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Comment What the hell happened inside Google? (Score 5, Interesting) 410

Their motto has been thrown down the drain with the recent press releases, media coverage, and acquisitions. It's almost as if they're no longer the original company with their great philosophies.

1. Investment in Zynga, a company who's CEO admitted to using forms of fraud to ensure the success of his company.
2. Acquisition of Slide, another company whose success is mostly based upon their acknowledged violation of MySpace's Terms of Service.
3. Discontinuation of Google Wave, a product which despite relatively low adoption levels, is very powerful and useful for many users. It's basically as awesome as GMail, but for a more niche market.
4. Now, (even though talks began 10 months ago) an agreement which undermines Net Neutrality... not by lobbying against it, not by crossing their arms regarding the issue, but by planning to make an agreement between another private company, as if the Internet were owned by them (Google)?

I'm dumbfounded. Simply dumbfounded.

I've sincerely been a Google supporter since a little kid, and loved their products, services, and philosophies... and for most of this time, I ignored most critics, since Google actually kept doing good for the most part. Now, all of that has changed. I'm very disappointed in Google. :/

Submission + - Today is System Administrator Appreciation Day (sysadminday.com)

ArbiterOne writes: The 11th Annual System Administrator Appreciation Day is today. Celebrated worldwide on the last Friday of July, this holiday honors those who fight in the digital trenches to keep the 'Net alive.

OpenDNS offers a way to remind your boss about the holiday, while another blogger shares war stories. The startup Ksplice created an homage to these heroes... in the style of Choose Your Own Adventure.

How are you celebrating Sysadmin Day?

Google

Submission + - YouTube upload limit increased to 15 minutes (tekgoblin.com)

tekgoblin writes: This is great news, the original 10 minute limit on videos uploaded to YouTube (YouTube) has now been increased to 15 minutes. It was very time consuming to split an hour video into 6 separate parts, now it only has to be done 4 times.

YouTube stated that an increase in the time limit for videos was the number 1 most requested feature on YouTube. They want you to take advantage of this new change by uploading your 15 minutes of fame video to the site and tagging it with “yt15minutes” the best video will be displayed in the featured spotlight on YouTube’s front page for the world to see.

The move to 15 minutes was also influenced by the success of the content ID program created by YouTube to help the music and movie industry identify copyright content on YouTube.

Submission + - In a CDN’d world, OpenDNS is the enemy (sajalkayan.com) 2

The_PHP_Jedi writes: "Alternative DNS services, such as OpenDNS and Google Public DNS, are used to bypass the sluggishness often associated with local ISP DNS servers. However, as more Web sites, particularly smaller ones, use Content Distribution Networks (CDNs) via embedded ads, widgets and other assets, the effectiveness of non-ISP DNS servers may be undermined. Why? Because CDNs rely on the location of a user's DNS server to determine the closest server with the hosted content. Sajal Kayan published a series of test results which demonstrates the difference, and also provided the Python script used so you can test which is the most effective DNS service for your own Internet connection."
Google

Submission + - Google Describes Wi-Fi Sniffing in Pending Patent

theodp writes: After mistakenly saying that it did not collect Wi-Fi payload data, Google had to reverse itself, saying 'it's now clear that we have been mistakenly collecting samples of payload data from open (i.e. non-password-protected) WiFi networks.' OK, mistakes happen. But, as Seinfeld might ask, then what's the deal with the pending Google patent that describes capturing wireless data packets by operating a device — which 'may be placed in a vehicle' — in a 'sniffer' or 'monitor' mode and analyzing them on a server? Guess belated kudos are owed to the savvy Slashdot commenter who speculated back in January that the patent-pending technology might be useful inside a Google Street View vehicle. Google faces inquiries into its Wi-Fi packet sniffing practices by German and U.S. authorities.
Idle

Submission + - Man Single-Handedly Builds Underground Subway (treehugger.com)

jerryjamesstone writes: Everybody is into rail these days; it is the greenest way to get around next to a bike. Leonid Mulyanchik has been into it for years since before the Berlin Wall fell, since before the first Macintosh, building "his own private underground Metro railway system." English-Russia says that he has been doing it with his pension, that it is all legal and approved and that he is still at it. Gizmodo calls it "inspiring, one man against all odds type of persistence, but more the obsessive, borderline insane persistence."
Firefox

Submission + - Grammar Checking Add-on for Firefox (afterthedeadline.com)

An anonymous reader writes: My project just released a grammar, style, and spell checking add-on for Firefox. It's smart because it uses context to generate spelling suggestions and decide which errors to show. After the Deadline for Firefox works with most web pages. You can check grammar in Google Docs, vet your comments on Slashdot, and check your tweets with the push of a button. Our goal is to give everyone tools to write better, no matter where they are. The technology is open source too.
Google

Submission + - Google hack author may have been identified (ft.com)

SpuriousLogic writes: US analysts believe they have identified the Chinese author of the critical programming code used in the alleged statesponsored hacking attacks on Google and other western companies, making it far harder for the Chinese government to deny involvement.

Their discovery came after another team of investigators tracked the launch of the spyware to computers inside two educational institutions in China, one of them with close ties to the military.

A freelance security consultant in his 30s wrote the part of the program that used a previously unknown security hole in the Internet Explorer web browser to break into computers and insert the spyware, a researcher working for the US government told the Financial Times. Chinese officials had special access to the work of the author, who posted pieces of the program to a hacking forum and described it as something he was "working on".

The developments will add to the furore over the hacking campaign, revealed last month when Google said its systems had been compromised. It threatened to pull out of China, and secretary of state Hillary Clinton asked the Chinese foreign minister for a probe.

Sony

Submission + - No Windows 7 XP Mode for Sony Vaio Owners

Voyager529 writes: "While virtually every Core 2 Duo processor supports the hardware virtualization technology that powers the Windows 7 XP Mode, The Register UK reports that the Core 2 Duo processors in the Sony Vaio Z series laptops had the virtualization features intentionally crippled in the BIOS. Senior manager for product marketing Xavier Lauwaert stated that the QA engineers did this to make the systems more resilient against malicious code. He also stated that while they are considering enabling VT in some laptop models due to the backlash, the Z series are not among those being retrofitted."

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