Profy

A short while ago the blogosphere and even traditional media were abuzz the decision of Google that from now on the employees of the internet giant may use operating systems from any developer but one - the exception being Microsoft. The reason is quite obvious: security concerns everyone seems to share about Microsoft. Of course there is also an underlying reason of the more and more visible competition between Google and Microsoft but this is not widely discussed yet so the reason claimed most frequently is still the security.

Of course in most cases choice of an operating system is a very personal decision as one needs to consider the applications to be used, the security of it all, the specific uses or even countries where you may need to use the computer with the OS. In many cases an operating system can also be determined by the IT department of the company you work in - and the decision becomes not that personal...A short while ago the blogosphere and even traditional media were abuzz the decision of Google that from now on the employees of the internet giant may use operating systems from any developer but one - the exception being Microsoft. The reason is quite obvious: security concerns everyone seems to share about Microsoft. Of course there is also an underlying reason of the more and more visible competition between Google and Microsoft but this is not widely discussed yet so the reason claimed most frequently is still the security.

Of course in most cases choice of an operating system is a very personal decision as one needs to consider the applications to be used, the security of it all, the specific uses or even countries where you may need to use the computer with the OS. In many cases an operating system can also be determined by the IT department of the company you work in - and the decision becomes not that personal. In yet other [...]

As some of you may be aware, the huge trend for various countries that don't use Latin alphabet in their official languages is introducing their own alphabets into online communications - and not only in the form of support for specific fonts where needed to send an email or create a blog post (which has been here forever). Now such countries all deal with the idea of having internet domain names written in their own languages using their specific alphabets...

If you've been reading Profy for a while, you probably know that Google is hardly my favorite company because of its dubious practices in user privacy as well as its ambitions of ruling the world one day (which I am fairly certain is exactly the intention for the internet giant). I guess this introduction shows that Google will hardly ever get a positive review from me unless it truly deserves one - and since today it does deserve some praise, I think it's only fair to publish one because I have a good reason: I migrated to Google Chrome browser yesterday after using Firefox for years and I am extremely happy about this decision...

As the vast majority of people hardly realize, today is the 140th day of the year which is supposed to be a good reason to celebrate the day of Twitter - the immensely popular web service that is trying to teach the world the arts of brevity, clarity, and precision by making us express everything in 140 characters or less. Or at least it is supposed to be a good enough reason by two Ukrainian Twitter users who came up with the idea of celebrating Twitter Day on the 140th day of the year which is May 20th or May 19th in a leap year...

Today Russian news agencies are all reporting on a very curious event - president Medvedev admitting that he has been using Apple iPad for a while now and enjoying it immensely. His primary use of the gadget happens to be reading - the president has downloaded some books (not mentioned, unfortunately) to his iPad and he now admits enjoying the process of reading ebooks even though he used to think that this could only be an ugly experience compared to actual feeling a book in one's hands...

As the name of the new startup suggests, 42goals is all about goals: no matter how many personal goals you have, the startup offers a nice web interface that will sure help you get things done - provided that you are truly serious about your goals and about visiting the web application as well. It is not yet another to-do app - we have plenty of them already - but instead a tool to define specific goals for yourself and track your performance...

Today one of the Russian mobile carriers starts selling a very interesting product: microsim cards for usage in iPad along with contracts. What's so interesting about this product? Of course its launch date: selling microsims that enable use of a device that is not officially available in Russia is quite interesting...

Can you name any field that you want to get news on and somehow don't manage to find relevant sources on Twitter? I certainly can't as Twitter has definitely become a brief copy of the entire internet and you can get to know almost everything that exists online via Twitter - but only in a shorter form.

Of course politics is no exception and huge crowds of people from all nations bring politicians to Twitter as well because these politicians want to talk to their target audiences directly where they are...

It is very interesting to witness any development, especially when it happens very rapidly and changes something important in one's life. I can definitely tell you that growth of internet population in Russia is very visible and hardly left anyone unconcerned. There are very curious examples that are visible everywhere with people getting online for all sorts of strange reasons - and increasing the internet audience of the country to the level where it now gets to 10% of the entire European internet population...