Блоги -- хуйня

Интересная дискуссия вот тут.  Юзер dolboeb порадовал реально умными комментариями и схожестью некоторых реакций с моими собственными. Например, вот под этой цитатой

Я тоже был сильно удручен степенью потери человеческого лица некоторыми комментаторами в блогах, тем, как люди писали какие-то вещи чудовищные и немыслимые, и с каким остервенением, упорством и настойчивостью.

я готов подписаться.

Впрочем, Носик сказал еще две интересные вещи: 1) Во время давешней короткой войны блоги практически не были источником первичной информации; 2) Немалая часть совково-гебешных геополитических текстов, появлявшихся по всему ЖЖ (в том числе, скажу я вам, и в комментах к моим постам), -- это продукция пиар-индустрии, которая активно действует в блогах.

Носику грустно по этим двум причинам. Потому что Носик -- интернет-деятель, всячески пропагандирующий идею блогов как альтернативы традиционным СМИ.

А мне не грустно, потому что я блоггер-любитель, зато печатный профессионал. На мой взгляд, то, что можно было наблюдать в ЖЖ во время войны, то, о чем сказал Носик, -- это убедительное подтверждение гипотезы о том, что блоги НЕ КОНКУРЕНТЫ профессиональным СМИ. Даже таким архаичным, как бумажные газеты и журналы.

Вы видели -- самые яркие свидетельства очевидцев конфликта были не в блогах, а в газетах. Даже посты журналистов, которые наблюдали войну, были лишь дополнением к тому материалу, который они передавали как профессионалы. Ну и к тому же эти люди просто не стали бы очевдицами, если бы их традиционное СМИ не отправило их в командировку. Блоги проявили себя в первую очередь как то, чем они являются и будут являться, пока слово "профессионализм" не превратилось окончательно в пустой звук, -- площадкой для эмоционального базара, вербального пердежа и пережевывания информации, доставленной публике ЖУРНАЛИСТАМИ.

А на такой площадке, естественно, как не развиваться пиар-индустрии: речь же идет о МНЕНИЯХ, которые, как известно, как анальные отверстия. И о формировании МНЕНИЙ, как будто их без формирования недостаточно. И вот в этом месте социальная функция профессиональной журналистики -- честно информировать, чтоб думали сами -- становится особенно очевидной. Пропаганду в газете и по телевизору всегда понятно, кто делает. При желании можно выяснить конкретно, какой именно редактор -- трусливое говно или карьерист. Лица изрыгающих пиар видны на экране, подписи легко читаемы на газетной полосе. В ЖЖ поди пойми, кто есть кто и кто кому платит. Я лично знаю многих из своих френдов, -- коллеги они, -- и парочка удивила нежеланием думать, а не просто принимать на веру официальную линию. Но я не знаю лично авторов самых ароматных комментариев про то, как надо любить родину и какие у нее национальные интересы. Подозреваю, что некоторые из них принадлежат к индустрии, о которой сказал Носик, и что мой скромный ЖЖ интересует этих ребят, потому что он есть в каком-то списке. (Теперь уже не очень понимаю, что делать, чтобы из него выпасть). Как они искажают эту самую "блогосферу" -- послушайте профессионального вебдванольщика Носика. Ну или Кашина, на худой конец. Газету так хрен исказишь, если только редактор не готов отвечать за это своей репутацией.

Конкуренты? Ха! Не отросло еще одно место. http://bearshitsky.livejournal.com/64266.html

Сначала подумалось, что если предположить, что блоги наделят той же степенью ответсвенности в нормативном и правовом плане, как и остальные традиционные СМИ (допустим, кэш яндекса станет доказательством в суде), то ситуация может перемениться.

Но ведь все равно репутацию, сравнимую с печатным или иным СМИ ни один блоггер себе никогда не сколотит, так как ни один блоггер не может в пределах одной недели побывать в разнах точках земного шара и обладать знаниями из разных сфер деятельности чтобы доставлять качественные репорты. Таким образом очень забавно попал впросак другой, поехав 7-го в детдом.

Носик пишет Бершидскому в ответ, что "событий, способных повысить пошатнувшийся в нынешнем тысячелетии авторитет бумажных изданий, в эти дни тоже не произошло", но это не значит что они не могут произойти, и тем более на значит что авторитет блогов может как-то состязаться с традиционными СМИ. Примерно почему я написал выше.

Некоторый интерес представляют ресурсы mixed content типа ireport, но при том, как оснащен и оперативен был сайт CNN (тему объективности вынесем за скобки), состязания опять-таки не получается, так как у CNN за плечами огромный бренд.

Так что не отросло и не отростет по видимому.

P.S. Сначала хотел ответить на комментарий Козырева у Носика, но там отключен openID. Потом у Бершидского - тоже самое. Вот тебе и блоги. Надеюсь что хотя бы работает trackback.

우선, 그 이유 첫 번째로 서울이 너무나도 나를 정신 혼란하게 만들기 때문이다. 원치 않았지만, 내가 현재 살고 있는 집이 너무나도 번잡한 곳에 있다보니, 가만히 앉아있을 시간을 주지 않는다. 아니 정확히 말하면, 무언가에 집중할 시간을 주지 않는다. 오전에는 오전대로 지나가는 차소리와 어김없이 들리는 자동차 경적소리, 거기에 경보음소리까지, 그리고 하나라도 더 팔겠다고 확성기 볼륨을 높이는 트럭가게 사장님들 목소리, 끊임없는 오토바이의 질주소리는 그저 나를 멍하게만 만든다. 오후시간도 마찬가지다. 맞은편에 떡하니 버티고 있는 이탈리안 레스토랑은 우리집 주차장을 향해서 테라스를 만들어 조금이라도 시원한 저녁이라 문이라도 열라치면, 언니들 낄낄거리며 웃는 소리에 머리카락이 쭈빗쭈빗 선다. 이런 곳에 살고 있으니 편안히 앉아 세상을 바라보고 싶은 마음이 생기지 않는다. 바로 눈에 밟히는 곳에 내 짜증과 답답함이 가득하니말이다.

둘째로는 idiotes의 뜻대로 사사로운 문제로만으로도 머리가 복잡하기 때문일 것이다. 공공의 문제에까지 관심을 가질 여력이 없다 정도로 두번째 이유는 넘어가기로 하자.

셋째는... 을 쓰면서...'계속 남탓만 할 수는 없지 않는가.'하고 마음을 접었다.(사실 셋째로 들 그럴듯한 이유가 생각나지 않는다.) 그래도 요즘에 세상에 눈을 돌릴만한 뉴스들이 있다. 많은 사람들이 그러하듯, 베이징 올림픽이 그것이다. '태극전사(오~! 제발...)'들의 연이은 승전보에 스포츠라고는 숨쉬기 운동밖에 모르는 나도 신이 나서 자꾸 이것저것 들쳐보게 된다. 아시아인 최초의 자유형 금메달리스트도 내 눈으로 볼 수 있게 되었고, 그와 같이 대회 5관왕을 그것도 세계신기록을 연발하며 갱신중인 미국인도, 올림픽 6연패라는 자랑스러운 궁사(너무하네..)들도, 다리에 쥐가 나도 끝까지 포기하지않고 역기를 거머쥐던 그 선수도 역사 속의 한 페이지를 장식할 지금 이 순간들이며, 그 순간을 내 눈으로 즐기고 있다. 사실 아쉬운 점이 없지는 않다. 우리나라 공중파3사는 너무도 우리나라 선수들만 응원하는 나머지, 또 다른 세계의 역사를 쓰고있을 다른 나라 선수들의 경기는 보여주지 않는다. 세계각국의 시합도 보고 싶은데 말이다. 거기다 3사 모두가 경쟁에만 치우쳐 똑같은 우리나라 경기만 보여주니, 전파낭비도 이런 전파낭비가 없다. 좀 안그래도 될것을... 뭐 하여간, 그들의 4년간의 땀과 노력이 그대로 브라운관을 통해 내 머리와 마음을 흔들고 있는 것에는 틀림이 없다. 그들의 사사로운 노력이 온 국민을 흥분케 하고, 거기다 공공의 문제에 관심을 두게 하니 운동선수는 바보다라는 말은 틀린 말일 지 모르겠다. 저마다의 자리에서 최선을 다한다면, 그 사람이야말로 그 분야의 지식인이며, 개척자이며, 우상이지 않겠는가. 적어도 아무것도 안하면서 남탓만 하는 나보다야 멋진 사람들일 것이다. 

자꾸만 바보가 되어가는 내가 되지 않기 위해 몇 자 적어보았다. 하지만 이 몇자를 적으면서 또다시 나의 한계를 느낀다. 하지만 저멀리 중국에서 그 많은 한계들을 뛰어넘고 애쓰는 선수들을 잠깐 생각하며, 언젠가는 나도 내 한계를 부술 그 날을 기대해 본다.

"Answers in Genesis (AiG) sent out a new letter to supporters dated July 23, 2008, and is distributing copies of court filings in the United States regarding their attempt to force Creation Ministries International (CMI) into arbitration and override the lawsuit CMI filed in Australia. An AiG supporter contacted me in email and sent me one of those documents, a motion that AiG filed in U.S. court arguing for arbitration (PDF). (Is there any significance to the fact that it is dated April 1, 2008?) He didn't sent me the other documents, which include CMI's reply to AiG's motion, AiG's response to CMI's reply, and CMI's argument filed with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office to oppose AiG's attempt to register "Answers in Genesis" as a trademark there. These documents are hosted at http://66.42.196.216:50050/arbitration.htm and each PDF has the password "john17"; my copy of the AiG motion PDF, linked above, has no password."

Read on.

According to rapper Jim Jones, Nas is much about nothing. He comments on Nas's recent protest of FOX news in some steamy words. Here's what we've heard:

You’re speaking about someone who isn’t relevant in the game, so there’s nothing he can do from the street point of view to get people to make a spectacle or get people to look at him. So, he opts for the dweeb way to do it. That sh*t is bogus, we don’t wanna hear that sh*t. We don’t wanna hear that propaganda sh*t, fu*k outta here. It’s 2008 and it’s a recession, let’s talk about that. Let’s talk about how we gon make some money in these fu*ked up times. It’s dry out there, you dig? It ain’t no money out there. It’s bad for both sides of the fence whether you pay taxes or you don’t”. 

Sounds like a whole lot of hating. When's the last time Jim Jones put out an album? On the second hand, he's right about current issues, but does it hurt to stand up for black America (which seems to be an overused phrase this year)?

Obama doesn't give a whit about what is really happening over in the Middle East and all the media fawning over him is just more proof that this whole trip is nothing but a photo opportunity.

I'm told that BHO and his family are on the cover of this week's " People" magazine. Haha, People magazine is so credible* drips characteristic sarcasm*

 To you, Mr/Ms Ron Paul supporter, I will say what I want to say. If you don't like what I write, then don't read it!

Global Trend Review/VICE magazine

A few days from the current date, I made a video of my new cardboard house.  The only thing is that when I made it, I left it open.  I didn't say what was inside of the box from the lord.  Well, it was simple.  Peanuts.  Yes, peanuts.  But not the kind you can eat.  Shipping peanuts.  

-KM

<rant>

You know email isn't some new, hot as of  the moment way of communicating. It's been around since the 70's. Or if you are Wikipedia, the 60's. However, it didn't really catch on with the general public until much later. But still we aren't talking about something that was created just yesterday. You sure wouldn't know it by the email I have to deal with.

I review the bounced-back emails every day (we send predue, overdue, hold and cancellation notices via email). Every so often I get a cute little message that wasn't meant for me or anyone else at the library. "Did you return these? Meet you tonight for dinner. Give me a call." Ah yes, you hit reply didn't you instead of forward?! Usually I just chuckle and think if only that customer knew who might show up for their dinner date ;)

However, the other day I got something a bit worse than a dinner invite. I had sent an email to a colleague requesting that a fee be waived in lieu of work I had done for an organization with a note explaining that I was on a committee reviewing a product and had missed the first demo which was again being demoed.  Not a major request but not a minor one either.  My philosophy is - if you don't ask you won't know and the worse they can say is no.  Or so I thought.  Another colleague must have been sent the email by the first colleague because I got a response but not what I had expected.  I was basically accused of being a  freeloader. I responded to her (while copying the first colleague) to explain that I wasn't freeloading and to forget my request.

I imagined a horrified look on this person's face the next morning when they read their email but from the response I got I'm not sure that happened.  They did apologize but ended it with saying they thought they were replying to the first colleague.  Oh, so it's okay to call me names behind my back but not to my face?!!

How on earth do you think you replied?  If you click on reply it automatically puts in the name of the person who sent it to you.  I didn't send it to this person so nice try, I'm not buying it.   Come on, email isn't rocket science.

*sigh*  Why can't people learn the basics of reply, reply all (that's a WHOLE other rant), forward (friends don't let friends forward), etc.

Here endeth the rant </rant>

So Viacom didn't abandon any of their data rights, but they sure went
out of their way to suggest they did. And anyone who watched the will
know that users were absolutely identified based on nothing more than
a list of the search terms they entered. Does anyone really believe
that a motivated plaintiff couldn't identify individuals based on a
user selected ID (mine is "TechCrunch"), IP address and a list of all
watched videos?

Lawmakers, as well as the , should it team up with the industry's No.
2 player Yahoo in the third-party advertising agreement.

) 12 comments (Page 1 of 1) by July 11, 2008 6:41 PM PDT If an
AT&T-BellSouth could merger could get the OK of the government....
Then so could a Google-Yahoo team up..... Microsoft has no case. Reply
to this comment
by July 11, 2008 8:54 PM PDT It seems pretty ironic for microsoft to
testify against anyone in an antitrust hearing
Reply to this comment View reply Hide reply
Processing

by July 12, 2008 4:49 PM PDT @JCPayne , you also claim that: ?with all
the resources Microsoft has-- they are admitting that they aren't
smart enough to put together an ad network?Yeah? You mean like how
Google tried their own video sharing network, failed at it, and went
and bought Youtube so they could dominate web video sharing ? Earth to
JCPayne, companies regular buy other companies. Google has bought
plenty of companies even in their short life span as a company. As for
Microsoft launching a strong protest against a Google/Yahoo pact, it
sounds very good to me. After all, Google has virtually taken
permanent residence at the DOJ and at the EU Commission, constantly
whining against non-existent ?crimes? that they claim Microsoft
thinking of committing, its only fair that Microsoft strongly hit back
against the very real danger of Google?s rabid monopolistic maneuvers,
while at the same time giving Google, the same thing Google has been
giving Microsoft in the last 5 years at least. Reply to this comment
by July 12, 2008 8:27 PM PDT Where is the lock in that keeps customers
dependent and keeps out competitors?All this proves is what everyone
already knew: MS can not succeed on a level playing field. Reply to
this comment

The My Friends section allows you to see your top friends, all of
them, those that are online, new friends, and friends with birthdays.
You also have complete access to your MySpace email. You can visit
your inbox, compose messages and even see your sent, saved and trashed
emails. The Mail icon at the bottom of the Apps screen notifies you
when you have new messages by displaying a white plus-sign inside of a
red circle.

Photo access is accomplished via the Camera Photo icon at the bottom
of the Apps screen. You can touch the “Add Photos” button
and add them directly from the iPhone’s camera or from your
iPhones photo library. Basic editing allows you to delete photos from
your MySpace profile.

AOL’s Radio App for the iPhone and iPod touch is a native
streaming application that is also location aware. Once you confirm
access to your location it reveals local radio stations that provide
streamed radio programming in your area. In the Houston Bay Area, the
app revealed four stations: 100.3 KILT, CNN 650 Radio News, HOT 95.7
and Sports Radio 610. Other locales like Atlanta, Baltimore,
Cleveland, Los Angeles, etc. are offered.

When a call is received while audio is streaming in AOL Radio, the
music fades and your call rings through. If you decline to answer AOL
Radio starts up where it left off with out a hitch. However if you
accept the call and subsequently finish that call you have to re-
launch AOL Radio. It does not automatically restart. This follows the
rules Apple has for apps developed for the iPhone.

The Favorites button opens up a screen that will either display your
favorite streaming radio stations or individual songs you’ve
marked as favorites. Songs are added by touching the magnifying glass
next to the album art. You can find the song in iTunes or on AOL
Music. A “Remember This Song” feature allows you to add a
song to your favorites. Finally, there is a Recents button that does
exactly what it says - tracks your recent stations you listened to.

I’m not sure which classic rock song best describes the latest
in the Microsoft / Yahoo battle: “The Song Remains the
Same” or “Saturday Night’s All Right (For
Fighting)”? Both apply in their own right as yes, yet again.

Yahoo also name drops its new search advertising partner (and major
Microsoft rival), Google, quite prominently. Point number one of why
Yahoo rejected this latest deal reads:

1. Yahoo!’s existing business plus its recently signed
commercial agreement with Google has superior financial value and less
complexity and risk than the Microsoft/Icahn proposal.

Yahoo also takes a portion of its press release to call out Icahn for
being contradictory. It quotes him as saying previously that Yahoo
selling its only search business to Microsoft would be
“crazy.” Now he is a major force in trying to make such a
deal happen.

Viacom wants to know which videos YouTube employees have watched and
uploaded to the site, and Google is refusing to provide that
information, CNET News has learned.

"Viacom and other plaintiffs never should have demanded private
viewing data in the first place," a Google spokesman said in an
e-mail. "They should have agreed a week ago to let us anonymize it. We
are willing to discuss the disclosure of viewing activity of all the
relevant parties. But the simple issue of protecting user information
should be resolved now. Our users' privacy should not be held hostage
to advance the plaintiffs' additional litigation interests."

It's safe to say that many copyright owners are skeptical of these
claims. For years, rumors have circulated in the technology sector
that some of YouTube employees salted the site, especially in its
early days, by posting clips from popular TV shows in order to bring
attention to the site. No evidence of this has ever surfaced.

Google has been accused of encouraging massive copyright violations by
Viacom and by a group of copyright holders represented by the
Proskauer Rose law firm. The group in Britain and France, and U.S.
television journalist Robert Tur.

) 11 comments (Page 1 of 1) by July 12, 2008 12:11 PM PDT I did not
follow with detail this V-G affair but it seems to me that it is
following the SCO-IBM Unix affair in which SCO made a complain that
IBM should prove innocent... just the inverse of common law: you are
innocent up to the moment that you are proved guilty.Am I right? Am I
too far in understanding Viacom/RIAA/etc. lawyers? Reply to this
comment by July 12, 2008 1:54 PM PDT This kind of looks like "Viacom"
is scrabbling, a bit, to continue its, unfocused, IP-lawsuit (and
vicarious responsibility for the actions of others) claims.I also
notice that a totally unproven accusation (that Youtube employees,
allegedly, knowingly allowed, and/or encouraged, copyright-
infringement)... is actually being used to further justify an
apparently, otherwise, clearly dubious- attack.Can you say RED-
HERRING..? But, you know how corporations work... once they start down
a path, no matter how insanely-asinine, they will simply NEVER back-
down (even if... it ends-up tearing them apart, and costing their
stock-holders enormously). Reply to this comment by July 12, 2008 2:54
PM PDT I'd like to see the reverse, that is, the uploading habits of
anyone from a Viacom IP, or using a Viacom (or viacom property domain,
such as comedycentral.com). Did anyone on The Daily Show, or any
staffer of those shows, or any other Viacom company, ever upload
something copyrighted to YouTube? Reply to this comment by July 12,
2008 5:11 PM PDT Relax. Reply to this comment by July 12, 2008 7:49 PM
PDT Viacom just wants to destroy the progression and the future of the
internet because they have LOST to the internet. They are old media,
like newspapers, old like oldy moldy Sumner Redstone. You can't stop
the new wave, the new generation, Web 2.0, 3.0 what have you. You
either roll with it or it rolls right over you. Have you looked at
Viacom's stock price lately. That's a reflection of where they'll
continue to head which is down, down, down if they don't get with the
NEW! Reply to this comment by July 12, 2008 7:50 PM PDT Viacom just
wants to destroy the progression and the future of the internet
because they have LOST to the internet. They are old media, like
newspapers, old like oldy moldy Sumner Redstone. You can't stop the
new wave, the new generation, Web 2.0, 3.0 what have you. You either
roll with it or it rolls right over you. Have you looked at Viacom's
stock price lately. That's a reflection of where they'll continue to
head which is down, down, down if they don't get with the NEW! Reply
to this comment by July 12, 2008 7:50 PM PDT Viacom just wants to
dessstroy the progression and the future of the internet because they
have LOST to the internet. They are old media, like newspapers, old
like oldy moldy Sumner Redstone. You can't stop the new wave, the new
generation, Web 2.0, 3.0 what have you. You either roll with it or it
rolls right over you. Have you looked at Viacom's stock price lately.
That's a reflection of where they'll continue to head which is down,
down, down if they don't get with the NEW! Reply to this comment by
July 12, 2008 7:51 PM PDT Viacom just wants to dessstroy the
progression and the future of the internet because they have LOSSST to
the internet. They are old media, like newspapers, old like oldy moldy
Sumner Redstone. You can't stop the new wave, the new generation, Web
2.0, 3.0 what have you. You either roll with it or it rolls right over
you. Have you looked at Viacom's stock price lately. That's a
reflection of where they'll continue to head which is down, down, down
if they don't get with the NEW! Reply to this comment
by July 12, 2008 7:53 PM PDT Viacom will lose to the future of the
internet if they don't get with the new.
Reply to this comment View reply Hide reply
Processing

Log in to submit a comment Don't have a CNET account yet? Join now,
it's free and takes just a minute. Log inExisting CNET members log in
here

Register to submit a comment Already have an account? Log in now Join
the CNET communityTo continue, we ask that you first complete the free
registration.

CONFIRM YOUR ACCOUNT We have sent an e-mail to your account. If this
is not your e-mail address, click here to resubmit your registration.
Otherwise, please check your e-mail account now: ... or log in
manually to your email client and click the link in our email. Once
you have confirmed your registration, please log in.

If you believe this comment is offensive or violates the , you can
report it below (this will not automatically remove the comment). Once
reported, our staff will be notified and the comment will be reviewed.

Send me a copy of this message
Note: Your e-mail address is used only to let the recipient know who
sent the e-mail and in case of transmission error. Neither your
address nor the recipients's address will be used for any other
purpose.

But the cinema companies were very clever in encouraging agencies to
create ads for movie theaters that the TV authorities wouldn't accept.

Those sites that incorporated it early have the benefit of advertising
already being part of their culture.

Register to submit a comment Already have an account? Log in now Join
the CNET communityTo continue, we ask that you first complete the free
registration.

Send me a copy of this message
Note: Your e-mail address is used only to let the recipient know who
sent the e-mail and in case of transmission error. Neither your
address nor the recipients's address will be used for any other
purpose.

Chris Matyszczyk brings a fresh and irreverent perspective to the tech
world in his CNET blog, Technically Incorrect.

Various theories made their way around. A blogger named Dan at a site
called "tdaxp" noticed the strange phenomenon. "The swastika is a
traditional Chinese good-luck character, the Olympics are coming up
and good luck is on the Chinese mind."

But Christophe Maximin, a 20-year-old French Web developer and
frequent 4chan user, said by phone from his home in London that he was
monitoring 4chan and watched the following scenario unfold:

At some point on Thursday, a member of 4chan's "b" channel posted a
simple two-part instruction. First, Google "卐". Second, enjoy.

joc1985 writes "An after a few hours of playing around. It seems to be
a bad copy of Second Life. Somehow all the rooms are crowded, and porn
has made its way in there already"

Are you kidding me? Porn the ultimate mark of success. The fact that
Lively has it before it has even taken off properly makes it like an
uber stamp of approval. Yes yes.

I've wondered if there could be a market for "Christian porn" that
addresses all the issues they have with it.

Goatse I guess I can understand, Rick Rolls are damn funny but really,
is there a huge endorphin rush that comes from saying 'first post'
that I am missing? I would think that after the first thousand times
it really would not be fun for even the most childish of people.

It could be a good thing if it was an antimatter copy of Second Life,
which was then brought into contact with the original Second Life.

I'm pretty sure slashdoter and unbiased can't be said in the same
sentence with a stright face either. In fact you have to work pretty
hard to find anyone who is unbiased.

Do you have a lawn, and if so, any particular thoughts on where I
should be in relation to it?

All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their
respective owners. Comments are owned by the Poster. The Rest ©
1997-2008 , Inc.

Ultimately Google Mobile is more like a first stab at universal
search, because although the contact and web integration is nice, the
only local data it searches at the moment is your Contacts. That
leaves out calendars, notes, music, email, and bookmarks, among many
others. We'd kill to see integration with the rest of the iPhone's
local data in the future.

UPDATE: After spending some time with it I'm also frustrated with the
local search. Right now the local search only provides Search for "x"
near me in the results when the word matches common local search terms
in a whitelist. If I want to use the app to find a place by name, I
have to switch specifically to a Local search only search to get the
"near me" option—and ultimately that's about two clicks too many
to make it as useful as it could be.

But don't look up: The FBI and the Secret Service, in the form of the
, maintain a regional office in the Hills Plaza building on the floor
above Google.

Newsom referred to San Francisco as "forty-seven and a half square
miles surrounded by reality." The city's transcendence of reality --
the sluggish economy elsewhere -- he suggested, was due to the
intellectual capital flowing into the city.

Having set up his answer, Newsom then posed a question: "What makes
Google so much better than its competitors?"

Tomorrow's CIO: Do you have what it takes? Find out at the 2008
InformationWeek 500 Conference Sept. 14-16, St. Regis Resort, Monarch
Beach, Calif.

SPF, DKIM, and SenderID are not the cure-all for spam, and they aren't
intended to be. But they are effective in weeding out spam in some
cases. They don't work in the same way, but towards the same goal.

Hey nimish -- maybe you didn't read the fine print in google's
prospectus: your common shares have 1/10th the voting power of those
held by the two founders + the CEO. Google's "public" offering was a
complete artifice (some might say a fully-disclosed sham), something
barely *ever* reported by the financial press. They can do whatever
they want -- there are no pesky shareholders to appease.

Thanks to a new feature from Google, you can now stand in Longview's
Civic Circle, walk a portion of Lake Sacajawea, maybe even get a view
of your front door — all from your computer.Google recently
added parts of the local area to its Street View feature of Google
Maps, allowing users a 360-degree perspective from various locations
around Cowlitz County.Here's how it works: Google drives through an
area with a special camera mounted on a car's roof. The camera takes
360-degree photos along the way. Google then stitches the photos
together and puts them on the Web.The result: When you bring up an
address in Google Maps, a window pops up showing a photo of the
buildings, houses, people, cars and everything else that was in that
spot when Google snapped its picture. Click right, and the camera pans
right. Click left, and the camera pans left. Another set of arrows
allows you to move up and down the street, just as though you were
driving on it.What's the point? In an e-mail, Google said Street View
can be used for "virtual tourism" checking for landmarks, or just
getting to know an area better.Some question whether the feature
raises privacy concerns. In other cities, the Google car has captured
a man walking out of a strip club, another man near an adult book
store and what appears to be prostitutes on a street corner. In one
case, a Chicago-area woman flashed the camera.The feature has been
limited to mostly large cities since it launched last year. Google
said it added Street View for Cowlitz County June 10, along with the
Portland area. By the time the photos make it onto the Web, they're
typically between a few months and a year old, Google said.Street View
isn't included for all of the area. Downtown Longview is conspicuously
absent. Google also skipped a lot of residential streets. It's unclear
when, or if, the Google car will return to flesh out the rest of the
map.To check it out, visit . Type in an address and click "Street
View."

As part of a planned UK launch of Street View - a tool which allows
users to navigate using 360-degree street level pictures - the search
engine has deployed a fleet of camera cars to log details.

Campaigners have attacked the move as an invasion of privacy but
Google defended its actions, stating that it employs face-blurring
technology.

Google has confirmed it is now in the process of photographing Britain
as part of the Street View project.

The letter states that unless these fears are addressed, the campaign
group will be forced to lodge a complaint with the UK Information
Commissioner "with a request that Street View deployment be suspended
pending a formal investigation".

Google's just-debuted virtual world is clunky right now, but expect it
to grow into a monster success � and play a leading role in business
as well a social networking.

Everything Has Changed See how Intel developed the cure for deskside
help visits in this video directed by Christopher Guest of Spinal Tap
fame. Click here. Cross-client�Centrino� and��Core™2 processor
with�vPro™ Processor Technology Technical White Paper A deeper
technical dive on how vPro usage models work�on both desktop and
notebook PCs. Click here. Intel� vPro Technology ROI Estimator Intel�
Core2™ Duo and Centrino� with vPro™ Processor technology
cross-client ROI estimator. Click here. WiPro Intel� Centrino� Pro
with vPro™ Processor Technology The Benefits of Intel� Centrino�
Pro Processor Technology in the Enterprise. Click here. Workstations
Products Platforms Brief Intel’s family of workstation platforms
gives you the tools to move from serial to parallel workflows and
enables you to iterate through alternatives faster and innovate more.
Click here. Itanium Solutions Learn how Itanium�-based solutions are
changing the way enterprises do business. Click here.

[July 3, 2008] Gartner revises Q1 numbers after getting some new
information on HP selling prices, while iSuppli has better news for
AMD. [July 3, 2008] While text messaging leads consumers' must-have
features, signs point to good news for advancements being pushed by
handset makers, carriers and developers. [July 3, 2008] New research
finds overall broadband use spreading, but suggests that economic
squeeze might be slowing uptake among certain segments. [July 2,
2008] IDC did some counting on the rising cost of storage worldwide.

This effort has been in since 2001. It's now available as an open
source project Google hopes others will use and contribute toward.
Protocol Buffers could ultimately replace XML in some cases as a
speedier format for data interchange.

Google's documentation on Protocol Buffers noted that the new format
has numerous advantages over XML. Among the advantages cited by Google
is the fact that Protocol Buffers could be 3 to 10 times smaller and
20 to 100 times faster than XML for serializing structured data.

Currently Google is using Protocol Buffers for its internal Remote
Procedure Calls, or RPC(), protocols and file formats.

The potential for Protocol Buffers could well be large. Google is not
currently using Protocol Buffers as a replacement for XML-based Web
services -- at least not yet. In response to a question from
InternetNews.com about whether Protocol Buffers could be leveraged to
create some kind of smaller, faster Web services/SOA alternative,
Google developer Varda noted, "That sounds like a possibility, but we
have no firm plans at this time."

"We welcome participation from the open source community," Varda
commented. "Managing broad participation in development of such a
critical piece of Google's infrastructure will be tricky, but we're
going to try."

Digg Del.icio.us furl StumbleUpon BlinkList Newsvine Magnolia Facebook
Tailrank Slashdot Technorati Google Bookmarks Yahoo Favorites Windows
Live Ask

A large number of . But the glitch illustrates not just the troubles
with cloud computing, but also the gradual progress in making the
concept palatable.

Cloud computing, in which software runs not on PCs or company servers
but instead on computers on the Internet, requires something of a leap
of faith both technologically and culturally. Those making the move
must get accustomed to a reliance on somebody else's computing
infrastructure, and that can be scary.

"We don't have an SLA yet for Google Calendar or Google Docs, but it's
something we're moving quickly toward," said Rishi Chandra, product
manager for Google Apps. Google wants "to get the same level of
reliability for all of Apps," he said.

There are two broad categories of cloud computing. First are online
applications such as Google's Apps, on which customers can run their
own applications.

Taking the plunge into the cloud Service level agreements are the kind
of contractual guarantees that appeal to CIOs making cost-benefit
analyses. But there's a gut-level factor at play here, too.

Companies are working to address this side of the equation, too. One
prime example is the site, which shows the response time for a
Salesforce.com server transaction. It also details when problems
happened, what they affected, and what caused them.

"We've found working with our customers they want transparency. They
want to know exactly what's going on all the time," said Bruce
Francis, Salesforce.com's vice president of corporate strategy. "If
there's an issue, they're not furious; they just want to know exactly
what's going on."

"You can't get away from owning your own risk. This is slowing the
adoption of the cloud," she said.

Asked whether Google plans its own status dashboard, Chandra wouldn't
share details but promised better help for users. "We're trying to
find even more ways to be more transparent about reliability," he
said.

Risks of non-cloud computing, too Much ado can and should be made of
the risks of cloud computing, but it should be noted that even the
much more mature business of computing without a cloud has its risks.
Downtime, either with ailing or stolen PCs or with overtaxed or faulty
servers, is a serious problem there, too.

That might not be five nines, and it's for Gmail only today, but
Google chooses to see the glass as half full.

"We talk to customers, and 99.9 percent is mostly much higher than
most organizations with their internal service today," Chandra said.

by July 12, 2008 7:05 AM PDT 99.9% available? What's the use of online
storage when it's not available? Reply to this comment by July 12,
2008 8:18 AM PDT Interesting that we don't hear reporting about the
daily or weekly brief outages at most of the fortune 1000 companies.
The Amazon cloud is running at 99.9993 from the time we started using
it at DigitalChalk in 2006. I'd like to see that beat in a do-it-
yourself data center. Reply to this comment by July 12, 2008 5:14 PM
PDT Maybe. Reply to this comment by July 12, 2008 7:37 PM PDT If you
ask me, the scariest part of the growing trend of cloud computing and
storage is that if a big part of the system shuts down for long time,
it could be catastrophic to more than just individuals, or companies,
or even industries, but entire economies and whole populations. If we
ALL depend on the cloud, which in time I think we will, we will all be
at risk of cyber-terrorism, super-viruses, or just a simple breakdown
(ok, not simple, but old fashioned I guess). Reply to this comment

Log in to submit a comment Don't have a CNET account yet? Join now,
it's free and takes just a minute. Log inExisting CNET members log in
here

The term cloud computing started when network architects started
drawing diagrams for their presentations. The architects had symbols
for computers and servers and hard drives and switches, but they
didn't have a universal symbol that represented "the Internet."

You can open a word processor in your Web browser, create, edit and
save the text file and copy it to your computer all without installing
any software. It all happens over the Internet "in the cloud."

For example, if the entire United States (all 300 million of us) made
only 100 shirts this year, and if all of China made 100 shirts, some
of those shirts would be traded between us- we would sell a few to
China, and vice versa. But a trade deficit happens when one country
sells more shirts than another. China, in this example, could sell 85
shirts to America. The U.S. could sell 55 shirts to China. So, in this
trade, China sold more shirts to the United States, 30 more in
fact.Most businessmen and economists believe that most trade deficits
aren't a bad thing; it's just part of trade, and at some point trade
between two countries should balance out eventually.

Well, because the U.S. has been buying a lot of stuff from China for
many, many years, China holds a lot of U.S. dollars. If China were to
sell those dollars on the market at some point, well, it wouldn't be
very good. The U.S. dollar's value would fall -- making imports and
traveling abroad much more expensive.

Trade deficits are usually a good thing, because it shows that the
global economy is working. It's just when a trade imbalance gets too
high where economists and investors start to become concerned.

DigitalGlobe operates three imaging satellites: Worldview I, Worldview
II, and QuickBird. These satellites collect the highest resolution
commercial imagery of the Earth, and offer the largest image size, and
greatest on-board storage capacity and resolution compared to any
other commercial satellite imagery available today.

"High-quality mapping images are an essential component of any
effective navigation system. Access to DigitalGlobe's advanced images
will enable us to dramatically improve the scope and quality of the
Ranger," says Columbus CEO, Tsvika Freidman. "We are determined to
maintain our position as a leading player in the world of navigation
systems and are very excited to partner with DigitalGlobe to enable us
to maintain and enhance this position."

Columbus Geographic Systems (GIS) Ltd. is a rising player in the field
of geographic information systems (GIS) and navigation applications.
The Company brings advanced software capabilities to a wide range of
users and devices, previously only accessible to trained professionals
on dedicated devices.

-- Highly-effective off road, outdoor GPS navigation tools, working on
a full range of devices including Car PC, PDA, and Personal Navigation
Devices (PND), with options for 3D imaging.

Certain statements in this news release may contain 'forward-looking'
information within the meaning of the Federal securities laws. All
statements, other than statements of fact, included in this release
may include forward-looking statements that may involve risks and
uncertainties.

Just as David Davies standing on a civil liberties platform, so the
Mail continues to support the Tory leader, David Cameron.

Also it isn't perfectly legal to set a camera up on your house and
film anything. If you camera looks onto anothers property you would be
breaching privacy rules and even filming past your own borders and
into the public space could be challenged.

I must admit that I find it more scary that people stop me taking
photos outside in public places rather than me stopping Google from
doing the same. We all have cameras on our mobiles and happily snap
away anywhere.

'By being in the Public Space you expect to be seen. Does it really
matter if it's by the bloke selling The Big Issue or a bored office
worker in Arizona?' Surely one difference is that you expect to be
able to see the people who can see you, or who are photographing you?
Part of the fear surrounding privacy debates - leaving aside actual
losses like identity theft or someone getting your bank details - is
that you just don't know who's accessing your details.

"But now, thanks to Google, we would be wrong to think that. Because
of the profiles built up by Google, we are now pursued every day by
cold- call telephone sales, and by online intrusions.

If you search for a homeopathic cold cure, for example, on the Google
search engine then you will soon be bombarded by every quack medicine
man in California. Every single time you 'Google' something, the fact
is automatically recorded."

Finally - thank god they cry - this Information Commissioner doesn't
take many prisoners. The rules are there - they just need sticking to.

Given a choice I would rather have Google in my front bed room than
the Daily Mail any day of the week. I would have thought that the well
read Daily Mail folk would know that Google ''don't do evil.'' Keep
the good work up Google!!

@CharlesArthur. Daily Mail have removed it, but it is still available
in a cache form, if you type "invasion almost criminal" into Google,
and click the second, indented link.

@lb001 @Charles. Bizarley the Mail seems to have left a text version
of the "almost criminal" (almost insane?) words of AN Wilson. So just
to ensure they are not lost for posterity:

This is good news for snoopers, stalkers, peeping Toms and burglars.
But are its advantages to the rest of us really going to outweigh the
obvious disadvantages?

Aren't invasions of personal privacy by commercial companies every bit
as indefensible as similar intrusions into our lives by a Big Brother
state?

Many of us have visited the souk in an Arab or North African town and
been exhausted by the vendors who pursue us down the alleys, tugging
at our elbow and begging us to buy a carpet, or some other object of
merchandise.

If you are used to European habits of shopping, it is a vaguely
threatening experience, and it is nice to get home, and to feel that
shopping in the 'civilised' world is all a little different.

However much you feel 'got at' by advertisements, at least the
shopkeeper is not literally tugging your elbow.

But now, thanks to Google, we would be wrong to think that. Because of
the profiles built up by Google, we are now pursued every day by cold-
call telephone sales, and by online intrusions.

If you search for a homeopathic cold cure, for example, on the Google
search engine then you will soon be bombarded by every quack medicine
man in California. Every single time you 'Google' something, the fact
is automatically recorded.

His arguments are based on what he perceives to be the dangers of the
State keeping ever more watchful-tabs upon us. His fears ranged from
the potentially very serious - the holding of suspects without trial
for 42 days - to the comparatively trivial - local councils spying on
what rubbish we put into our wheely bins.

How else could terrorists be apprehended in times of peace or war? How
else would it be possible for the Inland revenue to detect tax fraud?

The matter of Google is of a quite different order. This is a computer
company which is spying upon us for the sole purpose of exploiting us,
controlling us and making money out of us.

After a piece here in April suggesting advertising is waning, Thinkbox
is here to tell you it isn't. But do you agree?

"I didn't know there was this much drinking," Newsom told the crowd of
Googlers, leaving unsaid his own .

In opening an office in the city, Newsom said that Google has saved
some its workers from a long commute down the 101 to the company's
Mountain View headquarters. Granted, he conceded that San Francisco's
public transit system faces challenges, ticking off several MUNI lines
that frequently run late or not at all.

Turning civic booster, Newsom called San Francisco a city of dreamers
and entrepreneurs while touting its economic strength amid a
nationwide downturn.

Although adding Google is a coup, it hardly makes San Francisco
unique, given Google's opening of offices across the globe. These
days, every mayor can say that they're happy to have Google move in,
Newsom acknowledged in jest.

To protect our readers from malicious comments SFGate asks that you
login or register to post a comment.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom assured the magazine that San
Francisco was the model of 21st century urbanism, a place that draws
people from all over the world, not for Coit Tower or the cable cars,
but for its values.

So, it's only natural that Google should eventually open an office
here, the mayor and proclaimed Thursday night in officially welcoming
to his city the company with the "don't be evil" slogan.

The open house was attended by employees from all facets of Google's
massive organization, including Google.org and the newbies from the
Doubleclick acquisition. Headlining the event was one of Google's top
executives and public faces, Marissa Mayer.

If you are under 13 years of age you may read this message board, but
you may not participate.
Comments are moderated, and will not appear until they've been
approved.

Chris Gaither oversees technology coverage as an assistant business
editor. He joined the Times in 2004 as a reporter covering the big
Internet companies and the changes they wrought on traditional media.
Before that he covered Silicon Valley, general technology news and the
occasional Southern California wildfire for the Boston Globe as its
only West Coast correspondent. He also has written for the New York
Times, the Miami Herald and Wired.com. He is still grappling to
comprehend a world in which his Red Sox have won two recent World
Series. chris.gaither @ latimes.com

Joseph Menn covers technology privacy and security issues, Microsoft,
the wireless industry and L.A.-based tech companies (yeah, he's busy).
He has handled virtually every tech beat - and a few entertainment
ones - since joining the Times in 1999. Originally from New England,
he wrote "All the Rave," that book about Napster you've been meaning
to read. Before he had kids, he surfed more. joseph.menn @ latimes.com

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Yahoo Inc. has rejected Microsoft's latest
attempt to buy its online search operations in a "take or leave it"
proposal that Yahoo said would have dismantled its Internet franchise.

Without providing many specifics, Yahoo said Microsoft renewed an
earlier bid to buy the company's search engine and proposed turning
over the remaining pieces to a board controlled by Icahn.

Backed into a corner, Yahoo lashed out in a blunt manner likely to
inject even more bad blood into its already venomous relationship with
Microsoft and Icahn.

"It is ludicrous to think that our board could accept such a
proposal," Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock said in the statement. "While
this type of erratic and unpredictable behavior is consistent with
what we have come to expect from Microsoft, we will not be bludgeoned
into a transaction that is not in the best interests of our
stockholders."

Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment late
Saturday. Efforts to reach Icahn were unsuccessful.

Yahoo said it unsuccessfully reiterated its willingness to sell the
entire company to Microsoft for $47.5 billion, or $33 per share
— a bid that the software maker dangled in early May before
withdrawing it in a pique over Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang's
demand for $37 per share.

Since it dropped its bid to buy all of Yahoo, Microsoft had focused
its overtures on Yahoo's search engine — the second most used
on the Internet behind Google Inc.'s.

Lively reminds me of something like IMVU, an instant messaging program
that enables 3D avatar chat, in that it provides off-the-shelf avatars
with teen appeal for socialising. It's a pretty simple: it's about
chatting in rooms that can be customised to reflect your taste, and is
nothing like as grandiose as something like Second Life or There. It's
not a single persistent world, but a bunch of ad hoc virtual spaces
that let people come together and show off their avatar identity
through chatting and flirting.

For now, Lively is what we've got: that's the science fact. However,
given Google's extraordinary scale and the immense possibilities
created by its huge web audience, I can't help thinking more along the
lines of science fiction, imagining where Google could take this
technology and do something really interesting with it.

The second unique advantage is Google Earth. This is already an
amazing creation, a mirror world of incredible richness available free
on most PCs. You can already see the planet from space, dive down to
the street level and see incredible detail in 360-degree panoramas.
You can already build your own 3D buildings and add them to Google
Earth, and Google continues to add more content to this remarkable
piece of software.

, Jul 10, 2008 05:27 PM
Sure, Google may have offered up a for the iPhone in the App Store
today, but what about applications for its vast number of services
other than search? I am seriously disappointed.

Thomas Claburn for the iPhone in his post from earlier today. He also
points out that the application points you to other Google products.
But they are browser-based applications, and not on-board native
applications. I was hoping for much more.

TypePad rolled out its blogging application for the iPhone. Google's
Blogger received no such special treatment. There was at least one RSS
product available from the App Store, but Google's Reader wasn't one
of them. The list could go on.

Of course, there are the browser-based versions of Gmail, Calendar,
Docs, Talk, News, Notebook, and iGoogle. Don't get me wrong, these are
all usable and work fine ... in the browser. I get that Google is all
about the cloud, but having native clients to make accessing some of
these services faster or better would be great.

Blogger and Picasa are probably the two that make the most sense to
have available in a standalone form. But what I was really hoping for
was an application that lets you compose Google Documents on the
iPhone and then sync them with Google's Docs online. Now that would
have been a very useful app indeed.

It could be that Google is reserving its best for Android, and it
probably should. Given Google and Apple's love affair with each other,
though, I was expecting more.

I can see Lively being implemented into Android, Apple and other
mobile platforms before too long.� Why send a boring old text message
to someone, when you can chat them up on the roof of a high-rise or in
the middle of the jungle?� Bring a handful of your friends in and
spend time debating the latest episode of The Hills or whatever kids
are watching these days. It would be easy to open the program or point
your browser to the chat rooms and talk away.

Looks like Peter and the gang at SpatialNetworking have a new release
in the works to include facebook and Twitter integration...

In addition to updating the popular Twitter and facebook service, it
can also tie in to your Google calendar and import from TripIt and
Doplr... cool. The tie in to Google Calendar is very powerful and
something that users are going love! See video demo below (source:
http://vimeo.com/1313233) - I can't wait for a mobile client!

Serves the decision makers responsible for networking, voice data, and
video communications technologies at enterprise and service provider

Google has released as open source a web application assessment tool,
Ratproxy, that was designed to root out potential security flaws.

Last month, Google said it would terminate support for Browser Sync,
and this week the company open sourced the code for the product's
client software in order to allow the developer community to continue
to use and improve it, said Google developer Aaron Boodman in a blog
post. "It would be great to see the server ported to Google App
Engine, or support for Firefox 3 implemented," Boodman wrote.

Ratproxy is an audit system written internally and introduced last
week by Michal Zalewski, a respected security researcher hired by
Google almost a year ago to help lock down the company's own websites.
The tool has been used at Google for unearthing problems such as
cross-site script inclusion threats, insufficient cross-site request
forgery defences, caching issues, cross-site scripting candidates,
potentially unsafe cross-domain code inclusion schemes and
information-leakage scenarios, according to Zalewski.

The proxy works passively by analysing existing, user-initiated
traffic, and is particularly tuned for complex Web 2.0 environments,
Zalewski said in a blog post.

It was not so long ago, April 1, 2004, when Google mail first
appeared. In 2005 there were 5.4 mln subscribers and 51 mln in early
2007. Do you know how many Gmail accounts were registered...

This extremely short post appeared following a meeting with a decision
maker of a potential client. During the conversation I realized that
this highly respected and well paid top manager...

Users finding email apparently from eBay or PayPal in their inboxes
can thus in future be sure that it isn't a phishing attempt. Users
will of course still have to be on their guard against other phishing
tricks, such as entering the sender as 'poypal.com'. According to
Taylor, eBay and PayPal have worked hard on the solution of signing
absolutely all their email with domain keys. Google has apparently
been carrying out successful tests on the method for some weeks, with
no problems or complaints encountered, indeed few users have even
noticed the change. Google is hoping to set a good example for others.
The team behind DKIM is also that other companies will follow suit.
Uptake at present remains slight.

South Derbyshire MP Mark Todd said: “Taking photos of people
outside their homes leaves an opportunity for those images to be
misused.

The web company has responded by saying faces in the pictures will not
be identified and it will follow British laws on privacy.

Special options are available to registered members. for the member
login page or to register as a member.

Story published at magicvalley.com on Saturday, July 12, 2008Last
modified on Saturday, July 12, 2008 12:24 AM MDT

By Cassidy FriedmanStaff writerThe people at Google first felt obliged
to capture images of the boring U.S. cities in their virtual tour of
America.Places like Manhattan, San Francisco and Los Angeles.But Twin
Falls locals say they've spotted the Internet company's distinctive
camera car in their town, a sign the company must be planning to add
this town to the ranks of the big cities.The company can't actually
say for sure - the cars now traversing the nation operate
independently. But a Google spokeswoman said it's likely the car -
which shoots 360-degree street-level photographs of all public roads
where it travels - cruised through Twin Falls earlier this
month.Chances are, the car spotted in Twin Falls was first deployed to
a larger metropolitan area like Boise, before it expanded its trip
east through Twin Falls, said spokeswoman Elaine Filadelfo."We have
over 60 metropolitan areas," Filadelfo said. "And within each of those
metropolitan areas we really try to include the surroundings. We think
everywhere can benefit from this. We think everybody, whether they
live in New York or Twin Falls can benefit."Filadelfo said each car in
Google's large fleet is armed with a sophisticated camera mounted on
its roof that shoots still photographs at and between
intersections.The photos, to be added to Google Maps at some
unspecified date in coming months, allows an on-screen visual tour.One
reason for the StreetView effort is to allow users the novelty of
taking a virtual drive through most American cities and a dozen or so
national parks. But the program also satisfies practical needs,
Filadelfo said.In one Midwestern state, department of transportation
officials use the program to identify dilapidated roads they need to
pave, Filadelfo said. It saves gas and time, they said. Viewers can
check out a restaurant's ambience - at least exterior - before they
dine there. They can see a neighborhood before they rent a home on the
block."We've seen a lot of really great uses of it and heard some
great feedback," the spokeswoman said.It's unclear how long the photos
will be of use, however. The company is unclear on when it might make
subsequent passes and update the street scenes.Google hit a patch of
rough road when some members of the public caught in StreetView's
frames complained the photographs posted online invaded their
privacy.Viewers could request their face or private property be
blotted out.When shooting Manhattan in May, Google blurred all the
faces in its imagery, Filadelfo said.By June, despite having the clear
legal upper hand to shoot photographs of what takes place in public,
Google began blurring faces in all its shots. So don't expect to be
famous for anything but your shirt and shoes, Twin Falls."We thought
the focus was on business and geography and it just seemed a way to
preserve that," Filadelfo said.Cassidy Friedman may be reached at
208-735-3241 or .

Copyright © 2006, Lee Publications Inc. Magicvalley.com is an on-
line division of the Times-News, published daily at 132 W. Fairfield
St., Twin Falls, Idaho 83301 by Lee Publications, Inc., a subsidiary
of .

Your pages should have a clear hierarchy and relevant internal links.
We also recommend creating a Sitemap and using Google’s
Webmaster Tools. These tools are useful, user-friendly and will
provide information such as where your backlinks come from or which
queries visitors used to reach your site.

We have an automated system to identify and remove inappropriate or
offensive material in Hot Trends. In rare cases, when such material is
missed, we manually remove these results from our Hot Trends list. We
apologize to any users who were offended by this situation.

On a separate note: Google also clarified that "we were just
speculating" in an earlier statement about the origin of the search.
(That statement said, "In this case, it appears that the html code for
this query was posted on a popular internet bulletin board, which led
to quite a few people searching to find out more about this symbol.")

It's truly pathetic that David Sarno believes that the question of
whether or not a swastika is offensive is "debatable". Despite the
ancient origins of the symbol, most folks today don't recognize it as
a symbol of Hinduism -- its primary meaning has been its association
with the murderous racism of the Nazis. When Sarno brightly refers to
the swastika as a symbol with a "multifacted history", you'd think he
was referring to the peace sign.

And yes, David, please update us in your keen investigation into those
nefarious Israeli Google employees and their insistence on considering
the swastika offensive. I'm sure you'd happily wear it on your
t-shirt, but most people have a slightly less ambivalent view of
symbolized evil.

The Hindu ( and American Indian, etc.) swastika runs counter-clockwise
- facing the left. The swastika adopted by the Nazis faced to the
right. In addition, the swastika has been used as a graphic
representation of positive energy by numerous cultures for centuries.
I'm sure there are now links here, via Google or elsewhere that make
this info redundant, and I don't mean for my input to be condescending
or insensitive, but since I remember a few things from high school I
leave the research to the bleeding hearts. Swastikas for Dummies,
anyone?

Who, exactly, are "most folks"? Obviously Adina is being a bit racist
herself to discount the views of over a billion people (Indians), and
others, whose primary association of a swastika is not murderous
racism but something quite the opposite. Why does the negative
association that white western culture has with the Swastika
(presumably what is meant by "most people") trump the beautiful
symbolic meaning held by southeast Asians?

Google has refused to comment on whether their position is that a
swastika is offensive. They expected to be honest. Why don't they
comment if swastika is obscene, or objectionable and HOW.??

If "most" people fail to realise that it is an integral part of
Hinduim, then they are clearly ignorant. Worse, they are not prepared
to learn either.

I suppose this means the "most folks" who live in Europe or the US? Oh
wait, surely those millions who live in India and other parts of Asia
don't count! What if they don't see it as a hateful symbol? What if it
means something completely different to them? Oh of course, that
doesn't matter, does it! This Eurocentric world view makes me sick.

Moreover, in antiquity, this symbols was not only found in North
American Indian cultures and Sub-Continental and Buddhist, but also in
Persian, Greeco-Roman, Celtic, Baltic, Germanic and Slavic cultures,
in both left and right facings.

Obviously, this symbol became popular in the early 20th century as a
symbol of good luck (often pre WWI air forces would use the symbol for
just that, ie Finland). Then it was high-jacked by the NSDAP for their
international symbol and evil, horrendous crimes against humanity
ensued across Europe under fascism.

Sounds like this is a lose-lose situation for Google. They shouldn't
have taken it down. Since they issued a statement anyway, they should
have just explained the many OTHER different (and usually positive)
meanings of the symbol.

In a submission this week to the Canadian Radio-television and
Telecommunication Commission (CRTC), Google urged that it take action
against Bell Canada's P2P throttling activities on grounds that the
ISP is violating Canada's telecommunications law.

BetaNews reserves the right to remove any comment at any time for any
reason. Please keep your responses appropriate and on topic. Foul
language and personal attacks will not be tolerated.

It's about time that a more powerful company steps in to help out with
this fight. BT Throttling is just BS and we all know it. DPI is also
something that shouldn't be implemented. The number of ways an ISP can
manipulate this technology is too overwhelming.

Idiot. You really shouldn't comment on something you obviously don't
have a clue about..... You seem to have missed this section, or did
you actually bother to read the article? "As previously reported in
BetaNews, in May, the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Internet
Clinic (CIPPIC) asked another agency, the Canadian Privacy Commission,
to investigate whether Canadian privacy law is being broken in Bell's
use of deep packet inspection (DPI) technology to find and limit the
use of P2P applications." Its NOT the government, but a corporation
that is limiting rights, like what is happening even more so in
America right now.... Canadians have more rights and freedoms than the
average American does now. We have better privacy laws. Canada is a
democracy. The USA isn't and never has been. Its a Constitution-based
federal republic with a strong democratic tradition.

Toronto -- Re Google Raises Fuss Over Bell's Speed Bumps (Report on
Business, July 9): Bell Canada and other telecommunications companies
have been slowing, shaping and restricting Internet traffic for some
time. In addition, the line between traditional television and new
media has been getting blurrier every day. Because of this, the CRTC
is set to revisit its 1999 decision to exempt the Internet from
regulation.

In 1999, the Internet was largely e-mail and alpha-numeric services.
It was not a world where our telecom, cable and satellite companies
controlled more than 70 per cent of Canada's Internet service provider
traffic. Moreover, it was not a world with TV distributed by Internet
protocol technology. So the Internet is already being "regulated" - by
boardrooms - except when giants such as Google draw attention.

Google Inc. says Bell Canada and other telecommunications companies
that slow or restrict certain types of Internet traffic are violating
Canadian law and is calling on federal watchdogs to put a stop to the
process.

"The Internet is simply too important to allow [Bell and other
broadband Internet access services] to act as such a gatekeeper; the
Internet's myriad benefits can only be fully realized when Canadian
carriers allow end users to choose the applications and content they
prefer," Google says in its filing.

"Protecting end user choice is the central issue in this proceeding,
but also a much larger issue. It goes to the heart of the Internet and
how it acts as an extraordinary platform for innovation and fair
competition."

A spokesman for Bell declined to comment, saying the company would be
filing its response with the CRTC tomorrow.

John Beck, founder of Gist Design, shows off his LinkedIn page. He
used the site to find a software developer for his firm.

"It's becoming more of a front-line resource for us," Beck said. "Our
(online) network has proven to be very valuable."

, ,
� 2008 , Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. The material on
this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or
otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of
bizjournals.

The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted
them. We are not responsible for them in any way. Without JavaScript
enabled, you might want to use , you can remember this preference.

Because it doesn't matter where the logs are housed as long as Google
does business in the U.S.. Housing them elsewhere does not make them
immune to a court order.

For example, the records in the "safe" country would be owned by an
independent subsidiary, such that the related company (Google)
wouldn't have direct executive authority to force the other company to
release the records.

Because they're independent companies and Google has no legal
authority to force an outside company to do anything.

Because the use and manner which the records could be accessed would
be spelled out by some binding agreement.

And for google to "request all the records" from their separate
company formed to hold the records would be an operation requiring
special permission, extensive justification, and full disclosure,
regarding reasons for the request, which the board of the other
company would have to vote on (after researching to guarantee that
Google is not possibly under any kind of duress in making the request,
to release information).

Also, the company in the foreign country could be prevented from
illicitly disclosing records, by having each log line independently
encrypted.

Personally, I like to be able to find a video which I watched
yesterday to send link to a friend.

We just have this compulsion to hang onto everything because we can,
and perhaps with the faint hope that somewhere down the line we'll be
able to show extreme cleverness to our PHB's when they ask some inane
question like, "Duh, how many unique IP addresses have accessed our
website since 1991?" and we'll be able to say, "Give me 10 minute and
I'll let you know (wag tail)."

The judge says it's speculative? I say remove the judge for willfully
violating the privacy of millions of citizens and foreign nationals.

As for Google, their lawyers should have IMMEDIATELY said to the judge
"Our client cannot do that, on privacy grounds. Google's duty to
protect the privacy of millions cannot be dismissed by a legal
ruling." Judges are not omnipotent, even when some of them think they
are.

Why do I feel like I'm the only person that takes "don't be evil" with
a grain of salt. Google has been a great corporation because they
understood people on the Internet and how they wanted to be treated.
But, they also use that knowledge when they calculate how far they can
push the envelope. "Don't be evil" has translated into webmail
accounts with massive amounts of space, web ads that's don't flash or
pop-up, and a search engine who's front page maintains the very bland
basic HTML feel. Now people dream of Google being the great fixer in
any industry that has annoyed them over the years.

oh yes, exactly. Google is zee devil. They are out to kill us all.
Seriously, do people thrive on having enemys? Do they find no
happyness simply in a group being what they are? Protip; "The Man"
isn't out to get you, and all the companys aren't working for him. And
shall we stop using every service out there, because somewhere, deep
down in their closet, is something we disagree with? If so, I'm going
to assume you're posting to/. from your wooden cottage on a privatly
owned island that you fo

...if you don't have a Google login name. Google search works just
fine without one. It even works fine without any Google cookies.

It is a mistake to think you can anonymize this data. Sure, you could
strip everything out of the data, but then you would just have public
information, since youtube will tell you how many views each video has
already. So I presume the people who want to "anonymize" think they
will, like the AOL logs, give pseudonyms to people.

I can think of many problems. For example, there are tons of videos on
youtube that are never accessed except by the uploader and a few
friends. Pretty easy to identify who the likely uploader is from the
records, and thus identify a user. Or even if you never upload, a lot
can be learned. For example, somebody looking for my records could
first see what youtube videos have me in them. Most people have
probably searched for their own name, and as such this is a clue as to
which user is probably me.

Of course, I've never posted, so maybe that's why.
I guess my IP address does ID "me", however. My DSL address changes a
lot, but I assume the telco keeps those records... too.

My cable IP address doesn't change often, I had one IP address for
almost 10 years without changing... just when I did a router upgrade
it switched.

If privacy is to have any meaning, then we need a right to protect our
personal information. Well, actually we already have the right, though
it's a bit scattered around the Bill of Rights. (Speaking for
Americans, and only in theoretical terms as regards the current
administration.)

So what's the strongest form of protection for our personal
information? The famous "possession is 9 points of the law". We should
possess our personal information and we should have to right to say
who can see it, and when.

Concretely in Google's case, they should offer privacy options whereby
all of your personal information would be stored only on your machine.
They could still access it, but they'd have to respect your privacy
preferences--and you could always change your mind. (Of course the
data should be signed to prevent you from tampering with it, but
that's a relatively trivial aspect.) I feel like this approach is the
only thing that would really give meaning to privacy in the computer
age.

We may THINK there's no reason for Google to have to keep logs for 18
months, but these days I wouldn't be surprised to find there's some
hidden provision of the Patriot Act, or possibly some law we've never
heard of, which it's illegal for us to hear of or read in the first
place. So maybe there IS a law requiring them to keep it for 18
months, it's just not one the public is allowed to know of until it's
used to prosecute them.

I believe that this *IS* the answer to the problems of network
neutrality. Force the powers that be to accept that they cannot
regulate private networks by building our own outside of their useless
understanding of how things work. When they finally discover that they
cannot regulate, things will change a bit. I'm all for calling it a
patriot network... might be over the top a bit, but we all need to
start creating them.

All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their
respective owners. Comments are owned by the Poster. The Rest ©
1997-2008 , Inc.

But as an economic downturn looms, deteriorating ad spending will
likely cramp Google's style -- if it hasn't already. While Wall Street
largely anticipates a dandy second-quarter -- the -- we suspect the
economy has finally caught up with the search monstrosity.

The aborted hotel deal doesn't represent the full extent of Google's
penny-pinching, either -- the company recently closed a

If you want to give your kids a little more exposure to cooking and
nutritious food, and you'd enjoy the chance to snoop around Google's
Headquarters, you might want to head to Mountain View this Saturday
for .

The event will take place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Google
headquarters, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View.

WOW! Sounds like a great time. WOW! The cost of admission. With gas,
and admissions we would be looking at a cost of over $150 for our
family. We'll just wait for the show,and in the mean time visit the
local farmers market ( met the farmers, food samples, education
stations, and shopping for the weeks meals at far less than $150).

Hmm I read the nytimes article too. It seems that the highly paid
Google employees were asked to pay $2500/mo, up from some $1400.
Outrageous, except that the company was still kicking in over $3000/mo
per child. That's $66,000/yr per child just for daycare. Apparently,
the cheaper daycare Google was providing before wasn't good enough for
the Google parents who demanded and got the highest quality care
possible - the best food, the best teachers, the most teachers, the
best facilities - for pretty much whoever needed it at whatever cost.
For those who find the inhouse childcare too pricey, Google is
apparently going to also subsidize outside childcare. There's some
controversy that Brin compared childcare to free food, but I wonder
how the childless employees feel about their coworkers getting the
equivalent of a Stanford education for less than half price while they
are being offered free M&M;'s. As someone who gets no subsidized
childcare, watching the Google drama is like watching people taking
turns at beating the goose that lays the golden eggs.

To protect our readers from malicious comments SFGate asks that you
login or register to post a comment.

PITY Bombay’s poor billionaires. No sooner have they invested in
an executive jet than the taxman comes knocking for his share.

The share price, I suspect, would be a touch healthier. That whole
decline in TV advertising would be nicely offset by the surge in
digital spending.

And, who knows, he might even be in sunny California right now playing
with a new Google toy rather than fretting about the next instalment
of Dancing on Ice.

This dream nearly happened. You see, another Michael — Green,
the former head of Carlton, which with Granada formed ITV in 2004
— had a chance to buy Google for a mere £400m (it was a
long time ago).

A clever banker pitched the idea but Green didn’t much care for
the plan and instead opted to buy a 25% stake in Ask Jeeves —
Google’s punier rival.

The $2 trillion industry put in its worst performance during the first
half of the year since most credible records began

The luxury hotel group wants to buy Island off Guernsey that spent
much of the Second World War under German occupation

Mr. Smith asks that the feature take into account bicycle lanes from
the area being mapped. The says that such a feature would:

Google Maps currently offers a option for a number of cities in the
United States and around the world (but not Boston, for some reason).
Smith envisions that the link to “Bike There” would sit
next to the transit link.

Google Maps already offers a check box for those who wish to avoid
highways, but as Smith points out in his site’s FAQ, the feature
that are unpleasant for cyclists.

People who walk places rather than drive tend to be more active,
right? Well why don’t those over-active people who don’t
like to drive to the end of their driveway to get the morning paper
walk down to a gas station and use the money that they saved by
walking on a map. Then they’ll be able to put that map in their
fanny-pack, walk out of the gas station, walk their over-active bodies
home and flip through the map and figure out a route on their own?!

If you’re going to bike somewhere, you’d imagine that it
wouldn’t be much more than 40 kms (24.85 miles or a little over
an hour bike ride) away, right? Cause any more than that and
you’ll have a 3+ hour bike ride there and back. So why
wouldn’t you know how to get to a destination on your bike
that’s only an hour bike ride away? Get a life.

It's almost like cars are the sea within which we live and we're so
attached to them, it's so habitual. . . We are trying to lead the way,
to set an example about how to get away from cars altogether.”

First, the news: Google Transit and Metro are still in talks to bring
the popular online service to Los Angeles County. but a feature that
some people say Google does better.

One of the most fascinating ongoing stories in the world of
transportation, I think, is the use of technology to relay real-time
information to users. This runs the gamut from trying to give
motorists immediate information on freeway accidents to using cell
phones to tell someone the bus he's waiting for has broken down.

As part of that effort, transit agencies around the world have been
trying to create web-based tools that help riders -- and potential
riders -- figure out how to get from Point A to Point B using buses
and trains. It's a big deal, especially in big regions such as the
Southland where many people (including me) couldn't begin to tell you
exactly which buses go where.

Metro, the largest transit provider in Los Angeles County, has for
several years had a trip planner on its website. In fact, it's the
most popular feature on the website, according to the agency. There's
also a stripped down version of the planner that works on cell phones.

The web search and advertising giant Google has recently jumped into
the game with a feature called Google Transit. In some areas, if you
do a search for directions on Google maps, you will also get
directions to reach your destination via mass transit.

Metro has been talking with Google for months and the blog even
reported in April that Google Transit was imminent. Well, not so fast.
"We're still talking to them," Marc Littman, a Metro spokesman, told
me yesterday afternoon. "There is no contract."

Some quibbles: I thought the directions were sometimes less than
clear. For example, I asked the site to provide bus directions from
Magnolia Boulevard and San Fernando Road in downtown Burbank to the
Burbank airport. The directions were to take one bus to the Burbank
Metrolink station and switch to the "Empire Building" bus line, which
was followed by this odd note: "Direction -- Arrive at Metrolink
station."

Google is fast, easy and having all the data in one place is nice.
That said, no one can provide better itineraries and schedules than
the transit provider itsself.

In addition, Google does not display bus/rail disruptions or other
alerts related to your trip. It does not give users options to plan
trips by Walking Distance or Minimize Trips by Transfer Time, Walking
Distance or Transfers. Furthermore Google doesn't recognize as many
locations as the transit provider's tripplanner and may have outdated
data.

Google also has the ability to infest your computer if they disagree
with you. Their google android project is 2-4 generations from
completion who really needs more from them than a search engine. One
of the grown ups probably thought of guugle ads revenue.

Google Maps is the best thing since sliced bread. It's not Google's
fault that Apple is dumb and only allows limited bits of AJAX to work
on their phones.

In the early days of Google Maps, my frustration chiefly arose from
the bizarre and sometimes nonsensical driving routes that the system
mapped out - with no option in place to test alternate routes. This
improved greatly with the click-and-drag feature Google Maps now uses,
although the traffic layer is still rather slow on the uptake.

I don't bother with the map feature at Metro.net; it's a joke. The
trip planner also suffers from constant crashes, something I don't
*think* would carry over into Google (in the long term). I think that
Google's interface promises a lot more user-friendliness, but I'd want
to know its flexibility: to option for Metro-only or bus-only routes,
for example. Click-and-drag for multiple-stop trips? If either Google
or Metro.net can manage that... HOT.

The move is probably smart: advertisers love quantitative analysis,
and this gives them more hard data immediately.

Register to submit a comment Already have an account? Log in now Join
the CNET communityTo continue, we ask that you first complete the free
registration.

CONFIRM YOUR ACCOUNT We have sent an e-mail to your account. If this
is not your e-mail address, click here to resubmit your registration.
Otherwise, please check your e-mail account now: ... or log in
manually to your email client and click the link in our email. Once
you have confirmed your registration, please log in.

Excerpts from the blog After spending Friday morning playing with an
iPhone 3G, I can see why Apple enthusiasts lined up again for Steve...

After spending Friday morning playing with an iPhone 3G, I can see why
Apple enthusiasts lined up again for Steve Job's latest wonderful
device.

But the rest of the world's really going to wonder what the big deal
is this time around.

Apple is heavy-handed with software developers writing iPhone
applications, but it pays off for consumers who get a consistent
experience downloading, finding and using the applications.

But the first four steps were impressive and super-simple — so
simple that those familiar with Outlook Web Access should have no
trouble syncing an iPhone to their office's Exchange system. I'd be
relieved if I were a corporate IT person dreading a bunch of support
calls from iPhone users.

My tip of the day: Check with your IT department to be sure it has
authorized iPhones. Otherwise, you may get a message saying that it's
unable to verify a certificate and the sync won't work.

If you get past that hurdle, when you sync the phone in iTunes, you're
given the option of also syncing your Outlook contacts, calendar and
mail accounts.

I also spent a long lunch tinkering with Remote, a cool and free
application from Apple that lets you use an iPhone or iPod Touch as a
wireless remote control for iTunes. This is something I've been
waiting for, ever since Wi-Fi came to MP3 players.

So is the iPhone 3G worth the $2,000 you'll spend owning and operating
one for the next two years?

Think about what's going to happen over the next two years: The
economy aside, it's going to be a golden era for advanced phones and
mobile Internet devices.

A range of amazing handheld computers will appear using new mobile
chips from Intel and new software platforms from Google, Microsoft and
Nokia. For instance, the first "Google phone" built on its Android
platform should be available from T-Mobile USA by the end of the year.

The iPhone software will continue to get better and it may stay ahead
of the competition, but the phone hardware may seem dated soon,
especially the wimpy 2 megapixel camera that can't take video.

In other words, before your two-year iPhone contract ends, your techie
friends will probably be carrying phones with 5-plus-megapixel video
cameras and monthly rates subsidized by Google and Microsoft —
if they haven't already bought an iPhone 3G.

Copyright ©2008 Salon Media Group, Inc. Reproduction of material
from any Salon pages without written permission is strictly
prohibited. SALON® is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office as a trademark of Salon Media Group Inc.

“Who would have thought anybody would use ‘Obama’
and ‘nuts’ in an actual news story?” said David
Feingold, a 30-year-old San Diego resident …

He’s right … who would have thunk it. Of course,
Obama’s nuts will never be as famous as .

Jesse Jackson is no more than a vicious Black thug that fantasizes
about castrating other Black Liberal males.

SIC WILSON ... talk to the hand, cause the volleyball ain't listening.
THE FITS GIRLS ... somebody's gotta be the brains of this operation.
SIC WILLIE ... not sweating but protecting the technique.

You can use the form below to send a link to this post to a friend,
just fill our their details and click send!

A number of readers have noted Google's , with which it is most
comparable. Google's blogger claims, "And, yes, it is very fast
— at least an order of magnitude faster than XML."

Well, let's also not forget that the meaning of the expression "an
order of magnitude" depends strongly from the numeric base you're
using.

Being 10x faster than XML to work with is entirely believable: If
you're serializing directly to binary structures, those structures can
be directly manipulated without any parsing at all... and if you need
to do some byte-swapping and alignment adjustments to get them into
and out of native form for your current processor, those are still
operations which can be performed in a matter of a few CPU
instructions, rather than through a few hundred KB of libraries.

I drink the XML kool-aid plenty -- but there are things it's good for,
and things it's not. Serializing and parsing truly massive amounts of
data is part of the latter set.

both really from the same design sheet, but thrift has been
opensource'd for over a year, and has many more language bindings. its
been in use in several opensource projects (thrudb comes to mind), and
has much more extant articles/documentation.

I'm actually a game developer, not a web developer, so I'll speak to
XML's use as a file format in general. Here's a few points regarding
our use of XML:

I'll make a concession that I've heard of some pretty awful uses of
XML. But those who dismiss XML as a valuable tool in the toolchest are
equally as foolish as those who believe it's the end-all and be-all of
programming (I'm not saying that's true of you, just pointing out
foolishness on both sides). Like any tool, it's most valuable when
used in it's optimal role, not when shoehorned into projects as a
solution to everything.

Since they're Google people will clamor over this (as we're doing
here) and the result will be at least a handful of folks will learn
and use it. Google's key to success has always been finding fresh
talent and removing barriers from their contributing and advancement
so what I've seen they've done is A) help train potential employee's
on how they're tech and thought process works, and B) provide
themselves a filter by which to gauge the ability for a potential
employee to understand they're system.
And as a bonus, they help undermine opponents who use competing
technologies by helping train the workforce away from their practices.
Overall I think it's very intelligent and well done strategic move.

3. Dealing with data that arrives in neatly packaged "documents" and
"requests", as opposed to being constantly produced and consumed.

The advantage of using the protocol buffer format instead of JSON is
that it's smaller and faster, but you sacrifice human-readability.

Perl is to programming languages what English is to natural languages:
easy to fool around with, hard to learn well, but when you do, the
expressive power is incredible. And when you mess it up, nobody
understands what you're trying to say.

They open sourced the compiler (for C++, Java, and Python) that lets
you actually use the data interchange format. If you follow the link
you can download the code and start using it today. The code is open
source.

Seems like you are missing the code they released that allows you to
implement this in a number of languages from the 'get-go'.

You think? Take BigTable. Wikipedia describes it as: '"a sparse,
distributed multi-dimensional sorted map", sharing characteristics of
both row-oriented and column-oriented databases'. Sounds, to me, like
a specialized solution to a very specialized problem, a problem that,
I presume, didn't fit with any existing solution. Same goes with GFS.
After all, do you really think they didn't evaluate existing solutions
before embarking on building an entirely new distributed filesystem?
Do you really think they're that stupid?

As for Protocol Buffers, given the existing solutions out there (such
as ASN.1 and CORBA) are generally ugly and/or over-engineered, it
sounds to me like they're simply addressing a gap in the industry...
after all, XML and SOAP aren't the end-all and be-all of generic
object-passing protocols.

Leading the open source charge at Google is Chris DiBona, open source
program manager. DiBona was well known in the open source community as
a former editor at the popular Slashdot Web site, as well as the co-
editor of the landmark 1999 book called Open Sources, which discusses
the open source revolution and included essays from Linus Torvalds,
Richard Stallman, Eric Raymond, Bob Young and other notables.

The company also recently donated $350,000 to Oregon and Portland
State Universities in support of open source development. Google open
source projects and efforts are documented at the Web site.

Internetnews.com recently had the opportunity to chat with DiBona
about the SoC and Google's view on open source development.

We have it structured very carefully so that we can include people in
other countries and also not invalidate the visas of students here in
the U.S. that took part. I think that next time should we do this it
will be a lot clearer up front that this is kind of complicated.

It's been in the works for awhile. We wanted to show how open source
has changed over the last six years and how its ideas have reached
into different realms.

Q: So there isn't going to be a Google open source license? It's just
the GPL and OSI-approved licenses for Google?

Q: Is there any chance that Google would ever use one of the new ,
such as the Community License, that may well be free software-
compatible licenses?

Digg Del.icio.us furl StumbleUpon BlinkList Newsvine Magnolia Facebook
Tailrank Slashdot Technorati Google Bookmarks Yahoo Favorites Windows
Live Ask

: woarhex etbdml
: My Lonely Planet book said that if you want to stay with a family
instead of the hotel you need to register...

Here are the photos of Kagan and the ammunition storage in its
suburbs. The database of Google Earth pictures is old, as of last
winter, it seems.

Dan Berlin writes "After announcing that was being discontinued, a lot
of people asked for Google to open source the code so development
could continue. Well, they've done just that. The code for browser
sync is now available on "

The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted
them. We are not responsible for them in any way. Without JavaScript
enabled, you might want to use , you can remember this preference.

But with your data encrypted, why do you need to trust anyone? For you
it is the state of your browser, passwords etc, but for anyone else it
is random bits.

Doesn't Browser sync already supports encrypting your data? Even if it
doesn't I am sure this capability can be added now that it is open-
source.

Besides i can easily host my own browsersettings on my home computer,
in fact, i'll be setting it up (or trying to) when i come home

Your comments about manipulation are weirdly paranoid. The original
list that Greg posted was 20+ companies long, and originally didn't
include us, as he didn't count Andrew to us. He fixed that, and the
post I sent to you was from his talk at Google. It's part of his
presentation to call out the company he visits, which is one of the
reasons we invited him out.

Google is built on software, some of which comes from the world of
open soruce, and most of which was written here. To give back, we both
release code from the company (a significant amount >1m lines per
year), fund external code (uncountable, really) and through the summer
of code, create new developers and even more code still (2.1m+ last
year, at least 3m this).

If they're not going to develop it any further, they might as well let
someone else have a go. Now all we have to do is convince Microsoft to
release the source code to Windows ME.

I use a bunch of machines all over the place (mostly for
development/personal interest). I use old machines, dial-up, new
machines, servers - having browser sync was a god-send. It was great
to be able to reference everything regardless of architecture and O/S.
I agree that there are concerns about what Google would/could reveal
to legislative bodies, but that's only because they are so huge that
other factors come into play. Maybe this is their way of extricating
themselves (somewhat) from the liabilities associated with having that
much info about a person's real interests. That said, I feel that I
was never 'targeted' as a result of their handling of my data, nor was
there ever any 'push' marketing as a result. I think that's where you
draw the line between good corporate citizen and spammer. I hope that
someone who has the time can re-incorporate it into FireFox 3.x

Foxmarks is OK for syncing bookmarks, but GBS also synced your
history, open tabs, passwords (if you were brave enough) and cookies.
Having a synced history and cookies was very useful because you could
stay logged in to the same sites across any GBS'd computer.

There's no clear reason given as to why it's being discontinued, but
if it's due to lack of interest, it was probably lack of advertising;
I wasn't even slightly aware of this project, and it sounds like
something I would have been very interested in. I use Foxmarks
religiously and have trouble functioning without it.

Since most of us can't head over there to watch it in person, we're
giving you the next best thing

You can set a reminder e-mail at the same time that you're adding an
event to your calendar. Just look for the gray box titled
“options.” Click “add a reminder” to schedule
an e-mail or pop-up reminder from five minutes to one week before the
event. By going through the “settings” link at the top
right of the screen, you can set up your mobile phone to receive
calendar notifications.

If the data were stuck on 3.5-inch disks, you could order an external
3.5-inch floppy USB drive for $19.95 from FloppyDisk.com. The store
mentions on its site that it can't find equivalent drives for
5.25-inch disks.

However, the California outfit does offer a solution that's probably
your best bet. For $5 per floppy, the company will transfer your data
from your 5.25-inch disk to CD. The turnaround is two business days,
and bulk discounts are available.

Most managed stock mutual funds have underperformed the market, as
measured by the Standard & Poor's 500, an index that tracks 500 of
America's leading companies. The problem is partly size.Imagine
running a $40 billion mutual fund. That might sound exciting, but it's
difficult. You might keep 5 percent or so of the fund's value in cash,
to cover people's withdrawals. Those dollars won't grow much. With
what's left, you probably won't be permitted to invest more than 5
percent of the fund's value in any one stock. So you'll have to own at
least 20 stocks. (Mutual funds typically invest in 50 to 200
companies.)To appreciate this overdiversification, consider Fidelity's
mammoth Contrafund, valued at more than $75 billion. As of the end of
2007, its biggest holding was would be a great investment. Oops. Its
entire market value is just over $1 billion. You can't buy entire
companies. If you're limited, as many managers are, to not buying more
than 10 percent of any one company, you can spend only about $120
million on it. It's hard to avoid spreading yourself too thin when
$120 million is merely a drop in your mutual fund's bucket.

We encourage you to share your thoughts about our stories. However,
comments that are obscene, overly personal, racist or otherwise
inappropriate will be removed. Because the messages are posted
instantly and anonymously, Courant.com cannot vouch for their accuracy
or authenticity. Report abusive posts by clicking the link found at
the upper right of each item. -- Courant.com

Mark your calendars for a day full of sound and fury, signifying
nothing: Reps from Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT) and Yahoo (YHOO) :
As everyone has noted, the irony is that this time, the Microsoft guys
aren't the ones under antitrust scrutiny.

with a BSD-style license. The code is extensive - in addition to all
the required bits to hook it up to Firefox, you'll find dozens of
Javascript files involved. Fortunately, the source is reasonably well-
commented, so it's at least clear what's happening where, if not how
to move it forward to the current version of Firefox.

If you are a member, Sign in to have your comment attributed to you.
If you are not yet a member, and help the Open Source community by
sharing your thoughts, answering user questions and providing reviews
and alternatives for projects.

In the top 20 classes of Internet sites toward which Google sent
traffic, only three have no corresponding in-house Google project,
according to Hitwise's June 2008 research.

) 2 comments (Page 1 of 1) by July 9, 2008 2:54 PM PDT Google has a
specific music search function already Reply to this comment by July
10, 2008 11:32 AM PDT google also has a specific government search
function already.it's under the "Topic-specific search engines" Reply
to this comment

Send me a copy of this message
Note: Your e-mail address is used only to let the recipient know who
sent the e-mail and in case of transmission error. Neither your
address nor the recipients's address will be used for any other
purpose.

Cloud computing, in which software runs not on PCs or company servers
but instead on computers on the Internet, requires something of a leap
of faith both technologically and culturally. Those making the move
must get accustomed to a reliance on somebody else's computing
infrastructure, and that can be scary.

Taking the plunge into the cloud Service level agreements are the kind
of contractual guarantees that appeal to CIOs making cost-benefit
analyses. But there's a gut-level factor at play here, too.

Risks of non-cloud computing, too Much ado can and should be made of
the risks of cloud computing, but it should be noted that even the
much more mature business of computing without a cloud has its risks.
Downtime, either with ailing or stolen PCs or with overtaxed or faulty
servers, is a serious problem there, too.

Those with high-end services boast of "five nines" of reliability,
where services are available 99.999 percent of the year and therefore
down no more than 5 minutes and 15 seconds per year. Google's Gmail
SLA, at 99.9 percent uptime, promises downtime of less than 9 hours
per year.

The AVE Video Fusion software seamlessly blends five video streams
onto a 3D model of 14th Street and Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington,
D.C., in this screenshot.

This screenshot shows a live USB camera and 18 live TV feeds projected
onto monitors in a lab in Hong Kong.

The app does save a fraction of time in bypassing Safari's initial
loading of the iPhone-optimized page and works without a hitch.

Amit Agarwal from blog today outlining how anyone can use the service
as a live blogging tool. The writing format, which has become an
increasingly popular way for bloggers to cover events as they're
happening (mainly useful for things like Apple keynote speeches), but
also manages to work for smaller conferences and events, too.

Agarwal's suggestions are to either set it up as a special page on
compatible blogging platforms so that your writings will show up like
a regular post, or to simply embed it on the page as I've done here.
One of the platform's strong suits is that it lets several people work
on a document at the same time, which your standard blogging platform
likely won't allow.

I've embedded the original live blog after the break, which is simply
the same post as what's seen above (sans update).

Google Autos or Google Music are the guesses that Hitwise hazarded
Wednesday. "Our thinking was that Google might want to fill