I am currently not playing. I am not out, but I am not active. I am waiting for my 1,000 portal submissions to go through. Then I am going to build a team, The Squad. For the longest time I thought I would keep mum about it. But I am at a point when I feel I should open source the value system I have written about The Squad. And so here goes.
June 6, 2013 The Squad Values
(1) We believe in Life/Work/Ingress balance. If you are playing for less than 10 hours a week, chances are you are not intense enough for The Squad. But if you are playing for more than 20 hours a week chances are you are messing up your Life/Work/Ingress balance. That is a no no.
(2) We believe in sportsmanship. The mark of true sportsmanship is that you truly enjoy meeting agents from both sides. You play as hard as you can, but then you truly enjoy meeting people from the other side. Be respectful of others on both sides. This is a game. It is supposed to be fun. Don't take the game too seriously.
(3) The Squad is 100% AP driven. We want our agents to get to 10 million in AP as fast as possible. We constantly look for ways to help agents do that. So when we come across a green L7/L8 farm, our first instinct is to hack it to burnout, not to take it down. Because we are AP driven.
(4) Most agents prefer not to join teams. And even those who join teams mostly play solo. And so The Squad will have a very limited agenda.
(5) You don't talk about The Squad outside The Squad. You can say things like "I am a member of The Squad" to recruit people, but that's about it.
(6) When you play solo, you play any way you want. You have the option to tap into The Squad's knowledge base of tips and the collective wisdom of the top agents, but there are no rules. It is a game. It is supposed to be fun. Go have fun your way. When you play solo there is only one rule: We don't talk about The Squad outside The Squad.
(7) The Squad is focused around events it organizes. All socializing happens during Action Time. There is a formal start to an event. And there is a formal end to an event. When the event is over, we go back to Life/Work. We don't hang out, we don't have beer. But if members choose to informally hang out that is fine too, but that is not part of the formal event.
(8) G+ socializing is largely a waste of time. COMM socializing is largely a waste of time. This game is played out there in the field. Your 10 hours a week is about action time in the field not staring at the Intel map at home.
(9) The Squad is a thinking kind of team. We have our tips, our knowledge base, our tactics, and strategies, but all are subject to challenge, and all are subject to empirical evidence. We shift our tactics as necessary. And new ideas can come from anywhere on the team.
I have been playing with it for a few hours now. I feel like I am all set. Made me feel like I bought the seven inch tablet in vain. I don't need it. This phone is so much of a better experience. And the screen is so responsive. I feel good.
"Wikipedia would be a shambles without bots" ..... English Wikipedia alone surpassed four million articles this month. It contains an estimated 2.5 billion words, equivalent to millions of pages, and it is 50 times larger than the Encyclopaedia Britannica. ..... The bots perform a wide range of editorial and administrative tasks that are tedious, repetitive and time-consuming but vital. .... The site was founded in 2001, and the next year, one called rambot created about 30,000 articles - at a rate of thousands per day - on individual towns in the US..... In 2008, another bot created thousands of tiny articles about asteroids, pulling a few items of data for each one from an online Nasa database.
I am a Google fanboy. So I really liked this post by Paul Buchheit. Google really is the best company its size. And Paul points out Android and Chrome. I have said at this blog before that those two alone are two separate Google size companies. They are big.
This is simply put awesome. This excites me like the Chrome OS got me excited when I first heard about it. Looks to me like my IC vision is coming to fruition with me simply keeping up with the news. Between the Chrome OS, the $35 PC and the spectrum bids in India, there is only one missing piece to the puzzle: how do you bring the costs of internet access down drastically by serving ads? How about bringing it down to zero? Maybe that will be a Chrome browser innovation.
This $35 price goes down to $10 when you mass produce it, and it goes down to zero if you splash ads on the back of the computer. I think plenty of companies will pay $10 to be permanently placed on the back of your computer.
India's $35 PC is the Future of Computing PC World will replace the bloated desktop and laptop hardware architectures in use today. .... runs on a variation of Linux. It has no internal storage ..... a Web browser... can also run on solar power.....far exceeding the $100 laptop developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ..... makes the $500 iPad seem significantly over-priced. ..... economy of scale will allow it to push the price down to $10 ......the iPad has also been embraced by corporations and is widely used as a portable computing platform for business professionals. .... What businesses need is a simple, cheap device that uses a secure cloud connection to keep data where it belongs and keep workers up and working without the down time of expensive, failure-prone hardware. $35 computer taps India's huge low-income market Christian Science Monitor targets a vast, untapped market of 1.2 billion people. ..... ncludes an Internet browser, a multimedia player, a PDF reader, and video conferencing ability. .... its biggest attraction is the price: $35. ..... a thrilling prospect for the future of global education ...... how technology and ultra-cheap innovations are bringing new options to India’s 1.2 billion people, whose per capita income is $1,030. ..... by 2020 rural markets in India will grow to $500 to $600 billion from the current $487 million. ..... the nearly 742 million people across rural India are pushing retail demand faster than urban areas and accounting for more than 60 percent of the national demand ..... In 2008, Tata launched the world’s cheapest car – the bubble-shaped Nano – priced at $2,500. Its low-cost engineering fulfilled the aspiration of millions of moped-riding Indians for whom a four-wheel drive was far out of reach. The same company last year launched the Swach water purifier – its two models priced at 749 rupees ($16) and 999 rupees ($21) – with the promise of providing clean drinking water to millions of India’s poor. ..... The price of the new computer is expected to fall to $10 in the coming years India unveils world's cheapest tablet computer at $35; may drop to $10 New York Daily News From the country that brought you the $2,000 open-heart surgery and $2,127 car comes the latest bargain – a supercheap, touch-screen computer..... The Linux-based tablet appears to do most things an $499 iPad can do - but at a fraction of the cost: Internet browsing, word processing, video conferencing and more..... Research teams at India's leading technical institutes - the Indian Institute of Technology and the Indian Institute of Science -developed the tablet to compete with a $100 computer developed at MIT ..... part of India's initiative to modernize its schools India's $35 tablet - vaporware or the real deal? ZDNet (blog) potential ODM interest in Taiwan to manufacture these devices at scale. India unveils prototype of $35 tablet computer The Associated Press looks like an iPad, only it's 1/14th the cost .... India, which is home to the 100,000 rupee ($2,127) compact Nano car, the 749 rupees ($16) water purifier and the $2,000 open-heart surgery. ... $100 laptop .... India rejected that as too expensive and embarked on a multiyear effort to develop a cheaper option of its own. ...... Sibal turned to students and professors at India's elite technical universities to develop the $35 tablet after receiving a "lukewarm" response from private sector players. He hopes to get the cost down to $10 eventually. ..... The tablet doesn't have a hard disk, but instead uses a memory card, much like a mobile phone. The tablet design cuts hardware costs, and the use of open-source software also adds to savings .... several global manufacturers, including at least one from Taiwan, have shown interest in making the low-cost device ..... India plans to subsidize the cost of the tablet for its students, bringing the purchase price down to around $20. .... government subsidies or dual marketing — where higher-priced sales in the developed world are used to subside low-cost sales in markets like India — ..... the device could send a shiver of cost-consciousness through the industry. .... an ambitious education technology initiative by the Indian government, which also aims to bring broadband connectivity to India's 25,000 colleges and 504 universities and make study materials available online. India's Rs.1500 laptop a godsend for students Sify a built-in key board, a 2 GB RAM memory, Wi-Fi connectivity, USB ports and is powered by a 2-watt system for use in power deficit areas. ..... will support functions like video web conferencing facility, and multimedia content viewing. .... hopes to bring down the price to $10 after the device is mass produced. .... the ministry is reported to be in discussions with entrepreneurs, private firms and industries. .... One motherboard was reportedly designed by a student of Vellore Institute of Technology under his B.Tech project India unveils Rs 1500 computing device Hindustan Times writing and storing text, browsing the internet and viewing videos
I am excited about the Chrome OS netbooks the way I never was able to get about the iPad. I hope they show up sooner rather than later. I have been saying for years now, the browser is all you should need.
I guess I am a Google fanboy the way some people are Apple fanboys.
e a tolerable replacement for a netbook or laptop ..... Chrome OS is a browser OS, and that will always be the focus. ..... Google will want this to be the simplest and cleanest browser experience out there. ..... Less need for storage and storage control, plus less demand on the CPU and other components means that the entire thing can be thinner and run cooler. .......a lightweight OS will always do more with fewer resources ...... Really instant on. All that really needs to be loaded into active memory is display, a blank browser page, and the wireless/IP stack. ..... a single-service device, crossed with the versatility of that single service ...... Chrome OS will offer a browser that you hold in your hand. ..... It’s a window into the web, and that’s all. ..... Viewing this rich, wonderful Internet of ours on a screen less than 7″ seems like self-flagellation to me. ...... the elegance and simplicity of the window into the web I hope Chrome OS will be.
Google's Nexus One Exit Has Chrome OS Implications OStatic (blog) Google has announced that it has received its final shipment of Nexus One phones and will be exiting its Nexus One phone business altogether ... the Nexus One sold in the neighborhood of 150,000 units .... In a matter of weeks, Google will be introducing Chrome OS to the world. Like Android, it's an open source OS, but is aimed at netbooks.
There is a similar thing going on with blogging. Blogging started as a thing far flung individuals do. By now most of the top blogs are all corporate. Open source seems to share the story. So which do you think it might be? Which is the biggest open source company out there? Oracle, or Google?
A company that has become big needs a new ethos. Google as a company will stick around for a long, long time, but it is not at all a given that Google will continue to be on the bleeding edge. Will Google Wave end up being the last bleeding edge product Google gave to the world?
The advantage Google has is that search is at the core of the internet experience, and there Google is the one with the secret sauce. And this is the Internet century.
The Meaning Of Open Complacency is the hallmark of any closed system. If you don't have to work that hard to keep your customers, you won't.........understanding the fast-moving system better than anyone else and using that knowledge to generate better, more innovative products ........ a fast innovator and a thought leader ........ Open systems have the potential to spawn industries. ......... win based on the merits of their products and not just the brilliance of their business tactics ........... open systems allow innovation at all levels — from the operating system to the application layer — not just at the top. ........ good business, since an open Internet creates a steady stream of innovations that attracts users and usage and grows the entire industry. .......... Reward = (Total value added to the industry) * (Our share of industry value) ........... grow the web for everyone ......... When railroad tracks were first being laid across the U.S. in the early 19th century, there were seven different standards for track width. The network didn't flourish and expand west until the different railway companies agreed upon a standard width of 4' 8.5". ............ about 681 million hosts on the Internet. .......... In the early 1900s, the U.S. automobile industry instituted a cross-licensing agreement whereby patents were shared openly and freely amongst manufacturers. Prior to this agreement, the owners of the patent for the two-cycle gasoline engine had effectively bottled up the industry. ........... we are the largest open source contributor in the world ....... when traders in the Mediterranean region circa 3000 BC invented seals (called bullae) to ensure that their shipments reached their destinations tamper-free, they transformed commerce from local to long distance. ........ Trust is the most important currency online ........ Think that your product's value is so obvious that it doesn't need explaining? There's a good chance you're wrong. ............. the Google Dashboard ........ If they use our products and store content with us, it's their content, not ours. ........ we need to do whatever we can to make leaving Google as easy as possible ....... we make numerous platforms - video, maps, mobile, PCs, voice, enterprise - better, more competitive, and more innovative. We are often attacked for being too big, but sometimes being bigger allows us to take on the impossible. .......... Open up as much as you can as often as you can, and if anyone questions whether this is a good approach, explain to them why it's not just a good approach, but the best approach. .......... the chaos of open benefits everyone ........ The future of government is transparency. The future of commerce is information symmetry. The future of culture is freedom. The future of science and medicine is collaboration. The future of entertainment is participation. Each of these futures depends on an open Internet.
Staying open is Google's best bet to stay on the cutting edge for as long as possible. This is an important document to have come out.
the worst economic situation of our lifetimes...... Eric Schmidt has called these times 'uncharted waters': none of us has been here before. ........ the Internet, which is the most powerful and comprehensive information system ever invented. ........ from the most remote villages on the planet, you can reach as much information as is held in thousands of libraries .......... the secular shift of information, communications, and commerce to the Internet ......... over 1.4 billion people, nearly a quarter of the world's population, use the Internet, with more than 200 million new people coming online every year. ......... More than three billion people have mobile phones ......... search will remain the killer application ....... Our ongoing challenge is to create the perfect search engine ....... to actually make search smarter, our index and infrastructure need to grow at a pace FASTER than the web. ........... "Democracy of information alone can supply the vitalizing force to stir the peoples of the world into triumphant action." .......... 120K blogs are created daily — most of them with an audience of one. Over half of them are created by people under the age of nineteen. In the US, nearly 40 percent of Internet users upload videos ........... about one of every six minutes that people spend online is spent in a social network of some type. ........... the vast majority of stuff we find on the web is useless. The clamor of junk threatens to drown out voices of quality. ........... news has largely shifted from thoughtful to spontaneous ...... the best of both worlds: thoughtful and spontaneous, long form and short, of the ages and in the moment. ....... With facts, negotiations can become less about who yells louder ......... The Internet allows for deeper and more informed participation and representation than has ever been possible. .......... Oil fueled the Industrial Revolution, but data will fuel the next generation of growth. ......... making decisions based on facts, not opinions ......... Data is the sword of the 21st century, those who wield it well, the Samurai. ........ devices will proliferate in many directions, but all of them will converge on the cloud. That's where our stuff, not to mention civilization's knowledge, will live. ............ abundant APIs, open source software, and low-cost, pay-as-you-go application services like our own App Engine and Amazon's EC2. The components are abundant and available to anyone who can get online. ............. Cloud computing levels that playing field so that the small business has access to the same systems that large businesses do. Given that small businesses generate most of the jobs in the economy, this is no small trend. ............ The real potential of cloud computing lies not in taking stuff that used to live on PCs and putting it online, but in doing things online that were previously simply impossible. ........... Translation will get a tiny bit smarter with each iteration.
Google Docs And Mathematical Formula
News came out weeks and weeks ago that on Google Docs now you can insert mathematical formula. That is one of the first things I talked about when I launched this blog years ago. I am glad Google Docs is finally doing it.
Google Voice Acquisitions And Phone Number
Some recent Google Voice acquisitions beg the question, so will now Google Voice allow us to get our own Google Voice number? So you could use Google Voice without having another number at all?
Google: An IC Software Company?
I'd like to believe my fascination with the Google blogs is healthy. My startup's IC vision chimes in. I might be wanting to do the ISP and the hardware parts, but Google has already been doing the software part for the better part of a decade.
Marissa Mayer: An Omnivorous Google Is Coming a tool built into the search engine which translated my search query into every language and then searched the entire world’s websites ...... the ‘omnivorous’ search engine –i.e. one which is able to take a user’s total context – where they are, what they were just reading, which direction their mobile phone is pointed and so on. .... An omniscient, omnivorous Google is coming and it knows what you want, even if you don't. Why Net Neutrality Is Important an Internet that encourages innovation and startups is one that supports net neutrality — and unless such neutrality is enforced, capitalism on the Internet is in serious jeopardy. .....Service providers need to accept the fact that net neutrality is the only way that capitalism on the Internet will survive.
Bill Gates talks about Natal the way the Google people talk about Wave. Natal is Microsoft's next big thing, Wave is Google's. I get the impression the two pushes go on to further reinforce the image that Microsoft is a PC company, and Google is a web company. In Microsoft's world vision, the web is one of the many features your PC has, in Google's vision, the PC gets in the way o
f the web sometimes, and all the action that matters is on the web.
In Chrome OS the two visions collide. The naysayers have come out saying it is not easy to build an operating system. But I think a company that can give us Android can give us an operating system, on schedule. It is not to be completely Google's undertaking anyway. Google might be leading the effort, but it is to be open source.
So far the PC's selling point has been that there are some things you just can't do in a browser. HTML 5 and beyond will hollow out that argument, I think. Just a few more innovation cycles and the desktop is going to start to look poor in terms of all the features and functionalities it can't offer.
If the PC can do 3D, so can the browser, if the PC can do voice recognition, so can the browser, down the line.
The PC will not disappear. The ecosystem will evolve in a way that the PC will still be around, it is just it will no longer be the center of the universe.
The war is on. Microsoft wants to do search. Google wants to do operating system. The days of Google gingerly wading into Microsoft territory with the likes of Google Docs are over. Now it is a frontal attack. It is face time. Don't sue Microsoft. Don't sue Google. Let them face each other. Let the game begin.
The war is on. The consumer stands to benefit.
The announcement of the Google Chrome Operating System is a big win for the concept of cloud computing. I don't want to host an operating system on my desk either. Take it away. Host it in the cloud. You can keep the browser too. Take me straight to the web. I don't want to stare at my windscreen. I want to look through it. (David Gelernter: Manifesto)
This ties into my IC vision, Internet Computer. The IC is not a cheaper PC any more than
the PC was a smaller mainframe. The IC is a departure from the PC. The Google Chrome OS is a giant leap towards that IC vision. (JyotiConnect Inc.)
Google Chrome OS is going to be open source. It is going to be free. And Google will still make a ton of money. How? If more people come online, and more people spend more time online, Google wins because search is a central function on the web, and Google rules that turf. They have more people to click on their ads. It is roundabout, but it works swell.
Microsoft is going online and ad-based or Microsoft is going bust.
Google Plans a PC Operating SystemNew York Times initially intended for use in the tiny, low-cost portable computers known as netbooks, which have been selling quickly even as demand for other PCs has plummeted. Google said it believed the software would also be able to power full-size PCs.......... move is likely to sharpen the already intense competition between Google and Microsoft ...... Netbooks running the software will go on sale in the second half of 2010. ....... applications run directly inside an Internet browser ...... challenges not only Microsoft’s lucrative Windows business but also its applications business, which is built largely on selling software than runs on PCs. ...... Google has been adding features to Chrome, like the ability to run such applications even when a user is not connected to the Internet. ..... “Chrome is basically a modern operating system,” Mr. Andreessen said. ...... Microsoft began offering its older Windows XP operating system for use on netbooks at a low price.
Introducing the Google Chrome OS the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web. So today, we're announcing a new project that's a natural extension of Google Chrome — the Google Chrome Operating System. It's our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be. ....... Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We're designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work. .......... Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform. ....... Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems. ....... People want to get to their email instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up. They want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them. ........ they don't want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware, or have to worry about constant software updates. ...... happier users who are more likely to spend time on the Internet. Google Chrome OS - FAQ
started as a thing far flung individuals do. By now most of the top 
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