Karmic Koala is the code name for Ubuntu 9.10.  Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth announced the code name in a posting yesterday.  Shuttleworth wrote that the “boot will be beautiful” for their desktop software.  Ubuntu’s appearance will also change significantly:

The desktop will have a designer’s fingerprints all over it – we’re now beginning the serious push to a new look. Brown has served us well but the Koala is considering other options.

A lot of Karmic Koala’s work will revolve around cloud computing.  Ubuntu will be using Amazon.com EC2′s APIs to make it easy for users to set up their own cloud computing setup.

We’re currently in beta with official Ubuntu base AMI’s for use on Amazon EC2. During the Karmic cycle we want to make it easy to deploy applications into the cloud, with ready-to-run appliances or by quickly assembling a custom image. Ubuntu-vmbuilder makes it easy to create a custom AMI today, but a portfolio of standard image profiles will allow easier collaboration between people doing similar things on EC2.

Twitter has a feature that is similar to Facebook’s “Friends You May Know” and LinkedIn’s “People You May Know.”  This feature has been very effective in terms of high-profile users getting a ton more followers.  To find out who Twitter is suggests for you, visit this website:
http://twitter.com/invitations/suggestions.

When users sign up, they are shown featured personalities such as The Guardian, Felicia Day, TechCrunch, CNN, NYT, Dell, and Rainn Wilson.  Twitter started endorsing certain personalities in mid-January.  The Guardian went from about 4,000 followers to 66,000 in about a month.  Felicia Day went from 20,000 to 83,000.  TechCrunch went from 41,000 to 111,000.  The New York Times jumped to 145,000.

“The reason we created this feature is because lots of people sign up to Twitter but aren’t following anyone, so we’re trying to help get them started,” stated Williams in a comment on Brook Bayne’s blog.

Many people believe that this interferes with Twitter’s organic growth.  The suggested user system wasn’t exactly ideal accoring to Stone.  “Right now it’s sort of like staff picks at your local bookstore,” stated Stone in an e-mail with the L.A. Times. “Later, we hope to make this smarter.”

It won’t be done for a while because improving suggested users aren’t exactly the highest on the priority list.  Although I think this is pretty important because it seems like the friends of Twitter benefit from the suggested users while the rest get shafted.

eBay founder Pierre Omidyar reported on Twitter about a ridiculous lawsuit that is being thrown at him.  Omidyar, a billionaire, a start-up investor, and a philanthropist is the least likely person in the world to have anything to do with terrorists.

The lawyer suing Omidyar even own a website called Sueaerosmith.com.  Omidyar tweeted that he plans to claim sueomidyar.com before that lawyer tries to get it.

John Picardy, a former special agent with the State Department recently filed a lawsuit against Omidyar for a wrongful termination.  Picardy is also suing Omidyar’s wife, mother, and Sky River Management.  Sky River Management, a firm in Honolulu handles the security for the Omidyar family.  Picardy left his job at the State Department in Australia and joined Sky River at the beginning of 2008.

Picardy’s job only last four days.  Sky River fired Picardy because he made a comment that was offensive to two fellow roommates.  The comment was “What do you do when Jayson wants to get some face?” Picardy meant “going on a date” and “not having sex”.

Picardy believes that he was fired because Omidyar’s mother questioned his views on the Middle East.  Picardy claims he was fired because he found out about the family airplane flying to Syria for meetings with Hamas. Picardy believes the Omidyars fired him “because they feared the reporting to the U.S. government of their activities.”  Picardy wants a jury trial and punitive damages.

Omidyar is taking the situation quite lightly as indicated by his tweets.  “I guess my chances of becoming President have gone up.  Thank you, Sarah Palin!” tweeted Omidyar after writing about being sued for “palling around with terrorists.”

[via NYT]

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) apparently gave away too much severance to some of their most recently laid off employees.  Now Microsoft is asking for some of that money back.  It is not clear how many people were affected, but this didn’t happen to just one person.

Microsoft employees obviously wouldn’t be happy about this because severance is a sensitive issue.  Microsoft human resources did not exactly explain why this happened, but employees are encourage to call the office if they want to know what happened.  Microsoft’s payroll department is based in Fargo, ND.

Above is a screenshot of the letter sent to an anonymous victim.

[via TechCrunch]

Trimble is a company that puts together positioning products such as GPS, laser, and optical technologies.  Trimble recently announced that they have put together an ultra-mobile PC (UMPC) under their Yuma brand of products.

The Yuma UMPC has MIL-STD-810F and IP67 ratings.  The Yuma UMPC has a sunlight-readable 7 inch WVGA touchscreen.  It has a built in 1.6GHz Atom N270 processor with a 32GB SSD drive.  The Yuma UMPC has built-in WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, ExpressCard, and SDIO slot for expansion.  The UMPC also has two geotag-enabled cameras.

[via Engadget]

Philips announced earlier today that they have two new portable media players to advance their GoGear product line-up.  The GoGear Ariaz and the GoGear Opus will be joining the GoGear family of products.  The GoGear Ariaz (pictured above) has a 2″ LCD display, FM tuner, built-in mic, and will be available in 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB.  The Ariaz has “touchscreen buttons” and a large rocker key.

The GoGear Opus has a 2.8″ QVGA display with 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB.  Opus has built-in Bluetooth and BBC iPlayer support.

Release dates are unknown, but both will most likely be available in Europe in April for about €79 and €179 ($100 to $230).

[via Engadget]

Online Casino Bluebook is a free online guide that ranks casinos based on bonus size, payout percent, customer service, software graphics, game features, etc.  On the Online Casino Bluebook website there is a top 10 list of the best casinos online.

What makes Online Casino Bluebook useful is that it works well for beginners and experienced online casino players.  For the new players, there is a list of casinos that have no deposits and even give free bonuses.  Bluebook Online Casino has already done the homework for online casino players.

On the Internet, there are currently about 800 casino gambling websites across 10 countries.  Paul C, the man behind Online Casino Blue Book guarantees that you won’t have any problems with his casino picks.

Online Casino Blue Book has a list of three Poker Rooms that have thousands of online players.  Some of the poker games offered in these rooms include Texas Hold ‘Em, Omaha Hi, Omaha 8, Seven Card Stud, and Stud 8.

Online Casino Blue Book was established in 2000, around the same time that online casinos started on the Internet.  Online Casino Blue Book features forums, bonus reviews, and a blog.  Another useful aspect of Online Casino Blue Book is the casino game resources.  The game resources section teaches you what the odds are for winning at Baccarat, Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Poker, Slots, and Video Poker.

For more information check out onlinecasinobluebook.net

*Sponsored Review

Paul Zolezzi is an aspiring model that was addicted to heroin.  He hung himself at a playground in Brooklyn after he foretold his suicide on Facebook profile.  A jogger passing by noticed Zolezzi’s body dangling from the monkey bars at the Mt. Prospect Park playground near the Brooklyn Museum around 7AM.

A few hours before that Zolezzi wrote on his Facebook profile that he was “born in San Francisco, became a shooting star over everywhere and ended his life in Brooklyn. … And couldn’t have asked for more.”

Zolezzi’s mother, Stephanie Zolezzi reported to the Daily News that her son was on a downward spiral since he had a broken engagement two years ago.

“I would say that people get so lonely, so delusional, that all they want to do is be remembered,” said Stephanie in an interview with The Daily News.  “He probably wanted to be remembered in a big way, to do it dramatically. That’s what drugs will do to people.”

Paul’s father was a schizophrenic writer who threw himself off the Golden Gate Bridge in his 40s.

Reading this article makes me question about what Facebook’s responsibility is when it comes to these kind of situations.  To me, I think that Facebook should create some sort of security force to monitor keywords such as “kill,” “die,” and “dead” and possibly notify authorities if something seems off.  It would be a lot of extra work, but it may alleviate situations like this.