When Google Burps, We Swallow

Yesterday, I was checking out the “new and improved” Google Now feature on my iPhone, and when I pulled up the weather card, I was met with this remarkable temperature:  125 degrees in the light rain in Jersey City at 11:18 in the morning.

What?

Huh!

I quickly checked my other favorite weather site — forecast.io — on my iPad, and learned the actual temperature in Jersey City was a balmy, but humid, 75 degrees with scattered rain.  A 50 degree bogus increase in temperature is a really bad result from a company you pay to trust.

It was a little alarming to see how bluntly and boldly Google Now delivered the absolutely wrong — and dangerous! — temperature.  Sure, mistakes happen, but there was no subsequent notification, or even acknowledgement later, that the 125 degree temperature was a hiccough in the Google world — and that should concern us all.

When Google burps, we all involuntarily swallow.

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Why Does Gravatar Want My Google Apps Contacts?

After a successful return to WordPress.com from WordPress Multisite, I began rooting around the Settings and Tools and Appearance areas for my WordPress.com account to discover any new joys that were added during my inattention.

I found I could now add my “Google Profile” as a “verified” external service via Gravatar.  I clicked to continue to complete the verification process for my “Public Profile.”

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Why Did Google Wave Crash? Should We Care?

I am here to say what many of us were thinking but just haven’t said out loud — Google dropped the ball on Google Wave in such an enormous manner. When they recently pulled the plug on the Google Wave project, they took what could have been a tremendous tool to help people learn and teach and they threw it all away.

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I Am Not Who You Think I Am

I have had my Gmail account for nearly six years now — thanks to an early invitation from master publisher David Boles. I chose the username “gordond” because I wanted to see if it was available. For many years I only chose the username ‘gdavides’ based on the assigned username I got at Peddie — it was based on the first letter of my first name and the following seven letters of my last name.

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Andri Manager

We love to hate Spam, and when a new round of ghoulishness springs up in our Inbox, we get a slight thrill at our initial gut reaction to try to want to help only to realize moments later someone is out to snipe our time and ferret our goodwill. Meet Andri.Manager@gmail.com:

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Doctor David Boles is Not in the Blog

I am not a doctor.  I never played one on TV.  I have never claimed to be a medical expert on anything important.

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