Google Music Terms of Service

I just got an invite to Google Music Beta =D Of course, I read through the entire terms and conditions before signing up (doesn't everyone?) They were quite interesting, so I've posted them here for your interest. Note at the bottom there is a section for "Gracenote", a music data provider which has partnered with Google for this enterprise. I wouldn't be surprised if Google acquires Gracenote (or a similar company) some time down the track. It's not often that Google licenses the core data set for one of their services from a third party.

Listed below is the Google Music Beta Terms of Service, current as of 7th June 2011.

Additional Terms of Service for Music Beta by Google

Last modified: May 10, 2011

Thank you for your interest in Music Beta by Google! By using Music Beta by Google ("Music Beta" or the "Service"), you accept and agree to be bound by the Google Terms of Service, the Google Privacy Policy, and theMusic Beta by Google Privacy Policy, each of which is incorporated into this agreement by this reference, as well as these Additional Terms of Service for Music Beta by Google (collectively, the "Terms"). It is important for you to read each of these documents, as they form a legal agreement regarding your use of the Service between you and Google Inc. ("Google") whose principal place of business is 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States. This document explains how your agreement with Google is made up and sets out some of the terms of that agreement. Capitalized terms not otherwise defined in these Additional Terms have the meaning given to them in the Google Terms of Service.

The Music Beta Service and Your Music

Music Beta is a Service as defined in Section 1.1 of the Google Terms of Service and is provided to you for your personal, non-commercial use solely in connection with lawfully acquired music files from your personal collection that you choose to make available to yourself through the Service, including all data comprising, describing, or associated with each music file that you choose to upload, such as audio data, metadata, and album art for each selected file (whether referring to individual uploaded files or to your entire uploaded library, "Your Music"). Music Beta consists of (a) Google-provided server space that you can use for storage of Your Music, and (b) software applications and related web sites and services that allow you to upload, manage, access, and play back Your Music through a web browser or through any supported, Service-enabled device. To the extent that you use the Music Application for Android devices in conjunction with Music Beta, those uses are governed by the Terms, including these Additional Terms.

Trial Service Availability and Limitations

Music Beta is a trial or "beta" Service from Google that requires you to register with your new or existing Google account. It is available free for a limited time to residents of the United States (including its territories and protectorates) who have received an invitation from Google and accept the invitation by signing into their Google account to register for use of the Service. As a beta Service, certain limits on storage or usage may apply; these limits may be set or changed by Google at any time, at Google's discretion, and you agree that you will not attempt to obstruct or prevent the application of those Service limits at any time, or to manipulate your usage of the Service to avoid or circumvent them. You can find more information about applicable Service limits through the Music Beta Help Center.

Third Party Fees

Music Beta is available without charge from Google; however, you may incur access or data fees from third parties (such as your internet provider or mobile carrier) in connection with your use of the Service. You are responsible for all such third-party charges for your use of Music Beta on or through third party services and devices.

Privacy and Your Personal Information

Section 7 of the Google Terms of Service governing Music Beta by Google is replaced in its entirety by the following:

7.1 For information about Google's data protection practices, please read the Music Beta by Google Privacy Policy at http://music.google.com/about/privacy.html. This policy explains how Google treats your personal information, and protects your privacy, when you use the Service.

7.2 You agree to the use of your data in accordance with Google's privacy policies.

Your Permissions and Instructions to Google

Section 11 of the Google Terms of Service governing Music Beta by Google is replaced in its entirety by the following:

11.1 You retain any rights you already hold in Your Music. You acknowledge and agree that you are solely responsible for your own conduct and Content (including Your Music) while using the Service and for any consequences thereof. You agree to use the Service only for purposes that are legal, proper, and in accordance with these Terms, and that by using the Service you are requesting that Google make all of the necessary functions and features of the Service available to you in order to facilitate your use of Your Music according to the Terms. Without limiting the generality of this overall permission and instruction, you specifically agree that you are instructing Google to perform the functions described in Sections 11.2, 11.3, and 11.4 below.

11.2 By uploading or submitting Your Music to or through the Service, you are directing Google to store a unique copy of Your Music on your behalf and to make it accessible to you through the use of your login credentials.

11.3 By accessing, managing, playing back, displaying, or using all or any part of Your Music on or through the Service, you are directing Google to initiate and perform the corresponding functions on your behalf, together with any related steps necessary to achieve them, through the Service.

11.4 You understand that Google, in performing the required technical steps to provide you with the Service as described in the Terms, may (a) transmit Your Music over various public networks and in various media; and (b) make such changes to Your Music as are necessary to conform and adapt it to the technical requirements of connecting networks, devices, services, or media. You agree that in each such instance, your use of the Service includes a direction to Google to take these actions on your behalf.

11.5 You confirm and warrant to Google that you have all the rights, power and authority to grant any permissions and give any instructions to Google that may be required to perform the actions necessary to provide you with the Service. You agree that you will not upload, submit, access, manage, play back, display or use any Content (including any portion of Your Music), or direct Google to do anything with Your Music on your behalf, unless you have all of the necessary rights to do so without infringing the rights of any third party or violating any laws or agreements that apply to you, the Content, or Your Music.

Copyright Notices

It is Google's policy to respond to notices of alleged copyright infringement that comply with applicable intellectual property law (including, in the United States, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act) and to terminate the accounts of repeat infringers. Details of Google's policy can be found at http://www.google.com/dmca.html.

Third Party Software

To the extent that Music Beta includes components governed by third party or open source licenses with provisions inconsistent with the Terms, those components are instead governed solely by the applicable third party or open source licenses. Information regarding those licenses (except for software provided by Gracenote, Inc., for which the terms are included at the end of this agreement) can be obtained at the following location:http://music.google.com/about/thirdparty.html.

Acceptance of Terms

You accept the Terms either by clicking to accept the Additional Terms presented to you when you first access the Service or by using Music Beta by Google. Your continued use of the Service constitutes your consent to the Terms (as may be modified from time to time, in whole or in part, with or without notice). It is your responsibility to review the Additional Terms regularly for updates. If you do not agree to the Terms, you may not use the Service.

You can review, print or save a copy of these Additional Terms of Service for Music Beta by Google (and navigate to other links referenced in the Additional Terms) by visiting the Additional Terms web page at:http://music.google.com/about/terms.html.

---

Gracenote Software

This application or device may contain software from Gracenote, Inc. of Emeryville, California ("Gracenote"). The software from Gracenote (the "Gracenote Software") enables this application to perform disc and/or file identification and obtain music-related information ("Gracenote Data") from online servers or embedded databases (collectively, "Gracenote Servers") and to perform other functions. You may use Gracenote Data only by means of the intended end-user functions of this application or device.

This application may contain content belonging to Gracenote's providers. If so, all of the restrictions set forth herein with respect to Gracenote Data shall also apply to such content and such content providers shall be entitled to all of the benefits and protections set forth herein that are available to Gracenote. You agree that you will use Gracenote Data, the Gracenote Software, and Gracenote Servers for your own personal non-commercial use only. You agree not to assign, copy, transfer or transmit the Gracenote Software or any Gracenote Data to any third party. YOU AGREE NOT TO USE OR EXPLOIT GRACENOTE DATA, THE GRACENOTE SOFTWARE, OR GRACENOTE SERVERS, EXCEPT AS EXPRESSLY PERMITTED HEREIN.

You agree that your non-exclusive license to use the Gracenote Data, the Gracenote Software, and Gracenote Servers will terminate if you violate these restrictions. If your license terminates, you agree to cease any and all use of the Gracenote Data, the Gracenote Software, and Gracenote Servers. Gracenote reserves all rights in Gracenote Data, the Gracenote Software, and the Gracenote Servers, including all ownership rights. Under no circumstances will Gracenote become liable for any payment to you for any information that you provide. You agree that Gracenote, Inc. may enforce its rights under this Agreement against you directly in its own name.

The Gracenote service may use a unique identifier to track queries for statistical purposes. The purpose of a randomly assigned numeric identifier is to allow the Gracenote service to count queries without knowing anything about who you are. For more information, see the web page for the Gracenote Privacy Policy for the Gracenote service.

The Gracenote Software and each item of Gracenote Data are licensed to you "AS IS." Gracenote makes no representations or warranties, express or implied, regarding the accuracy of any Gracenote Data from in the Gracenote Servers. Gracenote reserves the right to delete data from the Gracenote Servers or to change data categories for any cause that Gracenote deems sufficient. No warranty is made that the Gracenote Software or Gracenote Servers are error-free or that functioning of Gracenote Software or Gracenote Servers will be uninterrupted. Gracenote is not obligated to provide you with new enhanced or additional data types or categories that Gracenote may provide in the future and is free to discontinue its services at any time. GRACENOTE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. GRACENOTE DOES NOT WARRANT THE RESULTS THAT WILL BE OBTAINED BY YOUR USE OF THE GRACENOTE SOFTWARE OR ANY GRACENOTE SERVER. IN NO CASE WILL GRACENOTE BE LIABLE FOR ANY CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES OR FOR ANY LOST PROFITS OR LOST REVENUES.

© 2011. Gracenote, Inc. All Rights Reserved

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$100 Free Google Adwords Credit - from Hong Kong to Australia

Mail from Hong Kong

Today I received a letter from Google. The postmark and return address were both labeled "Hong Kong". Naturally I was more than a little curious as to what Google might be sending me from Hong Kong. As it turns out, the letter wasn't anything to do with Hong Kong at all.

The envelope contained a $100 gift card from Google Adwords, and a letter signed by Lucinda Barlow, Head of Marketing for Google Australia. Not Hong Kong. Either Google Australia uses Hong Kong for some of their mailouts, or they're sending out a global campaign and attaching local signatures depending on the destination. Either way, it's pretty crazy that mail sent to Australia comes from Hong Kong.

The full letter transcript is below:

Come back to AdWords and get $100 in free advertising

Hello from Google!

We understand how important it is for a business to stand out online - and that's one of the main reasons small businesses use Google AdWords everyday. Over the past year, we've made a lot of changes to make AdWords easier to use, and to help ensure your online ad campaigns deliver the results you expect. We hope you'll try AdWords again and are giving you $100 to get started.

There are a lot of things you can do to make your campaign more successful - refine your keywords, change your bid, or maybe try a new headline. We'd like to recommend the AdWords Online Classroom (www.google.com.au/adwords/classroom). It's a free resource that offers a series of video tutorials covering quick tips designed to help you get the most out of AdWords.

The first step is redeeming your $100 and reactivating your campaign. Then, it's just a matter of time, and a little bit of effort, before you start attracting new customers to your business.

Sincerely,

Lucinda Barlow
Head of Marketing, Google Australia

Reset buttons - useful or not?

I've seen quite a few blogs posts lately complaining about the HTML Reset button. You know, the one that often sits beside the "Submit" button. I think everyone must have accidentally hit Reset at least once. So what's the use of it? Personally I have never seen a web form where a Reset button is necessary. And I have accidentally hit Reset many times - especially when it's placed in the position you normally find the Submit button.

This afternoon I wrote up a quick Google Chrome extension to hide all Reset buttons. Are you sick of accidentally clicking the wrong button? Try out the extension and let me know what you think.

PHP Error: Permission denied in Unknown at line 0 [FIX]

I was setting up a quick PHP test in my home directory today, but when I tried to load my file (http://localhost/~david/test.php) I encountered a strange error:

Warning: Unknown: failed to open stream: Permission denied in Unknown on line 0 Fatal error: Unknown: Failed opening required '/home/david/public_html/test.php' (include_path='.:/usr/share/php5/PEAR:/usr/share/php5') in Unknown on line 0

My code was pretty simple - no "include" or "require" statements anywhere, and perfectly valid syntax. This puzzled me for some time - it appeared as if PHP was trying to "require" my test file in itself. As it turns out, that wasn't too far from the truth.

This error was simply caused by Apache (and therefore PHP) not having read permissions to my PHP file. So it could tell that the file was there (otherwise I would get a 404 error), but when PHP tried to open the file for reading it failed, due to my file permissions (in this case, 007). To fix the problem, I simply had to run:

chmod 777 /home/david/test.php

After this my PHP code ran perfectly. It's worth knowing that this kind of error can occur - it might save a lot of Googling like I had to do!

Note: Normally I wouldn't change the permissions on a PHP file to 777 (everyone has full access, including write). However, in this case it was just a simple test page running on localhost, so I wasn't too worried about security.

ERROR: Creating templock /var/lock/mrtg/.....: No such file or directory [How to Fix]

I have been running MRTG on Ubuntu server 8.10, and recently it stopped running for no obvious reason. Examining the MRTG log, I found many lines like this:

ERROR: Creating templock /var/lock/mrtg/_etc_mrtg.cfg_l_5012: No such file or directory at /usr/bin/mrtg line 1645.
ERROR: Creating templock /var/lock/mrtg/_etc_mrtg.cfg_l_5020: No such file or directory at /usr/bin/mrtg line 1645.
ERROR: Creating templock /var/lock/mrtg/_etc_mrtg.cfg_l_5041: No such file or directory at /usr/bin/mrtg line 1645.
ERROR: Creating templock /var/lock/mrtg/_etc_mrtg.cfg_l_5046: No such file or directory at /usr/bin/mrtg line 1645.
ERROR: Creating templock /var/lock/mrtg/_etc_mrtg.cfg_l_5074: No such file or directory at /usr/bin/mrtg line 1645.
ERROR: Creating templock /var/lock/mrtg/_etc_mrtg.cfg_l_5100: No such file or directory at /usr/bin/mrtg line 1645.
ERROR: Creating templock /var/lock/mrtg/_etc_mrtg.cfg_l_5112: No such file or directory at /usr/bin/mrtg line 1645.
ERROR: Creating templock /var/lock/mrtg/_etc_mrtg.cfg_l_5121: No such file or directory at /usr/bin/mrtg line 1645.
ERROR: Creating templock /var/lock/mrtg/_etc_mrtg.cfg_l_5129: No such file or directory at /usr/bin/mrtg line 1645.
ERROR: Creating templock /var/lock/mrtg/_etc_mrtg.cfg_l_5148: No such file or directory at /usr/bin/mrtg line 1645.
ERROR: Creating templock /var/lock/mrtg/_etc_mrtg.cfg_l_5173: No such file or directory at /usr/bin/mrtg line 1645.
ERROR: Creating templock /var/lock/mrtg/_etc_mrtg.cfg_l_5905: No such file or directory at /usr/bin/mrtg line 1645.
ERROR: Creating templock /var/lock/mrtg/_etc_mrtg.cfg_l_6004: No such file or directory at /usr/bin/mrtg line 1645.
ERROR: Creating templock /var/lock/mrtg/_etc_mrtg.cfg_l_6023: No such file or directory at /usr/bin/mrtg line 1645.
ERROR: Creating templock /var/lock/mrtg/_etc_mrtg.cfg_l_6049: No such file or directory at /usr/bin/mrtg line 1645.
ERROR: Creating templock /var/lock/mrtg/_etc_mrtg.cfg_l_6065: No such file or directory at /usr/bin/mrtg line 1645.
ERROR: Creating templock /var/lock/mrtg/_etc_mrtg.cfg_l_6092: No such file or directory at /usr/bin/mrtg line 1645.
ERROR: Creating templock /var/lock/mrtg/_etc_mrtg.cfg_l_6191: No such file or directory at /usr/bin/mrtg line 1645.
ERROR: Creating templock /var/lock/mrtg/_etc_mrtg.cfg_l_6247: No such file or directory at /usr/bin/mrtg line 1645.


Turns out there is a bug with running MRTG on Ubuntu/Debian which removes the MRTG lock file on every reboot. To fix this, create a new text file (as root) in /etc/rcS.d/ called "S91mrtg-lock-dir.sh" and paste the following code into it:

#!/bin/sh
# Create the lock directory for MRTG
# This is needed due to a bug for Ubuntu/Debian which erases this directory at shutdown
echo "Creating MRTG lock directory...."
mkdir -m 0755 /var/lock/mrtg


This will create a new /var/lock/mrtg directory every time the computer starts up. You may need to reboot to enable this, or simply run the command mkdir -m 0755 /var/lock/mrtg.

More information:
http://www.enterprisenetworkingplanet.com/netos/article.php/3663941
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=249393
http://www.directadmin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7843&page=3
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=ERROR%3A+Creating+templock%3A+No+such+file+or+directory&aq=f&aqi=&oq=

Google Buzz: How to publish to Twitter automatically

At present, Google Buzz has the ability to import, index and display your Tweets. One feature that is notably missing, however, is the ability to tweet from Buzz. You can't export Google Buzz to Twitter. At least, not officially.

I've written a python script to grab your Google Buzz feed (as detailed in the Buzz API), and automatically post your Buzz-es to Twitter. It includes a link back to the original Buzz URL (shortened with Bit.ly) It also uses a local sqlite database to store previous posts, and print bit.ly statistics for your published links.

You'll need to have python installed, and the following modules:
python-twitter
python-bitly
python-sqlite
feedparser
You'll also need a free account at Twitter and Bit.ly, and a Bit.ly API key.

Download the python source code from Google Code, or copy the text below. Please let me know if you found this useful, or have any improvements or modifications to suggest.


Update: To run this script every minute, add the following line to your crontab:
* * * * * /path/to/buzz-twitter-bot.py
This will update Twitter with your Google Buzz posts at least once per minute.

Code:

#!/usr/bin/python
from time import strftime
import sqlite3
import sys
import re

import twitter     #http://code.google.com/p/python-twitter/
import bitly       #http://code.google.com/p/python-bitly/
import feedparser  #available at feedparser.org


DATABASE = "tweets.sqlite"

BITLY_LOGIN = "username"
BITLY_API_KEY = "insert_your_key"

TWITTER_USER = "username"
TWITTER_PASSWORD = "secret"

def print_stats():
conn = sqlite3.connect(DATABASE)
conn.row_factory = sqlite3.Row
c = conn.cursor()

b = bitly.Api(login=BITLY_LOGIN,apikey=BITLY_API_KEY)

c.execute('SELECT title, url, short_url from RSSContent')
all_links = c.fetchall()

for row in all_links:

short_url = row['short_url']

if short_url is None:
short_url = b.shorten(row['url'])
c.execute('UPDATE RSSContent SET `short_url`=? WHERE `url`=?',(short_url,row['url']))


stats = b.stats(short_url)
print "%s - User clicks %s, total clicks: %s" % (row['title'], stats.user_clicks,stats.total_clicks)

conn.commit()

def tweet_rss(url):
print "Opening database...."
conn = sqlite3.connect(DATABASE)
conn.row_factory = sqlite3.Row
c = conn.cursor()
print "Database opened."

#create the table if it doesn't exist
c.execute('CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS RSSContent (`url`, `title`, `dateAdded`, `content`, `short_url`)')

print "Logging in to Twitter...."
api = twitter.Api(username=TWITTER_USER, password=TWITTER_PASSWORD)
print "Logging in to Bitly...."
b = bitly.Api(login=BITLY_LOGIN,apikey=BITLY_API_KEY)

print "Parsing feed...."
d = feedparser.parse(url)

for entry in d.entries:

#check for duplicates
c.execute('select * from RSSContent where url=?', (entry.link,))
if not c.fetchall():
print entry
#Get data from this entry
title = entry.title
content = entry.content[0].value
link = entry.link
updated = entry.updated
#Strip HTML from content
r = re.compile(r'<[^<]*?/?>')
content = r.sub('', content)

print "Found new item"
print "Title: "+title
print "Content: "+content
print "Link: "+link
tweet_text = "Buzz: %s" % content

#Shorten link
print "Shortening link...."
shortened_link = b.shorten(link)
print "Shortened link: "+shortened_link

#Add this entry to the database
t = (link, title, updated, content, shortened_link)
c.execute('insert into RSSContent (`url`, `title`,`dateAdded`, `content`, `short_url`) values (?,?,?,?,?)', t)
print "%s.. %s" % (tweet_text[:115], shortened_link)

#Post to twitter
print "Posting to twitter...."
api.PostUpdate("%s.. %s" % (tweet_text[:115], shortened_link))
print "Post complete."

conn.commit()

if __name__ == '__main__':
tweet_rss(sys.argv[1])
print "Listing stats...."
print_stats()

Special Thanks to Halotis for the RSS Twitter Bot, and love-python.blogspot.com for how to strip HTML tags.

Fix: Firefox 3 runs slowly keeps pausing and not responding on Ubuntu 9.10 Dual core

When I installed Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic" on my new HP Dual-core computer, I found that Firefox was having a lot of issues. It would startup alright, and load pages pretty fast. But mainly whenever I tried to open a new tab, or had a lot of tabs open, it would randomly stop responding for a few seconds at a time. Since I have compiz enabled, Firefox would "grey out" and stop responding to mouse clicks. CPU usage never exceeded 50% of both cores though.

I trued using the CPU Frequency Scaler applet on the panel to increase the CPU speed with no effect. Also, reducing the threshold at which the CPU frequency is raised had no effect either. It turns out that Firefox just doesn't like running across multiple CPUs for some reason. The solution was to restrict Firefox to run on a single core.

This can be accomplished using the linux utility "taskset". The command I used is shown below (run as root):

taskset -c -p 1 `pidof firefox`

An explanation:

• The -c says to use a zero-based number to identify cores (Core 1 is "0", Core 2 is "1", etc). The default is to use a bitmask (more advanced).
  
• The -p says to reuse the existing pid, and not start a new task.
• Then we specify the core (Core 2 in this case, we could separate them with commas such as "0,1" if we wanted both cores to be used). 
• Then we have another command, between backticks (` not ') that finds us the pid (Process ID) of the running Firefox.

This command has to be run every time Firefox starts. I'm looking for a way to change this automatically when Firefox is run - perhaps by changing the menu entry? Any suggestions are welcome!

FIX: PHP MSSQL odbc_num_rows() returns -1

Running MSSQL with PHP  on Windows sometimes returns -1 for the function odbc_num_rows() even when there are rows in the result. This function fixes the problem:

 function best_odbc_num_rows($result,$currentRow=0)  {
   $numRecords = 0;
  odbc_fetch_row($result, 0);
  while (odbc_fetch_row($result))
  {
    $numRecords++;
  }
  odbc_fetch_row($result, $currentRow);
  return $numRecords;
}

Common TCP Port Numbers

Well-Known TCP Port Numbers

In TCP/IP and UDP networks, a port is an endpoint to a logical connection and the way a client program specifies a specific server program on a computer in a network. Some ports have numbers that are preassigned to them by the IANA, and these are known as well-known ports (specified in RFC 1700). Port numbers range from 0 to 65536, but only ports numbers 0 to 1024 are reserved for privileged services and designated as well-known ports. This list of well-known port numbers specifies the port used by the server process as its contact port.

Port Number	Description
1	TCP Port Service Multiplexer (TCPMUX)
5	Remote Job Entry (RJE)
7	ECHO
18	Message Send Protocol (MSP)
20	FTP -- Data
21	FTP -- Control
22	SSH Remote Login Protocol
23	Telnet
25	Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)
29	MSG ICP
37	Time
42	Host Name Server (Nameserv)
43	WhoIs
49	Login Host Protocol (Login)
53	Domain Name System (DNS)
69	Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP)
70	Gopher Services
79	Finger
80	HTTP
103	X.400 Standard
108	SNA Gateway Access Server
109	POP2
110	POP3
115	Simple File Transfer Protocol (SFTP)
118	SQL Services
119	Newsgroup (NNTP)
137	NetBIOS Name Service
139	NetBIOS Datagram Service
143	Interim Mail Access Protocol (IMAP)
150	NetBIOS Session Service
156	SQL Server
161	SNMP
179	Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)
190	Gateway Access Control Protocol (GACP)
194	Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
197	Directory Location Service (DLS)
389	Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)
396	Novell Netware over IP
443	HTTPS
444	Simple Network Paging Protocol (SNPP)
445	Microsoft-DS
458	Apple QuickTime
546	DHCP Client
547	DHCP Server
563	SNEWS
569	MSN
1080	Socks

For further information, see RFC 1700. 
Source: http://www.webopedia.com/quick_ref/portnumbers.asp

Facebook Integrated Email Client - a "killer feature"?

The other day I realised something. I spend the vast majority of my day in the browser, with two tabs always open: Facebook, and Gmail. I use Facebook for the rich social features, photos and up-to-date contact information. Gmail I use for business communication, notifications from across the web and general communication.

What if I could combine the two? What if there was one place on the web where I could find up-to-date information about all of my friends, as well as providing private, asynchronous two-way communication by emails? I would spend all my day with this open.

What if Facebook had an email client?

Just another link on the left bar - under "News Feed", titled "Email Feed". This would show your most recent emails in a list, Facebook style, with Facebook profile pictures automatically matched to your contacts, Xoopit style. Then when you click an email, it will open and besides the email, also show information about the user, including recent updates and allow you to message them back.

If Facebook could handle my emails, I'd have no reason to keep Gmail open. I would spend all my day on Facebook. Literally. Even at work. And the integrated calendar functionality could be expanded, to provide Outlook-like viewing of availability, and event scheduling. The possibilities are endless.

Maybe I'm missing something. Maybe there's a glaringly obvious reason why Facebook doesn't do this. But as far as I can see, despite all our modern micro-blogging services, the good old email still has a lot of life left in it. If Facebook could tap into this huge business, they could potentially revolutionize email, and dramatically increase their market share at the same time. Not only that, it would also present a pathway for Facebook to move into the business communication sector, which is still largely avoiding the social network.

What about it, Facebook?

Google and Privacy

Just thought I'd add my thoughts on the Google privacy controversy. Google has certainly made a good stand with their new 9-month anonymization process. Whether they were forced to or not is irrelevant - the key is that consumers are concerned about their privacy, and Google has actively responded to this need by reducing their logs substantially. It's not that long ago that they kept logs for 24-months! I personally like to see this happening before it's brought to a court of law - unlike Microsoft's standard process.

Mobile Web in Australia

Frankly, my opinion of internet in general in Australia is extremely low to say the least. Prices are at some of the highest rates for a developed country, and then mobile internet.......... well that's just a joke. Currently with Telstra I pay $2 per MB - yes, that's $2 per megabyte! That means if I want to check my emails, facebook, im and weather forecast I'm looking at maybe 50MB per month - that's $100 p/month, and simply for mobile internet! That is of course at GSM speed - little better than dialup.

Thank you Labor government for giving us a great new, refreshed, high-speed internet!

Firefox 3 Downloads Reach World Record - 5 million downloads!

Well, they've done it! According to the Download Counter, Firefox 3 has now officially reached the "amazing" target of 5 million downloads in the 16 hours since release. Downloads so far are rolling in at a tremendous rate of 10 thousand per second. That's using up around 20Gbits/s of bandwidth - don't we all wish we could get that! :)

5 million downloads is a heck of a lot! Even Mozilla didn't appear to be expecting this, they said in the faq: "Let's shoot for 5 million--the sky is the limit!"

For those who don't know yet, Firefox has aimed for a world record on the first day of Firefox 3's release: The most unique downloads of any software product in 24 hours. You can Download Firefox 3 Here, or check out the World Record.

Firefox hits 4 million downloads

According to the official count, the total number of Firefox 3 downloads has now topped 4,000,000. The aim is to reach 5 million by tomorrow, and so far it looks as if that is going to happen quite soon. So if you haven't already downloaded Fx3, click here to join the World Record!

Please download Firefox 3 by 11:16 a.m. PDT (18:16 UTC) on June 18, 2008. That's 11:16 a.m. in Mountain View, 2:16 p.m. in Toronto, 3:16 p.m. in Rio de Janeiro, 8:16 p.m. in Paris, Madrid, Berlin, Rome and Warsaw, 10:16 p.m. in Moscow, and June 19, 2008 at 2:16 a.m. in Beijing and 3:16 a.m. in Tokyo.

Online Backup

Online backup is a big business today. And surprising to say, it doesn't end with Mozy's Free Backup Service. Today I'm going to review my latest discovery, IDrive - Online Backup.

IDrive shouldn't take long to download - if you have a broadband connection that is. Online backup isn't really an option on dialup, so before you sign up with any service, you should make sure you have a fast connection. That said, it is possible to use IDrive on a dialup connection, but you'll have to leave it running all night and be prepared for frequent dropouts.

For the record, I began my first install of IDrive on Windows Vista. The whole process was fast and flawless, without even prompting me for UAC. This was one of the easiest Vista installs I have seen in a long while.

The setup process, although not explained, is also very easy. In fact, the default settings are fine for most users, with the most commonly used Documents, Desktop, Pictures and Videos selected for backup at 2:00am every day. I had to tweak a few options to enable the Public folder and stay within my free 2GB storage limit, but overall this process was smooth and easy. The one difficulty I encountered was minor - unticking a folder in the top frame does not remove the folder from the backup list. This has to be done manually by right clicking and choosing "Remove". Although this could be confusing for some users, it is quickly mastered and doesn't interfere afterwards.

Other features of this product not covered here include a handy bandwidth check, and "IDrive Explorer", a Windows Explorer clone for your online storage space. There are also recent enhancements including the ability to manage backup set and schedules via the web interface.

IDrive is certainly a solid product, and well worth the free 2GB account. It's good to see innovation in the online backup sector, and hopefully this will continue in future versions. If you're looking for a stable and well-designed online backup service, then IDrive might be for you.

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IDrive recently won the PC World '101 Best Freebies' award. The company claims to outperform the competition by a factor of at least 30% for both backups and restores. IDrive offers encrypted online backups for free (up to 2GB) and 150GB storage (for $4.95/month).

Google Earth - coming to a browser near you....

Google Earth just met the browser. In one of Google's most exciting new API releases, the Google Maps API is now extended to include support for 3D maps - Sky, 3D Buildings and all. Once you've downloaded and installed the plugin, you're ready to go, with a whole host of Javascript API calls available to tile, pan and manipulate the earth. Check out the samples to give it a test.

I signed up for Pay Per Post

Today my application for Pay Per Post was accepted. I know that PPP is a controversial service in the blogosphere, and I certainly don't intend to compromise the quality of my blog's results with advertising. My intention in signing up is to earn a bit of extra cash, while promoting any products which I happen to like already.

So far, PPP looks like being a great success. This post, in fact, stating why I signed up for PPP and what I hope to achieve with it, will earn me $20! It does seem strange, that I would be writing something to be paid. But in reality, I would have written this exact same post whether I was paid or not. It's simply a matter of connections - which is what PPP is all about.

Overall, Pay Per Post will enhance this blog by providing a means of support for items such as hosting and maintenance. I will only post about sites I actually endorse, so have no fear of the posts being biased. If I can't truthfully say anything good about the company, I won't post at all!

If you have any thoughts about the Pay Per Post blog network, or have suggestions for my blogging, please leave a comment. I'm excited about this new opportunity for revenue, and I'd love to hear your thoughts too.

Mozilla Firefox 3 RC 1 Released

Mozilla has just announced the immediate availability of Firefox 3 Release Candidate 1. This release is inteded for developers only, and will bring stability improvements from Beta 5. This release also marks the "feature freeze", which means that no new features will be added to Firefox before it's release later this year.
Get Firefox 3 RC 1