In a very quick bit of non-CES news, check out this picture taken during Tuesday’s solar eclipse by photographer Thierry Legault. It shows the International Space Station in front of the Sun as the Sun itself is partially occluded by the Moon. Amazing.
What’s even more amazing is that Thierry had less than one second in which to take the photo – that’s how quickly the ISS passes across the Sun. You can read all about how the photograph was taken over at Bad Astronomy.
I am not sure what to think about the announcement that both companies are going to make it easier for consumers to acquire Sun’s Java runtime, Google’s Toolbar and the OpenOffice.org desktop suite. This is something I had not contemplated, they said it will be optional, the question that needs to ask how many unsuspecting non technically inclined people are going to be sucked in and install the Google Toolbar without even realizing it.
This is a curious move indeed considering the privacy policy issue that surround the Google toolbar. Sure they have some legal mumbo jumbo that people can read and opt out options but how many really read it or protect what is being sent to Google. I am sure that Google is thrilled and that Sun is probably pretty happy for what can be considered by some as positive press. They sure are in need of some considering all the hate and discontent that they caused in the past couple of years.
I am a bit disappointed but we will see what the future brings. But bundling of the Google toolbar into their install packages just leaves a very bad taste in my mouth the practice has been frowned upon as bundling applications from third parties has usually lead to spyware or worse residing on peoples desktops without them even knowing it. [Sun]
The rumor mill is churning on the Google – Sun announcement tomorrow. Having not read any blogs to see what everyone is predicting I am going to go out on a limb and say that Google is going to do some sort of calendar program with Sun under their Staroffice product? [Sun Microsystems]