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Now there’s an easy-to-find delete button for those messages you really don’t want. For everything else, there’s Archive. (Archive removes a message from your Inbox, but it’s still in All Mail and you can always search for it.)  Learn more
 Now we have a delete button in GMail. So no more fishing around menus for deleting a mailÂ
 Now we have a delete button in GMail. So no more fishing around menus for deleting a mail
India’s ISRO Chairman, G Madhavan Nair recently gave a brief description of a fully-reusable 2-stage satellite launch vehicle that is being planned at ISRO. From the article: ‘This is in its initial stages of vehicle configuration and the first stage is configured as a winged body configuration, which will attain an altitude of around 100 km and deliver nearly half the orbital velocity. This stage after burnout will re-enter and will be made to land horizontally on the runway, like an aircraft. The second stage after delivering the payload in the orbit will be made to re-enter the atmosphere and will be recovered using airbags either in the sea or land. This is only in its conceptual stage.’
“The first draft of version three of the GNU General Public License was released to the public this afternoon. Major improvements touted in version three include changes designed to mitigate the damage posed by new threats to free software such as software patents. One individual stated about the release: ‘It is changes in law, not computer technology, that pose the principal challenges to the free software community. Chief among these changes has been the unwise and ill-considered application of patent law to software. Software patents threaten every free software project, just as they threaten proprietary software and custom software. Any program can be destroyed or crippled by a software patent belonging to someone who has no other connection to the program.’”
Apple’s television ads for its new Macs boast that for years, Intel’s chips have been “trapped inside PCs–dull little boxes, dutifully performing dull little tasks.” Now, the voiceover proclaims, the Intel processor will finally be set free.
Of course, that’s not exactly the way Intel would put it.
“Never would we characterize our customers that way,” Intel Vice President Deborah Conrad said in an interview.
Conrad said that Intel cooperated with Apple for some particulars of the TV spot, but added, “We didn’t know what the end result was going to be.”
The company did get a peek at the ad before Tuesday’s keynote, but it wasn’t too much earlier.
“It’s probably a good thing that we didn’t see them earlier,” Conrad said.
That said, if Intel’s work with Apple inspires some PC makers to think more creatively, Intel wouldn’t complain.
“We certainly hope that this innovation engine kind of picks up and that you do see the beige box makers going, ‘You know, maybe we could do something that looks and feels like that.’ That would be a good thing, I think, from our perspective.”
General opinion around us is this is one of the best keynotes ever. Incredibily entertaining yet sincere. Jason says, “There was no spin. I still don’t know what Viiv is about, but I understood everything [Google] showed today perfectly.”
Google yesterday announced the release of Google Pack, a ‘free collection of essential software’. Along with Google’s own programs, such as Google Toolbar and Google Earth, Google Pack contains Firefox, Adobe Reader, a six month subscription to Norton Antivirus, and Trillian as well as other apps. Any respectable /. user should have most of this suite installed already (excluding a few things), but it will be nice to make it all widely available to the general public.
Slashdot | Google Unveils The Google Pack
After a nearly two year long battle, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has decided that Microsoft%u2019s two patents on the FAT file system are in fact valid. Last October the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejected two Microsoft patents over the popularly used FAT file format. This came after a re-examination of Microsoft’s patents sought by the Public Patent Foundation. The Public Patent Foundation argued that others had done similar file format work before Microsoft’s patent, and that awarding Microsoft this patent would only hurt the computer community.
Now that the re-examination is over, the Patent Office has concluded that Microsoft’s FAT file system is in fact novel. This decision now means that the two FAT file system patents Microsoft submitted can become patentable. While this is in fact very good news for Microsoft, others in the computer industry are not so pleased with this decision. Who could blame them? After all last October Microsoft published an outlined version of its FAT file system license, with prices ranging from cameras to standard televisions.
The FAT file system is used not only on versions of the Windows operating system, but also on removable flash memory cards, Linux/Unix products, and is a common file system used to transfer data with Windows. The Public Patent Foundation is sure to fight back, but with the patent almost handed to Microsoft they may already be out of time.
Anyone the least bit concerned about DRM (digital rights management) technology would likely have been put off by Google co-founder Larry Page’s ho-hum approach to revealing the company’s new proprietary media locks. And with good reason. “We have our own DRM that we’re using,” Page said, during a keynote at CES. “We’ll be open to other things, but (creating our own) seemed like the easier thing to do.”
Google’s DRM will make its first appearance as part of a new video downloading service. Page revealed that customers will be able to buy TV shows from CBS, NBA basketball games and a host of other content with Google serving as the delivery broker for the video. This move mimics other technology companies – most notably Apple – which have struck deals with large media houses to send video over the web for a fee. Along with the service, Google has also released its own, slick video player. None of this is bad or surprising when examined from Google’s perspective. The ad broker has every right to push on with new businesses and use its might, prestige and hype to secure prominent partnerships with the likes of CBS. And, heck, if Apple and Microsoft can create DRM systems, then why can’t Google?
After a brief demo at the on-going CES conference in Las Vegas, Microsoft have launched a re-vamped version of the website for Windows Vista.
The slick new look makes a break from the often bland Microsoft product pages, and moves towards the Glass theme expected in Vista. Perhaps of most significance is that the pages underlying code is put together with more ‘modern’ html code (div tags, for example, rather than tables). Also of note is the RSS feed, added, no doubt, after cajoling from a certain Microsoft blogger.
The website hosts a fairly detailed break down of some of the major features announced to date, and also some less well publicised ones; Windows Calendar, for example, is covered on their ‘for the home’ page.
It’s launch marks the start of what will be one of Microsoft’s most important years. Windows Vista, expected in the latter half of this year, has much riding on a successful launch and quick adoption.
View: Vista homepage
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Intel Corp. said on Thursday it will scrap its 37-year-old logo as part of a major rebranding that will emphasise the chipmaker’s shift away from its core PC business into consumer products.
The original Intel logo featuring a lowered “e” will be replaced with one showing an oval swirl surrounding the company’s name.
The phrase “Leap ahead” will supplant “Intel inside,” which helped bring the company into the public awareness during the PC boom of the 1990s. [...]
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