Citigroup

When I started Diversity 2 (needs authorization), a million dollar dream portfolio on Google Finance back in April 06, 2008, I had no idea that it would be a witness of the 2008-09 financial crisis. 

When I bought 160 shares of Citigroup Inc. at USD 15.22, I noted "Citigroup still has a lot of potential. I must buy now because I buy to hold, not to speculate." Silly me. This was just over three months after I bought 2076 shares of the same at USD 24.08. Since then, it has gone to an all-time low of ninety seven cents which makes the current 4.68 (as I write this) a bit easier to swallow. 

Performance-wise, the portfolio which cost $979,434.26 is now worth $904,580.10 in market value. That is an overall return of -11.01%. The stock market is climbing up, for now.  

(written around 10 AM Central on August 26, 2009)

Upload yourself to youtube today

 

Don't you want to become a youtube superstar? Just click on the youtube superstar button above and join the cause.

Sprint text to landline problems

Still messed up, still optimistic
[removed because the message mentions the number of the caller]

thank you for using text to landline, says sprint.

PAC-MAN 30th Anniversary

Pac-man is thirty today. Go to Google to play this classic game right at the home page.

What is Google TV?

The tweet is here. Welcome, Google TV.

Youtube lean back: According to the demo, youtube leanback will just start playing and there is no clicking involved. Videos based on recommendations (from your friends or people you subscribe) and channels will be available. Google says you will be able to lean back but keep control.
Sony: A full line of new televisions that work with Google TV.
Intel: Intel Atom will be powering all these devices.
More partners: Logitech, Dish network, Best Buy
Availability: Fall 2010, source will not be released until later

We will have to wait and see how consumers take it. The answer possibly lies, not in the big issues like openness and platforms but user experience and usability. One of the questions that we need answered is "What are the compelling reasons for me to change the way I watch TV?"

Google wave for all

Google wave no longer requires an invitation. (TechCrunch report)

Google Calendar - Tasks is now its own calendar

This is only a short note to help people who reflexively clicked dismiss this message when a notice popped up in Google Calendar this morning. The message reads as follows:

Google Calendar has a new look!

We've updated Google Calendar to make it more consistent with other Google Apps. Everything works the same as before, with one exception: we've removed the Tasks link. Now to turn tasks on and off, just click the Tasks calendar in your calendar list.

We hope you enjoy the new look!

Update: Google just tweeted about it. You can confirm it in Google's official blog

Crawled!

How long does it take for Google to crawl a blog post? A couple of days? The fastest it can do is a few hours, right? Well, wrong. It was already up in seconds, which is mind-boggling. Check out this screenshot. 

crawled!

Google becomes Topeka for a day

Topeka

Learn more at http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/different-kind-of-company-name.html

Google Voice call quality

Call quality?

Image credit: Google Voice

Do you use Google Voice? Tell Google how your call went by simply clicking on one of two intuitive check boxes in any of the calls you want to mark. Tell Google if the call went well or it went rather poorly. This information could help Google make Google Voice better for everyone!

Suggested reading: 

1. http://www.google.com/support/voice/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=115119
2. http://www.google.com/support/voice/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=171785 
3. Troubleshooter: http://www.google.com/support/voice/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=170798 
4. Official blog: http://googlevoiceblog.blogspot.com/

and the telco sprints ahead in doing a great job...

... at annoying me. The saga continues. Text messages from Sprint customers show up as "text to land-line" on my Google Voice number. Is this situation affecting anyone else at all? Here's another embedding of a typical voice mail Sprint leaves me: 

To boldly take a stance and still not hurt one's bottom lines (not very much at least)

(Unfinished copy, heavy editing may continue)

Official Google Blog: A new approach to China: "We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all."

One question that probably does not need to be asked here is whether Google is being responsible towards its shareholders by potentially shutting itself out of the Chinese markets. Analysts seem to agree, according  to Miguel Helft of the New York Times. Google has come under a lot of fire for being no different than Microsoft or Yahoo!

Google might have a better leverage than most competitors in this situation. The most prominent hardware Google sells to the consumer space is from htc based in Taiwan (see Nexus One for details). The best case scenario here is that Google and the Chinese government are able to come to an agreement that allows benefits beyond Google.

While WSJ's fears (I quote "Technically, most of Google's partnerships and other investments could continue, but by snubbing Chinese authorities so publicly, the company risks government retaliation against itself or its partners.") seem valid, retaliation puts the Chinese government in the spot light, and this is not a very good way to be in the spotlight. I strongly suspect that there will be some agreement that will be a least damaging option damaging to both the Chinese government and to Google. Then again, this suspicion is not based on any knowledge on the ground but on pure, unadulterated speculation.

Any international competitor need not rejoice at a potential Google exit from China. Google's bold moves make it precarious for any international company to directly benefit from a possible Google shut-down in China. Anyone taking Google's number two spot in China is bound to come under heavy pressure to follow Google's lead, something they may not be able to do because of existing relationships. Talk about being caught in between a rock and a hard place!

A realy dumb disclosure: I just need to remind readers that Google owns Blogger and blogspot that I use to write this blog. This service is free of cost from Google. I do not work for Google or receive any money in exchange for writing for this blog. Thank you!

Even the best of us can improve

... or so it seems the lesson from the latest improvements to Google Web Search. Here I have @hmason a computer science professor who recently gave an ignite presentation. Check out some screenshots:

'Tis Official: Google Chrome for mac!

Here's the email Google sent me about the announcement. Cheers!

It's finally here: Google Chrome for Mac. Available today in beta!

Hi there,
Thanks for signing up to hear from us regarding Google Chrome for Mac! We're excited to let you know that Google Chrome is now available in beta for Mac OS X.
Here are a few fun facts from us on the Google Chrome for Mac team:

• 73,804 lines of Mac-specific code written
• 29 developer builds
• 1,177 Mac-specific bugs fixed
• 12 external committers and bug editors to the Google Chrome for Mac code base, 48 external code contributors
• 64 Mac Minis doing continuous builds and tests
• 8,760 cups of soft drinks and coffee consumed
• 4,380 frosted mini-wheats eaten

Thanks for waiting and we hope you'll give Google Chrome for Mac a whirl.
Google Chrome Team
www.google.com/chrome
--------
© 2009 Google www.google.com 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View CA 94043 United States of America.
Google is a trademark of Google Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.

Christine Easter's phone called me

Check out this voice mail message. Christine's phone apparently called me and left me a message but when I called her back she denied ever calling me in the first place.

Could it be that she just happened to push the buttons without meaning to like recent calls > received?

Google dashboard

As reported in numerous tech websites, Google Dashboard is online. Click to see a slice of what Google knows about you.

Google Music and possible short-term decline in Youtube traffic

As Google has come up with music search (example), it is possible that youtube might see a slight decline in views. I am sure a lot of people would like to get their hands on the data of the rise of Google Music and the change in youtube's traffic during the same time period.

Google Calendar: Don't delete button

The prompt for deleting recurring even has four buttons, including a "don't delete" button. As Google Apps goes mainstream, I guess a simple cross on the top right is no longer sufficient.

In an unrelated note, blogger in draft still cannot tell my location. XD

All your domains are belong to us: a short offhand comment on wwwbing.com

No children, that was not a typographical error on my title. It does read wwwbing.com, which according to Tech Crunch, is a troll website. If you ask me, that should not be a problem for Microsoft. Why? Please read this article on slate.com (disclaimer: slate.com is a Microsoft-owned magazine).

Do I need to explain any further? Let me tell you something. Most of us are lazy on the Internet. Why would you type in www.bing.com when you could get away with typing bing.com? That's four letters fewer that you have to type every single time. I know it is not television and it is a lean forward instead of a lean backward idea but still, if people can get away with spending less energy, they might as well.

October 17, 2009.

Yes, that's today's date where I am. If it is after 2005 and you have not configured your website so that something.com works in lieu of www.something.com, it is your fault. Not mine, not a squatter's, not your neighbor's. However, even that comes behind the bigger picture: search engines.

Now, I understand your concern. Why, you would say, would Microsoft want people to Google them instead of going directly to their own website? For one thing, they already advertise Bing on Google (so well, in fact that one wonders what their bids for their AdWords campaigns look like. I have read (though not verified) that the average cost is around 80 cents per click (Google does not charge money for clicks it considers suspicious. Lets leave the AdWords/AdSense scaremongering for another day). One can simply type in bing on their Awesome Bar and get to the Microsoft search engine.

So let us sum up:

1. bing.com works just as fine. People, stop typing in that dagnabbin* www already.
   
2. Search it. If it is worth its money, it will be on the first page. No, people will not mind if they see you using Cuil, although it is kind of strange if you ask me. 
3. Get a better browser! A modern browser will allow you to search directly from the location bar or from a search bar close to the location bar. Microsoft's Internet Explorer (7 and above)**, Mozilla Firefox (and its derivatives), Google Chrome, Apple's Safari***, K-Meleon, and Opera have this in common.
   

* Thanks to Taylor Weaver (585699309 on fb) for the awesome new word. 
** If you still use IE6 or below, please upgrade your browser experience with getfirefox.com I understand it is not possible for everyone. If you cannot, just be very careful of any website (including this one) and remember, it is not paranoia if the threat is real. 
*** Saying Chrome originates from safari is like saying men originate from Macaques but that's a story for another day. Google Chrome uses the same webkit base but it is not a Safari derivative. 

view count lagging behind

This pertains to the previous blog post from youtube. It seems that the view count is lagging behind as I write this post. As you can see in the screen shot to the right, the viewcount only reads 311 when the ratings count reads 784. By the way, if you cannot find the previous post or would like to see the video on YouTube for some reason, please click here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnSbpPXlmvo) Just to put the conspiracy minds to rest, I visited the link a few minutes myself and put the second screenshot up there too. :) 

Oh, and by the way, I would like to wish YouTube a very happy birthday (I don't know the exact dates) and congratulations on being the lovable giant that serves us over a billion video views every day.