THE WEEK April 11: No more selfies

Death of an O.S.

Microsoft’s long running Windows XP operating system has officially been phased out. After 13 years of powering computers across the world, Microsoft announced in 2007 that April 8, 2014 would be the last day that support and updates will be available to Windows Xp users. What this means is that users of XP will need to either upgrade to a new Operating system or leave themselves at risk of viruses and hackers. According to StatCounter China currently has over 200 million computers running Windows XP. The operating system is everywhere, powering government computers to automated teller machines. Xp supposedly makes up at least 50% of the computer operating systems in China.

No more selfies

A selfie of President Obama with Boston Red Sox baseball player David Ortiz went viral on the internet earlier this week. Ortiz who had recently signed posed for an endorsement deal to shill Samsung’s products decided to ask President Obama to take a photo with him using his Samsung phone.

Samsung’s marketing department grabbed the image and splashed it over social media. The White House has come out and commented on the matter saying that selfies might no longer be allowed with President Obama.

Emergency landing

A foreigner operating a small aircraft took an emergency landing on a stretch of Sichuan highway earlier this week. The reason for the landing was that the plane was out of fuel. The irresponsible pilot had forgotten to check the fuel gauge before taking off! Luckily the high way was clear enough of traffic for the plane to land and the pilot was able to land and visit a nearby gas station to fuel up. According to media reports the plane’s landing was completely within Chinese air regulations and the pilots paper work checks out.

（中國日報網英語點津 Helen 編輯）