5 Cool Google Services You May Not Know

Google has made the life everyone on the Internet more easily. When talking about this multi billion dollar company, most people are already familiar with its products and inventions such as Google Search Engine, Gmail, Google Docs, Google Reader, Picasa, or Google Calendar, each of these products play a big role in our daily lives.

Google allows us to discover new things, send email, set up our stuff, share photos, and more. It only includes mainstream Google product. Google is always experimenting and trying new things. If I ask you to name each and every one of Google's products, you may not be familiar with the lesser-known products. This article will tell you about 5 major Google services that are not very well known.

1.      Google Notebook

How do you make a note of things while you are browsing the site on the Internet? Google Notebook is the answer! Google Notebook is a powerful and helpful alternative that lets you store your notes online. This will help while you work on any project or when you're collecting information. The best part about Google Notebook is that you can access it anywhere you want, as long as the computer has an active internet connection. This free online application is available as an extension for browsers Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer. 

2.      Google SketchUp

Google SketchUp is a free application designed to make 3D sketches.
Unlike other conventional 3D CAD program, SketchUp is very pleasant to work with with a user friendly graphical interface. You can even search for designs created by other users in the Google SketchUp, so you can get inspiration for your own design.

3.      Google PageCreator

Google Page Creator is a web-based application that can be used to create websites and web pages. Page you create will be hosted by Google itself.
Google Page Creator gives you 100MB of free storage space and a variety of templates to choose from. This allows you to handle all HTML elements and JavaScript without much knowledge of them. It also offers three unique for each user subdomain, such as http://username.googlepages.com.

4.      Google Base

Google Base allows anyone who has a Google account to post anything (text or graphics) as long as the post still complies with Google Policy and Regulations.
The contents that can be posted can be text format, ad, lecture notes or even recipes. Whatever type of content, Google Base makes the content searchable on Google. You are even allowed to add your own words that will help people to find your content.

5.      Google Movies

Google Movies lets you find movies that are currently playing near your house. It is basically a search engine that allows you to find a movie playing in theaters near you.
Now, you do not need to browse the newspaper to find what films/movies are currently screened

The New Richest Man in the World !

Some of you may already heard the name Bill Gates. This phenomenon figure is one that is very familiar to most people, and it's really a shame if somebody, especially in the IT world doesn't recognize the person. As the founder of the multinational computer technology corporation Microsoft, he is often considered as the richest man in the world according to various sources. His position has only been replaced by American investor and businessman, Warren Buffet, for a couple of months tops.

Well, as of March 2010, Gates' position as the wealthiest man on the planet has been displaced by Carlos Slim Helu, a Mexican Businessman in the Telecommunications field. Slim's fortune has swelled to an estimated $53.5 billion, up $18.5 billion in 12 months. Shares of America Movil, of which Slim owns a $23 billion stake, were up 35% in a year. This occurance is the first time for Carlos Slim Helu to take the number 1 position replacing Bill Gates, who's been on top for the past 14 years.

Visit http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/09/worlds-richest-people-slim-gates-buffett-billionaires-2010-intro.html for a complete detail on the news.

Google Chrome OS, New Operating System from Google

 Are you eager to try out a new operating system?If you are, then I have good news for you. Get ready for a new Operating System made by Google called Chrome OS. Announced on July 7, 2009, Chrome OS is set to have a publicly available stable release during the second half of 2010. The operating system is based on Linux and targets specifically designed hardware. Google Chrome OS is aimed at users who spend most of their computer time on the Internet.



Here are some info about the Chrome OS.

• Every application in Chrome OS will be a web-based application — there won’t be any local apps installed
• You can pin shortcuts to apps in the browser
• Fast boot times (under 7 seconds) will be partially due to the light environment, but also due to the requirement for Solid State Disk storage
• No mention of smartbooks; Chrome OS looks targeted solely for netbooks
• Support for X86 and ARM, so there’s still hope for smartbooks running Chrome OS
• All Google apps you see today will look and behave exactly the same in Chrome OS
• Android apps will not be compatible — remember, no local apps installed.
• Google will work with partners on the hardware that runs the operating system
• Main use case for Chrome OS requires connectivity, such as Wi-Fi. Google is planning for 802.11n support
• Chrome OS devices aren’t intended to be your primary machine. Google assumes you have a second computer at home or work
• Google was coy on device pricing but said to expect prices that customers are used to today. I take that to be around $300 to $400
• Local user data is simply stored in a cache. The book of record for your data will be on Google’s servers
• You won’t need a Chrome OS machine to use it. Most all of the Chrome OS features will be baked into the Chrome browser.
• Interesting approach to security: “Chrome OS barely trusts itself. Every time you restart your computer the operating system verifies the integrity of its code. If your system has been compromised, it is designed to fix itself with a reboot.”

Free ISP from GOOGLE !!

For you internet lovers out there, especially in the US and Canada regions, Google has just released a new service called Google TiSP (Toilet Internet Service Provider). It's a wireless broadband service provided by Google. What makes it different from other broadband services out there?Well that's the point of this post, because this service is FREE!! Yes, that's right all you have to do is Sign Up and you will be delivered a TiSp self-installation kit, which includes a setup guide, fiber-iptic cable, spindle, wireless router and instalation CD.

Here are some advantages of using Google Tisp :

• 
  Free, fast and highly reliable
  
• 
  Easy to install -- takes just minutes
  
• 
  Vacuum-sealed to prevent water damage
  

Unfortunately, this is considered as one of Google's Hoaxes, so there's really not much going on about it until now. Well,at least there's something new to think about involving innovative services, and it would be quite a blast if it were to be released in actual.

50 Facts about Barack Obama

As we all know, Barack Obama had just been elected as the 44th President of the United States. Throughout his campaign, we've learned many things about his history in politics as well as a fellow citizen. But there might be some facts where they might not have been revealed during that period, because of certain reasons. Here are some interesting facts about the President himself, that you might not know of before :

• He collects Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics
• He was known as "O'Bomber" at high school for his skill at basketball
• His name means "one who is blessed" in Swahili
• His favourite meal is wife Michelle's shrimp linguini
• He won a Grammy in 2006 for the audio version of his memoir, Dreams From My Father
• He is left-handed – the sixth post-war president to be left-handed
• He has read every Harry Potter book
• He owns a set of red boxing gloves autographed by Muhammad Ali
• He worked in a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop as a teenager and now can't stand ice cream
• His favourite snacks are chocolate-peanut protein bars
• He ate dog meat, snake meat, and roasted grasshopper while living in Indonesia
• He can speak Spanish
• While on the campaign trail he refused to watch CNN and had sports channels on instead
• His favourite drink is black forest berry iced tea
• He promised Michelle he would quit smoking before running for president – he didn't
• He kept a pet ape called Tata while in Indonesia
• He can bench press an impressive 200lbs
• He was known as Barry until university when he asked to be addressed by his full name
• His favourite book is Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
• He visited Wokingham, Berks, in 1996 for the stag party of his half-sister's fiancé, but left when a stripper arrived
• His desk in his Senate office once belonged to Robert Kennedy
• He and Michelle made $4.2 million (£2.7 million) last year, with much coming from sales of his books
• His favourite films are Casablanca and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
• He carries a tiny Madonna and child statue and a bracelet belonging to a soldier in Iraq for good luck
• He applied to appear in a black pin-up calendar while at Harvard but was rejected by the all-female committee.
• His favourite music includes Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Bach and The Fugees
• He took Michelle to see the Spike Lee film Do The Right Thing on their first date
• He enjoys playing Scrabble and poker
• He doesn't drink coffee and rarely drinks alcohol
• He would have liked to have been an architect if he were not a politician
• As a teenager he took drugs including marijuana and cocaine
• His daughters' ambitions are to go to Yale before becoming an actress (Malia, 10) and to sing and dance (Sasha, 7)
• He hates the youth trend for trousers which sag beneath the backside
• He repaid his student loan only four years ago after signing his book deal
• His house in Chicago has four fire places
• Daughter Malia's godmother is Jesse Jackson's daughter Santita
• He says his worst habit is constantly checking his BlackBerry
• He uses an Apple Mac laptop
• He drives a Ford Escape Hybrid, having ditched his gas-guzzling Chrysler 300
• He wears $1,500 (£952) Hart Schaffner Marx suits
• He owns four identical pairs of black size 11 shoes
• He has his hair cut once a week by his Chicago barber, Zariff, who charges $21 (£13)
• His favourite fictional television programmes are Mash and The Wire
• He was given the code name "Renegade" by his Secret Service handlers
• He was nicknamed "Bar" by his late grandmother
• He plans to install a basketball court in the White House grounds
• His favourite artist is Pablo Picasso
• His speciality as a cook is chilli
• He has said many of his friends in Indonesia were "street urchins"
• He keeps on his desk a carving of a wooden hand holding an egg, a Kenyan symbol of the fragility of life
• His late father was a senior economist for the Kenyan government
Taken from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/3401168/Barack-Obama-The-50-facts-you-might-not-know.html

Most Tatooed Person

Are you a fan of Blink 182 in the past? If you are, you might notice the personels of the band has a bunch of tatooes all over their body. Maybe almost all Rock artists in the West are similar, because it's a way to show their manliness. But have you ever seen someone tatooed ALL OVER HIS BODY?Yes that's right, from head to toe, his body is covered in tatoo. His name is Lucky Diamond Rich, he holds the world record for the man with the most tatooes in his body. Born in New Zealand, he has spent over 1,000 hours having his body modified by hundreds of tattoo artists. He began by having a full collection of colourful designs from around the world tattooed over his entire body. But not content with stopping there, Lucky next opted for a 100% covering of black ink, including eyelids, the delicate skin between the toes, down into the ears, and even his gums. He is now being tattooed with white designs on top of the black, and coloured designs on top of the white!

Imagine Cup 2009

Yesterday my campus (Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia) was visited by a representative from Microsoft Indonesia, and 2 MSPs (Microsoft Student Partner) from UGM. What's the occasion of their coming to my campus? Other than to introduce MSDNAA (Microsoft Developer Network Academic Alliance), it's to publicize a competition which had been conducted by Microsoft for several years. Imagine Cup 2009 is the name of that competition. The world's premier student technology competition, is how Microsoft would describe this event.

What is Imagine Cup?The Imagine Cup is a global student technology competition focused on finding solutions to real-world issues. The competition encourages the world's most talented software designers, programmers, game developers, photographers and filmmakers to tackle the toughest problems facing the world today. Imagine Cup has several categories that can be joined. The categories are :

1. Software Design
2. 
   
   Embedded Development
3. 
   
   Game Development
4. 
   
   Robotics and Algorithm
5. 
   
   IT Challenge
6. 
   
   MashUp
7. 
   
   Photography
8. 
   
   Short Film
9. 
   
   Design

( For more information, please click on the category you choose ).

For Software Design and Embedded Development category, there is a regional competition before stepping up to the finals. So participants for these categories will have to compete with participants in their region first, before finally electing one team for each category in the finals. The finals this year will be held in Egypt and every participants will be competing for a prize of $10,000 and an Internship opportunity at Microsoft's Research Technology for Emerging Markets Group in Bangalore, India as first place in each category.
Are you ready to step up to the challenge? Register your team now!!

Hacker's Motivation

Hackers are getting better and better by the day. Moreover, they're getting more numerous also. You can hack into almost any system on any network once you master the techniques of hacking. But what is it really that motivates people to become a hacker? There are many factors, but I will summarize them in these categories :

1. Money, Profit
   
There is always gonna be hackers doing their act for profit, because they can make good money in a relitively small amount of time by doing their profession
2. Acces to additional resource
   
Some hackers just wanna get the resources from their target, such as the latest technology from a certain company, names and accounts of employees, and so on.
3. Competitive advantage
   
This motivation is usually for hackers working for an institute or company, where they will use their hacking skills to topple their company's rivals
4. Personal grievance
   
Some hacker just wants to take revenge into a company that has dissapointed him in the past, by maybe dismissing him from his position.
5. Curiosity
   
Maybe the most used motivation in today's hackers. They just wanna test their skills, and some even does it for fun not stimulated by any other reasons
6. Attention
   

Many people with reasonable skills are rather not acknowledged by others, so that motivates them to prove their skill in order to get attention

Are you a hacker? Which of these motivations push you to do your action?

Opera Campus Crew

Browsers are mandatory for us to be able to access the web. There are many browsers available for you to use. But I think one of the best browsers that I have used so far is the Opera browser. I think that have done a very creative job by introducing the speed dial feature and the "mouse tabbing" (if i'm not mistaken) feature.
But other than the browser itself, and of course other softwares made by the company, I think Opera has done a very well job in socializing it's products. Not only by making a self owned Opera community, where you can create a blog and socialize with many other opera community members, but also in the education sector where they created the Opera Campus Crew Community. This is a community where you become a representative for opera in your school or university and your job is to spread the word about Opera and Web Standards on campuses and other related venues. If you are a student or educator and passionate about bringing Opera and Web Standards to your campus, I think you should become a volunteer member of the Opera Campus Crew. You might find many benefits by joining as a member, or maybe even be your Money-making activity in the future. Interested in becoming a member? Signup for your chance to become a representative at your campus for Opera

Richest Person in the World

Bill Gates is known to be the richest person in the world for more than a decade. But can he maintain his status for another decade? According to Forbes magazine, Gates is now the third richest person in the world, falling down to Warren Buffet in the top position, and Carlos Slim Helu in second.

Gates' slump is believed to be caused by the bid made by Microsoft for the search engine giant Yahoo! at the beginning of February. Microsoft shares fell 15% between January 31st, that is the day before Microsoft announced the bid, and February 11th.

Gates' fortune is calculated to be about $58 billion, up $2 billion from the year before, whereas Buffet's fortune went up $10 billion from the year before, totaling $62 billion and Carlos down by a slight $2 billion from Buffet.

Can Gates reach back his throne as the richest person in the world?? We'll see