Going back in time with Google Earth
Google Earth has added a Wayback Machine of satellite images over the years. In the application, click the clock icon at the upper left. If there are multiple images available in that region, you'll get a sliding timeline that'll let you check them out. depending on where you're looking you may find images dating back as far as 1945, which you can step through shot by shot.
It's a nifty way of seeing how often your location of choice has been snapped by the birds and at what resolution. (Wow, remember when satellite images were black and white? Neither did we.) It's definitely a work in progress; in particular, areas with 3D views available don't seem to display correctly. And it's not half as cool as Superman flying backwards to spin the world the other way and turn back time -- if that could be done on behalf of our friends in, say, Jakarta or North Dakota, we have no doubt Google would. For now, though, enjoy the free time travel.
Enter the Jaunty Jackalope: Ubuntu 9.04 begins in beta
Download Ubuntu 9.04 "Jaunty Jackalope" beta from Fileforum now.
Canonical today released the public beta version of Ubuntu 9.04, signifying to those on the "every-six-months-give-or-take-a-week" Ubuntu update schedule that a new, stable OS will be available in just about one month (April 23 to be exact.)
'Earth Hour' looks for public show of support for Kyoto Protocol U-turn
In December 1997, 37 industrialized nations entered into an agreement signed in Kyoto, Japan, to begin reducing carbon emissions into the Earth's atmosphere by five-percent increments beginning in 2005. Since that time, 181 nations and the European Union have ratified the Kyoto Accord. But the United States -- at the beginning, one of its driving forces, and still believed to be the world's principal emitter of carbon pollution -- never ratified or endorsed the treaty.
It was a fact cited frequently during the campaign of then-US Presidential candidate Joe Biden, now Vice President: After the US turned its back on Kyoto, in a manner that could not be construed as anything other than intentional and a vote against climate change measures, much of the rest of the world perceived the US' move as an implied endorsement of coal-burning plants. As described by Newsweek editor Fareed Zakaria in his 2008 book The Post-American World:
Survey: Open source will be 'most disruptive' to databases and OS
At a time when corporate IT budgets are shrinking, 96 percent of participants in the latest Future of Open Source 2009 Survey said they think the economy's turbulence is "good" for open source, a number up substantially over last year's figure of 81 percent.
Open source software will be "most disruptive" over the next five years to IT sectors that include databases and operating systems, but "least disruptive" to areas such as office productivity and security tools. When asked to identify the sector most susceptible to disruption, 52% of respondents pointed to databases, 36% to OS, 28% to business intelligence, and 22% to Web content management.
Entellium, providing 100% of your daily irony requirement
In Seattle, two former executives of Entellium are to be sentenced today for cooking the books to attract venture-cap funding to their firm. Parrish Jones and Paul Johnston (the latter a former Apple exec) plead guilty back in December to inflating sales numbers for their award-winning CRM software, subsequently acquired by Intuit. That's right: They falsified sales numbers for software designed to track sales numbers.
Myka set-top box nears completion, BitTorrent on TV awaits
Internet video startup Myka may have had a brief rough spell before its Linux-driven set top BitTorrent box could become a reality, but the first products will soon be touching down in consumer living rooms.
The initial manufacturing run of Myka's 80 GB, 160 GB, and 500 GB high-definition set-top boxes will be completed on April 6. These boxes are equipped with a built-in BitTorrent client and support for most of the video and audio codecs applicable to the enjoyment of the peer-to-peer technology.
Mozilla to release urgent 'chemspill' Firefox update next week
Download the "code-frozen" early version of Firefox 3.0.8 for Windows from Fileforum now.
The Mozilla organization has issued a "code freeze" for its next update to the Firefox 3.0 production Web browser series. As a result, a version of Firefox 3.0.8 went live this morning on Mozilla's servers, although the organization's planners are saying that an announcement of the version's official release may come as late as next Wednesday.
Here comes the Cloud Manifesto, to be signed by the usual suspects
The leader of a company called Enomaly, which manufactures an elastic computing platform toolkit for companies to build their own cloud computing platforms, is the "instigator" -- to use his own word for it -- behind a document referenced by Microsoft yesterday calling upon manufacturers in the cloud space to come together. The "Open Cloud Manifesto" is being drafted now, and will be revealed Monday at a cloud interoperability conference in New York City. Betanews will be on hand to cover it.
The manifesto will be the founding document of a group called the Cloud Computing Interoperability Forum, which describes itself as having been "formed in order to enable a global cloud computing ecosystem whereby organizations are able to seamlessly work together for the purposes for wider industry adoption of cloud computing technology and related services. A key focus will be placed on the creation of a common agreed upon framework / ontology that enables the ability of two or more cloud platforms to exchange information in an unified manor."
Paul Allen's Charter Communications: Bankrupt
Charter Communications, the United States' third largest cable company -- headed by Microsoft co-founder, owner of the Seattle Seahawks and Portland Trailblazers, Paul Allen -- has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
The company announced on February 12 that it would begin the "financial restructuring" processes pending agreements from committee members and debtors. Today, the restructuring officially began.
Crossed swords: Nvidia countersues Intel over chipsets for Nehalem
In a court filing in Delaware district court today, revealed by the filer itself, Nvidia is counterclaiming that Intel had no right to tell the general public -- by way of the court -- that Nvidia was not licensed to produce chipsets for motherboards based on Intel's Nehalem processor architecture.
"Nvidia admits that it believes that Intel has violated its contractual obligations and has improperly made statements to the effect that Intel does not believe, or 'disputes,' that Nvidia is licensed to market [Media and Communications Processor] chipsets," reads the text of Nvidia's countersuit filed this morning (redacted PDF available here).
Google to lay off 200, half in US
A fresh round of cuts at Google contradicts the company's January statement that further layoffs would probably not be necessary. Google will cut about 200 jobs, about half from US operations, in a move the company says should eliminate certain areas of overlap within the corporate structure.
The job cuts were announced and described in a blog post by Omid Kordestani, Google's senior VP for global sales and business development, who lays the need for them to a certain amount of disorderly growth during the boom time. Those affected will be given time to seek other positions within the company, and those who do not will be given the usual outplacement support and severance options.
Finally, Google delivers the search we BlackBerry users expected
I still like to take my wife on dates. Call me old-fashioned, or just call me old. We sometimes only manage to get away on the spur-of-the-moment, and if we can get a table at one of our favorite places, we're lucky.
Anyway, in low-light situations, I can't exactly maintain whatever fleeting resemblance I may have had to a debonair man-on-the-town if I'm fidgeting with the BlackBerry's default browser trying to locate movie times. I could keep my cool if I could just say, "Movies," into the little speaker that comes as standard equipment with these new phones nowadays, and get a list.
Apple sets WWDC date: June 8-12
Today, Apple officially announced that its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is scheduled this year for June 8-12 at the Moscone West convention center in San Francisco, California. The conference plays host to some big Apple announcements, generally one focused on operating systems, one about new software, and one about hardware or platform developments.
Last year, the big announcement was the iPhone 3G, but MobileMe was also premiered, and a look at OS 10.6, also known as "Snow Leopard," was given. At that time, the release date for the OS was simply "next year." A later timeline from Apple showed its release as "Q1 2009."
Best Buy has a pleasant Q4; now, about that customer service...
The fourth quarter was a better period than expected for electronics retailer Best Buy, which on Thursday reported net earnings of $570 million -- down 23% year-over-year, but above expectations and mid-quarter guidance, and sufficient to precipitate an EPS of $1.35.
Seriously, in this economy? According to the company, store sales were indeed down by nearly 5%. But that was offset by revenue gains from new store openings (seriously, in this economy?) and an improvement in the gross profit rate. And, said outgoing CEO Brad Anderson, the quarter finished stronger than it began -- so much so that previously enacted inventory reductions came back to bite them, as eager customers found inventory shortages on wanted products.
Lenovo intros ultra 'green' Windows and Linux PCs
Outfitted with Intel Turbo Charger technology for more efficient performance during peak periods, Lenovo's new S20 and D20 PCs are also largely made up of recycled materials.
Priced from about $1,070 to $1,550, the PCs come with a choice of Intel Nehalem-based Xeon 5300 and W3500 processors, and between Nvidia Quadro and ATI Firepro graphics.
© 1998-2025 BetaNews, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy - Cookie Policy.