Poll #850606 Google Is Your Friend (GIYF)... or IS it?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 31

Google is your friend

Could you elaborate on that?

The context of this poll is that nowadays, I hear as many people say that they find "Google is your friend" condescending and irritating as I hear the phrase itself.

Please comment.

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Banazir

Lee Family Reunion 2006: China
A Tronkie Travellogue
Day 3: Jade Garden Restaurant, Tian An Men Square and the Great Hall of the People



( Wee hours: the neighborhood )
( Morning: Secret Asian Man )
( Noon: a visit from a family friend )
( Lunch menu )
( Discussions on the Internet in China )
( Afternoon: open indoor market )
( Evening: a concert at Tiananmen Square )

( Computer problems update )
( Corruption in WinXP MSDN-AA images )
( Good replacement power supplies for Dell Dimension desktop PCs )
( A better way to reboot a VOIP box )

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Banazir

Just got the latest.

Judge rules former Microsoft executive Lee can recruit for Google
By Gene Johnson
The Associated Press

A judge ruled today that a former Microsoft executive can perform most of the tasks rival Google hired him to do, superseding a temporary restraining order imposed by the judge this summer.

( Rest of article )

Edit, 15:30 CST: I think it's funny that all the news articles (nearly all online thus far, as even the evening editions of print newspapers aren't out yet) are reporting that KFL "joined MS in 2000". Technically, that's true, but it's really not accurate: from 1998-2000, KFL founded Microsoft Research China (MSRC), now Microsoft Research Asia (MSRA). Ah, well. Water under the bridge.

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Banazir

Yes, Google has hired Vint Cerf as it's "Chief Internet Evangelist". No, not Al Gore, and yes, Cerf's up, haha.

Around 11:00 CST this morning I see the news, and immediately post it to Slashdot. What do you know, my first article. Meanwhile, I cross-post the story to infojunkies.

( What does a Vint Cerf bring? People, people, and people... )
( Visionary, schmisionary: what have you done for me lately? )
( Does the Internet need an evangelist? )

--
Banazir

Cross-posted from teunc.

The redoubtable Dwarf gondhir presents us with this chilling creation from Klaus Enzikat, the artist of the German edition of LOTR. This is worse than the kiwis on the cover!
( Commentaries )

In other news:

• I am swamped, and that's a fact. Today, I spent the morning catching up on CIS 490/730 (Intro AI) and CIS 732 work, then dashed to six afternoon meetings: three with students, then a Graduate Council meeting, then the Ecological Genomics one, then a make-up meeting of the Decision Making Agents meeting. EcoGen posters are due in nine days. Whew!


• Speaking of Decision Making Agents, massforge is off to a good start, but we really need to get coordinated on the GUI development and the web site.


• The Google-KFL-Microsoft hearing is done. Now we wait; Judge González is due to rule on Tuesday 13 Sep 2005.

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Banazir

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer
(c) 2005 Sydney Morning Herald

Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer vowed to "kill" internet search leader Google Inc. in an obscenity-laced tirade, and Google chased a prized Microsoft executive "like wolves," according to documents filed in an increasingly bitter legal battle between the rivals.

( Read more... )

( Source: The Sydney Morning Herald )

Cross-posted to infojunkies.
My comments on the lawsuit are in an earlier entry here.

--
Banazir

Disclaimers: The opinions expressed in this entry are those of the author, William H. Hsu, only. The factual statements cited in this article are verifiable through the mainstream IT media. Relevant articles, both factual and editorial, are linked where feasible.

Some of you know that KFL, the former Microsoft exec who left for Google and whom MS immediately sued to keep him from starting Google Labs Asia, is my uncle (my mom's younger brother). I've been sitting on my hands somewhat regarding the controversy surrounding the case, owing to the probable perception of partiality that would color any comments I made. Recently, however, I've come across some misconceptions that I thought I would correct here. I also found some ( relevant articles )

I have a few points to add to these.

( 1. Noncompete agreements: indentured servitude? )
( 2. Non-disclosures and non-competes: why IT people should be concerned )
( 3. Noncompete inflation )
( 4. Five fallacies )

Thanks for reading, and please feel free to post relevant links here, respond with your opinions or questions, and forward this link wherever you like.

--
Banazir

From the RSS feed of Le Slashdot comes the BBC News of Microsoft's planned Skype killer.

(Well, it beats reading and writing about that other MS story all the time.)

( My thoughts )
( Skype for Pocket PC )

In other news:

• I'm still trying to recover that JPEG photo from the Dell Inspiron 6000, and it's annozzling. I've shut Hirilonde down just so the swap and incidental use won't overwrite it, but masaga tells me it may involve a laptop HD adapter (IDE? portable SCSI?) and a session with Linux sector scan utilities. Whatever happened to Undo My Doopitity operating system features? What's that? There never were any, you say? Every OS sucks, you say?


• Is anyone familiar with the finduser feature in LiveJournal? I'm trying to do a http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?userid=[number]&mode=full instead of http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=[name]&mode=full, but LJ requires the user issuing the POST command to have "finduser privileges". Is there any way to get the same functionality?

--
Banazir

Cross-posted to infojunkies, futuretech, and the AI community tessier_ashpool.

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 23 - For years, Silicon Valley hungered for a company mighty enough to best Microsoft. Now it has one such contender: the phenomenally successful Google.
( Source: Gary Rivlin for New York Times )

( Google as Microsoft: a rebuttal )
( Source: Andrew Orlowski for The Register )

( About the article in The Register )
( Google and privacy )

As for retaining its position as the king of search, Google faces some fights of its own, including a fierce competition over the desktop search applications market and the legal battle over its new hire, departed Microsoft VP Kai-Fu Lee.

Other sources:
( O'ReillyNet | Slashdot | CNet )

( In other news: U.S. citizenship quiz, open source economics and profit models )

--
Banazir

I guess my policy should be to never try to explain symbolism or subtext. I'll leave that to some future Ph.D. student who wants to mop up the spot where I leave off.
    - Dan Simmons (author of hyperion_cantos)

My efforts to stop obsessively reloading Google News and Slashdot continue apace.

As a distraction: my tagline this month is "Wardrobe: NA-1" in honor of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and my natural urge to turn it into a Stargate SG-1 crossover. Similarly, the secondary tagline is "Miss Pevensie, dial the alpha site".

ETA, 02:25 CST Thu 20 Jul 2005:
( Explanation )

And now, at least, the Space Shuttle relaunch has reclaimed the top Sci/Tech spot.

ETA, 11:40 CST Thu 21 Jul 2005 - I frogont to mention! I got the NYCmoot psotcarte yesterday! Yay, thanksyew! TEUNCmoont is wuv!

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Banazir