moot4chan

Who doesn't know moot? Christopher Poole, also known as m00t, is the founder of 4chan, an internet board that both anonymous and non-persistent.

If you did not know moot or 4chan, you would most certainly have heard of him when the latter decided that the former had to win the title of Time's World's Most Influential Person. They not only rigged the online poll for the winner, but ensured that the first letters of the top 21 read - mARBLE CAKE ALSO THE GAME.

Well moot got an opportunity to speak at TED and pitch the case for online anonymity. It was a short speech, with a longish Q&A after. It was a good overview of the pluses and minuses of 4chan and anonymity, but it was also missing a core message that drove the need to limit privacy intrusion online. A fun watch, but maybe a missed opportunity as well.

Googlicious

Seems like a lot is happening with Google. Two noteworthy blog posts in the same day - at least noteworthy for me.

First, the Nexus One phone (which our household owns) will no longer be sold via their online website. I am sure it is a sound decision given their sales problems. But it takes away the one chance for the mobile phone market in the US to finally break free of the carrier choke hold. Funnily, this was timed just days after we picked up the new Car dock accessory for the phone.

Second, looks like Google Street view has been collecting a lot more information than the previously disclosed. Not only were the Google cars collecting the names of SSIDs and MAC addresses, but they had been collecting fragments of actual payload (data transmitted unencrypted through the network).

So that is one apology and one surrender. Not bad for day's work.

Updated: Link to google.com/phone no longer is live, updated to static Nexus One page.

Google: My Search

It is about time google put together this. Everything that Google produces has me responding in one of two ways - Can they really do that? or Damn! Why did they take so long to get this out.

And this is an example of the latter. Google already does our searches for us. It already has all the strings with it. All it has to do is dump them in a database of some sort and allow us poor mortals some intertface to browse through it. And bingo - an awesome addition to the Google arsenel.

And again, as with everything that Google does, some people are saying just one thing - What about my privacy? Which is the ridiculous statement that is the reason for this blog.

What privacy are you losing when Google is just showing you a copy of what you have already done on their website? There is no additional information that Google is collating together that they dont already know. Knowing Google, it is probably already a part of their servers and you are just getting to see and delete it now! You ought to be happy that you have access to delete a history of all your searches.

And finally it is an opt-in option. You are not signed up my default for you - you need to go in, sign yourself in and remain that way for this to work.

Go ahead - take a break. Have fun. And get some work done quickly for a change.

your refrigerator knows what you are storing inside it
dont use it
-- ravi