An open internet, an open world: In Google's eyes

I wanted to quote the last paragraph of a letter about openness Google sent to its employees, and shared with the world on their blog.

"Open will win. It will win on the Internet and will then cascade across many walks of life: The future of government is transparency. The future of commerce is information symmetry. The future of culture is freedom. The future of science and medicine is collaboration. The future of entertainment is participation. Each of these futures depends on an open Internet."

Read the rest at:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/meaning-of-open.html#links

Fiery Sunset Over Snow Fields 23 Dec 2009

Fiery Sunset Over Snow Fields 23 Dec 2009, originally uploaded by Wytchwood.

My new desktop background. I'm loving it, it gives me the shivers.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wytchwood/4216465184/

The Cookie Monster was always my favourite

Google partners with Sesame Street to celebrate the show's 40th anniversary.

Google Apps - Still use Gmail with something @ you dot com

Clearly from my excessive posts about Gmail, I love it.  I frequently here complaints from people who cannot get the email address they want.  As a test I tried, glawrence at gmail.com, glawrence 1 at gmail.com etc. even glawrence 776 at gmail.com was taken!

Most people have never heard of Google Apps.  Google Apps is Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, all customized for your private domain (the part after the @).  Now my email address is anything-I-want at glawrence dot ca, and I can still use Gmail.  My blog will soon be at http://www.glawrence.ca just FYI.  I registered my domain from www.blacksun.ca for $25.00/year, much cheaper then I expected.  You can find some that are cheaper like www.netfirms.ca, but I can't speak for their customer service.  Blacksun.ca has been great, if you email them the instructions Google gives you when you sign up, they take care of the rest.

Here's a link to Google Apps standard edition: http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/group/index.html

The standard edition is free, and provides the same 7gb of space Gmail currently does.  They try to keep the standard edition relatively under the radar because they charge $50/year/user for the business edition.

Google Apps is a great way to be able to use Gmail with your custom domain.  Go to http://www.blacksun.ca/domain.html and find out if the domain you want is already taken.  Post in the comments if you want me to post a step-by-step guide to setting it up.

Good luck getting the email address you always wanted!

Blackberry Bold 9700 spotted on Rogers.com

I was just browsing Rogers.com when this came up. Clicking it doesn't go to a page about the new Blackberry Bold 9700 though.

Clearly if they're using it in their marketing, it must be coming out any day now.

Stay tuned...

Google Streetview seen in Canada - How would our government do it?

I read this in a comment to a National Post article by "MaurizioL" http://bit.ly/A3lB1

I had to post it because it is exactly what our government would do if they decided the Canadian people needed Streetsview:

"Apr 11 2009
12:11 PM

Can you imagine if the City of Toronto, with the provincial and federal governments in tow, decided to do what Google is doing?

While Google says that their imagery will be available in a few weeks since it has been first collected, this is how a hypothetical, tax-payer funded equivalent undertaking would go:

* Program is launched with great fanfare by Mayor Miller, who mumbles something about "public transit and green city", gets big applause by council, NDPers, and The Star for his visionary leadership;

* Government issues RFI, then RFQ, then RFP;

* Public debate on the issues of privacy and safety;

* Three way agreement on funding is negotiated between province, feds, and city. The new "Digital Imagery Interprovincial Authority" is created as an agency to manage and oversee all public funds for the project;

* Environmental assessment #1;

* City hall debates use of private contractors Vs public agencies to do the work;

* Another debate on issues of privacy - legislation passed that any of the possible 5 million citizens caught on camera must consent to their picture being displayed;

* New provincial agency formed to oversee the new "Public Digital Recording Devices Act";

* Original RFP scrapped, new RFP issued. Official reason is that "all vendors responses did not meet the technical specification requirements of the RFP". Real reason is to ensure responses from public-sector and unionized contractors;

* Environmental assessment #2;

* Environmental assessment #3;

* Project scrapped due to environmentalists' concerns over pollution produced by camera-bearing vehicles;

* Speculation that real reason for scrapping the project is the Gardner Expressway which would be caught on camera, and that would be just too painful a reminder of what the lake-front used to look like;

* Mayor unapologetic for cancelling the project after 4 years of public debates, assessments, RFP's, and assorted other hot-air;

* Mayor raises property tax by 5% and decrees new "meat sandwich tax" as revenue tools to fund the cost of all the work to date, approximately $53 million.

In summary:

* Google: 12 weeks, $0 cost to tax payers, ready to view on your browser;

* Government: 4 years, $53 million of tax-payers' money, no cigar

Welcome to public-sector works in Toronto."

Toshiba Laptop - A New Lease on Life

My Toshiba laptop has been quite the trooper. I have taken it to school everyday for the past 2 years, and it still keeps kicking. It had got quite slow though, and I was this close to giving in and buying a new computer.

Instead I decided to make the one I had better.

I first reformatted the hard drive, and brought the computer back to its original state.

This made a world of difference because computers tend to slow down after awhile from drive fragmentation and issues with registry entries (and other mumbo jumbo).

It was still slow though, so I decided to look at upgrading my RAM. To my surprise, RAM is cheaper then the last time I checked. It cost me $70 for 4GB of RAM.

The truth is there has not been much innovation in laptop computers in the past two years. RAM and hard drive space has gotten cheaper, and because of this, new computers have more of them.

Processors have hit a peak though. My Intel Core Duo processor is relatively the same as the one you get in a new computer. The reason is that processors have got as fast as they can until the next big technological breakthrough comes along. So what manufacturers have done is put two processors together to be able to run more applications at once. The problem with this approach for laptops is power. It takes double the power to run two processors which means your battery life will be affected. This is why there are quad processors for desktops, but still only duo (2) for laptops.

The RAM installation took about 2 minutes, and is so easy anyone could do it...seriously, anyone.

www.crucial.com - The Memory Experts, was a very informative site about what type of RAM my machine could take. Try their Crucial System Scanner Tool to see what RAM is in your computer already, and your upgrade options. You don't have to buy your RAM from them, but their prices are very competitive if you don't mind waiting for shipping.