Posts Filed Under ‘Cloud Computing’
Google Apps users who want access to all the same products that regular Google Accounts have won't have to wait much longer. An anonymous tipster tells me a Google Trusted Tester program is underway right now, which "transitions" Google Apps accounts to full access to all GOOG products, including Voice, Reader, Buzz, Analytics, and more. Here's the official Help page which includes a visualization of the transition, in the screenshot here. (Here's a PDF, in case they pull access to the link.)
On this week's episode of TWiG, Leo, Jeff, and I were hoping aloud that there would be some way to merge existing Google/Apps accounts into one. It doesn't look like that will be possible. However, if you have a Google account that "conflicts" with your Apps account because you've assigned the same email address to both, GOOG will resolve the conflict by adding a +personal to your regular account's sign-in address. Stay with me here.
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For some reason I was under the mistaken impression that setting up an OpenID on my own domain, ginatrapani.org, would be a big hassle: that I'd have to host my own OpenID server software and that it would take all sorts of installation and maintenance BS to do so. I feel strongly about owning my identity online, mapping it to my nameplate domain, and actively choosing an authorizing party instead of just accepting the sign-in service du jour like Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, or Google. Still, I never got set up with OpenID on ginatrapani.org because my perceived hassle factor was daunting. Instead, I used idproxy.net for my OpenID and put the domain setup on my "someday I have to do that" list. It meant that my OpenID was ginatrapani.idproxy.net instead of my own domain. Idproxy is a great service and I thank them for getting me started with OpenID; but still, I want my OpenID URL to be a domain name I own and control.
Turns out I was dead wrong about the hassle. Setting up OpenID capabilities on your own domain name is a two-lines-of-HTML affair, and it's finally done. (Thanks to Chris Messina for bringing me into the year 2006.) If you're interested in doing the same, here's what to know.
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This Week in Google, Episode 46 ·
This week's episode of TWiG featured Jeff Jarvis Skyping over 3G from a moving car on a NJ highway, Brad Stone from the NY Times who was a total trooper during our criticism of the Times' takedown of the Pulse iPhone RSS reader, and Om Malik of Gigaom, a very smart teddy bear who I'd like to hug. My tip this week: the new Gmail Labs' Maps Preview, which embeds a Google Map into any email that has a U.S. address in it. · June 11th, 2010, 2 comments
This week the White House will put out a call to techies and scientists across the internet, asking a simple question: What should the United States' next greatest technological and scientific achievement be? Get your answers ready, geeks.
When you reply to the White House's prompt--on Twitter, Facebook, or via email--your voice will be heard and your ideas will be counted. I know, because I helped build the software that will capture your responses and deliver them directly to the people in charge.
Ready to get involved? Here's what to do.
- Think big! Imagine an ambitious science or technology challenge (something huge like the moon landing!) which you think can inspire great new ideas and inventions. Here are some examples President Obama listed.
- Follow @whitehouse on Twitter or become a fan of The White House on Facebook, and watch for a tweet or post about the grand challenges in science and technology between Monday April 12 and Wednesday April 14.
- Reply to the tweet or post with your idea, or a link to ideas you find interesting. On Twitter, use the hashtag #whgc. Alternately, you can email your response to challenge@ostp.gov.
- Encourage your friends and followers to respond, too!
Everyone working on the Grand Challenges initiative can't wait to hear what you have to say, so thanks in advance for your insights and participation. We'll be sharing the responses we got both online and at Twitter's first official conference, Chirp, this week in San Francisco.
Give @whitehouse Your Feedback! [Expert Labs]
Join the Conversation on the Future of Science [AAAS]
TWiG: The iPad Episode ·
This week's episode of This Week in Google included my friend Matt Haughey. Because we recorded on iPad launch day, the conversation inevitably centered around the new device, which I didn't buy. A live viewer told me I looked a little bored at times--and I'll admit, since I didn't have one of the toys to play with myself, I kind of was. Still, it was a fun discussion full of iPad love, even though Jeff Jarvis had a little morning-after regret. · April 7th, 2010, 2 comments
A few months back I bought Brian Tracy's Eat That Frog--a great book about beating procrastination that I cited in a recent Fast Company video--on my Kindle. Today I got an interesting email from Amazon. To quote:
We're writing about your recent Kindle purchase of Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time by Brian Tracy. The version you received contained some errors that have been corrected.
An updated version of Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time is now available. It’s important to note that when we send you the updated version, you will lose any highlights, your last page read, and bookmarks made in your current version and the locations of any notes may not match the updated copy of the book.
The whole part about my losing highlights and bookmarks stinks. But Amazon reaching down into my Kindle and correcting errors in a book I bought months ago? Wacky!
Update, 4/12/2010: I posted this in a rush last week and didn't include the entire text of the email, or fully-baked thoughts about it. To clarify: the updates to the book are indeed optional and opt-in. The email ends thusly:
If you wish to receive the updated version, please let us know via e-mail at amazonkindle-feedback@amazon.com.
We apologize for any inconvenience caused, and would like to thank you for your business with Amazon.
My apologies for making it sound like this update was not opt-in. While I wish Amazon would provide a diff between the revisions so I can see exactly what I'm getting when I ask for the update, they won't touch my book unless I ask them.
This Week in Google Video Podcast Now in iTunes ·
I've been a slacker posting up the YouTube videos of each week's This Week in Google episode, so I'm getting back to it. This past week was particularly fun for me because Jeff, Leo, and I were joined by Kevin Purdy, my colleague from Lifehacker who shares my enthusiasm for Android. The TWiT folks also tell me that TWiG video is now available in the iTunes Store as well; here are the feed links for TWiG video both large and small.
· March 9th, 2010
What is Google Wave? · Over at Macworld this morning, I took a shot at explaining what Google Wave is (and isn't). Even in a Wave-backlash/Buzz-love world, I'm still bullish about Wave. It's the best collaboration webapp I've ever used. Once you've experienced inline replies in a wave with your group, you never want to email again. · February 22nd, 2010, 2 comments
As promised, Google Docs has rolled out the "upload any file" feature that lets you store files up to 250MB in size in Docs (up to 1GB for free, $0.25 per extra GB).
Just checked my account and got the notification near the Upload button explaining the new capability. Coupled with the ability to share folders, this can easily be used to share any kind of media--like an album of MP3s, as shown in the screenshot (supplied by a reader).
About That Google Server Breach · Douglas Rushkoff floats the idea that Google's China announcement is a smokescreen for the fact that their servers got hacked--which means your data isn't safe in the cloud. A serious and well-publicized security breach would be a crushing setback in Google's cloud apps business. Was the China surveillance and Gmail break-in it, and we just missed it amidst all the cheering? The question mark at the end of his headline makes me think that Rushkoff's unconvinced about his own thesis; still, it's an interesting theory. [via] · January 14th, 2010, 4 comments
Free Cloud Backup at Backupify (Till January 31st) · Cloud data backup service, Backupify, has dropped its paywall until January 31st in an effort to acquire more customers. The service backs up Gmail, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Google Docs, WordPress, Delicious, and FriendFeed data, to name a few, though apparently the file format you get when you restore your data may not be the most useful to non-programmers (i.e., XML documents). I haven't tried Backupify myself, but this offer is tempting. ZDNet's Between the Lines blog has the full story: Backupify drops paywall; backs up your data from Twitter, Facebook, and Gmail. · December 22nd, 2009, 5 comments
Update Your Google Account Password Recovery Options · Now that you're auditing your online account security, log into your Google account(s) and visit the Account Recovery Options page. Here you can update your secret question and answer, your secondary email address, and even associate your mobile phone number with your account so you can get a password recovery code via text message. (Just a tip: don't set your Google Voice number as the phone number or automatically forward mail from your secondary email accounts to your Gmail account--if you do, in the event that you lose your password, the recovery process won't work.) · December 19th, 2009, 3 comments
Year-End To-do: Audit Your Email Account Security · Two stories of online account break-ins this week: First, Twitter.com got redirected to an Iranian hacker page because attackers were able to get into the email account registered with their site DNS service. Second, savvy blogger Amit Agarwal's Gmail and Google Apps accounts were taken over because the attacker got access to Amit's secondary email address and sent a password change request there to get into the accounts. Do yourself a favor: Before 2010 is upon us, do a quick audit of all your most important accounts. Make sure your passwords are strong and remember: Never use inactive webmail as your secondary email account. · December 19th, 2009
This past year was a watershed moment for the real-time web, cloud computing, and mobile application development, thanks in large part to Google. This morning over at Lifehacker, I rounded up the biggest Google product releases and updates of 2009.
I may co-host a weekly podcast dedicated to Google news, but seeing the amount of mind-bending stuff Google released this year in one place still blew my mind.
While Google's three biggest launches of the year--Wave, Chromium OS, and Droid/Android 2.0--are still very much developer/early-adopter-only, their impact will resonate through the next ten years on the web (even if they don't stick around in their current forms). For more on Google app updates, acquisitions, legal battles, and a complete timeline of what came out when this year, check it out: This Year in Google: The 2009 Edition.
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