at $39.20. The stock is up 1 percent year to date.

To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Womack in San Francisco at bwomack1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net

(Sources - http://www.businessweek.com)

Harvard And MIT Join Forces To Become Juggernaut Of Free Online Education

Online education is witnessing its own Avengers-like uniting of superhero forces as Harvard University and MIT recently announced “edX”, a combined $60 million joint initiative to offer their college-level courses online for free. Launching in the fall of 2012, edX is a not-for-profit organization formed by the two universities to bring each institution’s free online course offerings to a broader global audience.

Courses will be delivered through the open source MITx platform in development to host courses that were previously part of the OpenCourseWare program.

As with the MITx initiative, edX plans to issue certificates (possibly costing a small fee) to students for completing courses; however, course completion will not earn college credits at either institution and the certificates will be issued from edX, not through either university.

The initiative hopes that other prestigious universities will join the venture to make the educational behemoth even stronger.

Susan Hockfield, president of MIT, gave an insight into the philosophy of the move poignantly saying, “You can choose to view this era as one of threatening change and unsettling volatility, or you can see it as a moment charged with the most exciting possibilities presented to educators in our lifetimes.’’

Although MIT’s online courses have been well publicized, Harvard was just getting into the game and weighed the best direction to go in, especially in light of competitive programs moving into the space, such as the for-profits Udacity, the Minerva Project and Coursera. Officials at Harvard ultimately opted to keep the program not-for-profit and partnered with MIT to utilize its technology, which is being designed to be much more interactive and supportive than previous course platforms are known to be. Additionally, the MITx technology will include automated grading software, also known as roboreaders, to grade the thousands to hundreds of thousands of essays expected from the sheer number of students in the program.

For either university, giving away its most valuable content for free seems to be the surest way to dilute their programs and on-campus experiences, but the reality is that the universities have much more to gain than to lose. First, MIT has spent years building a much more public educational brand by allowing anyone to take courses through OpenCourseWare, so edX is a way for Harvard to build on that marketing while offering the quality that is associated with the institution. Second, the MITx technology under development is an evolution of the online course software that both institutions have invested in over the years, so they come into this initiative with a clearer idea of what students need. Furthermore, by making the software open source, the global community is only going to help make the technology even better.

But one of the biggest hidden bonuses of this initiative is the research opportunities in education, technology, and online learning provided by such an enormous student base. The initiative is a giant virtual lab that will draw researchers from around the world who are interested in the future of online education and all the areas that it overlaps with.

Online education is ramping up and it’s quickly becoming about which platforms are going to dominate the landscape over the long term. Stanford University has already had some amazing success with online education, with over 100,000 students enrolling in a single artificial intelligence class last August. Although the world could benefit from having multiple options for free education, the possibility of Stanford joining edX would make even the Superfriends jealous.

(Sources - http://justinmenard.visibli.com)

15 Powerful Things Happy People Do Differently

What is the difference between happy people and unhappy people? Of course, it may be very obvious, happy people are happy while unhappy people are unhappy, right? Well, that is correct, but we want to know what are the things that these people do differently and that is why, I have put together a list of things that HAPPY people do differently than UNHAPPY people.

1. LOVE vs. FEAR. Well, I can tell you for sure that those people who are really happy, FEAR less and LOVE a lot more. They see each moment, each challenge, each person as an opportunity to discover more about themselves and the world around them.

2. ACCEPTANCE vs. RESISTANCE.  Happy people understand that you can’t really change a situation by resisting it, but you can definitely change it by accepting that it is there and by understanding that there might be a reason for its existence. When something unpleasant happens to them, they don’t try to fight it, knowing that this will make the situation even worse, but rather, they ask themselves questions like: What can I learn from this? How can I make this better? and they go from there, focusing on the positive rather than on the negative. They always seem to see the glass half full no matter what happens to them.

3. FORGIVENESS vs. UNFORGIVENESS. Really happy people know that it’s not healthy to hold on to anger. They choose to FORGIVE and FORGET, understanding that FORGIVENESS is  a gift they give to themselves first and foremost.

“Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.”Buddha

4. TRUST vs. DOUBT. They trust themselves and they trust the people around them. No matter if they talk to the cleaning lady or the C.E.O. of a multi billion company, somehow they always seem make the person they are interacting with feel like there is something unique and special about them.

They understand that beliefs become self-fulfilling prophecies, and because of that, they make sure to treat everybody with love, dignity and respect, making no distinctions between age, sex, social status, color, religion or race. These are the great men that Mark Twain was talking about: “Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.” Mark Twain

5. MEANING vs. AMBITION.  They do the things they do because of the meaning it brings into their lives and because they get a sense of purpose by doing so. They understand that “Doing what you love is the cornerstone of having abundance in your life” like Wayne Dyer puts it, and they care more about living a life full of meaning rather than, what in our modern society we would call, living a successful life.

The irony here is that most of the time they get both, success and meaning, just because they choose to focus on doing the things they love the most and they always pursue their heart desires. They are not motivated by money; they want to make a difference in the lives of those around them and in the world.

6. PRAISING vs. CRITICIZING. Happy people would probably agree with Carl’s Jung theory on resistance: “What you resist not only persists, but will grow in size”. They don’t criticize the absence of the behavior they want to reinforce, but rather, every time the behavior is present, even if it’s not that often, they know that by praising the person and the behavior, they will actually reinforce the positive behavior.

When a parent wants to make sure that his 7 years old boy will learn to always put the toys back in the box after he’s done playing with them, he will make sure not to focus on the many times the child won’t do it, criticizing him and his behavior, but rather, every time the little boy does put the toys back, the parent will praise him and his behavior and that is exactly how he will reinforce the positive behavior, and in the end geting the wanted results.

7. CHALLENGES vs. PROBLEMS. Happy people will see PROBLEMS as CHALLENGES, as opportunities to explore new ways of doing things, expressing their gratitude for them, understanding that underneath them all lies many opportunities that will allow them to expand and to grow.

8. SELFLESSNESS vs. SELFISHNESS. They do what they do not for themselves, but for the good of others, making sure that they bring meaning, empowerment and happiness in the lives of many. They look for ways to give and to share the best of themselves with the world and to make other people happy.

 ”Before giving, the mind of the giver is happy; while giving, the mind of the giver is made peaceful; and having given, the mind of the giver is uplifted.”Buddha

9. ABUNDANCE vs. LACK/POVERTY. They have an abundant mindset living a balanced life, achieving abundance in all areas of life.

10. DREAMING BIG vs. BEING REALISTIC. These people don’t really care about being realistic. They love and dare to dream big, they always listen to their heart and intuition and the greatness of their accomplishments scares many of us.

“Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men.” Goethe

11. KINDNESS vs. CRUELTY. They are kind to themselves and others and they understand the power of self love, self forgiveness and self acceptance.

12. GRATITUDE vs. INGRATITUDE. No no matter where they look, no matter where they are or with who, they have this capacity of seeing beauty where most of us would only see ugliness, opportunities, where most of us would only see struggles, abundance where most of us would only see lack and they express their gratitude for them all.

13. PRESENCE/ ENGAGEMENT vs. DISENGAGEMENT. They know how to live in the present moment, appreciating what they have and where they are, while still having big dreams about the future.

“When you are present, you can allow the mind to be as it is without getting entangled in it. The mind in itself is a wonderful tool. Dysfunction sets in when you seek your self in it and mistake it for who you are.” Eckhart Tolle

14. POSITIVITY vs. NEGATIVITY. No matter what happens to them, they always seem to keep a positive perspective on everything and by doing so, they tend irritate a lot of negative and “realistic” people.

15. TAKING RESPONSIBILITY vs. BLAMING. They take full ownership over their lives and they rarely use excuses. Happy people understand that the moment you choose to blame some outside forces for whatever it is that happens to you, you are in fact giving all your power away, and they choose to keep the power for themselves and taking responsibility for everything that happens to them.

(Sources - http://www.purposefairy.com)

Creative Architecture: Starbucks Coffee Design In Japan

Like many Universities here in the States, when I was in school, we were required to study Starbucks and how they’ve successfully built their business since 1971. I always thought it was interesting how the company’smission statement is not to sell a lot of coffee, but rather “to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.”

By focusing on making drinking a coffee a whole unique experience, they’ve been able to change our entire perception about what a cup of coffee can represent. To this day, caramel macchiatos are my favorite coffee drink in the whole word, but at 240 calories and 34 carbs per pop, I have to enjoy them in moderation, unfortunately.

This new Starbucks design in Japan created by an architect named Kengo Kumo has been making its way around the Internet lately, and I think it definitely deserves a place on Bit Rebels also. This inspiring design is supposed to make you feel like you are ordering and drinking coffee in a tree. It was made using a series of wooden blocks which are recyclable and easy to take down and put back up anywhere else in the world. I love how this designer took some of the traditional aspects of a coffee shop, like a front door, and threw them out the window to create something completely fresh and new. You can learn more about Kengo Kumo by visiting his website.

(Sumber - http://www.bitrebels.com/geek/creative-architecture-starbucks-coffee-design-in-)