Shad

Finally!!!!

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I’ve been putting a lot of thought and research into Google over the last few months. While I have no inside information, it seems to me that the logical conclusion of many of the facts and rumors lead to the following scenario. Google is creating the ultimate killer app. They’re enabling communication, connection & commerce in extremely ingenious ways.

Google-shift:

• Control consumer search. *
• Create targeted advertising engine. *
• Create way for people to publish online… potentially hosting advertisements. *
• Create killer email system. *
• Have presence on the desktop (Google Desktop, Google Talk). *
• Create an alternate internet infrastructure by purchasing telecom infrastructure at pennies on the dollar.*
• Set up free wireless access points on this new network (removing the expense of the “last mile”).
• Use access point location information to better target ads to a specific access point.
• Create a micropayments systsem akin to PayPal.
• Create a Craigslist-like marketplace with integrated micropayments.
• Release a new “web 2.0″ application platform based on Mozilla Firefox. Like Google Desktop, it should have an imbedded web server which will blur the distinction between “local” and “remote” data (Note: Google hired the primary developers of FireFox earlier this year)
• Build a new killer app on top of this platform that brings all the peices together… Publishing, Advertising, Email, Search, Marketplace, web browsing, etc. Call it Google Office.

* - Complete or significant progress

All the while, focus on:

• Opening information.
• Building trust.
• Using open standards.
• Better targeting advertising.
• Removing or circumventing all middlemen (except for Google).
• Hiring the smartest and most innovative people and entrusting them with the future of the company.

Most importantly, they’re showing us what the future of commerce will look like. Pay attention, because this is going to be really interesting. They’re as close as anyone has ever been to enabling a true free-market democracy. That includes the democratization of media, advertising & marketplace. The really great thing is that this is all possible. They have all of the technological pieces in place to make this happen. They also have the people and (most importantly) the vision.

Some further reading:
Google: the Ultimate Deflator
Web OS
Google’s Identity Strategy
Telecom Infrastructure
Google Philosophy
Google on Wikipedia

Discussion:
So, if the OS of the web is Google, what will apps have to do to exist in this new environment? If Google takes care of the infrastructure, then what sorts of apps will be possible? What will be enabled?

This is real… some photographer has one hell of a zoom lens!

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Jacob Appelbaum’s is reporting some pretty amazing stuff. He has some incredible pictures and stories to tell. It really is amazing that all of this is happening in the United States. Who would have ever thought it possible…

This city smells. To attempt to describe the stench would be an almost impossible task, one of untangling the many oders of a crippled city. On the way down the block out of Algiers we found the first of many bodies. It was merely laying on the cement, rotting, the skin was starting its quick turn into human jelly. The wind would blow against us and the stench of death was almost overwhelming. The face of the man was covered by a ragged blanket spread lengthwise down his body. His feet jutted out but his socks weren’t covered with shoes. It makes me wonder if they were stolen and if that related to the mans death. I called someone to decode the DMORT code on a trash dumpster. It looked like it had been there a week. As a matter of dignity and in hopes that someone would come to take the body away. His body was covered in a scrap of sheet metal with a large red X. We notified an emergency team and they said they knew. The body was no secret, obviously it wasn’t a high priority when only one body was needing removal.

Warning: There are some pretty gruesome photos here.

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After nearly 8 months living in Norway, I’m back in Austin. I have to say, it’s a bit hotter than I remember.

Here’s a timeline of all the events surrounding hurricane Katrina. It’s scary to see how ineffective the federal government has been with respect to all of this. After four years of preparation for “dirty bombs” and “chemical weapons”, it seems that FEMA was woefully unprepared for an event of this magnitude. And what’s worse, Bush and Rove have started shifting blame to the State and local officials. They claim that they were not alerted to the true dangers posed by this storm. But the facts tell a different story. This shows that they were indeed informed well ahead of time, and it took them days to even start preparing a response (Bush was vacationing down on the ranch in Crawford and doing a photo-op for McCain’s birthday in Arizona).

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Blueberry picking in Frognerseteren, originally uploaded by manueb.

My friend Manue took these pictures the other day on our blueberry hunting expedition. We managed to get enough for some muffins and for pickling in vodka.

Looks like things are just getting worse and worse in New Orleans. I’ve been reading quite a bit over at Boing Boing. They’re posting emails that they’re receiving from people in and around New Orleans. Seems like there is some seriously scary stuff going on there. The one thing that keeps coming up in all of these emails is that the Red Cross is the only organization there that’s worth a damn. Apparently, they’re the only ones that were actually prepared to handle a situation of this magnitude.

Also, if you live in the surrounding areas and you have an extra room in your house, then you also might be able to help. MoveOn.org is sponsoring this page to help connect households with extra rooms to the thousands of now homeless people pouring out of New Orleans.

Bush’s comments taken directly from a White House press briefing:

We’ve got a lot of rebuilding to do. First, we’re going to save lives and stabilize the situation. And then we’re going to help these communities rebuild. The good news is — and it’s hard for some to see it now — that out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic Gulf Coast, like it was before. Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott’s house — he’s lost his entire house — there’s going to be a fantastic house. And I’m looking forward to sitting on the porch. (Laughter.)

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Viking swim in Oslofjord, originally uploaded by Shad Reynolds.

I was fortunate enough to be included in this years sailing trip with some of people from Troux Oslo. It was a beautiful trip and couple of people even went in for a dip. Check out the entire set here.