Look at that picture a little closer. It appears that Dell has released the secret that all Ubuntu haters have suspected… Ubuntu is a Microsoft product.

Etiole stumbled across this and posted it for the rest of us to enjoy at both Microsoft’s and Ubuntu’s expense but it does open up another question. What would happen if Microsoft did “buy” Ubuntu?

Viral Marketing is still a relatively new thing to many companies and sometimes it can back fire. Microsoft in their attempt to create a viral video advertising Internet Explorer 8 might have gone a little too far. After the video was released this week enough people complained and Microsoft pulled the advertisement.

Skip this paragraph if you have a weak stomach: O.M.G.I.G.P. or “Oh My God I’m Going To Puke”, shows a presumably married couple siting at a table when the woman asks to borrow the mans laptop. When he agrees she proceeds to look at the screen and then vomit uncontrollably. The man then slips on the vomit at which point she continues to vomit on him.

The whole point of this particular advertisement was to highlight IE8’s private browsing feature. If you are Internet savvy, which I am assuming you are because you are visiting this website, then you know that private browsing is generally used for something you should not be doing in the first place. While there are legitimate uses for this type of feature does it really need an advertisement?

I am sure this will be the highlight video of a future TV show “Viral Gone Wrong”. This does for sure take the cake as one of the most disturbing videos from Microsoft. Maybe the whole point of the advertisement was to get people talking about it, either positively or negatively, it is advertising.

Check It Out> Neowin, YouTube O.M.G.I.G.P.

It is amazing the things you can miss when you don’t have Internet for a few weeks and move internationally. Apparently in the middle of last month the Symantec GoEverywhere project was shutdown. For those that don’t remember, it was a “Cloud” based operating system. More than anything else as my friend Holden Page pointed out, it was far more of representation of an operating system rather than a real OS.

This letter was sent out to Beta Testers last month informing them of the shutdown:

Dear Beta Tester,

Thank you for participating in the beta program for Symantec GoEverywhere. This innovative project in cloud computing was very successful and provided a number of insights on technical features and usage patterns derived from substantial user feedback. However, the beta program for GoEverywhere will come to a close on June 30, 2009. At that time, the service will no longer be accessible and available for use.

Symantec continues to develop innovative technologies and remains focused on its vision to become the leading provider of cloud-based offerings that secure and manage the worlds information. However, at this time we do not plan to release Symantec GoEverywhere as a standalone service.

Account information, including log-in information for accounts you have connected to through GoEverywhere, will be securely deleted, and no personal information will be retained.

We thank you for your active participation and support. If you have any questions about Symantec GoEverywhere, please contact us atsupport@goeverywhere.com

Thank you,

The GoEverywhere Team

This is probably a case of a company deciding to get into a market because it is trendy and then realizing that they really don’t have a place in it. Cloud operating systems do have a place in todays computing world but I think that it is much smaller than previously anticipated.

I still enjoy using Cloud operating systems from time to time but I do believe they are better off being more of a Graphical User Interface (GUI) to a data storage solution. A good example of a company currently doing this is G.ho.st. which provides users with 15Gb of storage space.

Check It Out> Techgeist

Thanks to Ryan and Craig for sending this one to me.

Check It Out> Boing Boing

When Opera Unite was first announced I was skeptical. It seemed a little too good to be true and I just needed to see for myself whether or not it could live up to the hype. TechCrunch as well as others have raved about it but what good is it really?

For those that have not heard about Opera Unite or even Opera for that matter, Opera is an Internet Browser and Opera Unite is a service built into the browser that  acts as your own personal web server. The idea is for you to be able to share files, notes, music, photos, or even host a website from your own computer.

Many of these features are currently available in many forms but it is rare to actually see them in something such as an Internet Browser. What is even more surprising is that Opera has managed to pull it off so well that even the most technically inept can use it.

How many of you out there have actually hosted a website from your house? Almost everyone I know that has done this (including myself) have used a dedicated server of some sort whether that is Server 2003 or even Windows Home Server. It makes sense sometimes to use the right tool for the job but maybe that definition is changing.

The simplicity of sharing a website really surprises me. For a web developer needing to test a site or just someone that does not want to pay for hosting, Opera Unite is perfect.

• Other users do not need to use Opera to access your Opera Unite services. Most modern browsers are supported by default
• Any developer with knowledge of HTML, CSS, Java Script, etc. can create services for Opera Unite
• All Opera Unite services are free of charge both to create and use
• To get Opera Unite you can either download the Opera 10 Beta that includes it or download the components into your current version of Opera 10 Beta

Once Opera 10 Beta is downloaded everything operates as normal. It is when you click on the Opera Unite icon (looks like 3 rain drops in a circle) on the left side of the browser or when you select Tools-> Opera Unite Server-> Configure, you can setup Unite. The actual setup for Opera Unite consists of setting up an Opera account if you don’t have one (about 15 seconds) and then clicking next. After this you will choose the name of the computer that you are installing it on.

Depending on the services you choose you will have to select the locations of your music, pictures, website, etc.. During this process you can also select the privacy level of your services. You can share with everyone or just friends you send the link and password to.

When it comes to something like a server it is almost impossible to make it any easier than Opera Unite.  The simplicity might come back to bite some users however. It is only a matter of time until we see the stories about users sharing things they would rather keep private.

Check It Out> Opera Unite, Download, Upgrade Opera