Google’s simple Linux distribution formally known as Google Chrome OS was finally previewed. It is fully based on the Google applications for search, editing documents or reading email with nothing more than the operating system stored on the computer’s HDD, but rather accessible online from the Google cloud.

Google’s strength with Google Chrome OS is that it can become the standard OS for new netbooks, lowering their cost as compared to shipping with Windows as well as running on more modest hardware configurations lacking the need of a traditional HDD for storing user data. I admin that currently I am not a fan of this concept as I use my laptop for way more than Internet browsing and find no real use for my existing Windows 7 running netbook.

Pros:

• Free & netbook optimized
• Instant on (7 seconds on current version)
• Free of conventional viruses

Cons:

• All your data is on Google’s servers
• Currently it is no more than a lightweight Linux distribution
• Limited hardware support

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Happy to announce the new Top Gear season started with an episode dedicated to the greatest driving road in the world, the Transfagarasan.

Overall the episode was true to the Romanian realities as long as one does not forget that Top Gear is a scripted entertainment show. The episode was focused on showing the extremes of Romania, between the Rex hotel in the center of Mamaia and the hidden gipsy towns located far from the residential areas. Be noticed that between Bucharest and Transfagarasan there are no gipsy towns, but only 100km on the highway.

If interested into watching the Top Gear episode outside UK the guys from finalgear.com might be able to help you Top Gear – Season 14, Episode 1 – November 15th, 2009.

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1. Could we fight corruption in Romania like this?

Apart from their shady practices the Enron executives were indeed the smartest guys in the room. Understanding how the system works to such extend to be able to influence and even fraud the stock market for so many years is a tremendous performance on its own.

• Achieving success demands having a profound motivation. Kenneth Lay originated from a poor family and has had a strong motivation and dreamed of becoming wealthy from a very strong age.
• Befriend people with high potential. Kenneth Lay became a close friend of the Bush family before George Bush Sr. won the elections as the USA President.
• Hire people with visions. Kenneth Lay hired in 1990 Jeffrey Skilling as one of the company CEOs after seeing in him a great visionary with ambitious ideas of transforming Enron for the future. One of Jeffrey Skilling’s new strategies would be to use mark-to-market accounting and book profits immediately after a deal is made even if they prove profitable or not.
• When in trouble deny any knowledge. Kenneth Lay was the kind of guy that always denied knowledge when one of his business decisions started an image crisis at Enron. This way he was blaming other company executives for the trouble and keep his image clean.
• Create an aggressive corporate culture. At Enron every year 15% of the work force was fired following the reports of the internal Performance Review Committee. This way there was a constant pressure on the employees to perform beyond their comfort zone and sometimes in the detriment of their fellow colleagues.
• Let people think the company is doing better than it actually is. Using mark-to-market accounting and generally presenting with every public speaking opportunity of any of the company executives untruthful facts about the company, Enron was able to let people believe they were turning a profit when they actually were losing huge amounts of money across most company sectors.
• Tricking the stock market. Enron executives and employees at some point become more obsesses with how their stock was performing than the actual profits the company was making. This was actually lead by a PR campaign ordered in-house to help the executives do stock fraud via a pump and pump strategy.
• If there is no crisis you can tie to then you should better create one. It was later proven that Enron had a major involvement in creating the California Energy Crisis from 2000 and 2001 by making use of connections they had in the power plants to close them for short periods of time of false claims of maintenance work. Enron people, especially Kenneth (Ken) Lay were well enough connected to push energy market deregulation in California which enabled them to trade energy there and turn large unethical financial profits in the detriment of Californian citizens.

I don’t encourage using such practices but it should not be underestimated the importance of knowing and understanding how these practices work to be able to protect against unethical business people using them.

Photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/baldheretic/2686397596/

Augmented reality apps will allow iPhone users to combine real world with functionality from their iPhones into enhancing the experience of playing games, navigating through the cities and other gimmicks developers will think about.

Apple already has the APIs needed to develop applications with augmented reality functionality but they kept them hidden and undocumented. This is about to change with the new iPhone 3.1 software update.

As augmented reality apps use the iPhone compass they will only work on the new iPhone 3GS model. Possibly some apps will work with only the accelerometer and GPS function of the iPhone 3G but only with limited features compared to running on an Apple iPhone 3GS.

Attached to the article is a video of a future iPhone app that shows the nearest New York Subway station. The app is going to be called ‘Nearest Subway’.

TED talk about how ordinary people write the news before any other multi-million dollar corporation is able to. Social networks are changing the way we live, think and share information and Clay Shirky explains that exceptionally.

In my oppinion the correct title is ‘How cellphones, Twitter, Facebook are making history’ as the revolution of the information created by individuals and spread (very fast) using social networks and mobile phones has already begun.

This amazing talk is definitely work watching.

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1. Review of what I did in 2009

Video clip from the Net Start-up event held at CERF this year to which I was invited to preview TwiMarket.com. The aim was to make a pitch similar to the one at Mini Seedcamp and improving it with the help of the feedback panel. In the end I ended up pitching differently compared to this clip based on the feedback I received privately from some people.

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1. Review of what I did in 2009
2. Online Wiki of the Romanian Internet Market
3. Entrepreneurs on Transfagarasan (OpenGrill #2)

Simple self-explanatory video of how Twitter works and how it can benefit its users.