Google and Books Online

I had heard about Google making books available online- about 7 months ago, and about 2 months ago, I was looking for a particular book (copyright 1952) I just couldn’t get my hands on, and remembered about Googles plan… So I quickly got on Google and guess what, there it was. As I read through the article“Throwing Google at the book" by Farhad Manjoo, it helped me understand some of the issues that Google had in making this happen.


Google claims that publishing these books publicly can only help the authors and publishers. It is putting their work out there, where there is more access, interest and especially exposure to their work. Purchasing this book with this exposure, will of course favor Google, but will definitely the author/publisher as well.
Google has become a favorite among many- lately (at least for me it has), and adding this new feature of cataloging books and articles was bound to happen (whether it was Google or not). I’m glad it was Google, a trusted resource to me.

iPods in flights

As I was reading some technology headlines, I ran into "Mexican Airline Begins Renting iPods to Passengers", at first I was a bit skeptical, I thought about my experiences in travel, remembered how more than 3/4 of the passengers engage in some time of multimedia device (mp3, hand held, laptop, etc)... as I keep thinking about this I think its a wonderful idea... For one, if we know there will be an ipod available, we can plan on not bringing or appropriately storing our multimedia (this would eventually also help in reducing the security clearance wait time). Another important point is that each passenger will have a choice in movie, music, sitcom options...

The article further talks about how major airlines are looking to offer IPOD seat connections, but this airline specifically is renting iPods. I think either way is good, I like the second option better (rent or provide for free), especially since that is the last thing I remember to pack.

I would be concerned with the cleanliness and functionality (maintenance) of these devices- especially if they are handles my many...

Blogs! in the Workplace

Blogging has become a way to communicate to the masses and become a very popular and effective form of marketing tool. They allow you to write what you are thinking about today and it allows for immediate feedback and response.

Blogs are ever more popular in the workplace with today's technology. Corporations are now using blogging as a form of communication with their employees and prospective candidates. Some companies are using blogs s a recruiting tool- the prospective candidate has an opportunity to research company work environment and culture.

The following are examples of company blogs:

Honeywell Corp.
Cisco
IBM