Google Chinese New Year 2007
The Lunar New Year, also celebrated by Koreans, Vietnamese, Mongolian, etc. for hundreds of years, is called Korean New Year, Vietnamese New Year, etc. by other peoples and known in Chinese as the Spring Festival or the Lunar New Year.
It is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays (The second most important one is the Moon Festival).
The festival proper begins on the first day of the first lunar month in the Chinese calendar and ends on the 15th; this day is called Lantern Festival. Lantern Festival is also known as the fifteenth night.
Google is well known for having Dennis Hwang create witty and colorful logos and today is no exception with their tribute to Chinese New Year 2007 - The year of the pig:
Celebrated internationally in areas with large populations of ethnic Chinese, Chinese New Year is considered a major holiday for the Chinese and has had a strong influence on the new year celebrations of its neighbors.
These include Koreans, Vietnamese, Miao (Chinese Hmong), Mongolians, Tibetans, the Nepalese and the Bhutanese.
Around Chinese New Year is also the time of the largest human migration, when overseas Chinese around the world travel home to have reunion dinners with their families on Chinese New Year’s eve.
Google Valentine Logo Mystery Solved
Thanks to Jon over at the Wizard Is Hungry blog, the mystery behind the Google Valentine logo is now solved.
The logo is a reference to Debbie Googe from the band My Bloody Valentine.
According to the official Google blog:
When you look at the logo, you may worry that we forgot our name overnight, skipped a letter, or have decided that “Googe” has a better ring to it. None of the above. I just know that those with true romance and poetry in their soul will see the subtlety immediately. And if you’re feeling grouchy today, may I suggest eating a strawberry.
Now when I did my post last night at 10:23 PM and also this morning at 7:21 AM, the Google blog had not been updated with the hints to the mystery behind the logo.
Thanks Jon for the heads up.
Google Valentine Logo Missing The Letter “L”
Looks like the most famous unknown artist in the world Dennis Hwang forgot to put the L in Google on the Valentine logo.
This Google oops was pointed out in my post last night around 10:23 PM and here it is 7:18 AM the following day and the Google logo is still missing the letter “L”.
I wonder if anyone will catch it at the Googleplex? I’ve already sent a couple messages to friends so it will be interesting to see if it gets corrected. If it does, I’ll be sure to post a side-by-side comparison.
On an unrelated note, it’s now 7:19 AM. Why am I awake this early anyway?
Google Valentine’s Day Logo 2007
Every February across the country, candy, flowers and gifts are exchanged between loved ones, all in the name of St. Valentine.
But who is this mysterious saint and why do we celebrate this holiday?
We might never really solve the mystery of “who is Saint Valentine” but thanks to Google, we now have a tasty and chocolate covered Google logo to pay tribute to the day of love and romance:
The history of Valentine’s Day and its patron saint is shrouded in mystery. But we do know that February has long been a month of romance.
St. Valentine’s Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition.
So, who was Saint Valentine and how did he become associated with this ancient rite?
Today the Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred.
Ok, now for some fun Valentine trivia…. did you know:
- 188 million Valentine’s Day cards are exchanged annually, making Valentine’s Day the second-most popular greeting-card-giving occasion.
- Over 50 percent of all Valentine’s Day cards are purchased in the six days prior to the observance, making Valentine’s Day a procrastinator’s delight.
- Research reveals that more than half of the U.S. population celebrates Valentine’s Day by purchasing a greeting card.
- There are 119 single men (i.e., never married, widowed or divorced) who are in their 20s for every 100 single women of the same ages.
- There are 34 single men (i.e., never married, widowed or divorced) age 65 or older for every 100 single women of the same ages.
- 904: The number of dating service establishments nationwide as of 2002. These establishments, which include Internet dating services, employed nearly 4,300 people and pulled in $489 million in revenues.
Encase you were wondering, the source of the trivia above came from Hallmark research.
I hope your day is filled with love, romance and of course chocolate and nice smelling flowers.
Microsoft Patches For February 2007
It’s that time of the month again Windows users, Microsoft patch Tuesday.
The updates for today range in security severity from “Important” to a highest Maximum Severity rating of Critical.
I highly recommend that you be sure to grab these updates for your Windows machine to keep you running smooth and secure.
Microsoft is planning to release the following security updates:
- Five Microsoft Security Bulletins affecting Microsoft Windows.
- Two Microsoft Security Bulletins affecting Microsoft Office.
- One Microsoft Security Bulletin affecting Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Visual Studio.
- One Microsoft Security Bulletin affecting Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office.
- One Microsoft Security Bulletin affecting Step-by-Step Interactive Training.
- One Microsoft Security Bulletin affecting Microsoft Data Access Components.
- One Microsoft Security Bulletin affecting Windows Live OneCare, Microsoft Antigen, Microsoft Windows Defender, Microsoft Forefront Security for Exchange Server and Microsoft Forefront Security for SharePoint.
Keep in mind that some of these updates may require a restart of your machine. Yay Microsoft Windows.
To wrap up your update Tuesday Windows patching, Microsoft plans on releasing a couple Non-security High Priority updates on MU, WU, WSUS and SUS:
- Microsoft will release two NON-SECURITY High-Priority Updates for Windows on Windows Update (WU) and Software Update Services (SUS).
- Microsoft will release eight NON-SECURITY High-Priority Updates on Microsoft Update (MU) and Windows Server Update Services (WSUS).
Although Microsoft doesn’t anticipate any changes, the number of bulletins, products affected, restart information and severities are subject to change until released this morning. Your mileage may very.
Happy updating!
Hacker Hits Nuclear Commission Website
Hackers penetrated the Web site for the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission this week, replacing text and graphics with photos of a nuclear explosion.
The organization, which acts as a nuclear safety watchdog in Canada, reports that there was a security breach on Wednesday, February 7, 2007 during the afternoon.
Commission spokesman Aurele Gervais said “they had the Web site down within five minutes of being alerted to the attack.”
He adds “they are not sure when the hacker broke into the site or how long he or she was there.”
Gervais would only say that the news release section of the site was replaced with graphic images but would not describe them.
It was widely reported in the Canadian press that the images were of a nuclear explosion.
The Ottawa Citizen newspaper published a color photo of one of the pages that had been tampered with but the photo is not shown online.
Aurele Gervais said the attack was limited to the website’s public media section and “there’s been no internal information that’s been compromised.”
Source: Windsor Star