Clunky Flow

@davebarrett posted a link to this on twitter just now.

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For quite some time Google has been feeding us the nonsense line that your IP address is not personally identifying. The absurdity of this stance is almost blinding but the reality has been brought into sharp focus by the to-ing and fro-ing in the ongoing Google-Viacom case.

Here’s how the excellent Kaila @VortexDNA characterises it:

Google: “You don’t need to have any privacy concerns about the IP addresses that we store — they aren’t personally identifying.�

Viacom: “Okay, then, give us your user logs.�

Google: “No! That’s a violation of privacy!�

Judge: “But you just said…�

The judge understandably confused has elected to assign more credibility to the claim that Google has been making before getting sued. The only problem is, they were actually telling the big lie BEFORE being sued!

Now you would think that the upshot of this would be that Google’s weasel words would now be biting them in the ass. I’m sure that’s what the judge expected to be the outcome. But no that’s not the case…the fallout from this lands squarely at your feet. How did that happen? For that I’ll pass you over to Mashable:

From Mashable on recent developments in the Google-Viacom lawsuit

When you first read about the Google-Viacom lawsuit, you never thought that it would affect you directly, did you? Think again.

Unless you’ve been extra careful to only watch non-copyrighted videos on YouTube (yeah, right), Viacom could sue you. No, it’s even worse: they could actually win

However, and interestingly enough, the court denied Viacom’s request of YouTube’s source code, which means that the big company - Google - got protected, but the little guy - us - got screwed.

How about that? They say sh1t rolls down hill.

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I’m simply reposting from 37 signals here. I loved the title of their post and reused it. Other than that this is just a reminder for myself really. From 37 signals.

Allocate your fear properly
When it comes to building a web app, some things create more fear than they should…

Fear: It won’t scale
Truth: You’re not going to be Google overnight.

Fear: Too many bugs
Truth: As long as they don’t wipe the database, you can live with most bugs for a while.

Fear: Too few features
Truth: You can always add features later.

Fear: Never go down
Truth: Once-in-a-while downtime won’t scare people away.

Fear: It’s too simple
Truth: Simple solutions are fine if they get the job done.

Fear: They’ll copy us
Truth: It’s about the execution, not the idea.

Fear: We must sound serious
Truth: Trying to sound serious all the time makes you bland and unremarkable. It’s ok to be playful and have personality.

So get a grip. Yes, these things matter. But some people get hysterical over these issues before they even deserve to be on the radar. If you fear one of the above issues, make sure it’s due to a genuine risk and not just something that’s giving you a mental stiffy. Otherwise you may be wasting time chasing phantom problems.

The flip-side is that you need to recognize genuine threats — even if they’re “boring� issues. Things like these are a lot more likely to actually cripple your chances of success:

Taking forever to launch
Running out of money
Not solving a real problem
Designing a confusing UI
Obsessing over the wrong things
Trying to do too much at once

Never ignore real here-and-now threats in order to focus on maybe-in-the-future threats.

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This presentation seems designed to reach traditional marketers and help them catch the cluetrain. If it helps one marketer run with one less cringe inducing product placement into a conversation then thats got to be a good thing.

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Joe Drumgoole invited me to join him on his regular technology slot on “The Right Hook” last Monday.

Good fun. I relayed a couple of tales illustrating some of the pretty unexpected ways innocent use of Facebook could end up biting you in the *ss.

These are not isolated incidents. There’s a story in the paper every day. In fact, as if to prove the point Darren from Putplace picked up this story on breaking news right after the show.

A winger with Crystal Palace, shared the fact that he was about to have a trial with Fulham with a select group of his friends via Facebook. Or so he thought. The details of the message could be seen by all 2.7m members of the site who have joined its London section. As a member of the London section himself he unwittingly broke the story to supporters of both clubs and to anyone else in the capital interested in reading candid transfer gossip.

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Data from Hitwise reported in Time magazine last October.

Currently, for web users over the age of 25, Adult Entertainment still ranks high in popularity, coming in second, after search engines. Not so for 18- to 24-year-olds, for whom social networks rank first, followed by search engines, then web-based e-mail — with porn sites lagging behind in fourth. [The trends appear to indicate that 18-24 year olds] are too busy chatting with friends to look at online skin. Imagine.

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On his Newstalk slot yesterday, Joe Drumgoole talked about using Video Jug for instruction on his golf swing. It put me in mind of this intructional vid I made in Stanford at the end of the Paddy’s Valley trip last year. Apparently, when Tiger Woods was enrolled there, he was fond of tee’ing off this exact same spot.

All-in-all, I think there was less of the spirit of Tiger going on there. And more of my P.E. teacher from secondary school. The one who used to leave me minding goal during hurling matches. Well during the half-time break.

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I was spring cleaning my twitterstream when I came across Russell Davies. Clicking that link was like stepping on a stray sod. An enchanted clump of grass. One that triggers a magic spell whereby familiar landmarks seem to disappear. And the ordinary and easily overlooked are refocused in way that brings out the extraordinary in the familiar. Pure magic.

In one of his blogs, In defense of the ordinary he has some great things to say about socks .

I found his post on pencils especially interesting. So much so that it triggered me to search out another link. To extend the story a little.

Here’s Milton Friedman’s astonishing take on the humble pencil:

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PutPlace is now in public beta. Why should you care? Well…

There’s only a few certainties in life. Death. Taxes. And the loss of stuff you’ve stored on your computer.

The loss is one thing. But the bit I really hate. Is the aftermath. When every time you think about looking for some photo or file. You get that vague feeling. That maybe it got lost in the great wipeout of 2007.

So. I know I should save myself the pain and use an automatic back up service. But I resist.

That’s because backup services just back up your stuff. And the more you stuff in there, the more inaccessible it all becomes. Until you’ve really got no idea what’s what. Until its as good as lost in some sort of amorphous blob. Out of sight and out of mind.

The only way around this is to organise your stuff beforehand. And that means gathering your stuff from all my machines. And devices. And from online locations such as Google Docs, Flickr, and YouTube.

And this means setting aside time. And getting organized. And implementing a filing strategy. One that you can commit to keeping going forward.

I don’t know about you. But if I was that kind of guy. I think I’d back up my own stuff. On a regular basis. Thanks very much.

That’s where PutPlace come in.

They backup your stuff for a charge. But they have an added service for free. And (just between you and me) its the service I’d be most happy to pay for.

The thing is Putplace backs up your stuff. And they also make a map of where all your stuff sits. Across devices like your computer and even sites like Youtube and Flickr. You scatter. They gather. They track where your stuff sits. And make a map of all your bits. And the map remains free for life. This makes it easy to know what I have and where to find it. And that’s the key thing. Because truth be toldthese days, If I can’t find something quickly. Then it might as well. Not exist.

Conor O’Neill, captured the rest of the offer nicely. As Backup 2.0

A new Irish backup utility that understands the things the others forget. Like that I have more than one PC, I have duplicated pictures and documents scattered everywhere, I have 384 kbs UP not 2Mbs, I never want to think about backup except when I need recovery and I want everything in the cloud.

They recently opened up to public beta so are looking for testers. You’ll get unlimited space (during beta). But best of all. You’ll get a really nice brid’s eye view of all your stuff. Probably for the first time in ages. And no doubt you’ll be reacquainted with some of that stuff you were sure you had lost in your own personal great wipeout of 2007.

Proud participant in the Tuesday Push.

Note on LouderVoice: If anyone else wants to do give their review of Putplace, just add two extra tags to your posts (â€?reviewâ€? and “rating=Nâ€?), register your blog feed as a FlagTag feed on LouderVoice and they’ll collect everyone’s coverage.

More reviews of the service:
Mashable
Rafe Needleman of Webware with video interview.

ReadWriteWeb
Frank Bauer
Alexia Golez
David Kelly.

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