My Blog Has Moved

My blog has permanently moved to http://www.theshtat.com/blog/. The new RSS feed is http://www.theshtat.com/blog/feed/.

Great Moments in Gadgetry

Thanks to Dealnews, I snagged a Dell 2001FP monitor for $564 plus shipping. This was a no brainer. It took me a while to realize that Dell's hardware prices are highly dependent on the coupon code you dig up, the current phase of the moon, and your general temperament at the time of purchase.

This type of promotion always struck me as kind of random: reward people who spend a long time hunting around for the best deals. They don't have to buy additional accessories, mail in rebates, or recommend the manufacturer's products to their friends - only spend the requisite amount of time looking for the secret alphanumeric passphrase that lowers the price. Speak friend and enter.

The AdWords API

The AdWords API, a project I've spent most of my time working on recently, launched today. The API lets you interact with Google's advertising system programmatically. It's probably too geeky for, say, your grandmother to appreciate, but if you have an AdWords account and have written a for-loop or two in your day, go check it out.

What can you do with it? Well, you could always carry out Phil's "Eye of Sauron" scheme on an unprecedented scale. If you're into that sort of thing.

Quick Gadget Review

A few weeks ago, I bought an iRiver iHP-120.

Pros:

1. Supports lots of different codecs (mp3, ogg, wma, wav, asf). A significant fraction of my music is in Ogg Vorbis format, so this feature was central to my buying decision.
2. A long battery life. Sixteen hours is four more than the latest iPod.
3. A big honking eight-line, back-lit LCD.
4. Built in radio tuner and voice recorder. I'll barely use the former and probably never use the latter, but it's still nice to know that I can.
   

Cons:

1. Nothing beats the iPod's UI. The iRiver only lets you scroll through your music at a constant speed, which really gets annoying when going from Aha to, say, Machinae Supremacy.
2. If you want to browse music by artist/title/genre, you first need to build an index. This takes a little while but is manageable. The really sucky part is that the iRiver needs to reload the index each time you turn it on. As a result, about 45 seconds will pass after you press the "on" button but before you can play music.
3. Building an index requires installing custom software. The iRiver's bundled music management software is technically unnecessary because the player really just looks like an external hard drive to the operating system. Unfortunately, you need to install the (Windows-only) software in order to browse by song attribute.
   

Gates Compares Google to Jesus

From a recent interview:

Some things here are cases where there is a clear competitor. If you take our guys who are competing with Google, they understand exactly what they're measured against and how everybody thinks Google walks on water, and they've got to surprise the world.

He's just cranky because he looks like a turtle.

Taking Names

Normally, falling off the face of the blogosphere tends to work itself out. Fewer posts means fewer readers to remark about the half-abandoned state of things. Outgoing links are few, incoming links are none. Ashes to ashes. A veritable dearth of activity, one might say.

But if you're affiliated with a high-profile company still drenched in post-IPO publicity sludge, the blogosphere has a way of finding you. Despite the fact that I've remained quiet for the last month, Philipp Lenssen has drafted me into this fine list. Now that my blog has officially been pegged to my employer, this seems like a good place for a disclaimer.

The views, opinions, plugs, solicitations, and bad jokes found here are mine alone. Though Google had the exceedingly good sense to give me a job, its owners, managers, and employees are completely uninterested in this blog and have nothing to do with it. There.

See you in another month...

Iron Council

China Mieville's new novel is out. Translated to German, its title is Eisenrat. I can assure you that my name change endeavor would have been much expedited had that been -- well, you get the idea.

Knowing Your Planets

Let the record show that I didn't actually enter Phil's "Name My Conference Rooms" contest. Can't I mock those who bungle the order of the planets in peace? Or, for that matter, use the word bungle?

Something Smells Phishy

This morning, I received an email from "support@ebay.com":

Dear valued eBay member:
It has come to our attention that your eBay billing informations are out of order. If you could please take 5-10 minutes out of your online experience and update your personal records you will not run into any future problems with the online service. However, failure to update your records will result in account suspension. Please update your records by August 30th.

Once you have updated your account records your eBay session will not be interrupted and will continue as normal. Failure to update will result in cancellation of service, Terms of Service (TOS) violations or future problems.

To update your eBay records click here:
http://cgi1.ebay.com/aw-cgi/ebayISAPI.dll?UPdate

eBay Update team
http://www.ebay.com

I glossed over the message text and clicked on the hyperlink. Since I had recently changed credit cards, it was entirely plausible that my eBay billing information was outdated. But, as you might have suspected, SpoofStick immediately alerted me that something was off-kilter: You're on debsirin.ac.th.

It seems that a student at the Debsirin School in Thailand was phishing for my credit card number. All he got was a world of pain!!!

OK, maybe not. But at least my credit is safe.

Arnie on Governing

For Arnold Schwarzenegger, life sometimes imitates satire. From today's New York Times:

Asked to describe his governing philosophy seven months after toppling Gray Davis in California's recall election, he said, "Crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentations of their women."

Nice.

Righteous Claw Fury

I'm adopting a cat from the Safe Haven Animal Sanctuary. The lucky feline was recently rescued (by a former bodybuilder) from an apartment complex where strays were being poisoned to control their growing population.

To commemorate the cat's arrival, I'm taking part in a collaborative something or other called Righteous Claw Fury (www.catpundit.com). The idea - in keeping with my tendency to run jokes into the ground - is that nine "handlers" will write in the voice of a single bored housecat bent on escaping its carpeted dungeon and taking over the world. Think Stewie but with a penchant for catnip.

Choice Graduation Speech Quotes

"You’re not gonna have much trouble surpassing my generation. If you end up getting your picture taken next to a naked guy pile of enemy prisoners and don’t give the thumbs up you’ve outdid us." (Jon Stewart, William & Mary Commencement 2004)

"I think I should begin by acknowledging your disappointment that I am not Jon Stewart. Think how I feel. Your disappointment that I am not Jon Stewart will last one morning; I am disappointed at not being Jon Stewart every morning of my life." (Tony Kushner, Columbia Class Day 2004)

"What did Lincoln give America, apart from the Town Car?" (Ali G, Harvard Class Day 2004)

"Four of you -- and I'm not at liberty to say which four -- will go on to magnificent careers in the porno industry. I'm not trying to be funny. That's just a statistical fact." (Will Ferrell, Harvard Commencement 2003)

I'm Feeling Lucky

Last week, I started my job at Google. A few people have asked me to blog about what it's like on the inside. Life is pretty quiet around here, but two things I have found to be true are:

1. Food is not scarce. Though I initially meant to drop five or ten pounds, I'll be pretty happy just to maintain my current weight.
2. If you spot someone in the cafeteria who kind of resembles Al Gore, there's a halfway decent to excellent chance that it really is Al Gore.

New Gadgets Are Fun

The Panasonic PT-50LC13: 50 inches and 83 pounds of raw home entertainment fury.

Ow - my bank account hurts.

ISLAND Testing

A few days ago, Phil proposed a rating system to identify deceptive, irritating, or hostile Internet software. I figured that the ISLAND system - named after the six misfeatures it aims to quantify - could use a field test.

Four programs were put through the wringer:

1. WinZip 9.0
2. Google Toolbar 2.0.111 (disclaimer: I work for Google)
3. Yahoo! Messenger 6
4. AOL Instant Messenger 5.5

These evaluations are necessarily subjective. They are meant to promote discussion and raise awareness of naughty software practices. Disagree with the ratings? Feel free to post a comment or two.


Program: WinZip 9.0
ISLAND Score: 85

In the Walls: 1

• The express "recommended" installation type installs WinZip icons all over the place and hooks WinZip into the Windows shell.

Spy: 0

• Does not talk to the mothership.

Limited: 0

• Is not feature-limited.

Advertising: 0

• Does not show ads.

Nag: 3

• A registration dialog is shown every time the user starts Winzip. The "buy now" and "user evaluation version" buttons occasionally swap positions, presumably to trick the user into clicking on the registration button.

Defaults: 1

• Makes itself the default program for ZIP files and possibly other archive files.

Program: Google Toolbar 2.0.111
ISLAND Score: 94

In the Walls: 0

• No extra critters.

Spy: 1

• Enabling "advanced features" sends Google URLs of pages that user visits. This is explicitly spelled out and turned off by default.
• Information is never sold or given to any third parties.

Limited: 0

• Is not feature-limited.

Advertising: 0

• Does not show ads.

Nag: 0

• Does not solicit donations.

Defaults: 1

• Installation program shows checkbox to make Google the user's default search engine. It is checked (on) by default.

Program: Yahoo! Messenger 6
ISLAND Score: 70

In the Walls: 3

• The default "recommended" installation type automatically installs the Yahoo Toolbar and various Yahoo "extras". These are all given separate shortcuts and separate uninstall entries in "Add/Remove" programs.
• Places shortcuts for Yahoo Mail on Start Menu, taskbar, and desktop without asking user.

Spy: 3

• Yahoo collects personal info and may combine it with other info it gets from partners.
• Personal info is used to personalize content and ads shown to user.
• Personal info is given to Yahoo's "trusted partners".

Limited: 0

• Is not feature-limited.

Advertising: 1

• Displays "Yahoo! Insider" window by default when user signs in. It can be disabled through the preferences dialog.

Nag: 0

• Does not solicit donations.

Defaults: 3

• Installation program shows checkbox to make Yahoo the user's default search engine. It is checked (on) by default.
• Installation program shows checkboxes to make Yahoo.com the user's home page and Yahoo Mail the user's default mail app. They are both cleared (off) by default.
• Changing the install type (Typical or Custom) automatically rechecks the "make Yahoo my default search engine" box, even if the user has already cleared it. When the "Custom" install type is selected, it is impossible to uncheck the "make Yahoo my default search engine" box.

Program: AOL Instant Messenger 5.5
ISLAND Score: 73

In the Walls: 2

• Offers to install games support and WeatherBug, which are presented as AIM "components" and checked by default.
• Places "Free AOL & Unlimited Internet" shortcut on desktop and at top of Start Menu without asking user.

Spy: 3

• Personal info is used to personalize content and ads shown to user.
• Info used to offer other products/services "that may be of interest."
• Info may be used to present offers to user on behalf of AOL's business partners.
• Biz partners and advertisers receive aggregate data.

Limited: 0

• Is not feature-limited.

Advertising: 2

• AOL portal page with lots of ads is displayed by default when user signs in. It can be disabled through the preferences dialog.
• Small banner ad - occasionally animated - placed at top of buddy list.

Nag: 0

• Does not solicit donations.

Defaults: 2

• Installation program shows check box to make Netscape.com your home page. It is checked by default.