What Google knows about you [Computerworld]

A timely privacy reality check; see the full article (see this page for a single-page/print-centric view)

"Google knows more about you than your mother."

Kevin Bankston, senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, recently made that statement to this reporter. A few years ago, it might have sounded far-fetched. But if you're one of the growing number of people who are using more and more products in Google's ever-expanding stable (at last count, I was using a dozen), you might wonder if Bankston isn't onto something.

What Google knows about you

Doug Mahugh : 1 + 2 = 1?

A timely ODF reality check; read the full post, and ponder the interoperability implications

Does 1 plus 2 equal 3?   After last week’s sometimes acrimonious discussion about formulas in ODF, you may be glad to hear that IBM and Microsoft appear to agree on that answer to this simple question.  But OpenOffice.org is not so certain – maybe the answer is just 1 sometimes – and the question itself turns out not to be so simple after all.  Let me explain.

Doug Mahugh : 1 + 2 = 1?

New Search Service Aims to Answer Tough Questions - NYTimes.com

More WolframAlpha perspectives

“In many ways, creating a system like this has been a holy grail of lots of folks for some time,” said Nathan Myhrvold, a former chief technology officer of Microsoft and co-founder of Intellectual Ventures, an investment company that owns a portfolio of patents.

“It has wound up being considered something that is virtually impossible,” Mr. Myhrvold said. WolframAlpha has shown “that it wasn’t impossible but really difficult,” he added. “It involved applying lots of different tricks.”

Doug Lenat, an artificial intelligence expert whose company Cycorp has spent the last 15 years developing a system that brings human-like reasoning to some computer systems, said WolframAlpha can handle “an astronomical number of questions,” and could eventually turn into a favorite destination on the Web.

“It may become a massive player alongside Google,” Mr. Lenat said.

New Search Service Aims to Answer Tough Questions - NYTimes.com

Google Floods My Calendar With ‘Star Trek’ Geekery - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

Cute, but still somehow disconcerting; see the full post for more details

I got a momentary jolt when I flipped to the Google Calendar tab in my browser a few minutes ago. Every day in May had a new green box on it, with an indication like “Stardate: [-28] 01210.00.”

I’m pretty dependent on Google Calendar to keep track of meetings and such, so the flood of weird numbers was disconcerting. Was it a virus? A corrupted database?

Then I remembered: The latest “Star Trek” movie opened Friday.

Google Floods My Calendar With ‘Star Trek’ Geekery - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

Google CEO Says Microblogging Coming to Google Search - NYTimes.com

Just another day in the Googleplex…

While taking questions yesterday about alleged violation of anti-trust laws, Google CEO Eric Schmidt reportedly told press that the company is, in the words of Reuters scribe Alexei Oreskovic, "looking at ... ways of integrating microblogging capabilities, such as those popularized by Twitter, into its search product.

Google CEO Says Microblogging Coming to Google Search - NYTimes.com

The antitrust thing that won't blow over | Here we go again | The Economist

Another timely reality check from The Economist; excerpt:

The computer industry makes more antitrust headlines than others, and seems unlikely to shake off these problems, for three reasons. The first is that technology heavyweights are often dominant in their respective markets. Ask any of the bosses of these firms why they are so dominant and they will probably respond that it is a result of billions spent on research and development. But they also operate in markets that allow a winner to take all (or most). Mainframes and operating systems benefit from strong network effects: the more applications run on them, for instance, the more users they attract, which encourages programmers to write more applications for them. With microprocessors, ever-increasing capital requirements mean only the biggest firms can afford to build their own factories. The markets for search and online advertising exhibit similar effects: the bigger a firm’s market share, the greater its ability to attract advertisers, thus bringing in the money to build ever bigger data centres. In each case it is difficult for an upstart to break in.

Read the full article, and also check out the increasing returns model sometime – the information technology business is unusual in several respects.

The antitrust thing that won't blow over | Here we go again | The Economist

Google's Eric Schmidt doesn't see board conflict with Apple? - Computerworld Blogs

A timely reality check; read the full article 

Sure Apple doesn't sell ads, and Google doesn't make hardware, but look at everything else. Google and Apple do compete in a number of areas. As I said before, there is a laundry list of categories in which they compete:

• Smartphone software. iPhoneOS vs. Android
• Webpage building software iWeb vs. Google Pages
• Calendar software - iCal vs. GCal
• Document writing software - iWork vs. Google apps (Docs, spreadsheets and presentations)
• Feed reading software Mail.app vs. Google reader.
• Email software Gmail vs. Mail.app
• OS Software: MacOS vs. Android Linux
• The both give away photo editing software - Picassa vs. iPhoto.
• Web Browsers (both based on the same Open Source Webkit and sold for free) Safari and Chrome
• Web Services with Apple's MobileMe and Google's Google Apps and Gmail.
• Video services - Youtube vs. iTunes

Google's Eric Schmidt doesn't see board conflict with Apple? - Computerworld Blogs

Microsoft releases free, video-enabled Facebook app for Windows Mobile devices

More details

Microsoft Corp. on Thursday released a Facebook application that it says is the first that lets users upload videos straight from their phone -- in this case, Windows Mobile 6 smartphones.

The free app, dubbed Facebook, can be downloaded from the Windows Mobile Web site, or directly from users' mobile Web browser.

In addition to video and picture uploads, users can send messages or call people on their Friends lists, manage their Facebook profile, confirm Friend requests, update their status and more.

Microsoft releases free, video-enabled Facebook app for Windows Mobile devices

Oracle’s hardware strategy | DBMS2 -- DataBase Management System Services

More Oracle/Sun analysis; see the full post for more details

The next notable point may be found in Larry’s key quote:

… our primary reason for designing our own chips is to build computers with the very best performance, reliability and security available in the market. Some system features work much better if they are implemented in silicon rather than software. Once we own Sun, we’ll be able to plan and synchronize new features from silicon to software, just like IBM and the other big system suppliers. We want to work with Fujitsu to design advanced features into the SPARC microprocessor aimed at improving Oracle database performance. In my opinion, this will enable SPARC Solaris open-system mainframes and servers to challenge IBM’s dominance in the data center. Sun was very successful for a very long time selling computer systems based on the SPARC chip and the Solaris operating system. Now, with the added power of integrated Oracle software, we think they can be again.

Okay, I’m starting to believe Oracle actually will retain the Sun hardware business…

Oracle’s hardware strategy | DBMS2 -- DataBase Management System Services

Download Facebook | Smartphone and PDA | Windows Mobile Total Access

Interesting times…  Via LiveSide.net

Facebook for your Windows Mobile 6 phone

New from Windows Mobile: a Facebook application for your phone! Download the new Facebook application for Windows Mobile and:

• Send messages to any of the people in your Friends list.

• Take pictures and videos on your phone, then upload them right to Facebook.

• Send messages or call people in your Friends list.

• Manage your profile and post anytime, anywhere.

Download Facebook | Smartphone and PDA | Windows Mobile Total Access

Oracle won't divest Sun's hardware business

Ahh – so high-end servers are like iPhones…

"We are definitely not going to exit the hardware business," Ellison said in an email interview with Reuters. "If a company designs both hardware and software, it can build much better systems than if they only design the software. That's why Apple's (AAPL.O) iPhone is so much better than Microsoft (MSFT.O) phones."

His comments fly in the face of the belief of some analysts that Oracle, the world's largest database software maker, may divest Sun's server business and retain just its software assets, such as Java and Solaris.

Oracle won't divest Sun's hardware business

How to Understand the Disaster - The New York Review of Books

A timely reality check (and excellent book review) from Robert M. Solow; read the full review. Also see a Posner article in today's WSJ.

No one can possibly know how long the current recession will last or how deep it will go. That is because the dangerous combination of the "real" recession—the unemployment and idle productive capacity that come from lack of demand—and the financial breakdown, each being both cause and effect of the other, makes the situation more complex, more unstable, more vulnerable to psychological imponderables, and more distant from previous experience. Whenever the US economy returns to some sort of normality, or preferably before then, it will be necessary to improve and extend the oversight and regulation of the financial system. The main goal should be to make another such episode much less likely, and to limit the damage if one occurs.

To make progress in that direction requires some understanding of the origins of the current mess. I once saw a hospital discharge diagnosis that read "sepsis of unknown etiology"; that sort of thing will not help in this case. The need is not only for a clear picture of what happened but for an assessment of the motives and actions of the main players, the causes and consequences of what they did, and the ideas and institutions that encouraged, inhibited, and shaped the outcomes. Richard Posner's book is intended to fill that need, in clear and understandable language. I think it is at best a partial success; it gets some things right and some things wrong, and the items on both sides of the ledger are important.

How to Understand the Disaster - The New York Review of Books

Irish student's Wikipedia hoax dupes newspapers by AFP: Yahoo! Tech

Sign of the times…

An Irish student's fake quote on the Wikipedia online encyclopaedia has been used in newspaper obituaries around the world, the Irish Times reported.

The quote was attributed to French composer Maurice Jarre who died in March.

Shane Fitzgerald, 22, a final-year student studying sociology and economics at University College Dublin, told the newspaper he placed the quote on the website as an experiment when doing research on globalisation.

Irish student's Wikipedia hoax dupes newspapers by AFP: Yahoo! Tech

John D. Head aka "Starfish" [on the latest ODF controversy]

More perspectives

I am not going to get into the middle of either discussion. I just want to point out something Doug has done - Microsoft posted their guiding principles and their implementer notes. Microsoft invited folks to Redmond to discuss both ODF and OOXML - I know this personally because I was there. IBM decided not to show up even when invited. I do not remember if Adobe was in the room.
So yes, I think Microsoft is creating some issues with interoperability when it comes to a document standard. I also think that OpenOffice.org has bugs in it's ODF implementation - and everyone has decided to copy the bugs to make things work. Should Microsoft have done that - perpetuate known bugs just so files open? I know people who are on both sides of that discussion. I am not sure which side I am on - but I do know who is the loser.

Read the full post for more details.  If everyone agrees the ODF spec has bugs and that ODF is a standard-in-progress in important areas (e.g., a spreadsheet formula language), however, I think it’d be more accurate to say Microsoft is highlighting some issues rather than creating some issues.

John D. Head aka "Starfish"

Collaboration and Content Strategies Blog: ODF Spreadsheet Bickering: What It Means to an Enterprise

The saga continues – read the full post for more details

Given that Microsoft's recent release of Office 2007 SP2 includes native support for the ODF file format, it was only a matter of time before Rob Weir (IBM) would find something he didn't like about it. On Sunday, May 3, he wrote a blog post entitled, "Update on ODF Spreadsheet Interoperability," saying that Microsoft had coded to the wrong behavior. He notes, "But I cannot fail to notice that the same application -- Microsoft Excel 2007 -- will process ODF spreadsheet documents without problems when loaded via the Sun or CleverAge plugins, but will miserably fail when using the "improved" integrated code in Office 2007 SP2. This ain't right."

Doug Mahugh (Microsoft) issued a returning salvo on Tuesday, May 5, in the form of a blog post entitled, "ODF Spreadsheet Interoperability." When Doug walked through Rob's documented steps, he found that Office 2007 did a better job of rendering the OpenOffice.org-created spreadsheet than Lotus Symphony (e.g., Days to Go equals "102" [Excel] rather than "of:B4-B3" [Symphony])."

Collaboration and Content Strategies Blog: ODF Spreadsheet Bickering: What It Means to an Enterprise

Open Text to Buy Vignette - WSJ.com

Busy day in M&A land…

Open Text Corp. agreed to buy fellow software maker Vignette Corp. in a cash-and-stock deal valued at about $310 million.

A onetime highflier, Vignette makes software used to build and manage Web sites. The company, which is based in Austin and employs 700 people, said the sale to Open Text follows a review of strategic and financial alternatives.

For details, see this press release

Open Text to Buy Vignette - WSJ.com

Tech Trader Daily - Barron’s Online : Icon Gone: Borland Takes $1/Shr Bid From Micro Focus

Borland is history

Borland Software (BORL) this morning agreed to be acquired by U.K.-based Micro Focus International for $1 a share in cash, or about $75 million. It’s a quiet end for an iconic company that once ranked among the largest desktop software companies. With co-founder Philippe Khan at the helm in the early 90s, its Quattro Pro spreadsheet software took on mighty Lotus 1-2-3; the stock in early 1992 peaked a little north of $80 a share, not long after the company bought another ealry ’90s software icon, dBase developer Ashton-Tate.

Tech Trader Daily - Barron’s Online : Icon Gone: Borland Takes $1/Shr Bid From Micro Focus

How to Block Facebook Photos of Yourself - Gadgetwise Blog - NYTimes.com

See the full post for more details

Facebook can’t stop people from posting your picture. But there’s a Facebook setting that prevents other users from tagging photos with your name. Choose that setting, and other users won’t be able to tag you or search for photos of you. Plus you get plausible deniability: Nope, that’s not me doing a keg stand at the company picnic.

As with many Facebook features, the no-tag setting is easy to use, hard to find.

How to Block Facebook Photos of Yourself - Gadgetwise Blog - NYTimes.com

Firefox Could Be the Real Facebook Challenger - NYTimes.com

An interesting perspective; see the full post for more details

Though we may not be sure about his prediction that Google will act before Firefox, we think Forrester's Jeremiah Owyang offers a very compelling vision of the future of browsers and social networks in his excellent report The Future of the Social Web.

"... in a bid to extend the reach of its new browser, Chrome, we expect Google to build OpenID and its associated friend connections into the browser; look for Firefox and eventually Internet Explorer to copy this feature. Facebook and MySpace will also likely build a way for users to surf the Web within the Facebook experience, retaining the social functionality. These connections won't be perfect, but they'll allow social networks to colonize communities and other parts of the Web, extending their experience out to other sites through the shared ID. As a result, in two years, portable identities will become a ubiquitous part of the online experience as they reach maturity."

It's only logical to extrapolate from that analysis that the line between browsers and social networks will become much less clear and the two types of software will very likely compete with each other.

Firefox Could Be the Real Facebook Challenger - NYTimes.com

Technology Review: Unmasking Social-Network Users

Hmm…

In tests involving the photo-sharing site Flickr and the microblogging service Twitter, the Texas researchers were able to identify a third of the users with accounts on both sites simply by searching for recognizable patterns in anonymized network data. Both Twitter and Flickr display user information publicly, so the researchers anonymized much of the data in order to test their algorithms.

The researchers wanted to see if they could extract sensitive information about individuals using just the connections between users, even if almost all of the names, addresses, and other forms of personally identifying information had been removed. They found that they could, provided they could compare these patterns with those from another social-network graph where some user information was accessible.

Technology Review: Unmasking Social-Network Users