You can also participate to Google U.S. Puzzle Championship. The registration is open until June 15. Here's the test from 2005.
Related:
The brilliant Niniane Wang
Google Calculator
Googler's list
Google Puzzle
Google is a puzzle for many of us, but until we find the last pieces, let's try Wei-Hwa's Puzzle Challenges, a module for Google Personalized Homepage with really tough puzzles. Perhaps because the puzzles are created (or at least carefully selected) by a Googler.
You can also participate to Google U.S. Puzzle Championship. The registration is open until June 15. Here's the test from 2005.
Related:
The brilliant Niniane Wang
Google Calculator
Googler's list
You can also participate to Google U.S. Puzzle Championship. The registration is open until June 15. Here's the test from 2005.
Related:
The brilliant Niniane Wang
Google Calculator
Googler's list
GBuy To Launch This Month
Forbes found out that Google's GBuy is set to launch on June 28. "We have been working to automate the advertiser click cycle. In other words, what we want to do is the moment the customer decides to purchase something, we want to make that as fast as we possibly can." said Jonathan Rosenberg about the project."If harnessed, the precision of this targeting could be revolutionary," wrote RBC analyst Jordan Rohan.
GBuy will be a competitor to PayPal and will not charge merchants for its payment service during the beta phase.
Related:
Google Wallet
Google Purchases - ready to launch?
Google Minesweeper
No operating system would be complete without the cool Minesweeper. Scott Persinger found a secret beta and has the details:
"Continuing it's attack against the entrenched Microsoft application monopolies, Google Labs today launched a new Ajax version of the venerable Minesweeper application. The application is not open to the public yet, but I was able to secure a screenshot which you can see below."
I'm looking forward for more games provided by Google, after the success of Da Vinci Code Game.
{ Via Google Blogoscoped. }
[ Categories: funny, Google, beta, Photoshopped. ]
"Continuing it's attack against the entrenched Microsoft application monopolies, Google Labs today launched a new Ajax version of the venerable Minesweeper application. The application is not open to the public yet, but I was able to secure a screenshot which you can see below."
I'm looking forward for more games provided by Google, after the success of Da Vinci Code Game.
{ Via Google Blogoscoped. }
[ Categories: funny, Google, beta, Photoshopped. ]
Google Video History and Favorites
Google saves links to the videos watched at Google Video to Google Search History. So the next time you want to find the video about Apple you watched last week you can search your Google History. If you are there, you can bookmark the video with Google Bookmarks.
Another new feature is Movers & Shakers. If you don't know the meaninig of the idiom, it's "one who wields power and influence in a sphere of activity". Google groups videos that are most influential in a restricted territory. You can see the moves & shakers in a country (for example, US).
Google World Cup Results (Exclusive)
As reported earlier, Google Search includes news about the football matches at FIFA World Cup 2006. If you search for [Germany Costa Rica], which is the opening match, you'll see the date of the game. Google will show real time results and other interesting data, including videos. Other queries to try: [Brazil football], [US soccer], [Poland FIFA], [Japan World Cup], [World Cup].
Update: there's also a module you can add to Google Personalized Homepage.
Also view: World Cup 2006 Calendar
Google Subdomains
View the history of Google through its subdomains. Some subdomains are for new products, other are for internal purposes. You'll find many interesting sites like http://eval.google.com available only for Google testers, http://compute.google.com related to the Google Compute project or the weird http://purchase.google.com related to the Google Wallet rumour.The document is released under a Creative Commons license.
Download Google Subdomains(104 KB)
*Data obtained from Netcraft.
Google Regrets Censoring China
Sergey Brin admitted yesterday in Washington that Google had adopted "a set of rules that [they] weren't comfortable with". Although he didn't explicitly said it, he referred at the decision to censor sensitive results from Google.cn. "We felt that perhaps we could compromise our principles but provide ultimately more information for the Chinese and be a more effective service. Perhaps now the principled approach makes more sense."
"It took Google more than a year to make the decision that offering a censored version of its search services in China would be a lesser evil than boycotting business in the country altogether", explained Eric Schmidt in January.
"Filtering our search results clearly compromises our mission. Failing to offer Google search at all to a fifth of the world's population, however, does so far more severely," was another position of Google at that time.
While Google has launched Google.cn, most Chinese people used Google.com, that didn't censor results, although many sites were inaccessible. Until last week, because Chinese authorities have blocked most domestic users from Google.com. "It was only to be expected that Google.com would be gradually sidelined after the censored version was launched in January," Reporters Without Borders said in a statement.
So now it's too late for Google to regret censoring the results for Google China. But it's never too late to find out the definition of censorship. Next time you think about this word, picture this beautiful image.
Censorship is the systematic use of group power to broadly control freedom of speech and expression, largely in regard to secretive matters. Sanitization (cleaning or decontamination) and whitewashing (from whitewash) are almost interchangeable terms that refer to particular acts or campaigns of censorship or omission which seek to "clean up" the portrayal of particular issues and facts which are already known, but which may conflict with a presented point of view. (from Google Glossary)
Update: Google.com is available again in China.
"It took Google more than a year to make the decision that offering a censored version of its search services in China would be a lesser evil than boycotting business in the country altogether", explained Eric Schmidt in January.
"Filtering our search results clearly compromises our mission. Failing to offer Google search at all to a fifth of the world's population, however, does so far more severely," was another position of Google at that time.
While Google has launched Google.cn, most Chinese people used Google.com, that didn't censor results, although many sites were inaccessible. Until last week, because Chinese authorities have blocked most domestic users from Google.com. "It was only to be expected that Google.com would be gradually sidelined after the censored version was launched in January," Reporters Without Borders said in a statement.
So now it's too late for Google to regret censoring the results for Google China. But it's never too late to find out the definition of censorship. Next time you think about this word, picture this beautiful image.
Censorship is the systematic use of group power to broadly control freedom of speech and expression, largely in regard to secretive matters. Sanitization (cleaning or decontamination) and whitewashing (from whitewash) are almost interchangeable terms that refer to particular acts or campaigns of censorship or omission which seek to "clean up" the portrayal of particular issues and facts which are already known, but which may conflict with a presented point of view. (from Google Glossary)
Update: Google.com is available again in China.
Synchronize Firefox Settings Across Your Computers
Google Browser Sync is a Firefox extension that lets you synchronize your bookmarks, history, persistent cookies, tabs, windows, and saved passwords across your computers. It's useful if you a have a desktop and a notebook and you want a coherent browsing experience.
During setup, you need to provide a PIN to encrypt information that's synchronized between your computers. That means the information will be transmitted to and stored on Google's servers in a format that can't be decrypted without the PIN.
Another extension that has a similar purpose is Firefox Extension Backup (FEBE), but it can also backup extensions and themes.
{ Via Google Official Blog. }
Windows 2003 Server Better Than Linux?
Yankee Group has made a realiability survey and found that Windows 2003 Server is a more reliable server operating system than Linux. Windows 2003 server has 20 percent more uptime than Red Hat Enterprise Linux, but HP-UX and Sun Solaris have more uptime than Windows 2003 Server.
Yankee Group offers a reason for the problem: "the scarcity of Linux and open source documentation".
Surprisingly, the survey wasn't sponsored by Microsoft, but was made by Laura DiDio, who is often viewed as being very critical of the Open Source movement and community. You can see her in a video hosted by Microsoft.
Yankee Group offers a reason for the problem: "the scarcity of Linux and open source documentation".
Surprisingly, the survey wasn't sponsored by Microsoft, but was made by Laura DiDio, who is often viewed as being very critical of the Open Source movement and community. You can see her in a video hosted by Microsoft.
Picasa Will Be Google's Flickr Soon
Google has released a special edition of Picasa for Joga, the football fans community created in partnership with Nike.
"In Picasa, select photos from your library so they appear in the picture tray at the lower-left corner of the page. Click on the "Joga Upload" button and sign into your Joga account. Follow the directions on the Joga upload page to create a photo album (or select an existing album) where you want to place your photos. Your photos will automatically upload to your Joga profile."
As Hermon, a reader of Blogoscoped, found out, Google prepares to extend this feature to the standard Picasa. So in the near future, you'll be able to upload your pictures from Picasa to Web Albums, an online space that could be Google Page Creator. For the moment, Picasa's website doesn't include the link to Picasa Web Albums anymore, but you can see it in the screenshot below.
"In Picasa, select photos from your library so they appear in the picture tray at the lower-left corner of the page. Click on the "Joga Upload" button and sign into your Joga account. Follow the directions on the Joga upload page to create a photo album (or select an existing album) where you want to place your photos. Your photos will automatically upload to your Joga profile."
As Hermon, a reader of Blogoscoped, found out, Google prepares to extend this feature to the standard Picasa. So in the near future, you'll be able to upload your pictures from Picasa to Web Albums, an online space that could be Google Page Creator. For the moment, Picasa's website doesn't include the link to Picasa Web Albums anymore, but you can see it in the screenshot below.
Google Video Player For Mac
As Google Blog notes, there's now a Google Video Player for Mac. Why would you want to use it instead of QuickTime? Now you can buy videos from Google Video Store, browse scenes within a video using thumbnails and play the video without waiting to download it completely.This is the third Mac software produced by Google, after Google Notifier and Google Earth.
Related:
Google Video Store launch
Download videos from Google as AVI (for Windows users)
Play and convert any multimedia file (free software)
Google Spreadsheets Screenshots
If you didn't get your invitation for Google Spreadsheets, try this link. It's what I got in my invitation and it can be used by anyone.
You can find some screenshots on Flickr. Most of them show the product works really bad: I tried to import two very simple Excel files, and both had problems. Google Spreadsheets treated them as read-only files. The product is very slow, it's very hard to use (you can barely select a row or a set of columns) and has really basic features.
All in all, this is the most unpolished Google product I've ever tried, it looks like a pre-alpha application.
Philipp Lenssen has a different opinion:
"Google Spreadsheet usability is quite good. As ever so often, this is a Google product with no ads so far (ads might be on the horizon, of course); it’s more a tool than a site, clearly fitting into the growing array of Google OS products. The only thing I really missed so far was right-clicking rows to apply formatting changes or to copy & paste text."
The Intended Audience for Google Spreadsheets
Google Spreadsheets, not yet launched by Google, doesn't intend to compete with Microsoft Excel because it will have only basic capabilities. If you're wondering how would use Google Spreadsheets, here are two salient opinions from Digg.
"I have a very good use for it. Every year, I manage a small vacation for me and around 20 friends. We rent a beach house for a week or two and just generally have a good time. However, because people can't all be there on the same day and so forth, there's always a bit of disagreement over how to split the cost of renting the house.
So I created a spreadsheet to track this sort of thing. It basically splits the number of nights everybody stays up and with that and the total rent costs and some minor math, it works out a cost per night for everybody. Stops any disagreements dead.
The only problem is that sharing it is kind of a pain in the ass. Having it online like this and accessible to those people only, that would be just excellent. If it's editable (and the editing capabilities are able to be limited), then I can have people put in their own dates and show them the results in real time. It would be very handy. If I could integrate it with a webpage to gather all our data into one location, well, that would be the best thing ever." (Otto)
"Some of you are putting way too much thought into this. Google Spreadsheets isn't meant to replace Excel. It's definitely not for power users that require complex macros or equations. And it's definitely not for people that need a mission critical spreadsheet application. This is a simple spreadsheet app for simple usage. From my observations, the casual Excel user mainly uses spreadsheets to create lists in tabular form, or they use it to create a simple personal budget. This is the target audience for Google Spreadsheets.
Take another look at the screenshot. The sample spreadsheet they show is a game schedule for a little league team. See what I mean? For people that don't need the full power and capabilities of Excel, Google is offering a simple and free alternative.
I'm still going to use Excel for work related stuff. But for personal stuff, I'm going to use Google Spreadsheets. I can access it just about anywhere and I can display/share spreadsheets with family and friends. Still not sure what to use it for? Here are some ideas..
* Catalog and share your music and movie collection
* Record your car gas mileage/usage
* Track your daily spending
* Keep a training journal for how many miles you walked/jogged/cycled
* Track the money you've raised for your charity or fundraiser event
* Make a note of how many times your boss uses the word synergy." (RegisteredUser)
"I have a very good use for it. Every year, I manage a small vacation for me and around 20 friends. We rent a beach house for a week or two and just generally have a good time. However, because people can't all be there on the same day and so forth, there's always a bit of disagreement over how to split the cost of renting the house.
So I created a spreadsheet to track this sort of thing. It basically splits the number of nights everybody stays up and with that and the total rent costs and some minor math, it works out a cost per night for everybody. Stops any disagreements dead.
The only problem is that sharing it is kind of a pain in the ass. Having it online like this and accessible to those people only, that would be just excellent. If it's editable (and the editing capabilities are able to be limited), then I can have people put in their own dates and show them the results in real time. It would be very handy. If I could integrate it with a webpage to gather all our data into one location, well, that would be the best thing ever." (Otto)
"Some of you are putting way too much thought into this. Google Spreadsheets isn't meant to replace Excel. It's definitely not for power users that require complex macros or equations. And it's definitely not for people that need a mission critical spreadsheet application. This is a simple spreadsheet app for simple usage. From my observations, the casual Excel user mainly uses spreadsheets to create lists in tabular form, or they use it to create a simple personal budget. This is the target audience for Google Spreadsheets.
Take another look at the screenshot. The sample spreadsheet they show is a game schedule for a little league team. See what I mean? For people that don't need the full power and capabilities of Excel, Google is offering a simple and free alternative.
I'm still going to use Excel for work related stuff. But for personal stuff, I'm going to use Google Spreadsheets. I can access it just about anywhere and I can display/share spreadsheets with family and friends. Still not sure what to use it for? Here are some ideas..
* Catalog and share your music and movie collection
* Record your car gas mileage/usage
* Track your daily spending
* Keep a training journal for how many miles you walked/jogged/cycled
* Track the money you've raised for your charity or fundraiser event
* Make a note of how many times your boss uses the word synergy." (RegisteredUser)
The Real Google News
What if Google was all about search? Well, this post would be real.
Hello and welcome to Google news. Here are this week's most interesting news about Google:
1. Google added 666 news sites to the index: wow, that's evil.
2. Google fixed a bug with related operator that showed a lot of spam sites.
3. Google removed a new link from the homepage: now Google homepage has only six links. No more promotion for Google Labs.
4. Google indexes new filetypes: OpenOffice documents (files produced with Base, Calc, Impress and Writer).
5. Google has a new algorithm that detects non-commerical queries and doesn't display ads next to the results.
6. Google has a new feature: Google Rephrase. When you type a query, Google tries to express the same message in different words to come up with the most relevant results.
Hello and welcome to Google news. Here are this week's most interesting news about Google:
1. Google added 666 news sites to the index: wow, that's evil.
2. Google fixed a bug with related operator that showed a lot of spam sites.
3. Google removed a new link from the homepage: now Google homepage has only six links. No more promotion for Google Labs.
4. Google indexes new filetypes: OpenOffice documents (files produced with Base, Calc, Impress and Writer).
5. Google has a new algorithm that detects non-commerical queries and doesn't display ads next to the results.
6. Google has a new feature: Google Rephrase. When you type a query, Google tries to express the same message in different words to come up with the most relevant results.
Google Spreadsheets. Ready? Go!
So what can you do with Google Spreadsheets?
* Create basic spreadsheets, change the number format, sort by columns, and add formulas.
* Upload spreadsheets or worksheets from CSV or XLS format.
* Share documents with someone by entering the email address of the person.
* Multiple people can edit or view your spreadsheet at the same time.
* Auto-save: never lose your work.
* Save your spreadsheets in CSV, XLS and HTML formats.
Google Spreadsheets is currently compatible with the following browsers:
* IE 6 (Windows)
* Firefox 1.07+ (Windows, Mac, Linux)
You may have up to 100 spreadsheets, each spreadsheet may contain up to 20 tabs, 50,000 cells, 256 columns or 10,000 rows. You can import .xls and .csv files smaller than 400k.
Spreadsheets are private by default. Unless you share your spreadsheet URL with other people, no one can see your spreadsheet.
Google Spreadsheet
"Google Inc. plans on Tuesday to release a Web-based spreadsheet application, according to people familiar with the matter.
Google Spreadsheet, which will be made available on a limited test basis, follows Google's March purchase of a company offering a Web-based word processor called Writely.
The two Google Web-based applications represent possible challenges to Microsoft Corp.'s core personal-computer software business. Microsoft's Word and Excel dominate the word processing and spreadsheet markets." (from Wall Street Journal via Battelle).
It seems that a link to the Google Spreadsheet application will be available in the morning at Google Labs.
"Google's spreadsheet isn't as sophisticated as Excel. For instance, the Google spreadsheet won't create charts or provide a menu of controls that can be summoned by clicking on a computer mouse's right-hand button.
The program's main goal is to make it easier for family, friends or co-workers to gain access to the same spreadsheet from different computers at different times, enabling a group of authorized users to add and edit data without having to e-mail attachments back and forth." (from AP)
For the moment, good online spreadsheet applications are NumSum and iRows (you can see a screenshot for iRows below; the site is down - maybe Google has just bought iRows? But why Google Spreadsheet doesn't include charts then?).
More: Join the limited beta.
Google Spreadsheet, which will be made available on a limited test basis, follows Google's March purchase of a company offering a Web-based word processor called Writely.
The two Google Web-based applications represent possible challenges to Microsoft Corp.'s core personal-computer software business. Microsoft's Word and Excel dominate the word processing and spreadsheet markets." (from Wall Street Journal via Battelle).
It seems that a link to the Google Spreadsheet application will be available in the morning at Google Labs.
"Google's spreadsheet isn't as sophisticated as Excel. For instance, the Google spreadsheet won't create charts or provide a menu of controls that can be summoned by clicking on a computer mouse's right-hand button.
The program's main goal is to make it easier for family, friends or co-workers to gain access to the same spreadsheet from different computers at different times, enabling a group of authorized users to add and edit data without having to e-mail attachments back and forth." (from AP)
For the moment, good online spreadsheet applications are NumSum and iRows (you can see a screenshot for iRows below; the site is down - maybe Google has just bought iRows? But why Google Spreadsheet doesn't include charts then?).
More: Join the limited beta.
Live Mail Desktop Wants to Be Gmail
Microsoft will replace Outlook Express with Live Mail Desktop in Windows Vista and will let you access POP3 and IMAP accounts, as well as your Windows Live Mail account, the Hotmail upgrade that includes 2GB of storage. Live Mail Desktop, currently in beta, will include contextual ads next to emails through a technology called Active Search. "Active Search bridges the gap between your inbox and the broader Web using the power of search," says Oji Udezue, program manager for Live Mail Desktop.
What's interesting is that this gap will be filled with ads from Microsoft adCenter. I think a desktop application is not the best way to include ads, even if they are contextual. Opera browser has included ads delivered by Google until version 8.5, and the users weren't very happy about that. Another interesting thing to note is that Google doesn't include ads in any desktop application, although it was the first to put contextual ads next to email in Gmail. At that time, many people were concerned that Google read emails in order to deliver the ads.
"Active Search displays key search terms found in a message along with a search box at the bottom of the screen. Search results and sponsored links are displayed alongside, without having to open a new browser window. If the content of a message does not trigger any relevant results, no ads or search results are shown," reports Clickz.
Although Live Mail Desktop team wants to make us think this is a feature, many user will not like the cumbersome interface. Maybe this way Mozilla Thunderbird will increase its user base.
Google Toy Factory
Forbes asks a disturbing question: who's running Google after all? If you're thinking the answer is Eric Schmidt, Google CEO, you might be wrong.
"As charming as he is, Schmidt runs Google about as much as much as the Dalai Lama runs the world's spiritual life. [...] Peek inside the Googleplex, and what you'll see looks more like swarm behavior than a military drill. In many families, everyone has to pitch in and do some grungy work to keep the household running. But at Google, every engineer acts like the favorite child."
"The Internet, Schmidt has said, turns power relationships upside down. That's true inside the ultimate Internet company --Google-- as well as out on the raw and woolly Web. As long as the masses are running Google, innovation will flourish. When management forcefully steps in, the pace of change will slow."
Google hires a lot of talented engineers and many have great ideas. That's why Google lets them use 20% of their time (that's a day every week) for their ideas. When you're talented and have a toy factory like Google, nothing seems impossible. And nothing should be impossible.
Google gives them resources to put their ideas into practice, to build their favorite toy. Adults shouldn't interfere too much in the process, they should guide it from afar.
Top 10 Out-of-beta Google Products
Most Google products are in beta, or even in alpha (the products from Google Labs). Well, there are some services and software almost finished, that doesn't carry the famous Google label: beta. Here's my list of top 10 out-of-beta Google products:
10. Google Alerts
http://www.google.com/alerts
Mostly used by spammers to post something on Blogger and by SEO companies to monitor ranking changes.
9. Image Search
http://images.google.com
If you want to find great photos you'll definitely go to Flickr. Google Images is a good place to find celebrity photos, screenshots and landscapes.
8. Google News
http://news.google.com
Google News shows the latest news and groups the articles by topics. Unfortunately it doesn't do a great job at clustering news.
7. Blogger
http://www.blogger.com
It was the most popular blogging, until MSN Spaces became the leader. It was a cool place to read blogs until spammers invaded the teritory. It was one of the blogging pioneers, until Blogger stopped innovating.
6. Picasa
http://www.picasa.com
A very easy to use photo management tool that's free, thanks to Google.
5. Google Analytics (by invitation only)
http://www.google.com/analytics
Google Analytics, the former Urchin, is a great tool to analyze the traffic of a site. It has nice charts, powerful data and sometimes very few Google servers to handle so many users.
4. Google Maps
http://maps.google.com
Now that Google has maps and satellite imagery for United States, Europe, Asia, Australia and almost the entire world, the success of the product is guaranteed.
3. Google Earth
http://earth.google.com
Everybody loves Google Earth: it's like making the tour of the world from your armchair.
2. Google Ads (AdSense + AdWords)
http://www.google.com/ads
Simple, unobtrusive, targeted - Google ads made Google a profitable business and helped small sites to develop and big sites to have a more pleasant look.
1. Web Search
http://www.google.com
The core product, out of beta in September 1998. Behind the simple, uncluttered, clean design, you could find a powerful search engine able to give relevant results fast. Although the problem of search wasn't completely solved, Google has the best search engine and that's their flagship.
10. Google Alerts
http://www.google.com/alerts
Mostly used by spammers to post something on Blogger and by SEO companies to monitor ranking changes.
9. Image Search
http://images.google.com
If you want to find great photos you'll definitely go to Flickr. Google Images is a good place to find celebrity photos, screenshots and landscapes.
8. Google News
http://news.google.com
Google News shows the latest news and groups the articles by topics. Unfortunately it doesn't do a great job at clustering news.
7. Blogger
http://www.blogger.com
It was the most popular blogging, until MSN Spaces became the leader. It was a cool place to read blogs until spammers invaded the teritory. It was one of the blogging pioneers, until Blogger stopped innovating.
6. Picasa
http://www.picasa.com
A very easy to use photo management tool that's free, thanks to Google.
5. Google Analytics (by invitation only)
http://www.google.com/analytics
Google Analytics, the former Urchin, is a great tool to analyze the traffic of a site. It has nice charts, powerful data and sometimes very few Google servers to handle so many users.
4. Google Maps
http://maps.google.com
Now that Google has maps and satellite imagery for United States, Europe, Asia, Australia and almost the entire world, the success of the product is guaranteed.
3. Google Earth
http://earth.google.com
Everybody loves Google Earth: it's like making the tour of the world from your armchair.
2. Google Ads (AdSense + AdWords)
http://www.google.com/ads
Simple, unobtrusive, targeted - Google ads made Google a profitable business and helped small sites to develop and big sites to have a more pleasant look.
1. Web Search
http://www.google.com
The core product, out of beta in September 1998. Behind the simple, uncluttered, clean design, you could find a powerful search engine able to give relevant results fast. Although the problem of search wasn't completely solved, Google has the best search engine and that's their flagship.
Native Google Earth for Linux
I posted earlier that Google prepares a version of Google Earth for Linux, after Picasa."Picasa, founded in 2001, was purchased by Google in July of 2004, and the photo management tool has seen some extensive use, albeit from Windows users. DiBona indicated that Google made a public committment to begin porting two applications to Linux about a year ago. The other application in this project is Google Earth. Picasa for Linux was announced first simply because it was finished first.
When asked if the additions to WINE would bootstrap Google Earth's porting progress, DiBona answered in the negative, explaining that Google Earth relied on Qt and GL libraries and code, so additional WINE support would not help. No timeline for that application's release was revealed at this time."
If we look at Picasa for Linux FAQ, we'll see an interesting line:
"If Picasa for Linux is successful, then other Google applications (and future versions of Picasa) may also be ported using Wine. (Google Earth won't be one of them, though; it will be a native Linux application.)"
For an interesting discussion about Linux and native implementations, check "Will Linux rule the world?" and the brilliant comments.
Update: Google Earth for Linux has been released.
Gramophone Operation: Romania vs Copyright
Romania, an Eastern-European country that is about to join European Union next year, has received an "yellow flag" from EU regarding the software piracy and the copyright issues. Many Romanian people use file-sharing software like DC++ to share music, movies and games. Some just for fun, others to burn CDs and sell them.
Here's a report about the actions of the police from Gardianul, a Romanian newspaper:
"A working group will be founded which will be led by a prosecutor from the General Prosecutor's Office. Through the protocol, an anti-piracy group will be founded that will be formed of two vice presidents, two people elected by the representatives of the signatory institutions. This organization will only solve half of the "turning green" of the yellow flag received by Romania in this field. The other half will be sold by the statistics of the police, so watch your computers at home! As our newspaper has announced, soon, at the General Prosecutor's Office, a protocol will be signed by 26 institutions for the protection of intellectual property. We call it the "Gramophone" protocol because this police operation is the one that disturbed tens of thousands of Romanians who procure their daily entertainment (movies, games, music) from the Internet. The signing of the protocol is yet another proof that all the actions of late connected to this matter are meant to "turn green" the yellow flag received by Romania in the copyright chapter. The European Union initially criticized us for lack of collaboration among the state institutions for protecting these rights. Hence the idea of the protocol appeared. The European Union is also criticizing us for the lack of sanctions given to those who violate intellectual property law. The statistics meant to hush the European Union will be made by the police. Through the protocol, two of the vice presidents of the Working Group on Matters of Intellectual Property will form an anti-piracy group that will also have in view the posting and downloading from the Internet of materials protected through the Copyright Law."
What people say about that:
"I download from some sites what's new and I don't think anyone will fine me. Anyway, I'm not the only one who does this."
"No one cares what's there, because everyone uses movies, music and software downloaded illegally."
It seems that police doesn't have the same opinion and tries to look very determined. The policemen use DC++ hubs to find people that share copyrighted content.
The situation is very strange because the Government should have made a campaign that explains the Copyright Law to people before letting the over-zealous policemen break in people's houses and arrest them.
Here's a report about the actions of the police from Gardianul, a Romanian newspaper:
"A working group will be founded which will be led by a prosecutor from the General Prosecutor's Office. Through the protocol, an anti-piracy group will be founded that will be formed of two vice presidents, two people elected by the representatives of the signatory institutions. This organization will only solve half of the "turning green" of the yellow flag received by Romania in this field. The other half will be sold by the statistics of the police, so watch your computers at home! As our newspaper has announced, soon, at the General Prosecutor's Office, a protocol will be signed by 26 institutions for the protection of intellectual property. We call it the "Gramophone" protocol because this police operation is the one that disturbed tens of thousands of Romanians who procure their daily entertainment (movies, games, music) from the Internet. The signing of the protocol is yet another proof that all the actions of late connected to this matter are meant to "turn green" the yellow flag received by Romania in the copyright chapter. The European Union initially criticized us for lack of collaboration among the state institutions for protecting these rights. Hence the idea of the protocol appeared. The European Union is also criticizing us for the lack of sanctions given to those who violate intellectual property law. The statistics meant to hush the European Union will be made by the police. Through the protocol, two of the vice presidents of the Working Group on Matters of Intellectual Property will form an anti-piracy group that will also have in view the posting and downloading from the Internet of materials protected through the Copyright Law."
What people say about that:
"I download from some sites what's new and I don't think anyone will fine me. Anyway, I'm not the only one who does this."
"No one cares what's there, because everyone uses movies, music and software downloaded illegally."
It seems that police doesn't have the same opinion and tries to look very determined. The policemen use DC++ hubs to find people that share copyrighted content.
The situation is very strange because the Government should have made a campaign that explains the Copyright Law to people before letting the over-zealous policemen break in people's houses and arrest them.
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