A nice description of what Google is doing with Chrome, netbooks and Android

Google delays netbook plans for Chrome OS to mid 2011
[Via AppleInsider]

Google’s plan to bring a web-centric, open operating system to netbooks has been delayed until the first half of 2011 as the company continues to work on Chrome OS, originally expected to launch this summer. The OS is held up on a wide variety of problems, from missing hardware support to Android-like fragmentation.

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Android goes on phones and Chrome is for netbooks, except that netbooks are declining because of the iPad. So Chrome will be reworked for a pad. BUt the hardware is all different.

And Chrome may not have things like printing abilities.

All very confusing. iOS is simple. One OS that works on devices from the pocket to the lap to the desk. One development path. Defined hardware. All buttons in one place. Native apps for everyone. And a year or two head start.

I wonder if Chrome will even be relevant when it finally makes an appearance?

[Listening to: Rainbow Blues from the album "War Child" by Jethro Tull]

The scary thing is that the Wikileaks saga is working as intended.

Freedom Of Expression Is Priceless… For Everything Else, There’s Mastercard
[Via Techdirt]

The title of this post is from Rinze, who perfectly sums up the ridiculousness of MasterCard blocking any payment systems that are working with Wikileaks from allowing people to use its card. MasterCard’s excuse is even more ridiculous than Paypal, Amazon and others. Rather than drudging up some sort of “terms of service violation,” MasterCard is now just making stuff up:

MasterCard said it was cutting off payments because WikiLeaks is engaging in illegal activity. “MasterCard rules prohibit customers from directly or indirectly engaging in or facilitating any action that is illegal,” spokesman Chris Monteiro said.

That’s nice, but last we checked, for something to be found guilty of illegal activity, first they have to be charged and tried, and only after a court decides it’s illegal, is it actually considered illegal. To date, Wikileaks hasn’t been even charged with anything, let alone found guilty. Apparently MasterCard isn’t a big believer in due process either. It’s actually very unlikely that Wikileaks actually has done anything illegal. It is against the law to leak such documents but publishing those documents is still protected activity. Except to MasterCard.

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As I wrote earlier, it is within their rights, I guess, as a business to refuse to work with a group. However, the reason is specious and indicates some added pressure since groups which have engaged and supported actual proven crimes, like the KKK, can still use Mastercard and VISA.

Wikileaks may not be a wonderful group but they have not been charged with anything and have not been found guilty of any crime. Yet for some reason, all these businesses are cutting them off.

They were not cut off for the last year when they were doing the same thing. Just now.

We should all be worried when political pressures cause businesses to do things they would not ordinarily do. It will make it much easier next time. How about for a political opponent? or just someone who disagrees? We are seeing Congressmen ask for the resurrection of a HUAC-like investigations looking at the spread of Marxism in this country. Would McCarthy be able to get VISA/Mastercard to refuse business with any accused Communist? I bet he would have tried if he could.

But we should really be worried because the reactions we are seeing are exactly what Wikileaks wants to happen – their approach is working as expected. Read what their founder has written about his purpose behind all of this. He believes that by bringing down the edifice a better order will arise.

He is an anarchist of the worst sort – he is successful. The actions that may be taken in response to Wikileaks could be a damaging to our current political structures as 9/11 was to our civil rights. Look no further to the latest TSA muckup and to Napaolitano’s program of having us spy on each other – earn about it at a Walmart checkout counter soon – to how our rights have been degraded.

So far, Wikileaks has not done anything more that the NYT did when it released the Pentagon Papers. No newspaper has been held accountable for publishing any of these leaks. It has not be charged officially with any crime.

Yet its money flows have been cut off, its Swiss bank accounts have been put in limbo, its website is under constant – and illegal – attack. Those are exactly what he wants us to do.

It will not get better as we go forward unless we alter our tactics and resppnses.

The anti-Windows Phone 7 ad

Google’s Ad for the Nexus S
[Via Daring Fireball]

Good catch by Jay Yarow:

As part of the hoopla for the new phone, Google produced a new ad which is slightly disorienting to watch. It’s someone looking at their phone walking around.

Funny enough, this is almost the exact opposite pitch that Microsoft is making with Windows Phone 7.

It really is the opposite message.

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The ad really highlights the problems I find wrong with the MS ads. Look at the MS ‘Oh, really?” ad.

The MS ad is all about having such a great phone you hardly spend anytime with it. The Google is all about having an awesome phone that helps you get places, overcome hurdles and experience life on a level impossible without the phone.

The MS ad inhabits a mundane world where people fall down stairs, go to the bathroom and have major surgery. The Google ad inhabits a world of magic, beaches, surprises and an awe inspiring bedroom.

The MS ad does not expect we are smart enough to ‘get’ the commercial so it adds a voiceover at the end to explain it to us. The Google ad is confident in itself and expects us to get the ad without voiceovers.

The MS ad uses scary classical music to make us feel uneasy. The Google ad uses a catchy tune talking about love and happiness.

The MS ad embarrasses us for using our phone. The Google ad exalts us. The MS ad is all about how other people feel.The Google ad is all about how we feel.

The MS ad makes us feel bad. The Google ad makes us feel happy.

If you want to buy a phone, which approach would work better?

Worse pun of the week

by tibchris

Dog on a plane
[Via Boing Boing]

A flight was diverted to Pittsburgh after a little old lady’s dog escaped its box and went on a yapping rampage. She was allowed to board another flight but may be charged with terrierism.[The Star]

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As one commenter stated: That was uncollied for!

China to have 500 gigawatts of renewable energy in 10 years. US has hard time with 16 gigawatts.

from Wikipedia

Energy and Global Warming News for December 6th: China to hit 500 gigawatts of renewable power by 2020; NY carbon auction yields $16.9 million; Michigan Senate’s $160 million high-speed rail opportunity
[Via Climate Progress]

JR: The staggering imbalance between the scale of clean energy action being pursued by China and that pursued by this country grows clearer every day.

China to hit 500 Gigawatts of Renewable Power by 2020!

On the same day that Senate Republicans filibustered a vote for renewable energy in the USA, by contrast – China has just published an astoundingly ambitious and exciting renewable energy plan for the next ten years.

China’s plan is to get a total of 500 Gigawatts of renewable energy on the grid by 2020. It explodes wind power from a mere 25 GW on the grid now, to a staggering 150 GW, a six-fold increase on the previous already ambitious plan.

Liquid fuels would get a boost. The plan would grow ethanol production from 2 million tons to 10 million tons, to expand biodiesel from 0.05 million tons to 2 million tons, biomass pellets for heating, from under a million tons to 50 million tons, and biogas and biomass gasification from 8 billion cubic meters to 44 billion cubic meters.

China is already the world leader in solar thermal hot water heaters for rooftops. The solar hot water goal is to have 300 million square meters of solar hot water collectors, up from 100 million in 2006.

Electric power would come from adding 100 GW to make 300 GW of hydro power, adding 125 GW to have 150 GW of wind power, adding 28 GW to have 30 GW of biopower, and going from a half Gigawatt to 20 GW of solar. Giant steps.

To put that in perspective: the US will have added 16 GW of all renewable energy combined once the Obama administration Recovery Act funds are allocated – which, while a fabulous change for us, because it doubles the entire last thirty years of renewables on the grid – pales by comparison with 500 GW.

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China has an energy plan that may produce 500 GW from renewables by 2020. Some estimates place their entire energy usage then at 1500 GW. So one third of all their energy use would come from renewable resources. Projections for the US are that around 10% of our energy production will be renewables by that time.

The US has no energy plan. Thus we waste 200 GW of energy. We are likely to reduce our spending on renewables.

No plan. I used to think the US was made up of ants but it seems that it is being run by grasshoppers. “Prepare for want before it comes.”

The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering the prisons

by Tim Pearce, Los Gatos

Private Prison Barbarism
[Via Dispatches from the Culture Wars]

Here’s an appalling story of guards at a private prison just standing by and watching as one inmate beat another so severely that the man suffered serious brain damage:

The surveillance video from the overhead cameras shows Hanni Elabed being beaten by a fellow inmate in an Idaho prison, managing to bang on a prison guard station window, pleading for help. Behind the glass, correctional officers look on, but no one intervenes when Elabed is knocked unconscious.

No one steps into the cellblock when the attacker sits down to rest, and no one stops him when he resumes the beating.

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Dostoevsky said that. It is a potent indictment of our prison system that we seem to be descending into something most Russians would easily identify with.

And what the private prison company is upset about is that the video is being shown, not that its employees stood and watched. Or that medical attention arrived many minutes late.

The prison apparently uses these inmate-on-inmate incidents to coerce prisoners. Better give the guards what they want. Otherwise, get transferred to the violent wing.

In this case, the prisoner was so badly beaten that he had to be released because the prison could not care for him.

Of course, the AP is publishing these without the permission of either the company or the courts. Sometimes exposing leaked information may have a useful purpose.