Kept

I consider myself reasonably tech-adept for a dude pushing 60, but I have never found a good way to keep track of random notes to myself: web sites, lists of books or places to visit, etc. I tried Evernote, and it just seemed like overkill. NY Times Upshot reporter Claire Cain Miller says she is using Google Keep. I put it on my phone. Hmm... super simple, kind of like Google Docs. With respect to Google, I am already Kept, so why not keep Keep?

Google goes sans serif!

Not my preference. But I guess you know that already.

Skynet is...

... Google!

Although the videos frequently inspire comments that the robots will evolve into scary killing machines straight out of the “Terminator” movies, Dr. Raibert has said in the past that he does not consider his company to be a military contractor — it is merely trying to advance robotics technology. Google executives said the company would honor existing military contracts, but that it did not plan to move toward becoming a military contractor on its own.

Why am I not completely reassured? Maybe I'll let them know my concerns about what I saw on these youtube videos... send them a link to this blogger post... from one of my gmail accounts... on my android phone... busy day, better check my google calendar...

My relationship with Google

I often joke that Google controls my life, but it's only half a joke. This blog is on Google; I have two gmail accounts, one personal and one for work (my employer just moved to a gmail system); I just moved my home page off the work server to a Google site to save myself the trouble of dealing with Dreamweaver; I keep a Google calendar and put pictures on Picasa.

I don't really trust Google, but I rely on them, which may be a mistake. Ezra Klein, following up on a post by James Fallows, wonders whether adoption of tempting new Google apps is a good idea. Like others, I have been a steady user of Google Reader, the news and blog feed, which the G-people recently announced will be gone as of July. Another product I use constantly that Google is phasing out is iGoogle, which basically was a simple way to customize a start-up page, with gadgets for (alas) Reader and other sites and utilities. Soon to be gone.

We all know that Google is collecting massive amounts of data from us, and is eagerly trying to make money from it. I'm not entirely comfortable with that, but on the other hand I find it somewhat reassuring to know that their motive is not pure evil, but simply filthy lucre. Nothing new or unusual there. I can deal with the tradeoff between exploiting their technology and being exploited by it. But as Fallows and Klein point out, the tradeoff becomes a lot less attractive if Google fails to keep up their end of the bargain.