IT'S FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1ST, I'M JEFF BAKALAR AND IT'S TIME TO GET LOADED.
HP HAS CHOSEN A NEW CHIEF EXECUTIVE. AFTER SPENDING 20 YEARS AT SOFTWARE MAKER S-A-P, LEO APOTHEKER WILL TAKE THE REIGNS AT HEWLETT PACKARD. WHILE APOTHEKER'S APPOINTMENT WAS SOMEWHAT SURPRISING TO THE INDUSTRY, EXPERTS SAY HIS EXPERIENCE COULD HELP REVITALIZE THE COMPANY AND HELP JUMPSTART THE COMPANY'S SMARTPHONE INITIATIVES WITH THE RECENT PURCHASE OF PALM.
THE STUXNET COMPUTER WORM THAT INFECTED AN IRANIAN NUCLEAR POWER PLANT MAY HAVE LEFT A BIBLICAL CLUE ABOUT ITS ORIGIN. DEEP WITHIN THE CODE IS THE WORD "MYRTUS," WHICH CAN BE ALLUDED TO ESTHER, POSSIBLY CONNECTING ISRAELI INVOLVEMENT. THAT SAID, ISRAELIS ARE NOT SAYING WHETHER STUXNET HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE COUNTRY'S CYBERWAR UNIT.
THE GOOGLE URL SHORTENER IS NOW AVAILABLE TO ANYONE, NOT JUST THROUGH THE GOOGLE TOOLBAR. GOO-DOT-G-L WILL ALSO ALLOW FOR DATA COLLECTION, INCLUDING WHEN, HOW OFTEN, AND FROM WHICH COMPUTERS ARE USERS ACCESSING URLS. TO TEST IT OUT, HEAD ON OVER TO GOO-DOT-G-L.
AND FINALLY, ON THE DAY "THE SOCIAL NETWORK" HITS THEATERS, FACEBOOK HAS UNVEILED A HANDFUL OF PHOTO IMPROVEMENTS TO THE SITE. USERS CAN NOW SHARE HIGH-RESOLUTION PHOTOS AND BULK-TAG FRIENDS. ALSO, THE PHOTO-BROWSING EXPERIENCE WILL BE UPGRADED, DITCHING THE CURRENT SET UP, AND ALLOWING FOR A MORE STREAMLINED PRESENTATION.
THOSE ARE YOUR HEADLINES FOR TODAY I'M JEFF BAKALAR FOR CNET.COM, AND YOU'VE JUST BEEN LOADED.
