Google Wave to be released to 100,000 testers Wednesday

Google's new product, Google Wave, is set to be tested by 100,000 beta users on Wednesday. It is said to "revolutionize" online communiation. The app from Google Inc. brings all of the elements togther including, e-mail, chat, Wiki documents and photo sharing web sites. These all brought together are known as the "wave." Google first intorduced Wave at a developer conference in May. Testers will begin geting rid of all of the bugs, before its hopeful launch at the end of this year. Wave was created by Lars and Jens Rasmussen, the Australian brothers who also creatd Google Maps. They say that this app will eventually take over e-mail and the way people communicate over the internet. "This should be something everybody uses and something everybody knows," Jens Rasmussen said. In Wave, e-mail-like communications can be edited by several users at the same time. Users can also chat about certain sections of Wave documents in current time, where all users see what a person is typing as it is typed. If a person comes to the conversation late, they can replay everything they've missed. Originally Wave was pointed out for having too many bugs. "As an initial user of Wave, I have to tell you: things have gotten much more stable. It still has a slow response time in certain situations and it can still crash, but these things happen far less often than they used to," Ben Parr of the social-media blog Mashable writes.

I am very optimistic that Google Wave will take over Facebook as the world's most used online source. Just hearing about the product makes me think just how many people will be using it. 321 million people have Facebook, and I wouldn't be surprised if that number is doubled by the time Google Wave is in its prime. I know that once Google Wave comes out, I am for sure going to try it. Society always wants new, and once they see this product, they will never go back. Google Wave will be the biggest thing that the internet has ever seen!

Online chats led to Texas terror suspect's arrest

There has been an accusation for a bomb plot in Dalas, Texas. A 19 year old Jordanian was was arrested Thursday beause of a violent posts on an extremist chat site. Federal officials said Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, who entered the United States illegally and lived in Texas, attempted to set off an explosive. It was attached to a car at the base of the Fountain Place office tower, which is 60 stories high. The police had been reading his posts on the site for quite a while, before they arrested Smadi yesterday. "Smadi was discovered by the FBI within an online group of extremists," the affidavit says. "Among many others in the group who espoused and endorsed violence, Smadi stood out, based on his vehement intention to actually conduct terror attacks in the United States." Officers that had weant undercover got in touch with Smadi, pretending to be part of the Al Qaeda. After many months of investigation, they knew that Smadi was a threat. Smadi had planned on bombing the Dallas-Forth Worth Airport, before deciding to hit the Fountain Place tower. Smadi was quoted on saying that he was "a soldier of Osama bin Laden." The undercover agents got Smadi to drive a truck that he thought had a bomb in it into the bottom of the tower. The agents then caught him. Smadi is scheduled to make his first court appearance in front of a federal magistrate judge Friday in Dallas. He is being charged for attempting to use weapons of mass destrution, which will make him see a life sentence in prison and a 250,000 fine.

I feel quite relieved to see something like this be stopped. Had this bombing occured, the number of people hat would have died would have been huge. I think that it is very important for agents to be able to see every chat room or conversations because things like this could happen everyday and security is very important to have.

Drowning mother: 'Please, come help me!'

After finishing her night shift at Sam's Club, Seydi Burciaga walked into her minivan. She was only .3 miles away from her house, but never made it. At 5 a.m. her Nissan Quest was swept off the road by floodwater. The creek is usually three feet wide on the average day. The car was tossed and carried behind some trees and a school. Water was coming into the vehicle quickly. "Please, coe help me," she said. "Please!" The dispatcher used some clues that Seydi was giving him to ocate where she might be. burciaga had lived in the neighbourhood for the past decade, so she was very familiar with area. She was reffered to as the "neighbourhood mom" and would help anyone who needed. "She was a very loving mother, a good wife, a strong woman," said Pedro Burciaga, her husband of 14 years. "She liked helping everyone, and overall she worked very hard. ... She always had a smile for everyone." An hour after the incident began,her car was found more than 300 metres away. She was laying in the back seat of the car when she was found dead. She was a mexican immigrant and her birthday was coming up on November 10. She had a 9 year old son and a 4 year old daughter. Her husband struggled for words. His favorite memory: "Her smile, how she was with my children. She loved them a lot. She gave them lots of love."

The only thing I can say is how badly I feel for Seydi's friends and family. Having a story like this occur is tremendously sad, and makes me feel how lucky I am to have my family still with me. My grandfather died two and a half years and it was very tough to get through it. But having a father or mother of spouse of child would be the worst possible thing. The 911 call was recorded and you could see how frustrated and scared she was. I can't imagine being in a situation that she was in.

Cold? Flu? H1N1? How can you tell the difference?

When Chris Lewis was first asked to be tested on H1N1 in August, she wasn't so keen on it. But when she thought about it, she knew that taking one needle could save many lives. "I heard people might die from it," Smith said. "So I think it's a good idea to help people, by being involved." Chris and her girlfriend Tyra Smith were part of a group that were the first Americans to be given the H1N1 shots. They kept diaries and gave blood, to help create vaccines that would be ready for the fall. Now with the winter closing in on us,many people will be getting the cold and the flu. Doctors are worrying that some people may be getting the one-two punch of H1N1 and the flu, could make some Americans not be able to cope with the sicknesses, plus the colds many peple get this time around. But how can you tell what you have? Dr. Shmuel Shoham, an infectious-disease specialist at Washington Hospital Center, says "the common cold, seasonal flu and H1N1 are all respiratory illnesses, but they're caused by different viruses." Cold symptoms consist of three to five days of a cough and stuffy nose. Swine flu and a seasonal flu have similar symptoms which makes it dificult to distinguish one another. These symptoms include fever, body aches, diarrhea and severe fatigue. People need to go to the doctors once they start feeling these symptoms because they could end up in the hospital for many days, or even weeks, if it is not taken care of. The people that have the best chance of getting H1N1 are young people ages 6 months to 25 years, pregnant women, and people with long-lasting health conditions like asthma or heart disease. The CDC recommends that these people get vaccinated first.




Getting these tests done is very helpful. I think that this year is going to be one of the worst years for illnesses and if the symptoms are not identified, the number of sicknesses will be to the maximum. People sacrificing themselves should be given benefits of some kind like money because they aren’t just helping themselves, but others as well. Also, people will be able to find out how severe their illness is and can let people with H1N1 get the help they need before they need treatment or medicine for their little cold.

Fired boss sues OLG for $8.8M

Kelly McDougal, president of Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. was given the option to fire someone, or else. She chose the "or else"option and lost her job that payed her $400,000. She wanted to give the Government a "symbol of change," and intends to sue over the firing. "The damage that has been done to her through the mouths of the minister of finance and the premier of this province will haunt her for the rest of her career and severely limit her opportunities for re-employment at a similar or equal level," the notice says. McDougald is suing Ontario, Finance Minister Dwight Duncan and OLG. She says that the damage that has been done to her is "irreplaceable" and worth $8.8 million. Kelly says that she met with OLG chairman Michael Gough on August 27, and was told to take OLG's chief financial officer John Black's job away from him. She was also insisted to fire one other person, who's name has not been released. "When Ms. McDougald made it clear that she was not prepared to terminate the employment of any senior executive at OLG for cause, the minister ultimately decided to terminate the employment of some other senior executive at OLG for cause, namely, Ms. McDougald," the notice states. Duncan and Premier Dalton McGuinty have insulted McDougald publically.

I have to agree with Ms. McDougal's decission to quit being president of Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. I believe that you have to be happy in a workplace and she obviously wasn't. The only thing I don't agree with amount of money being sued because she earned $400,000 last year, and now she may make $8.8 million just because she said no to someone. This incident is getting very public and I can't see how she could win this in trial.

Ghost Hunt turns deadly.

On Tuesday night, a University of Toronto ghost search was ended after a 29 year oldwoman was found dead. Leah Kradik, was found without pulse at 1 Spadina Cres. at 2 am. Leah was on a date for the first time, and the couple were rumored to be searching a "haunted" building down town.  Police say that a wire that Leah was holding on to snapped, and she fell tons of flights of stairs. Kubik, an American native, worked at the Toronto office of Message Labs. The building was no stranger to unfortunate incidents. This building, "The 134-year-old Connaught medical research building" also had a murder inside of it 8 years ago. that same year, David Buller, a professor from U of T, was killed after being stabbed. The artist received several wounds during a knifing spree in the second-floor studio where he was teaching his course for 15 years. The students that take classes at the building were found so surprised about the incident. "This is chilling and a little extreme," said Brendan Vanderwater, 20, of St. Catharines. "I have friends who hunt for ghosts, but it's for pleasure."

I think that seeing all of these deaths i such a shame to see because of all of the students and people going to this building. If an area outside was "cursed" then it would seem more believable because of shootings or gangs. But inside a building, I think that this is getting in people's heads and it is just irony. People shouldn't be frightnened and ignore the past.