The Information Workplace Gets Social | Forrester Blogs

The Information Workplace Gets Social | Forrester Blogs:

A timely collaboration reality check:

"Collaboration and social technologies continue to be hot in 2010. In Forrester's 2009 Enterprise Software Survey, we asked respondents to rate the following on a scale of 1-5:

How important are the following software initiatives in supporting your firm's current business goals?

-Increase deployment and use of collaboration technologies

58% answered 4 or 5. In conversations with clients, it's clear that as we exit the current recession and enter a new economy, firms are betting on knowledge workers to drive competitive differentiation in the same manner that they bet on technology to drive efficiency in the early to mid-90's. The trend is particularly strong in North America and Western Europe where big bets are being made on innovation, design and other differentiation that will derive from more efficient, better connected knowledge workers."

Are you a piler, filer, or purger? - Inside Windows Live - The Windows Blog

More real-world market analysis from the Windows Live team. On a personal level, I’m currently moving from “filer” to “purger” – more precisely, I try to move useful information items in email messages to other tools, such as OneNote, that are more productive for ongoing information item management. I get seriously stressed when I lapse into “piler” mode due to email activity bursts, extended periods of time off-line, etc.; my goal is to have my various unread email counts at zero by the end of each day, but that takes a major time and attention commitment. I anticipate the near-term availability of OneNote 2010, with its richer information item management capabilities, shared notebook support on Windows Live SkyDrive (and SharePoint), and effectively anywhere (network-connected) access via OneNote Web App, will be a big help in my personal information management routine.

When we looked into how people used email, we found some interesting patterns. It turns out that there are generally three types of people when it comes to email: pilers, filers, and purgers.

Which are you?

• Piler: “I generally don’t put email into a folder or archive. I don’t delete it. I just let it pile up in my inbox."
• Filer: “I generally categorize messages by moving them into folders I’ve created or assigning labels to each message.”
• Purger: “I generally delete email after I’ve read it.”

[…]

Are you a piler, filer, or purger? - Inside Windows Live - The Windows Blog

The Official Microsoft Blog – News and Perspectives from Microsoft : Microsoft in the Automotive Infotainment Driver’s Seat

A snapshot of Microsoft automotive technology, including SYNC

As people continue to expect easy access to content in every aspect of their on-the-go lifestyle, it’s fueling a demand for more sophisticated in-car, and now in-truck, infotainment systems. We’re seeing more and more car – and now truck manufacturers – responding by using technology as a competitive differentiator. We believe we and our partners in the automotive industry are at the center of this innovation and are ready to meet this consumer demand.

The Official Microsoft Blog – News and Perspectives from Microsoft : Microsoft in the Automotive Infotainment Driver’s Seat

Only a Few Can Multi-Task - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

Hmm

The researchers found that about 2.5 percent of the college students they studied were able to simultaneously talk on the phone while navigating in a driving simulator. By comparison, the other students in the study saw their driving performance on fall 20 to 30 percent, according to David Strayer, a psychology professor involved in the study.

By comparison, the super-taskers “were completely unimpaired,” Mr. Strayer said. The study called them “rare but intriguing individuals with extraordinary multitasking ability.”

Only a Few Can Multi-Task - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

Technology Coalition Urges Stronger Online Privacy Laws - NYTimes.com

Interesting times

A broad coalition of technology companies, including AT&T, Google and Microsoft, and advocacy groups from across the political spectrum said Tuesday that it would push Congress to strengthen online privacy laws to protect private digital information from government access.

The group, calling itself the Digital Due Process coalition, said it wanted to ensure that as millions of people moved private documents from their filing cabinets and personal computers to the Web, those documents remained protected from easy access by law enforcement and other government authorities.

Technology Coalition Urges Stronger Online Privacy Laws - NYTimes.com

Ready with iPad apps - The Boston Globe

I continue to believe the iPad will be a strong net-positive for Amazon’s Kindle service

But Sarah Rotman Epps, consumer electronics analyst for Forrester Research in Cambridge, was more conservative, predicting sales of 2 million in Apple’s primary market: the United States. “Device sales, at least in the first year, will be modest, but the cultural impact of the device will be outsized,’’ said Epps. “Consumer behavior in general will change, even among consumers who don’t buy the device.’’

Epps predicted that the iPad will spur greater sales of electronic books, for example, and not just for the iPad, as more people use laptops or desktop computers to read them.

Ready with iPad apps - The Boston Globe

Why Steve Wozniak Wants Two iPads - Newsweek.com

Excerpt from a Wozniak interview:

What's your favorite phone?
The iPhone, because of the apps. By the way, I solved the problem of battery life and [the lack of] multitasking on the iPhone.

Really?
Yeah. I just have two iPhones, so if the battery runs down on the first one, I can use the other. And if I'm talking on one, I can use the other one to look something up. You would not believe how much use I get out of that.

Why Steve Wozniak Wants Two iPads - Newsweek.com

NYRblog - Atwood in the Twittersphere - The New York Review of Books

Margaret Atwood on Twitter

Anyway, there I was, back in 2009, building the site, with the aid of the jolly retainers over at Scott Thornley + Company. They were plying me with oatmeal cookies, showing me wonderful pictures, and telling me what to do. “You have to have a Twitter feed on your Web site,” they said. “A what?” I said, innocent as an egg unboiled. To paraphrase Wordsworth: What should I know of Twitter? I’d barely even heard of it. I thought it was for kiddies.

But nothing ventured, no brain drained. I plunged in, and set up a Twitter account. My first problem was that there were already two Margaret Atwoods on Twitter, one of them with my picture. This grew; I gave commands; then all other Margaret Atwoods stopped together. I like to think they were sent to a nunnery, but in any case they disappeared. The Twitterpolice had got them. I felt a bit guilty.

[…]

So what’s it all about, this Twitter? Is it signaling, like telegraphs? Is it Zen poetry? Is it jokes scribbled on the washroom wall? Is it John Hearts Mary carved on a tree? Let’s just say it’s communication, and communication is something human beings like to do.

(Read the full article.)

NYRblog - Atwood in the Twittersphere - The New York Review of Books

Microsoft Office 2010 Engineering : Accessing your Office files from any computer with Windows Live SkyDrive

More on the compelling collaborative combination of Windows Live SkyDrive + Office Web Apps

In addition to saving files to a private location for your own personal use, you can also save files directly to shared folders on SkyDrive. Saving to a shared folder makes it easy for you to collaborate with others when working with Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote. You no longer need to worry about whether or not the people with whom you are sharing your files will be able to open them, since the Office Web Apps will be available on Windows Live for everyone to use. You will also be able to collaborate more efficiently with others when you use the Office 2010 desktop applications to edit files saved on SkyDrive. We call this co-authoring, or collaboration without compromise. There’s only one version of the output AND you know when others are working on it with you. There’s no check-in/check-out required. No waiting your turn. No losing control of when you share your changes or when you see others’ changes. You can always edit the file at any time regardless of what edits others might be making to the file at the same time. Check out the links below to learn more about co-authoring with the Office 2010 desktop applications.

• Word: Co-authoring – Where we are Coming From
• Word: Co-authoring (i.e. Simultaneous Editing) in Word 2010
• PowerPoint: The New World of Co-Authoring
• OneNote: What’s New for 2010

Microsoft Office 2010 Engineering : Accessing your Office files from any computer with Windows Live SkyDrive

Check Out This Amazing Facebook Fact Sheet

Check the full post for a timeline graphic (via John Landry)

Here's an amazing Facebook fact sheet from website-monitoring.com.

Some highlights:

• 400 million active users
• 50% check in EVERY DAY
• Average user spends 55 MINUTES PER DAY
• 35 million update status every day
• 3 billion photos uploaded each month
• 5 billion pieces of content shared every day
• 70% of users are outside the United Sates

Check Out This Amazing Facebook Fact Sheet

What Happens When Apple Passes Microsoft In Value? Yes, When. [TechCrunch]

Excerpt from some TechCrunch mkt cap analysis:

Sure, Apple’s OS X competes with Windows, but Apple is clearly never going to license out its OS (after a disastrous attempt to do so in the 1990s when Steve Jobs was away), so its market share can only ever be as big as people buying expensive Apple machines. Apple simply cares more about profits and controlling the high end of the market, then going directly after Windows.

And actually, if both were smart and could bury the hatchet, Microsoft and Apple might be wise to team up. Google is now clearly an enemy for both of them. (Which is a bit odd, considering that it used to be Apple and Google teaming up in a major way to take on the shared rival, Microsoft.) If Microsoft really wants to compete in search, for example, their best move may be to strike a deal with Apple to become the default on the iPhone (and iPad).

What Happens When Apple Passes Microsoft In Value? Yes, When.

Email in a world of social networking - Inside Windows Live - The Windows Blog

See the full post for additional analysis and insights

Recently, we surveyed 2,000 people in the US, where nearly 10 million additional people have started to use Hotmail actively over the last year [for a total of over 369 million active Hotmail users worldwide]. Our goal was to refresh our understanding of how people use their personal email accounts, particularly in this day of heavy usage of social networks for communications. We surveyed people who use AOL, Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo! Mail – 500 people for each service. Here’s a bit of what they shared with us.

Email in a world of social networking - Inside Windows Live - The Windows Blog

Why AT&T should buy you a femtocell | Deep Tech - CNET News

Another perspective on the AT&T femtocell topic

Naturally, if you're paying for you own femtocell, you might feel proprietary about it, which is why they come with features to keep your neighbors from sponging off your network.

But this, too, is backwards thinking. The carriers should be encouraging your neighbors to use your femtocell. Again, it's all the more network capacity they don't have to route through the cell towers. And if the carriers were paying for the femtocell in your home, you wouldn't feel so proprietary about sharing the network.

Granted, it's your broadband connection they'd be degrading by playing Farmville on their iPhones. But again, if your carrier is buying you a femtocell, you'd probably be coming out ahead.

Why AT&T should buy you a femtocell | Deep Tech - CNET News

Hello, iPad. Hello, Cloud 2 [TechCrunch]

Excerpt from Marc Benioff’s take on the iPad:

The future of our industry now looks totally different than the past. It looks like a sheet of paper, and it’s called the iPad. It’s not about typing or clicking; it’s about touching. It’s not about text, or even animation, it’s about video. It’s not about a local disk, or even a desktop, it’s about the cloud. It’s not about pulling information; it’s about push. It’s not about repurposing old software, it’s about writing everything from scratch (because you want to take advantage of the awesome potential of the new computers and the new cloud—and because you have to reach this pinnacle). Finally, the industry is fun again.

Hello, iPad. Hello, Cloud 2.

Technology Review: Spammers Turn to Social Networks

Sign of the times

"Social networking spam may be more dangerous than regular old spam because it creates a trust factor not available through blindly sending out mass e-mail," says Garth Bruen, creator of software called Knujon, which classifies and tracks spam. By mining social networks, he says, criminals can get access to personal details such as where a person lives, where they go out to drink, or what movies they like. "It is very good intel for establishing trust with strangers," he says. Though Bruen notes that working within a social network costs spammers more resources than traditional methods, he believes the payout could be much bigger. 

Technology Review: Spammers Turn to Social Networks

Reputation Is Dead: It’s Time To Overlook Our Indiscretions [TechCrunch]

See the full post for Michael Arrington’s analysis and insights (via Steve Gillmor)

And it’s about to get a lot worse. Next week a startup is launching that’s effectively Yelp for people (look for our coverage in a few days). If someone has something good or bad to say about you, they’ll be able to do it anonymously and with very little potential legal or social fallout.

We’ve seen services like this in the past. Rapleaf and iKarma come to mind. But they were flawed – Rapleaf now collects and sells data about people, and iKarma seems to be little more than a realtor focused service. Another service, Gorb, has vanished completely.

But something tells me this new service, or some other one, might succeed where the others have failed. We’re primed and ready now and have lots of experience publishing all those random opinions about people and things on Twitter, Yelp and Facebook already. It’s time for a centralized, well organized place for anonymous mass defamation on the Internet. Scary? Yes. But it’s coming nonetheless.

Reputation Is Dead: It’s Time To Overlook Our Indiscretions

FT.com / Technology - Rush to develop applications market

Hmm…

Media groups have faced the dual challenge of developing new apps for the iPad and ensuring their existing websites work well with the device. A majority use Adobe’s Flash technology to show video, but the iPad does not support Flash and will produce error messages and blank sections of pages where Flash video is supposed to appear.

Brightcove, a cloud-based video platform for publishers, is announcing a technology fix to render video in HTML 5, a standard the iPad does support, rather than Flash, for its 1,400 customers, including Time and the New York Times.

“We’re talking to hundreds of major publishers and there’s definitely a scramble,” says David Mendels, Brightcove president. “People are asking: how is my website going to work when the iPad ships?”

“There’s a lot of excitement about the iPad, but a lot of stress surrounding it as well.”

FT.com / Technology - Rush to develop applications market

FT.com / Technology - Apple rivals ready to exploit weakness

It’ll be fascinating to see how this plays out over the next few months.  I’m looking forward to Windows 7-based tablets, in part to run OneNote 2010.

Apple’s touchscreen iPhone was far ahead of the competition when it launched, but the iPad will have to fight for its place among dozens of other tablet computers that are likely to appear on the market this year.

With its similar design to the iPhone, it is already assured of a status that should make it stand out from the pack, but competitors have other features available to exploit its weaknesses.

FT.com / Technology - Apple rivals ready to exploit weakness

Steve Jobs and Eric Schmidt Spotted Together Again: Photos - Google - Gizmodo

Strange days indeed (including the “body language analysis” part)

Jobs and Schmidt, whose companies have just ended their love affair, were spotted minutes ago talking business at Calafia in the Town and Country shopping center in Palo Alto. Update: That's not an iPad. And body language analysis, here.

Steve Jobs and Eric Schmidt Spotted Together Again: Photos - Google - Gizmodo

Google in Hong Kong Makes Little Dent in China - NYTimes.com

A timely Google/China snapshot

“I heard that Google is leaving China. But I don’t care. Why should I? I’m fine with Baidu,” said Xiong Huan, 27, a software engineer in Shenyang. “And for now, there’s not much change on Google either, as long as you don’t search for sensitive info.”

Nonetheless, a significant number of people took advantage of Google’s newly unfiltered service on its first day of operation. There were about 2.5 million searches for phrases containing “Tiananmen” and about 4.7 million searches for the banned religious group “Falun Gong,” according to estimates based on data from the Google Trends and Google Keyword Tool Box.

But these are tiny numbers compared with almost 400 million Chinese Internet users, and search activity quickly returned to average levels over the next few days.

Google in Hong Kong Makes Little Dent in China - NYTimes.com

Analysts Ask if the iPad Can Live Up to Its Hype - NYTimes.com

See the full article for iP* analysis; one interesting twist:

 

Analysts Ask if the iPad Can Live Up to Its Hype - NYTimes.com

Social-Media Sites Become War Front for Nestlé - WSJ.com

Sign of the times

For nearly two weeks, environmental activists have been using social media to wage war against Nestlé over its purchases of palm oil for use in KitKat candy bars and other products, catching the Swiss food giant off guard.

Protesters have posted a negative video on YouTube, deluged Nestlé's Facebook page and peppered Twitter with claims that Nestlé is contributing to destruction of Indonesia's rain forest, potentially exacerbating global warming and endangering orangutans. The allegations stem from Nestlé's purchases of palm-oil from an Indonesian company that Greenpeace International says has cleared rain forest to establish palm plantations.

Social-Media Sites Become War Front for Nestlé - WSJ.com

Microsoft Office Faces Google Challenge - WSJ.com

A timely reality check (apparently GM also isn’t as committed to IBM Lotus products as was suggested at Lotusphere 2010)

For now, Microsoft seems to be staring down the Google threat, especially with large business customers. Riding on the tailwind from sales of Windows 7, a new version of its flagship operating system, Microsoft recently beat Google with Office-related business deals at General Motors Corp. and Starbucks Coffee Co.

"When we're there competing, we win," said Stephen Elop, president of the Microsoft division that includes Office.

Mr. Elop recently helped woo GM to use SharePoint software to run GM's internal Web site, a deal for which Google was also being considered.

Microsoft Office Faces Google Challenge - WSJ.com

This Is Why People Hate the Phone Company, AT&T - Tested

This Is Why People Hate the Phone Company, AT&T - Tested:

Check the full post for analysis of AT&T's recent MicroCell news

"Reading AT&T's announcement that the nationwide rollout of its femtocell product--called the Microcell 3G--is about to begin called into sharp relief the level at which I expect to get screwed by the phone company. About halfway through decoding the PR doublespeak, I had an epiphany. It was if I suddenly saw the words on the page for the very first time. I'm so used to the phone company selling me services I don't need at a price that's unreasonable (bordering on ludicrous) that I'd moved beyond apathy to blind acceptance. Let's break down the femtocell announcement, one paragraph at a time.�"

(p.s. the link above presents a different page when viewed in IE and other browsers; that's weird -- if you don't see an extensive essay with paragraph-level comments on AT&T's announcement, you're probably using IE. Go figure...)

The 'iPad Era' dawns [Computerworld]

The iPad pre-release hype is reaching a crescendo, but I think many of the themes in the article are reasonable, if you substitute “tablet” (type) for “iPad” (instance)

How a 'perfect storm' will make iPad the biggest cultural phenomenon since The Beatles

The 'iPad Era' dawns

Day Traders 2.0 - Wired, Angry and Loving It - NYTimes.com

Read the full article for a stark reality check on day trading 2.0

So why do people persist in this line of work?

“The technical term is thrill-seeking,” says Hersh Shefrin, a professor of behavioral finance at Santa Clara University in California and author of “Beyond Greed and Fear,” an exploration of investors’ mindscapes. “There’s an adrenaline rush. And the thing about day trading is that it gives you pretty quick feedback. If you buy and hold, a lot of things need to happen before you see a result, and much of what happens relates to external factors that are beyond your control. With day trading, you’re in charge.”

Also, he says, “people enjoy trading.”

Day Traders 2.0 - Wired, Angry and Loving It - NYTimes.com

Apple Acquires Rights to "iPad" Trademark From Fujitsu | John Paczkowski | Digital Daily | AllThingsD

Interesting times…

Well, this is cutting it close. With the iPad just a week from market, Apple has finally taken ownership of the iPad trademark, which was previously assigned to Fujitsu.

The mechanics of the transfer aren’t entirely clear. As Patent Authority, which first spotted the new assignment, notes, Apple (AAPL) challenged the validity of the mark last September.

Apple Acquires Rights to "iPad" Trademark From Fujitsu | John Paczkowski | Digital Daily | AllThingsD

Eight Days A Week [TechCrunchIT]

Steve Gillmor’s latest iP* perspectives 

Only 8 more shopping days to be completely wrong about the iPad. By this time a week from tomorrow, those of us who are confident that the iPad will be the same sort of enormous disruptive event will be busy enjoying the birth of a new millennium. Everybody else will just have to buy a clue.

Eight Days A Week

FT.com / Technology - Oracle boosted by new licence sales

See the full post for additional details

Oracle said on Thursday it had seen a rebound in a key measure of new software licence sales, reinforcing Wall Street’s hopes that a broader rebound in the technology sector had picked up steam in the early months of this year.

At the same time, Larry Ellison, chief executive of the US software company, stepped up his war of words with German rival SAP, which recently replaced its own CEO. “We think SAP is vulnerable,” Mr Ellison said, adding that he believed Oracle now had a chance to overtake SAP in business applications software.

FT.com / Technology - Oracle boosted by new licence sales

Want Better AT&T Cell Service? Now You Can Buy It - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

A heavy-duty solution to poor location-specific AT&T Wireless reception (with an initial $150 cost and probably a monthly fee as well)

The 3G MicroCell works by tapping into an existing DSL or cable Internet connection and essentially becoming a mini-tower on AT&T’s 3G network. The signal on the device can cover an area up to 5,000 square feet, and it gives access to up to 10 AT&T phones, four of which can connect to it simultaneously. The device can also be moved around to different locations.

Want Better AT&T Cell Service? Now You Can Buy It - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

Make room, iPad: AT&T to sell Intel-based tablet too | Business Tech - CNET News

Somehow I doubt this is prominent on Apple’s iP* competitive radar

AT&T is already expanding its selection of products in the nascent tablet market. In addition to the upcoming Apple iPad, AT&T will market a tablet based on a future version of Intel's Atom processor.

At the CTIA trade show in Las Vegas this week, AT&T announced a tablet that will run, like the iPad, on its 3G broadband network. The tablet is based on a design from Boca Raton, Fla.-based OpenPeak, which designs and develops products for companies like Verizon and Telefonica--two of its current customers.

Make room, iPad: AT&T to sell Intel-based tablet too | Business Tech - CNET News

Bing - New Stuff Coming From Bing This Spring - Search Blog - Bing Community

See the full post for more details and this page for additional Bing resources

To start we wanted to focus on doing more to help users with the tasks they turn to search to help them with. Our research showed that 42% of sessions require refinements, searching sessions are getting longer, and we see that many of those refinements happen when trying to complete common tasks. At launch, we introduced Quick Tabs in the Explore Pane (left rail) to give customers 1-click tools to help refine queries and help them go from question to decision. For example, when planning a trip, Quick Tabs anticipate the intent of the task a customer wants to accomplish and provide shortcuts for key planning activities such as weather, events, and maps. These quick tabs adapt based upon the user intent, and match the things you would expect when looking for a travel destination. The goal is to help you make a more informed decision with less time and effort.

Bing - New Stuff Coming From Bing This Spring - Search Blog - Bing Community

State of the Art - Line2 Allows iPhone Users to Sidestep AT&T - NYTimes.com

A timely snapshot

The Line2 app is a carbon copy, a visual clone, of the iPhone’s own phone software. The dialing pad, your iPhone Contacts list, your recent calls list and visual voice mail all look just like the iPhone’s.

(Let’s pause for a moment here to blink, dumbfounded, at that point. Apple’s rules prohibit App Store programs that look or work too much like the iPhone’s own built-in apps. For example, Apple rejected the Google Voice app because, as Apple explained to the Federal Communications Commission, it works “by replacing the iPhone’s core mobile telephone functionality and Apple user interface with its own user interface for telephone calls.” That is exactly what Line2 does. Oh well—the Jobs works in mysterious ways.)

State of the Art - Line2 Allows iPhone Users to Sidestep AT&T - NYTimes.com

Three Google / China Follow-Ups - Science and Tech - The Atlantic

Some interesting reader analysis in response to recent Google/China-related posts by James Fallows – excerpt:

Google could never possibly be allowed to win in China, and they knew it.
Here's why:

Internet search and analytics companies today have more access to high quality, real-time information about people, places and events, and more ability to filter, aggregate, and analyze it than any government agency, anywhere ever.  Maybe the NSA can encrypt it better and process it faster but it lacks ability to collect the high value data - the stuff that satellites can't see.  The things people think but don't say.  The things people do but don't say.  All documented in excruciating detail, each event tagged with location, precise time.  Every word you type, every click you make (how many sites do you visit have google ads, or analytics?), Google is watching you - and learning.  It's their business to.  This fact has yet to sink in on the general public in the US, but it has not gone un-noticed by the Chinese government.
The Chinese government wants unfettered access to all of that information.  Google, defending its long-term brand equity, cannot give its data to the Chinese government.  Baidu, on the other hand, would and does...

Read the full response and ponder the bigger-picture implications

Three Google / China Follow-Ups - Science and Tech - The Atlantic

IBM Mainframe Business Under Fire in Europe - IT Infrastructure from eWeek

Curious how IBM’s enthusiasm for open source is apparently situational – e.g., perhaps limited to domains in which IBM doesn’t currently have monopoly power/profits.  Check the full article for some related IBM tactics in this context.

IBM is facing another antitrust complaint around its mainframe business, this one in Europe.

Officials with TurboHercules SAS, which offers an open-source mainframe emulator that lets businesses run mainframe applications on less expensive non-mainframe systems, said March 23 that they’ve filed the complaint with the European Commission, the European Union’s antitrust arm.

The complaint alleges that IBM is unfairly tying its mainframe operating system, the z/OS, to its System z mainframe systems.

IBM Mainframe Business Under Fire in Europe - IT Infrastructure from eWeek

People who have just moved out of glass houses shouldn’t throw stones | Good Morning Silicon Valley

Check the full article for a timely reality check

As much as a newly reformed sinner deserves congratulations and support, jumping straight into the pulpit is a bit unseemly. If you’re going to preach about the righteous path, it would help if you’ve been on it for more than 24 hours. Google was right to tell China’s censors to do their own dirty work (see “Google to China: Your move“), but that was only after four years of being wrong (see “It’s like watching little Anakin grow into Darth Vader“), so it ought to be careful about playing the holier-than-thou card just yet.

People who have just moved out of glass houses shouldn’t throw stones | Good Morning Silicon Valley

Business & Technology | Google Inc's deals in doubt amid spat with Beijing | Seattle Times Newspaper

For an overview of Microsoft’s history in China, FYI, check out Guanxi (The Art of Relationships) (free Kindle sample available)

A high-profile Communist Party newspaper skewered Google in a front-page story. And more of its partners and advertising customers in the country appeared to be distancing themselves from the company. China's second-biggest mobile phone company is scrapping plans to use Google's search function on two new phones, while the country's most popular Internet portal is reviewing its partnership with Google, executives said Thursday.

Google, based in Mountain View, California, still hopes to expand its non-search operations in China, but its refusal to play by the government's censorship rules could make that unrealistic.

By challenging the often tetchy government, Google appears to have violated an unspoken rule of doing business in China, especially in the Internet industry - whose control Beijing sees as crucial to maintaining its authoritarian rule.

Business & Technology | Google Inc's deals in doubt amid spat with Beijing | Seattle Times Newspaper

Google Official Calls for Action on Internet Restrictions - NYTimes.com

Sign of the times

A top Google executive on Wednesday called for rules to put pressure on governments that filter the Internet, saying the practice was hindering international trade.

Alan Davidson, director of public policy for Google, told a joint Congressional panel that the United States should consider withholding development aid for countries that restrict certain Web sites. He said censorship had become more than a human rights issue and was hurting profit for foreign companies that rely on the Internet to reach customers.

Google Official Calls for Action on Internet Restrictions - NYTimes.com

Messages From Steve Jobs Are Making Recipients Swoon - NYTimes.com

Read the full article for details … and imagine what the reaction would have been if Steve Jobs had actually responded positively to the email queries referenced in the article…

While Mr. Jobs was known to occasionally answer e-mail messages sent to his widely published address before he went on medical leave last year, he now appears to have not only resumed the practice, but picked up the pace. Apple blogs are counting approximately a dozen such messages in the last few weeks — and those are only the ones that were publicly shared.

Mr. Jobs did not respond to an inquiry about his e-mail habits that was sent to him directly, and Apple would not comment. But every indication is that the messages are being sent by Mr. Jobs himself, and they are resonating throughout the universe of Apple fans to an almost absurd degree.

Messages From Steve Jobs Are Making Recipients Swoon - NYTimes.com

Advertisers Gather Around as Publishers Tout Bells and Whistles of Apple's iPad - WSJ.com

It’ll be fascinating to see how this plays out

A laundry list of open questions about Apple's iPad isn't keeping magazine publishers and advertisers from lining up for the launch of the tablet computer next week.

Time magazine has signed up Unilever, Toyota Motor , Fidelity Investments and at least three others for marketing agreements priced at about $200,000 apiece for a single ad spot in each of the first eight issues of the magazine's iPad edition, according to people familiar with the matter.

Advertisers Gather Around as Publishers Tout Bells and Whistles of Apple's iPad - WSJ.com

Behind the scenes: photo sharing on SkyDrive - Inside Windows Live - The Windows Blog

A SkyDrive update – SkyDrive is another Microsoft offering that is very powerful in conjunction with Office Web Apps

When we launched Windows Live SkyDrive in August of 2007, we had the clear goal to make sharing easier and better for anybody on the Internet. But offering free storage to the world is a risky proposition – the list of services that have tried to do this and failed is long. So we took it slow, starting only in the US, offering just 500MB of storage at first, and focusing on a basic experience for uploading files. Over time, as we learned more about usage (and learned more about how to thwart various types of scammers and other evil people), we were able to increase the free storage, first to 1 GB, then 5 GB, and finally about a year ago to 25 GB of free storage. We were also able to expand into new markets. Today we’re in over 50 languages worldwide and more than 50% of our customers come from outside the US.

Behind the scenes: photo sharing on SkyDrive - Inside Windows Live - The Windows Blog

MobileNoter: OneNote for the iPhone? – jkOnTheRun

The Office 2010 OneNote Web App will also be useful in this context

Microsoft OneNote remains one of the best note-taking solutions around. It allows taking notes consisting of text, ink, images, links and more. What makes OneNote so powerful is the sophisticated search capability that makes it easy to find any nugget of information in an instant. About the only downside to OneNote is its incompatibility with mobile devices outside the Windows Mobile domain. That’s where MobileNoter for the iPhone comes in — it’s a simple note-taking app for the iPhone that syncs with OneNote on the desktop. Now it’s possible to take notes on the iPhone and have them appear in OneNote back home. Select OneNote notebooks can be synced to the iPhone for reference on the go.

MobileNoter: OneNote for the iPhone? – jkOnTheRun

Microsoft data centers go beyond the container | Beyond Binary - CNET News

Check the full article for pictures and more details

Microsoft's data center of the future will be more like a trailer park.

Only the concrete pad will need to be built on-site, with everything else shipped in as a pre-manufactured unit. That's a step beyond the current approach, used in places like the company's massive new Chicago data center, where Microsoft has the servers shipped in a container but still requires a traditional building to provide water and cooling.

Microsoft data centers go beyond the container | Beyond Binary - CNET News

Stance by China to Limit Google Is Risk by Beijing - NYTimes.com

Check the full article for more analysis

Google’s decision may not cause major problems for China right away, experts said. But in the longer run, they said, China’s intransigent stance on filtering the flow of information within its borders has the potential to weaken its links to the global economy.

It may also sully its image — promoted to its own people as well as to the international community — as an authoritarian country that is economically on the move, perhaps even more so than the sclerotic, democratic West.

Stance by China to Limit Google Is Risk by Beijing - NYTimes.com

How the Tablet Will Change the World | Magazine

Steven Levy’s take on the tablet wave; excerpt:

The fact is, the way we use computers is outmoded. The graphical user interface that’s still part of our daily existence was forged in the 1960s and ’70s, even before IBM got into the PC business. Most of the software we use today has its origins in the pre-Internet era, when storage was at a premium, machines ran thousands of times slower, and applications were sold in shrink-wrapped boxes for hundreds of dollars. With the iPad, Apple is making its play to become the center of a post-PC era. But to succeed, it will have to beat out the other familiar powerhouses that are working to define and dominate the future.

How the Tablet Will Change the World | Magazine

FT.com / China - Beijing seeks to limit Google fallout

See the full article for more details

China sought to limit the political fallout from its stand-off with Google on Tuesday, calling it an individual commercial case.

The foreign ministry denied Google’s move to stop censoring its local Chinese search engine would have any broader implications, just hours after the State Council issued an angry response saying the company had violated written promises.

“I cannot see an impact on China-US relations unless someone wants to politicise that. I cannot see any impact on China’s international image unless someone wants to make an issue of it,” said Qin Gang, foreign ministry spokesman.

FT.com / China - Beijing seeks to limit Google fallout

Interview: Sergey Brin on Google’s China Move - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

Definitely not over yet 

The shift of its Chinese service to Hong Kong, Mr. Brin said, was not given a clear-cut stamp of approval by Beijing. But he said there was a “back and forth” with the Chinese government on what to do. “There was a sense that Hong Kong was the right step,” Mr. Brin said.

But he added: “There’s a lot of lack of clarity. Our hope is that the newly begun Hong Kong service will continue to be available in mainland China.”

Later he added: “The story’s not over yet.”

Interview: Sergey Brin on Google’s China Move - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

Bill Gates Start-Up in Talks on Small Nuclear Reactor - WSJ.com

Interesting times

An energy start-up backed by Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates is in discussions with Toshiba Corp. on developing a small-scale nuclear reactor that would represent a long-term bet to make nuclear power safer and cheaper.

Toshiba said it is in preliminary discussions with TerraPower, a unit of Intellectual Ventures, a patent-holding concern partially funded by Mr. Gates. Intellectual Ventures, based in Bellevue, Wash., is run by a former Microsoft Corp. executive, Nathan Myhrvold.

Bill Gates Start-Up in Talks on Small Nuclear Reactor - WSJ.com

After rejecting bid, Novell open to sale - The Boston Globe

More on Novell’s likely trajectory

Duplessie suspects that Elliott wants some other technology company to make a larger bid, so Elliott can make a profit on its current Novell stake. But so far, no rival bidders have emerged.

That doesn’t surprise Abhey Lamba, analyst at the ISI Group in New York. “It’s really hard to find a company that would benefit from all of the four components that Novell has,’’ said Lamba.

Instead, he believes Elliott intends to take Novell private, then auction off its business units one at a time.

After rejecting bid, Novell open to sale - The Boston Globe - end

That full-color Kindle you’ve been waiting for? It’s called the iPad | Good Morning Silicon Valley

I’ll be returning my iPad if Apple does anything to preclude Amazon delivering a Kindle client for it

Even when it was only a rumor, Apple’s iPad was being called a Kindle killer in some quarters. And while it’s true that Amazon’s popular e-reader could take a significant hit once the multi-talented iPad and its iBook store reach the market next month, that blow could end up being one of those “if you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine” situations. Instead of being killed by the iPad, the Kindle could be one of its killer apps.

That full-color Kindle you’ve been waiting for? It’s called the iPad | Good Morning Silicon Valley

NYRblog - Blogging, Now and Then - The New York Review of Books

An intriguing historical review; read the full piece

The most gossipy blogs take aim at public figures, combining two basic ingredients, scurrility and celebrity, and they deal in short jabs, usually nothing longer than a paragraph. They often appeal to particular constituencies such as Hollywood buffs (Perez Hilton), political junkies (Wonkette), college kids (Ivy Gate), and lawyers (Underneath Their Robes). Politically they may lean to the right (Michelle Malkin) or to the left (Daily Kos). But all of them conform to a formula derived from old-fashioned tabloid journalism: names make news.

How new, then, is bloggery? Should we think of it as a by-product of the modern means of communication and a sign of a time when newspapers seem doomed to obsolescence? It makes the most of technical innovations—the possibility of constant contact with virtual communities by means of web sites and the premium placed on brevity by platforms such as Twitter with its limit of 140 characters per message. Yet blog-like messaging can be found in many times and places long before the Internet.

NYRblog - Blogging, Now and Then - The New York Review of Books

Technology Review: Banks Aim to Secure Customers' PCs

Sign of the times

Cybercriminals have had great success over the past year hitting banks where their security is the weakest--on their customers' PCs. In 2009, online fraud losses doubled, according to FBI data.

Now banks are starting to hit back, focusing not only on the security of their own systems, but of their customers' systems. Last week, security firm Trusteer announced it would provide a service to banks that lets them remotely analyze computers belonging to customers who have been hacked.

Technology Review: Banks Aim to Secure Customers' PCs

The iPad App Derby Gets Under Way - NYTimes.com

See the full article for more iPad app projections

“We have actually developed a tablet-based interface that redesigns the core screen and the reading experience,” said Ian Freed, vice president for Kindle at Amazon. “Our team had some fun with it.”

The Kindle app for the iPad, which Amazon demonstrated to a reporter last week, allows readers to slowly turn pages with their fingers. It also presents two new ways for people to view their entire e-book collection, including one view where large images of book covers are set against a backdrop of a silhouetted figure reading under a tree. The sun’s position in that image varies with the time of day.

The iPad App Derby Gets Under Way - NYTimes.com

Link by Link - Advising Recovery Board on Offering Clear Data - NYTimes.com

Glad to see this

It was just announced that Mr. Tufte (pronounced tuff-TEE) would be going to Washington. Though often cast as a free-floating information guru, Mr. Tufte has a highly specific mission: on March 5, he was appointed by President Obama to a panel to advise the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, which monitors the way the $787 billion in the stimulus package is being spent.

It’s hard to know under these circumstances exactly whom should be offered “good luck” wishes.

“I’m not naïve about it, but I’m enthusiastic and hopeful,” Mr. Tufte said in a telephone interview. “The only way to find out if the cynical view of Washington is right is by doing it.”

Link by Link - Advising Recovery Board on Offering Clear Data - NYTimes.com

A Cold War Spy Craft, the Updated U-2 Dodges Retirement - NYTimes.com

An incredible ROI case study

In some ways, the U-2, which flew its first mission in 1956, is like an updated version of an Etch A Sketch in an era of high-tech computer games.

“It’s like after all the years it’s flown, the U-2 is in its prime again,” said Lt. Col. Jason M. Brown, who commands an intelligence squadron that plans the missions and analyzes much of the data. “It can do things that nothing else can do.”

One of those things, improbably enough, is that even from 13 miles up its sensors can detect small disturbances in the dirt, providing a new way to find makeshift mines that kill many soldiers.

A Cold War Spy Craft, the Updated U-2 Dodges Retirement - NYTimes.com

Device promises to help the overloaded - The Boston Globe - end

As with OneNote and OneNote Web App

Whether Springpad attracts a critical mass of customers, Bajarin said, the information overload spawned by the Internet will demand Web-friendly organizers.

“Ultimately,’’ Bajarin said, “these types of applications, like Springpad and Evernote, are just forerunners of a great number of Web-based applications that will allow us to have all our personal digital stuff in the cloud and be able access it anywhere.’’

Device promises to help the overloaded - The Boston Globe - end

Microsoft ranks No. 1 in patents [TechFlash]

A timely snapshot

Microsoft's business is under attack by Google, Apple and others. But there's one place where the software giant still rules supreme: Patents. According to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Microsoft's patent portfolio ranked the strongest in the software industry for the third straight year. According to the report, Microsoft was way out in front of its competition, with 2,918 patents granted last year. The next closest competitor in the software group was Oracle, which showed just 338 patents.

In a blog post, Microsoft's Bart Eppenauer wrote that the IEEE's ranking -- along with other recent surveys from Forbes and the Patent Scoreboard showing Microsoft' strong patent position -- indicates that the software giant's "focus on high-quality patent protection is working."

Microsoft ranks No. 1 in patents

Novell Rejects Elliott’s Bid as ‘Inadequate’ - DealBook Blog - NYTimes.com

Looking for a higher price

Novell, a maker of business software, said Saturday that it had rejected Elliott Associates’ unsolicited $2 billion takeover bid as “inadequate,” saying the hedge fund’s offer “undervalues the company’s franchise and growth prospects.”

Novell also said its board was considering alternative ways to increase its value to its shareholders, including a stock buyback, a special cash dividend, joint ventures and alliances with other companies, a recapitalization and an outright sale of itself.

Novell Rejects Elliott’s Bid as ‘Inadequate’ - DealBook Blog - NYTimes.com

Reading and the Web - Texts Without Context - NYTimes.com

A timely round-up of some important themes

WORRYING ABOUT the public’s growing attention deficit disorder and susceptibility to information overload, of course, is hardly new. It’s been 25 years since Neil Postman warned in “Amusing Ourselves to Death” that trivia and the entertainment values promoted by television were creating distractions that threatened to subvert public discourse, and more than a decade since writers like James Gleick (“Faster”) and David Shenk (“Data Smog”) described a culture addicted to speed, drowning in data and overstimulated to the point where only sensationalism and willful hyperbole grab people’s attention.

Now, with the ubiquity of instant messaging and e-mail, the growing popularity of Twitter and YouTube, and even newer services like Google Wave, velocity and efficiency have become even more important.

Reading and the Web - Texts Without Context - NYTimes.com

Business & Technology | An abundance of free Wi-Fi across the Northwest | Seattle Times Newspaper

See the full article for more details

Wi-Fi, on the other hand, has never been more abundantly free, with tens of thousands of U.S. stores, airports, and other venues providing Internet access often at higher speeds than 3G networks wherever you can find a seat. Outside the U.S., it has been harder to find free Wi-Fi, but that's changing, especially in Europe.

Wi-Fi's biggest problem is that it's not everywhere. But it's generally convenient. Options for free Wi-Fi in the Northwest and across America have exploded in the past several weeks, mostly because of McDonald's decision to go free. But there are plenty of other options, too.

Business & Technology | An abundance of free Wi-Fi across the Northwest | Seattle Times Newspaper

Business & Technology | 'Bizarre' tanker twist: Russians will bid against Boeing for Air Force contract | Seattle Times Newspaper

Times have changed…

Here's the latest twist in the Air Force tanker saga: The Russians are coming.

Russia's government-owned aerospace company will announce Monday it is competing against Boeing for the $40 billion refueling-tanker contract, a Los Angeles attorney for the company said Friday.

Business & Technology | 'Bizarre' tanker twist: Russians will bid against Boeing for Air Force contract | Seattle Times Newspaper

Desperate times for Palm | Relevant Results - CNET News

A stark Palm reality check

There's really no way to sugarcoat this: Palm is heavily leveraged in a fiercely competitive market and unable to generate interest for a well-received product as it burns cash amid mounting inventory. That's a whole lot of bad stuff to deal with at one time.

Palm's stock was down 26 percent in midday trading Friday. Financial analysts are recommending that their clients dump the stock while there's still time. Two went so far as to cut their target price for the company's stock to $0, essentially declaring it worthless.

Desperate times for Palm | Relevant Results - CNET News

In Bid to Sway Sales, Cameras Track Shoppers - NYTimes.com

Your actions will be captured on video, inside and outside

Many stores and the consultants they hire are using the gear not to catch shoplifters but to analyze and to manipulate consumer behavior. And while taping shoppers is legal, critics say it is unethical to observe people as if they were lab rats. They are concerned that the practices will lead to an even greater invasion of privacy, particularly facial recognition technology, which is already in the early stages of deployment.

In Bid to Sway Sales, Cameras Track Shoppers - NYTimes.com

Apple Swears iPad Partners to Secrecy - BusinessWeek

Check the full article for a summary of Apple’s paranoia++.  Evernote rejected – I’m guessing that means Apple plans to do a similar app itself; maybe they’ll retroactively sue Evernote first…

Evernote, a maker of software that helps users organize and store documents, was similarly rejected and is nevertheless working on a version of its app for the iPad. "We've never actually touched one," says Evernote CEO Phil Libin. Evernote sells an app for the iPhone and has been working on a version for the iPad since before Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs unveiled the device on Jan. 27.

Apple Swears iPad Partners to Secrecy - BusinessWeek

Plans for broadband: Pipe dream | The Economist

Room for improvement

If America’s facilities-based system were really working, the country would at the very least enjoy first-rate broadband in dense urban areas where providers are most likely to recoup their investments quickly. Yet in February the Saïd Business School at Oxford and the Universidad de Oviedo released a study, funded by Cisco, that produced a broadband quality score based on bit volume and speed, mapped against current and probable future applications. Chicago, America’s best-performing city, ranked 26th, below Sofia and Bucharest. No American city was judged “ready for tomorrow”. Among countries America ranked 16th, which is roughly where it falls on almost any available measure of broadband penetration or quality. That is not good enough.

Plans for broadband: Pipe dream | The Economist

When Couples Fight on Facebook, Everyone Knows the Score - NYTimes.com

Sign of the times…

It’s a question being asked a lot these days as couples, who once had to leave the house to fight in public, take their arguments onto Facebook. Whether through nagging wall posts or antagonistic changes to their “relationship status,” the social networking site is proving to be as good for broadcasting marital discord as it is for sharing vacation photos. At 400 million members and growing, Facebook might just replace restaurants as the go-to place for couples to cause a scene.

As score-settling on Facebook has grown commonplace, sites like Lamebook have begun documenting the worst spats (which also happen to be the most humorous). On Facebook itself, people can join several groups with names like “I Dislike People/Couples Who Argue Publicly on Facebook.”

When Couples Fight on Facebook, Everyone Knows the Score - NYTimes.com

Google's fast pipe to Asia almost ready | Relevant Results - CNET News

Investing beyond short-term politics

Google and a group of telecommunications companies are about ready to turn on a fast Internet cable running under the Pacific Ocean from the U.S. to Japan, increasing bandwidth by about 20 percent and giving Google its own connection to Asia.

The Unity Consortium, which consists of Google, Bharti Airtel, Global Transit, KDDI, Pacnet, and SingTel, has nearly completed the testing of the $300 million project. Internet users in Asia will start seeing faster Internet speeds over the next several months from the new cable, which has the potential to create a 7.68Tbps (terabits per second) connection under the Pacific.

Google's fast pipe to Asia almost ready | Relevant Results - CNET News

Viacom, Google air dirty laundry in court docs | Media Maverick - CNET News

Turning into a case study on things better not expressed in discoverable content contexts

But in the 100-page document filed by Google, perhaps not surprisingly, the search engine tells a different story. Viacom is painted as a media giant trying to play it both ways: demanding that YouTube take down videos even while third parties were uploading Viacom content on the entertainment giant's behalf. More intriguingly, the parent company of MTV and Paramount Pictures was at one point interested in acquiring the video-sharing site, according to the documents.

"We believe YouTube would make a transformative acquisition for MTV Networks/Viacom that would immediately make us the leading deliverer of video online, globally," according to an internal Viacom slide that Google filed with the court.

Viacom, Google air dirty laundry in court docs | Media Maverick - CNET News

Apple Races to Strike Content Deals Ahead of iPad Release - WSJ.com

Hmm…

Apple has narrowed the device's scope. It has put on hold its idea to offer TV subscriptions that would be viewable through the iPad, because few media companies were interested. Instead, Apple is discussing dropping the price of TV shows to 99 cents from the $1.99 and $2.99 charged for most shows on its iTunes store, said people familiar with the situation.

Apple hasn't yet reached a deal with many major TV producers on the price cut, these people said. Some are concerned a price cut could hurt their existing businesses, these people said, including jeopardizing the tens of billions of dollars in subscription fees they are paid by cable and satellite companies for their traditional TV networks.

Apple Races to Strike Content Deals Ahead of iPad Release - WSJ.com

Google executives called YouTube a 'pirate' site - San Jose Mercury News

That was before YouTube’s de-evil-ification through acquisition, of course

Google executives referred to YouTube as a "rogue enabler of content theft," whose "business model is completely sustained by pirated content" in internal communications before going ahead with the 2006 purchase of the video site, according to documents unsealed today in Viacom's $1 billion copyright lawsuit against Google.

As part of its lawsuit, Viacom charged in a motion for summary judgment filed today in U.S. District Court in New York that the Mountain View Internet giant "abandoned its own anti-piracy practices and instead embraced YouTube's illegal business model."

Google executives called YouTube a 'pirate' site - San Jose Mercury News

Al's Journal : The Roots of Denial

A timely reality check

"In every case, they denied the severity of the problem and said the science was uncertain," Oreskes said. "It was always the same argument. They always used the tobacco strategy and said it would be wrong for the government to interfere with the marketplace. It was all about using this play from the tobacco playbook."

We know the tactics, funders and mission of climate crisis deniers. It is our job to combat and debunk their skepticism at every turn. Incidentally, Oreskes has an important book that will be published soon, titled Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming.

Al's Journal : The Roots of Denial

I, Cringely » Blog Archive » Is There a Google News Blacklist? - Cringely on technology

Check the full post and ponder the implications

My relationship with Google News has always run hot and cold. No make that cold and tepid. From the very beginning of Google News as an experiment back in 2001, they refused to index my work, which they said was my fault, not theirs (“they” being an algorithm attached to an e-mail box, of course). But new evidence has recently come to light suggesting to me that Google News has an actual blacklist.

I, Cringely » Blog Archive » Is There a Google News Blacklist? - Cringely on technology

The Windows Phone 7 app platform: One slide says it all | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

See the full post for more details

A picture is worth a thousand words. This slide from Windows Phone 7 team member Charlie Kindel’s talk at Mix  — which shows all of the various elements of Microsoft’s Windows 7 phone app platform in architectural diagram form — provides a quick overview of what the Softies are telling developers and designers this week about the company’s next-gen mobile platform. (Click on the slide below to enlarge.)

The Windows Phone 7 app platform: One slide says it all | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

FT.com / Technology - Facebook becomes bigger hit than Google

Sign of the times

Social networking website Facebook has capped a year of phenomenal growth by overtaking Google’s popularity among US internet users, with industry data showing it has scored more visits on its home page than the search engine.

In a sign that the web is becoming more sociable than searchable, research firm Hitwise said that the two sites accounted for 14 per cent of all US internet visits last week. Facebook’s home page recorded 7.07 per cent of traffic and Google’s 7.03 per cent.

FT.com / Technology - Facebook becomes bigger hit than Google

Expect fireworks Thursday in Viacom vs. Google | Media Maverick - CNET News

Perhaps fodder for a Google TV reality TV mini-series

Viacom filed a $1 billion copyright complaint three years ago against Google, accusing the search engine of profiting from and encouraging copyright infringement on YouTube. Google denied the allegations and said the Digital Millennium Copyright Act protects the company and all Internet service providers from liability for infringing activity by users. On Thursday, we'll get to see what kind of documentation the two companies possess to support their claims.

Sources close to the case said in October that information cropped up during the discovery process that is "potentially embarrassing" to both sides.

Expect fireworks Thursday in Viacom vs. Google | Media Maverick - CNET News

Google and Partners Seek Foothold in the Living Room - NYTimes.com

More Google TV info

Google’s efforts to break into television advertising date back three years. Through a program called Google TV Ads, the company sells advertising on a handful of satellite and small cable television systems, as well as some cable networks. Google says thousands of advertisers have signed up for the program, but analysts say they believe the amount of revenue generated is too small to have a significant impact on Google’s overall business.

The partners will face a crowded field. In addition to the makers of traditional cable and satellite set-top boxes, Cisco Systems and Motorola, many others have entered the game, including Microsoft, Apple, TiVo and start-up companies like Roku and Boxee, which already stream video from Netflix, MLB.com and other Web sites directly to television sets. Yahoo is also promoting a TV platform that uses small software programs called widgets to use certain Web services.

Google and Partners Seek Foothold in the Living Room - NYTimes.com

Google Working With Intel, Sony, Logitech on TV Technology - WSJ.com

Interesting times

Google Inc. has lined up some big partners—including Intel Corp. and Sony Corp.—in the Internet giant's recent quest to move its technology into the living room, people familiar with the situation say.

The joint effort, which is in its preliminary stages, includes software to help users navigate among Web-based offerings on television sets and serve as a platform for other developers to target in creating new programs, these people say. The technology could be included with future TVs, Blu-ray players or set-top boxes, they added.

Google Working With Intel, Sony, Logitech on TV Technology - WSJ.com

A Television Project That Might Make Steve Jobs iRate - ArtsBeat Blog - NYTimes.com

I’m guessing episodes will not be available on iTunes…

If Steven P. Jobs wants relief from one of his more merciless satirists, a television set may not be the best place to turn. On Tuesday, the cable channel Epix and the studio Media Rights Capital said they had struck a development deal for a new series called “iCon,” to be written by Dan Lyons, a Newsweek contributor who has sent up the Apple chief executive on his popular blog, The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs, and in his novel “Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs – A Parody.”

[…]

In a statement, Mr. Charles said, “We are attempting to do nothing less than a modern ‘Citizen Kane.’ A scabrous satire of Silicon Valley and its most famous citizen.”

A Television Project That Might Make Steve Jobs iRate - ArtsBeat Blog - NYTimes.com

Online Hate Sites Grow With Social Networks - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

An anti-social networking update

Terrorists and racists are turning to online social networks and depending less on traditional Web sites, according to a new report on digital terror and hate speech.

The report, by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, found a 20 percent increase in the number of hate and terrorist-abetting Web sites, social network pages, chat forums and micro-bloggers over the last year, to a total of 11,500.

Online Hate Sites Grow With Social Networks - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

How Privacy Vanishes Online, a Bit at a Time - NYTimes.com

A timely reality check 

Yet people often dole out all kinds of personal information on the Internet that allows such identifying data to be deduced. Services like Facebook, Twitter and Flickr are oceans of personal minutiae — birthday greetings sent and received, school and work gossip, photos of family vacations, and movies watched.

Computer scientists and policy experts say that such seemingly innocuous bits of self-revelation can increasingly be collected and reassembled by computers to help create a picture of a person’s identity, sometimes down to the Social Security number.

How Privacy Vanishes Online, a Bit at a Time - NYTimes.com

Google Starts Selling Nexus One in Competition With iPhone - WSJ.com

Not exactly enthusiastic support

AT&T's involvement in the new Nexus One appears to be minimal, however. The carrier isn't selling or subsidizing the phone, so it's only available from Google at its full price of $529. That's far more than the $179 buyers would pay for a Nexus One subsidized by T-Mobile or the $99 starting price of an iPhone subsidized by AT&T. Both of those deals require two-year contracts.

"We'll accept a compatible device on our network," AT&T spokesman Fletcher Cook said. He wouldn't say whether the carrier and Google had discussed the new phone.

Google Starts Selling Nexus One in Competition With iPhone - WSJ.com

FBI uses new tool: social networks - The Boston Globe

See the full article for more details

US law enforcement agents are following the rest of the Internet world into popular social-networking services, going undercover with false online profiles to communicate with suspects and gather private information, according to an internal Justice Department document that offers a tantalizing glimpse of issues related to privacy and crime-fighting.

Think you know who’s behind that “friend’’ request? Think again. Your new “friend’’ just might be the FBI.

FBI uses new tool: social networks - The Boston Globe

Gray Matter : Open XML SDK 2.0 Released

A major milestone for Open XML; see the full post for more details

On February 21, 2008, I posted on Microsoft Interoperability Principles, which are designed to make our products more open and more available to the broader software community. Since that day, Microsoft has made several strides in this area, too many to recount here and now, but largely explained by the Interoperability@Microsoft team.

Today we are making an important advance in the area of document format interoperability for Office, as part of our ongoing commitment to these interoperability principles.

After four successful Technology Previews, today we are releasing the 2.0 version of the Open XML SDK for Microsoft Office. Among its benefits, this release of the Open XML SDK is a significant step forward because of the amount and quality of functionality it provides to developers seeking to build document processing solutions without the use of Microsoft Office applications.

Gray Matter : Open XML SDK 2.0 Released

Twitter Keynote Gets Thumbs-Down — on Twitter - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

Living in real-time…

A keynote interview with Evan Williams, Twitter’s chief executive, created a stir during the South by Southwest Interactive conference here on Monday — but it may not have been what conference organizers had in mind.

After introducing a new platform intended to help Twitter extend its reach across the Web, Mr. Williams was interviewed on stage by Umair Haque of the Havas Media Lab. Many attendees soon became restless and took to the tool Mr. Williams helped create to vent their frustration with the interview.

Twitter Keynote Gets Thumbs-Down — on Twitter - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

Microsoft Outlines New Opportunities at MIX10 for Developers to Create Compelling Experiences

A Silverlight snapshot

Silverlight adoption has continued at a rapid pace with installations approaching 60 percent of all Internet devices worldwide — an increase of nearly 15 percentage points in just four months. Customers such as Major League Soccer, BBC, eBay Inc., Netflix Inc., NBCOlympics.com and CT Corp., a Wolters Kluwer business, demonstrated how they are taking advantage of the power of Silverlight to deliver compelling consumer and enterprise experiences.

[…]

All the latest from MIX10 is available at http://live.visitmix.com/press, including downloads of tools for Windows Phone 7 Series, the Silverlight 4 RC and Expression Blend 4 Beta, which will be available today.

Microsoft Outlines New Opportunities at MIX10 for Developers to Create Compelling Experiences

Why Google Buzz isn't labeled 'beta' and why it sort of is anyway | Technology | Los Angeles Times

Hmm…

Why Buzz was not called beta from the start is due to semantics. Because it's tied so closely with Gmail -- almost as a feature akin to the chat tool -- it seemed awkward, Jackson said, to label it differently.

"We started questioning the very meaning of the word 'beta,'" Jackson said.

Google still has some beta software out there -- Web apps like Scholar, browser extensions and popular versions of the Chrome browser itself. But it appears the company is being more selective about what gets the beta excuse.

Why Google Buzz isn't labeled 'beta' and why it sort of is anyway | Technology | Los Angeles Times

New Google Hire Takes On Apple - WSJ.com

Mainstream media’s take on Tim Bray’s new job

While Google Inc.'s budding rivalry with Apple Inc. has largely been a tight-lipped affair managed through legal and regulatory channels, one of the Internet giant's newest hires isn't being shy about airing grievances.

Tim Bray, a software developer employed until recently at Sun Microsystems Inc., said Monday he has joined Google as a "developer advocate" with a focus on the company's Android operating system. And he wasted no time decrying Apple's vision of the cellphone market and strategy for the iPhone.

New Google Hire Takes On Apple - WSJ.com

Web guru Tim Bray takes Google Android job | Deep Tech - CNET News

Excerpts:

Apple apparently thinks you can have the benefits of the Internet while at the same time controlling what programs can be run and what parts of the stack can be accessed and what developers can say to each other.

I think they're wrong and see this job as a chance to help prove it.

[…]

"I'd had an offer to stay with Oracle which I decided to decline," Bray said. "I'll maybe tell the story when I can think about it without getting that weird spiking-blood-pressure sensation in my eyeballs."

Web guru Tim Bray takes Google Android job | Deep Tech - CNET News

Six Delusions of Google's Arrogant Leaders - Google - Gawker

A timely Google good-will-o-meter reality check (via Richard Eckel)

Google's CEO went to Abu Dhabi this week and preached. He sermonized about Google's exceptional virtue — its indifference to profit and supreme trustworthiness. His speech should have been shocking. Except that delusional self-righteousness is now routine at Google.

(Read the full post for the six delusions)

Six Delusions of Google's Arrogant Leaders - Google - Gawker

Buzz by Tim O’Reilly from Buzz

A timely reality check from Tim O’Reilly (commenting on yesterday’s Apple-versus-Google NYT article)

That being said, competition is good for the industry, and Apple's rumored embrace of Microsoft will boost the competition between Microsoft and Google and keep things very interesting.
It's still sad that two great and innovative companies are at odds. And even sadder that Apple is letting spite trump business judgment, and closing their phone even further from the open web.
In the end, if the iPhone fails, it will be because closed systems have weaker adoption dynamics than open systems, not because Eric Schmidt betrayed Apple.

Buzz by Tim O'Reilly from Buzz

Business & Technology | Pioneer Palm now teeters in crowded smartphone market | Seattle Times Newspaper

Reading Palm’s future

So what will happen to Palm now?

Misek thinks the company could keep spending its cash — it had $590 million at the end of its most recently reported quarter — and run out of gas in a year or two.

Or it could try to conserve funds and angle to be bought out. But Misek thinks a buyer could be dissuaded by the year or two it might take to get webOS working on new phones.

Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu thinks Palm could be purchased in the next year by a company such as Motorola or Dell. That would give those companies their own smartphone software.

Ultimately, Wu thinks the smartphone market will look like the PC market, which was crowded with competition early on but eventually produced a short list of winners and a smattering of losers.

"Palm's almost on that list of losers," he said.

Business & Technology | Pioneer Palm now teeters in crowded smartphone market | Seattle Times Newspaper

‘Earth Days’ Documentary to Be Seen on Facebook First - NYTimes.com

Sign of the times

The April 11 event, eight days ahead of the film’s television broadcast on April 19, will be the first time a major broadcaster has introduced a full-length documentary on the site, according to “American Experience” executives. It will use a new “social screening application” created by Brand Networks.

‘Earth Days’ Documentary to Be Seen on Facebook First - NYTimes.com

Telling Friends Where You Are (or Not) - NYTimes.com

See the full article for a snapshot of Foursquare and other “checking in” services

This model, which may be more attractive than tracking because it gives people more choice in revealing their locations, is gathering speed in the Internet industry. Yelp, the popular site that compiles reviews of restaurants and other businesses, recently added a check-in feature to its cellphone application. And Facebook is expected to take a similar approach when it introduces location features to its 400 million users in coming months.

If checking in goes mainstream, it could give a lift to mobile advertising, which is now just a tiny percentage of overall spending on online ads. If a company was able to pitch offers to people who say they are at a particular spot, it would “allow for the sharpening of mobile advertising,” said Anne Lapkin, an analyst at the research firm Gartner.

Telling Friends Where You Are (or Not) - NYTimes.com

Technology Review: Startups Focus on AI at South by Southwest

AI is back again…

A prime example is Siri, a startup that launched this February. The company was spun out of SRI International, a research organization based in Menlo Park, CA, commercializing technology developed as part of the CALO artificial intelligence project. The company offers a virtual personal assistant with impressive voice recognition, learning capabilities, and the capacity to interact with many different apps. Its founders describe Siri as "the mother of all mashups with a big brain in the front."

Other startups on the Accelerator list have less heavy-duty academic research backing them, but they are also trying to harness rapidly maturing areas of artificial intelligence. "People are looking to simplify their lives," Valentine says, and new companies are hoping to strike it rich by helping them do that.

Technology Review: Startups Focus on AI at South by Southwest