Skip to content

Archives for google

See all posts in the network tagged with google

Morning Lineup – February 8

No comments

Wednesday Morning – New Learning Opportunities Await

Let's talk a little more about this internet technology stuff this morning.  To begin with, there has been a lot of buzz about Google's new plan (already being phased in) to consolodate all their various operations such as YouTube, Gmail, Google+ and about 30 others, so that your every move online will be noticed by their Master-of-the-Universe computer that will then more effectively select what ads to serve up when you click onto any Google site.

They have been posting the new Privacy Notices on all the sites that you bring up with a password and thus become sucked into the Great Network.  One prominent example is played out if you, for instance, log onto a Gmail account and remain logged on (even though you leave the page) while you resume other activities.  If you use Google Search later on, then the topics you select and the sites you click onto will be duly noted by the Master.

If you are rightfully concerned about this intrusion into your personal computing activities, WIRED emagazine has published a good, concise guide on How to Hide From Google.  It's basic stuff and easy to follow.  In fact, much of it is passive action that simply reminds you to segment your email accounts and similar activities.  They also cover protecting your smartphone usage, too.  I recommend that you CLICK HERE and read through the article.  It's not long, so you don't have to set aside any time block to read it.

*  *  *

Another topic we've been touching on recently is the rapid growth of what is often called "distance learning."  While many colleges and universities are putting more and more courses online, thus expanding the numbers of students of higher education, many new schools are opening up that are online-only facilities.  They are more often than not offering classes and "degrees" that are not properly accredited, thus not fully recognized as acceptable alternatives to genuine colleges.  But that will change rapidly as more of them get online and pressure the accrediting services to start recognizing their programs.

But it is not only scholarly learning that is going online.  Other traditional training and learning centers are now online, too.  For example, now you can go online and learn how to belly dance.  Now don't laugh, we're talking serious physical fitness programs here.  Belly Motions Online is already up and running dancing and offering their services where you can "learn to dance, exercise, and immerse yourself into a new way of living healthy and happy, all from the comfort of your own home; anywhere, anytime!"

No longer do you have to put on your harem costume and drive to some seedy shopping center to get your muscles toned.  You can do it right in the comfort or your own tent home.  So go ahead and CLICK HERE to view their program outlines and videos.  You can even buy a coin belt from their belly dance store.  Tell then the Geeze sent you.

Now let's shimmy and sway over to the apparatus and get the equipment checked out.  I'll get some more high-octane coffee going for us before we meet back in the day room.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

Posted by on February 8, 2012 • Filed under: morning lineup • Tagged: ,

Morning Lineup – November 17

Comments Off

Thursday Morning – Where is Everybody?

Like many people, I signed up for the Google+  (Google Plus) early on in hopes that a competitive alternative to Facebook would arise.  Not only is the Facebook outfit devoid of ethical responsibility to their users (referring to their personal information intrusions and peddling that info.), but their computer programmers are just short of the skills needed to keep the system running smoothly.  A day doesn't go by that I don't log on at least once and I am unable to view images or successfully click to a page.  They just never get it sorted out and sometimes it's infuriating.

Google's ethical record isn't a whole lot better than Facebook's, but they stay within the law (I think) and are not so careless with their "customers'" personal records.  And when it comes to computer programming skills, nobody but nobody can match them for quality and reliability.  Their programs and servers are solid and stable.  So it was (is) a hope of mine that the Google+ will eventually draw Facebook's population over to their cloud.  But it has been awfully quiet so far.  That's partly my fault, though.  I have not participated in getting it off the ground, but kind of sat by watching and hoping that everybody else would start the building out.  But it's been quiet. 

Google claims that they signed up 40 million users for Plus worldwide, but is anything happening?  Even Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt didn't post his first Plus message until three months after they went live.  A columnist for Slate e-zine, Farhad Manjoo has come out an pronounced Plus as "dead" already.  In his column headlined Google+ Is Dead he writes:

The real test of Google’s social network is what people do after they join. As far as anyone can tell, they aren’t doing a whole lot. Traffic-analysis firms have reported that Google+’s traffic has fallen precipitously from its early peak.* Even Google’s own executives seem to have gotten bored by the site. After several public posts in the summer, co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin dropped off the site in the fall; they only started posting once more when bloggers began pointing out their absence. Eric Schmidt, Google’s executive chairman and former CEO, posted his first public message when Steve Jobs died. That was three months after the social network went live.

I was an early Google+ skeptic. Shortly after it launched, I likened its main feature—the ability to divide your friends into discrete groups, called Circles—to the process of creating a seating chart for your wedding. In theory, it was appealing to send "private" messages to certain groups, but in practice I thought most people would find it tedious to categorize their friendships. And apart from the Circles feature—which Facebook quickly co-opted—I didn’t think Google+ distinguished itself from its rivals in any compelling way. I still don’t.

And yet, I’ve been surprised by just how dreary the site has become. Although Google seems determined to keep adding new features, I suspect there’s little it can do to prevent Google+ from becoming a ghost town. Google might not know it yet, but from the outside, it’s clear that G+ has started to die—it will hang on for a year, maybe two, but at some point Google will have to put it out of its misery.

I'm not quite that pessimistic about its chances.  Google has a record of patience and deliberate growth without worrying too much about early financial losses.  They have the capital to support this thing while they work to get it right.  When they want to be, they can be that huge elephant in the corner that commands attention and I don't think they will go away.  Here's hoping, anyway.

Now let's start making some + marks on our checksheets and get the equipment checked out.  I'm going to get the coffee started before we meet back in the day room.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

Posted by on November 17, 2011 • Filed under: morning lineup • Tagged: , , , ,

Morning Lineup – July 31

2 comments

Sunday Morning – Getting Social

It's a slow morning around here….just like a Sunday should be.  We're all waiting for Cook to get that big breakfast ready in a little while.

I think today I might have a chance to check out this new upstart "social media" program, Google +.  They are laying the groundwork to make sure their entry into the world wide chatter web is usable and has the features that keyboard enthusiasts seem to prefer.  While they will not cause Facebook to wither away (a la My Space), I wouldn't be surprised to see them take a major chunk of FB's more dedicated users.

For one thing, Facebook has absolutely terrible computer stability.  When you click on something to look at or to enter, frequently you get the perpetual spinning wheel or a page that is only partially loaded.  And something that rankles me just as much as the shaky computer is their propensity to allow spam and other intrusions to infiltrate your "wall" and other postings.  Many of them are attached to headings from your "friends" without their knowledge and sometimes contain a maliscious virus.  Maybe this challenge from Google will cause Facebook to get off their duff and do something about the spam and privacy violations, but it's a late start and they might have been caught in the gate while Google gets set up.

While Google has privacy issues of their own that give pause, at least they have sterling and solid computer programs and servers that will most likely make using their social page more enjoyable than the constant hassle that Facebook presents.  We will see how it sorts out, the marketplace will decide who the winner is.  Have any of you tried out Google + yet?  Let me know what you think about it so far.  Or what you hope to see them do that Facebook won't do for you.  Post your thoughts in the Comments because I'd like to hear what you think about it.

We had better get this equipment checked out now while I go start some more coffee.  See you back in the day room later.

*  *  *  *  *

Mike Legeros took this shot of FG on the final day
of the Expo last week.  The little show-off  was desperate
for attention and resorted to acrobatics to try and get it.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

Posted by on July 31, 2011 • Filed under: morning lineup • Tagged: , ,

I keep wanting a cup …

3 comments

Today's Google Doodle

… today’s Google Doodle was created in celebration of what would have been Robert Wilhelm Eberhard Bunsen’s 200th birthday.

Bunsen was a chemist who discovered the elements caesium and rubidium, and he invented the Bunsen cell battery, according to The Telegraph. He also invented — surprise, surprise — the Bunsen burner.

Head over to Google.com to check out the Doodle, which bubbles and boils like the real deal — sans noxious odors.

Google doodle post

NOT related to George Bunn. famed creator of the Bunn-O-Matic.

 

Or Doctor Bunsen Honeydew from another dimension.

Honeydew is known for the Beaker Burner.

Mike "FossilMedic" Ward

Posted by on March 31, 2011 • Filed under: News • Tagged: , , ,

Morning Lineup – February 12

2 comments

Is Google trying to take over the world?  Are the alarmists right this time, and we’ll all be ruled by some pencil-neck geek in a hidden office who is never seen?  I can’t blame some people for being wary.  The internet giant who chews up their competitors hit the digital universe with both barrels this week.

buzz logo aFirst, they announced their new social network Buzz and within hours it appeared on every Gmail accounts’ pages.  Shamelessly choosing Facebook’s 6th-anniversary date to introduce it (or would you say thuggishly?), they brag that they have taken Facebook’s more popular features and folded them into the Gmail program along with a notification feature that not only acts like Twitter as well, but it even looks like Twitter.  “Oh, the arrogance,” you might say.

And then just two days later, they announce that they are now beginning a project to wire cooperating cities and towns with a proprietary fiber-optic cable network that will provide internet service at the unimaginable speed of 1 Gb per second, and that’s just for starters.  Claiming that current ISP’s high subscription rates and (relatively) slow connection speeds are hindering advances in internet communications (and profits…..Ed.), they are inviting small and medium-size cities to apply to become candidates for this new venture.  Google says that all their technological discoveries with their super-speed service will be shared with everybody and the entire project will be an open-source code, thus inviting innovative uses and fresh imagination from developers.

Just as important, Google says that its new network will be available for any ISP to operate over, thus hopefully encouraging competition in the internet delivery system.  This comes as bad news to ISP providers like AT&T and Comcast who are trying to expand their subscription rates by charging customer higher rates if they “consume” more bandwidth.  That type of policy has a dampening effect on people who like to share and view YouTube videos, for example.  They will either cut back on watching videos, or fork out more cash to keep on doing what they are doing now.  Oh, did you  remember that Google owns YouTube now?

If you’ll pardon the metaphor, this was Google’s shot across the bow of the telecom giants that they had better shape up and start lowering rates while improving service, or they’ll come back to work one Monday and find the Google giant munching on their customer base.  You may have noticed that over the past year Google has acquired some cellular airwaves and infiltrated almost every wireless phone provider with their Android phones.  Why, you could conceivably think that they are setting everything up so that very soon, all they will have to do is throw a switch and……. Google will take over the world.

Before they do, though… we have to get this equipment checked out.  I’ll get the coffee started, then we’ll meet back in the day room.  And turn your cell phones off.

Posted by on February 12, 2010 • Filed under: morning lineup, technology, Technology & Communications • Tagged: , , ,

Morning Lineup – November 21

Comments Off

Hardly a week goes by that we don’t see a story about how Twitter is, or isn’t, on the brink of making billions of dollars for its developers.  So far, despite its tremendous popularity, nobody has figured out how to turn it into a money machine.  But Twitter has something like 60 million people signed up and Tweeting, and the internet biggies like Microsoft and Google are trying to come up with a plan to tap into that potential market.  It seems to be that using their search engines is the way to go.

Yahoo! thinks they have cracked the nut and are starting to utilize Twitter on their search engine, supposedly starting this past Thursday.  The Associated Press explains:

Yahoo is relying on Twitter to highlight the latest news about specific subjects. When a user enters a search request tied to breaking news, Yahoo will top the results page with four tabs — one for direct links to news sites, one for photos, one for video and one dedicated to Twitter.

Clicking on a Twitter tab will show news links posted by Twitter users. Some of the links will be drawn from Twitter accounts set up by the news media, such as CNN and The Associated Press, while others will be pulled from people pointing out a story they find interesting.

Google’s search page has “tabs” at the top also, namely Images, Video, Maps, News, Shopping, Gmail, and More.  No Twitter (or Facebook).  I clicked on the “More” tab, but still no Twitter.  I went to the Yahoo! search engine and entered “Miley Cyrus,”  certainly a “breaking news” topic with that fatal tour bus accident yesterday, but there aren’t any Twitter tabs or even any links in the results yet.  Anyway, they’ve got an interesting concept and has some good potential with this growing trend of the Citizen Journalist to get photos and information uploaded to Twitter as the news is actually happening.

But it seems to me like the technological advances these days are popping up so fast that innovations like this are left behind within weeks and it’s on to the next Great Digital Adventure.

Well, let’s get a great equipment adventure started and get the morning check list started.  I need to get some more coffee going, too.

Posted by on November 21, 2009 • Filed under: morning lineup • Tagged: , , , ,