Not taco, but Talko is a new app developed by fabled Microsoft programmer Ray Ozzie. He asked the simple question, “What if the Internet came first and some startup discovered that you could transmit voice over the Internet?” The result is Talko.

C|net

You’ve heard the conspiracies: The USA really didn’t land on the moon. It was all done in a Hollywood studio.

To prove the conspiracy, fingers point to the photographs that show light coming from more than one source. According to some postulators, that proves the landing was faked because on the Moon light would only come from the Sun. Anything not in sunlight would be pitch black. That sounds reasonable.

Yet by using new video simulation technology, NVidia (the graphics card company) has shown how light would really work on the moon. It’s pretty interesting, plus there is a video so you don’t have to read anything.

Digital Trends

It’s official. The number of individual websites has surpassed one billion.

I don’t know if that figure lists subdomains or not. For example, when you create your own WordPress (blog) website, that’s really a subdomain, not a unique domain. The article (below) doesn’t mention the specifics.

Yahoo! News

InfoWorld takes a sneak peak at Windows 9. In about two weeks, the “beta” is officially unveiled. Then we’ll all know what Microsoft has in store for the next Windows release.

My suggestion for Windows 9’s real name: Windows Apology.

InfoWorld

Say farewell to the single-purpose device. The camera. The Gameboy. The GPS. The MP3 music player. All gone. Times have changed, indeed.

Wired

Microsoft tries, they really do. Bill Gates is infamous for sloughing off the Internet in the early 1990s. Microsoft was late to the market on phones, tablets, and their Surface device is well, sinking.

Supposedly, Microsoft paid the NFL millions to promote their Surface tablets. Despite their efforts, game announcers refer to the devices as “iPads.”

According to Computerworld, Microsoft is $1.7 billion in the red on Surface. They sell one Surface tablet to every 27 iPads that Apple sells. Given the universal farting sound (and smell) that Windows 8 has generated, the question needs to be asked: Can Microsoft pull itself out of this hole?

Computerworld

Less than a week after Apple announces the Apple Watch, an Android developer has created an Android watch interface that’s pretty much the same as the one found on the Apple Watch. Jeez, that was quick! It took Microsoft a years to copy the Macintosh interface.

Gizmodo

The High Tech industry has always prided itself in coming up with new, exciting stuff time and time again. From the killer program to the killer app, both software and hardware innovations have inspired and motivated generations of geeks and gurus.

Until now.

If the annual TechCrunch blog competition is any gauge, then Silicon Valley is truly out of new ideas.

Slate.com

Golly! Just the other day I joked about waiting for the second release of the Apple Watch and — already — people are talking about it.

I tell you what: If you really want a workout, get on the Apple Treadmill. You’ll never stop running to catch up!

Reuters

Thank you, Mr. Sun!

A large solar flare is headed our way, making a potential impact on Friday (tomorrow). This CME, or Coronal Mass Ejection, could disrupt electronic communications around the globe.

While you can’t prevent such a natural occurrence, you can be on the alert. My advice: Backup!

Washington Post