Google to launch Google Chrome OS

Google announced on their blog that they’re releasing an operating system: Google Chrome OS. While the company already has a mobile operating system in Android (Android), this new one will be based off of Chrome (Chrome), Google’s web browser.

According to Google, the open source OS will available later next year and is primarily targeted at netbooks to start. From the Google blog:

“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.”

It is designed to be a lightweight system, just like the Chrome browser. Google promised that the user interface will be minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web.

Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips.

“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.”

Clearly though, Google’s setting the stage for a major battle with Microsoft. Just as Microsoft is trying to break Google’s stranglehold on the search engine market, Google may be trying to do the same with the Windows-controlled market.

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and we say we work hard..

Bing! Microsoft Prepares For War With A Revamped Search Engine

Microsoft unveiled its soon-to-launch search engine Bing. It is available as beta and jully available by June 3. It’s different in certain ways from other search engines. The home page features a rotation of stunning photography, for instance, which can be clicked on to produce related image search results.

It doesn’t have quite the same ring to it as go Google yourself, but now you can go Bing yourself. (Then again, Google took a few years to become a verb.).

“We have taken the algorithmic programming up an order of magnitude,” says Microsoft senior vice president Yusuf Mehdi. Each search result page is customized according to what type of search you do (health, travel, shopping, news, sports). The algorithms determine not only the order of results on the page, but the layout of the page itself, concluding what sections appear. These sections can include anything from guided refinements and a list of related searches in the left-hand pane to images, videos, and local results.

A news search offers up headlines, photos, videos, and local news in a column on the right. A shopping search will bring up products and is tied into Microsoft’s Cashback program. Every search also generates a guide on the left to help you refine your search.

One of the new features of Microsoft’s just launched Bing search engine is that it auto-plays videos in results when you hover over them. Naturally, the first thing a number of people did was search for “sex” or “porn”. The results are majestic — if you’re a teenager looking for a way around porn filters on your computer. And this isn’t artful porn or something like it, it’s straight-up, hardcore pornography.

A few things to try:

* An ambiguous Web search: “bangalore” (do you want images, recipes, facts, or a map of the country? The topic guides in the left explore pane will help you narrow your search).
* Video search: “Steve Jobs” (hover over the thumbnail to play the video)
* Image search: “Rollercoasters” (notice the infinite scroll).
* A health search: “Sore throat”
* Shopping: “Digital SLR” (sort by price or brand, get average ratings and CashBack).
* News Search: “Bing” (what else?)

I had one hell of a time using it. I have to get over the habbits of google to use it. Personally, though they have some cool features, like play video on hover, I didn’t like it. It doesn’t even come close to competing with google.

Netherlands runs out of criminals, has to shut prisons

The Dutch justice ministry has announced it will close eight prisons and cut 1,200 jobs in the prison system. A decline in crime has left many cells empty.

The Netherlands (where most drugs are legal) has so few criminals that it is now faced with the choice of shutting down its prisons and laying off the staff, or importing criminals from other countries like Belgium on a contract basis:

During the 1990s the Netherlands faced a shortage of prison cells, but a decline in crime has since led to overcapacity in the prison system. The country now has capacity for 14,000 prisoners but only 12,000 detainees.

Deputy justice minister Nebahat Albayrak announced on Tuesday that eight prisons will be closed, resulting in the loss of 1,200 jobs. Natural redundancy and other measures should prevent any forced lay-offs, the minister said.

Netherlands to close prisons for lack of criminals