October, Domestic Violence Awareness Month

We do not talk about the issue of domestic violence much, but that does not mean it does not exist or small.It is called the silent epidemic for reasons. These statistics that will make you realize why.

One in four women will be a victim of domestic violence.

One in nine men will be a victim of domestic violence.

One in three teens will be a victim of domestic violence.

According to some studies, less that 1 percent of domestic violence cases are reported to the police.

Be A Hero, Speak out! Speak to someone, like the National Domestic Violence Hotline, 1-800-799-SAFE (1-800-799-7233) or Verizon Wireless customers can quickly reach the National Domestic Violence Hotline by dialing #HOPE.

"MONSTERS" portrays the alarming impact of domestic violence on families and children, as seen through the eyes of a young girl. Studies suggest that between 3.3 million and 10 million children witness some form of domestic violence each year. The video notes that girls who witness abuse are more likely to be abused later in life, and boys are twice as likely to abuse their own partners -- "because that's the world they know." MONSTERS is produced and funded by the Verizon Foundation and supported by the National Domestic Violence Hotline

The Art Of Saying NO, Steve Jobs At Apple’s developer conference in 1997

“Focus is about saying, “No. And the result of that focus is going to be some really great products where the total is much greater than the sum if the parts.”

The complete video 1 hour 11 min;

President Obama On Steve Jobs Passing.

President Barak Obama posted a message on Whitehouse blog. Just like the winter, it is setting down with the cold knowledge, how much Steve Jobs meant to the USA, how much it meant to the world.
I think the best tribute was that I read about his passing on an iPad2, that he put his beliefs and love behind.
President Obama's message, please follow the link to read the complete message on White House Blog.

"Michelle and I are saddened to learn of the passing of Steve Jobs. Steve was among the greatest of American innovators - brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it.
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The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented. Michelle and I send our thoughts and prayers to Steve’s wife Laurene, his family, and all those who loved him."

Yes, That is Steve Jobs.
White House Blog.

Steve Jobs, The way I will Remember Him!

A Photo from a photobooth testing session!

Google+ (Public Beta) Hangouts now supports 9 active participants and live streaming via YouTube.

Even though Google+ is a 90 day old private beta, Google is telling us that they have made more than 90 improvements to the Google's Social wunderbar since it's release.
One of the best things on GooglePlus is the Google Hangouts, Hangouts allows to collaborate, face-to-face-to-face, as Google says, via live video.
And as usual, the GooglePlus users have maximized the usage with Music concerts, Game shows and for those hungry ones. cooking classes.
So it is no wonder the next improvements to the Google+, 9 of them revolves around Hangout.

92. Hangouts on your phone
93. Hangouts On Air
94, 95, 96, 97. Hangouts with extras
98. Hangouts APIs

• If field trial has taught us anything about Hangouts, it’s that the community is overflowing with creative individuals. So in the wake of last week’s Google+ API launch, we’re also releasing a basic set of Hangouts APIs. If you're a developer who wants to build new kinds of apps and games (and who-knows-what-else), then you can find more details on the Google+ platform blog.

99. Search in Google+
100. Anyone can sign up for Google+

Great! Read more at

Official Google Blog: Google+: 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99... 100.

Google Moving Mountains!

Looks like Google can do more than searching and advertising. Apparently it has moved a few mountains.
Gelatobaby who loves California, as much as me (May be a tad less than me) found Mt. Whitney moving around and

Google Helps Restoring Oldest "Search Engine", Bletchley Park, Block C!

After helping out last year with the bid to buy the papers of the British computer scientist and wartime codebreaker Alan Turing and return them to their rightful home at Bletchley Park. This February.the papers came to it's rightful place.

Google is going still further by kicking off a campaign to help restore and preserve Block C at Bletchley Park;

"Today, Block C is derelict. We hope to help restore it to serve as a visitor and learning centre for both Bletchley Park and the UK’s National Museum of Computing. The fund-raising campaign kicked off this week with a Google-supported garden party in the Bletchley Park grounds, at which over £10,000 was raised. We still have a long way to go, though, so if you’d like to contribute, please donate at the Bletchley Park website."

Please visit the links to learn more about the place, Turing and others as well as Colossus—the world’s first electronic programmable computer.

Official Google Blog: Restoring Bletchley Park, birthplace of modern computing

We See Alan Turing

Backing Up Tumblr On PCs and MACs

With a few people, OK a lot of people having doubts about their tumblr with this weeks outage, would normally look for ways to backup their favorite and own tumble.
Tumblr officially provides a MAC application Tumblr Backup, which is simple and to the point. You do not need instructions for using this app as it is a self explanatory application. See the image above.
But the sad part of it, there is no official windows version or Linux version for that matter. But do not despair, you can save your Tumble.
Chris of of Bout Of Context fame has written an equally easy web based Tumblr backup, Backup Jammy. So all your tumbles are safe now.

Backup Jammy
Tumblr Backup application for Mac OS X

Be Proud And Part Of Those Celebrating Pride 2011,

Do you see any difference?

Sometimes I really wonder why all this animosity against the LGBT people all over the world. In the height and midst of these emotions, we fail to see that there are equally large number of people who support and accept the LGBT community. Largely we all fail to see how proud the people are of themselves.
Having grown up in the Netherlands, I never felt that the LGBT were different. In fact there was two couples in the same faculty where my father taught. So I grew up knowing, and feeling that they were no different from me. These couples had children and they were my classmates. I did not feel any difference in them either. I played, fought, laughed with them, the children and never knew any difference. So...
So when I landed in San Francisco, I did not mind the fun and bright people of Castro Street. I went to watch some of those parades, to celebrate the freedom they were seeking.
I feel we all should step up and support LGBT community because it is true part and parcel of the greater community. It does not matter if you are straight, I am and I have no problem what so ever, for being with, supporting LGBT.
So when I saw Googlers were celebrating their Gayglers and others all over the world, I felt that it is the path thee most of us should be taking.

In addition to our external efforts, we’re also working from within. Recently, we extended domestic partner benefits in regions such as China and Hong Kong. Last year, Google adopted a policy promoting benefits equality through a gross-up on imputed taxes for health insurance. We provided the equivalent of the Family and Medical Leave Act for same-sex domestic partners and updated the definition of infertility. Happily, over the last year we’ve been approached by many organizations looking to do the same.

Gayglers
Official Google Blog: Celebrating Pride 2011

California : Take a look at all 70 state parks slated for closure!

We visit at least two or may be three national parks and countless state parks and recreational areas a year.

With new budget cuts, there are 70 state parks in California slated to close as of September 1. It looked like nothing but once I saw this slide show, it reminded me of the places I have visited and want to keep on visiting. We have marked Mount Shasta, Monolake, (and two National Parks) to visit this year. We have visited the two state parks, multiple times and I am sure I will never have enough.

It is sad that these places will be inaccessible to us and countless other people. Specially the children. We always take one or two children from our community with us when we visit national or state parks. Our last visit was to Redwood Parks belt in northern California with a bunch of children that lasted almost a week. (Oops sorry it was actually our last trip was to Death Valley but we did not take any children!)

Please watch this show, if possible in it's entirety and perhaps you too can donate, like we did so we might be able to save some of the parks.

Take a look at all 70 state parks slated for closure