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Saturday, June 8, 2013

Nature for beauty

Did you know that chocolate, various kinds of fruit and vegetables, yogurt and chocolate, in addition to emergency health effects, have equally good effect on beauty. Nearly all foods rich in materials whose properties can be used for care of the face and body. They need to be just right to combine, to achieve the effect you need. Prior to discard the job of preparing Bjuti treatment, keep in mind that everything you do has a shelf life of only a few days, given that the domestic cosmetics do not contain preservatives.

Keep medicines in sterilized jars, in a cool, dark, dry place. Creams that would not pollute the harmful microorganisms, instead of removing it from the finger bowl preparations solely spoon or wooden stick. If after the second or third application you notice the ingredients creams separated, do not worry, only vigorously izmućkajte and will again be ready for use. Chocolate Scrub smooth skin Recipe: Mix two tablespoons of grated chocolate cup and honey. Add two teaspoons of corn polenta and the obtained mixture rub the whole body, especially the parts where the skin is extremely rough and dry (knees, elbows and heels). Effects: Dark chocolate is rich in flavonoids, substances that successful aging. Additionally, it contains oleoiletanolamine that activate receptors in the cells of adipose tissue, thus helping to make fat metabolism. With the addition of honey, which has a calming effect, and polenta, which has a mild peeling effect, this is an ideal mixture to prepare the skin before applying anti-cellulite products. Mask of blueberries against stress Recipe: fork mash a handful of fresh blueberries, and then combine them with a cup of yogurt. Apply the mask on your face, apply a piece of gauze and leave to act for 20 minutes. In the end, just rinse with warm water. Effects: Blueberries are rich in vitamins A, B and C, iron, sulfur and calcium and have extremely antioxidant activity. They also nourishes and moisturizes the skin, but also protect the veins and capillaries. In combination with yogurt, which balances the pH of the skin, restore freshness tired face.  Grape Juice Nail Recipe: Crush the five or six major grain grapes, remove the popcorn and add a teaspoon of honey. The compounds apply to the entire surface of the toe and let it act for 10 minutes. To remove the slide, nails hold submerged for five minutes in freshly squashed grape juice. Polish just wipe without rinsing with water. Effects: Nails absorb polyphenols from grapes, which have antioxidant activity.Also, they will absorb the minerals and honey, which regenerate the toe structure. coconut and peppermint for dry skin Recipe: Mix deciliter coconut milk with šneom two egg whites. Add 10 drops of peppermint extract or 10 grinded leaves of fresh mint, and The mixtures apply to the whole body. Effects: Coconut is a rich source of saturated fatty acids and mineral salts that promote skin regeneration. Mint is a great energy and refreshing tonic for the skin, ideal to relieve burning sensations and tension.  soy Wrinkle Recipe: Grind a handful of fresh soy mixture and dilute with a little water in which you have previously handful of previously cooked rice. Add a teaspoon of oil of almond oil and mix well. Effects: Soybean sprouts are rich in phospholipids, substances that are similar in composition to smoothly and their actions prevent wrinkle formation and reduce the ones you already have. The water in which the cooked rice is rich in starch, which has a calming effect and an immediate lifting effect. Sweet almond oil has a very moisturizing effect.  green tea soft feet Recipe: large fork mash boiled potatoes and then combine it with two teaspoons of honey and cup and strong, neproceđenog green tea. The compounds rub feet insisting on the parts where the skin is particularly rough and thickened. Effects: High concentrations of antioxidants and tannins in green tea has a powerful antiseptic effect.

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Wonderful Wednesday 10

8 June 2016

This Wonderful Wednesday has been very much needed, I tell you. Coming back from holiday last week, even though it was just a short trip, made the two days back at work feel like a lifetime and this week...well, it feels interminable. I knew that would be the case, it's always the way after a holiday, but knowing that in advance doesn't make it any easier! I'm already excitedly looking forward to our next little trip but that's a while away so until then, I'm counting down the days to Friday.

And in the meantime, here are some highlights from the last week...

♥ More new furniture... I was exclaiming delightedly about our new bookcases and day bed to one of my dearest friends a few weeks ago, mentioning that next up on our list was a wardrobe and chest of drawers - yes, we are the type of people who choose book storage over clothes storage and I'm comfortable with that. She told me that she had a chest of drawers and dressing table that she was looking to get rid of, both perfectly good but she just doesn't need them anymore. So on Thursday, she drove over and dropped them off and it feels so great to be able to unpack some clothes! I'm also really excited to have a dressing table, which was quite low down on the list of priorities, something I thought I would love but wouldn't get for quite some time.

Ignore the shoe boxes in the corner...
♥ Spring cleaning...slightly belatedly. On Saturday morning I woke up (far too early) and after lying there feeling grumpy for a little while for dwelling on work on a Saturday morning, I decided to give the house a big clean. I even soaked the shower curtain in bleach! I was so proud of myself, the place looked great...although not for long as lobster soon found its way round most of the kitchen. Not by itself though, if you're thinking of an Annie Hall-type scene.

♥ Super fun Saturday... Ahhh my Saturday afternoon/evening was SO MUCH FUN. Our friend B came over with the above-mentioned lobsters and a few suggestions about what amazing dish we could make with them. (I say 'we', ho ho ho.) After a little deliberation, we decided that a Goan curry would be the perfect Saturday evening treat and popped to the supermarket to pick up the other ingredients we needed, together with some snacks and drinks. The afternoon was spent catching up, listening to music and laughing a whole lot, before the boys starting cooking. I was thoroughly spoiled and it was absolutely amazing. They paired it with a lemon pilau rice and we had some poppadoms too - in fact, my one contribution to the evening was making a cucumber raita.

B did say that he only did the above for a mention in this week's Wonderful Wednesday but hey, for a meal that good, I think it's a worthy exchange.

Another highlight of the evening was watching Quentin Tarantino's 'The Hateful Eight', where during the introductory credits I mis-read 'Channing Tatum' as 'Stockard Channing'...and spent a very confused few hours waiting for Rizzo to pop up in a western. Oops.

♥ Sipping coffee in the garden... Sunday saw the welcome return of some sunny weather in London! (Perhaps I can't finally put my winter coat away for a few months?) I brewed some coffee that we'd brought back with us from Germany and brought it out into the garden, where I sat contentedly with my book....before retreating back inside to cool down.

♥ Sunday night baths... I was feeling a little stressed on Sunday so my mister ran me a lovely bubble bath and I soaked for a while, listening to Jessica Mitford on Desert Island Discs way back in 1977. There's something deliciously comforting about it and so funny - it's one of my go-to comfort listens. It really helped my shoulders to drop slightly before the new week began...that and lovely new bed sheets. The ultimate cosy.

♥ Gluten Free Hobnobs! Big news in the gluten free community this week as McVitie's announced that they've developed some gluten free hobnobs - both original and chocolatey! It's been an age since I had a hobnob and I'm so excited... They're due in the shops in early July so I shall be keeping my eyes peeled...

How has your week been, you lovely bunch?

♥ Do let me know what's made your week a little rosier by leaving me a comment below (I do love comments!) or dropping me a tweet (I'm @happygoluckycat) or better yet, why not join the fabulous bunch of #WonderfulWednesday bloggers? Pop over to their blogs for a dose of mid-week happiness - SallyMichelleHelenKateJo and Emma - and then join me in counting down the days until the weekend. It's in sight!

  1. Returning from holidays is the WORST isn't it?! But it does sound like you've had a pretty lovely week afterall. I'm so glad London has had a little bit of sunshine - sorry if we've been hogging it all up north! It does make a change though - it's mostly raining up here!!!

    You can't beat a good Spring clean - and actually i often find i'm more productive at it when i'm in a grump!

    Have a lovely weekend xxxx

    1. Haha you northerners really have been hogging all the sun - it's been so chilly down here, while you've all been basking in tropical climes! xxx

  2. Some weeks you just need that boost and I always feel that come down after a holiday and getting back into routine.
    Eating (or drinking coffee) in the garden is one of my favourite things to do when the sun shines - although Ben likes to get way too involved and has started drinking out of our mugs!
    It looks like your little new somewhere is really starting to take shape. The furtiture looks lovely and a spring clean is just the ticket (I need to stop using that phrase, I sound like my Grandma).
    Have a fabulous end to your week my lovely and hope you can enjoy the sunshine xx

    1. I love that phrase and I think you're making it work :) Thanks for sending me the dungarees link, I'm really tempted... xx

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Now is the time to purchase this great vacant lot! Zoned single family residential and would be the perfect place to build your dream home. Easy access to I-10!

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Cinematic Conversations: The Finale!

I really need to finish this list! “Way to milk the suspense Jigs!” LOL!

But before I go to my number 1, why not let the suspense go on just for a moment longer…

There were other actors who never made it to my list but still deserve proper recognition. Some of them are Christopher Walken, Helena Bonham Carter, Christina Ricci, Ralph Fiennes, Tilda Swinton, and Jake Gyllenhaal all are outstanding actors but didn’t quite make the cut.

There is another actor who recently got my attention. He’s a good actor with a few awards under his belt (one of them being an Oscar). He also has an excellent sense of humor and a good sport to boot. Movies like “Good Will Hunting,” “Saving Private Ryan,” “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” “Ocean’s Trilogy,” and of course “The Bourne Identity Trilogy.” I bet you already know who I am talking about. So, no further introduction will be necessary right?

Anyway, I saw this hilarious video of him with Sarah Silverman (one of the best comedians working today) a while back and it still cracks me up now! If you haven’t seen it, you should. They have this running gag on the Jimmy Kimmel Live. It’s great! Watch it and the other videos about it.

Jimmy Kimmel also made a video in response to this just to get back at Sarah and Damon. Watch it here!

On to the main event! So who really is at my #1 position? I think some of you have guessed correctly (No Rhea, it’s not Jack Black). Well, not 100% correctly, because I have a tie for 1st place! Wow…how exciting…..LOL!

1) Cate Blanchett

She is one of the most successful and influential actresses during her time. I’m just speechless when it comes to the great Cate. “Elizabeth,” “Bandits,” “Heaven,” “Veronica Guerin,” “Babel,” “Notes On A Scandal,” “I’m Not There,” and her mesmerizing performance as Katharine Hepburn on “The Aviator” are just some of my favorite movies from her. However, her other films are not in anyway lacking. She constantly delivers transfixing performances. Her beauty is much like her talent, unending and immaculate. I have to stop here, if I keep going, I’m just gonna babble and embarrass myself.

1) Johnny Depp

One of the most versatile, daring and amazing actors I have ever had the pleasure of watching on the silver screen. He is the kind of actor who acts for the sake of acting. He doesn’t do it for the fame nor for the huge salaries (but getting that doesn’t hurt). Having that kind of perspective leaves the door open for so many acting possibilities. And that is what Johnny Depp got. Eccentric roles like Edward Scissorhands in “Edward Scissorhands”, Ichabod Crane in “Sleepy Hollow”, Jack Sparrow in “Pirates Of The Caribbean”, Willy Wonka in “Charlie And The Chocolate Factory”, and the more recent Sweeney Todd in “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street” are critically acclaimed roles that seems like no other actor could portray. He was also great in films with more “conventional” roles like “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape”, “The Brave”, “Ed Wood” (I loved this film!), “Donnie Brasco”, “Chocolat”, “Before Night Falls”, “Once Upon A Time In Mexico”, “Secret Window” and “Finding Neverland”.

Phew! Quite a list. Quite. A. List. I hope I didn’t irritate you guys for waiting too long. I really enjoyed this 3-part post though. :P

Cinematic Conversations: The Sequel

Wasn't able to post this earlier. I went to Baguio this week. I will tell you about it next time. Thanks for the comments! Nice to know we have our similar tastes and different likes. Anyway, here’s Part two of my previous post. The upper half of my Top 10 Movie Crushes:

5) Emma Thompson

I have this certain affinity for British actors (and of course British films), and Emma Thompson leads the pack. Her beauty is simple and more “earthly,” while her acting is truly spell-binding. She can play roles from a serious inhibited role in Sense and Sensibility, to an eccentric wizard in Harry Potter to a peculiar but talented writer in Stranger Than Fiction. This two time Academy award-winner (for her roles in Howards End and Sense and Sensibility) is not only a brilliant actor, but also received praises for writing ability. I do recommend that you catch her earlier films like Dead Again, Howards End, and Remains of the Day; and her later films like Sense and Sensibility, Love Actually, Nanny McPhee and Stranger that Fiction. Oh! And did you see her in the HBO miniseries, Angels In America? She was just heavenly (pun intended)!

4) Will Smith

Because of his latest films, no one can deny the acting aptitude of the great Will Smith. He has shown great versatility and has established himself as a bankable actor. He has kept himself out of controversy and has managed to keep his family together (happily I might add), unlike all the other celebrity couples. Independence Day, MIB, Enemy of the State, ALI, Bad Boys, The Pursuit of Happyness, and the recent I Am Legend show proof of Will Smith’s undeniable success in the movie industry. By the way, let’s not forget his rapper status! “Na na na na na na na, Getting Jiggy with it!” LOL!

3) Leonardo Di Caprio

2002 was for me the beginning of Leo’s serious acting career, anything before that was just a warm-up (Titanic is a cinematic phenomenon, so it doesn’t count. LOL!). And, from 2002 onwards, he could do no wrong. Gone are the matinee idol days and Leo-Mania groupies. Welcome the Oscars, Golden Globes and SAG awards. He has starred in one massive movie after another (Catch Me If You Can, Gangs Of NY, Aviator, Blood Diamond and The Departed) with no signs of slowing down. He is one of Martin Scorsese’s preferred actors and this is greatly advantageous to his career. Only good things are expected the new more impressive DiCaprio.

2) Natalie Portman

I know a lot of you are going “Whaaa?” Like Milla Jovovich, Natalie is one of those actors I’m just infatuated with. She is a lady with the smarts, the looks and the personality. Being a straight-A student, she was quoted saying, "I'd rather be smart than be a movie star." Fortunately, she had managed to be both by graduating from Harvard and winning a golden globe for her role in Closer. She is also one of the top geek crushes for her role in Star Wars! LOL! Her roles in Garden State, Cold Mountain, Closer, Anywhere but Here, V for Vendetta and Paris, je t'aime are just beguiling, mesmerizing and wonderful. You should also watch the SNL episode she hosted, she’s hilarious.

Oooops! The post got to long again! I’ll just tell you about my Number 1 Movie Crush in another post. ;P CAN YOU GUESS WHO???

Cinematic Conversations

The last post was disgusting right? Yeah, everybody noticed. So, in order to make up to you few who still actually read my blog, I’m going to blog about one of my favorite amusements, MOVIES! Let me first talk about my Top Ten Movie Crushes. Thanks to Paolo for getting my thought process going because we virtually fought over this list. Hahaha! He thought I was really “mean” and “technical.” Will you agree?

10) Shia LaBeouf

He is for me, one of the most promising young actors in the business today. He, as of late, has been doing one great movie after another and at the same time continuously delivering excellent performances in all of them. It started with “Holes” to “A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints” to “Transformers” and now, the up and coming “Indiana Jones”.

Note: Paolo disagrees and believes Zac Efron should hold the title I gave to Shia. I say, it takes more than perfect skin and a singing voice to make an actor. If he can show some REAL range and BELIEVABLE emotion, then we’ll talk, but for the mean time, he should stick to his musicals.

9) Milla Jovovich

I just had to add her to my list. I can’t help but like every movie she makes, no matter how bad a few of them are! LOL! I’ve watched 50% of her films and I am yet to hate one (so don’t make me review her films! LOL!). I really find her beautiful and multi-talented at the same time (she even has a critically acclaimed music album). Even her small role in Zoolander was noticeable. I’m sorry guys; I’m just biased when it comes to her. As Juice would say, “Milla Jovovich is love.”

8) Christian Bale

What an intense actor Christian Bale is. He is so attuned to his craft that the most important aspect of a film for him is delivering an astounding performance. He is so disciplined that he has undergone severe dietary regimens to play some of his roles (e.g. The Machinist and Rescue Dawn). He is also known for his expert skill in different accents. My films of choice are “American Psycho”, “Harsh Times”, “Rescue Dawn”, “3:10 to Yuma,” “Laurel Canyon” and “The Prestige”.

7) Charlize Theron

Another lovely lady and she’s from South Africa! She won an Oscar for her incredible performance in “Monster” making her the first South African to win the said award. She followed that up with North Country and Aeon Flux, where she both got praises for her roles. She has that classic beauty to her which radiates every time I see her at award shows. Then she takes a complete 360 and completely transforms into the characters she portrays in movies. Film of choice would be “Monster,” “North Country,” “In The Valley Of Elah,” and “Battle In Seattle.”

Note: I sometimes get Charlize Theron and Scarlett Johanssen mixed up. Has that ever happened to you?

6) George Clooney

I didn’t really like him in ER (he did however get Emmy and GG nominations for it) but I liked all of the films he was in (that I’ve seen of course), whether he be the actor, the director, the producer and/or the screenwriter. The multifaceted Mr. Clooney has done excellent movies in the past years and is best known for “Ocean’s Eleven” and its sequels. His eternal bachelor status has gained him quite a following among women. He has also received several awards and nominations for both his acting (“Syriana,” “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” and “Michael Clayton”) and directing ability (“Good Night And Good Luck”).

Note: George Clooney is my counterpart for Paolo’s Mel Gibson.

I have to stop here for a while. The post is getting too long. What do you think so far? Do you agree? Type in your thoughts guys! Would love to hear it! Top 5 will be posted asap!

P.S. Got new reviews in my other blog, INFLICKTED! Please visit and leave some comments! Tell me if you like or hate my reviews! LOL!


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Thursday, February 24, 2011

The New Republic on Leib's New Book

The New Republic has published a review of Ethan Leib's new Oxford University Press book, Friend v. Friend. Here's an excerpt from the review:

"Leib's book ... [is] successful as a reflection on the complex relationship between law and friendship, and it will offer rewards to people interested in the sociology of friendship. A particularly fine chapter discusses the relationship between friendship and contract law, and the surprising degree of overlap between the two."

The entire review is available here:

Monday, February 14, 2011

Leib on Letting Voters Decide the California Budget

Ethan Leib and Chris Elmendorf have published an op-ed in the February 11 issue of the San Francisco Chronicle, called "Let Californians Vote on 2 Budgets -- 1 Red, 1 Blue." Here's the link:


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Tuesday, January 26, 2016

~Run For L'Arche 2016: 5 Winter Running Tips~

When I first started running about 8 years ago, I would run from about April till October and stop for the winter. I wasn't a fan of treadmill running, and I needed a bit of a break from then triathlon training.

A couple years after doing that, and having to start at what felt like square one in the spring with my running, I decided to continue running in the winter. At first I did some solo runs outside in the cold, dark and snowy sidewalks, and then we invested in a treadmill. I wasn't really a fan of the treadmill though so it didn't get used that much that first winter.

The next winter (2010), I had done my first half marathon in the fall and had fallen in love with that distance. I found an amazing running group and so I started training for my next half marathon, in February! Running in the winter is very different, at least where I am. The weather and road conditions really become a factor in staying safe.

So here are my tips that I have learned over the years for running safely in the winter:

1. Be prepared- know the conditions. Dress for the temperature, and the wind chill. Layer, layer, layer! It's not about looking good, it's about staying warm! Last year I put together a running attire guide that I refer to depending on the temperature and conditions. Invest in good layers, a pair of shoe grips, a warm hat and gloves. Maybe even a balaclava if you are brave! I also suggest bringing a dry, warm set of clothes to change into right after your run is done, if you aren't running to/from home. Nothing worse than freezing post run because your running clothes are all sweaty!

2. Be flexible- sometimes you need to alter your training plans because the conditions don't allow for your scheduled run. Often I will change my long run when I know a snow storm is going to blow in the day I'm supposed to do it. Or I will run on the treadmill so that I don't risk falling on the ice and injuring myself.

3. Stay hydrated- just because it isn't hot outside doesn't mean you don't need water! Make sure you hydrate well before going out for your run. If you do carry water while running (I do when running 10K+), make sure you do what you can to prevent it from freezing! Start by filling your bottles with warm water. You can also wear your water belt (or camelback) under your jacket, protecting it from the wind. Having Gatorade or other sugary drink has a lower freezing temperature. Some people also like to carry a hand-held water bottle so that the heat of their hand reduces the freezing, however running with a handheld water bottle only hurts my back (puts me off balance).

4. Run with someone or let someone know your planned route and approximate length of your run- when running in the winter there are so many other factors to think about- cold, ice, snow, and with those come potential hazards. I've slipped on the ice and fallen while running in the winter, as have a number of my running friends. A few times people (not me) have had to go to the hospital for stitches or for concussions due to falls. It's also good to carry ID and your emergency contact information, so the Road ID is a great thing to have on you while running or cycling, winter or not. I have a Road ID bracelet that my husband bought me.

5. Have fun! This may not be the time to go for a personal best. It is not worth risking injury so I like to think of winter races and running as just a way to stay in shape and keep me prepared for the races later in the year that don't have snow and ice to slow me down. Slow is better than injured! That being said, my two personal best half marathon times are from races in February so it really does depend on the conditions of race day and the training runs leading up to the race.

What's your winter running tip?

  1. Great tips. The Road ID bracelet is a good idea.

    I think the biggest thing about running in winter is just knowing that it's about time on your feet, not about pace or anything.

  2. The other day I saw a guy out running in -20 in a cotton hoodie and sweatpants - what NOT to do! haha
    I really like winter running once I am out. I agree layers are the best and investing in good pieces, being comfortable and warm will be the one thing that helps you keep running - and good company!

  3. Great tips! I would definitely recommend the proper layers and a head lamp and reflective vest for the night runs

  4. I think this are all great tips! Do you mind if I share your post?

I love reading your comments!


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Monday, March 13, 2017

Back to Reality!!

Our amazing winter escape to Phoenix is over and it's back to real life this week. Cold, snow, coats, pants...

I'll share more about our fun trip later but here are some of the things I miss and don't miss about vacation!

What I Miss

- Sitting in the sun with a coffee or a drink (even if it was virgin), soaking up the rays and reading my book. Finished 2 books while I was away!

- All the grandparent help throughout the day and night! Their room was closer to the kids room so we couldn't actually hear the kids at night so they got up with them a few times. So grateful!!

- Not cooking or prepping meals! Between eating out, my in-laws cooking or hubby cooking, I didn't make dinner once! This is huge since this is my least favourite parenting job. Or adulting job... And being able to eat outside with a gorgeous Phoenix sunset was lovely!

- Sleeping in! I definitely caught up on my sleep while the other early risers entertained the kids in the morning.

- Target visits!! I only managed 1 trip to Target this time and I wanted to buy all the things!! If only I could pack the entire home section in my suitcase! I miss you Target!!

How cute is this water bottle?

I bought this hat for $5!! (So $8 Canadian...)

- Doing something fun each day whether it was going to the pool, for a hike, or visiting with family

- Ice Cream! So refreshing on those hot days!

What I Don't Miss

- Having to sleep in a Queen bed! Everyone told me once I had a king bed I'd never want to sleep in a Queen again and they were so right! Especially now that I'm pregnant!

- The kids sharing a room. It wasn't that bad actually but it is nice for them to have their owns beds and space again.

- Having to share a vehicle. We could have rented a car but for the most part didn't really feel like we needed to. Sharing a car just meant a lot of coordinating, especially when all 6 of us wanted to go somewhere since my in-laws SUV only seats 5 people so we had to make sure another friend/relative could pick a couple of us up.

- Sweating! I'm not complaining about the heat, but I did end up getting a bit of a heat rash and that was annoying. I'm glad I won't be pregnant in the summer!

- My own space. I'm a home body and as hospitable and amazing as my in-laws are, after awhile I start to miss home.

What do you miss the most when coming back from vacation?
What don't you miss?

  1. Can you believe I did not even open my book on holidays?! How??
    We ALL shared a room on holidays and it was nto ideal but not near as bad as the thought it is. lol
    Like you I start to miss home when I am way too, my own bed, food, space etc.

  2. You do vacation like me! Haha. Yes, someone else get up with my kids...someone else cook me dinner...haha! But seriously, if grandparents are there, you bet I will "use" them ;)
    Is it bad that one of the biggest things I'm looking forward to for when we go to Florida, is going to Target?! Jim thinks I'm crazy, but I cannot wait. What all did you buy?? Seeing all there home stuff makes me so sad though. I want to drive to the closest one and pack my vehicle with it all! LOL.
    We have to all share a room when we are in Florida...which is going to be interesting now that there's four of us. I'm thinking of offering to put Sully on the cot in my in-laws room, haha!! ;)

  3. Sounds like an amazing time!! Oh I miss Target and that heat would have felt amazing!! I am so glad you guys away. Kids sharing a room sucks! We do it at the lake all 4 of us and it's hard.

  4. I didn't read in my vacay at all... I brought two books, apparently I was hopeful, not that I like reading haha. I'm happy to know we can get away with a studio appartmeny for vacay now that we have done it, but that doesn't mean I want to do it again! Traveling where there is grandparents is handy!
    I miss TargeT!! dang!!

  5. I'm impressed on how you limited yourself at Target! I would have gone wild. Though usually when I want to buy a lot of things, they don't have anything I really want

I love reading your comments!


text:
IEEE 802.11n is an upcoming amendment to the IEEE 802.11-2007 wireless networking standard to significantly improve network throughput over previous standards, such as 802.11b and 802.11g, with a significant increase in the maximum raw, OSI physical layer (PHY) data rate from 54 Mbit/s to a maximum of 600 Mbit/s. The current state of the art supports a PHY rate of 450 Mbit/s, with the use of 3 spatial streams at a channel width of 40 MHz.[1] Depending on the environment, this may translate into a user throughput (TCP/IP) of 110 Mbit/s.

The 802.11n task group has completed their work and the amendment is expected to be approved by IEEE-SA RevCom in September 2009,[2] followed by publication in November.

IEEE 802.11n builds on previous 802.11 standards by adding multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) and 40 MHz operation to the physical (PHY) layer, and frame aggregation to the MAC layer.

MIMO uses multiple transmitter and receiver antennas to improve the system performance. MIMO is a technology which uses multiple antennas to coherently resolve more information than possible using a single antenna. Two important benefits it provides to 802.11n are antenna diversity and spatial multiplexing.

MIMO technology relies on multipath signals. Multipath signals are the reflected signals arriving at the receiver some time after the line of sight (LOS) signal transmission has been received. In a non-MIMO based 802.11a/b/g network, multipath signals were perceived as interference degrading a receiver's ability to recover the message information in the signal. MIMO uses the multipath signal's diversity to increase a receiver's ability to recover the message information from the signal.

Another ability MIMO technology provides is Spatial Division Multiplexing (SDM). SDM spatially multiplexes multiple independent data streams, transferred simultaneously within one spectral channel of bandwidth. MIMO SDM can significantly increase data throughput as the number of resolved spatial data streams is increased. Each spatial stream requires a discrete antenna at both the transmitter and the receiver. In addition, MIMO technology requires a separate radio frequency chain and analog-to-digital converter for each MIMO antenna which translates to higher implementation costs compared to non-MIMO systems.

40 MHz channels is another feature incorporated into 802.11n which uses doubles the 20 MHz channel width from 20Mhz in previous 802.11 PHYs to transmit data. This allows for a doubling of the PHY data rate over a single 20 MHz channel. It can be enabled in the 5 GHz mode, or within the 2.4 GHz if there is knowledge that it will not interfere with any other 802.11 or non-802.11 (such as Bluetooth) system using those same frequencies.[3]

  1. ^ a Intel Ultimate N Wifi Link 5300 Product Brief (PDF)
  2. ^ http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2350483,00.asp
  3. ^ https://mentor.ieee.org/802.11/dcn/09/11-09-0576-03-000n-sp2-40mhz-coexistence-cids-presentation.ppt

source - IEEE 802.11n. (2009, August 11). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved August 15, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/802.11n


text:
Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Seeks courageous action to tackle homelessness, housing issues

Honolulu, Hawaii – In his opening day remarks, Speaker of the House Scott K. Saiki told the 51 members of the House of Representatives that they must "step up to the plate" to provide the leadership needed during these "tumultuous times."

"The State of Hawaii requires leadership now and the House of Representatives can and should provide that leadership," Speaker Saiki said. "Unfortunately, one need only look to the past weekend to see a glaring instance of the inability of government at various levels to manage major issues facing out state."

Saiki was referring to the false emergency alert of an imminent missile strike issued by the state.

"Saturday's events reinforce the importance of the role of government. It also shines light on the role of the Legislature as the policymaker and as the check to other branches of government," Saiki said. "It is our duty to ensure that the three branches abide by their respective constitutional duties so that we all do our jobs well."

Saiki said House members are diverse, experienced, and energetic and begin this legislative session with a renewed sense of purpose.

"Our members have a pulse on what real people actually think, what they do, and what they want," Saiki said. "We should use this insight to be bold and creative. We should always be thinking of how to make things better."

Saiki told the Representatives and members of the public gathered in the House Chambers that the lack of affordable housing and the increasing homeless population are "two painfully obvious challenges that confront our state."

Saiki said solving these issues will take "commitment and courageous action, sustained over several years."

With more than 7,000 homeless persons throughout the state, Saiki said our approach to the issue requires multifaceted short- and long-term action. He said an example of a successful public-private partnership is Kahauiki Village, a self-contained community with 153 transitional homes, a preschool, a market, and a police meeting room.

"This model can be extended to homeless populations with substance abuse and mental health conditions," he said. "One important takeaway is that Kahauiki Village represents what is possible if people and agencies at different levels work towards a common goal."

To be effective leaders, Saiki called on the Representatives to be open to reform and challenge the status quo, to view challenges through the lens of those who are impacted by them, and to take a global approach to decision making.

"Members, we are at a moment in history where we cannot just be stewards. This legislative session is a call to broader involvement and decisive action," Saiki said. "We must be courageous activists because the issues facing our state are too urgent to wait. I know that we are up to the challenge."

(House Speaker Scott's K. Saiki's OpeningDay Remarks)

No comments:


text:
2007年8月30日 星期四

Internet has to stay open, says Cerf

還是日本近日宣佈的研究新一代internet 科技
還是都包含 並有許多其他我不知道的

Internet has to stay open, says Cerf
By Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson in London
Friday, August 31, 2007

Any threat to open access to the internet would be “a hazard to innovation” and a deterrent to investment, one of the founding fathers of the internet has warned.

Vint Cerf, Google's vice-president and chief internet evangelist, said in a video interview for FT.com that the internet's capacity to cope with an ever-growing number of users and amount of content carried over the network was a lesser issue than security, stability, reliability and privacy.

“The most important thing is to make sure we have a secure and stable network. There are ways to attack the system which we need to defend against,” he said.

Who's afraid of Google? (The Economist )

Current cover story: Who's afraid of Google?

The internet

Who's afraid of Google?

Aug 30th 2007
From The Economist print edition

The world's internet superpower faces testing times

RARELY if ever has a company risen so fast in so many ways as Google, the world's most popular search engine. This is true by just about any measure: the growth in its market value and revenues; the number of people clicking in search of news, the nearest pizza parlour or a satellite image of their neighbour's garden; the volume of its advertisers; or the number of its lawyers and lobbyists.

Such an ascent is enough to evoke concerns—both paranoid and justified. The list of constituencies that hate or fear Google grows by the week. Television networks, book publishers and newspaper owners feel that Google has grown by using their content without paying for it. Telecoms firms such as America's AT&T and Verizon are miffed that Google prospers, in their eyes, by free-riding on the bandwidth that they provide; and it is about to bid against them in a forthcoming auction for radio spectrum. Many small firms hate Google because they relied on exploiting its search formulas to win prime positions in its rankings, but dropped to the internet's equivalent of Hades after Google tweaked these algorithms.

And now come the politicians. Libertarians dislike Google's deal with China's censors. Conservatives moan about its uncensored videos. But the big new fear is to do with the privacy of its users. Google's business model (see article) assumes that people will entrust it with ever more information about their lives, to be stored in the company's “cloud” of remote computers. These data begin with the logs of a user's searches (in effect, a record of his interests) and his responses to advertisements. Often they extend to the user's e-mail, calendar, contacts, documents, spreadsheets, photos and videos. They could soon include even the user's medical records and precise location (determined from his mobile phone).

More JP Morgan than Bill Gates

Google is often compared to Microsoft (another enemy, incidentally); but its evolution is actually closer to that of the banking industry. Just as financial institutions grew to become repositories of people's money, and thus guardians of private information about their finances, Google is now turning into a custodian of a far wider and more intimate range of information about individuals. Yes, this applies also to rivals such as Yahoo! and Microsoft. But Google, through the sheer speed with which it accumulates the treasure of information, will be the one to test the limits of what society can tolerate.

It does not help that Google is often seen as arrogant. Granted, this complaint often comes from sour-grapes rivals. But many others are put off by Google's cocksure assertion of its own holiness, as if it merited unquestioning trust. This after all is the firm that chose “Don't be evil” as its corporate motto and that explicitly intones that its goal is “not to make money”, as its boss, Eric Schmidt, puts it, but “to change the world”. Its ownership structure is set up to protect that vision.

Ironically, there is something rather cloudlike about the multiple complaints surrounding Google. The issues are best parted into two cumuli: a set of “public” arguments about how to regulate Google; and a set of “private” ones for Google's managers, to do with the strategy the firm needs to get through the coming storm. On both counts, Google—contrary to its own propaganda—is much better judged as being just like any other “evil” money-grabbing company.

Grab the money

That is because, from the public point of view, the main contribution of all companies to society comes from making profits, not giving things away. Google is a good example of this. Its “goodness” stems less from all that guff about corporate altruism than from Adam Smith's invisible hand. It provides a service that others find very useful—namely helping people to find information (at no charge) and letting advertisers promote their wares to those people in a finely targeted way.

Given this, the onus of proof is with Google's would-be prosecutors to prove it is doing something wrong. On antitrust, the price that Google charges its advertisers is set by auction, so its monopolistic clout is limited; and it has yet to use its dominance in one market to muscle into others in the way Microsoft did. The same presumption of innocence goes for copyright and privacy. Google's book-search product, for instance, arguably helps rather than hurts publishers and authors by rescuing books from obscurity and encouraging readers to buy copyrighted works. And, despite Big Brotherish talk about knowing what choices people will be making tomorrow, Google has not betrayed the trust of its users over their privacy. If anything, it has been better than its rivals in standing up to prying governments in both America and China.

That said, conflicts of interest will become inevitable—especially with privacy. Google in effect controls a dial that, as it sells ever more services to you, could move in two directions. Set to one side, Google could voluntarily destroy very quickly any user data that it collects. That would assure privacy, but it would limit Google's profits from selling to advertisers information about what you are doing, and make those services less useful. If the dial is set to the other side and Google hangs on to the information, the services will be more useful, but some dreadful intrusions into privacy could occur.

The answer, as with banks in the past, must lie somewhere in the middle; and the right point for the dial is likely to change, as circumstances change. That will be the main public interest in Google. But, as the bankers (and Bill Gates) can attest, public scrutiny also creates a private challenge for Google's managers: how should they present their case?

One obvious strategy is to allay concerns over Google's trustworthiness by becoming more transparent and opening up more of its processes and plans to scrutiny. But it also needs a deeper change of heart. Pretending that, just because your founders are nice young men and you give away lots of services, society has no right to question your motives no longer seems sensible. Google is a capitalist tool—and a useful one. Better, surely, to face the coming storm on that foundation, than on a trite slogan that could be your undoing.

2007年8月29日 星期三

Don't email me about Google's wheeze for targeted advertising

Read me first

Don't email me about Google's wheeze for targeted advertising

wheeze(v.)breathe with difficulty
wheeze(n.)breathing with a husky or whistling sound
wheeze(n.)(Briticism) a clever or amusing scheme or trick : "a clever wheeze probably succeeded in neutralizing the German espionage threat"

If a series of recent patent filings by Google are any indication, web advertising may be about to get a whole lot friendlier - and the definition of spam a whole lot fuzzier. Google's system for selling and distributing advertisements tied to search results has been fabulously lucrative. In the first six months of this year, the scheme, which encompasses the AdWords auction and the AdSense publishing network, brought in close to $4bn (£2bn) in revenue and more than $1bn in profits.

But the automated system is far from perfect. Despite the great sophistication of Google's software, the vast majority of the adverts the company serves up are ignored by web surfers. Either they don't see the ads, or they see them but don't click on them.

But Google wants to change that. Its patent applications point to a new, much more personal way of delivering advertising. Unlike AdWords and AdSense, the method relies not just on software algorithms but on manual labour and individual judgment.

Ordinary people would select ads, or ad themes, and Google would then insert the adverts into their emails, instant messages and other personal communications. You and I, in short, would help Google to get the right ads in front of the right people at the right time.

The system, as described in the patent filings, has three major components. The first is what Google researchers call "a universal distributed search system [that] allows users to find and distribute search results (possibly including advertisements) to those with whom they communicate".

Google has seen that when people write emails or other messages, they often include links to related information on the internet.

The tool described in the patent would automate the discovery and inclusion of such references, making the process simpler and faster. In essence, it provides a new way for Google to distribute search results - not from search engine to user but from friend to friend.

That would also give Google information about the content of personal messages. The system's second component uses that information as the basis for a tool that allows people to insert related ads into their emails and other communications. The ads could either be inserted automatically, as in the AdSense system, or chosen individually by the sender.

Google provides an example of how that might work: a woman "sends an email to members of her book club informing the members of what next month's book is". Under its scenario, she includes in the email some Google search results such as a picture of the book cover or a link to an online review. When her friends open the email, Google automatically inserts "content-relevant ads" into the message. These ads might include an Amazon one "offering free shipping for purchases made in the next 48 hours".

The final component is a reward system to provide people with incentives to include ads in their personal communications.

As Google explains it, the rewards could include cash payments, credits for future product purchases, or "an enhanced reputation or reputation increase" - whatever that means. Google would, in effect, pay us to pitch ads to our friends and acquaintances.

It's an ingenious system, but there's something repugnant about it. It seems to blur the line between personal messages and spam. Do we really want our friends to send us ads along with their news or greetings? Do we want to be personal ad syndicators ourselves, earning money according to how adept we are at pitching ads to our mates?

Google's automated ad delivery system has been enormously successful, generating huge revenues and profits for the company. But the automatic targeting of ads remains imperfect.

The new system would help solve that problem - but it might well result in the distribution of more and "more relevant" adverts, giving a further boost to its earnings. But it would also mean the injection of commerce, and commercial motives, into the most intimate of electronic communications.

Nicholas Carr's next book will be The Big Switch. He blogs at roughtype.com

· If you'd like to comment on any aspect of Technology Guardian, send your emails to tech@guardian.co.uk

2007年8月28日 星期二

Google 首席財務長將辭職

谷歌(Google Inc.)稱﹐公司首席財務長喬治•雷耶斯(George Reyes)計劃離開公司﹐從而成為首批辭職的高層管理人士之一。

Kevin J. Delaney

2007年8月25日 星期六

upload videos to Blogger

Google Inc.'s Blogger team this week solved a technical problem with the blog publishing and hosting service and introduced a new feature that gives publishers the ability to upload videos to their sites.

An undetermined number of Blogger publishers had trouble performing various editing and posting operations on Monday and Tuesday, but by Wednesday the problem had been solved.

2007年8月22日 星期三

Google News Alert for: google

Google shifts its sights into the heavens
Times Online - UK
Google, having brought the Earth into our living rooms, has turned its eye to the heavens to bring us the sky at night. About 250 million people have used ...
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Google Paid Lobbyist $140000 in 2007
Forbes - NY,USA
AP 08.22.07, 6:49 PM ET Search site operator Google Inc. paid King & Spalding LLP $140000 in the first half of 2007 to lobby the federal government on its ...
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Move over Google, Vmware's chasing talent anew
InfoWorld - San Francisco,CA,USA
... after the very talent that has been, for the most part, monopolized in the area by Google," David Marshall relates in this Virtualization Report post. ...
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Google Reverses, to Offer Video Refunds
Forbes - NY,USA
By ANICK JESDANUN 08.22.07, 2:37 PM ET Responding to customer complaints, Google Inc. has decided to offer full refunds to users who had bought video ...
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Google Likely to Bid on 700 MHz Spectrum
InternetNews.com - USA
By Roy Mark Google tipped its hand Tuesday evening that it is still interested in participating in the January 700 MHz spectrum auction. ...
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Google Puts Ads In YouTube Videos
InformationWeek - Manhasset,NY,USA
Google is now selling overlay advertising on a limited number of YouTube videos to a select group of partners at a cost of $20 per 1000 viewers. ...
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Why Google Exec. is 'Intrigued' by Facebook
InternetNews.com - USA
At least one Google executive isn't afraid to say she likes Facebook. Marissa Mayer, the search giant's vice president of search products and user ...
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Google's Mayer talks iPhone, Facebook
CNET News.com - San Francisco,CA,USA
Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president of search products and user experience, likes her iPhone and she's a big fan of social networks, especially Facebook. ...
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Google Market Share Larger than Thought
PC Magazine - USA
Google's massive market share got a bigger pad now that comScore considers searches on Wikipedia and Amazon, among others. By Clint Boulton Google's share ...
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Outage Hits Google's Blogs
PC World - USA
Google Inc.'s Blogger blog publishing and Blogspot blog hosting services went offline earlier Wednesday. Among the organizations affected by this apparently ...
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Google Inc.'s Blogger blog publishing and Blogspot blog hosting services went offline earlier Wednesday. Among the organizations affected by this apparently widespread outage was Google itself, which hosts its official company blogs on Blogspot.

Blogger publishers have posted a rising volume of complaints on the official Blogger discussion forum since Monday, reporting problems editing, publishing and accessing blogs.

However, things apparently took a turn for the worst on Wednesday morning U.S. Eastern Time, when Blogger and Blogspot apparently went totally offline.

Checks on Blogger.com and a variety of Blogspot-hosted blogs by IDG News Service staff in different parts of the U.S. and Europe returned server error messages, confirming reports from users in the Blogger discussion forum.

Blogger and Blogspot came back online at around 11 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time. The outage apparently lasted over one hour. However, many Blogger publishers have been reporting error messages when trying to perform a variety of operations at least since Monday.

Google didn't respond to a query on Tuesday about the complaints piling up in the discussion forum, nor did it reply to a request for comment on Wednesday morning about the service's outage.

2007年8月21日 星期二

By Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson in London
FT. Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Google will today unveil a new advertising model for its YouTube video sharing site which it claims is five to 10 times more effective than any other advertising format it at present carries.

YouTube will introduce semi-transparent animated “overlays”, which appear across the bottom fifth of the video window a few seconds after each clip begins and can be clicked on to show the full advertisement.

The US search giant is hoping that the new format will help answer investors' questions about the business model for the popular site, which claims 100m users but which has never disclosed revenue or profit details.

作者：英国《金融时报》安德鲁•埃奇克利夫-约翰逊(Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson)伦敦报道
2007年8月22日 星期三

China Factor

David Hsu:'........ 今日有些朋友自南京來 他說{品質手冊} 改成blogspot後 他就進不去了 看來中國不喜歡古狗！"
這是有點不可思議的 應該請Google的人解釋並解決...

三月來Google Apps的進展 或可稱為"神速"

Eat the cost or pass it on to the customers? .

Gmail driving Google Apps adoption at college

By Todd Haselton | Published: August 19, 2007 - 05:17PM CT

Google's plan for world domination includes convincing colleges and universities to adopt its Google Apps Education Edition suite, and it's showing signs of success thanks to the seemingly ubiquitous appreciation of Gmail. As for the productivity apps, Microsoft is still sitting comfortably in the driver's seat, and interest from schools in Google's offering appears only lukewarm.

Five American universities have signed on with Google, and several international schools have hopped on as well. A recurring theme to their decision-making: students like Google's mail service and are asking for it by name.

Such is what we've heard from a handful of schools we contacted to talk about their adoption of Google web-based office suite. Five of the US schools participating in the initiative are the University of North Carolina Greensboro, Clemson University, the University of Texas San Antonio, Kennesaw State University, and Arkansas State University.

Gmail is what they know and want

Ars spoke with Steven Lareau, the IT chair for Clemson's student advisory council. According to Lareau, Clemson previously "had an awful web-based e-mail system" (SquirrelMail). Lareau says that they compared Microsoft's Outlook/Exchange combo with Gmail, and Gmail came out on top.

"We found that 25% of the students were already forwarding their e-mails to Gmail, which was more reliable, offered more storage, and had better accessibility than what existed," he said. While Clemson faculty and staff will stick to using Microsoft Exchange as their groupware solution, Lareau said that students found that Google offered more of what was important to them: an easy-to-use system, loaded with storage, and with supporting web-based apps such as Google Calendar. Lareau also indicated that getting up and running with Google was nearly effortless, saying that a conference call basically set the wheels in motion.

Of course, the adoption of Google Apps doesn't mean that Microsoft Office is necessarily doomed on campus. Clemson is still footing the bill for a licensing deal that allows them to provide students with Microsoft Office at a discounted rate. Lareau said, "We still have a Microsoft Office license. In fact, I got Office 2007 yesterday for $12 from school." Lareau wasn't sure whether Clemson would continue to use Microsoft Office "two to five years down the road," though.

Ars also spoke with Clemson vice president and chief information officer Jim Bottum, who said the "commitment is on Google. It's a win-win way all around for both the University and for Google. It's all about the students and we're excited to offer them something they've been asking for." While the school is implementing the entire Google Apps suite, the real focus is on improving the existing e-mail experience for students.

Best of all, the service costs Clemson nothing, and Lareau believes that Google will eat the costs because "as soon as the students leave school, they'll continue to use Gmail." That is, Google believes that it will retain a high percentage of these users, who will then be more eyeballs for advertising in later years. As long as Gmail is supported by Clemson, which Lareau believes will last at least 3 to 5 years, the students will not see advertisements in their inboxes. After they graduate, the ads will be back.

Some schools still evaluating

考古: 看這三月來Google Apps的進展 或可稱為"神速"

Google Apps: 1 percent revenue; 33 percent motto

By John McBride | Published: May 11, 2007 - 11:28AM CT

The gloves are off. Google’s cutting the "but we’re just a search engine" crap and declaring loudly what everyone already knows: They want to eat Microsoft’s lunch. Or more accurately, they want to eat the rest of Microsoft’s lunch—since they’re already fat on search and advertising. Yesterday at the annual shareholder meeting, CEO Eric Schmidt unveiled the new corporate motto: "Search, Ads, and Apps."

That’s "apps" as in Docs & Spreadsheets, Calendar, Gmail, Picasa, Earth, and so on and so on. Then there are the packages: Google Apps For Your Domain and the recent Google Apps Premier Edition. That's a bunch of apps. But all of them put together don't add more than 1 percent to the company’s revenue.

By unveiling the new tagline, I guess Schmidt is putting his mouth where he'd like his money to be. Google has huge resources and an envious, albeit short, track record. The future may well belong to them. But the Goliath in the apps division is clearly Microsoft, and it will take more than a new tagline to dislodge Office from the office.

2007年8月18日 星期六

Google Wins the Most Hearts on the Web

資訊一點點 不過它告訴我們相對的美國品牌強度

The Count

Google Wins the Most Hearts on the Web

Published: August 19, 2007

It is not enough to be able to state your favorite movie, your favorite song or your favorite color. In the 21st century, you should also be ready to answer this question: What’s your favorite Internet brand?

That is what JupiterResearch did recently in a survey, and it should come as no surprise that Google won this popularity contest. Next in line was Yahoo, followed by Amazon, eBay and MySpace.

Yahoo, which has been less able than Google to translate its strong brand recognition into strong financial growth, may want to take note: results varied by gender. “Yahoo fans skew female but tend toward the mainstream, while Google fans are more likely to be male, a little more wealthy, and influential on the subject of consumer electronics, “ Jupiter states.

MySpace, the social networking site, was as popular as Google and Yahoo among the younger set (ages 18 to 24). But among all adults, it is highly unlikely to unseat Google as the “Gone With the Wind” 小說/電影 {飄}of the Internet age.

2007年8月17日 星期五

簡介 Google News Alert for: google

這blog 不知道還有沒存在價值 :因為我們可以請 Google做事 利用諸如Google News Alert for: google (當然可以用其他語文版....)

不過 我今天和昨天都碰到很不容易 loading 我的gmail和 bloggers的事

對我這QUALITY WORLD的人 第一篇最有意思 值得一錄

August 17, 2007
Google Opens Click-Fraud Resource Center
By Nicholas Carlson

Google today announced it's created a new Web site to serve as the single source for all click-fraud and ad traffic-quality-related information.

The Ad Traffic Quality Resource Center features an overview of what click fraud is and what Google's doing about it, a Help Center for detailed FAQs and multimedia presentations and a section called "Tech Talk," which features in-depth articles and blog posts written by its engineering team and other experts in the field.

Just over a year and a half ago, Google CEO Eric Schmidt hypothesized that click fraud might not be such a big deal.

"Let's imagine for purposes of argument that click fraud were not policed by Google and it were rampant," Schmidt said at the SIEPR conference at Stanford University in March 2006.

"Eventually the price that the advertiser is willing to pay for the conversion will decline because the advertiser will realize that these are bad clicks.

"In other words, the value of the ad declines. So, over some amount of time, the system is, in fact, self-correcting. In fact, there is a perfect economic solution, which is to let it happen."

Google eventually changed its public stance on click fraud.

Last August, the company, along with Microsoft , Yahoo, Ask.com and LookSmart, formed the Click Measurement Working Group under the aegis of the Interactive Advertising Bureau and in conjunction with the Media Rating Council.

Google's enthusiasm for such a group wasn't surprising. Advertisers sued the search giant and won a $90 million settlement that was approved a week before the formation of the group.

Since then, the company's take on the issue has more or less echoed the language found in the new resource center, where click fraud "refers to clicks generated with malicious or fraudulent intent."

Google said it and fellow members from the Click Measurement Working Group will form a panel at this year's Search Engine Strategies show in San Jose. Shuman Ghosemajumder, business product manager for Google Trust & Safety, will be speaking.

Google Opens Click-Fraud Resource Center
InternetNews.com - USA
By Nicholas Carlson Google today announced it's created a new Web site to serve as the single source for all click-fraud and ad traffic-quality-related ...
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VMware Shares Soar In Top Tech Debut Since Google
DABCC.com (press release) - Sarasota,FL,USA
... valuing the company at about $20 billion in the biggest technology trading debut since Web search leader Google Inc. went public in 2004. ...
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Google kremlinology
Globe and Mail - Canada
When Google started including Sun Microsystems' StarOffice productivity suite with its Google Pack earlier this week, it did so, as the Soviets used to do ...
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下兩則是美國航空公司控告Google的廣告方式侵犯其權益 不知道為什麼沒收在一起

Airline Sues Google Over Keyword Ads
The Age - Melbourne,Victoria,Australia
American Airlines is suing Google Inc. over the Internet company's sale of keywords ads for rivals triggered by its own trademarks. American filed a lawsuit ...
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American in dispute with Google
Bizjournals.com - Charlotte,NC,USA
American Airlines has sued Google Inc. over "sponsored ads" that appear when a keyword search using American Airlines trademarks are done on Google. ...
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Google Gets Family Guy Creator
InternetNews.com - USA
By Nicholas Carlson Kim Malone, the Google executive in charge of online sales and operations for Google AdSense, doesn't own a TV. And why should she? ...
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UPDATE: American Air Sues Google For Tying Ads To Trademarks
CNNMoney.com - USA
s (AMR) American Airlines is suing Google Inc. (GOOG) over the Internet company's sale of keyword ads for rivals triggered by American's own trademarks. ...
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American Airlines Sues Google Over Search Words
InformationWeek - Manhasset,NY,USA
The airline accuses Google of violating trademark laws with its practice of selling search terms such as "American Airlines" or "AA.com" to other companies ...
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American Airlines sues Google over use of trademarks
Houston Chronicle - United States
A Google visitor who enters certain words or phrases that American trademarked -- for example, Aadvantage, the name of its frequent-flier program -- will get ...
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這則說G公司到M公司總部附近設辦公室 招兵買馬

Google leases big office complex in Kirkland
Seattle Post Intelligencer - USA
By TODD BISHOP Google is pitching a bigger tent in Microsoft's backyard, and Yahoo is eying the area, as well. In a nod to the strength of the Seattle ...
See all stories on this topic

2007年8月16日 星期四

Google began distributing Sun Microsystems' StarOffice software, a boost to the computer maker's quest to popularize the product and an electronic document format not controlled by Microsoft.(wsj)

首先，Google已經註冊一個Gbrowser.com網域名稱，這使得人們相信Google對瀏覽器有相當興趣；另一方面，Google 執行長Eric Schmidt 過去曾表示，如果對用戶有利，Google將開發一款瀏覽器。

最近，Google發佈一個在瀏覽器中執行Google Earth版本，降低對Google Earth應用套裝軟體的依賴。除Google Earth、文書處理、試算表、簡報軟體，以及許多其他仍然在開發中的瀏覽器應用軟體，Google還極有可能在開發它自己的瀏覽器。

在做出任何判斷前，值得指出的是，Google對Firefox瀏覽器的開發有很大的影響力，Google的應用軟體幾乎可以獲得Firefox的全力支 援。至少，Firefox能夠提供外掛/plug-ins。從某種意義上來說，我們可以說Google在一定意義上已經「擁有」Firefox。

2007年8月15日 星期三

Hotmail 信箱容量等問題不大 但...

Hotmail 信箱容量等問題 表示企業間競爭必須考量的對手因素是動態的
最近hotmail 更新有擴充容量
所謂台灣 "450萬用戶受惠" 似乎相當誇張

one up and one-upmanship

Hotmail免費容量加到5GB啦！ 全台逾450萬用戶受惠
東森新聞報 - 17小時前
如果你是Hotmail用戶，可能會發現信箱容量悄悄變大了！微軟近日再度更新Windows Live服務，其中，Hotmail免費信箱容量一口氣從2GB提升至5GB，付費用戶則有10GB空間，台灣也從今天（15日）起陸續分批升級，預計8月底前全面完成作業。 面對Yahoo!免費信箱容量無上限、Google ...
微軟Hotmail免費空間增至5G 超越谷歌Gmail 賽迪網
Hotmail 調升免費容量至5GB Taiwan.CNET.com
微軟測試Windows Live新介面用戶已超3億 賽迪網
所有5條相關新聞 »
東森新聞報 - 2007年7月18日
電子信箱容量均無上限，僅2GB的Hotmail雖敵不過，倒也有「變相」讓容量免費變大的做法！微軟宣布推出Microsoft Office Outlook Connector試用版，凡是Outlook 2003及Outlook 2007用戶，即日起不用年繳690元就能以Outlook收發Hotmail信件，同步更新郵件與連絡人資料。 ...
聯合新聞網 - 2007年7月18日
即日起不用開啟微軟的MSN，直接在Outlook下一樣可以接收來自Hotmail的信件，全台灣近400萬Hotmail使用者不用開啟IE瀏覽器就能收信和發信。 微軟這次「大放送」主要是Google和Yahoo的信箱無限大，但Hotmail只有2GB上限，Outlook接收Hotmail信件後，讓Hotmail隨時保持2GB的 ...

谷歌 v 百度

wsj: "......他在7月底發表的一份研究報告中將該股的評級定為“中性”﹐理由是若干競爭對手正在針對百度發起反擊﹐谷歌與一些中國大型互聯網公司之間的聯盟就是其中的一個重要威脅。谷歌在為騰訊控股(Tencent Holdings)麾下規模較小的搜索網站搜搜(SOSO)提供支持﹐而新浪則將其搜索頁面直接鏈接至谷歌網頁。摩根士丹利表示﹐去年二季度谷歌的訪問量只佔百度的6%﹐而今年二季度這一比例已經增加到了25%。

儘管谷歌的在華業務表現有所改善﹐但花旗集團(Citigroup Inc.)亞洲媒體業研究主管賈森•布呂斯克(Jason Brueschke)仍建議投資者買進百度公司的股票。他說﹐雖然每個人都眼盯著谷歌的技術優勢﹐但從產品和技術角度而言﹐百度都能夠緊隨其後﹐根本沒有必要佔據領跑位置。布呂斯克同時還表示﹐百度擁有很高的客戶忠誠度﹐這就意味著它擁有了網絡流量。......"

我注意到gmail 最上頭 有 Yahoo新聞.....

2007年8月14日 星期二

Why Google Inspires Diverging Case Studies

當然 負責 哈佛大學Google個案研究的老師持保留態度

Why Google Inspires Diverging Case Studies

By George Anders
Word Count: 796 | Companies Featured in This Article: Google, Microsoft, Dell

WHAT A RUN for Google Inc. In its first nine years, it has built the dominant Internet-search engine, redefined advertising world-wide and jolted dozens of old-media companies. When Microsoft Corp. was this age, it hadn't yet gone public. By contrast, Google already boasts a $160 billion market capitalization.

Now for the hard call: Is Google rewriting the rules of good management from top to bottom, in ways that every executive ought to study? Or is it just enjoying the rewards of a single well-timed breakthrough, whose success can't camouflage the typical headaches and missteps of a fast-growing young company?

Expect ...

Yahoo Beats Google in ACSI Report

Yahoo Beats Google in ACSI Report
Yahoo captured the top spot from rival Google for the first time in the University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index report on electronic-business Web sites.

Dr. Google and Dr. Microsoft

Dr. Google and Dr. Microsoft
讀了紐約時報 這篇 才知道Google Health 的相關信息

Published: August 14, 2007

In politics, every serious candidate for the White House has a health care plan. So too in business, where the two leading candidates for Web supremacy, Google and Microsoft, are working up their plans to improve the nation’s health care.

Skip to next paragraph
Terrance McCarthy for The New York Times

Adam Bosworth, the leader of Google’s health care initiative.

By combining better Internet search tools, the vast resources of the Web and online personal health records, both companies are betting they can enable people to make smarter choices about their health habits and medical care.

“What’s behind this is the mass consumerization of health information,” said Dr. David J. Brailer, the former health information technology coordinator in the Bush administration, who now heads a firm that invests in health ventures.

It is too soon to know whether either Google or Microsoft will make real headway. Health care, experts note, is a field where policy, regulation and entrenched interests tend to slow the pace of change, and technology companies have a history of losing patience.

And for most people, typing an ailment into a Web search engine is very different from entrusting a corporate titan with personal information about their health.

Google and Microsoft recognize the obstacles, and they concede that changing health care will take time. But the companies see the potential in attracting a large audience for health-related advertising and services. And both companies bring formidable advantages to the consumer market for such technology.

Microsoft’s software animates more than 90 percent of all personal computers, while Google is the default starting point for most health searches. And people are increasingly turning to their computers and the Web for health information and advice. A Harris poll, published last month, found that 52 percent of adults sometimes or frequently go to the Web for health information, up from 29 percent in 2001.

If the efforts of the two big companies gain momentum over time, that promises to accelerate a shift in power to consumers in health care, just as Internet technology has done in other industries.

Today, about 20 percent of the nation’s patient population have computerized records — rather than paper ones — and the Bush administration has pushed the health care industry to speed up the switch to electronic formats. But these records still tend to be controlled by doctors, hospitals or insurers. A patient moves to another state, for example, but the record usually stays.

The Google and Microsoft initiatives would give much more control to individuals, a trend many health experts see as inevitable. “Patients will ultimately be the stewards of their own information,” said John D. Halamka, a doctor and the chief information officer of the Harvard Medical School.

Already the Web is allowing people to take a more activist approach to health. According to the Harris survey, 58 percent of people who look online for health information discussed what they found with their doctors in the last year.

It is common these days, Dr. Halamka said, for a patient to come in carrying a pile of Web page printouts. “The doctor is becoming a knowledge navigator,” he said. “In the future, health care will be a much more collaborative process between patients and doctors.”

Microsoft and Google are hoping this will lead people to seek more control over their own health records, using tools the companies will provide. Neither company will discuss their plans in detail. But Microsoft’s consumer-oriented effort is scheduled to be announced this fall, while Google’s has been delayed and will probably not be introduced until next year, according to people who have been briefed on the companies’ plans.

A prototype of Google Health, which the company has shown to health professionals and advisers, makes the consumer focus clear. The welcome page reads, “At Google, we feel patients should be in charge of their health information, and they should be able to grant their health care providers, family members, or whomever they choose, access to this information. Google Health was developed to meet this need.”

A presentation of screen images from the prototype — which two people who received it showed to a reporter — then has 17 other Web pages including a “health profile” for medications, conditions and allergies; a personalized “health guide” for suggested treatments, drug interactions and diet and exercise regimens; pages for receiving reminder messages to get prescription refills or visit a doctor; and directories of nearby doctors.

Google executives would not comment on the prototype, other than to say the company plans to experiment and see what people want. “We’ll make mistakes and it will be a long-range march,” said Adam Bosworth, a vice president of engineering and leader of the health team. “But it’s also true that some of what we’re doing is expensive, and for Google it’s not.”

At Microsoft, the long-term goal is similarly ambitious. “It will take grand scale to solve these problems like the data storage, software and networking needed to handle vast amounts of personal health and medical information,” said Steve Shihadeh, general manager of Microsoft’s health solutions group. “So there are not many companies that can do this.”

This year, Microsoft bought a start-up, Medstory, whose search software is tailored for health information, and last year bought a company that makes software for retrieving and displaying patient information in hospitals. Microsoft software is already used in hospitals, clinical laboratories and doctors’ offices, and, Mr. Shihadeh noted, the three most popular health record systems in doctors’ offices are built with Microsoft software and programming tools.

Microsoft will not disclose its product plans, but according to people working with the company the consumer effort will include online offerings as well as software to find, retrieve and store personal health information on personal computers, cellphones and other kinds of digital devices — perhaps even a wristwatch with wireless Internet links some day.

Mr. Shihadeh declined to discuss specifics, but said, “We’re building a broad consumer health platform, and we view this challenge as far bigger than a personal health record, which is just scratching the surface.”

Yet personal health records promise to be a thorny challenge for practical and privacy reasons. To be most useful, a consumer-controlled record would include medical and treatment records from doctors, hospitals, insurers and laboratories. Under federal law, people can request and receive their personal health data within 90 days. But the process is complicated, and the replies typically come on paper, as photocopies or faxes.

The efficient way would be for that data to be sent over the Internet into a person’s digital health record. But that would require partnerships and trust between health care providers and insurers and the digital record-keepers.

Privacy concerns are another big obstacle, as both companies acknowledge. Most likely, they say, trust will build slowly, and the online records will include as much or as little personal information as users are comfortable divulging.

A person might start, for example, by typing in age, gender and a condition, like diabetes, as a way to find more personalized health information. If a person creates a personal health record and later has second thoughts, a simple mouse click should erase it. The promise, the companies say, will be complete consumer control.

There are plenty of competitors these days in online health records and information from start-ups like Revolution Health, headed by AOL’s founder, Stephen M. Case, and thriving profit-makers led by WebMD.

Potential rivals are not underestimating the two technology giants. But the smaller companies have the advantage of being focused entirely on health, and some have been around for years. WebMD, for example, traces its lineage to Healtheon, a fallen star of the dot-com era, founded by the Netscape billionaire Jim Clark.

Google and Microsoft are great companies, said Wayne T. Gattinella, WebMD’s chief executive, but “that doesn’t mean they will be expert in a specific area like health.”

Specialized health search engines — notably Healthline — are gaining ground and adding partners. AOL recently began using Healthline for searches on its health pages, even though Google is a close partner.

Still, 58 percent of people seeking health information online begin with a general search engine, according to a recent Jupiter Research report, and Google dominates the field. “Google is the entry point for most health search, and that is a huge advantage,” said Monique Levy, a Jupiter analyst.

Indeed, it is the market reach and deep pockets that Google and Microsoft can bring to consumer health information that intrigues medical experts, and has lured recruits. Dr. Roni Zeiger, a graduate of Stanford’s School of Medicine, a medical informatics researcher and a former primary care doctor, joined Google last year. The 36-year-old, who still sees patients some evenings and weekends at a nearby clinic, said, “At Google, I can use my expertise and knowledge to potentially help millions of people each day.”

Looking for Answers

2007年8月13日 星期一

Google plans to stop selling television shows on its homegrown video site.

Published: August 11, 2007

After buying the video-sharing site YouTube nine months ago for $1.65 billion, Google plans to stop selling television shows on its homegrown video site.

The company will stop offering download-to-own and download-to-rent programs on Wednesday, according to an e-mail message sent to customers yesterday. Google started selling shows like ”Survivor” in January 2006.

Google’s decision to close the retail part of its video site indicates the company had less success selling content than attracting advertising spending, which accounts for 99 percent of revenue. The purchase of YouTube, where the videos are all free, catapulted Google from seventh to first among video-sharing providers on the Web.

2007年8月10日 星期五

「商家推薦業務代表」是Google「在地商家推薦計畫」的重要一環，只要記載每一家在地小型商店的營業時間，付款方式、營業項目等基本資訊，然後上傳 Google。若是Google確認上傳的資訊正確，業務代表就可以得到兩美元，等到商家也確認正確，就可以再得到八美元。

Google Offers Fee-Based Storage Rental

pack rat or packrat.

Google is offering Gmail and Picasa Web Albums users the chance to purchase additional storage when they reach the limit of that the company supplies with its free services.

Google presently offers Gmail users 2.82GB of free storage with their account. Picasa users get 1GB of storage.

Now the company is offering up to 250GB of storage for a fee. The storage can be applied against Gmail and Picasa at the moment, and the company plans to make the extra storage count against its other services (Including Docs & Spreadsheets) in future.

Plans start at US$20 per year for 6GB of space, rising to $500 per year for 250GB of online storage.

Google Offers Fee-Based Storage Rental

Gmail and Picasa Web Albums users now may purchase additional storage from Google when they reach their limit on free services.

Jonny Evans, Macworld

Friday, August 10, 2007 12:00 PM PDT

2007年8月9日 星期四

Misquoted? Hit back with Google

據英國報紙Telegrapg 說明美國正試驗的"引言正版 vs二手傳言"的服務

Google lets subjects of news stories comment on articles about them
International Herald Tribune - France
AP SAN FRANCISCO: Google is giving the subjects of news stories a way to comment on articles written about them. The online search leader introduced an ...

Misquoted? Hit back with Google

By Emma Thelwell
Last Updated: 12:36am BST 10/08/2007

Google has launched a new service allowing people that are quoted, or mentioned, in news stories the right to reply to the articles.

In a move that will no doubt please anyone ever misquoted by a journalist, the comments are to be published alongside the article for all to see.

The search engine has begun the experimental service on its US Google News homepage, its central news page which displays stories from the world's media. If the trial proves successful, it will be rolled out in other languages and editions.

Dan Meredith and Andy Golding, software engineers from the Google news team, revealed the group's plans in a blog.

Promising "perspectives about the news from people in the news", they added: "Our long-term vision is that any participant will be able to send in their comments, and we'll show them next to the articles. Comments will be published in full, without any edits."

They will be marked as "comments", in order to distinguish them from the journalists article.

However, the group raised fears that the new service could invite bogus comments from people posing as others. While it promised to "work with each author to confirm their identity individually" - by the traditional methods of contacting the organisation affiliated with the author, contacting local officials, or collaborating with journalists - it did admit "no method is foolproof". In which case, anyone wrongly attributed should contact news-comments@google.com.

Mr Meredith and Mr Golding said the service, "reader comments with a bit of a twist", would "test the hypothesis that a personal view can sometimes add a whole new dimension to the story".


text:
2017年7月27日 星期四

Facebook's Profit and Revenue Surge, Despite Company Predictions of a Slowdown

Facebook's Profit and Revenue Surge, Despite Company Predictions of a Slowdown

Facebook executives have been cautioning investors that the social-networking giant's growth might start to slow. The latest earnings report suggests that hasn't happened yet.

How Microsoft Has Become the Surprise Innovator in PCs

How Microsoft Has Become the Surprise Innovator in PCs

For years, Apple was the innovative leader in personal computers. Not anymore.

2017年7月19日 星期三

Google Glass 沒消失，企業版已獲得客戶認可

在消費市場吞敗仗，去年在所有社群上銷聲匿跡的 Google Glass，轉而在企業版獲得成就，目前已進入 50 多家公司做為生產輔助裝置。
Google Glass 智慧型眼鏡曾是聞名全球的穿戴式裝置，最終以商業化失敗的結局淡出人們的視野，但這款產品並沒有永遠消失 …

2017年7月18日 星期二

Google's Quantum Computing

Google 計劃挑戰全球最大的超級電腦
Google's Quantum Computing Push Opens New Front in Cloud Battle
For years, Google has poured time and money into one of the most ambitious dreams of modern technology: building a working quantum computer.

2017年7月13日 星期四

亞馬遜Prime Day促銷日賣出10億美元

【即時頭條】亞馬遜Prime Day促銷日賣出10億美元
亞馬遜稱其連續第三年舉辦的Prime Day會員促銷日活動是公司歷史上最盛大的一次，銷售超過了傳統的促銷節日比如黑五和網絡星期一。
根據Cowen & Co.和摩根大通分析師各自的估算，這次30個小時的大促銷為亞馬遜帶來了大約10億美元的收入。據彭博整理的資料，這一數字達到了亞馬遜2016年日均電商收入的三倍。
此次促銷活動中最受歡迎的商品是亞馬遜的迷你版智能揚聲器Echo Dot，打折幅度達到30%。亞馬遜在聲明中稱，今年的活動中會員可享受30個小時的促銷，且本次活動和2016年相比增幅超過60%。此外，亞馬遜稱活動還帶來了大量的新會員。
亞馬遜股價7月12日上漲1.25%至1006.51美元，再次站上1000美元大關，距離6月創下的紀錄高點1011.34美元已經相去不遠。撰文/Spencer Soper

Apple to set up its first data centre in China

Apple's first bite in China: Why is it choosing to set up its first data hub on the mainland?
Read more: http://on.ft.com/2ud5Rsx

Apple to set up its first data centre in China Move reflects concessions foreign companies must make to tap mainland market Read next EU regulators bar social media searches on jobseekers Apple’s move follows Beijing’s introduction last month of tighter cyber security rules © Bloomberg Share on Twitter (opens new window) Share on Facebook (opens new window) Share on LinkedIn (opens new window) 14 Save YESTERDAY by: Tim Bradshaw in San Francisco and Emily Feng in Beijing Listen to this article Pause 00:01 04:10 Powered by FT Labs Text-to-Speech Find more articles to listen to Personal online information belonging to Chinese owners of iPhones and iPads — including private messages, photos and device backups — is to be stored locally in China for the first time, as Apple opens its first iCloud data centre on the mainland. Apple’s move follows Beijing’s introduction last month of tighter cyber security rules and reflects the concessions foreign multinationals must make to tap the world’s largest mobile market, which is increasingly important for iPhone sales.  The US tech group’s new facility in Guizhou will be jointly operated with a Chinese internet company, as part of a $1bn investment in the southwestern province.  Announcing the relocation of mainland Chinese customers’ iCloud data from the US, Apple sought to head off potential security concerns from its tens of millions of users in the region.  “As our customers know, Apple has strong data privacy and security protections in place and no backdoors will be created into any of our systems,” it said in a statement.  Apple already complies with legally valid requests for data from law enforcement authorities around the world, including China. Nonetheless, moving customers’ iCloud data to a Chinese facility will make it easier for the authorities to go through the legal motions required to obtain that private information.  Under US law, foreign governments have to undertake a process, which can sometimes take years, to obtain data about their citizens that are stored on servers in the US. China’s new cyber security law requires all data collected on the country’s citizens or areas relating to broadly defined issues of national security to be held on servers in China. Transfers of data abroad must first be reviewed and approved by regulators. Until now, Apple has serviced its Chinese iCloud customers using data centres outside the country, primarily in the US. Some Apple media systems, including parts of its iTunes and iBooks digital content stores, were transferred to servers in China a few years ago, but those systems did not include any personal data.  Related article China’s cyber security law rattles multinationals Businesses warn rules will increase costs and leave them more vulnerable to spying Last year, Apple fought a request by the US government to break down the encryption protections built into its iOS operating system, as investigators sought to access a dead terrorist’s iPhone. Apple also said last year that it had rejected a Chinese demand that it hand over its iOS source code.  The Chinese law means Apple must store its iCloud encryption keys there securely. Apple will retain control of the keys but, in certain instances, such as credit card information, only the user holds the key to their data, meaning the iPhone maker would be unable to comply with any request from law enforcement.  Other US tech groups including Microsoft, IBM and Amazon already offer their cloud infrastructure services in China through local partners. Google has not sought to place any data centres in China. US tech companies have been wary of storing their users’ data in China ever since Yahoo was caught up in controversy surrounding the jailing of two Chinese dissidents in the mid-2000s. Yahoo was criticised by US politicians and human rights activists for handing over emails to the Chinese authorities in both cases. After facing lawsuits from their families, co-founder Jerry Yang was forced to apologise at a US congressional hearing in 2007.  “It’s not a new direction. China has been increasingly requiring different types of data be stored within China,” said Mark Natkin, managing director at Marbridge Consulting. “It’s indicative of an effort China is making to ensure that user data from online and mobile services provided to Chinese users is stored in data centres in China.”  Additional reporting by Yuan Yang Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2017. All rights reserve

2017年7月11日 星期二

Google says it wants to make artificial intelligence more people-friendly. With Alphabet, Google faces a daunting challenge: organizing itself

Google says it wants to make artificial intelligence more people-friendly.

New research initiative to make sure humans are not disadvantaged by…

With Alphabet, Google faces a daunting challenge: organizing itself

Google’s self-professed mission is to organize the world’s information. But a company known for engineering excellence is still trying to solve the very human problem of how to organize itself.

Nearly two years ago, Google co-founder Larry Page announced the tech giant would be remade as Alphabet, a holding company whose units would include Google and an array of unrelated pursuits in areas such as healthcare, self-driving cars and urban planning.

Wall Street cheered. Previously those riskier ventures had been lumped into Google's overall financial results. Investors would now see Google’s performance independent of its so-called “Other Bets,” an eclectic collection of 11 ventures. They include Nest, a maker of Wi-Fi enabled thermostats; Calico, which seeks to prolong the human lifespan; and X, the company's secretive research lab.

Alphabet's top management also aimed to boost accountability by appointing chief executives to head each of the Other Bets. Few people in Google's constellation of ventures had ever held the title prior to that.

But so far Alphabet has failed to show it can convert its Other Bets from experiments to businesses with the reach, impact and money-making potential of Google’s core search and advertising operations. Interviews with two dozen former Alphabet executives and employees reveal an organization grappling with how much time and resources Other Bets deserve in the pursuit of profitability.

In the first quarter, which ended March 31, the ventures lost a combined $855 million; that's on top of a collective $3.6 billion loss for 2016. As a whole, Alphabet generated $90.3 billion in revenue in 2016. Google's share of that revenue was $89.5 billion, while its 2016 operating income was $27.9 billion.

Alphabet's early days have seen more pruning than expansion of its holdings.

The company has skinned back plans for Google Fiber, which delivers rapid Internet service in 10 metro areas. This month, Alphabet agreed to sell robotics company Boston Dynamics to Japanese multinational SoftBank Group Corp. It unloaded its Terra Bella satellite imaging business in February.

At one point last year, it was even looking to sell Nest, the largest of the Other Bets, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters. Google paid an eye-popping $3.2 billion for the start-up in 2014.

(For a graphic showing Alphabet's holdings, see: tmsnrt.rs/2rNgdKN)

Meanwhile, a series of executives have departed since the reorganization, including the heads of Nest, an Internet operation called Access and a venture capital firm known as GV.

An Alphabet spokeswoman declined repeated requests for comment or to make executives available for interviews. Supporters of the restructuring frame the early struggles as typical growing pains.

For now, Wall Street isn't worried: Alphabet's stock is near an all-time high, having reached $1,000 per share in June. Ruth Porat, the no-nonsense chief financial officer who has steered the restructuring, has won rave reviews from investors for enforcing financial accountability across Alphabet.

Some Other Bets have made notable strides. Life sciences initiative Verily recently attracted $800 million in outside investment. Self-driving car project Waymo is considered among the leaders in the burgeoning industry.

Attendees wait for a Google presentation in San Francisco, October 2016. REUTERS/Beck Diefenbach

Still, it's not yet clear the structure will enable Alphabet to do what most companies cannot: conceive the next wave of innovation in-house or through the development of key acquisitions. That goal is central to both the company's mission and investor expectations, analysts say.

“The reason Google gets to trade at a decent multiple… is because there's a growth story beyond advertising,” said analyst James Wang of ARK Investment Management.

The Alphabet structure is Google’s stab at an age-old corporate conundrum: sustaining innovation within a giant enterprise.

Alphabet's strategy is to give entrepreneurs the autonomy of a startup, coupled with the discipline of a traditional corporate structure.

Roughly once a quarter, Other Bets leaders meet with the Alphabet board – comprised of Porat, Page, Google co-founder Sergey Brin and David Drummond, Alphabet's senior vice president of corporate development – to discuss funding and performance, according to two former employees.

At the same time, Alphabet is establishing separate compensation plans for the Other Bets to reward employees if their ventures succeed, mirroring startup incentives.

The formula has primed Alphabet's emerging businesses for "global impact," Alphabet Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said this month at the annual stockholders meeting at the Mountain View headquarters.

"There is one solution that we know works well in capitalism, which is boards, shareholders, CEOs," Schmidt said. "My bet is that the traditional lessons of business organization will in fact result in success at Alphabet."

Still, Alphabet top brass continue to hold sway over key strategy and financing decisions, a dynamic that has chafed Other Bets chief executives who've complained they are treated more like chief operating officers than shot callers, according to people familiar with the situation.

In addition, scrutiny from Wall Street limits how generous Alphabet can be in extending Google's resources to Other Bets, said Brian McClendon, a former vice president of engineering at Google.

"As of yet, the restructuring hasn’t provided what I think is one of the immediate benefits, which is risk-taking investment," he said.

Some companies acquired by Google found that being part of Alphabet wasn't what they'd bargained for.

Two former Nest employees said they were promised generous funding and time to achieve profitability following the company's acquisition by Google in 2014. But after the restructuring, Alphabet executives were keenly focused on revenue, one former employee said.

Pricey overhead has made the path to profitability tougher. After the restructuring, Alphabet began charging Other Bets for their portion of shared services such as security and facilities, ending what had previously amounted to a subsidy, people familiar with the situation said. The units also felt pressure to maintain Google perks such as free employee meals.

“One of the pitfalls (of Alphabet) is that those companies are asked to stand on their own two feet, but they may inherit the cost structure of Google," said Nest investor Peter Nieh, a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners.

In early 2016, Alphabet explored selling Nest in an effort code-named Project Amalfi, according to three people familiar with the matter. No deal materialized, and Nest co-founder Tony Fadell departed last year. Fadell declined to comment.

Boston Dynamics, acquired in 2013 during a robotics shopping spree led by Android creator Andy Rubin, enjoyed generous funding at first. But it was adrift after Rubin's departure, two former employees said. Rubin did not respond to requests for comment.

The creation of the Other Bets has also changed what it means to work for Google.

Some grumble that their role now is to subsidize innovation at their sister companies, rather than to innovate themselves.

“It did sort of send the message to people who stayed back at Google, whether in search or in ads: Your job isn’t to push the envelope,” one former Googler said.

Employee transfers to X, the illustrious “moonshot factory,” are more complicated now that it's a separate entity, former employees say.

That’s a striking shift, especially for high-performing employees accustomed to moving about the company almost at will, said Punit Soni, a former Google employee who is now chief executive of Learning Motors, an artificial intelligence startup.

“A basic premise of Google was people could do whatever they wanted,” Soni said. “I can see why people will feel like it’s no longer the old Google."

In the meantime, co-founder Page is pursuing yet another "moonshot": flying cars.

He is the primary investor in Kitty Hawk, a startup in the field that is entirely outside the Alphabet umbrella.

(Editing by Marla Dickerson)

2017年7月2日 星期日

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