The following post was published on the The Official Google Blog on October 15th, 2015.
Introducing Google Lifeline
Posted by A S, Innovation Evangelist
Today I am pleased to present a whole new way of organizing - and searching, of course - all your life's information: Google Lifeline.
Lifeline is a chronological view of every bit of information you have collected in your Google account. Think of it as a really detailed, really accurate and totally searchable personal history.
Lifeline gathers all your personal data and presents it in a well-integrated, intuitive timeline interface. Just click on any point of the timeline and you will be able to read, listen or watch all the data you have collected during that timeframe. You can bring up every email, document, bill, photo, video, purchase, prescription, phonecall from that time period. You can zoom in to narrow down the timeframe to a particular second in time or you can zoom out all the way to include your entire Google lifetime. Your Google lifetime begins when you sign up for a Google account to use any of Google's popular services.
Here are some of the interesting uses that our employees have found for Google Lifeline during our internal tests:
1. Susan, a Mint.com user since the days of its beta opening and long before it was acquired by Google, was able to do a quick search to find out how much she has spent at coffee shops per year, in the last five years. Although she knew that she is a coffee addict, the answer still shocked her.
2. Rob, who uses his Google Checkout-enabled phone to make purchases in grocery stores and restaurants, is able to analyze his entire grocery shopping and eating-out history for the past 5 years for "heart-stoppingly good" items he has purchased and compare it side-by-side to his medical history from Google Health, to discover how his dietary habits affect his health.
3. Melissa was curious to see what her highest electricity consumption in a 24-hour period was and when that happened. Melissa has a Google Powermeter installed in her house and the data of her electricity usage has been integrated into Lifeline. It showed a clear spike in her power consumption on a day in late 2009. Curious to know more about why her power consumption was so high, Melissa zoomed in to the one week period before and after the high-power day and browsed her purchases in Lifeline. It showed that she had bought a brand new big-screen TV, party supplies and the DVD version of the latest Star Trek movie. That reminded Melissa, an avid Trekkie, about the Star Trek party she had hosted for fellow-Trekkies with a marathon showing of every Star Trek episode and movie on her new big-screen TV. Melissa was able to view the photos and videos from that party on the Lifeline - photos and videos that she had uploaded to Picasa, as well as the ones uploaded and shared by all her friends.
4. Ashwini has an unusual hobby - she collects "heartstones", stones which are shaped like hearts. She has picked them up from her hikes and travels all over the world, from undersea dives to tops of mountains to cheap jewellery stores in middle Eastern flea markets. Every time she picks up a new stone, she takes a picture of the stone and uploads it to her online album. Ashwini was browsing her heartstone pictures on Lifeline and she came across her very first stone, which had been a gift from her husband when they had barely known each other for a week! Using Lifeline, she was quickly able to bring up all the emails and text messages she had exchanged with him around that time and re-live the heady days of their budding romance. She was even able to listen to the songs her husband sang to her on her Google Voice voicemail during the days of their courtship. She was able to do all this without leaving the Lifeline page even once.
5. The most romantic Lifeline story is perhaps my own. You are already aware that if you use a GPS-enabled phone, you can record every step you take on a trip to form your personal 'trails' on Google Maps. The feature of viewing photos from a trip as a time-compressed virtual trip on Google Maps or Google Earth is much appreciated and used by our users. Now this information is also available on Google Lifeline. I was analyzing the shared trip data of all the Google employees on Lifeline, when I noticed that one person's trails seemed to intersect my own trails quite often. It appeared that over the years, this person had visited many places either shortly before or after I had been there. There were occasions when we had been in the same place on the same day, perhaps missing each other by mere minutes or by a distance of a few hundred feet! Given Google's significant employee count, I had never come across this person's name before. And given that we worked on opposite coasts, there was little chance of us running into each other in the office hallways or cafeteria. Yet, our travel trails had been intersecting in places far and wide, across the globe, quite often and regularly in the preceding 5 years. The number of intersecting points - in time and space - were high enough to be statistically significant. I shot off an email to this person to share the strange serendipity in our travel trails. I am extremely happy to say that for the past year, our travel trails have not been intersecting, they have been coinciding, in both time and space. And, we hope it will be so forever in the future. I won't claim that I would not have met my fiance, if not for Google Lifeline. The way our trails were intersecting, we were destined to run into each other sooner or later. But Lifeline did help make it sooner rather than later, by helping me see the intersections of our trails in both space and time.
Today I am really excited to open up Lifeline to everybody, to help organize your life's information and access it easily. I can't wait to hear stories of the innovative uses that you will no doubt find for this awesome tool.
PS: You might also be interested in the first 'Notes from the Future' feature on this blog - My Buddy. This one was published long before anybody had heard about Apple's iPhone. Interestingly, I had originally named it "Google Buddy" until friends advised me to get rid of the Google name.
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Unlimited Free Calls With Google Voice
Does your cellphone service have a myFaves or My Circle type of feature? Then you can use Google Voice to make unlimited phone calls. Before I show how, do you know what Google Voice is? Read on...
As an existing Grand Central user, I was invited a couple of days ago to switch to the newest service from Google called Voice. Google bought Grand Central in July 2007, and it took so long for them to release it as their own service. I must say the new Gmail-like interface of Google Voice is extremely elegant and intuitive to use, compared to the old Grand Central interface. In fact, I LOVE the new interface.
Google Voice is essentially a call forwarding service. When you sign-up for the service (it is still not open to the general public - apparently, I'm no longer 'general public' ;-)), you will choose a phone number to be assigned to your account. When people call this number, you can set it up so that it will forward the call to any of your numerous phones simultaneously. You can answer the call from any phone that is close to you. So, you can give out this one number as your permanent phone number to people, and never have to miss a call. When you change your office, home or cell phone number, there is no longer a need to update everyone because your Google Voice number will still be the same and it can be setup to forward calls to your new number. That is the core service.
In addition to the core service, there are a number of other features which make this a very useful thing to sign up for - you can choose to send an incoming call directly to the voice mail and listen-in on the voice mail while it is being recorded, you can cut in on a voice mail while it is being recorded, you can record a personal greeting for every contact in your address book (the service is integrated with your Gmail's Contacts), you can host free conference calls, send free text messages, receive text messages, make very cheap international calls and make free calls to anywhere in the US.
And, you could rig your Google Voice service to make unlimited free calls from your cell phone. Here's how:
1. You need a myFaves or My Circle type of service which lets you make unlimited phone calls from your cell phone to specific phone numbers, which you can designate as your unlimited calls circle.
2. Add your Google Voice number to your myFaves or My Circle unlimited calls circle.
3. Go to your Google Voice page and initiate a call from there, choosing your cell phone as the "Phone to ring". Google Voice will dial out the number you wish to call and it will simultaneously ring your cell phone to connect you to the call. The caller-ID on your cell phone will appear as if the call is coming from your Google Voice number. And since this number is part of your unlimited calls circle, you can talk as long as you want on this call, without using up any of your cell phone minutes. That is how you can make unlimited outgoing calls from your cell phone using the Google Voice interface.
4. You can also use the Google Voice number to receive unlimited incoming calls on your cell phone. To do this, you should add your Google Voice number to your unlimited calls circle. Then, configure your Google Voice service to display your Google Voice number as the caller-ID whenever people call that number, instead of displaying the caller's phone number. Now, every time people call your Google Voice number, your cell phone will only see your Google Voice number as the caller-ID. Since your Google Voice number is part of your unlimited calls circle, the received call will be totally free as well regardless of how long you talk. Only draw back about receiving call this way is that, you lose the ability see the caller's true phone number on your cell phone screen.
Even if you don't use Google Voice to extend your free cell phone minutes, it is still a great service in its own right. If Google can integrate this service with Google Talk and release Google Voice apps for smartphones, that'll be sweet.
Keep an eye out for this service so that you can sign up as soon as they open up to the public. If you are already a Google Voice user and you know of any other cool tricks to extend its utility, leave a comment.
Update on 3/22/2009: If you are too impatient to wait until Google opens up this service to the general public, you can try earning an invite by leaving a funny voice message to the Google Voice team on (408) 72-VOICE. If the Google team likes your message, they will send you an invite. Check out Google Voice on Twitter for more updates.
As an existing Grand Central user, I was invited a couple of days ago to switch to the newest service from Google called Voice. Google bought Grand Central in July 2007, and it took so long for them to release it as their own service. I must say the new Gmail-like interface of Google Voice is extremely elegant and intuitive to use, compared to the old Grand Central interface. In fact, I LOVE the new interface.
Google Voice is essentially a call forwarding service. When you sign-up for the service (it is still not open to the general public - apparently, I'm no longer 'general public' ;-)), you will choose a phone number to be assigned to your account. When people call this number, you can set it up so that it will forward the call to any of your numerous phones simultaneously. You can answer the call from any phone that is close to you. So, you can give out this one number as your permanent phone number to people, and never have to miss a call. When you change your office, home or cell phone number, there is no longer a need to update everyone because your Google Voice number will still be the same and it can be setup to forward calls to your new number. That is the core service.
In addition to the core service, there are a number of other features which make this a very useful thing to sign up for - you can choose to send an incoming call directly to the voice mail and listen-in on the voice mail while it is being recorded, you can cut in on a voice mail while it is being recorded, you can record a personal greeting for every contact in your address book (the service is integrated with your Gmail's Contacts), you can host free conference calls, send free text messages, receive text messages, make very cheap international calls and make free calls to anywhere in the US.
And, you could rig your Google Voice service to make unlimited free calls from your cell phone. Here's how:
1. You need a myFaves or My Circle type of service which lets you make unlimited phone calls from your cell phone to specific phone numbers, which you can designate as your unlimited calls circle.
2. Add your Google Voice number to your myFaves or My Circle unlimited calls circle.
3. Go to your Google Voice page and initiate a call from there, choosing your cell phone as the "Phone to ring". Google Voice will dial out the number you wish to call and it will simultaneously ring your cell phone to connect you to the call. The caller-ID on your cell phone will appear as if the call is coming from your Google Voice number. And since this number is part of your unlimited calls circle, you can talk as long as you want on this call, without using up any of your cell phone minutes. That is how you can make unlimited outgoing calls from your cell phone using the Google Voice interface.
4. You can also use the Google Voice number to receive unlimited incoming calls on your cell phone. To do this, you should add your Google Voice number to your unlimited calls circle. Then, configure your Google Voice service to display your Google Voice number as the caller-ID whenever people call that number, instead of displaying the caller's phone number. Now, every time people call your Google Voice number, your cell phone will only see your Google Voice number as the caller-ID. Since your Google Voice number is part of your unlimited calls circle, the received call will be totally free as well regardless of how long you talk. Only draw back about receiving call this way is that, you lose the ability see the caller's true phone number on your cell phone screen.
Even if you don't use Google Voice to extend your free cell phone minutes, it is still a great service in its own right. If Google can integrate this service with Google Talk and release Google Voice apps for smartphones, that'll be sweet.
Keep an eye out for this service so that you can sign up as soon as they open up to the public. If you are already a Google Voice user and you know of any other cool tricks to extend its utility, leave a comment.
Update on 3/22/2009: If you are too impatient to wait until Google opens up this service to the general public, you can try earning an invite by leaving a funny voice message to the Google Voice team on (408) 72-VOICE. If the Google team likes your message, they will send you an invite. Check out Google Voice on Twitter for more updates.
Thursday, March 05, 2009
Google Tip Jar - Money saving tips
Google has launched a timely new service for people around the world to share their money saving tips: Tip Jar.
People submit tips and other people will vote on the tips. The idea is that the best tips will bubble up to the top.
Check it out. Share your tips.
People submit tips and other people will vote on the tips. The idea is that the best tips will bubble up to the top.
Check it out. Share your tips.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Google Contacts - Merge & Search
If you are a frequent Gmail user, you should check out the 'merge' option in your Google Contacts. Most people we communicate with have more than one email address. Due to the way Gmail adds every email ID you write to its address book (Contacts), you might have more than one entry in Contacts for many people. Now you can select multiple entries belonging to the same person and merge them together in Google Contacts to create one neat address book entry, without losing any information. Give it a try. I was able to remove almost a 100 duplicate entries from my list.
Google contacts has also vastly improved its search feature. Just type in any letters or numbers in the search bar, and it will search every field of your address book for those. So now, you can search your address book by name, email address, mailing address, phone number, instant messenger ID, etc.
Google contacts has also vastly improved its search feature. Just type in any letters or numbers in the search bar, and it will search every field of your address book for those. So now, you can search your address book by name, email address, mailing address, phone number, instant messenger ID, etc.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
National Public Internet
Here's my submission to Google's Project 10 to the 100th. The idea is presented by answering a series of questions (bolded below) from Google.
National Public Internet
What one sentence best describes your idea? (maximum 150 characters)
Internet connectivity as free, as ubiquitous and easy as FM radio.
Describe your idea in more depth. (maximum 300 words)
Internet for Everyone from National Public Internet (NPI).
The future of the Internet is that basic wireless connectivity will be as free (of cost), ubiquitous and easily available as FM radio. This will co-exist with a paid tier of premium Internet service that offers ultra high speed connectivity. But the basic service will be free. Just as FM radio is free and easily available, where as premium video channels on cable cost some money.
The project aims to:
The focus and energies of NPI should be on smoothly running an extremely important and vital nationwide network infrastructure to provide free wireless Internet. The focus should never be distracted or biased by profit-making considerations or for creating shareholder wealth. The organization should be strictly independent of any profit-making corporation. It should also be independent of incumbent profit-making internet service provider companies, including cable and telecoms.
The organizational structure for NPI would be inspired by and based on the NPR model of city-level stations working together to provide nationwide coverage of high quality programming.
Network Infrastructure
NPI should be the preferred model for providing internet service on the White Space spectrum. It should directly connect to the Internet Backbone. It won't be dependent on incumbent telecoms. At the city-level, the main vehicle for the Internet signals could be the ‘white space’ spectrum. At the local block-level, there could be repeater routers deployed, as required.
What problem or issue does your idea address? (maximum 150 words)
If your idea were to become a reality, who would benefit the most and how? (maximum 150 words)
What are the initial steps required to get this idea off the ground? (maximum 150 words)
Describe the optimal outcome should your idea be selected and successfully implemented. How would you measure it? (maximum 150 words)
If basic wireless Internet connectivity is available for free and easily to everybody and in every place where FM radio signals are available, this project is a success.
National Public Internet
What one sentence best describes your idea? (maximum 150 characters)
Internet connectivity as free, as ubiquitous and easy as FM radio.
Describe your idea in more depth. (maximum 300 words)
Internet for Everyone from National Public Internet (NPI).
The future of the Internet is that basic wireless connectivity will be as free (of cost), ubiquitous and easily available as FM radio. This will co-exist with a paid tier of premium Internet service that offers ultra high speed connectivity. But the basic service will be free. Just as FM radio is free and easily available, where as premium video channels on cable cost some money.
The project aims to:
- Create a non-profit nationwide Internet service provider organization (called NPI), analogous to the non-profit public radio company NPR. It is very important to conceive and run this as a non-profit organization.
- A nationwide network infrastructure on which to provide the basic free wireless Internet service to everybody.
The focus and energies of NPI should be on smoothly running an extremely important and vital nationwide network infrastructure to provide free wireless Internet. The focus should never be distracted or biased by profit-making considerations or for creating shareholder wealth. The organization should be strictly independent of any profit-making corporation. It should also be independent of incumbent profit-making internet service provider companies, including cable and telecoms.
The organizational structure for NPI would be inspired by and based on the NPR model of city-level stations working together to provide nationwide coverage of high quality programming.
Network Infrastructure
NPI should be the preferred model for providing internet service on the White Space spectrum. It should directly connect to the Internet Backbone. It won't be dependent on incumbent telecoms. At the city-level, the main vehicle for the Internet signals could be the ‘white space’ spectrum. At the local block-level, there could be repeater routers deployed, as required.
What problem or issue does your idea address? (maximum 150 words)
- Inadequate Internet connectivity in general. Extremely poor wireless Internet connectivity in particular.
- Internet connectivity not managed and provided as a nationwide public resource like roads and highways, accessible and useful to everybody for free.
If your idea were to become a reality, who would benefit the most and how? (maximum 150 words)
- EVERYBODY in the country would benefit from significantly increased connectivity for learning, information access and communication.
- Emergency responders and service providers.
- Model could be replicated in other countries with poor Internet connectivity.
What are the initial steps required to get this idea off the ground? (maximum 150 words)
- Build a campus-wide or city-wide network as a proof of concept for the specific design and technology to be used by NPI.
- Design the organizational structure and start building out.
Describe the optimal outcome should your idea be selected and successfully implemented. How would you measure it? (maximum 150 words)
If basic wireless Internet connectivity is available for free and easily to everybody and in every place where FM radio signals are available, this project is a success.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Google Agenda is Google Calendar?
Today I got a spam invitation in my Yahoo mailbox, from a Gmail account. The Gmail captcha system was cracked by spammers recently. So, spam mails have started to circulate from Gmail IDs. Anyway, the interesting thing about the spam invite I got was the title 'Google Agenda BETA' at the top. See the screenshot below.
I have normally seen 'Google Calendar BETA' at that spot. Never heard of anything called Google Agenda. And, the text 'Google Agenda BETA' does link to Google Calendar.
So, is Google Calendar also called as Google Agenda? Perhaps in some specific countries? At this time, the URLS agenda.google.com and www.google.com/agenda do not exist.
I have normally seen 'Google Calendar BETA' at that spot. Never heard of anything called Google Agenda. And, the text 'Google Agenda BETA' does link to Google Calendar.
So, is Google Calendar also called as Google Agenda? Perhaps in some specific countries? At this time, the URLS agenda.google.com and www.google.com/agenda do not exist.
Sunday, November 04, 2007
Wipro BPO's employee in Pune is raped and murdered
Came across a gruesome piece of news this evening. Not able to get it out of my head.
Edited on 12/13/2012 with the following note: The original version of this article contained partial quotes from the below linked articles with proper link attribution. I consider this fair-use and not scraped content as defined by Google. Yet, Google informed me that this violates their policies. Therefore, I removed the quoted portions of the articles. You can read the full articles from the links below.
Wipro staffer raped, killed in Yahoo! News
BPO shocker exposes lapses in Telegraph India
Wipro cabbie not new to crime, say cops in Times of India
BPO cabbies' profiles not checked in Times of India
This news is particularly chilling for us (myself and thousands of other Indians) because we have female siblings, relatives and friends who work in Indian tech industry, travelling at odd hours in cabs and rickshaws. Just like the boyfriend of the victim in this latest incident, we have been on the phone with our relatives and friends, while they travelled to or from their offices at odd hours. It is all too easy to imagine the worst happening to our near and dear ones...
It is not just the female employees who are in danger. Just this morning, I read several reports of male employees of tech companies in Bengalooru being assualted, kidnapped and murdered for their money. Some of these incidents involved crimbes by drivers of cabs for the companies of the victims.
In Dec 2005, when writing about another rape and murder incident of a BPO employee in Bangalore, I had quoted Wipro's measures to ensure the safety of their employees as a good example of what should be done. Ironically, this latest incident has happened despite those measures being in place. Rules and processes are only as good as how well they are practiced.
Being a tech industry insider I know that not all rules and processes are followed - this includes even the processes that are part of our core work. Over a period of time, things become lax, omissions and errors creep in. Every company's management is aware of this. As such, Wipro (and other companies) should have more stringent reviews and audits in place to ensure that the rules which affect the physical security of their employees should be practiced with no lapses.
I know that the rules governing the security of the office locations, gates, access to certain areas, cameras inside the office, etc. are very stringently practiced in Wipro. So, it is difficult to understand how in the matter of employee's physical safety, there could have "been a criminal manipulation of our processes", as admitted by T K Kurien, Wipro BPO's president himself.
But I am not blaming the company alone. Every individual also has a responsibility to be extra vigilant and take precautions for personal safety. The lamentable and ineffective state of law enforcement and judicial system in India makes criminals incredibly brazen, almost to the point of being stupid. Yet, they get away with their crimes more often than not, which is what makes them so brazen and reckless. In such an atmosphere nobody can afford to be careless when it comes to personal safety.
The perpetrators of this crime should get the most stringent punishment and hope they get it soon. The criminal of the 2005 rape and murder case in Bengalooru I referred to earlier, has still not been sentenced, while the trial proceedings drag on. This despite that case being pursued in a 'fast track' manner by the court system!
Hopefully, this incident makes everyone extra vigilant.
Edited on 12/13/2012 with the following note: The original version of this article contained partial quotes from the below linked articles with proper link attribution. I consider this fair-use and not scraped content as defined by Google. Yet, Google informed me that this violates their policies. Therefore, I removed the quoted portions of the articles. You can read the full articles from the links below.
Wipro staffer raped, killed in Yahoo! News
BPO shocker exposes lapses in Telegraph India
Wipro cabbie not new to crime, say cops in Times of India
BPO cabbies' profiles not checked in Times of India
This news is particularly chilling for us (myself and thousands of other Indians) because we have female siblings, relatives and friends who work in Indian tech industry, travelling at odd hours in cabs and rickshaws. Just like the boyfriend of the victim in this latest incident, we have been on the phone with our relatives and friends, while they travelled to or from their offices at odd hours. It is all too easy to imagine the worst happening to our near and dear ones...
It is not just the female employees who are in danger. Just this morning, I read several reports of male employees of tech companies in Bengalooru being assualted, kidnapped and murdered for their money. Some of these incidents involved crimbes by drivers of cabs for the companies of the victims.
In Dec 2005, when writing about another rape and murder incident of a BPO employee in Bangalore, I had quoted Wipro's measures to ensure the safety of their employees as a good example of what should be done. Ironically, this latest incident has happened despite those measures being in place. Rules and processes are only as good as how well they are practiced.
Being a tech industry insider I know that not all rules and processes are followed - this includes even the processes that are part of our core work. Over a period of time, things become lax, omissions and errors creep in. Every company's management is aware of this. As such, Wipro (and other companies) should have more stringent reviews and audits in place to ensure that the rules which affect the physical security of their employees should be practiced with no lapses.
I know that the rules governing the security of the office locations, gates, access to certain areas, cameras inside the office, etc. are very stringently practiced in Wipro. So, it is difficult to understand how in the matter of employee's physical safety, there could have "been a criminal manipulation of our processes", as admitted by T K Kurien, Wipro BPO's president himself.
But I am not blaming the company alone. Every individual also has a responsibility to be extra vigilant and take precautions for personal safety. The lamentable and ineffective state of law enforcement and judicial system in India makes criminals incredibly brazen, almost to the point of being stupid. Yet, they get away with their crimes more often than not, which is what makes them so brazen and reckless. In such an atmosphere nobody can afford to be careless when it comes to personal safety.
The perpetrators of this crime should get the most stringent punishment and hope they get it soon. The criminal of the 2005 rape and murder case in Bengalooru I referred to earlier, has still not been sentenced, while the trial proceedings drag on. This despite that case being pursued in a 'fast track' manner by the court system!
Hopefully, this incident makes everyone extra vigilant.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Do engineers in Google India work in pairs?
I have a theory that Google's engineers in India mostly work in pairs. You know, like how soldiers or cops in certain units usually work in pairs. I think each Indian Google engineer is paired with a colleague and together they work on tasks/assignments.
Why do I suspect this? I have been following the Official Google Blog for a long time now. I have noticed that posts by Indian engineers are usually attributed to two individuals. I have very rarely seen non-Indian Googlers authoring blog posts in pairs. Non-Indian Googlers almost always write blog posts alone, as individuals.
As of today, a quick Reader search of the Official Google blog's feed for the word 'India' returns 15 posts, of which 7 posts are made by people with Indian-sounding names. Of these 7 posts, 4 posts are made by pairs of Indians and 3 posts by lone Indians. I realize that this is not the most accurate way to count and analyze the posts. But I could not find an easier way to search (any suggestions?) for:
1. Only posts made by Indians.
2. Only posts made by more than one author.
There do exist posts by Indian Googlers writing alone. But it is just as likely to see an Indian Googler posting along with another Indian colleague. And like I said earlier, it is very rare to see non-Indian Googlers writing blog posts in pairs. So, I suspect that the Indian engineers work on projects in pairs, and then end up writing about those projects on the official blog, also in pairs.
If you work for Google in India (or even in other Google locations) or if you know someone who works for Google India, would you confirm if my suspicion is true? If it is true, then why is it so? Why do only Indian engineers in Google work in pairs and not others?
Pssst... The chances of hearing from someone at Google in response to speculative posts about internal stuff is none to zero. So, non-Googlers too feel free to speculate in the comments! :-)
Why do I suspect this? I have been following the Official Google Blog for a long time now. I have noticed that posts by Indian engineers are usually attributed to two individuals. I have very rarely seen non-Indian Googlers authoring blog posts in pairs. Non-Indian Googlers almost always write blog posts alone, as individuals.
As of today, a quick Reader search of the Official Google blog's feed for the word 'India' returns 15 posts, of which 7 posts are made by people with Indian-sounding names. Of these 7 posts, 4 posts are made by pairs of Indians and 3 posts by lone Indians. I realize that this is not the most accurate way to count and analyze the posts. But I could not find an easier way to search (any suggestions?) for:
1. Only posts made by Indians.
2. Only posts made by more than one author.
There do exist posts by Indian Googlers writing alone. But it is just as likely to see an Indian Googler posting along with another Indian colleague. And like I said earlier, it is very rare to see non-Indian Googlers writing blog posts in pairs. So, I suspect that the Indian engineers work on projects in pairs, and then end up writing about those projects on the official blog, also in pairs.
If you work for Google in India (or even in other Google locations) or if you know someone who works for Google India, would you confirm if my suspicion is true? If it is true, then why is it so? Why do only Indian engineers in Google work in pairs and not others?
Pssst... The chances of hearing from someone at Google in response to speculative posts about internal stuff is none to zero. So, non-Googlers too feel free to speculate in the comments! :-)
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Most irritating about Microsoft Windows
I know what irritates me most about Microsoft Windows operating system: the way the focus can jump from one window to another without warning or control. There are no doubt bigger holes and issues in Microsoft Windows, but this one issue of uncontrolled focus-jumping irritates me several times every day.
Suppose you start a particular task or process in Window A - say, opening a particular folder or saving a document - and while this task is being performed, you navigate to another window B to do some other task there. The way the Windows operating system often behaves is that when the task or process in window A is completed, it automatically brings window A into focus, no matter what you are doing in window B. All of a sudden, you will find window A popping up in your face, replacing window B.
I hate this behavior. I work very fast at the computer. So, if some task takes too much time (more than 15-20 seconds, may be) in one window and it is not a really high priority task, I usually send the window to the background and switch to another task in another window. When I send a window to the background, I want it to stay in the background until I consciously navigate to it.
Instead, after a few moments, it will pop up into the foreground without warning. Due to this behavior, at times I end up typing stuff into the first window, that I intended to type in the second window. Sometimes I end up doing more damaging activities than merely typing - such as, saving or discarding changes when I did not intend to.
Anybody else hate this behavior of Windows?
Suppose you start a particular task or process in Window A - say, opening a particular folder or saving a document - and while this task is being performed, you navigate to another window B to do some other task there. The way the Windows operating system often behaves is that when the task or process in window A is completed, it automatically brings window A into focus, no matter what you are doing in window B. All of a sudden, you will find window A popping up in your face, replacing window B.
I hate this behavior. I work very fast at the computer. So, if some task takes too much time (more than 15-20 seconds, may be) in one window and it is not a really high priority task, I usually send the window to the background and switch to another task in another window. When I send a window to the background, I want it to stay in the background until I consciously navigate to it.
Instead, after a few moments, it will pop up into the foreground without warning. Due to this behavior, at times I end up typing stuff into the first window, that I intended to type in the second window. Sometimes I end up doing more damaging activities than merely typing - such as, saving or discarding changes when I did not intend to.
Anybody else hate this behavior of Windows?
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Big Screen Productivity
I am switching to a new laptop at work. During this transition period, I have access to both machines - which means, two screens on my desk. I have been working this way for the past couple of days, and I love it.
A surprisingly big portion of working on a computer involves comparing, correlating or transferring information from one application or window to another. I like to have most of my windows maximized to full screen. So, I spend a lot of time switching back and forth between windows. Having two screens side by side made many of my tasks so much more convenient.
So, I am sold on the productivity of using big screens now. I wish I could have a monitor big enough to hold two or three 1024 X 768 sized windows side by side. That would rock!
A surprisingly big portion of working on a computer involves comparing, correlating or transferring information from one application or window to another. I like to have most of my windows maximized to full screen. So, I spend a lot of time switching back and forth between windows. Having two screens side by side made many of my tasks so much more convenient.
So, I am sold on the productivity of using big screens now. I wish I could have a monitor big enough to hold two or three 1024 X 768 sized windows side by side. That would rock!
Thursday, July 05, 2007
VoIP - 1
Background
Last Thursday, I gave a speech at the Toastmaster's meeting on VoIP. The speech project was to research a topic and then talk about it.
It was supposed to be a 5-7 min speech. I planned on taking 1-2 minutes to give a brief explanation of what VoIP means. The rest of the time was to be spent introducing the audience to 3 or 4 VoIP services which are available in the market right now, to demonstrate how VoIP makes a difference in our lives. The audience was perfect for this topic - not one of them had a VoIP phone line in their homes. I thought that at the end of my speech, they would all be really inpsired to check out VoIP and benefit from it. Boy, was my speech a disaster!
As it turned out, the explanation of the theory behind VoIP took up most of my time. When you are giving a speech, time can fly real fast. I did not have much time at all to talk about the VoIP products/services I was going to show the audience. Even if I had the time, it would not have turned out all that great because my laptop would not connect to the projector. I was going to show them the features of the VoIP services on the screen for maximum effect. As it turned out, I learnt during the feedback that people did not even know that VoIP was related to their telephone service or usage.
They thought I was giving a speech on a theoretical technology that was way out there and did not affect their daily lives in any way! Repeat: what a disaster!
But I can see opportunity in this disaster. Two opportunities in fact. One opportunity is my next speech whose objective is to 'persuade with power'. I think I can show the audience these great VoIP products/services and persuade them to check them out, and perhaps, even use them. The other opportunity is, of course, to write this blog post as a way to gather my speech material.
VoIP Technology
VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol. To put it in very simplistic terms, VoIP is the technology which is used to transport voice over the Internet. In VoIP, a person's voice signals are converted into digital packets, which are then sent over the Internet to the destination. At a very high level, it is not much different from sending textual data, such as emails. What this means is that, like most Internet traffic, there is no synchronous connection between the sender and receiver of voice data. The modern Internet channels are so fast and efficient that despite this asynchronous transfer of voice data, the data packets still manage to be gathered and re-assembled quickly enough at the receivers end, so that the receiver gets a signal which makes sense and is of great quality. In fact, the best quality voice conversations I have had between the US and India has consistently been over VoIP connections, and not the traditional phone lines.
The traditional telephone systems are called circuit-switched systems. In simplistic terms, in the traditional system, a synchronous, continuous circuit/connection is established between the sender and receiver of the voice signals. In the olden days, this continuous connection was made of copper wires. These days, we have all kinds of cables from copper to fibre optic cables, and traditional telephone signals are even sent over satellite.
The difference between traditional circuit-switched telephone systems and VoIP can be understood at a high-level through the analogy of the railways and roadways. Rail transportation requires that there be a continuous railway line between the point of origin and the destination. There is not much flexibility in the route. Even the containers used for transportation (the boxcars of the train) have rigidly defined size, shape standards. If there is a problem along the railway line, it can hold up traffic for a long time. The amount of railway lines and the places where they are available is quite limited. Compared to that the roadways are so much more flexible. There are many combinations of streets you can take from origin to destination. If there are accidents or problems along one route, you can take a different route. The size and types of vehicles you can use to transport goods over roadways are too numerous to list. The road network is extensive and almost unlimited to most places where people live.
The fact that voice signals are converted to digital data packets in VoIP is important. What that means is that the data packets can now be processed and manipulated by computers and newer digital phones, in ways that were never possible with the older phones.
It is also signifant that the voice data is transported over the Internet, instead of over regular telephone lines. What this implies is that the provider of the VoIP telephone service need not overly concern themselves about the route the voice signal takes from the sender to the receiver. They don't have to spend lot of time, effort and money in leasing bandwidth on telephone lines from the point of origin to the destination. They don't have to be concerned about providing a connecting line to each of their telephone subscribers. All that the telephone subscribers need to have is a high-speed Internet connection. All that the VoIP service providers need is a big enough connection to the Internet to send and receives voice data from all their customers. Of course, the VoIP service provider also needs to be connected to the traditional phone network to be able to provide connections between their VoIP customers and the users of regular phone lines. But this is a relatively smaller concern, compared to being concerned about the their entire network from the point of origin to the destination.
The two factors - manipulating voice data packets with computers and the telephone service providers not having to concern themselves too much about the entire telephone network - result in some great advantages and features to us, the regular telephone users. Those features, along with examples of VoIP products and services which offer them, will be presented in my next post on VoIP. Look out for that post to start taking advantage of these features yourself.
Last Thursday, I gave a speech at the Toastmaster's meeting on VoIP. The speech project was to research a topic and then talk about it.
It was supposed to be a 5-7 min speech. I planned on taking 1-2 minutes to give a brief explanation of what VoIP means. The rest of the time was to be spent introducing the audience to 3 or 4 VoIP services which are available in the market right now, to demonstrate how VoIP makes a difference in our lives. The audience was perfect for this topic - not one of them had a VoIP phone line in their homes. I thought that at the end of my speech, they would all be really inpsired to check out VoIP and benefit from it. Boy, was my speech a disaster!
As it turned out, the explanation of the theory behind VoIP took up most of my time. When you are giving a speech, time can fly real fast. I did not have much time at all to talk about the VoIP products/services I was going to show the audience. Even if I had the time, it would not have turned out all that great because my laptop would not connect to the projector. I was going to show them the features of the VoIP services on the screen for maximum effect. As it turned out, I learnt during the feedback that people did not even know that VoIP was related to their telephone service or usage.
They thought I was giving a speech on a theoretical technology that was way out there and did not affect their daily lives in any way! Repeat: what a disaster!
But I can see opportunity in this disaster. Two opportunities in fact. One opportunity is my next speech whose objective is to 'persuade with power'. I think I can show the audience these great VoIP products/services and persuade them to check them out, and perhaps, even use them. The other opportunity is, of course, to write this blog post as a way to gather my speech material.
VoIP Technology
VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol. To put it in very simplistic terms, VoIP is the technology which is used to transport voice over the Internet. In VoIP, a person's voice signals are converted into digital packets, which are then sent over the Internet to the destination. At a very high level, it is not much different from sending textual data, such as emails. What this means is that, like most Internet traffic, there is no synchronous connection between the sender and receiver of voice data. The modern Internet channels are so fast and efficient that despite this asynchronous transfer of voice data, the data packets still manage to be gathered and re-assembled quickly enough at the receivers end, so that the receiver gets a signal which makes sense and is of great quality. In fact, the best quality voice conversations I have had between the US and India has consistently been over VoIP connections, and not the traditional phone lines.
The traditional telephone systems are called circuit-switched systems. In simplistic terms, in the traditional system, a synchronous, continuous circuit/connection is established between the sender and receiver of the voice signals. In the olden days, this continuous connection was made of copper wires. These days, we have all kinds of cables from copper to fibre optic cables, and traditional telephone signals are even sent over satellite.
The difference between traditional circuit-switched telephone systems and VoIP can be understood at a high-level through the analogy of the railways and roadways. Rail transportation requires that there be a continuous railway line between the point of origin and the destination. There is not much flexibility in the route. Even the containers used for transportation (the boxcars of the train) have rigidly defined size, shape standards. If there is a problem along the railway line, it can hold up traffic for a long time. The amount of railway lines and the places where they are available is quite limited. Compared to that the roadways are so much more flexible. There are many combinations of streets you can take from origin to destination. If there are accidents or problems along one route, you can take a different route. The size and types of vehicles you can use to transport goods over roadways are too numerous to list. The road network is extensive and almost unlimited to most places where people live.
The fact that voice signals are converted to digital data packets in VoIP is important. What that means is that the data packets can now be processed and manipulated by computers and newer digital phones, in ways that were never possible with the older phones.
It is also signifant that the voice data is transported over the Internet, instead of over regular telephone lines. What this implies is that the provider of the VoIP telephone service need not overly concern themselves about the route the voice signal takes from the sender to the receiver. They don't have to spend lot of time, effort and money in leasing bandwidth on telephone lines from the point of origin to the destination. They don't have to be concerned about providing a connecting line to each of their telephone subscribers. All that the telephone subscribers need to have is a high-speed Internet connection. All that the VoIP service providers need is a big enough connection to the Internet to send and receives voice data from all their customers. Of course, the VoIP service provider also needs to be connected to the traditional phone network to be able to provide connections between their VoIP customers and the users of regular phone lines. But this is a relatively smaller concern, compared to being concerned about the their entire network from the point of origin to the destination.
The two factors - manipulating voice data packets with computers and the telephone service providers not having to concern themselves too much about the entire telephone network - result in some great advantages and features to us, the regular telephone users. Those features, along with examples of VoIP products and services which offer them, will be presented in my next post on VoIP. Look out for that post to start taking advantage of these features yourself.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Ideal Programming Comments
Leaving proper and abundant comments in code has always been one of the most repeated programming tips.
We were discussing the inadequate commenting practice among team members at work, when I had this to say:
Ideally, comments left in a program should be such that if you filter out/hide all the code and read only the comments, that should give you a good idea of the logic of the program.
We were discussing the inadequate commenting practice among team members at work, when I had this to say:
Ideally, comments left in a program should be such that if you filter out/hide all the code and read only the comments, that should give you a good idea of the logic of the program.
Friday, June 22, 2007
Google Vs eBay
Valleywag reports on eBay suspending its Adwords-based advertising through Google after a recent squabble between the two companies. Apparently, Google scheduled a Freedom Party to promote its own payment service Google Checkout, inviting eBay sellers for free drinks, food and massage. The fun part is that Google scheduled this event close - in time and space - to eBay's Live event for its top sellers in Boston. Google rubbed it in further by giving its "Freedom party" a Boston Tea Party spin. All this because eBay won't allow Google Checkout to be used as a payment option on its website. eBay, of course, wouldn't do that because Checkout is a direct competitor to eBay's own Paypal.
eBay's contributions to Google's coffers are big enough that Google suspended its planned party, when eBay stopped advertising via Google. But the damage is done. eBay continues to boycott Google, although the latter was/is the top traffic driver to the former.
While the party fiasco has been publicized a lot, Google and Ebay were bound to step on each other's feet (not just toes!) sooner or later. The fact is that, Google has its fingers in too many pies which Ebay considers its own right now. Examples include Paypal and Skype. Google also has the potential to bite out a large chunk of Ebay's pies, if it chooses to do so. Offering innovative services and features on GTalk and Google Checkout could give some serious competition to Skype and Paypal. And Google has all the big pieces needed to quickly build an Ebay competitor in the auction and sales space. Perhaps, Google should take this as an opportunity to kickstart the campaign of giving eBay a run for its money.
It will be interesting to see how this war plays out between the two. Even if the current battle ends tamely by eBay turning on some (not all!) of its Adwords advertising, the long term war is far from over.
eBay's contributions to Google's coffers are big enough that Google suspended its planned party, when eBay stopped advertising via Google. But the damage is done. eBay continues to boycott Google, although the latter was/is the top traffic driver to the former.
While the party fiasco has been publicized a lot, Google and Ebay were bound to step on each other's feet (not just toes!) sooner or later. The fact is that, Google has its fingers in too many pies which Ebay considers its own right now. Examples include Paypal and Skype. Google also has the potential to bite out a large chunk of Ebay's pies, if it chooses to do so. Offering innovative services and features on GTalk and Google Checkout could give some serious competition to Skype and Paypal. And Google has all the big pieces needed to quickly build an Ebay competitor in the auction and sales space. Perhaps, Google should take this as an opportunity to kickstart the campaign of giving eBay a run for its money.
It will be interesting to see how this war plays out between the two. Even if the current battle ends tamely by eBay turning on some (not all!) of its Adwords advertising, the long term war is far from over.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Why should e-filing of US taxes cost more?
Yesterday, about six weeks after I filed my taxes by mail, I got a letter from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) asking me to send them a couple of additional forms. These are forms which I had already sent with my original filing. The letter from IRS stated that:
The implication here is that the additional forms I sent were lost in the paper shuffling process, something that would not have happened if I had filed electronically.
Well, I would be glad to file electronically. In fact, if something can be done electronically, rather than using paper, I make sure that I don't use the paper. There is a reason why I didn't file my taxes electronically: the US government, in all its wisdom, has decided that filing electronically should cost a whole lot more than filing with paper!
If you file your taxes through TurboTax software, filing electronically costs $34 for federal and state taxes combined. In contrast, filing by paper cost me only 78 cents postage! These costs are in addition to the cost of the TurboTax software itself - which is almost $40.
Now, why should e-filing cost more for the tax payer? Especially when it costs the government less to process electronic filings: $2.65 to process paper filings versus 29 cents for e-filings! Given this fact, you would think that the government would encourage people to e-file, giving them every incentive to do so. Instead, it allows corporations like TurboTax and H&R Block to charge exorbitant fees for e-filing.
This is a classic story of governmental screw-up, in conjunction with corporate greed. You see, the big accounting corporates persuaded the government not to allow direct e-filing by all the taxpayers, so that these corporates could e-file on our behalf and charge us exorbitant fees... ostensibly to maintain and operate the e-filing infrastructure! Disgusting!
Related article in the New York Times.
The delay that has resulted from this request for additional information may have been avoided if you had electronically filed your tax return.
The implication here is that the additional forms I sent were lost in the paper shuffling process, something that would not have happened if I had filed electronically.
Well, I would be glad to file electronically. In fact, if something can be done electronically, rather than using paper, I make sure that I don't use the paper. There is a reason why I didn't file my taxes electronically: the US government, in all its wisdom, has decided that filing electronically should cost a whole lot more than filing with paper!
If you file your taxes through TurboTax software, filing electronically costs $34 for federal and state taxes combined. In contrast, filing by paper cost me only 78 cents postage! These costs are in addition to the cost of the TurboTax software itself - which is almost $40.
Now, why should e-filing cost more for the tax payer? Especially when it costs the government less to process electronic filings: $2.65 to process paper filings versus 29 cents for e-filings! Given this fact, you would think that the government would encourage people to e-file, giving them every incentive to do so. Instead, it allows corporations like TurboTax and H&R Block to charge exorbitant fees for e-filing.
This is a classic story of governmental screw-up, in conjunction with corporate greed. You see, the big accounting corporates persuaded the government not to allow direct e-filing by all the taxpayers, so that these corporates could e-file on our behalf and charge us exorbitant fees... ostensibly to maintain and operate the e-filing infrastructure! Disgusting!
Related article in the New York Times.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Contacts Management System
Email and electronic address-books have been around for decades now. So, I am quite surprised that we still don't have a truly functional contacts management system (CMS), which uses the full power of the Internet.
A well-implemented contact management system should eliminate the need for us to ever remember anybody's phone number or weirdly-spelled email address. We should be able to contact people just by looking up their name. It should also eliminate the need for us to ever enter anybody's contact information into our address-books. The information would be automatically available to us, provided the person wants to share it with us.
There is a huge market of users waiting for anybody who implements a good contacts management system. This is truly a big untapped opportunity. I am surprised that nobody has already done this yet.
Here are five most important features that a good modern contacts management system should have:
1. The CMS should be a web-based database, built on a data-sharing model and it would be search-able. The web-based nature of the system should allow it to be accessible from any browser, running on any device. The data-sharing model would allow you to instantly share your contact information with others, instead of them having to get it from you and add it manually into their address-books.
2. The CMS should define a standard for storing, retrieving and updating contacts information so that it can be accessed using any application, on any device, which needs address-book functionality. Imagine being able to use a single address-book on all your email clients (Outlook, Thunderbird, etc.), all your web-based email systems (Gmail, Yahoo, etc.), on your mobile phone, home phone and any other place where you need an address-book. Imagine buying a new cell phone, logging into the CMS system using the phone and all your contacts being immediately available in the new phone, without your having to add them individually or import them from your old phone!
3. The CMS should not only be available online, it should also be download-able to the device or application of your choice. Further, the downloaded copy should have two-way synchronization with the online copy. Imagine being able to add or update information into the address-book on your phone, and the same update being propagated to all the copies of your address-book on all your devices and email systems.
4. Strictly speaking, there should be no need for you to update or add the contact details of any other person. You should only need to update your own contact information, and everybody else updates only their own information. The CMS gives everyone the ability to share their personal contact information with all the people who matter to them. Further, it also gives you flexibility on what pieces of information you want to share with whom. For example, you can define groups such as 'friends', 'family', 'colleagues' in your CMS. Then, you can choose to share your home phone number and home address only with 'family', your personal email address and mobile phone number with 'friends', your office phone number and business address with 'colleagues', and so on. You should even be able to choose what pieces of information you want to share with specific individuals - not just groups. Imagine not having to add all the contact details of your hundred or more friends, into your address-book. Imagine not having to ever give anybody your business card - all you do is add them to the 'business contacts' group in your CMS, and they will instantly have access to your contact information on their own address-books!
5. The CMS should give you the ability to 'push' your contact information updates out to people of your choosing. Suppose, you get a new phone number. Today, you have to email your new phone number to all your friends and family, and each person has to manually update their address-books. With the CMS, all you'd do is update your phone number just once on the CMS and then click a button to 'push' or propagate this new number to all the people who have your old number in their address-books. You should even be able to choose not to 'push' the update to certain people. And people who receive your updates would have the ability to accept or reject it. This way, your latest contact information is always available to people with whom you want to share it. Nobody ends up with out-of-date information because somebody inadvertently forgot to keep them updated with changed phone numbers or addresses.
Needless to say, a CMS with all the above features would become a massive global directory. More importantly, it would also have information about how people are networked, their relationships, etc. Imagine the potential! Whoever develops such a system could become a billionaire!
A well-implemented contact management system should eliminate the need for us to ever remember anybody's phone number or weirdly-spelled email address. We should be able to contact people just by looking up their name. It should also eliminate the need for us to ever enter anybody's contact information into our address-books. The information would be automatically available to us, provided the person wants to share it with us.
There is a huge market of users waiting for anybody who implements a good contacts management system. This is truly a big untapped opportunity. I am surprised that nobody has already done this yet.
Here are five most important features that a good modern contacts management system should have:
1. The CMS should be a web-based database, built on a data-sharing model and it would be search-able. The web-based nature of the system should allow it to be accessible from any browser, running on any device. The data-sharing model would allow you to instantly share your contact information with others, instead of them having to get it from you and add it manually into their address-books.
2. The CMS should define a standard for storing, retrieving and updating contacts information so that it can be accessed using any application, on any device, which needs address-book functionality. Imagine being able to use a single address-book on all your email clients (Outlook, Thunderbird, etc.), all your web-based email systems (Gmail, Yahoo, etc.), on your mobile phone, home phone and any other place where you need an address-book. Imagine buying a new cell phone, logging into the CMS system using the phone and all your contacts being immediately available in the new phone, without your having to add them individually or import them from your old phone!
3. The CMS should not only be available online, it should also be download-able to the device or application of your choice. Further, the downloaded copy should have two-way synchronization with the online copy. Imagine being able to add or update information into the address-book on your phone, and the same update being propagated to all the copies of your address-book on all your devices and email systems.
4. Strictly speaking, there should be no need for you to update or add the contact details of any other person. You should only need to update your own contact information, and everybody else updates only their own information. The CMS gives everyone the ability to share their personal contact information with all the people who matter to them. Further, it also gives you flexibility on what pieces of information you want to share with whom. For example, you can define groups such as 'friends', 'family', 'colleagues' in your CMS. Then, you can choose to share your home phone number and home address only with 'family', your personal email address and mobile phone number with 'friends', your office phone number and business address with 'colleagues', and so on. You should even be able to choose what pieces of information you want to share with specific individuals - not just groups. Imagine not having to add all the contact details of your hundred or more friends, into your address-book. Imagine not having to ever give anybody your business card - all you do is add them to the 'business contacts' group in your CMS, and they will instantly have access to your contact information on their own address-books!
5. The CMS should give you the ability to 'push' your contact information updates out to people of your choosing. Suppose, you get a new phone number. Today, you have to email your new phone number to all your friends and family, and each person has to manually update their address-books. With the CMS, all you'd do is update your phone number just once on the CMS and then click a button to 'push' or propagate this new number to all the people who have your old number in their address-books. You should even be able to choose not to 'push' the update to certain people. And people who receive your updates would have the ability to accept or reject it. This way, your latest contact information is always available to people with whom you want to share it. Nobody ends up with out-of-date information because somebody inadvertently forgot to keep them updated with changed phone numbers or addresses.
Needless to say, a CMS with all the above features would become a massive global directory. More importantly, it would also have information about how people are networked, their relationships, etc. Imagine the potential! Whoever develops such a system could become a billionaire!
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Google Reader
If there are websites you like to check out frequently, and you visit each of them individually to look for new content, then you are wayyy behind the times. You are just not doing it right!
Recently, I gave a small presentation about RSS at my office, and here's what I had to say:
This is where RSS technology and RSS Readers come into the picture. Google calls its RSS Reader, "Your inbox to the web." It literally is. I have been using Google Reader for the past few months, and I am absolutely hooked. It helps me go through a lot of content very quickly. Of course, I give more time and attention to some content, than to others. Nevertheless, the amount of information I eyeball in a short period of time is just insane. I could never peruse so much information without my favorite Reader.
To subscribe to this blog's feed and open Google Reader at the same time, click here.
Here's a previous post on this blog about RSS: Web Feeds and Feed Readers.
Here's a a 10-minute video tutorial on using Google Reader (but seriously you could learn how to use it in lesser time on your own!):
Recently, I gave a small presentation about RSS at my office, and here's what I had to say:
Imagine that when your friends want to send you an email, they compose the email and then keep it in their own mail box. They don't send it to your mail box. Then, when you want to check your emails, imagine that you have to visit each of your friend's mail boxes to see if they have left any mails for you. That's just a very inefficient and backwards way of doing things, isn't it? Yet, this is exactly how we access information on the Internet. We go to different websites individually, and check if there is information there which might be of interest to us.
This is where RSS technology and RSS Readers come into the picture. Google calls its RSS Reader, "Your inbox to the web." It literally is. I have been using Google Reader for the past few months, and I am absolutely hooked. It helps me go through a lot of content very quickly. Of course, I give more time and attention to some content, than to others. Nevertheless, the amount of information I eyeball in a short period of time is just insane. I could never peruse so much information without my favorite Reader.
To subscribe to this blog's feed and open Google Reader at the same time, click here.
Here's a previous post on this blog about RSS: Web Feeds and Feed Readers.
Here's a a 10-minute video tutorial on using Google Reader (but seriously you could learn how to use it in lesser time on your own!):
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Suppressing the Web? Try again!
Google Blogoscoped blog reports on a Digg Users Revolt:
Companies should be really careful before they try to suppress the Web... or an individual on the Web.
The company that tried to suppress mentions of “09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0” now achieved the exact opposite: this particular key is now spread all over the web in a multitude of ways, including being sold on t-shirts, registered as domains, promoted in mockup graphics, and sent via ecards.
Companies should be really careful before they try to suppress the Web... or an individual on the Web.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Height of tech incompatibility!
All of us have been frustrated at one time or the other by so many different charging cables and plugs for the different varieties of cellphones. Why couldn't all the cellphone companies have come up with a standard cable-and-plug combo to charge any and every cellphone? Is it really necessary to ship a separate charger (or two, if you count the car charger) with every single cell phone? It's ridiculous and such a waste!
As technology advances and big companies consolidate, the companies usually try to build their own universe of products, accessories and software. They jealously guard these from becoming interoperable with other company's products. These days, with DRM technologies, they are even trying to limit music and video to play within the borders of their own hardware and software. Such tactics are invariably driven by the management and marketing types who think it helps them make more money. They don't realize what the engineers, who have been at the forefront of technologies which have resulted in huge economic gains, have always known: easy interoperability is the real way to make your products popular, capture a big chunk of the market and rake in all that money!
Recently we came across what I consider to the be the height of incompatibility among tech devices, and which can't be explained even by the above theory of dumb managers and marketers: we discovered that the charging cables for the Thinkpad T42 model and T60 model laptops are incompatible! Yes, we couldn't use the T42's cable to charge a T60!! How the hell did that happen?
As technology advances and big companies consolidate, the companies usually try to build their own universe of products, accessories and software. They jealously guard these from becoming interoperable with other company's products. These days, with DRM technologies, they are even trying to limit music and video to play within the borders of their own hardware and software. Such tactics are invariably driven by the management and marketing types who think it helps them make more money. They don't realize what the engineers, who have been at the forefront of technologies which have resulted in huge economic gains, have always known: easy interoperability is the real way to make your products popular, capture a big chunk of the market and rake in all that money!
Recently we came across what I consider to the be the height of incompatibility among tech devices, and which can't be explained even by the above theory of dumb managers and marketers: we discovered that the charging cables for the Thinkpad T42 model and T60 model laptops are incompatible! Yes, we couldn't use the T42's cable to charge a T60!! How the hell did that happen?
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Free Long-distance Business Calls using Google Maps
Did you know that you can make free* long distance phone calls to businesses using Google Maps? This works in the US, for all businesses which are listed with phone numbers on Google Maps.
All you have to do is search for the business in Google Maps. The results will show the phone number of the business and a call link. Click on that link, enter your phone number and enjoy the free call!
Here's a more detailed step-by-step instructions:
That's it! You will be connected to the business for free!
*Free means you will not be charged for the long distance call. However, if you use a cellphone, you will incur the cost of the minutes you spend on the call.
All you have to do is search for the business in Google Maps. The results will show the phone number of the business and a call link. Click on that link, enter your phone number and enjoy the free call!
Here's a more detailed step-by-step instructions:
- Go to http://maps.google.com/.
- click on the Find businesses link at the top of the page.
- Enter the name of the business in the first data entry box and the location of the business in the second box. Click Search Businesses button.
- If the business is available in Google Maps along with the phone number, you will see the name, address and phone number of the business in the Search Results column on the left.
- Next to the business's phone number is a link which says call. Just click on this link, enter your phone number and click on the Connect for free button.
That's it! You will be connected to the business for free!
*Free means you will not be charged for the long distance call. However, if you use a cellphone, you will incur the cost of the minutes you spend on the call.
Friday, April 13, 2007
Google's 411 rocks!
I tried Google's 411 service yesterday, and was mighty impressed. Just dialled 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411), and I was connected to the business I wanted to talk to in around a minute. The system understood my responses the first time, every time! It was my best encounter to date with voice recognition software.
My past experiences with voice recognition response systems have sucked a lot. I have been much frustrated, yelling the same thing over and over into the phone before giving up with disgust. So, it was a pleasant change to use Google's system. And the fact that I don't have to pay for the 411 service (directory assistance number in the US & Canada, for those of you who don't know what that is) ever again, makes it even sweeter!
Normally, the 411 service costs $1.28 over a landline and $1.57 over the cellphone. And, I read today that 411 is a $8 billion market in the US! Now, Google is offering this service for FREE (regular phone call costs apply, of course).
This service is highly recommended! Be warned though, Google says this service is still in the experimental stage and may not always be available.
My past experiences with voice recognition response systems have sucked a lot. I have been much frustrated, yelling the same thing over and over into the phone before giving up with disgust. So, it was a pleasant change to use Google's system. And the fact that I don't have to pay for the 411 service (directory assistance number in the US & Canada, for those of you who don't know what that is) ever again, makes it even sweeter!
Normally, the 411 service costs $1.28 over a landline and $1.57 over the cellphone. And, I read today that 411 is a $8 billion market in the US! Now, Google is offering this service for FREE (regular phone call costs apply, of course).
This service is highly recommended! Be warned though, Google says this service is still in the experimental stage and may not always be available.
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