Google Drinking Its Own Koolaid?

At least some people are beginning to talk about the possibility of Google joining ranks with the dark side, what with the many markets it is insinuating itself in. For me, it’s bringing out the Berkeley mindset.

An editorial in today's NY Times, What Google Should Roll Out Next: A Privacy Upgrade by Adam Cohen is one of the few voices willing to challenge the cloak of godliness that most people still see Google wearing. But I would like to go one step further. What happens when Serge and Brin no longer run the company with their iron wills?

Let's give them every benefit of a doubt with these totally made up assumptions:

• They still are committed to "Don't do evil."
• They still have near absolute power to run the company and are willing to buck Wall Street whenever necessary.
• They plan to distribute their shared $30 billion in net worth back to the people in some uniquely clever and Google way.
• They will defend their principles to their deaths.

And therein lies the elephant in the room that no one is discussing. What happens after Serge and Brin are no longer at the helm of Google?

It's one thing to keep believing (pretending?) that we are "safe" with Serge & Brin running Google. But they are human. They will die, even if they never retire. Frankly, I don't trust them at this point, much less their successors, to being able to avoid doing evil — a concept which is in the mind of the beholder. Once a company goes public, it belongs to the shareholders and the board. How many of Google's shareholders/board members are in it for the money versus in it for the dream of making the world a better place? Umm, I venture to guess many more the former.

The privacy concerns mentioned in Adam Cohen's article hit the nail squarely:

The biggest area where Google's principles are likely to conflict is privacy. Google has been aggressive about collecting information about its users' activities online. It stores their search data, possibly forever, and puts "cookies" on their computers that make it possible to track those searches in a personally identifiable way - cookies that do not expire until 2038. Its e-mail system, Gmail, scans the content of e-mail messages so relevant ads can be posted. Google's written privacy policy reserves the right to pool what it learns about users from their searches with what it learns from their e-mail messages, though Google says it won't do so. It also warns that users' personal information may be processed on computers located in other countries.

Why don't we, as Google lovers, act similarly principled (instead of being blinded by adoration) and demand that they stop collecting the personal information that is not relevant? They really don't need it. Why don't they LET US determine how much to give them and how to use it? Who can envision a world where money can be made and more than just a few benefit? That is the idealistic view of the future that I want to live in, where individuals are as willing to call out their own as well as the oppostion's misdeeds.

Yes, I am a 1974 graduate of UC Berkeley, the same school that brought us the anti-war student protests of the early 70's, People's Park, and all sorts of idealism for how to make the world a more equitable place. I'd like to think we've matured a lot in our methods, while going one step beyond "don't do evil" to actually "doing some good." Anyone with me on this?

tags technorati : google

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Core Differences: Apple, Microsoft and Why Design Matters

Garr Reynolds over at Presentation Zen posted a very interesting observation and a follow up post that compare and contrast the design and effectiveness of the presentations given by Apple’s Steve Jobs and Microsoft’s Bill Gates. 

Obviously this goes much deeper than how to properly use PowerPoint. It really speaks to the core differences in these two companies: how they operate; what is important to them; and serves as a perfect example of how company leadership affects every aspect of a company's products, services, and message.

People love great design. A sexy, fast car. The fit of a well made suit or prefect drape of a designer dress. The simplicity, elegance, and intuitive interface of an iPod. It all matters. So why does Microsoft own 90%+ of the computer operating system market? Obviously a lot of people are not paying attention when it comes to the design of their computer software/hardware and operating system.

But that's beginning to change. The iPod Halo Effect is real. New iPod owners are discovering the joy of owning and using a device that just works. A very technical device that doesn't require a user manual. A device so elegant in design and execution that they begin to wonder if using a Mac might provide a similar experience. And they're switching by the millions.

Design matters. Communication matters. Security matters. Getting your work done and your message out as easily and effectively as possible matters.

Do your technology partners and service providers understand and appreciate good design? Do they communicate technical concepts in sentences that make sense and clarify? Do you get excited about their capabilities and experience and how they can help you with your website/technology/company?

If not, you might want to go get yourself an iPod.

Connection Speed: Are You Getting What You Pay For?

Here in the Santa Fe office (we’re in The Lofts) we switched from DSL to cable modems a couple of years ago. When we built the space in 2000 there weren’t a lot of options in terms of cable versus DSL. So we had to go with a satellite on the roof for TV and DSL for our connection.

When we moved to Hawaii and got hooked up with Oceanic/TimeWarner's digital cable and Road Runner broadband service. Oceanic has the best customer service I have ever experienced. And we were very happy with the speed and ease of use of our cable modem compared to what we had gone through to get DSL up and running. Remember, this was over 5 years ago and I'm sure the technology has improved since then.

So when Comcast came to Santa Fe and we were able to dump satellite (TV used to drop out during snow and rain storms for hours at a time) and switch to Comcast cable for both TV and internet.

Comcast used/uses outside contractors to install new cable/internet accounts. I had already wired the office with cable and hight speed cat5 cable to every outlet. So the Comcast outside contractor just dropped the cable modem in the data closet and called it a day. It's been an OK connection since then but it does drop out from time to time. Lately it's gotten worse and during this trip I've been without an internet connection for hours at a time.

A call to Comcast very late on Tuesday night secured an appointment this morning with a Comcast field tech. He glanced at the data closet and asked me if I wired everything myself. "Yes!" I proclaimed proudly. "Well there are some serious problems here with the splitters and connectors and I have to replace them." he replied. Upon further discussion and reflection, I remembered that the Comcast outside contractor just popped the cable modem into my pre-existing wiring setup. He should have replaced all the cheap connectors and splitters.

Seems the cheap splitters and cable connectors I had picked up at Home Depot were causing feedback and "leaking" signal. Unknown to me, when connected and split with cheap components cables can "leak" a signal so bad that he was able to detect it with a device in his truck when he pulled up. We're on the second floor and he parked across the driveway!

He swapped out the cheap parts and we headed over to the speakeasy speed test to see if that helped. Boy did it!! Results are shown below.

The moral of this story: Even if you don't fully understand what the cable guy/gal is doing, and even if you do, make sure they are installing brand new components. Ask them questions about "signal leaking." And before they leave, have them prove to you on your own computer that you're actually getting the connection speed you're paying for.

COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Judy
URL:
DATE: 12/27/2005 03:47:32 AM
Shane,
This is very interesting. A few months ago I had a problem with our cable service and wish I had know this then. IT certainly is something everyone with cable service should know! Thanks for information.

Mahalo.

Apple did NOT invent Podcasting

Don’t get me wrong. I love Apple. I think of Apple as much more than a computer maker and software company. Apple is actually a lifestyle company that really understands design, culture, art, and creativity. But I digress…

For all of the wonderful things that Apple has created, Podcasting is not one of them. And while they did arrive at the party about 8 months late, they were smart enough to have already developed the infrastructure, ITMS (iTunes Music Store), that gave them the ability to easily and quickly develop support for downloading and subscribing to Podcasts.

Apple has never claimed they invented Podcasting. But as the mainstream media is finally coming to the party, now over a year after the first podcasts were launched (I have the proud distinction of being among the first 30 podcasters in the world when I launched my personal podcast in October of 2004), they (mainstream media) are starting to rewrite history. This from a story today in the Sacramento Business Journal:

"Podcasting began to catch on about a year ago. Apple invented the medium to give its multiplied millions of iPod users something to listen to besides their favorite music." Sacramento Business Journal: Pondering podcasts' potential

Come on! Even a minimum amount of research will turn up the true origin of Podcasting. It's one thing to misquote a source. If you've ever been featured in a newspaper or magazine article you know how some reporters can set out to write their story rather than the story. But to just make something up out of thin air? Enough already. A lot (thousands) of people have worked long and hard and have put in very late nights to get Podcasting to where it is today.

I beg of you, mainstream media, do a little research—heck, maybe even subscribe to a few Podcasts so you really understand the technology—before you start rewriting history and adding untruths to what is already a confusing technology for most people.

How much does your PC REALLY cost your company?

Let’s talk about what a PC really costs your company. Not just the purchase price. I’m talking about all the hidden costs and maintenance costs and crashes and viruses and worms that you have to deal with on a daily basis if you’re using a PC as your primary work computer.

As a programmer and system administrator, I prefer to have things just work. When I write a bit of code or a small shell script it's a joy and brings great satisfaction to have it work the first time. The same holds for the computer on which I am doing the work. When I fire up one of my trusty Macs first thing in the morning, it's a very odd day when something goes awry. On the other hand, when I fire up my PC laptop, I'm thrilled if I DON'T get a message that something didn't load or there was some kind of problem or some file couldn't be found. And this is a very nice Dell laptop running the latest version of XP with a ton of RAM.

I'm in our Santa Fe office this week and we have a new color printer in the office since the last time I was here. Naturally I needed to print something and happened to be on my PC laptop at the time. So I decided to plug the printer directly into the USB port and print. Not so fast?!? First, while Windoze did recognize that I had indeed plugged in a new hardware device (congratulations Windoze on that extraordinary piece of detective work) and wanted to know if I wanted to have it automatically get the drivers and such. Well of course I did, why thank you very much for asking. Well, you know how that went. Couldn't find the software online that it needed even though it had correctly identified the printer when I plugged it in. So off I go to the big software cabinet to search for the CD that came with the printer those many months ago when it was purchased.

Yeee Hawww! I found the CD. This will make it easier. Well, you know how that went. "There was a problem installing the software from the CD. Your hardware may not function properly." My hardware? A couple minutes ago we were on a first name basis with "My hardware." Windoze knew what it was when I plugged it in and now it's just "My hardware?"

I restart the printer. I restart the PC. I repeat. Here's a guy, me, who really knows his way around computers and pretty much all devices digital, and I am now 47 minutes into what should be a simple task of getting a fancy new printer/scanner/copier working with Windoze XP. Finally something just starts to work (don't you hate it when after doing the same thing 6 times it just starts to work on the 7th time?)

After 54 minutes I'm greeted by the "Print a test page" window and we're done! Or so I thought. Once the test page is printed I have to "Please restart your computer in order to take advantage of your new hardware." What?!? I just took advantage of my new hardware. We printed a test page and the world was bright and shiny and new again. Why Windoze, why do I have to restart all the time?!?

So I thought, let's see how difficult it would be to use this printer/scanner/copier and the brand new iMac G5 I picked up last week. Well, while Windoze was restarting, yet again, I plugged the printer into the iMac, hit Apple-P (shortcut keys to Print) and lo-and-behold, the printer selected by default was the brand new printer I just plugged into the back of this brand new iMac. No drivers to install. No restarts required. IT....JUST....WORKED…

Meanwhile, Windoze is still restarting. Oh yea, and by the way, I haven't even printed my document yet. So I fired up Apple Mail on the iMac, checked my IMAP account for the message that contained the document I wanted to print, hit Apple-P, and ta-daaaa, my document is printing from the iMac at the same time Windoze is asking me for my login.

For those of you at home keeping score:

Windows time to get a new printer working: 57 minutes and I still never printed the document
iMac time to get a new printer working: 0.5 minutes

How much are PCs running Windoze really costing your company?

COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Mary Schmidt
URL: http://www.barefeestudios.com
DATE: 11/02/2005 07:51:05 AM
Shane,

I'm sure many of us can relate to this one. And it makes me feel MUCH better than even you have such issues! I'm still beating Windoze and XP into submission on a daily basis. Sometimes Windummy decides it can't find the printer to which it's been attached for going on - oh let's see - 3 1/2 years. I can only surmise they had a lovers spat during the night. If after restarting a couple of times, it still doesn't work - I take that as a sign from the Universe I'm supposed to go do something else. Come back a bit later...and it fires right up.

And, still people are trying to tell me how innovative Microstuff is...hmmm...yes, and their basic code is still - sorry - terrible. (Funny - those people touting MS are also MS resellers and "service partners"...hmmmm.)

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