Frank Spychalski MIA in New Zealand

Current Googler Frank Spychalski left for New Zealand in November and was supposed to show up at a friends place in the last 2 weeks. His last Google+ posting was on November 26th, and neither his mother nor his Google manager has heard from him. Nobody seems to know where he is.

The police in New Zealand have been contacted and have started searching for him from Wanaka, where he last posted. A backpacker there said he mentioned wanting to go to Mt. Aspirings French Ridge hut.

Frank is a strong and careful hiker, but if theres any time to start worrying its now. If youve heard from him or talked to him since November 26th, please let me know. Additional information could save his life, not to mention his friends, colleagues, and family a lot of worry.

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Error message The page cannot be displayed in Internet Explorer

This problem may occur if any one or more of the following conditions is true:
Internet Explorer connection settings are incorrect.
An incorrect entry exists in a Hosts file.
The Winsock.dll, Wsock32.dll, or Wsock.vxd file is missing or damaged.
There are multiple copies of the Winsock.dll, Wsock32.dll, or Wsock.vxd file, or one of these files is in the wrong folder.
TCP/IP is not installed or is not functioning correctly.
The WinSock2 registry key is damaged.
The Internet Connection Sharing installation is damaged or is not functioning.
The Rnr20.dll file is missing or damaged or the "Library Path" value in the following registry key is missing or contains the wrong location:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetServicesWinSock2 ParametersNameSpace_Catalog5Catalog_Entries

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5 best features in Apples iOS 5

Earlier this week at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), Apple finally offered up a look at iOS 5, the planned update to the companys mobile OS. Although it won’t be out until this fall - Apple isnt yet saying exactly when -iOS 5 promises to deliver much-needed changes to the OS, which is used on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

Apple told WWDC attendees that the new OS will have some 200 new features, though only 10 of them were showcased during Mondays two-hour keynote, which also focused on iCloud and OS X 10.7 "Lion."

Here are the five iOS 5-based changes Im looking forward to most.

New notifications

Lets start with the crowd-pleaser: Apple has finally revamped the way iOS handles message notifications. This was long overdue.

Until now, whenever a notification arrived, it popped up on the screen, forcing you to either view the message or close the notification window. The new method doesnt force you to stop whatever youre doing; the notification literally rotates into view in the form of an unobtrusive banner beneath the menu bar. Within seconds, the banner -it displays the appropriate app icon and the message-gently flips back out of view. If the notification requires immediate attention, tapping it automatically switches you to the app so you can respond.

Dont worry if you liked the current style of modal notifications. They havent been cut completely. In iOS 5 theyll still be an option when you configure your apps under Settings->Notifications. And theyre still useful in certain situations. After all, not all notifications should be ignored-like a reminder to take medicine. But I suspect most users will opt for the less intrusive banner, which is selected by default.

If you want to retrieve any notifications youve ignored, you use Apples new Notification Center, a completely original idea that no one has ever thought of. (That sound, by the way, was hundreds of Android fans heads bursting.)

I kid, of course; The notification screen isnt particularly original or new to anyone except iOS users who havent modified their system software, but that doesnt make its inclusion any less welcome. Swiping your finger down from the top of the iPhone screen slides open the Notification Center, where all of your alerts are organized by app. (Apple also added in Stocks and Weather widgets.) You remove older notifications by hitting an X and then confirming that you want to make the app entries go away by tapping Clear.

Making the new system more useful, customizations are available on a per-app basis in the Notification Settings area. You can sort notifications manually or by time, and you can edit the display order of the apps. One thing to keep in mind if you cant pull yourself away from certain apps: You can set the apps to display banner notifications and on the Lock Screen. Thatll be handy, since you wont have to spend time unlocking the phone just to check notifications.

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Review Whats Going on In There

Whats Going On In There is a baby neurologist/brain development book. You might consider it competition for Brain Rules For Baby, except that Lise Eliot goes into depth about neurology. This is less boring than you might think, since neurons, synapses, and myelinization is all interesting stuff. However, if youre looking for a practical manual for raising children, Brain Rules For Baby is the superior book.

Part of this is that Eliot breaks apart a childs development into its multiple subskills instead of chronologically as a parent would encounter its development. That means that in one chapter, for instance, she would cover vision development from conception to 2 years, and then in the next chapter she would cover motor skills from conception to 2 years. As a result, youre never given a good timeline for how things come together, or what to watch out for when, unless you were to take notes and create one yourself out of the raw material she gives you. She tries to fix this by providing copious cross references, but those just make you annoyed, especially when you get to the cross-referenced chapter and find yet more cross references.

She covers a lot of ground, but my impression of the book is that pretty much anything you can do for your child is covered in the pre-natal pre-birth section, while she has relatively few concrete pointers for you to consider once the child is out of the womb. For instance, in a lot of places in the book she talks about high quality childcare being as good as a stay-at-home mom. But nowhere does she define what high quality childcare is, and how to find it. Sounds pretty crazy? But thats what most of the book is like.

That doesnt mean the book is useless. I found the section of why men have bigger brains than women (even after correcting for body weight) interesting. I found the discussion of gender differences interesting. I enjoyed the discussion on the impact of musical training on brain development (though its much more sparse and less in depth than I would like). There are a few gaping holes in the book (for instance, not being bilingual herself, she says nothing about bilingual upbringing except to note that it takes longer for the child to speak), but Medinas book had similar holes.

All in all, the books mildly recommended, but seriously, read Brain Rules For Baby first.

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