This weekend marks the deadline Microsoft set for its proposed acquisition of Yahoo, after which the company plans to take its fight directly to Yahoo shareholders. But only late this week did Microsoft begin hinting that, even without Yahoo, it might move forward in the online ad market. Microsoft considers life without Yahoo. Sun Microsystems buys processor startup Montalvo, which is believed to be working on a chip that uses asynchronous cores of varying power degrees to improve performance while keeping power consumption low. Researcher David Litchfield finds a new way to hack the Oracle database. Known as a SQL injection, the tactic comprises specially crafted search terms that trick the database into running SQL commands. A group of German researchers were able to infiltrate Storm, the peer-to-peer botnet, via a “poisoning” technique that also disrupted the infamous worm. Benchmarking firm The Hackett Group finds that IT leaders can slash spending 40 percent by focusing on certain processes where the largest opportunities to improve efficiencies exist, such as IT infrastructure management, purchase order processing, and accounting. And in this installment of Geek week in review, Robert X. Cringely rips on Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer for saying it might reconsider XP’s end-of-life date, but by day’s end the company insists it’s sticking with June 30 as a cutoff, while Yahoo courts another dance partner to help it evade Microsoft. Related news: No change in XP plan despite Ballmer comment. Software Development