Google Employee at the Earthquake in Japan

I was in the middle of writing code when the Google Japan office, on the 26th floor of Roppongi Hills in Tokyo, started shaking slowly. The rocking gradually increased, and I looked out the window to see the surrounding buildings all swaying ominously. Although alerts from the building urged us to evacuate via the emergency stairs, I couldn't help but stay and search for information about the earthquake’s epicenter and scale. Amidst a series of aftershocks rocking our office, a small group of us in Tokyo and several other Google offices started gathering information about the earthquake to create the Crisis Response information page.

As someone who experienced the Kobe earthquake 16 years ago when I was at university, I cannot forget the immediate desire for information. There was no way to find out where people's family and friends were, if transportation would be available to get us home, and most importantly, whether we would be able to find shelter.

Read full Story: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/assembling-resources-following.html

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Before and After Earthquake, Tsunami in Japan

In response to the devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunami that struck Japan, we’ve worked with our satellite imagery providers to get the latest available data of the areas affected most.

To view this high-resolution imagery, courtesy of our partners at GeoEye, download this KML file and explore it in Google Earth. You can also explore the imagery with Google Maps, or have a look at this Picasa album of before-and-after shots. Here’s a sample:

Full Story: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/post-earthquake-imagery-of-japan.html

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New Insights with Blogger

2010 was a big year for Blogger. We cemented ourselves as one of the largest blogging platforms and the sixth largest website in the world, according to Alexa. Blogger users published more than half a billion blog posts, which were read by more than 400 million active readers across the globe. We introduced template designer, real-time stats, comment spam filtering, mobile templates, web fonts and more. And to top it all off, we were dubbed the most reliable blogging service around.

2011 promises to be another exciting year.

To start, we’re kicking things off at SXSW by giving folks a sneak peek at our next-generation user interface. The new design is not only cleaner and more modern, but it also uses Google Web Toolkit, delivering the latest in web technology.

Full Story: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/whats-new-with-blogger.html

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CSUN International Technology & Persons with Disabilities Conference

This week we’ll be at the 26th annual CSUN International Technology & Persons with Disabilities Conference to talk with users and accessibility experts about how to make our products more accessible to people with disabilities. We’ll also give a talk on the current state of accessibility for our products.

We’ve been working in this space for a while, launching features such as captions on YouTube, applications such as WalkyTalky and Intersection Explorer on Android (so people can use Google Maps eyes-free) and building easy-to-navigate, accessible Google search pages to work smoothly with adaptive technologies.

We have more to do. At CSUN 2011, we’re looking forward to more insights about how to make Android, Chrome and Google Apps better enabled for people who rely on assistive technologies like screen readers. If you’re attending and are interested in participating in our focus groups there, please fill out our survey by 9pm PST today, Tuesday, March 15.

To see an overview of the accessibility features of our products today, visit google.com/accessibility. We're launching an updated version of this site later today to make it easier for visitors to find information on using our products, and for developers and publishers to learn how to develop accessible products on our platforms. While you’re there, please give us feedback on what we can do better to make our products more accessible.

Posted by Naomi Black,
Engineering Program Manager for Accessibility
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/supporting-accessibility-at-csun.html

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Bahrain is in Emergency, Soldiers Attacked Protesters Rudely. Watch Exclusive Photographs

Bahrain, March 15: Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa declared a state of emergency for three-months, state television said, a day after soldiers from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states poured into the kingdom to support its government.

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2011 Japan (Sendai) earthquake and tsunami

The 2011 Sendai earthquake and tsunami was a 9.0MW megathrust earthquake off the coast of Japan that occurred at 05:46 UTC (14:46 local time) on 11 March 2011. The epicenter was reported to be 130 kilometers (81 mi) off the east coast of the Oshika Peninsula, Tōhoku, with the hypocenter at a depth of 24.4 kilometers (15.2 mi).

The earthquake triggered tsunami warnings and evacuations from Japan's Pacific coast and at least 20 countries, including the entire Pacific coast of North America and South America. The earthquake created tsunami waves of up to 10 meters (33 ft) that struck Japan, with smaller waves in many other countries. In Japan, the waves are reported to have travelled up to 10 kilometers (6 mi) inland.

There have been more than 637 reported deaths and at least 10,000 people reported missing in six prefectures. The earthquake caused extensive damage in Japan, including heavy damage to roads and railways as well as fires in many areas, and a dam collapse. Around 4.4 million households in northeastern Japan were left without electricity and 1.4 million without water. Many electrical generators were taken down, and at least two nuclear reactors melted down, which prompted evacuations of the affected areas, and a state of emergency was established. The Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant experienced an explosion almost 24 hours after the initial earthquake; however, while the blast caused the collapse of the concrete outer containment building, it was reported that the integrity of the inner core-containment vessel was not compromised. Residents within a 20-kilometer (12 mi) radius of the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant and a 10-kilometer (6.2 mi) radius of the Fukushima II Nuclear Power Plant were evacuated.

The estimates of the Sendai earthquake's magnitude made it the most powerful earthquake to hit Japan and one of the five most powerful earthquakes in the world overall since modern record-keeping began. It is thought to have been the largest earthquake within the boundaries of the North American and Pacific tectonic plates in 1,200 years --> Read More

Source: Wikipedia

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Windows 7 SP1 beta released for Home Users

Finally Microsoft has released much awaited windows 7 Service-pack Windows 7 along with Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Beta.

Windows 7 SP1 will include several hotfix patches and RemoteFX, a new enhancement to RDP’s graphical remoting capabilities that should provide provides rich 3-D graphical experience for remote users. Windows 7 SP1 will also come with new virtualization tools that will help Windows Server 2008 R2 users prepare for cloud computing.

Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Beta will help you:

* Keep your PCs supported and up-to-date
* Get ongoing updates to the Windows 7 platform
* Easily deploy cumulative updates at a single time
* Meet your users' demands for greater business mobility
* Provide a comprehensive set of virtualization innovations
* Provide an easier Service Pack deployment model for better IT efficiency

This SP1 Beta helps keep your PCs and servers on the latest support level, provides ongoing improvements to the Windows Operating System (OS), by including previous updates delivered over Windows Update as well as continuing incremental updates to the Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 platforms based on customer and partner feedback.

This early release of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Beta is not available for home users. In order to download and install the Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Beta you must currently have a Release to Manufacturing (RTM) version of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 already installed.

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Get Invitation for Facebook Email account | Facebook E-Mail

Few days ago, Mark Zuckerberg, founder of social networking giant Facebook revealed the new email service from Facebook. The service, perceived as a direct rival to Google’s Gmail, marks a new front in the ongoing and increasingly bitter battle between Facebook and Google to gain the loyalty of users.

Now registration of Facebook mail service has been started by facebook and anyone on facebook can get a free Invitation. Visit: http://www.facebook.com/about/messages/ To Register for the the Email service.


Just click on Request Invite and soon you will receive an invitation from facebook.

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New windows messages

The following are new Windows messages that are under consideration for the planned Windows 9x/xp/vista:

• Smash forehead on keyboard to continue.
• Enter any 11-digit prime number to continue.
• Press any key to continue or any other key to quit.
• Press any key except... no, No, NO, NOT THAT ONE!
• Press Ctrl-Alt-Del now for IQ test.
• Close your eyes and press escape three times.
• Bad command or file name! Go stand in the corner.
• This will end your Windows session. Do you want to play another game?
• Windows message: "Error saving file! Format drive now? (Y/Y)"
• This is a message from God Gates: "Rebooting the world. Please log off."
• To "shut down" your system, type "WIN."
• BREAKFAST.SYS halted... Cereal port not responding.
• COFFEE.SYS missing... Insert cup in cup holder and press any key.
• CONGRESS.SYS corrupted... Re-boot Washington D.C? (Y/N)
• File not found. Should I fake it? (Y/N)
• Bad or missing mouse. Spank the cat? (Y/N)
• Runtime Error 6D at 417A:32CF: Incompetent User.
• Error reading FAT record: Try the SKINNY one? (Y/N)
• WinErr 16547: LPT1 not found. Use backup. (PENCIL & PAPER.SYS)
• User Error: Replace user.
• Windows VirusScan 1.0 - "Windows found: Remove it? (Y/N)"
• Welcome to Microsoft's World - Your Mortgage is Past Due...
• If you are an artist, you should know that Bill Gates owns you and all your future creations. Doesn't it feel nice to have security?
• Your hard drive has been scanned and all stolen software titles have been deleted. The police are on the way.

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Backing Up Your Data - Easy As USB drive

Why is it that simple steps often are overlooked? A great example is backing up all that data on your hardrive. From flash drives to external USB drives, backing up gigabytes of your most important files, digital photos, mp3 music, etc… has become easy and cost effective thanks to USB.

Why USB?

Because it's simple to connect and easy to drag and drop directories or files to the USB drive. When you're finished, just unplug the drive and keep it in a safe place. No more excuses NOT to backup your data.

You just can't beat the price. From 1GB flash memory to 250GB of storage, prices can range from $20 - $250. A small investment that will pay dividends when you discover your PC hard drive just died.

High speed connection. USB 2.0 data transfer speeds are blazing fast, as much as 450Mbps (mega bits per second). Gone are the days of the slow moving flying folders across your monitor.

Portability. From storing 1byte to hundreds of Gigabytes, you now have no more excuses that the dog ate your report.

Plug and Play. USB drives are fully compatible with Windows, Macintosh and Linux operating systems. Depending on the format of the drive, the possibility exists to copy data from one OS and connect to another without needing to be a Computer expert.

Simple. Ahhh yes, we as human love simple things. So why is that we never have time to backup what we consider important data. If you took inventory of the type data you keep on your PC, it will probably surprise you. Losing that data is like losing everything if your house burnt down to the ground. Sure, your USB drive will also be gone, but you probably take precautions with important paperwork by keeping them in a fireproof safe or at another location. Isn't time that you add digital data to that same thinking?

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