Matt of 37Signals.com”
Let’s be honest. “Sent from my iPhone” really means “I’m not going to bother to proofread and correct this because it would take me an extra 30 seconds.”
Get rid of that signature and proof read, if for no other reason that it making you look smarter.
Ars Technica offers this great walk through of just how big of a Flip Flop Google has pulled on Net Neutrality in just a few years time.
Susan Orlean:
I don’t think of the Internet as a danger. Its funny…we just bought a new car and we were looking at getting a DVD system, a built in one, factory installed. And they’re ridiculously expensive of course, and all they do is play movies. So a friend of mine said what a waste. Just get Austin an iPad.
And that way if I get him just the small one without 3G, loaded up with a bunch of games and download some movies for him, it would take us like three years before we come close to the price that you pay for DVD. And she said its old technology anyway and it will be useless and they charge about $2,000 for them.
My wife and I recently got a new car (new to us) and when we were looking I had already decided that I couldn’t care less about having a navigation system in it – I would rather have an iPod connection. I use my iPhone for directions, I don’t need a navigation system, I need music. In the end we ended up finding the car we wanted at quite a deal because it did not have navigation that so many ‘normal’ consumers must have these days.
Google’s Spokeswoman, via Wired:
We have taken a backseat to no one in our support for an open internet. We offered this proposal in the spirit of compromise. Others might have done it differently, but we think locking in key enforceable protections for consumers is progress and preferable to no protection.
No, actually standing your ground and not rolling over in the hopes of profiting is preferable.
The fourth leg in Google becoming evil: they are going to start selling more of your data.
Those are three powerful questions that very clearly explain why people aren’t more pissed about the recent Net Neutrality events.
Andrew Orlowski:
When Microsoft tied up the office software business, few Lotus or WordPerfect users failed to realise the market was changing – but very few web users now notice how much it’s changed.
Pro-neutrality campaigners are now furious at being thrown under a bus. They might be more furious to discover Google lobbying for rules it would never have to abide by itself.
Brent Simmons:
But flexibility detracts from power just as often — or more often. Flexibility is an invitation. It says, “Hey, futz with this. And this. And this. You’re not getting anything done, but at least you kind of have the illusion of doing something.”
Spot on.
Sarah Perez:
The Trojan penetrates Android-based smartphones disguised as an ordinary application, says Kaspersky. Users are prompted to install a small file of around 13 KB that has the standard Android extension .APK. But once the “app” is installed on the device, the Trojan bundled with it begins texting premium rate phone numbers (those that charge). The criminals are actually the ones operating these numbers, so they end up collecting the money via charges to the victims’ accounts.
Now they really are the Windows of the mobile world (not counting the actual Windows Mobile platform).
Two things are clear from this video:
Google:
Creativity, innovation and a free and open marketplace are all at stake in this fight.
That is until we started selling Android devices to Verizon.
Very nice and very free.
So damned good.
[Updated: 8/11/10 at 6:31 AM] Turns out this is a hoax and the girl is an actress. Still though this would be a damned good way to quit your job.
This is worth every penny – hiring people costs a lot of money. If you are trying to setup a site and want it to be easy and look good, then this just may be the ticket (don’t forget to get Caching turned on though).
More backlash from the ‘street view wifi sniffing’ project that Google used.
It was a rallying cry that every twenty-something in the tech world could rally around “Don’t Be Evil” – the unofficial slogan of internet sensation Google. In fact many of us did rally behind Google, it was the antithesis of Microsoft, more open than Apple – home spun and loved by all. This quickly made Google a success with billions in dollars and lead to a search monopoly and we are soon to see that it probably does have a email (gmail) and mapping monopoly as well.
The past two years has really told a different story though. Street view came out and we all loved it, still do. Then we found out that Google was sniffing Wi-Fi data and storing it. Tsk tsk many of us said, as we brushed the event under the carpet. Regulators and governments were pissed, but the end user seemed not to care. Yet in this instance Google broke its own motto, Section 4 and 7 were broken – they failed to preserve confidentiality and obey the law.
We kept loving Google though, they were after all still Google and costing us nothing – we can’t imagine a world without Google Search and Gmail. Don’t forget about this little thing though:
We launched Google.cn in January 2006 in the belief that the benefits of increased access to >information for people in China and a more open Internet outweighed our discomfort in >agreeing to censor some results. At the time we made clear that “we will carefully monitor >conditions in China, including new laws and other restrictions on our services. If we determine >that we are unable to achieve the objectives outlined we will not hesitate to reconsider our >approach to China.”
So Google was censoring search results in order to obey the Chinese law, but in the end that was not respecting their guideline of “Serve Our users” in Google’s motto. So they decided to change it (after 4 years) and remove the censorship. Naturally this broke Chinese law and now Google has made a work around where the search is not censored and no laws are broken. This however should have never happened if Google followed its motto, this should have been done from day one in China. Of course hindsight is 20/20, but Google clearly broke its motto in this instance.
And now of course comes the hot topic of the week, the Verizon and Google proposal on Net Neutrality to the FCC and Congress. Google had long taken the stance that the 100% supported Net Neutrality, something that every techie breathed a sigh of relief by. Now though it seems they only support convenient net Neutrality. (Read about all this crap, here, here, here, here and here.) The gist of all this being that Google is screwing over the users of the Internet – which our their users, thus breaking their code of conduct once again.
This answer is way more simplistic than most would think: investors happened. Ask any entrepreneur and they will tell you that you can do whatever the hell you want to do when you are the primary investor, but once you take someone else’s money you have to start listening to them, and things change. Google is a for profit company, they need to make money to satisfy the stock price and to continue to grow. Don’t be Evil is an idealistic slogan that was started by two guys that are clearly no longer in control of the company they started.
Google started sniffing WiFi data to see what they could learn and to see what they could monetize off of it. They censored search in China to gain access to a billion new potential users, that would in turn hopefully click on Google’s ads. They are turning against Net Neutrality to satisfy and business partner in Verizon – which is key to Google’s mobile OS strategy. Every single action that Google has taken to date that violates their motto is a direct result of a company trying to increase profits.
Profits by themselves are a great thing, and no one can fault Google for trying to be more profitable – that is the end game of any company. Google is however at fault for not following their own code of conduct – their self imposed rules of governance. Google is evil right now, not because they seek more profits, but because they are doing so while ignoring the edict that they stated at the outset.
Time to change your code of conduct, or change your conduct Google.
Marco Arment with perhaps one of the best analogies I have heard lately:
But at such a large premium over the Core i7 iMac, it’s tough to justify or recommend. It’s like buying an SLR if you’re only ever going to use the kit lens.
Great tip, I have always used caching plugins and this site as been able to survive some heavy days with no problems. I used to use HyperCache on this blog, but given some recent oddities with where it stores the files I have switched to WP Super Cache.
Larry Ellison via Ashlee Vance of the New York Times:
The H.P. board just made the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago…That decision nearly destroyed Apple and would have if Steve hadn’t come back and saved them.
Once again reaffirming my love for Ellison.
This is like when I was a kid trying to persuade my parents that I could come up with a fitting punishment for my transgressions. Always looked out for #1, Verizon and Microsoft (oops I mean Google, mine as well be Microsoft though) are looking out for themselves. The real question is: “why do consumers think that Google will look out for them?”