Rumors of a Paypal like service from Google have been around for over a year, and expected months ago. Today Google has announced Google Checkout, along with a large number of online stores that will be using their new service.

From the official blog:

We’ve heard time and again from users: “I find great stores through Google search, but every time I try to buy from an online store, I have to re-enter the same billing, shipping, and credit card information. There are too many steps. Why can’t it be as fast as a Google search?” This motivated us to improve the online purchase process, and so today we’re announcing Google Checkout, a checkout option that makes buying across the web fast and easy.

Yesterday’s Coding4Fun on MSDN was Introduction to Programming Lego Mindstorms, with .NET none the less.

Today Microsoft is showing off their new Robotics Studio at the RoboBusiness Conference and Exposition 2006.

PITTSBURGH— June 20, 2006 — Today at RoboBusiness Conference and Exposition 2006, Microsoft Corp. showcased the community technology preview (CTP) of a new Windows®-based environment for academic, hobbyist and commercial developers to easily create robotic applications for a wide variety of computing platforms. In addition, early adopter companies, universities and research institutes offered demos and provided support for the new Microsoft® Robotics Studio development platform. The community technology preview of the Microsoft Robotics Studio is available for download at http://msdn.microsoft.com/robotics.

Read the full announcement…

What’s really fascinating with this technology is they allow you to simulate a robot and to run code without having to invest in hardware.

The creator of Lotus Notes and former CEO of Iris Associates is about to replace Bill Gates as Microsoft’s Chief Software Architect. Before joining Microsoft, Ozzie created a new groupware package called Groove. Microsoft aquired Groove in March 2005.

On June 15, Gates announced that he would step down from day-to-day operations and Microsoft. He will still remain part-time Chairman and technical advisor.

External Links:
Ray Ozzie Weblog
Profile