It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!  Actually it has for a while (even since ... Halloween?) but I spent the day shopping in malls.  Yay.  Little known facts about me: I like shopping, I like malls, and I like shopping in malls at Christmas.  Weird, I know, but there it is.

Meanwhile, it's all happening...

Tone deaf: Pajama Boy.  It is not possible to distinguish Obamaland from the Onion. 

Do you know what this is?  Give yourself 10 points if you said, "a computer".  (And +1 if you said, "the new Apple Mac Pro".)  Somewhere Steve Jobs is smiling. 

Because I have a lot to do, I decided to do something entirely optional: install Chrome OS in a VM.  (Today's version of installing dimmers :)  After a couple of hours of futzing, poof!, it worked.  I played with it a bit, and while I can't say it was earth-shattering, it was kind of cool.  I could see using a Chromebook for surfing and email, and reading (the same things for which I use my iPad).  I can't see using it as my everyday computer - yet - but who knows.  But I can see why Microsoft are worried; Windows is becoming more obsolete every day. 

If you haven't seen Chrome OS, click the thumbnail to enbiggen.  It's exactly what you would think, a thin OS layer underlying the Chrome browser.

Related: Microsoft considers free Windows Phone and Windows RT.  MG Siegler comments "five years ago called and they want their idea back".

BTW my current VM farm includes Win Server 2008, Mac OS X Server 10.6, Win 8.1 Pro, and Ubuntu Linux.  Who needs hardware?

A perfect counterpoint to Rear View Mirror: US Space Hardware Today and Tomorrow.  Yeah, where's my flying car?  (click thumbnail to enbiggen, it's worth it) 

Good question: Why does China's moon rover exhibit show a mushroom cloud over Europe?  Wow.  They must be using Obama's PR team... 

Kottke: RIP, the blog.  From one of the earliest and greatest bloggers.  I sympathize - for nearly two years I stopped blogging and let Facebook take over - but ultimately you can't say everything in 140 characters or less.  Long live the website!