Google: Do Evil... to your computer

(tags Google, failure, bug)

Google finally switched on the Evil Bit.

Internationally.

If this isn't Daily WTF material, then what is?

(Okay, Google already fixed what ever was wrong.)

Edit: And I was right to wait on the Google Operating System blog for a report.

Death of a client: Emacs in the Google world

(tags emacs, editor, Google)

I was thinking that Emacs was going to be left out of the Google vision. The way I see it, Google is just an implementation of idea of centralized computing, making computing cheaper for everybody. I have come to like/love/depend on Google even though I am aware of the privacy concerns. For instance, I use the Google bookmarks even though I'm a del.icio.us user. I also use the notebooks and gmail, etc.

So what do I mean emacs is going to left out? Well for one, Emacs is not a first-class supported browser in Google's eyes. All those fancy Web 2.0 interfaces support IE first, then Firefox at a close second, then the rest of the PC interfaces third, then mobile phones, etc. Another one is that Emacs doesn't have a JavaScript implementation. Lastly, Google may not publish APIs for every service.

Then I remembered what emacs is. It's a programmable programming editor. Some inventive people have already picked up where Google left off, for example, those user-developed emacs libraries for Google services, "g". They of course take advantage of the published Google APIs.

Still, there is a lag. For example, there's no library for Google Notebook (beta). Unfortunately, there is no Google API to edit the data in this service. Well, what do I expect for free.