Daily News Brief: Microsoft Issues Ultimatum to Yahoo

Microsoft Thumps Chest at Yahoo

It's not the Bada Bing, and Steve Ballmer's no Tony Soprano, but Microsoft let it be known that the time for words is coming to end. In a letter to Yahoo's board of directors, Ballmer wrote "now is the time," giving Yahoo three weeks to negotiate Microsoft's bid to buy the company. And if they don't? Broken kneecaps and car bombs won't be in Yahoo's future, but a proxy fight would be, in which Microsoft would try to remove Yahoo's board and put in place its own slate of directors. Read the letter here.

Facebook Slowly Debuts Chat

Weekends are typically quiet for tech related news, but perhaps spring fever has gotten hold of Silicon Valley. First Ballmer issues an ultimatum to Yahoo on Saturday, and on Sunday afternoon, Facebook debuted its instant messaging client. Facebook Chat isn't available to all 67 million members just yet, and instead will roll out gradually to ensure a smooth integration. The initial version also lacks support for external IM clients, so don't go uninstalling Trillian or Pidgin just yet.

Cyber-Warfare: Strike Hard, Strike First, No Mercy Sir!

You may recognize that motto from the Cobra Kai in The Karata Kid, but it could also become the slogan for U.S. military officials looking to hone their cyber-warfare capabilities. According to Lt. Gen. Robert J. Elder Jr., who heads the Air Force's cyber-operations command, initial uses of online onslaughts would be limited to diverting or killing data packets that threaten the nation's systems. In the future, the military might use network warfare to disrupt an enemy's communications system, and have already used rudimentary forms of cyber-attacks during the early days of the Iraq war. You listening Hollywood? Time for a modern remake of War Games...

Quake III on iPod Touch?

You betcha! Canadian game developers responsible for Space Trader managed to get Quake III Arena running on two iPod Touch units. Perhaps more than just a proof of concept, the game appears to run smoothly. When or if they'll make it available for download remains to be seen. In the meantime, have a gander for yourself here.

Sub-Kilobyte File Holds 20 Seconds of Audio!

We'd love to see how much luggage researchers at the University of Rochester could stuff into a suitcase. Why? Because those same folks managed to compress a 20-second clarinet solo into file less than a kilobyte. Put into perspective, that's almost 1,000 times smaller than a standard MP3 file of the same audio clip. To work their file shrinking mojo, they created a model of the clarinet itself and replicated each aspect of the sound. Wired has the full story, including links to what the clarinet solo sounds like as an MP3 and as a sub-1KB file.

GPU King Needs Gold

With the GeForce series kicking ass and taking names, and SLI still the dominant dual-graphics solution, NVIDIA should be living high on the hog. So why then are NVIDIA stocks taking a tumble? Dive might be a better description, as shares have free fallen over 40 percent in the last three months, in stark contrast to doubling up last year. According to MarketWatch, rising expenses are to blame, as sales remain strong, reporting a 57 percent jump in net income for the fourth quarter.