Hack Blogspot

About to take on Facebook?: Google co-founders Sergey Brin, left, and Larry Page. Photo: AP Google, perhaps the only company with the clout and users to take on the seemingly unassailable Facebook, is reportedly working secretly on "Google Me", a product that would go head-to-head with the social networking giant. The founder of popular link-sharing site Digg, Kevin Rose, kicked off a round of feverish speculation this week by tweeting that he had heard a "huge rumour" from a "very credible source" that Google was going to launch a Facebook competitor "very soon". Rose has since removed the tweet, saying he was asked to do so. Adam D'Angelo, former CTO of Facebook and now co-founder of social Q&A site Quora, added fuel to the fire by declaring "This is not a rumour. This is a real project". He claimed to have received information from "reliable sources".

"Google me" sounds like a lame pickup line delivered near closing time, but it might also be Google's latest attempt at becoming relevant in social media. Kevin Rose, of Digg fame, got the speculation rolling Sunday with a tweet that Google was working on a social service called Google Me that would compete with Facebook, perhaps Google's biggest rival for attention on the Internet. On Tuesday, former Facebook executive and Quora founder Adam D'Angelo took things a little further by declaring on Quora that "this is not a rumor. This is a real project. There are a large number of people working on it. I am completely confident about this." So what might Google Me actually be? No one seems to really know. But it does appear to be somehow related to one's Google Profile, a service that got a shot in the arm with the debut of Google Buzz earlier this year. Google Buzz lets users share links, pictures, and thoughts with friends who find them through t...

Click to view large Download this gallery (ZIP, undefined KB)

A few weeks ago iTunes 9.2 recently came out to mark the release of iOS4 and prepare itself for the updates all over the world. Although I love my iPod Touch, I don't like iTunes - not one bit, in fact I believe it is so user-unfriendly it makes me cringe at times. My decision to post on this issue has been sparked from my recent frustration over attempting to use it when to sync it and back up my iPod, so I could update to iOS4 if I wanted to, in the end I spent the better half of two days getting angry, uninstalling, reinstalling, removing all traces and then reinstalling again, only to get 4 different error messages and no good results, which just annoyed me more. Ironically, it almost seemed like a blessing in disguise with some iPod Touch users not enjoying iOS4 as much as 'expected'.

"Saya ingin mencicipi dodol atau kari kambing dicampur ganja," demikian pernyataan yang kerap diungkapkan pendatang ketika menginjakkan kakinya di Aceh. Pernyataan yang seakan-akan telah menyatukan antara "Aceh dengan ganja" itu juga diakui Wakil Gubernur Aceh, Muhammad Nazar. "Saya juga pernah mendengar itu," katanya. Akan tetapi, menurut dia, hanya orang-orang yang tidak paham dan mengetahui persis proses peracikan bumbu kari kambing atau dodol Aceh, lantas mengidentikkan dengannya dengan ganja. Padahal citra rasa lezat, yang dihasilkan makanan itu, kata Muhammad Nazar karena kelihaian orang Aceh meracik bumbu dan membuat makanan lezat. "Yang pasti, enaknya dodol, gulai kambing atau sapi serta aromanya kopi Aceh itu bukan karena campuran ganja, tapi dasarnya bahwa masyarakat Aceh pintar masak dan usaha kuliner," katanya. Menurut Muhammad Nazar, kalaupun ada masyarakat yang mencampur bumbu itu dengan daun atau biji ganja, itu hanya seb...