Today I installed the out of beta Google Chrome to see if they improved since I’ve looked at the software. It seems to me that Google Chrome is in a worse state than before. continue reading…
Last week, I used GMail from a computer that allowed all the adverts from Google. So I’ve read around 50 emails which exposed me to maybe 250 adverts. To my surprise I ended up clicking on probably 15 links that were interesting to me. The interesting bit is that the links were not related to the content of the email, but somehow the datamining that Google does, payed off because the links were interesting to me. After around 3 years of using Gmail, Google Reader and all the other services it seems that I am a very open book to them. I was trying to anonymize my broswer habits using different Firefox extensions but I am not sure it’s worth the effort anymore. As long as I am using Google Reader and Notebook, I have a cookie from Google for as long as the session is open. For the time being the cookie is sweet and I will enable the adverts in Gmail. I am not sure if in the long run I am at ease with this “lack of privacy”. I know it was my choice and in my case an educated one.
Rendezvous with Rama from Aaron Ross on Vimeo.
I found this gem on Vimeo. It’s incredible what an undergraduate student was able to create back in 2001. One of the best work I’ve seen. I think Arthur C. Clarke would have liked to see this very short movie.
This morning on my Engadget feed I found a possible future gem. So far it doesn’t do much, but the concepts are very interesting. Still thinking about the implications.
g-speak overview 1828121108 from john underkoffler on Vimeo.
Today, Microsoft launched Azure which is the Microsoft OS for the cloud. I am not going to enter into technical details or compare Azure with AppEngine or Amazon Web Services. Something else grabbed my attention. continue reading…
I am using a lot of products from Google lately : Gmail, GCal, Reader, Docs, News, Analytics, Adsense, Picassa. One thing that annoys me a little is that the login page for each of these products is different. I understand the need for the different text in the page, but I would like to get the login box in the same position all the time. And also I would appreciate if the layout of the login page would be identical across the different Google products. It’s a very small touch that can be easy implemented and can make a difference. It’s one thing when your products are geared towards geeks, it’s a different thing when you want that everybody use your products. This lack of attention to detail is annoying when you deal with Google.
After looking at the latest Apple media event and reading most of the comments from different pundits around the web I had a small revelation. Everybody is talking about Steve Jobs leaving Apple due to his health, but I think no one has come up with the real reason.
Since 2004 I’ve saved a lot of information in different formats and systems:
My problem lately is how to create knowledge in an easy way from all this information overload. I’ve tried all sort of web based systems for organizing information, but no luck so far. And I know that search such as Google or Copernic desktop is not enough for creating knowledge.
I am dreaming of an intelligent agent who is capable to create short briefs based on my interests, to answer some basic questions by accessing all the info that I have, to analyze calendar data (ical format), to be location aware. I know that this is what semantic web is all about it, but this web is still 1-2 years away, and I am sure that as long as I have non structured information is going to be impossible for the semantic web products to generate knowledge out of the information chaos.
It would be great if this kind of agent would run on a smart phone and be with me all the time.
On a side note the more I use Google Reader, Gmail and Google Notebook, the more I feel the need to get all my acquired data from their systems, but I didn’t find yet the right app that could that for me.
Finally I can write about a Romanian company that seems to have a nice web 2.0 product or at least a demo. For the record I have to say that I found out about them from a foreign news site which is kind of sad. Anyway, below you have a video demoing their product and if you want to find out more you should go to Ubervu . I hope they won’t disappoint me 
.
uberVU presentation – Seedcamp demo from Vladimir Oane on Vimeo.
