Rich Skrenta had a good take on Google:

Google is a company that has built a single very large, custom computer. It’s running their own cluster operating system. They make their big computer even bigger and faster each month, while lowering the cost of CPU cycles. It’s looking more like a general purpose platform than a cluster optimized for a single application.

While competitors are targeting the individual applications Google has deployed, Google is building a massive, general purpose computing platform for web-scale programming.

This computer is running the world’s top search engine, a social networking service, a shopping price comparison engine, a new email service, and a local search/yellow pages engine. What will they do next with the world’s biggest computer and most advanced operating system?

As people use more and more web applications, the operating system becomes less important and it makes no sense to pay for it. The desktop mail client could be replaced by Gmail, the calendaring application could be replaced by Google Calendar, the office suite has lightweight alternatives: Google Docs and Zoho, it makes more sense to use an online feed reader like Google Reader, your scientific calculator is less powerful than Wolfram Alpha and you’ll rarely need a video player when you have YouTube, Hulu and other video sites.

“Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the Web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small Netbooks to full-size desktop systems,” Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management, and Linus Upson, engineering director, said in the blog post.

Google Chrome Operating System, is initially intended for use in the tiny, low-cost portable computers known as netbooks, which have been selling quickly even as demand for other PCs has plummeted. Google said it believed the software would also be able to power full-size PCs.

Google’s plans for the new operating system fit its Internet-centric vision of computing. Google believes that software delivered over the Web will play an increasingly central role, replacing software programs that run on the desktop. In that world, applications run directly inside an Internet browser, rather than atop an operating system, the standard software that controls most of the operations of a PC.

Google has already developed an open-source operating system called Android that is used in mobile phones. The software is also being built into netbooks by several manufacturers.

Google OS: What a Surprise…NOT! (Call it Chrome OS or Google OS) is a post from: Universal Ramblings

According to the New York Daily News, prosecutors said that Melissa Weber, 27, who taught social studies at the Junior High level, seduced the boy for a period lasting from April 13th of this year to May 14th.

The pair reportedly met a total of seven times, usually between the hours 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. according to prosecutors who spoke with the Daily News.

The New York Times wrote that the boy’s mother was a member of the Parent-Teacher Association at the school where Melissa Weber taught.

After hearing rumors regarding an inappropriate relationship between the two, the mother sought Weber’s telephone number, and began diligently searching for any evidence in her son’s cell phone.

What the mother found, according to the Times, was a very large list of calls and text messages between the boy and his teacher.

The Times also reported that one of Weber’s most recent texts was an instruction to the boy to “erase” his phone, meaning to delete any evidence of their correspondence.

Additionally, Melissa Weber reportedly told the boy to keep the affair a secret, as she could “get arrested” and “lose [her] teaching license” if any one found out about the affair.

On Thursday morning, the mother went to a local police station with her son in hand to report Weber, who is now in jail.

Weber is waiting to be arraigned on charges of rape and sexual abuse, according to the news release sent out to press by Queens district attorney Richard A. Brown, who told the Times that the charges were “very disturbing,” before adding that the classroom “should always be a safe place for a child.”

If convicted, Melissa Weber could face up to seven years in prison, according to the Times.

Mary Kay Letourneau passes the torch to… Melissa Weber is a post from: Universal Ramblings