Google Blogoscoped

Saturday, October 16, 2004

Microsoft Employee Sticks to Google

“So now I have GMail, the Google Toolbar, the Google Deskbar, and the Google Desktop. To search MSDN help, I use google. At home, all my computers use Google as their home page. When I want to browse the web on my phone, I use Google Number Search.

See a trend here?

I work for Microsoft. I own plenty of Microsoft stock. I want Microsoft to succeed. But right now Google is kicking our butt.”
– Jaybaz, Uh-oh, it’s google (MS WebLog), October 15, 2004 [Via Dirson.]

Big Brother Forever

You probably saw or heard of the reality TV show “Big Brother,” in which a group of people are locked into a house for months – cameras permanently rolling everywhere. The only escape so far was waiting for the show’s end.

Now German Spiegel reports the TV channel RTL-II is building a complete small city for the next Big Brother, which will then run without end. The show (produced by Rainer Laux) will make it possible to host the mainly jobless candidates for decades; inside the 4,000 square meters will be a market place, shops, a church and a wood. In “Truman Show" style people can finish school, marry, and multipy.

The next Big Brother (certainly the most Orwellian to date) is expected to start in March next year. I’m waiting for Running Man to come to the small screen in 2006, and find people fight for their lives on TV to win the grand prize.

Searchbot in a Pub

Rainer Kersten tells a German tale of a searchbot who meets a web designer in a pub. [Via Blogcat.]

My Top Ten Spam Subject Lines Of the Past Weeks

10. Download our Free RAM Software for Free
What is a RAM software? And is it really, really free?

9. YOUR EMAIL WON THE LOTTERY
I knew it! My email’s playing lottery behind my back.

8. CONGRATULATIONS LOTTERY WINNER!!!
Seriously though, if I’d ever actually do win the lottery, I wouldn’t notice because past spam trained me to ignore this.

7. how to get $40 each from 1 million people?
Uh, maybe by creating an island democracy with incredibly low taxes?

6. URGENT MAIL/GOD BLESS YOU?
I like this. Look at how someone couldn’t decide which topic to stick in the subject line, ending with a question mark. Do I know?

5. Directions--make left at the lake...
OK, I just don’t get it. This would almost have convinced me to read the mail, if not for the fact it was automatically moved to my spam folder.

4. our conversation on august 7th - Thu, 14 Oct 2004 21:18:28 +0100
This guy knows how to freak me out. Talk about anal-retentive friends remembering the exact date and time of a talk.

3. Stop spam
Yeah, very clever. Next please.

2. Captain Geddes
I’m actually not sure if this is spam. Here’s the mail:

“Hello - I do not know to whom I should address this but I was hoping you could give me a lead.

I am in possession of an old wooden leg, if you will, which is flat and put together using pegs - no nails - and it is inscribed Captain Geddes.

I called Wintherur Museum in Delaware and was told that it would have been a means of preserving the woolen stockings worn by the British and American soldiers during the time of the War for Independence. The stockings would have been put on the “leg” to dry and retain their shape.

I was hoping that perhaps you might be able to tell me who I should be contacting in regard to this item. I’m assuming that it would be some kind of historian.

Any help you could give me would be greatly appreciated.”

 

And the number one spam subject of the last weeks is:

1. POW!! $1 + $1 + $1 + $1 + $1 ... SMACKEROOZ!!
Pure Dada – this might have worked if I was drunk, and stupid.

Bad Reputation Search

Of course, this Bad Reputation Search works with any company:

Jon Stewart (Video)

Here’s Jon Stewart of Comedy Central’s Daily Show on CNN’s Crossfire [AVI, 97 MB, by Random Foo].
Kottke says this is “both sad and hilarious." More coverage at Salon.

Christophe Bruno’s Art Projects

Christophe Bruno has some exceptional and inspiring output often related to Google:

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