Microsoft sees end of Windows era

Microsoft has kicked off a research project to create software that will take over when it retires Windows.

Called Midori, the cut-down operating system is radically different to Microsoft's older programs.

It is centred on the internet and does away with the dependencies that tie Windows to a single PC.

It is seen as Microsoft's answer to rivals' use of "virtualisation" as a way to solve many of the problems of modern-day computing.

Although Midori has been heard about before now, more details have now been published by Software Development Times after viewing internal Microsoft documents describing the technology.

Midori is believed to be under development because Windows is unlikely to be able to cope with the pace of change in future technology and the way people use it.

Windows worked well in an age when most people used one machine to do all their work. The operating system acted as the holder for the common elements Windows programs needed to call on.

"If you think about how an operating system is loaded," said Dave Austin, European director of products at Citrix, "it's loaded onto a hard disk physically located on that machine.

"The operating system is tied very tightly to that hardware," he said.

That, he said, created all kinds of dependencies that arose out of the collection of hardware in a particular machine.

This means, he said, that Windows can struggle with more modern ways of working in which people are very mobile and very promiscuous in the devices they use to get at their data - be that pictures, spreadsheets or e-mail.

Equally, he said, when people worked or played now, they did it using a combination of data and processes held locally or in any of a number of other places online.

When asked about Midori by BBC News, Microsoft issued a statement that said: "Midori is one of many incubation projects underway at Microsoft. It's simply a matter of being too early in the incubation to talk about it."

Cheapest laptop in the world on sale in Dubai

Taiwanese hardware vendor Carapelli says that the Impulse NPX-9000 is both the smallest laptop in the world, and the cheapest, costing just $129 (AED 473) for bulk orders of 100 units or more.

In comparison, the cheapest commercially available small, cheap notebook the Asus EeePC 700 series costs anywhere from $200-400, while Intel's Classmate and the OLPC XO notebook, only available for governments and education, costs between $250 and $400, and around $180 respectively.

With a 7 inch screen, the Impulse NPX-9000 matches the smallest Asus EeePC, and comes with a 400MHz processor, 128MB RAM and 1GB of flash storage, running a customized version of Linux.

Hawaii tourism chief's X-rated e-mails may cost him his job

Rex Johnson, the president and chief executive officer of the Hawai'i Tourism Authority, is being urged by the authority's board of directors to resign after adult-oriented material was found in his government e-mail account.

The board discussed the matter Tuesday in executive session and two board members later approached Johnson about his possible resignation. The board's administrative standing committee has scheduled an executive session regarding Johnson on Wednesday afternoon.

"It was a huge mistake," Johnson said in an interview yesterday. "I have apologized for my actions to the board."

Johnson acknowledged receiving adult-oriented e-mails on his government account and forwarding the e-mails to friends, whom he described as "fishing and baseball buddies" who often exchange jokes to keep in touch. He said the e-mails were not sent to business contacts.

Johnson said he understands his actions were an unauthorized use of state computers and contrary to state personnel guidelines against accessing or downloading sexually explicit material. But he said he does not believe it should cost him his job.

"I don't believe so," Johnson said. "But others may feel that it should."

Kelvin Bloom, the chairman of the authority's board of directors, said he has been instructed by legal counsel not to discuss the matter because it involves personnel.

"The board has the full range of options from dismissal to 'get back to work,' " Johnson said.

Several state lawmakers, including state House Speaker Calvin Say, D-20th (St. Louis Heights, Palolo Valley, Wilhelmina Rise), state Senate President Colleen Hanabusa, D-21st (Nanakuli, Makaha), and state Senate Vice President Donna Mercado Kim, D-14th (Halawa, Moanalua, Kamehameha Heights), have given their support to Johnson even though they disapprove of his actions.

Board meeting urged

Mercado Kim said through a spokesman that she personally contacted five board members, including Bloom, and asked them to hold a meeting of the full board where Johnson could explain himself. At least two other senators either personally or had their staff contact board members on Johnson's behalf.

While embarrassing, lawmakers said, they question whether Johnson's actions warrant his resignation or firing given his experience and the challenges facing the tourism industry during the economic downturn.

"I believe that he is definitely entitled to due process," Hanabusa said. "I believe that he should have this discussion with his full board.

"Yes, it showed bad judgment, but the question becomes whether this is something that whoever it is that's pressuring him to resign — whether it's the whole board or bits of the board or whatever it may come out to be — whether this is something that warrants that decision."

Tourism advocate

Say said Johnson has been an effective advocate for tourism at the Legislature. The speaker said the board should consider allowing Johnson to continue, given the slump in tourism. "At this point, step back, breathe in a little," he said.

State Rep. Ryan Yamane, D-37th (Waipahu, Mililani), the chairman of the House Tourism and Culture Committee, said he questions whether changing leadership now is the right move but, like Say and others, said he is not trying to unduly influence the board.

"As chair, I would like to know how they plan to respond to or deal with the loss of somebody like Mr. Johnson as the head of HTA. You cannot, during this time in our industry, you can't just remove somebody and think that putting somebody else in their place is going to start them off where they left off.

"There's a learning curve."

Ongoing probe

Johnson's e-mails were discovered by the state auditor as part of an ongoing investigation of the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism and an audit of the HTA's major contractors. The tourism authority is under the DBEDT umbrella, but is governed by an appointed board with 12 voting members and four nonvoting members; Gov. Linda Lingle's tourism liaison and the directors of the state Department of Transportation, the state Department of Land and Natural Resources and the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts. The e-mails, which contain X-rated movie clips, slideshows and photographs of adult nudity, fall outside the scope of the auditor's investigations but she reported it in late June to the Lingle administration and House and Senate leaders.

Johnson, who earns $240,000 a year, is evaluated annually by the board.

Johnson is known as a risk-taker and for his candor and he has sometimes clashed with those who prefer rosy optimism about the state's dominant private industry.

Lingle's appointment of Marsha Wienert as tourism liaison was widely seen in political and tourism circles as a way for the governor to have a larger voice on tourism, since Johnson reports to the board, not the governor.