11.02.05
In case you care…
Perhaps I don’t spend enough time writing about myself on my blog. What can I say? I have a pretty keen interest in foreign affairs. But lately I’ve been thinking a lot about my life post-graduation, if you care to hear about it. That day, however painfully slow, is approaching. For some reason however, everyone seems to know what’s best for me, but me. Much to my bewilderment, everyone is deadset that I’m going to grad school. I’ve mentioned it only once or twice before as a fleeting desire of mine, but lately it’s generally recognized by my family that it’s set in stone. My grandmother insists that I begin grad school immediately. Waiting a few months or a year would make a return to academic life impossible she says. I can sense my mother’s trepidation about her son preparing to enter the real world. I mention job prospects that I’m looking into and the first question she asks is, “Where is the job?” She doesn’t want me to be too far away. One would imagine that over the course of the last few years that I’ve been away that she would become accustomed to being without my company. She knows that I have ambitions of traveling and my adventurous nature might lead to a less-than routine job. There was once a time when I felt I was ready to finish and get out of school. Now, I feel as though I’d rather delay it.
10.13.05
Syria Interior Minister Commits Suicide?
Syrian Interior Minister Ghazi Kenaan reportedly committed suicide in his office on Wednesday. However, recent speculuation suspects that Kenaan did not commit suicide but was assassinated.
The so-called suicide comes days before a UN report will be distributed in which it is widely regarded that Syria will be implicated in the assassination of Lebanon Prime Minister Rafi Hariri. Kenaan reportedly following questioning by UN officials regarding the assassination of Hariri, committed suicide shortly thereafter in his office with one single shot to the head. However, according to some the details are just too sketchy.
We know very well that not a single Arab politician commits suicide and there is no culture of suicide except in Bin Laden’s clique where paradise is promised. God knows that Kanan’s chance of entering paradise is weak. As the saying goes, the method suits the man. The perpetrator wants to send us a clear message from the method of killing “we killed Kanan” and the others have to understand this.
Source
In a recent interview on CNN, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad reaffirmed his position that Syria had nothing to do the assassination. The President claimed that assassinating Hariri was “not within Syria’s principle” and doesn’t benefit Syria. al-Assad reassured CNN that Syria was not guilty regardless of what the forthcoming UN report claims.
09.30.05
It’s Google’s World, We’re Just Living in it
Imagine being at the park using free WiFi to instant message (IM) your coworker about a Powerpoint presentation that you two need to prepare for. In your message you mention that you’re going to take a lunch break because you’re hungry. “I’m in the mood for sushi,” you message. Instantly a relevant text ad pops up on your screen and recommends three of the best sushi restaurants within a close range of the park you’re in. Your partner, who also receives the message agrees to meet you at the sushi restaurant of your choice. Since you haven’t tried any of the restaurants before, the message box not only gives you ratings of each restaurant, it also gives you directions how to get there by metro, walking, or by driving. You get up to take the metro to the decided upon restaurant but receive a text message on your mobile phone while on the train. “Matt wants to come along but he doesn’t like sushi, he’d rather have steak,” your coworker mentions. No sooner than you finish reading the message, you’re recommended a steak restaurant that’s in the same relative distance of the sushi restaurant. While walking the last few blocks to meet your coworkers for steak, your PDA beeps to inform you of a speical message. There’s a sale going on at the electronics store that you just walked past. Your PDA knows you wanted to buy a new HDTV because you mentioned it in an email you sent to your brother last night. Not only does your PDA inform you of the sell, the electronics store instantly offers you a special discount on a brand new HDTV because they, too, know that you want a new television.
This world just described doesn’t exist far in the future. It will quite easily be the type of world that we will experience soon. Everyone knows of Google’s popular search engine. Their search engine became popular because of its effectiveness at finding exactly what users wanted. By indexing pages according to the popularity of the links, it was able to find more relevant web pages. Google’s prime source of revenue, it’s AdSense service, utilizes this technology to present more relevant web ads, thus increasing their effectiveness.
However, for Google, search is just small bits and bytes. Following it’s IPO, Google raised enormous capital to invest in more projects than just search. In the months since, Google has released a plethora of applications that I, and many other uses have utilized. There’s Google Video, Gmail, Gtalk, Google Desktop, Google Print, Google Images, Google Earth, Google Maps, Google Toolbar, Blogger, Picasa, and even a social networking service called Orkut (still in invite only mode). Those applications are but a mere nanobyte of what Google has to offer. You no doubt have used Google’s search engine or are running some of its applications.
Since Google is a public company, their main objective should be gaining a healthy return for the huge amount of capital investors have put into the company (Google’s stock as of writing is at $316). One has to wonder, “How will Google return a profit?” “What will Google do with all this information?” Google’s ambition is to organize the world’s information into one central place to make it more useful. In one location there will be information about what people search for, what people like to watch, where people like to go to and from, who knows whom, even what people are IMing each other about. It is rumored that Google will release a Google calendar. That would allow Google to not only know what people will do, but when they will do it.
Integrating this into a “Google World” is already starting to become a reality. Google has already acquired large portions of black fiber optic cable, or unused fiber optic cable. Such bandwith could ultimately lead to a free, nationwide WiFi network. Such a network would not only utilize the massive amount of Google’s information, but would allow for a network so it could be transported. Relevants ads could be transported to laptops or PDAs creating a world not unlike the movie The Minority Report. Welcome to Google America!