Google opened up in a blog post today confirming that they have been collecting data from Wi-Fi networks with their Google Maps Street View Cars as they have driven around. This is a subject that has been brought up, but in a recent blog post Google said that it had not been collecting "payload data", but is now saying that it actually has been.
On the Official Google Blog, Alan Eustace, Senior VP, Engineering & Research writes:
In that blog post, and in a technical note sent to data protection authorities the same day, we said that while Google did collect publicly broadcast SSID information (the WiFi network name) and MAC addresses (the unique number given to a device like a WiFi router) using Street View cars, we did not collect payload data (information sent over the network). But it’s now clear that we have been mistakenly collecting samples of payload data from open (i.e. non-password-protected) WiFi networks, even though we never used that data in any Google products.
However, we will typically have collected only fragments of payload data because: our cars are on the move; someone would need to be using the network as a car passed by; and our in-car WiFi equipment automatically changes channels roughly five times a second. In addition, we did not collect information traveling over secure, password-protected WiFi networks.
According to Eustace, the payload data collection was an accident. A piece of code had mistakenly been used in the software used in the Street/> [...]
Ah, yup. Between the price point, the locked-down App Store approach, the spiffy design, the tech specs, the lack of camera, the lack of multitasking, the lack of phone, the cool iBook Store, the corny iBook shelves, the impending transformation of personal computing, the impending collapse of Apple stock, the green light for 3G voice-over-IP apps, the telco deals, the publisher deals, the rumor fact checks, the comparisons with Windows, the Kindle-killing, the not-Kindle-killing and the just-have-to-wait-and-see, all of the good points are taken.
Okay, except maybe pointing out how disappointed cartoonists are that there's no pressure-sensitive stylus. But That Would Be Self-Serving, so I won't say it.
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I'm sure there are probably a few more sanitary-napkin jokes left waiting in the wings (Anyone joke about a Maxi model yet? They did? Bugger.) but I'd like to think I'm above that. (Addendum:Alex tells me that "wings" is also circulating as an iPad joke. God, I'm clueless about this stuff. Is there a course I can take somewhere? Or maybe an app?)
All I can say is this: Dollhouse wrapped on Friday night, and I'm just about certain that even if the zombie apocalypse was brought about, not by the depradations of the Rossum Corporation, but by an iPad OS update that went horribly, horribly wrong... I'd still want one of the gorgeous damn things.
I've made a point to point out how Google and Microsoft duel each other in search.
Actually, of late it's been Bing that's been beating Google to certain things. Case in point, Microsoft announced its deal to index Twitter tweets on stage at the Web 2.0 Summit in October. Google followed hours later by pre-announcing its own Twitter deal.
It reminds me of any of the number of Annie Get Your Gun "Anything You Can Do" riffs:
But maybe it's not so much that Bing is beating Google to the punch as it is Google refusing to let Bing have any of the search spotlight for more than one week. In the latest contest, Bing is hosting a search event today at 10 a.m. PST:
Google is hosting its own search shindig Monday, Dec. 7:
Any thoughts what the Bing event might include? In addition to the Bing Twitter site, Microsoft has already [...]
If you're a software-as-a-service company you are probably thinking about how cloud computing can save you money and time. The same thing is true for departments in the enterprise that wants to spin up a new service for customers.
We had a chance to sit down with BlueLock, one of the leaders in cloud-based infrastructure providers. Their solutions range from quick provisioning using an online form, to becoming your infrastructure team for mission-critical applications. BlueLock represents a part of the trend in virtualization that not only extends physical servers, but allows companies to leverage infrastructure investments to meet the needs of application developers.
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One of the benefits of cloud computing is the ability to optimize the experience of experts and save money in hosting applications. However, one of the areas that is terminally difficult in the enterprise is configuration management in between the layers of OS, storage, security and network. This is getting more and more focus from the biggest providers in IT - Cisco, Microsoft, EMC, NetApp - but where the rubber hits the road, IT leaders are doing a majority of the work tuning configurations to find the right mix of infrastructure to meet their needs.
Custom is King
Fully outsourced configuration management of the infrastructure is one of the areas that BlueLock [...]
Copyright 2009 (c) Dylan Rosario - The founder of www.FleeQ.com a new semantic search and discover agent. Utilizing web 3.0 technology, fleeQ levels the playing field for small publishers and advertisers alike. www.fleeq.com and www.xyppy.com are based upon fleeQ technology.
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In that blog post, and in a technical note sent to data protection authorities the same day, we said that while Google did collect publicly broadcast SSID information (the WiFi network name) and MAC addresses (the unique number given to a device like a WiFi router) using Street View cars, we did not collect payload data (information sent over the network). But it’s now clear that we have been mistakenly collecting samples of payload data from open (i.e. non-password-protected) WiFi networks, even though we never used that data in any Google products.
Ah, yup. Between the price point, the locked-down App Store approach, the spiffy design, the tech specs, the lack of camera, the lack of multitasking, the lack of phone, the cool iBook Store, the corny iBook shelves, the impending transformation of personal computing, the impending collapse of Apple stock, the green light for 3G voice-over-IP apps, the telco deals, the publisher deals, the rumor fact checks, the comparisons with Windows, the Kindle-killing, the not-Kindle-killing and the just-have-to-wait-and-see, all of the good points are taken.
If you're a software-as-a-service company you are probably thinking about how cloud computing can save you money and time. The same thing is true for departments in the enterprise that wants to spin up a new service for customers.
Fully outsourced configuration management of the infrastructure is one of the areas that BlueLock [...] 
