An unplanned post about Google (Friend Connect this time)

The disappearance of my Google Friend Connect gadget from the right-hand column was not part of my plans to de-Google my life: after all, it took me a while to amass the followers there (I think I had a mere 18, but some of them were friends).    From my Google Dashboard, I noticed there […]

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Jailed Minnesota Toyota owner may get retrial

You can’t help but wonder (without reading the court transcripts and judgement) how the sentencing of Koua Fong Lee could be so harsh. In 2006, Lee’s Toyota Camry, with his pregnant wife, daughter, brother and father on board, accelerated out of control and smashed into an Oldsmobile, killing three people in the second car back […]

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Anyone else with a new Google results’ page?

Anyone else have a different results’ page layout for Google? Only began happening this morning (NZDT) to me, though I imagine others must have this by now.    Despite my fairly regular moans about technology, I seem to be among the first to get some features. I remember getting the Digg Toolbar about two or […]

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I don’t have Gmail. So how did I get a Buzz account again?

Can someone please explain to me how I have a Google Buzz account?    Yes, I know, all those people complaining about Google Buzz found that their Gmail contacts where, all of a sudden, added to the service.    And Google, this week, apologized for messing up.    Well, Google, please explain my scenario, because […]

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A belated thank-you to independent software creators

When I had to reinstall everything late last year, I didn’t thank the software developers for making it easy for me to get a new ID. I got personal replies from the programmers behind Barcode Maker 3 and SayNow, and found it relatively easy to sort out registration for FontLab and Gammadyne Mailer. The rest […]

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A way to delete your Google Wave account?

For those trying to leave Google Wave—and who have had no satisfaction whatsoever from the Google forums (what a surprise)—there might be one way.    There are quite a few reasons people want to leave Wave. One netizen had this concern: ‘It appears I have been linked to former associates who I have kept in […]

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More Google privacy breaches in Reader?

Tonight, I removed every single blog I followed—including my own—from Blogger. My de-Googling continues. I’ve also taken myself off as an author on some Blogger blogs as of tonight, as an intermediate step of ending my association with Blogger altogether.    I had hoped that deleting my Blogger reading list would get me off the […]

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Google might have signed you up to stuff you never asked for

I was getting annoyed at Google for the services it counts as part of my ‘products’, but that was minor compared with what Harriet Jacobs has gone through with Google’s new Buzz service—which appeared to have put her personal safety in jeopardy (hat tip to Simon Green). From what I can tell, Buzz shares, by […]

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Toyota’s troubles stem from forgetting its principles

I was surprised to learn that Toyota still has not issued a worldwide recall of its troublesome Prius NHW30 model, even though one had gone out in New Zealand.    In layman’s terms, the brakes allegedly don’t work when you want them to. In more complex terms, the software has trouble distinguishing between different types […]

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Best quotation on the Howard Stern–American Idol tie-up

The best quotation in the American media this week? In my opinion, it would have to be this: Howard Stern is being considered to replace Simon Cowell when he leaves “American Idol” after this season.    Apparently Satan was out of Fox’s price range. From Tony Hicks in the Contra Costa Times. You may also […]

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