Thursday, March 27, 2008

Do No Evil

I was at a breakfast hosted by Google today. Our host was an account manager at Google, and he made for fascinating conversation. I mean, being at a Google breakfast is exciting to begin with. It just is. I got a really cool pen for one thing. A stainless steel pen with a 1GB memory stick in it, and a laser pointer that gets recharged through the USB plug of the memory stick! How cool is that! And I've never liked getting pens, because I always lose them. I hope to keep this one.

So back to the conversation. I asked him what they think about the talked about merger between Microsoft and Yahoo. He said they don't have a problem with it, as long as these guys don't fall behind. He is worried that it takes Microsoft so long to integrate acquisitions, that the integration will make them fall behind in search, and that is not good for the internet. What is not good for the internet is not good for Google. "Do no evil". He believes that. He really really does. How amazing is that!

I must say I am really frustrated with my laptop (again). It just goes slower and slower as time goes on, and it lost its indexing. That makes it very hard to find documents. Don't you think it will be time well spent by Microsoft just fixing their software? Forget for a moment about enhancing and adding features: Just fix what you have. Make it stable. So that it does not break. And while you're at it, make my computer start-up faster. I hate sitting their in the morning for 10 minutes waiting for it to start-up and do all its early morning exercises. It is such a waste of time. Open the laptop, on. How difficult can that be? I see that is what the Macbook Air does... I think I should get one of those.

Let's see, what else did not work today. O yes: The ferry had to drop about 5 people off at the Taronga Zoo before going to Rose Bay. Everyone was most annoyed. When we moved to Sydney from Johannesburg, something became quite clear. People need things to stress about. It does not really matter what. Whether it is rape and murder, or the toll fees for the cross city tunnel going from $1.50 to $1.85, it creates stress in people's lives. Maybe the rape and murder in Johannesburg creates a little more stress, but relatively the excitement levels about the stress are not all that different.

Walk into a news agent in Sydney, and look at what graces the front pages, and then do the same in Johannesburg. Different planet.