Cloud computing is one of the hottest buzzwords that you will hear these days. Whether or not you know exactly what cloud computing is all about, you can certainly understand just how hot this topic is. For the benefit of those you who want to get a concise definition of cloud computing, here’s a nice description from the recently launched Google book 20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web.

Modern computing in the age of the Internet is quite a strange, remarkable thing. As you sit hunched over your laptop at home watching a YouTube video or using a search engine, you’re actually plugging into the collective power of thousands of computers that serve all this information to you from far-away rooms distributed around the world. It’s almost like having a massive supercomputer at your beck and call, thanks to the Internet.

So yeah, cloud computing is THE thing today, and even big companies make use of global data center services to expand their operations. Recently, telecommunications giant NTT Communications announced a new venture wherein they would be using a cloud-based mobile service to analyze the eating habits of people, together with their exercise habits. The result of this analysis will be recommendations to help improve the health of the user.

The venture is being taken on in conjunction with NTT Resonant Inc. (an NTT affiliate) and foo.log Inc. Dubbed Health Enhancement Assist Service, it will require people to take photos of their food (using their mobile phones). The program will then analyze the photos to come up with estimated calorie content and nutritional value. The exercise part will come into play via calculation of how much the user walks within a day – not that different from a pedometer.

Whoever said that the Internet is simply for fun, useless applications can think again, right?

Photo via jhritz

Google brought back the 80s arcade game Pac Man to celebrate its 30th anniversary last May 22nd in the form of a fully-working Google Doodle on its homepage (it’s been since moved to a dedicated page where people can still play it). The “I’m feeling lucky” button gets replaced by “Insert coin” and clicking on it lets you play. Click on it a second time and Ms. Pac Man joins in the fun.

Apart from hearing collective 8-bit cheers of delight upon discovering what could be Google’s most viral web toy yet, the Pac Man doodle was another display of its massive influence, both the good and the bad. [Read more…]

It’s been a couple of years since the height of the “kill IE6” web campaigns, and it took that long to hold a funeral that finally seals its fate.

Of course, the IE6 Funeral is an arbitrary event held by the Aten Design Group last March 4, and this doesn’t really eradicate the browser on computers that can’t upgrade.

Over at TechCrunch, commenter Jeff Carlson jokes: “So if someone uses IE6 to browse the web tomorrow, will their web browser be a Zomb-ie6 browser?” You could say that. After all, IE6 is way past its expiration date, sucking the brains out of web designers and developers with its buggy, unstable, insecure features from an ugly past.

Even Microsoft acknowledges it’s time for IE6 to go, as it actually sent over flowers and this note:

Thanks for the good times IE6, see you all @ MIX when we show a little piece of IE Heaven. The Internet Explorer Team @ Microsoft

On March 13, Google will end IE6 support on YouTube, following the March 1 pull-out for Google Docs and Google Sites. Gmail and Google Calendar are next on the list, slated by the end of the year.

Combined with the European government security warnings to upgrade browsers, could Google’s systematic phase-out be the final nail in the IE6 coffin, or is this slow death going to take at least another year?

I really hope this is it.

To commemorate the closing of internet dinosaur and free web hosting service Geocities today, October 26, geeky web comic XKCD “redesigned” its site to match the horrible aesthetic (or lack thereof) rampant during the ’90s. Low-fi images (including the requisite “under construction” sign), web-safe colors, <table>s, <blink>, <marquee>, a hit counter, and a “best viewed in Netscape Navigator” disclaimer—it’s all in there. I think the only thing missing is an actual comic about Geocities itself.

Is it safe to say we are finally rid of those horrible-looking and horribly-functioning things now that Geocities is gone? We will always have that side of the spectrum. But it’s a good reminder of how far we’ve come:

1. IE6 is now the most outdated browser instead of the most modern. (That doesn’t make its continued existence a good thing though.)
2. If you disable images and stylesheets, webpages will make sense.
3. Descriptive hyperlinks matter (mostly to curry favor with Google, but still).
4. Despite Yahoo!’s terrifying propensity to run its acquisitions to the ground (worried about Flickr and Delicious yet?), it’s easier and cheaper than ever to run your own website.

Still, the timeless adage remains: back up and be prepared! You never know when life will go Geocities on you.