Any set of characters

Google docs / spreadsheets is frankly a fantastic achievement in HTML/Javascript/AJAX -  I mean, I’m frankly staggered at what they can do and how they do it, but I just can’t admire it because it seems so pointless!   Why pointless?  Because the functionality is available (in buckets) in Word, Pages or OpenOffice Writer - further more, the webness of it can be done, more reliably in Adobe AIR - and I would suggest with significantly less cost and engineering effort.   I think thats a challenge for Google, they have so much money and effort invested in their HTML/Ajax solutions (Gmail, Docs etc) and yet what they have achieved could be wiped out with a true Rich Internet Application solution in the very near future.  

Wow, it appears a $100 dollar phone by Google will be launched in both Europe and the US in a two week period, support GPS and internet and have VOIP chat so you can make free phone calls!   Click here.Soooo…. Given the mobile phone industry gets by on handset subsidies, trailing commissions and timed calls - one finds it hard to believe that Google can worldwide negotiate:

1. A very functional, but incredibly cheap handset which includes a feature that would invalidate the business model of the carrier it was being used on (i.e. free VOIP in wifi areas….)
2. And make it available on multiple networks, and in multiple countries immediately

One has to wonder, did google really peak with search?

The quality of their recent apps (chat etc) has been poor, and hidding behind the ‘beta’ tag is frankly starting to look a little stupid.

I suspect they are going through all the troubles you get when your software delivery team has to scale to many more staff and all the changes that are associated with it.

I think that’s what killed Netscape, will it take google with it?

I just whipped this up:

http://www.herod.net/dypm/

I’ve been struck by comment spam in the last few days with several spam comments awaiting moderation before I turned on akismet to block them.

This morning however, after 54 blocked comments, one got through akismet and I decided to try my hand at a WP plugin.

It turned out to be surprisingly easy, perhaps only 20 minutes work, including the learning of how wp plugins work for comments.

Credits to jroller for the inspiration. I guess we’ll find out if a spammer is interested in beating it - I’ve several ideas for improvements, but I’d rather keep them in reserve for when it gets beaten (which could be an hour from now, or a year )

Inspired by this article ‘Google sells its soul, and ours’

I’ve decided to ban cookies from google.com* - this may mean giving up my prized gmail account (prized in that all the cool kids have one, (but I never use it)).

I wonder what that will do for their ad click tracking and the like.

How can Google trade in information without becoming involved in its meaning and context?

My friend Scott had this to say