Google to reveal PC operating system

It was only a matter of time; 9:37pm Pacific Time on July 7, 2009 in an innocent appearing blog post to be exact.

With “cloud computing”—a term used to describe the new world of light weight computing where local storage and processing matters less—on the rise, Google is taking the next generation operating system (OS) war to a new playing field. One that Microsoft is likely unprepared to compete as effectively as it has in the 1980s-era shrink wrap software business (Microsoft Office, Microsoft Windows).

Google owns search; and hence the majority of online advertising dollars. We know this.

But Google also is playing an increasing role in all things cloud computing, such as productivity applications (Google Docs, Gmail, Calendar), mobile operating systems (Android), and news aggregation and syndication (Google News).

Meantime, Microsoft seems to be in a perpetual state of catch-up (e.g. the new Bing search engine), despite the college coach-like banter of chief Steve Ballmer.

Google is borne of a different generation, one detached from the old school paradigm of shrink wrap software. In the “old days” we would walk to a store, buy the latest operating system (on CD, later on DVD), bring it home, take 3 hours to install it, and then continue to install all kinds of CD-based applications like Microsoft Office.

But, in this new world, of cloud computing, you can virtually eliminate not only the walk to the store, but the entire installation process. Applications live in the cloud. Fortunately that means no tedious upgrades and annual walks to the local computer store.

So, tonight, at 9:37pm pacific time, Sundar Pichai, VP Product Management and Linus Upson, Engineering Director, jointly posted an innocent enough blog post. But its ramifications are unquestioned. Indeed, virtually minutes later, mainstream media were already picking up the story. The New York Times tweeted. Others commented. Blogs lit up. As I write this, the tech world is abuzz.

The announcement highlights:

• Google announcing: Google Chrome Operating System
• Google Chrome OS is an “open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks”
• Netbooks running it will be available second half 2010
• “Speed, simplicity and security” are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS.

This is not a technology announcement. But a potential game-changer.

Is Microsoft looking into the abyss?

Probably not exactly. But it does signal a titanic struggle ahead, of which the likes it has not seen before. Google is no Netscape.

From the Google blog post:

People want to get to their email instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up. They want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them. They want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files. Even more importantly, they don’t want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware, or have to worry about constant software updates. And any time our users have a better computing experience, Google benefits as well by having happier users who are more likely to spend time on the Internet.

This is big news, and finally awakens a slow year in general for tech. Without Google, Microsoft could continue it’s 5-year upgrade march for Windows and Office. Thankfully, we have alternatives.

It should mean increased competition which results in innovation, lower price points, and more choice. And that’s all good for people like you and I: the consumer… living in the golden age of cloud and Internet computing.

[Source: The Official Google Blog]

Introducing the Google Chrome OS
7/07/2009 09:37:00 PM

It’s been an exciting nine months since we launched the Google Chrome browser. Already, over 30 million people use it regularly. We designed Google Chrome for people who live on the web — searching for information, checking email, catching up on the news, shopping or just staying in touch with friends. However, the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web. So today, we’re announcing a new project that’s a natural extension of Google Chrome — the Google Chrome Operating System. It’s our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be.

Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we’re already talking to partners about the project, and we’ll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.

Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.

Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies. And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform.

Google Chrome OS is a new project, separate from Android. Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks. Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems. While there are areas where Google Chrome OS and Android overlap, we believe choice will drive innovation for the benefit of everyone, including Google.

We hear a lot from our users and their message is clear — computers need to get better. People want to get to their email instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up. They want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them. They want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files. Even more importantly, they don’t want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware, or have to worry about constant software updates. And any time our users have a better computing experience, Google benefits as well by having happier users who are more likely to spend time on the Internet.

We have a lot of work to do, and we’re definitely going to need a lot of help from the open source community to accomplish this vision. We’re excited for what’s to come and we hope you are too. Stay tuned for more updates in the fall and have a great summer.

Posted by Sundar Pichai, VP Product Management and Linus Upson, Engineering Director

source:

http://www.starksilvercreek.com/2009/07/watch-microsoft-google-formally-announces-operating-system-turns-heat.html

are michael jackson s kids biologically his?

Are Michael Jackson’s Kids Biologically His? – Are Michael Jackson’s Kids Biologically His? That is the question being posed after millions of people watched Michael Jackson’s three children Michael Joseph Jackson Jr. aka Prince Michael, 12; Paris Michael Katherine Jackson, 11; and Prince Michael II aka Blanket, 7, attend their dad’s public memorial service held at Staples Center on Tuesday (July 7) in Los Angeles.Jackson had Prince Michael and Paris with Debbie Rowe,while Blanket was born of an unidentified surrogate mother in Europe.No one can answer that question to be honest ,he may or may not be their biological father but after listening to Paris we call agree that he was the best daddy they ever had.

source:http://www.thespreadit.com/are-michael-jackson-s-kids-biologically-his-2058/

michael jackson open casket

Michael Jackson Open Casket photo, could this be true? According to X17, the funeral of Michael Jackson will be with an open casket. We are just a few minutes away for the Michael Jackson memorial to begin, and the Staples Center is full. Here’s what X17 reported:

Jackson’s family is reportedly still considering an open casketviewing at the public memorial tomorrow, an event which is expected to draw far more than the 17,500 people who will receive tickets.

If that is true, when we’ll have the final picture of Michael on the casket, instead of the terrible picture we have of him in the ambulance. What do you think? We’ll bring you updates as we have more info.

source:

http://toppayingideas.com/blog/2009/07/07/michael-jackson-open-casket-photo/

Roger Stone

Being a skilled confidence man is both a blessing and a curse. If you truly excel at the long con, raising it to a form of art, marks will never know they've been taken. But if you become renowned for such artistry, when it is synonymous with your very name, people never believe you're off the grift, even when you're playing straight.

Such is the life of Roger Stone, political operative, Nixon-era dirty trickster, professional lord of mischief. It's hard to assume he's not up to something, because he always is. He once said of himself, "If it rains, it was Stone." For that's the view most people take of him. Three years ago, everyone from the DNC's Terry McAuliffe to the leftwing blogosphere blamed him for leaking George W. Bush's forged Air National Guard records, the ones that looked like they would damn Bush, but ultimately blew up Dan Rather's career. It's preposterous, he says, a triple bank shot that no one could ever have conceived of. "I get blamed for things I have nothing to do with," he says, somewhat wounded. But when asked about all the things he doesn't get blamed for that he does have something to do with, he thinks a bit, then shrugs. "It does balance itself out," he says.

Naïfs might say he's a cancer on the body politic, everything that is wrong with today's system. But maybe he is just its purest distillation: Politics is war, and he is one of its fiewith the battle scars to prove it.

The first time I laid eyes on Roger Stone he was standing poolside at a press conference on the roof of the Hotel L'Ermitage in Beverly Hills. With a horseshoe pinkie ring refracting rays from the California sun and a gangster chalk-stripe suit that looked like it had been exhumed from the crypt of Frank Costello, Stone was there to help his friend and longtime client Donald Trump explore a Reform party presidential candidacy in 2000.

Actually, it was more complicated than that. After having recruited Pat Buchanan to seek the nod ("You have to beat somebody," Stone says), he pushed Trump into the race. Trump relentlessly attacked Buchanan as having "a love affair with Adolf Hitler," but ended up folding. A weakened Buchanan went on to help the Reform party implode, and Republicans suffered no real third-party threat, as they had in 1992, thus helping Stone accomplish his objective. If, in fact, that was his objective. These things are often hard to keep track of with Roger Stone.

Trump's short-lived campaign provided lots of memorable Stone moments. There was the scene on the roof, where Stone, a dandy by disposition who boasts of having not bought off-the-rack since he was 17--he's now 56--taught reporters how to achieve perfect double-dimples underneath their tie knots, while providing them hand sanitizers should they want to shake hands with the germophobe Trump. Then there were the hardball negotiations he drove backstage at the Tonight Show, where he promised access to the dressing room, but only if we refrained from "making fun of Mr. Trump's hair" in print.

source:

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/014/278vjcro.asp

Sahel kazemi Mugshot

Racy Facebook Sahel Kazemi Photos - On Sunday police ruled the death of former Tennesse Titan quarterback Steve McNair to be a homicide.

The classification came one day after his bullet-riddled body was found in a Nashville apartment along with the body of his girlfriend, Sahel Kazemi, whose death has not been classified.

Mechelle McNair, Steve's wife, is said to be shocked and emorionally distraught.

McNair, who was 36, was shot four times -- twice in the head, twice in the chest. A semi-automatic pistol was found underneath the body of 20-year-old Sahel Kazemi, who was shot in the head.

The second picture shows two girls sitting on top a black Cadillac Escalade. McNair gave a black Escalade to Kazemi for her 20th birthday in May.

Two days earlier, Kazemi had been arrested in the early hours fordriving under the influence. McNair was in the passenger's seat at the time of the traffic stop.

Also, the Tennessean has linked a photo gallery of McNair's Nashville-area home that he shared with his wife, Mechelle McNair. (Hat Tip - The Huddle)

Kate Gosselin bikini pics

Kate Gosselin bikini pics:

Ezra Merkin Charged With Fraud

NEW YORK — New York's attorney general filed civil fraud charges Monday against a hedge fund manager who funneled $2.4 billion to Wall Street swindler Bernard Madoff without telling clients where their money was going.

The complaint accuses J. Ezra Merkin, the former chairman of GMAC Financial Services, of concealing his links to Madoff and lying to investors about what he was doing with their money, telling most he was personally investing their cash in things like distressed debt.

Over the years, Merkin collected $470 million in fees and performance bonuses from his clients, the suit said. It said many of those customers, which included several large charities and colleges, had no idea where their money really was until December, when Madoff was arrested.

"Merkin duped individual investors, non-profits, and charities into believing he was responsibly managing their investments, when in actuality he was dumping them into history's largest Ponzi scheme," Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said in a statement.

The complaint also accused Merkin of mingling his personal funds with the accounts of his management company, Gabriel Capital Group, and using some of the company's funds for personal purchases, including $91 million worth of artwork for his apartment.

Merkin's attorney, Andrew Levander, called the lawsuit "hasty," "ill-conceived" and "without merit, and he denied that clients had been kept in the dark.

"Contrary to the attorney general's allegation, investors in the Ascot Funds were well aware that the money was being invested with Madoff," Levander said in a statement. Some of those investors had even met with Madoff personally, he said.

He said Merkin had investigated and analyzed Madoff and his trading strategy before investing.

Story continues below 

"Unfortunately," he wrote, "Mr. Merkin's due diligence, just like the detailed investigations performed by countless others, including regulators, was thwarted by the intricate, fraudulent scheme perpetrated by Madoff."

Merkin also lost millions of dollars of his own money in the scheme, although those dollar amounts pale in comparison to the losses of his clients. One of Merkin's funds, Ascot Partners, sunk nearly every penny of its more than $1.7 billion in assets into Madoff's scheme.

Cuomo's suit, filed in state court in Manhattan, demands that Merkin repay all of the fees he collected from his clients over the years, plus damages.

The lawsuit is the second major regulatory action by a state against one of Madoff's so-called "feeder funds," which supplied him with billions of dollars in investor money.

On April 1, Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin accused Fairfield Greenwich Group of Connecticut of civil fraud for activities related to investments with Madoff.

Galvin accused the company, which had a $7.2 billion account with Madoff, of failing to disclose concerns about Madoff's operation to investors. Fairfield Greenwich officials have, like Merkin, also professed that they were innocent victims of the scam.

Madoff pleaded guilty in March to swindling thousands of investors out of billions of dollars in what could be the largest Ponzi scheme in history.

Many of those investors came to Madoff indirectly through hedge funds like Fairfield and Ascot.

Some of those investors have also sued. And Merkin was sued Monday in New York by Mortimer Zuckerman, the real estate magnate and publisher of the New York Daily News. Zuckerman said in the suit that he and his charitable trust collectively lost $40 million in the scheme.

source:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/06/ezra-merkin-charged-with-_n_183543.html