New Google Doodle Honors French Artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

He is best known for his scenes of wild, bohemian Parisian nightlife

It would be Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s 150th birthday, had the bohemian, bibulous artist not died in his 30s, and Google is marking the fact with a Google Doodle.
The French artist, who suffered from a genetic disorder that gave him an adult torso but child-sized legs, is best known for his painted scenes of wild, bohemian Parisian nightlife, including his posters for the opening of the Moulin Rouge.
The famed cabaret went on to keep a seat reserved for the artist, who was well known for living a life as colorful as his art. The Toulouse-Lautrec Foundation describes him as a “confidant” of Paris’ prostitutes, with whom he often moved in for weeks to paint their domestic lives.
Toulouse-Lautrec is believed to have contracted syphilis from his favorite model, the redheaded Rosa la Rouge. He died from complications from the disease, as well as alcoholism, at just 36 years old.

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Google Drive slashes cloud storage pricing

(Credit: Google)

Google has dropped the monthly prices for cloud storage on its Drive service.
Google Drive just got a lot more competitive. The web giant has announced that it has drastically dropped the prices on its monthly cloud storage plans.
The new pricing is as follows:

• 100GB: formerly US$4.99/month, now US$1.99/month
  
• 1TB: formerly US$49.99/month, now US$9.99/month
  
• 10TB: formerly US$399.99/month for 8TB, now US$99.99/month for 10TB
  

The maximum size for files not converted to the Google Docs format is also now 25GB, and users of Gmail, Google Drive and Google+ Photos can continue to use up to 15GB free.
"Having launched Google Drive just two years ago, we're excited that so many people are now using it as their go-to place for keeping all their files," Google's Scot Johnson wrote in a blog post. "Whether it's all the footage of your kids' baseball games, the novel you're working on, or even just your grocery list for the week, we all have files that are too important to lose. Today, thanks to a number of recent infrastructure improvements, we're able to make it more affordable for you to keep everything safe and easy to reach on any device, from anywhere."
All users who were already using Google's monthly Drive service will automatically be updated to the cheaper plans. Alternatively, if the plans sound attractive enough to entice you over, you can jump aboard on the Google Drive storage subscription page.

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On the 25th anniversary of the web, let’s keep it free and open

On the 25th anniversary of the World Wide Web, we’re pleased to share this guest post from Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the web. In this post he reflects on the past, present and future of the web—and encourages the rest of us to fight to keep it free and open. -Ed.

Today is the web’s 25th birthday. On March 12, 1989, I distributed a proposal to improve information flows: “a ‘web’ of notes with links between them.”

Though CERN, as a physics lab, couldn’t justify such a general software project, my boss Mike Sendall allowed me to work on it on the side. In 1990, I wrote the first browser and editor. In 1993, after much urging, CERN declared that WWW technology would be available to all, without paying royalties, forever.

The first web server, used by Tim Berners-Lee. Photo via Wikipedia

This decision enabled tens of thousands to start working together to build the web. Now, about 40 percent of us are connected and creating online. The web has generated trillions of dollars of economic value, transformed education and healthcare and activated many new movements for democracy around the world. And we’re just getting started.

How has this happened? By design, the underlying Internet and the WWW are non-hierarchical, decentralized and radically open. The web can be made to work with any type of information, on any device, with any software, in any language. You can link to any piece of information. You don’t need to ask for permission. What you create is limited only by your imagination.

So today is a day to celebrate. But it’s also an occasion to think, discuss—and do. Key decisions on the governance and future of the Internet are looming, and it’s vital for all of us to speak up for the web’s future. How can we ensure that the other 60 percent around the world who are not connected get online fast? How can we make sure that the web supports all languages and cultures, not just the dominant ones? How do we build consensus around open standards to link the coming Internet of Things? Will we allow others to package and restrict our online experience, or will we protect the magic of the open web and the power it gives us to say, discover, and create anything? How can we build systems of checks and balances to hold the groups that can spy on the net accountable to the public? These are some of my questions—what are yours?

On the 25th birthday of the web, I ask you to join in—to help us imagine and build the future standards for the web, and to press for every country to develop a digital bill of rights to advance a free and open web for everyone. Learn more and speak up for the sort of web we really want with #web25.

Posted by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Inventor of the World Wide Web

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