Google has purchased JotSpot and is not currently accepting new accounts while it switches the service to its servers. If you'd like to learn more about the site while that's taking place, this Video Tour is still available online.
. . . whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." [Link: BibleGateway.com - Passage�Lookup: John 4:10-14;.]
"We tend to think that the more people know and talk about something, the more important it must be. That's understandable, considering the fact that great notoriety often means big money, and big money often means a large degree of power, and power easily creates the illusion of importance. . . It strikes me again and again that, in our publicity-seeking world, a lot of discussions about God take it as their starting point that even God has to justify himself. . . People often talk as thought God has as great a need for recognition as we do. . . God reveals himself in secrecy. . ." (Henri J.M. Nouwen, pg. 83-84, paperback edition)
That's so true. . . whatever has a big "buzz" does have the illusion of being important. This passage made me think -- what if people really thought that the top ten searches in 2005 using Google, for example, were truly the top ten most important things? Here there are:
1. Janet Jackson
2. Hurricane Katrina
3. tsunami
4. xbox 360
5. Brad Pitt
6. Michael Jackson
7. American Idol
8. Britney Spears
9. Angelina Jolie
10. Harry Potter
And, I also thought, wouldn't it be cool if one year "God" or "Jesus" was the top search term?
"At Google, we think business guru Peter Drucker well understood how to manage the new breed of "knowledge workers." After all, Drucker invented the term in 1959. He says knowledge workers believe they are paid to be effective, not to work 9 to 5, and that smart businesses will "strip away everything that gets in their knowledge workers' way." Those that succeed will attract the best performers, securing "the single biggest factor for competitive advantage in the next 25 years." [MSNBC]
"Meals of all kinds, painstakingly prepared by company chefs, are free at the company's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., a modern corporate campus known as the Googleplex. Other amenities there include children's day care, doctors, dry cleaning, laundry, a gym, and basketball and volleyball courts. Maternity or paternity leave is 12 weeks at 75 percent of full pay. There is also up to $500 available for takeout meals for the entire family after a newborn arrives, courtesy of Google. Shuttle buses (with wireless Internet access for working while commuting) ferry employees to the Googleplex from throughout the Bay area. . . [T]he company's engineers are given 20 percent of their time to pursue their own ideas instead of company assignments. . . [A]ll Google employees receive stock grants or options . . . The company also doles out cash payments, including Founders' Awards of millions of dollars, for innovations that add value to the Google franchise." [NY Times; free registration required to read articles]
"Just in time for the Oscars, we've created a new "movie:" operator that enables you to find movie-related information faster and more easily, whether you're looking for titles or actors, director or genre, famous lines or obscure plot details. Can't remember the name of that film where Tom Hanks made friends with a volleyball? Search for [movie: Tom Hanks talking to a volleyball] and Google will tell you: it was Cast Away. Want rental recommendations? Try searching for [movie: awesome car chase] or [movie: good chick flick]." [Google Blog]
"Google ends months of fevered speculation regarding its IPO plans by announcing that, instead of a stock offering, executives have decided that the company will best achieve "increased long-term asset valuation" by taking over the world." [Salon; must subscribe or view an ad to see full article]
Yes, it's meant to be a humor piece. Found via John Battelle.
OK, I know this is a childish thing for me to link to, but doing a Google search for the phrase miserable failure will currently bring you to the biography of George W. Bush at the White House web site.
Didn't know about the Google Calculator until today. It's a built-in feature accessible from its normal search interface. Found it via A Welsh View, as well as subsequent links in this post. [I'll try to be more original most of the time, promise.] Kuro5hin tells us that the calculator can handle basic mathematical functions, imaginary numbers, units and bases. Waxy.org has computed How long you can play a 30GB iPod without repeating a song and How many seconds in a decade, among other things. And Kottke, not to be outdone, begins with a small calculation and then tries to find the outer limits of what the calculator can do.
Ever since the New York Times made their Times News Tracker subscription-only, I've been missing the service. Not enough to subscribe, though.
So, I'm happy to see the appearance of Google News Alerts in beta. 50 alerts per email address!
The function of TypePad that is being highlight today is TypePad News: Photo Albums">Photoalbums.
Continue reading "The Five Days of TypePad: Day 3: Photo Albums" »
