This infographic makes me so glad that we came up with storage methods other than floppy disks. Imagine replacing your 2TB hard drive with 1,422,222 floppies. No thank you. [Curtiss Spontelli via fellow Gizmodian Kyle. Thanks dude!]
This article is written by Wilhelm Johannis, a 11-Year-Old kid who loves all kinds of tech. You can follow this young tech geek @kwilfaey on Twitter!
For some reason, I subscribed to windows videos on YouTube. This video isn’t even by that channel, and for that the video is hilarious- to be fair, there are some funny videos on the official channel Stewie Griffin explaining why Windows 7 would help him gain world domination by letting him draw rabbits in an easier way. You should check it out sometime.
However, this post is about something else. During a video of all the employees of a Microsoft employees dancing, it is clear that a woman in the store shoplifts. I guess it’s annoying to be stuck in a store trying to purchase something while everyone who works there does some weird kind of dance, but this is just hilarious. People randomly joining in the dancing is OK, but if you pay attention you can see something much funnier. I’m not sure why Microsoft made this video, it could be because the employees wanted to have some fun, or as an attempt for an obviously faked viral video. Maybe they needed to have a dance off to settle once and for all whose idea Windows 7 really was! (It was mine).What should be added to this description is that they also forget about shoplifters. Look at 2:11-2:15!
Confirmed. The rumors about Google's redesign are true, and you can try it for yourself with a very simple method.
1. Go to Google.com.
2. Once it loads, enter this code into your web browser's URL address field:
javascript:void(document.cookie='PREF=ID=20b6e4c2f44943bb:U=4bf292d46faad806:TM=1249677602:LM=1257919388:S=odm0Ys-53ZueXfZG;path=/; domain=.google.com');
There shouldn't be any http://google.com in front of that. Just that code.
3. Hit enter.
4. Reload or open a new Google.com page and you will have access to the new user interface.
It's fast and sweet, although the changes don't affect all the available sections. [Thanks Matt Karolian]
Via Gizmodo
It might not be the smartest way of giving a zero-weeks notice at work, but you've gotta give this guy some credit for doing extra work and making a custom Mac OS X app just for the purpose of quitting.
Supposedly the pop up prompt (which apparently doesn't do anything) was seen by the fellow's coworker who explained the situation:
He believed he was in a temp-to-hire position, and after three months of extra hours and butt-kissing, turns out it's just a temp position. He was a good worker too. I'd have recommended him. Too bad he burned his bridges... Obviously he had contemplated quitting long enough to make this thing, but still refused to speak to anyone about his feelings. Ironically, he complained about the 'divas' at his last job.
Well, who'd want to keep him if he makes an app with prompts that don't even have functional buttons? If nothing else, one of the buttons should've opened an email app with a pre-written apology note. [Method Shop via Cult of Mac]
Until today, Google's Chrome OS has been little more than a wordy concept. Now, finally, we truly know what it is, what it looks like, and how it works. Here's the breakdown:
Google went to great pains to emphasize that today's event wasn't a launch—that'll come a year from now, apparently, with a public beta still well over the horizon. This is all about a seeing the OS for the first time; understanding in real terms how it's different from what's out there; figuring out why you might actually want to use it; etc. So! Here's what we knew going in:
Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks' and 'most of the user experience takes place on the web.' That is, it's 'Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel' with the web as the platform. It runs on x86 processors (like your standard Core 2 Duo) and ARM processors (like inside every mobile smartphone). Underneath lies security architecture that's completely redesigned to be virus-resistant and easy to update.
Like I said, there were plenty of questions. Onwards:
• It's basically just a browser: meaning that it'll be based around preexisting web services like Gmail, Google Docs, and so on. There are going to be no conventional applications, just web applications—nothing gets installed, updated, or whatever. Seriously.
• It only runs web apps: It's going to integrate web apps into the operating system deeper than we've ever seen before, meaning that a) they'll seem more like native apps than web apps and b) they'll be able to tap into local resources more than a typical web app in Firefox, for example. They're web apps in name, but they'll have native powers.
• How, exactly?: With HTML 5. This is the next version of HTML, which gives the browser more access to local resources like location info, offline storage—the kinds of things you'd normally associate with native apps. More on that here.
• Chrome is Chrome: The user's experience with Chrome OS will basically be synonymous with their experience on Chrome Browser. Technically speaking, Chrome OS is a Linux-based OS, but you won't be installing Linux binaries like you might on Ubuntu or some other Linux distribution. Any 'apps' you have will be used within the browser. Chrome OS is effectively a new version of Chrome, that you can't leave. There are a few reasons Google's pushing this, which we'll get to in a bit.
• And as you've probably guessed, it's super-light. It starts up in a matter of seconds, and boot straight into the browser. Likewise, the Chrome browser is apparently very, very optimized for Chrome OS, so it should be faster than we've ever seen it.
• It won't support hard drives, just solid state storage. I mean, hard drives are dying, sure, but this is pretty bold. Hardware support sounds like it'll be pretty slim, because:
• You'll have to buy a Chrome OS device: You might be able to hack this thing onto your current machine, but you won't just be able to install it to replace Windows, or opt for it on your next laptop, for example. You'll have to buy hardware that Google approved, either component by component, or in a whole package. They're already working on reference designs.
• For now, it's for netbooks. It's not intended for desktops, to the point that Google is saying that the first generation of Chrome hardware will be secondary machines.
• It looks like Chrome browser—specifically, like the leaked shots we saw before. As in a browser, you have tabs—these have to serve as a taskbar as well. To the left of the tabs, you have a sort of start menu, which opens up a panel full of shortcuts. These are your favorites. These are your apps. (Get used to this weird feeling, btw. That Google whole point here.
• You can peg smaller windows, like chat windows or music players, to sit above your tabs at all times. This feature looks a lot like the Gchat feature in Gmail, which is to say, it's a box in the corner.
• Along with tabs, it's got its own version of virtual desktops. This means you can have multiple 'windows' of Chrome OS to switch between, each of which is a different set of tabs. Think one desktop for work, one for play, on for porn, etc etc etc. It's a bit like using Spaces on Mac, except only with the browser.
Google's staying specifics on the exact release date—it'll be sometime next year—but the source code for the project is published now. That doesn't mean it's ready, really, but rather that they're just planning on developing it in the open from here on out. Expect builds to start showing up online, which'll probably work wonderfully in a virtual machine app like VirtualBox.
The code is available as part of the Chromium OS (the Chromium/Chrome distinction should be familiar to anyone who's wrestled with the open source Mac version of Chrome) project, posted here.
With Chrome OS, Google is taking (or in a way, forcing) the operating system to go totally online. As Google's freshly designated evangelists are eager to tell you, the browser is already the center of most people's computing experience. The idea here is to make the browser powerful enough to render the rest of the operating system, and its native apps, moot.
It's more pure than a lot of people expected: When Google said that Chrome OS would be centered around the web, I think most people just assumed it would be a lightweight Linux distribution with deep integration for Google web services. It's not that. It's a browser.
But it's a browser that runs different processes for each tab, that will have access to local OS resources, will to some extent work offline. In other words, it's not really a browser in the sense that we use the word, and the web apps that we'll be using won't be like the ones we're used to now, either. The idea, here, it seems, is to replicate most, if not all, of the functionality in a native OS, while keeping the lightweight, ultra-secure framework of a thin client. In other words, Google's not asking much of its users in terms of changing how they do stuff; they're trying to change the way the operating system lets you do those things, transparently.
Think of it this way: now, the buttons in your taskbar or dock are now tabs; your email client now runs within your browser, but stores stuff offline just like Mail or Outlook; your documents will still open with a few clicks, but they'll be stored remotely (and locally only if you choose). It's all the same stuff, given to you in a different way.
Update: you can download it here. [Chrome on Giz]
Via Gizmodo
Nokia was making a start some months ago to get into the mobile app business with Ovi store, after seeing Apple hitting big numbers of sales through their app store.
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New data from SquareTrade (one of the bigger warranty providers) says Asus and Toshiba have the least hardware malfunctions over 3 years, while one-in-four HP laptops are projected to experience problems. Oh, and crappy netbooks are worst of all.
They say that sub-$400 netbooks are 20 percent more likely to fail in the first year. But no real surprises there.
SquareTrade says it randomly selected over 30,000 laptops and netbooks covered by its warranty plans for the study. Brands with a minimum of 1000 laptops included Acer, Apple, Asus, Dell, Gateway, HP, Lenovo, Sony, and Toshiba. Accidental damage and software issues handled by the retailer were not included in the numbers.
Summary below, while the full report can be found at: [SquareTrade]
• Over 31 percent of laptops will fail in the first three years of ownership.
• Of these failures, two-thirds came from hardware malfunctions (20.4 percent) and one-third (10.6 percent) was reported as accidental damage.
• Asus and Toshiba were the most reliable manufacturers, with fewer than 16 percent having a hardware malfunction over three years.
• Netbooks are projected to have a 20 percent higher failure rate from hardware malfunctions than more expensive laptop computers.
• Manufacturers proved to be a more reliable determinant of reliability than the type of laptop and should be a greater factor in making a purchase decision.
Mark Cuban's Plan to Choke Google's Super Powers [Google]: "
Musing on his blog, the billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks has thrown out a crazy idea for Microsoft. Instead of spending billions promoting Bing, what if they paid the top 1000 sites a million bucks to de-list from Google?
Is there anything more fun than sitting around, growing your hair, drinking a Bud while listening to Jethro Tull and pondering how to change the balance of power in the search world and unseat Google?
Would the top 1k most visited sites take a cool $1mm each, plus a commitment from Microsoft or Yahoo to drive traffic through their search engines to more than make up for the lost Google Traffic.
Given the increasing power that Google wields, it's an interesting thought. But that upfront bill that wouldn't get past Microsoft's stock holders, let alone the US government's anti-competition watchdogs. Nice pot-stirring though, Mark. [Mark Cuban via The Register]
Twitter has come with a new feature today. Now it will show under your posts how many times it has been re-tweeted by people you follow...
Cool stuff.
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This truly amazing Atari style of the ’80s artwork is created by designer Carla Berrocal, and is used as a wedding invitation by a Chilean couple.
Via Nopuedocreer.com
Imagine this: once a happy child with a lot of friends, little Jack has started spending many hours per day on social networking sites such as Facebook, which has turned him into a pale asocial freak. Oh, if only he’d never touched that cursed box we call the computer, he’d be a healthy young man now!
This is the picture we’ve been fed a lot by the media (did you see the movie Gamer? I rest my case), but according to a study conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, it’s simply not true.Quite the contrary: online activities such as social networking, sending e-mails and blogging can lead to larger, and (perhaps even more importantly) more diverse social networks. From the study:
“Social media activities are associated with several beneficial social activities, including having discussion networks that are more likely to contain people from different backgrounds. For instance, frequent internet users, and those who maintain a blog are much more likely to confide in someone who is of another race. Those who share photos online are more likely to report that they discuss important matters with someone who is a member of another political party.”
Yes, social isolation is still a problem for some 6 percent of the population, but it’s simply not related to the Internet, and hasn’t changed much since 1985.For the most part, the study conducted on 2,512 adults simply confirms what most of us know already: people use all this new technology to get in touch with their family and friends; for example, people call each person in their circle of closes friends on 195 days in a year, but they also see each of them face to face 210 days in a year. Same goes for Facebook and MySpace, as 71% of users have listed at least one member of their core network of friends as a friend on one of these services.
Here’s the fun part: internet users are far more likely (45%) to visit a café or a coffee shop than people who don’t use the internet. And not only that; the myth that frequent internet users hang out mostly at home is also busted, as people have started using it many public spaces, such as libraries, bars, coffee shops, restaurants and the like.The full report is a very interesting read; you can find it here.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, webphotographeer
Not sure about whether or not you should invest in that new gadget? It's a well known fact that flowcharts are the most reliable decision-making tools in existence. Consult the flowchart. Believe in the flowchart. You can't go wrong. [Scordit] Via Gizmodo
Today's Google homepage celebrated the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street, but, as this video reveals, Sesame Street's Cookie Monster celebrated Google in a song from 27 years ago. A super fun song of the you'll-giggle-your-socks-off variety, that is.
Yes, it came 16 years before Google ever existed and yes, technically the song is about Cookie Monsters googly eyes, but somehow it still sorta fits as tribute to the search engine giant. I just hope that the next Google homepage doodle includes Cookie Monster instead of Big Bird, 'cause frankly that one gives me the creeps. [Official Google Blog via Techie]
Dear Webmaster,
It’s been over a year since I last wrote. Business is booming for me which reminded me to get in touch with you again. I’m shocked at the advancements you’ve made!
Wow — you’ve gotten acquainted with javascript frameworks! In fact, it appears you’ve gotten so good with the popular javascript frameworks that you’re using multiple in each of your client websites. I see jQuery, MooTools, and Dojo in the same page! Good idea — the more frameworks you add to the page, the more plugins you can add without needing to code any javascript yourself. Well thought-out. I also see that you’re adding javascript frameworks for simple getElementById() selection — why not? I’m sure you’ll use more advanced javascript on your client’s website at some point, so best to include the libraries now.
I also noticed that you’ve completely dropped support of Internet Explorer 6. My favorite touch is the “upgrade your browser” message you’ve added to your client websites, no doubt without their permission. I admire your resolve — why should you go through the hassle of spending an extra hour to make your site work in IE6? Let the visitor suffer and the client lose business — you don’t need the headache of dealing with IE6. Another intelligent philosophy.Sincerely,
David Walsh
Senior Web Developer
Don't forget to follow me on Twitter and be sure to visit Script & Style for the best Javascript and CSS articles around!
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An Open Letter to You, Webmaster II
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