Is Google approaching some kind of functional omniscience? Could this be a good thing?

Whether you think Google is going to be the precursor to Skynet or you’re wondering how to make its Big Brother-esque worldview work for you, there’s no arguing the search engine giant is getting closer to full access of every type of personal data you can get from the Internet. Despite the urge some may feel to welcome our new robot overlords, Google’s dominance isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Why it’s good

Google Street View is one of those very handy Google services that allows you to walk the streets of countless locations in the world. It’s probably also influenced the amount of horse head masks sold as people try to get truly ridiculous as the street view car rolls past. While it might seem like Google is trying to lead us in to a dystopian future, it actually makes a lot of sense to be thrilled about the amount of information they’re compiling. Google is tracking exactly how people spend their time and resources, whether they’re looking for the best directions between cities or exercising their knowledge of common search terms people are using on a local level. This type of information might not seem significant to your business in the short term, but in the long run it’s going to be a lot more useful than you could imagine.

Augmented reality is another endeavor Google is going for that would literally put them in front of everyone’s eyes with Google Glasses. The amount of information Google continues to receive is going to get greater and greater, which will also lead to more efficient business processes… and disturbingly targeted advertisements.

Practical applications

The practical application for Google’s seeming omnipresence is worldwide ventures like the trucking industry can take advantage of this information to lower their fuel consumption. Companies will be able to determine what their customers are looking for locally, the best routes to take and what kind of demand they’re going to have for specific products.

Google is spreading out into all sorts of areas. Consumers might just be wise to take advantage of easier access to information, even if it does get somewhat invasive. It’s always exciting to see what the next big Google innovation is going to be and figuring out exactly how to turn it to your business advantage. Use the tools and information at your fingertips to better your life in and out of the office. Just make sure to take cover if conversations turn towards Skynet.

What is Linux?

Linux was one student’s dream for a computer operating system to fill in all the holes found in the reigning champions, DOS and Unix. Operating systems run on a kernel, a nucleus that ties all the applications together with the processing hardware. In 1991, Linus Torvalds started building a kernel that would serve as the core component for Linux.

Torvalds posted about his hobby project in MINIX, an open source community. This brought other hobbyists onboard to add code to the system. Eventually, the project took on a life of its own and become Linux, a free and open source software package.

Benefits of the Linux System

The primary benefit Linux offers over operating systems like Windows is flexibility. By definition, the Linux platform is Unix-like. This means it has all the same bells and whistles as Unix, plus the stable environment allows for multiple users and applications.

Linux is fast, portable and provides rich computing power that will work with a variety of products without all the restrictions that come with other operating systems. It houses an advanced graphical interface with a windows manager to make it user-friendly.

One of the key advantages of Linux is the open source environment. With the Linux system, users have access to thousands of applications, applets, tools and programs. It’s not a one-size-fits-all system. The flexibility allows users to customize Linux operating systems to fit their needs.

What is OpenStack?

The OpenStack project began in 2010 when cloud hosting company Rackspace collaborated with NASA. The goal was to provide an environment where any organization could build and offer cloud computing services utilizing standard hardware. Simply put, to provide a platform that any company could us for cloud computing without stringent hardware restrictions. They wanted to build something more versatile than other environments.

OpenStack is a fluid project that is growing by leaps and bounds, just like Linux did in the beginning. Large corporations such as AT&T, Dell, Amazon, Hewlet Packard and IBM are becoming players in the OpenStack game.

Linux is a system that offers expansion and flexibility. These two elements are also the most prevalent features of OpenStack. Closed cloud platforms will also evolve over time, but not with the fluidity of an open source environment. Open source allows different players the opportunity to build and customize.

As more corporations come aboard the OpenStack train, the system will improve. This cloud computing service model is taking on a life of its own just like another open source project did once upon a time. The future of cloud services may be in the system proving to be the next Linux. With a vibrant community and an open standard gaining traction, OpenStack has a good chance of being the basis for many cloud projects and providers in the coming years.

OpenStack, a project of Rackspace cloud, is a service in cloud computing that works in conjunction with approximately 150 companies. For this project, Rackspace Hosting joined forces with NASA in 2010 to initiate an open source cloud. Other companies have joined OpenStack since its inception including AT&T, HP Public Cloud, MercadoLibre.com, Deutsche Telekom and more.

Aiming to supply easily understandable solutions to cloud issues by adding plenty of features and making it simple to approach for users such as corporations, service providers, researchers, global data centers and many other types of technology focused businesses, OpenStack has launched a global open source community. Additionally, all of the code for OpenStack is readily available for fellow coders and anyone else to work on, add to and build on at anytime, thus living up to its name and philosophy. This open environment does create a safe haven for those who believe in the goals of cloud technology and cloud standards.

Adding to the sense of community that OpenStack instills, encourages and nurtures, OpenStack and its sponsors held a conference in San Francisco, California, April 19 and 20 to bring everyone together who holds an interest in cloud technology and web hosting.

The event was organized by Rackspace Hosting and was sponsored by HP, Nebula and Ubuntu. The itinerary of the event was chock full of quality with renowned speakers, panels, vendors, CIOs, developers, researchers and much more to keep everyone with a vested interest in this field busy for a full two days.

Rackspace took the opportunity to post photos of the OpenStack Conference event on Flickr, the major online photo sharing source that was the true behemoth in photo sharing on the Internet until it was purchased by Yahoo. While Flickr still survives, it has fallen a bit to the wayside in the shadow of Facebook and other photo sharing sources. Rackspace still sees the value in sharing photographs on Flickr and has done so with the Openstack photos, sharing images from the launch party and more.

By introducing a visual presence for technological companies and industries through the use of Flickr, it opens up the world of technology to everyone including fellow leaders in the industry and allows a glimpse of who these creative members of the technology world are. Flickr still allows for simple photo sharing for those with an account, whether free or pro.

Flickr is a fascinating company in its own right, in terms of how it began, which was as an offshoot of another project from a husband and wife developing team who had been working on a game when they realized their photo sharing features were the true find. Hosting photos became much simpler for bloggers and anyone else interested in easily posting photos. It makes sense that a Web hosting company such as Rackspace still sees the value in such a solid photo sharing platform.

The Internet has made everyone’s life easier in many respects. It is no longer necessary to hand write letters, nor is it difficult to keep up with headlines from around the world or the score from Sunday’s game. Perhaps one of the biggest changes that the Internet offers, however, is online shopping. Gone are the days when you had to drive from store to store, hoping to luck out with a good sale. Now, all of your shopping needs are literally at your fingertips.

This is especially important during the upcoming holiday season. As has been evidenced by the pandemonium of Black Friday leading to record sales this year, consumers are on the lookout for good deals. The madness just continued with Cyber Monday.

What is Cyber Monday?

For those unfamiliar with this term, “Cyber Monday” debuted during the 2005 holiday season, and is the Monday following Black Friday. On this day, companies offer discounts on their websites akin to deals offered in-store on Black Friday. According to Cyber Monday statistics, this shopping day garnered $733 million in 2007, $846 million in 2008, $887 million in 2009, and more than $1 billion in 2010. With sales increasing exponentially every year, the popularity of this shopping day is apparent. Not only do customers get awesome deals, but they don’t have to battle traffic and other shoppers for their favorite gadgets and gizmos.

Companies made the most of Cyber Monday this year. In addition to email marketing and traditional marketing strategies, in which companies directly notify consumers of impending deals and can’t-miss sales, and websites from individual stores, there were websites that are devoted to compiling any and all Cyber Monday deals. CyberMonday2011.com was among these. When people visited this site, they were able to view deals, coupons, and read a blog related to Cyber Monday. This helped consumers find the best deal out there – making their money stretch all the more.

What about this year?

Shop.org, a National Retail Federation affiliate, predicted that 122 million Americans would shop Monday, and that 78% of retailers would offer deals and promotions. “I think you’re going to see an even stronger number this year,” said Beth Robertson, director of payments research at Javelin Strategy and Research. What this means is that, regardless of what time of day people surfed the Internet in search of the perfect deal, they were likely very happy with what they found. They not only saved money, but didn’t have to deal with crowds, or have to worry about being pepper sprayed over their Christmas wish list.

If you’re like most customers, you may be worried about having a good Christmas while still staying within a strict budget. With so many deals to be found, millions of Americans were able to get their shopping out of the way on Cyber Monday, and be able to relax and actually enjoy your holiday season.

We will not see the likes of you again. Thank you for bringing the next stage of human evolution to market.

In 1984, you changed the game of human civilization by bringing the personal computer to the masses.

You brought us Toy Story and Finding Nemo–two academy award winners.  You changed the music industry with iPod, iTunes and then iCloud.  You selected problems with precision and prophetic agility, rather than pumping out plagiarized versions of solutions that had already happened you perfected your vision.  You predicted the rise and the necessity of the personal computer.  You predicted the creative potential of the internet.  You were already talking about cloud computing in 1997.  You changed the music industry.  You changed the mobile phone industry.  You changed the way that we communicate with each other.

For all these things: thank you.

Many like me have been on Facebook so long, and for some important formative years that it’s highly possible the site knows more us than we do. This epic backlog of information is the real price of entry. Whereas in the 2001 Internet, the only real digital information most companies had to operate off of was e-mail, which built a solid industry around email marketing that endured today. Facebook’s ad targeting works similarly, capturing users in a place they always are – checking e-mail and checking Facebook are how millions of people start their Internet days – and hitting them with highly targeted ads based on user activity within the site and also around the internet.

Spotify

Spotify may have just reached US shores, but is wasting no time fitting in. Integration of their application with Facebook through Open Graph has allowed for a more tightly woven web of social activity. Sharing has gone further than a cursory adding of Facebook friends within Spotify to encompass the minutiae of Spotify listening habits. When you begin listening to a song, it appears in the Ticker for friends to see, and it does this automatically. If those friends have Spotify, they can listen to the same song simply by clicking on the notification. The more users enable this connection between Facebook and Spotify, the more demographic information will be provided to both services, opening the door for marketers to target customers with relevant advertising. This is just the beginning. Soon Facebook users will be able to tie nearly any web music service into their Facebook dashboard, pulling all their activity into one place for sharing.

Video Streaming

Not to be left out in the cold, popular web video services like Hulu, Netflix, and Vimeo are boarding the bandwagon. Hulu’s Facebook app allows users to share TV shows in new ways, showing others what they’ve watched, and allowing them to stream from within Facebook. Users will be able to tag specific times within the video, and of coruse post comments on videos. Netflix aspires to similar levels of grandeur, but they are currently crippled by the 1988 Video Privacy Protection Act which does not allow for public sharing of viewing histories. Watching a video through the Netflix and Hulu applications provides both Facebook and the video services with habitual viewing data, giving advertisers a massive, localized pool of data they can use to target customers.

During the F8 conference last week, Facebook unveiled Open Graph protocol which enables tighter integration with services like Spotify, Turntable.fm, Netflix, Hulu, and manifold other social applications. pool of data on its users is only going to increase. The recent rollout of the ticker in the top right of each Facebook user’s home screen shares with them the activities of their friends and is, on some levels an attempt to influence users’ browsing habits and collect even more information on user interests that can give advertisers more options for ad targeting.

The initial contention by NASA was that the solid-fuel rocket boosters were to be protected by the rubber O-ring so that hot gas could be prevented from escaping. NASA scientists posited O-rings were not only flexible but, more importantly, well-suited to withstand extremely cold weather. Sadly, nothing could have been further from the truth as physicist Richard Feynman publicly displayed. Feynman’s simple example of dropping an O-ring into ice-cold water demonstrated how an O-ring loses its resilience in low temperatures. The seal failure on Challenger allowed hot gas to leak from its right solid rocket booster.
And, as history has shown, it was this seal failure that allowed the solid rocket boosters’ flames to literally ‘torch’ the external fuel tank. The domino effect dislodged the booster and subsequently ignited the liquid hydrogen, which ultimately created the explosion.

How did this tragedy turn darkness into light? Rigorous re-examination and testing became critical elements to subsequent O-ring development, manufacturing and compound development. The ability of O-rings and seals to sustain integrity under extreme conditions was broadened. In no way can one contend that a disaster like the Challenger’s was necessary to create safety and innovation. Yet, it is clear the lives’ lost that cold day in 1986 were catalytic to future progress.