Google's OpenSocial initiative to establish common, standard APIs for creating social-networking applications is still in its early days. But its impact for end-users, developers, Web site owners, social-network operators, and even business application vendors could be huge in the long run.In a recent chat with IDG News Service, Scott McMullan, Google Apps partner lead in Google's Enterprise division, described OpenSocial as an attempt to simplify the lives of developers by addressing what the vendor considers a "balkanization" of social-networking APIs.McMullan also articulated how OpenSocial's scope goes far beyond the creation of applications for social-networking sites, saying its core set of common APIs is intended also for the creation of social features and capabilities within Web sites in general and within business software.Below is an edited transcript of the interview.IDG News Service: Regarding the "balkanization" of APIs in general on the Web, do you plan to extend OpenSocial so that it contains open APIs for other types of Web applications -- not just social-networking ones, but for things like maps, where different vendors, like Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft, have their own set of APIs?Scott McMullan: In general, one could argue that any time you have two APIs that do similar things, you've got this inherent problem. I'm not sure if OpenSocial is going to [address] that larger problem, but certainly this is the context where we thought we could make an impact.IDGNS: Google has said that the scope of OpenSocial APIs isn't limited to social-networking sites, that OpenSocial can be used for creating social-networking features or components in Web sites in general and also in business applications.McMullan: Yes. Take, for example, Salesforce.com as an application whose goal is to coordinate a team of people to sell stuff. Sales is a quite socially driven activity. ... You have this group of people all coordinating [their efforts] to sell, and all within this one Salesforce.com application. It's a business application that has kind of an implicit social network to it. ... So you see how it would make sense to bring these social features more explicitly to Salesforce or any other application that has that similar dynamic.IDGNS: Is OpenSocial a solution in search of a problem? Are developers really clamoring for something like this? How many social-networking sites are out there today for which you can or would want to write applications? There don't seem to be that many APIs for social-networking sites out there.McMullan: There are a lot of social-networking sites. There's a long tail of them. There are a lot of big ones and small ones. In addition, my personal perspective is that the social nature of a lot of different applications is also an equally important part of the story. It's about the social features that we all find very compelling in social-networking sites, and we'd like to empower those across the Web. So getting ahead of the problem and creating a standard that we all can rally around to make that happen, and help channel that developer energy, is a big part of it. And these are early days for social-network platforms.IDGNS: In the real world, won't developers ultimately find themselves having to tweak and retool applications so that they are appropriate for different sites, because, say, the concept, the policies and the look-and-feel of Facebook are different from the ones of LinkedIn?McMullan: You certainly might, in the same way a Web developer has to take into account different browsers. There can be devils in the details, but hopefully [with OpenSocial] the vast majority of the effort is certainly not in porting. It's in perhaps the last 1 percent of tweaking.IDGNS: At this point, should developers start writing applications based on OpenSocial or rather wait, kick the tires, and send Google feedback?McMullan: We've got an Orkut sandbox, and there are other sandboxes for other sites coming online. When you're at the sandbox stage only, we're talking about, "Come, kick the tires, participate, learn, test, but know that the sandbox may have an API [revision] before it reaches production status." A big part of it is the policies and the production hardening that this requires for our partners, for anyone who implements this. It's something that takes time. We want to get that open feedback loop going with the world as soon as possible.IDGNS: Is Orkut [Google's own social-networking site] now fully enabled for OpenSocial?McMullan: It's still in sandbox stage.IDGNS: Many social applications are designed for end-users to load information into a database, be it text, photos, videos, audio, whatever. If someone adopts one of those applications for, say, the eight social networks he's in, he has to enter the data separately on each Web site. As part of the OpenSocial effort, will Google help end-users with this data portability problem?McMullan: That's an interesting idea, but we don't have anything to talk about regarding that at this time.IDGNS: Does OpenSocial have any features for advertising functions?McMullan: We don't have it now, but we're very conscious the developers want to monetize their applications. So, part of this discussion is to figure out how that can be made to happen and if the APIs have an impact there or if there are other mechanisms for advertising [that fall] outside of the API.IDGNS: OpenSocial, in theory, will let developers write an application once and have it be compatible with any Web site that supports the OpenSocial platform. However, for Web site publishers, is there value in having the same applications as 30 or 40 other sites, some of which it may compete against?McMullan: We're not that far into this notion that developers should be thinking about social features, not only for social networks but for all kinds of applications, in a standardized way. When you think about the number of developers that will be brought under the fold to unleash their creativity, one side is, yes, that one application may run on 20 different sites, so as one of the Web sites you feel less special. But the upside is you've got orders of magnitude more developers who can bring their creativity into your environment. Although the APIs are the same, the context isn't the same, the notion of friends isn't always the same, so you still have the ability to differentiate yourself and tap into that giant pool of developers. That's the ultimate upside.

comes with a 4gb micro sd card Also comes with the following purchased handango soft Tube 2 London Geo by Visual It Tube 2 London Streets by Visual It Tube 2 London Pro by Visual I Agenda One Mobile Time Management that Simply Works. by Developer One Inc. WisBar Advance 3 by Lakeridge Software 1-Calc the Revolutionary calculator by Omega One Software Llc Inesoft Address Book powerful photo contact and phone manager with advanced search system. by Inesoft WebIS Toolbox 3.2 by WebIS Inc. FlexMail 2007 (Best Email Winner Ppc Magazine 2006) by WebIS In MemMaid 2.0 1 Maintenance Utility All-new Update by DinarSoft PhatNotes 5 Best Application for Work 2006 by PhatWare Corp HandyLauncher Seamless Launcher by DinarSoft HandyMenu 1 Utility for System Access Functions by DinarSoft HandySwitcher Ultimate Task Manager by DinarSoft Cash Organizer 2007 Premium Personal Finance Manager. by Inesoft Sktools by Skkv Software Sbsh MyList New by Sbsh Mobile Software Pocket Mechanic Pro by Omega One Software Llc Resco Utility Package for Pocket Pc by Resco.net Pocket Informant 2007 Spb Diary 2.5 Your Personal Organizer by Spb Software House WorldMate 2006 Professional Edition for Windows Mobile (Pocket Pc) by WorldMate Inc. Im All-in-One Mobile Messenger Aim ichat Msn Live Messenger Yahoo Icq Jabber and Google Talk by Shape Services GmbH Im for Skype WiFi is not required Pure SkypeOut quality by Shape Services GmbH Rdm Spb Insight 1.5.1 Full Text News Reader for Pocket Pc by Spb Software House Spb Wallet New by Spb Software House Description This personal mobile navigator ensures you know where you are at anytime in any place. Navigation simplicity in you hand the built-in Sat-Nav (Gps receiver) will help you arrive on time ready for your day ahead Maps required Taster maps included Click here for our video demonstration of the Htc TyTN Ii Features Operating System Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 Professional Dimensions 110mm x 58mm x 18mm Gsm Gprs Quad-band Gsm Gprs also includes Umts and Hsdpa Bluetooth 2.0 Camera 3.0 MegaPixels Memory Card microSD Slot Also known as the Htc Kaiser the Htc TyTN Ii Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 Pocket Pc phone is the latest Qwerty-keyboard device from Htc. With its compact size and unique tilting 240 x 320 display it has the technical specifications to be a worthy successor to the Htc TyTN. Sit the unit on a table and tilt the screen for perfect viewing of applications such as Word Mobile or Outlook Mobile. The Htc TyTN Ii offers a complete mobile office solution. Roam anywhere in the world and use Hsdpa for high speed Internet access Bluetooth and Wi-Fi It gives you more control than ever over the way you work. It also features assisted Gps (sat-nav) a 3 MegaPixel camera Bluetooth and a microSD card expansion slot. Wireless cellular connectivity comes in the shape of Umts and Hspda as well as Gprs and Edge. In the box Htc TyTN Ii Pocket Pc Phone 1350mAh Battery Ac adapter (UK plug) Headset Usb cable Stylus Getting started Cd End user license agreement Warranty card Quick start guide User manual Technical Details Platform Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 Professional Dimensions 112 mm(L) x 59 mm(W) x 19 mm(T 190 g with battery pack Processor 400MHz Memory Rom 256MB (for programs and users storage Ram 128MB Sdram Main Lcd Module Tilting 2.8" transflective Tft-Lcd with backlight Leds touch-sensitive screen 240 x 320 Qvga resolution with 64K Colours Communications Dual-mode Hsdpa (3.6 mbps Umts (tri-band 850 1900 2100 Mhz Gsm Gprs Edge quad-band (850 900 1800 1900) Camera 3 megapixel Main camera Secondary Video Conference Camera Audio Built-in Microphone Receiver Loud Speaker for Hands-Free Support Connectivity Interface Bluetooth 2.0 Wireless Lan 802.11b g 3v Usim Sim card slot Htc ExtUSB microSD card slot External Antenna connector Gps Internal Gps antenna Standalone Gps abd A-Gps mode TomTom Navigator 6 Edition (TomTom 6 Taster Edition) Power Battery Removable and rechargeable Lithium-ion polymer Typical capacity 1350 mah Standby time Up to 350 hours for Umts up to 365 hours for Gsm Talk time Up to 264 minutes for Umts up to 420 minutes for Gsm up to 120 minutes for video call Media playback 8 hours (Wmv) 12 hours (Wma Ac Adapter Ac input 100 240V Ac 50 60 Hz Dc output 5v and 1a Value Added Applications 3g-324MVideo Telephony Picture Enhamcement for Pictures and Videos Mms and Java applications Smart Dialing and Voice Speed Dial Comm Manager Backup Tool Live Htc Home menu Screen Business card scanner

There may be all kinds of technology issues, business plan problems, and potential failures to address before the mobile Internet becomes a success. But for Tim Berners-Lee there's really only one issue.On the opening day of Mobile Internet World in Boston, the man credited with inventing the World Wide Web told a packed hall that the mobile Internet needs to be fully and completely the Internet, nothing more and nothing less. It needs to be free of central control, universal, and embodied in open standards."The Web is an open platform on which you build other things," he said. "That's how you get this innovation. The Web is universal: you can run it on any hardware, on any operating system, it can be used by people of different languages...It's a sandbox where people can [play and] exercise their creativity. It's very important to keep the Web universal as we merge the Internet with mobile."The title of his talk was "Escaping the Walled Garden: Growing the Mobile Web with Open Standards." The "walled garden" is the metaphor that describes today's cable TV and cellular data networks, where subscribers can only use devices authorized by the carrier, and can only access content and services authorized by the carrier, the exact opposite of the World Wide Web running over the IP-based Internet, which cell phone users access from their home and work PCs.Though Berners-Lee didn't mention Google's new foray into mobile services, the search giant's Android platform, a software development stack for mobile phones, is based on open standards, open source software and overseen by the newly organized Open Handset Alliance consortium.PC users through an ISP can access independent movies on any site that offers them, Berners-Lee said. By contrast, a cable TV company acting as an ISP could block such access, because it wants subscribers to select the pay-per-view movies it alone offers.Berners-Lee is director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which coordinates the work of its members to create Web standards and guidelines for the Web's evolution. Two years ago, the group launched the Mobile Web Initiative to focus on standards to facilitate access to the Web by handheld devices over wireless connections. The focus of the MWI is to create standards and best practices for authoring content, and for serving it to and displaying it on any mobile device. Content becomes easily reusable, and can be re-used in ways the original creator could never imagine, he said."An open platform means using standards," Berners-Lee told his audience. "The mobile internet must use the same standards as the Internet. When you erect a wall around the garden, we know now all the flowers bloom outside the wall, not inside."As an example of what not to do, he referred to a "well-known device" that lets you go to only one online music store to buy music downloads, an obvious reference to Apple's wildly popular iPod and the company's online iTunes store. "Being able to go to any store would open that whole model up," he said. Consumers would have more choice, he suggested, there would be more competition, and more innovation, a kind of virtual circle of Web-inspired and Web-based activity.The Web itself is undergoing change, Berners-Lee said, as a result of people's new uses of it. Until recently, the dominant metaphor for the Web was the HTML document or poage. But that's changing as a result of the rise of social Web sites such as FaceBook and mySpace. Today, users have to create at each site a document that lists their friends or contacts or buddies. "But what's important is the friends, not the document or Web page," he said.Mobile internet standards coupled with the techniques and standards for the "semantic Web" (a framework for machine-to-machine data sharing) will create a kind of individualized information personality that users can carry with them anywhere and express in different contexts based on the available devices, displays and information needs. Book a flight from your home PC, have the essential details stored in your mobile phone, which then can "negotiate" with a large LED screen in an office or a coffee shop to show directions to the airport and a map of the nearest parking garage, for example."People have seen the benefits of open platforms," he said. "They have seen what the open Web is like. There's a huge understanding of its importance."Network World is an InfoWorld affiliate.

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When Jeneane Sessum logged into her Gmail account on the afternoon of Oct. 27, she was greeted with a horrifying sight: an empty inbox.A Gmail user since 2004, Sessum, a social media consultant and writer in Atlanta, had thousands of messages there, enough to use up almost 30 percent of her allotted storage space.Because Gmail is her primary work and personal e-mail service, Sessum lost many important messages, including some she needed at that moment for a project.Days earlier in Chicago, Jessica Squazzo, a writer and editor, accessed Gmail and stared at her computer screen in disbelief: All messages from 2007 had disappeared from her inbox.Sessum and Squazzo are just two of a small but steady stream of Gmail users who regularly report losing some, many, or all of their messages without a clue as to why.It seems that hardly a week goes by without at least several users reporting this problem on discussion boards, such as the official Gmail Help forum.Asked to comment about multiple lost-message reports in 11 different threads created in September and October in the Gmail Help forum, a Google spokesman declined to address any of the specific situations, citing privacy reasons.However, he did emphasize that, as far as Google is concerned, "most issues like this are a result of phishing attacks or compromised passwords -- or sometimes simply messages mistakenly deleted or marked as spam -- not a data corruption issue."That explanation makes little sense to savvy and experienced Internet users like Sessum and Squazzo, who are aware of phishing scams and know better than to reply to suspicious messages -- let alone include in them confidential, sensitive information, such as passwords. In addition, they say they are the only ones with access to their respective accounts.Moreover, both Sessum and Squazzo, interviewed separately, question why a malicious hacker would go through the trouble of trying to access someone's e-mail account in order to delete messages, instead of acting stealthily to harvest information they could exploit like credit card numbers."If someone had hacked into my account, why would they have just erased some of my e-mail and not all? The fact that precisely all my e-mail from 2007 -- and no earlier mail -- was wiped out leads me to still conclude that it must have been some technical error on Gmail's servers, whether they want to admit that or not," said Squazzo, who has used Gmail for personal communications since 2005.In the case of Sessum, while the inbox was empty, she still had copies of messages she had sent in the "All Mail" file of her account, along with saved transcripts of instant messaging chats she had conducted using Google Talk.For the sake of comparison, a review of discussion forums for users of Yahoo Mail and Windows Live Hotmail reveals far fewer reports of lost or disappearing inbox messages than for Gmail, even though those rival services have larger user bases.Matt Cain, a Gartner vice president and lead e-mail analyst, hasn't investigated reports of lost messages in Gmail but said the problem hasn't been observed as a common one in Yahoo Mail or Hotmail, both of which have traditionally enjoyed a high degree of data integrity in their message repositories."I can't validate [that this is a problem with Gmail] but if it's true, it's coming at an unfortunate time for Google because the company is aggressively pushing into the enterprise e-mail space," Cain said, referring to the Gmail component of the Google Apps hosted collaboration and communication application suite, designed for organizations of all sizes, including large ones with its Premier edition.A review of the Gmail Help forum reveals that reports of lost messages have become more common in the past year with a higher volume of complaints occurring since July.Another user who encountered this problem was Gary S. Moore of Fort Worth, Texas, who had used Gmail without problems for two years until one day last month, when he noticed all his archived messages had vanished from his account, including more than 100 photos.In Greenwood, Missouri, Monroe Johnson was also affected, when a portion of his stored messages disappeared in October. Johnson, like Sessum and Squazzo, doesn't believe an error on his part or a compromised account might be to blame."I doubt it. I have been working with computers since 1997," Johnson said. He's the only one who has access to his account, he said.Like other interviewed users who contacted Google seeking help and technical support, Sessum only received a canned reply saying Google had determined that her problem wasn't due to a technical issue with Google systems and that she should change her Gmail password."I guess they are insinuating someone bothered to break into my Gmail account with the express purpose of deleting my incoming mail while deciding to leave my chats and sent mail. Not likely," she said.Sessum, who also uses the hosted Google Docs applications and other Google services, expected a more helpful answer from the company, considering the extent of her data loss."In many respects, I'm building my small business on the back of Google. And I believe that's what Google wants us to do. So it's imperative that they provide at least a little support when something goes wrong," said Sessum, who hosts her blog on Google's Blogger service.Although consumer Webmail services such as Gmail are generally free, the user expectation is that the data stored in them will not be corrupted, Gartner's Cain said.In fact, one of Gmail's innovations when it was introduced in April 2004 was the size of its inbox -- 1GB, huge by the standards at that time -- so that users wouldn't have to bother deleting messages if they didn't want to.Google didn't deliver POP3 support for Gmail until November 2004 and didn't offer IMAP support until late last month. POP3 and IMAP are protocols that let users download e-mail messages from servers to desktop PC software.There doesn't seem to be a pattern to the reports of lost Gmail messages as the problem has hit users with a variety of PCs, operating systems, and browsers, according to interviews and discussion forum messages.For example, Sessum uses a Mac computer and the Firefox browser and doesn't synchronize her Gmail account with a desktop e-mail software. Meanwhile, Johnson accesses Gmail from a Windows Vista PC and downloads the messages to his computer, although he keeps copies of them on the Google servers.Sessum, echoing other users, is hoping Google will look deeper into this problem of disappearing e-mail messages. Its users deserve a better explanation, she said."Google's back-end support function is MIA. You can't find a number to call. You have to tap our personal network of friends to find a name and a way in through the back door, do a dance and rub a stone for good luck, and hope that someone will help," she said.It's also in Google's best interest to beef up this support part of its business because even users who don't pay Google for services or software contribute significantly to the company's success, she said."Google makes it easier for us to collaborate, work, and publish. We provide the content, the searches, the clicks, and the destinations for those clicks. It's a win-win. Until you lose something important -- like all your data," she said.A sampling of recent threads in the Gmail Help forum devoted to lost messages follows:http://groups.google.com/group/Gmail-Problem-solving/browse_thread/thread/aad47e2819f32e6e/0b8a9de3f9cc0e3fhttp://groups.google.com/group/Gmail-ABCs/browse_thread/thread/7fb4071b94277d55/4a750e40abcb32efhttp://groups.google.com/group/Gmail-Problem-solving/browse_thread/thread/7443d36a2b43c860/4ab72b69f9f1a05bhttp://groups.google.com/group/Gmail-Problem-solving/browse_thread/thread/948d861de7128acc/64641f442d477c0ehttp://groups.google.com/group/Gmail-Problem-solving/browse_thread/thread/ac9d1426cfe68e0e/c415516eb06804b6http://groups.google.com/group/Gmail-Problem-solving/browse_thread/thread/bc16fb2ca342e5fe/80e3a3c44d6041fahttp://groups.google.com/group/Gmail-Problem-solving/browse_thread/thread/419226013062111c/7119b58486ba0a4chttp://groups.google.com/group/Gmail-Problem-solving/browse_thread/thread/8ca49192d1691828/bf0c9663b9b3c652http://groups.google.com/group/Gmail-Problem-solving/browse_thread/thread/1fbe0cf09a8c674d/dfee6cac24f520eahttp://groups.google.com/group/Gmail-Problem-solving/browse_thread/thread/55ce3198c3a821e3/71e11cf6e1e5c56a

We talk search engine investments and the business of hard rock.

Microsoft is going to kill off MSN Messenger for Mac and replace the IM software with a new product. The company last night also released its latest software update for Office 2004 for Mac.Microsoft revealed its IM plans during a presentation at the Georgia Institute of Technology's IEEE Student Branch. The company plans to ditch its existing IM solution for Mac in order to develop and deliver a more advanced client.While details are scarce at present, the new Mac software is expected to appear by the end of next year and will support AIM, Google Talk, and ICQ and be compatible with Windows Live Messenger 9.0.The Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac 11.3.9 update fixes an issue that causes Word 2004 to quit unexpectedly when users print a document.Microsoft notes that this update is recommended for Office 2004 Standard Edition, Office 2004 Student and Teacher Edition, Office 2004 Professional Edition, Word 2004. The update weighs in as a 2.49MB download.Macworld.co.uk is an InfoWorld affiliate. 

After Google released on Monday an initial set of details about its plans to alter how mobile applications are created and distributed, industry watchers are compiling a long list of follow-up questions about the Android platform and the Open Handset Alliance.[ See related special report:  Google Android: Invader from beyond ]IDG News Service had a chance to talk to Rich Miner, a key member of Android's technical staff and a co-founder of the namesake company Google acquired in 2005, and ask him some of those questions.During the brief phone chat, he said all members of the alliance have to agree to protect Android from technical fragmentation and explained why Google decided to launch its own mobile Linux effort when several others already exist.Here is an edited transcript of the interview:IDGNS: Other mobile Linux initiatives exist on the market that are trying to accomplish a similar thing as Android. Won't Android compete with them and complicate those efforts?Miner: When we looked at the other [mobile] Linux activities out there, oftentimes they're initiatives that are based on Linux but their resulting platforms aren't completely open. Or they're completely open and they're Linux, but they're missing most of the things that [Android has]. They probably don't have video codecs, Midi sequencer, speech recognition. So they're not a complete phone stack. The goal with Android was to build into it everything you needed to release a phone: an entire stack to build a competitive smartphone or high-end feature phone.IDGNS: The description you have given of Android's browser sounds exciting. Will it in fact replicate the PC browser experience on mobile devices?Miner: Yes. It's based on the [open source] Webkit browser technology. That's the same browser that Apple ships with the iPhone and that's used in the Nokia Series 60 phones. So it's a full desktop browser, based on the same Webkit core Apple uses for their Safari browser, but highly optimized for our mobile environment. ... It'll be a great mobile Web experience.IDGNS: Speaking of the iPhone, any idea why Apple isn't among the Open Handset Alliance's partners? Are there any conversations going on between Google and Apple over this?Miner: You'd have to ask Apple about Apple.IDGNS: Some people wonder whether the freedom to broadly modify Android might backfire in case people start building proprietary extensions and tweaks, or requiring them, so that you end up with developers back to square one, having to modify applications for every phone.Miner: It's a good question but every member of the alliance has agreed to an antifragmentation clause. They've basically agreed not to fragment nor do things that would result in different versions of the platform. So we've built into the alliance mechanisms so that everyone agrees they won't support that kind of fragmentation.IDGNS: Is that a binding mandate that Google can in some way enforce, or is it more like an honor-system, good-faith commitment by members?Miner: The most important thing is that everyone has agreed to the spirit of it because they realize that one of the big important things of this alliance is to build a vibrant third-party developer community. And they all agree that if they were to do things that would compromise the integrity of the platform, that would break third-party applications, and nobody wants to do that.IDGNS: When you talk about Android's operating system component, are we talking about a single OS or multiple OSes?Miner: We refer to it as a platform because it's much more than an OS but it's based on Linux. It's a real complete stack. We've worked very hard all the way from the hardware up through all the software levels: the Linux OS, device drivers, all of the middleware, all the way up to the applications. It's a very highly optimized stack for mobile that's based on Linux.IDGNS: Google has said it will provide a lot of flexibility for how developers, handset makers and carriers will be able to use and adapt Android and its components. Can you swap out the OS piece and use a different Linux-based OS?Miner: It's based on Linux, so it will be released supporting a particular release of Linux, but as long as there's Linux underneath the platform and our device drivers, you should be in good shape. It's not a set of applications that could run on top of Linux or Symbian or different OSes. The platform is based on Linux.IDGNS: And the Linux distribution will be called Android?Miner: The handset distribution will be called Android and it's based on Linux but with a whole bunch of other components for things like optimized graphics for mobile phones, optimized database, speech recognition, video codecs. It's all of that other software that makes a handset optimized in a Linux environment we're delivering. 

Sometime back in the late 80s I was invited to give a talk at Apple, along with John Markoff, who was at the SF Examiner at the time. I think he went first, they received him politely, then I got up and was shocked at the anger I heard back from the people in the room. It scared me, I was totally unprepared for it. That was the first time that I experienced the disconnect with what it must feel like to be inside a big, famous, young, successful technology company, and what I thought it must feel like. It's taken a long time for the glamor to wear off for me. As recently as 2004, I thought it would be nice to work inside one of these big companies, believe it or not. Now I see it very differently. Think about what it must have been like to work at Apple in the late 80s. People at the highest level of the company come and go, when they come they get beautiful offices, great benefits, unlimited expense accounts. They're quoted in the press as if they were gods, but you know better. When they show up at meetings they are fools, they have no idea how the products work, they avoid making the decisions you need them to, instead they throw all your cards in the air at will, and do it often. When they leave they get huge bonuses, golden parachutes, and another cushy job at another tech company. Meanwhile your options are worth shit, you haven't gotten a raise in two years, and they just had layoffs, and a bunch of your friends aren't there anymore, and you have to do their jobs too. And then this developer asshole walks in and tells you how you're fucking up. Don't get me started about the developers. They hardly do any work, they get quoted in the press all the time as if they're gods, and make millions of dollars, and I do all the work, and I don't get shit and no one cares what I think. Okay that was what it was like to be at Apple in the late 80s. I have no idea what it must be like to work at Google today, but I can see some things about it, and guess at why it is that way. First, there's a sense that everyone, if they could, would like to be at Google. The food is good, they pay for almost everything you need in life. It's like a college campus, you get to do interesting stuff, and they take care of all the worries. In another way it's as if you never left your mother's house. For some people, maybe many, just going to work is making them rich. Some of them are being made very rich. Who wouldn't want to be rich. Therefore if you don't work at Google it must be because you're not good enough. So one thing they don't have in huge supply at Google is humility. The laws of software apply equally everywhere and the number one law of software, of course is Murphy's Law. And one of the big things it teaches is humility. Look everywhere for possible errors. Be completely paranoid about security holes, infinite loops, databases that crash, and things you may have overlooked Yet, this latest episode from Google seems to completely lack humility. Someday someone will write the Microserfs for Google and then the rest of us (who don't work there, and don't want to, and never will) can have some idea of how they got to be this way. In the meantime I'm very interested in real human stories of what it's like to be at Google today.

A coalition of nine privacy and consumer groups have proposed a U.S. do-not-track list that would allow consumers to opt out of advertising efforts that track their movements online.The groups, including the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), the Consumer Federation of America, and the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, called for the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to create a list of servers that track users online. Consumers could download the list and use security software to block sites that they don't want tracking them, under a proposal filed with the FTC Wednesday.Right now, there's no easy way to opt out multiple tracking schemes, said Mark Cooper, research director for the Consumer Federation of America. "The consumer needs a clear and consumer-friendly opportunity to opt out of being tracked," he said. "We don't have that today. We have all kinds different approaches, and not-so-friendly interfaces."The do-not-track list, similar in some ways to a do-not-call telemarketing list maintained by the FTC, would allow consumers to take control of their personal information online, Cooper said. While they would originally have to download the list and manually enter sites to block into security software, the privacy coalition expects that browser developers would create tools to automate that process, he said."This is a single step for consumers, and this is completely needed," said Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum.In addition to the do-not-track proposal, the FTC filing also called on the agency to require that companies collecting data disclose what data they hold to consumers who ask for it. The groups also called on the U.S. Congress to create an online consumer protection advisory committee that could work with the FTC on online privacy issues, and they created a new definition of personally identifiable information that includes things such as screen names and online behavior that can be used to pinpoint an individual.The proposal also suggests consumers should receive contextual notice of tracking efforts, Dixon said. "When a consumer is online and clicking on things, they get the notice at the right time and the right place," she said.The proposal comes a day before the FTC hosts a two-day workshop on behavioral advertising online. Representatives of the groups said they've had limited interaction with the FTC on the proposal so far, but they will talk about it at the workshop.The Network Advertising Initiative (NAI), a cooperative of online marketing and analytics companies, has distributed a cookie-based system since 2001 that allows users to opt out of behavioral advertising. But members of the privacy coalition say the NAI effort has largely not worked partly because online users often mistrust cookies.The NAI said a government-run program wouldn't work. The proposal would create a government-run list that would force computers to "call home to the government on a regular basis," the group said in a statement."This proposal for a government-run blacklist would break both the basic functionality and economic models of most, if not all, e-commerce and content-driven consumer Web sites," the group added. "It would also make much of the personalization available on the Web's most popular sites, enjoyed by millions, a thing of the past."The do-not-track list would not block online advertisements, said Ari Schwartz, CDT's deputy director. Instead, the proposal would give consumers "more control" over who tracks them, he said.Google, which has moved to acquire advertising giant DoubleClick, said in a statement it welcomed the privacy groups' proposal. "We need to review the proposal in more detail, but we welcome innovative ideas in this area and believe the industry as a whole should, too," a company spokeswoman said.This article was updated with new information on Oct. 31, 2007.

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