Eglinton subway not in cards – David Miller

But only paperwork in the way of Spadina extension, Mayor says
By: Natalie Alcoba
National Post Published: Saturday, July 26, 2008

Government officials signalled yesterday that construction will soon start on the anticipated Spadina subway extension, even as the Mayor dismissed a new push to build a subway along Eglinton Avenue. “You should build subways in extremely dense neighbourhoods where you have two-way traffic because there are offices and people living … you don’t build subways where there’s not that ridership and it’s not projected to be” along Eglinton, Mayor David Miller said yesterday. “And there isn’t the money, it’s that simple.”

Toronto’s ambitious Transit City project, which is planning for new light rail lines across the city, includes a light rail route along Eglinton that would extend from the airport to Kennedy, and run underground in a a 10-kilometre tunnel between Laird Drive and Keele Street.

But area city councillors and Metrolinx, the province’s GTA transportation agency, believe Eglinton may in fact warrant a subway. Metrolinx chairman Rob MacIsaac said the agency has not settled on the subway as the best route, but preliminary ridership results suggest it could use something more than a Light Rail Transit. The LRT is projected to cost $2.24-billion, which Mr. Miller says is about $4-billion less than the cost of a subway.

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Google Chrome Browser Or Cloud Operating System?

By most accounts, the Google Chrome development team has dramatically achieved its goal of building a browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the Web faster, safer, and easier.
Walter Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal, who has been testing Google’s Chrome browser for a week next to the latest version of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, concludes “With the emergence of Chrome, consumers have a new and innovative browser choice, and with IE8, the new browser war is sure to be a worthy contest.” Many cloud computing enthusiasts are overjoyed with Chrome and call it the first cloud browser or even the basis for a cloud operating system.

So says Nick Carr:

“To Google, the browser has become a weak link in the cloud system — the needle’s eye through which the outputs of the company’s massive data centers usually have to pass to reach the user — and as a result the browser has to be rethought, revamped, retooled, modernized. Google can’t wait for Microsoft or Apple or the Mozilla Foundation to make the changes (the first has mixed feelings about promoting cloud apps, the second is more interested in hardware than in clouds, and the third, despite regular infusions of Google bucks, lacks resources), so Google is jump-starting the process with Chrome.”

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Five reasons Chrome will take over the world!

After all the polished promises of a streamlined new way to tame the web, the blogosphere was ready to predict Chrome would inspire everything from the end of Firefox to the demise of Microsoft itself.

silicon.com spoke to industry experts and Google’s new rivals to find out why Chrome matters and whether the browser reality can deliver on the hype.

Bye bye Microsoft
Chrome carries shades of an OS in a browser’s clothing and Google’s latest encroachment on Redmond’s turf must have a few Microsoft execs sweating.

The way Chrome will allow users to run and manage applications without an OS’ intervention could mean the beginning of the end for the days of Vista’s bloatware.

David Mitchell, VP for IT research at analysts Ovum, said: “What you are seeing is the language of the browser coming very close to that of the operating system, with services provided at the browser level rather than the OS level.

“If some of the OS functionality is within the browser then there will be a demand for a more anorexic OS running underneath.

“It is a big step towards telling people like Microsoft that they are not so popular after all.”

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