WASHINGTON - The nation's capital got in the holiday spirit Sunday night when music legends Neil Diamond and Mary J. Blige performed for President Barack Obama at the annual "Christmas in Washington" concert.

The festivities, hosted by comedian George Lopez, took place at the National Building Museum and benefited the Children's National Medical Center.

"This season we celebrate that sacred moment, the birth of a child, the message of love preached to the world," Obama said from the stage, where he was joined by first lady Michelle Obama. "More than 2,000 years later, that spirit still inspires us."

The president spoke of helping those in need during the holidays, as well as honoring those in the military.

"With our men and women in uniform serving far from home, in harm's way, our fervent wish remains this season, and all seasons: Let there be peace on earth," he said.

Diamond kicked off the concert by performing "Joy to the World" and "Winter Wonderland." Blige wowed the crowd with "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)."

Two of the holiday songs were original numbers. Country group Sugarland performed "Gold and Green" and Rob Thomas sang "A New York Christmas."

R&B singer Usher sang "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and Internet sensation Justin Bieber performed "Someday at Christmas."

After addressing the crowd, the Obamas stayed on stage with all the performers to sing carols, starting with "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing." The president wiped a tear from his eye during the sing-along.

The concert will air Dec. 20 on TNT.

Birjand , the provincial capital of South Khorasan, is located in the southern part of the Great Khorasan and south-east of Iran with a population of 300000. Its distance from Tehran, the capital of Iran, is 1309 kilometers. It is surrounded by deserts and its neighboring cities by North are Quaen and Gonabad,  by South Zahedan, Kerman and Zabol, by West Tabas and Ferdows and by East it borders Afghanistan

It is said that the Shokatiyeh School in Birjand together with Darolfonoon in Tehran were the first public schools in Iran in the mid 1800s. Ever since then, Birjand has amassed an abundance of institutions of higher education and become an important location for research and development.  Stone inscriptions found by archeologists in recent excavations have revealed the rich and old traditions of the early settlers of Birjand as they date back to several thousands years ago. The city has also numerous tourist attractions, including museums, historical sites and buildings, the Great Mosque, Shokatieh School, and Chenesht Cave. In the past, Being a small part of a region called “Ghohestan” (mountainside) , presently, this city is one of the important cities in eastern region of Iran for its trade and economy.

Chrome OS is potentially a major threat to Microsoft. It may also be a sideshow or even a bust, but that isn't a chance Redmond should take. If I were Steve Ballmer, Ray Ozzie, or Stephen Sinofsky, I'd have launched the Internet Explorer OS project months ago.

The concept behind Chrome OS is a simple one: Drop enough Linux under the browser to allow it to run on minimalist hardware and you have the 2010 equivalent of the old Tandy 100. (I say that as a compliment).

While the idea of a a computer that does nothing besides run a browser gives me the shivers, I know people who say it is all they really need. They look forward to their Chrome OS netbooks and even I would like to have one, if only because of morbid curiosity.

If there really are customers for Chrome OS out there, then Microsoft, for sure, needs to respond. Firefox and Opera could sit this out, but might need to join the fray to avoid being marginalized in the future.

Each browser OS would support its parent's own web-based productivity applications, perhaps with some special features thrown in to make choosing the OS to match the apps a good idea. Firefox would be a spoiler here, perhaps keeping Microsoft and Google from heading in proprietary directions.

If Google can create an Chrome OS in about two years, then Microsoft, Firefox, et al, ought to be able to build on Google's work and have their own "enhanced browsers" arrive on the scene when Chrome OS hardware arrives next fall.

If all browser-based operating systems could run on Google's hardware spec, you could have interchangeable operating systems and environments, perhaps loaded on memory cards, that could be selected at-will by the user.

A hard drive could remain in at least some systems, allowing the user to chose a browser-based OS or something from the hard drive, such as Linux or Windows 7 (but not Starter Edition, OK?). This could be Microsoft's way of offering customers "the best of both worlds" depending on how they wanted to work.

I realize that a hard drive defeats the purpose of the browser OS, but when solid-state drives become less expensive, any OS can be a candidate for near instant-on. Strip down the operating system to match the actual hardware configuration and you can speed things up considerably.

If it is Google's intent to turn cloud-based apps into a semi-proprietary branded environment, as seems to be the case, then Microsoft certainly needs to be there.

Both Google and Firefox have caught Microsoft flat-footed before. The trend of Microsoft being late to the Internet party needs to stop. If only for self-defense, Redmond needs an alternative to Chrome OS to offer its customers.

The Hewlett-Packard Envy 13 offers an excellent example of what a cutting-edge ultraportable should be--and it moves past the Apple MacBook Air in some important respects, despite its overly ambitious price tag.

First, let me say that I use a MacBook Air as my main machine and am well aware of its merits. That said, it is beginning to look a little long in the tooth when juxtaposed with the Envy 13--which, like the Air, offers an aluminum chassis. I will also draw comparisons with 13-inch MacBook Pro since the Envy seems to fall somewhere between this and the Air.