First look: Google+ lets you hang with a small (or large) circle of friends Google's latest try at social networking could give Facebook a run for its money Preston Gralla
June 29, 2011 (Computerworld)
Google's Google+ social networking service, now out in a limited release, isn't the Facebook killer that Google no doubt hopes it will be. However, it's an innovative platform that takes a new approach to social networking by putting you in control of how you share with people. It also includes a number of intriguing features, such as one that makes it easy to ferret out content that interests you and share it with others.
Those who were put off by Google's previous failures in social networking, including Buzz and Wave, will be surprised at the usefulness and simplicity of Google+. It's a worthy enough product that you'd do well to sign up as soon as it's widely available.
The anti-Facebook
In some ways, Google+ is the anti-Facebook. Facebook is predicated on the idea that all "friends" are created equal -- that you want to have the same online relationship with your mother, your best friend since high school, your boss and that person you never met but whose invitation to be a Facebook friend you absentmindedly accepted. Post an update or a photo, and every one of your "friends" sees them -- unless you remember to use Facebook's Custom Privacy box to specify who can or can't see the post.
At first glance, the user interface of Google+ bears a superficial similarity to that of Facebook. Click to view larger image Google+ takes the opposite tack. It lets you create "circles" of friends -- one for your family, one for friends, one for acquaintances, one for work, one for a book group and so on. That way, if you want to share plans for next Thanksgiving with your family and include photos of last Thanksgiving, you can share only with them, rather than with people you work with or people in your book group. You're put firmly in control of whom you communicate with and how you communicate with them.
And it doesn't hurt that Google+ ties into other Google services. Messages sent to you in Google+, for example, show up in Gmail, and chats in Google Talk show up in Google+ and vice versa. Google+ ties into Google's photo site, Picasa, as well.
Osama bin Laden, hunted as the mastermind behind the worst-ever terrorist attack on U.S. soil, has been killed, sources told ABC News.
His death brings to an end a tumultuous life that saw bin Laden go from being the carefree son of a Saudi billionaire, to terrorist leader and the most wanted man in the world.
Bin Laden created and funded the al Qaeda terror network, which was responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. The Saudi exile had been a man on the run since the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan overthrew the ruling Taliban regime, which harbored bin Laden.
Pretty much like QZA's topic I'm looking to get me an old laptop to buy/rent/borrow for pretty much just word processing, checking email, news and the occasional flash video for news. Budget is pretty tight but anything will do as I'll only need it for a month max.
Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich has a rather curious new addition built in to his latest oversized yacht. The 557-foot boat Eclipse, the price tag of which has almost doubled since original plans were drawn to almost $1.2 billion, set sail this week with a slew of show-off features, from two helipads, two swimming pools and six-foot movie screens in all guest cabins, to a mini-submarine and missile-proof windows to combat piracy.
It might not seem like somebody with such ostentatious tastes would crave privacy, but along with these expensive toys, Ambramovich has installed an anti-paparazzi “shield”. Lasers sweep the surroundings and when they detect a CCD, they fire a bolt of light right at the camera to obliterate any photograph. According to the Times, these don’t run all the time, so friends and guests should still be able to grab snaps. Instead, they will be activated when guards spot the scourge of professional photography, paparazzi, loitering nearby.
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico has enacted a controversial law that decriminalizes possession of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine and heroin.
The law defines "personal use" amounts for those drugs, as well as LSD and methamphetamines.
It says people found with those amounts will not face criminal prosecution, but that if caught a third time they will be required to complete treatment programs, though no punishment is specified to enforce that.
The law enacted Thursday says anyone caught with personal-use quantities of drugs will be urged to seek treatment for dependency. It takes effect Friday.
In 2006, the U.S. government publicly criticized a similar bill. Then-President Vicente Fox sent that legislation back to Congress for reconsideration.
A teenager sent by his parents to a boot camp to cure his Internet addiction died after he was beaten by camp supervisors, police in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region claimed yesterday. The three teachers who allegedly beat Deng Senshan, 16, were detained by local police Sunday, Deng Fei, the boy’s father, a businessman from Ziyuan county, told the Global Times yesterday. “We are investigating a case where a high school student was beaten to death by his camp supervisors. The case is still under investigation,” a police officer at the Jiangnan branch of Nanning Public Security Bureau said. He refused to give further details.
Deng graduated from Ziyuan No. 2 High School in Guilin in July and was sent to Guangxi Qihang Survival Training Camp, a branch set up by Guangzhou Self-help Teenager Development Training Center on Saturday by his parents. They had read an ad about the camp online and hoped the experience would help rid their son of his Internet addiction.
Deng Fei paid the camp 7,000 yuan ($1,024) for one month of training. He signed the camp agreement that said it aimed to help children to become independent and rectify their bad habitats by “close management with training teachers.” “Our methods are tough but do not include torture or other methods that might damage a child’s health,” reads the mission statement.
But his son was put in solitary confinement within hours of his arrival and was then beaten to death by his trainers after they “scolded” him for running too slowly, Deng said. “My son was very healthy and was not a criminal. He just had an Internet addiction when I left him at the camp.
“The police informed us that our child had died on Monday morning. We can’t believe our only son was beaten to death,” the father said. The teachers who beat Deng realized he was badly injured and sent him to hospital in Wuxu town three hours later. He was declared dead about 3 am Sunday – 10 minutes after he arrived at the hospital, Deng Fei said. The boy’s medical record, which was faxed to the Global Times, read: “The boy showed no response to emergency treatment.
“He arrived with a very weak heartbeat and could not breathe. He was exhausted after being beaten. We were unable to save him.” The victim’s father was notified by the police of his son’s death and rushed to the town. He called the camp but officials there denied the incident had taken place. The camp’s principal, a man surnamed Xia, denied Deng had been beaten by his teachers and told the father his son was sent to hospital because of a serious fever. “But I was told the truth by my relative who is in the local police force,” the father said. After arriving at the local funeral parlor to identify his son’s body, he saw “blood all over the his face” and “wounds on his wrists were bruises from where had been restrained by handcuffs.” Photos of Deng’s body shown to the Global Times show visible injuries. The forensic doctor, surnamed Gan, who carried out a postmortem examination on Deng refused to answer any question when contacted by the Global Times.
“The teachers promised me that they would not use any physical punishment on my son when I dropped him off,” Deng Fei said. Some 40 people, including parents and Deng relatives, are calling for an investigation and demanding the camp be closed down immediately. “We’re planning to sit before the local government for a protest tomorrow. If they don’t give us justice, we will go to the camp to confront them,” Deng said.
This just goes to show that any problem can be solved with death.
The question "What is race?" can be divided into two more limited ones. The answers to both questions have long been known by anthropologists, but seem not to have reached other social or behavioral scientists, let alone the public at large. And both answers differ strikingly from what we Americans think of as race.
The first question is "How can we understand the variation in physical appearance among human beings?" It is interesting to discover that Americans (including researchers, who should know better) view only a part of the variation as "racial," while other equally evident variability is not so viewed.
The second question is "How can we understand the kinds of racial classifications applied to differences in physical appearance among human beings?" Surprisingly, different cultures label these physical differences in different ways. Far from describing biological entities, American racial categories are merely one of numerous, very culture-specific schemes for reducingun-certainty about how people shoUld respond to other people. The fact that Americans believe that Asians blacks, Hispanics, and whites constitute biological entities called races is a matter of cultural interest rather than scientific substance. It tells us something about American culture -- but nothing at all about the human species.
The short answer to the question "What is race?" is: There is no such thing. Race is a myth. And our racial classification scheme is loaded with pure fantasy
Culture, on the other, hand presents a different tale.
So two of my friends computers will not advance past the first desktop screen.
Not in regular mode. Not in safe mode. The task manager, however, comes up if you hit the keystroke. Last known good config will not work. System restore may be switched off on the laptop. Where do I start in helping them?
At least 19 bald eagles died Friday after gorging themselves on a truck full of fish waste outside a processing plant.
Fifty or more eagles swarmed into the truck, whose retractable fabric cover was open, after the truck was moved outside the plant, said Brandon Saito, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service who coordinated the recovery operation.
The birds became too soiled to fly or clean themselves, and with temperatures in the mid-teens, began to succumb to the cold. Some birds became so weak they sank into the fish slime and were crushed.
The truck's contents had to be dumped onto the floor of the Ocean Beauty Seafoods plant so the birds could be retrieved. Some tried to scatter, but since they couldn't fly, wildlife officers soon retrieved them. The eagles were then cleaned with dish soap in tubs of warm water to remove the oily slime and warm them.
The survivors were taken to a heated fish and wildlife warehouse to recover, though some were in critical condition. Saito said they would be released as soon as they were dry and strong enough.
The dead birds will be shipped to a U.S. Department of Interior clearinghouse, where Native American groups could apply to be given the birds or their feathers for ceremonial purposes.
Requests for interviews from Ocean Beauty officials were not returned.
Commercial fishing is the main industry in Kodiak, a city of about 6,000 on Kodiak Island on the south coast of Alaska.
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