I have decided to master the extended discipline of Google-fu. I’m going for the Google-fu black belt. Google in 2011 is a system for knowledge and sharing that requires the concentration of an enlightened master to grasp. Between the time when those kids from Stanford invented a dandy search engine and last month when they decided to open fire on Facebook with Google+, Google has become the most diversified software service provider on the planet. They offer rarefied search tools like Google scholar, consultative and facilitative utilities like Google moderator, digitized library services, comprehensive geography information, cloud data storage services; and, the full range of what was once “desktop” software is available from Google online: document creation, presentations, drawing, spread-sheets, calendaring, and of course email. All those functions provide a scaffolding for Google’s business model which requires them to be the most powerful advertising presence on the planet.

Google groups contains a searchable archive of hundreds of millions of Usenet postings from the early days of online social networking. The watershed moment for Internet users and Usenet itself came in 1993, the so-called “Eternal September” when AOL opened the floodgates and gave all its zillions of customers access to Usenet groups. Google is preparing for its own version of “Eternal September.” The day is coming soon when all the migration tools will be in place and all the Facebook users will be faced with the shiny new thing that Google is offering them: Google+.

I have faith in Google. I think they can pull it off. Back around the turn of the millennium I became a Google search evangelist. In a way it was a religious thing. I didn’t have any data to support it, but I had faith in Google search results. I preached Google search to anyone who would listen. My faith has been rewarded by Google’s dominance in the search engine wars. I’ve also enjoyed using Intel chip sets running Microsoft Windows, usually in cheap, reliable desktops and laptops by Dell. When the iPad arrived, I got one, but I have to admit I prefer my Windows netbook to the Apple tablet. At that same time I upgraded my cell phone from a kludgy if powerful Palm PDA to the iPhone 4, a decision I have only regretted a little as the Android market begins to appear competitive with the slick Apple mobile dream machine. I really like my iPhone! But check back with me when the contract’s over. By then I’ll doubtless be ready to ditch the iPhone in a Cupertino minute.

The consumer information technology world is in constant turmoil and conflict. War is a dominant metaphor. Besides the search engine wars, we’ve had the browser wars and the “religious war” of Apple versus Microsoft users. Mac users are convinced that Windows users have an inferior product. Windows users are convinced that Mac users are a smug overbearing lot of over-privileged, under-achieving do-do-heads who don’t know anything about computers. This emotional struggle is reminiscent of the American auto industry in the 1950s. People then felt the same kind of emotional attachment  to their choice of automobile brand that today they feel for the computer they drive. Ultimately, people ended up driving economical, agile, smaller cars and the Detroit dinosaurs perished, defeated by Asian imports.

The browser war may have quietly ended in detente. Magellan is gone of course. Netscape was crushed by Microsoft which, like IBM of old, tried to impose an “industry standard.” But for its corporate market share, the world would long ago have abandoned Microsoft’s Internet Exploder browser in favor of more standards compliant competitors. In fairness, over the years Microsoft browsers have gotten faster and better, though no better than the competition. A quick count shows three browsers on this computer: Microsoft’s IE9, Firefox 5.0, and Google Chrome 12. For diversity’s sake, I better install Opera 11.5 too.

I am not a geek. Maybe, I have a little nerd in me, but I’m not a techie. I am however consumed with the desire to master the Google. Anybody know where I can hang-out with a google-fu sensei?

I would not predict that Google+ will sink Facebook. Facebook today is a one-trick pony of a company that has done very well by ignoring bells and whistles, standards and usability, features and functions, and rather presenting itself as a relationship venue for people of all ages. Google is all about sophisticated programming, open standards and functionality. Google+ moves social software ahead by bringing personal control to asymmetric relationships through the use of self-defined “circles.” Ross Mayfield made a slideshare presentation that helps to explain circles: http://www.slideshare.net/ross/visual-guide-to-circles-in-google-by-ross

Right now Google+ is in a limited release version that the Googsters are calling a “field trial.” It’s not THAT exclusive, since I seem to have found my way inside. There are bugs and flaws. It’s not yet ready for a public release. If you decide to use it, be warned: you may discover something unusual. Like today I discovered that somehow all the Google searches in this household are being aggregated in my web history. This could be something specific to our router configuration, our wi-fi, the mingling of desktop devices with iPads and other alien Jobsian devices. It could have to do with how we manage gmail domains for our business and our home. This could have nothing to do with Google+ and everything to do with Google’s feature upgrades. Or maybe it’s a Chrome browser thing. Whatever the root cause, it’s wrong!

Google itself is getting a make-over. Google is always evolving. Its simple search features and functions evolve to keep up with the competition. The software and the intelligence behind advertising links become ever more sophisticated. Google has diversified well beyond the realm of “search.” The diversification has been powered by constant growth in share value. When the company went public in 2004 it closed the first day of trading with a market capitalization of $27 billion. Today Wall Street says it’s worth about $167 billion.

Google has led the way into the cloud. The company serves over three million business customers providing all kinds of business applications and data management services. Of course the Google+ project isn’t simply about business customers. It’s consumer driven, like Blogger and Picasa, two free software apps used by millions to share thoughts and pictures. According to Mashable, these apps will be re-branded and integrated with Google+. That excites me.

Google has long been a leader in the social software field, but it has never found the success that Facebook claims. Years ago, Google’s social software site Orkut emerged and quickly sank in the sea of competition here in the US. Globally, however, it remains one of the top 100 web destinations. It’s the top social software site for users in countries as diverse as Brazil and Estonia.  Google Buzz is a social software tool that’s integrated with Gmail. When Buzz was released the buzz about privacy problems almost killed it. But the signal to noise ratio in the Buzz conversation stream remains high because of the interesting people who choose to participate. Google+ with its emphasis on privacy moves Google a giant step further than Buzz in the social software race.

Right now in Wisconsin we are using Facebook as an organizing tool for our recall elections. The groups that share information have emerged organically from the huge population of Facebook users. I wonder what it will take to see that kind of organizing and community development happen on Google+.

Things to do today:

Sometimes it seems absurd to make the list. I could be adding salt to the water softener and I’m making a list instead? I have a flock of goldfinches impatiently tapping their feet while they wait for thistle seed in the feeders and I’m making a list? Should I put the trip to the library to return the overdue books on the list, or just return the darn things?

If you have a list you can prioritize. If you have a list you can take pleasure in crossing stuff out. On the other hand, if you decide to work from a list you could all too easily spiral down into the infinite loop of deconstruction of tasks. “Paint the porch” becomes

• get cleaning agent
• clean the rails
• clean the deck
• get brushes
• get roller
• get paint
• get thinner
• get step-ladder
• …

Does getting the paint require a trip to the store? Add it to the list! Does cleaning the deck require a mop and broom? Don’t forget to add them to the list!

A while back the cool kids were talking about “getting things done.” (This was, I believe, a reaction to excessive amounts Adderall in their diet, but I could be wrong.) One enterprising fellow, David Allen, staked out a claim as self-help productivity guru and actually trademarked the phrase.

…add to “things that me smile” list: Jessica Hagy’s blog, “Indexed.”

I wish I had nice raised beds and as fine a crew of helpers as Michelle Obama.

As it happens, I’m already much recovered from my earlier confusion at the UW Hospital elevator, but I still need both hands on the wheel. I’ve always been elevator savvy. When I want to go down, I push the down button. When the elevator arrives, I watch the buttons and if the light on the down button goes off, well… that means it’s my ride. Today, I was staring at the arrows above the door. The down-arrow was illuminated. The up-arrow was not. I confused the arrows with the buttons and just stood there. A random guy helped me sort it out. “We’re going down,” he said. “Oh great,” I thought. If I can’t even understand elevator signals, how will I drive?

In fairness to myself, I had just watched Beth being wheeled away to the operating room where she is even now having her hip replaced. The surgeon suggested I come back in six hours or so. I was feeling a little adrift, drifty.

And, in a burst of synchronicity, I just got the call from the operating room nurse. They’ve finished the surgery. Beth is fine and she’ll be wide awake and in her own room in an hour or two. I’m off to the hospital again, quite sure I’ll be able to figure out the elevators this time, and not even a little miffed that my knowledge of the state soil was wasted this morning when the radio host had to show off her own knowledge and spoil the game by blathering, “Oh, I know that! It’s Antigo silt loam.”

Too hip.

The Government Accountability Board audited the Waukesha County canvas and turned up only a few minor inconsistencies. Yesterday they reported that their audit review included:

Total Votes Cast Report from Voting Equipment
Ballot Container Security Seals/Documentation
Inspectors’ Statement- Election Day Log
Write-In Form
Security Documentation of Voting Equipment Memory Devices
Certification Page of Poll List

They did NOT audit the voting machine programming. A hand recount is the only way to assure that the machines accurately tallied the votes. A statewide hand recount is the only way to be sure that a large scale hack-a-thon in Republican controlled counties didn’t skew the election results. There is sufficient concern about the record of the Waukesha County Clerk to gain a court ordered hand recount in her county, but unless we bite the bullet and go through the painful process of a statewide hand recount, we won’t be sure that our voting machines haven’t been hacked in a systematic way.

Waukesha County has a consistent pattern of voting irregularities with a Republican bias going back to 2004. Barb Caffrey documents them here. Wisconsin voters place a lot of trust and confidence in our elections officials. Historically, they’ve deserved it. But trust without accountability puts us on the edge of a precipice. Unless we verify results from time to time, we’re vulnerable to being pushed off that cliff but a self-serving few. The 2011 Supreme Court election is an opportunity to verify that the self-serving few haven’t found a way to steal our ballot boxes.

Kloppenburg’s decision must be made by 5pm today. From 12:30 to 3:30 today, in the State Capitol building at the Government Accountability offices a Rally for Election Fairness will be held. The Kloppenburg campaign can be reached by email at campaign@kloppenburgforjustice.com

UPDATE

She did it! Thanks JoAnne!

It was a great day filled with lots of “what-does-it-take” chores. A “what-does-it-take” chore is just what it sounds like, something that needs doing, that can be done in a short time and with little effort, something that’s so obvious and likely so easy that it gets pushed to the bottom of the priority list again and again. Trimming the clematis is a what-does-it-take chore. And what would it take to trim back that mock orange in the south lawn hedge? And cleaning up the peonies in what we laughingly call the “formal garden”… what would it take? It was a day for picking a few dozen daffodils to display around the house, a day for using up that roasted chicken in a pot of home made chicken noodle soup. What would it take to finish resetting the lannonstone wall at the back of the center lawn flower bed? It took more than I had in me, as it happened. There are still 12 humongous stones that need to be dug out and re-set. What would we do without root pressure from weed trees and the annual upset of frost heave? It would all be too easy.

What would it take to throw tennis balls for the dogs? Call me an enabler. They’ve got a tennis ball habit and I feed it. Didn’t expect the sunshine today. It was a pleasant surprise! What, I asked myself, would it take to get outdoors and use that sunlight?

Locally, there were challenges for the right wing “great communicators.” The big screen displaying images of the speakers seemed better positioned to communicate with the thousands of protesters on the Main Street lawn than with the few hundred teabillies on the King Street sidewalk. The left wasn’t giving anybody slack. Bells, drums, and roaring voices drowned out the sound system. The Americans for Prosperity carpetbaggers–Palin, Breitbart, et al.–were impossible to hear unless you were at the front of the gathering. Even so, at least one local lefty lamented the fact that the Koch brothers could afford better Audio/Visual gear than we can. In truth, this was the first time I’ve seen a big screen mounted on the Capitol wall. I hope they didn’t damage the building.

Earlier in the week I saw a Facebook posting suggesting that people avoid a counter-rally and work locally to gather petition signatures to recall the six remaining Republican senators. Good advice, I think, but there will be lots of people who can’t avoid gawking at a train wreck.

I’ve already missed opening day at the farmer’s market so if there was any asparagus on hand, I missed it. As for La Palin, I’m not missing a thing, although I’ve heard that if I can avoid vomiting, I can see her live around 1:30 on this link: http://www.channel3000.com/localvideo/index.html?v=live