Blu-Ray Wins the battle of High Definition:

In recent years there has been a cut-throat competition between Blu-Ray, pioneered by Sony, and the HD-DVD, initiated by Toshiba, formats for a technology that would replace the DVD. During the competition that resembled the Betamax-VHS formats experienced years ago the Blu-ray front started to hold an upper hand last year by Play Station 3 sets supporting the Blu-Ray and a major studio, Warner Bros, acclaiming to produce home movies to support only the Blu-Ray format for the movies to be produced for the market. Upon this, some retail stores refrained from HD-DVD sales. With such outbreak Toshiba announced her withdrawal from the HD-DVD production on 19 February 2008 and thus effectively making rival Blu-ray the dominant format that supported high definition video discs.

New Service Packs for Microsoft Windows:

Microsoft continues to present users with new service packs in which all the cumulative changes made and some new features added to the operating systems. The final version of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 presented to the users on 4 February includes not only the cumulative changes made up to date but is also claimed to enhance the performance. The Turkish version of the service pack was released on 14 April 2008. Besides this, the last service pack for the previous operating system Windows XP was also introduced on 21 April 2008. With this update pack Microsoft has put together 1.174 updates so far.

For the time being, Microsoft has announced that both update packs will pose problems for Microsoft Dynamics RMS users. For other users the packs are recommended.

Microsoft Calls Off Buying Yahoo:

The negotiations that have been going on for some time between Microsoft and Yahoo have been terminated on grounds of no agreement among both parties. Being in the opinion that Google is a though competitor for itself, Microsoft was negotiating to buy off Yahoo. The talks that have been going on for some time were at a stand still due to Microsoft offering $35 per share and Yahoo demanding $37. The difference that added up to $5 Billion did not change and the negotiations ended.

National Information Security Door Opened:

The National Information Security Door, established with the aim of raising awareness of information security throughout the country, specifically for the public bodies and to enrich the knowledge of personnel working on the topic, has been opened. The site run by TÜBİTAK-UEKAE (Ulusal Elektronik ve Kriptoloji Araştırma Enstitüsü) located at http://www.bilgiguvenligi.gov.tr address provides info on information security, both personal and institutional, and Security Handouts, Technical Papers, and Guides.

Hasan Nadir Derin