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On both Friday and Monday, Amazon was up and down–a source of no small annoyance for customers such as yours truly looking to buy stuff. Also, in February, Amazon’s S3 storage service experienced a major outage. A couple of months later, the company’s CTO offered the brilliant insight that “everything fails all the time.” Now, that’s helpful. True to form, during this latest brown-out Amazon hid from the press, leaving customers and outsiders to speculate about what caused the glitch.

Earlier Tuesday, a Google executive by the name of Rishi Chandra made the argument that the move to cloud computing was just a matter of time.

As always, the reliability of the underlying network is the biggest uncertainty. The infrastructure remains under construction. As a reminder, the real world recently reminded everyone that crystal balls don’t always account for the unexpected.

I don’t know whether it will be 10 years or not, but that’s the trend. Nobody still seriously argues that it won’t be easier to run word processors or spreadsheets off a central network of remote servers. The tech world has been inching that way in fits and starts for the last couple of years. And nowadays, there is a roster of big-name companies delivering business applications via the cloud. Besides Google, the list includes the likes of Microsoft, Amazon.com, and Salesforce.com.

“”The next 10 years of innovations are going to be in the cloud. Enterprise software is not going away, but there is a transition taking place,” he said during a conference taking place in Boston.

I’m not trying to dump on Amazon. but IT directors are the epitome of creatures of habit. If they are going to participate in this grand cloud computing transition envisioned by Google, Amazon, and others, they’ll need a lot more assurance–especially when it comes to privacy, security, and scalability–before venturing into uncharted territory.

(Credit:
CNET Networks)

But the IT industry has more tempered expectations for the likely timetable. Earlier in the year, Richard Jones of the Burton Group told IT BusinessEdge that “organizations have to move from traditional client/server and SOA-based applications” that are dependent on static allocation of resources. He went on to explain that:

There has been a political and attitude change with CIOs. Some was forced on them. The CFO has gained more power and the business metrics were pushed on (IT). And so some of them have gone to the model grudgingly. They can’t argue against numbers. Some see the economies of scale. That’s a good trend. Now instead of static services, you can go out over the Internet, where essentially any service you need to run can be found. You can look at the cloud as a timeshare. Politically, the boundaries have broken down a bit faster.

Much more interesting to me is how the Linux world will respond. Free is still better than not-so-free paid out on a monthly subscription. Which of the Linux desktop vendors will step up to the challenge?

I hadn’t heard of Microsoft’s Unlimited Potential program, but Microsoft is using it to seed the Russian and adjacent markets with subscription-based PCs that customers can use. It’s a clever way for Microsoft to seed developing markets with its Vista operating system, at a compelling price.

Analysts and observers have suggested another reason why Microsoft is interested in working with emerging markets on technology efforts: the fight against Linux, which is proving a less expensive and easier-to-access option for people in countries with scant access to technology. Indeed, Unlimited Potential and creative capitalism combine both altruism and business interests, and Microsoft executives have acknowledged the need to foster education and business development to get software like Windows and Office in the hands of people who wouldn’t typically be able to afford it.

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Microsoft paints the Unlimited Potential program as part of Bill Gates’ “creative capitalism” policy whereby developing nations can benefit from advanced technology without paying out their entire GDP to get it. As suggested above, however, the program also offers Microsoft a way to club Linux’s growth in these markets:

I think it’s great to see Microsoft playing long-term hardball in this way. This is a way for the company to combat the allure of free (or very inexpensive) Linux-based PCs without giving up on its standard business model. I’ve stated repeatedly that Microsoft would do well to transition from that business model over time as more and more of the world competes with it on a services-based model, but this is a great short-term hedge against Linux.

I spent a few minutes browsing through the channel, but couldn’t find any specific advice on protecting myself from illegal wiretaps and government surveillance. YouTube seems to be a great place to find videos of skateboarding dogs, but not such a great source of privacy tips.

The problem remains that Google is not doing a single thing to protect its customers from this kind of large-scale surveillance. While the company supports SSL-encrypted Webmail sessions, it does little to advertise it, and has taken no steps to turn it on by default.

Under the threat of criminal prosecution, I must hide all aspects of my involvement in the case–including the mere fact that I received an NSL–from my colleagues, my family and my friends. When I meet with my attorneys I cannot tell my girlfriend where I am going or where I have been. I hide any papers related to the case in a place where she will not look. When clients and friends ask me whether I am the one challenging the constitutionality of the NSL statute, I have no choice but to look them in the eye and lie.

For those of you who care more about your privacy than cute YouTube videos, I highly recommend the Tor anonymous web proxy, as well as the Customize Google Firefox browser extension.

It’s worth pointing out that Google has stood up to the feds when they
demanded search records a couple years back–but this was the DOJ, not
the NSA.

If this poor gentleman had to lie to his girlfriend and family, it’s
possible that Google, if it did receive a FBI National Security
Letter, might be placed in a similar position.

Google has now taken the interesting step to become the first major Internet company to deny helping the NSA. In an on-the-record e-mail with a company spokesperson on Friday, I was told that:

In any case, on January 17, 2007, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced that the Terrorist Surveillance Program would not be reauthorized by the president, but would be subjected to quasi-judicial oversight. So the Terrorist Surveillance Program, at least by that name, no longer exists, and Google could be actively handing over millions of e-mails, while the statement made by its PR people would be completely true.

When asked about the webmail security problem, and which steps customers should take to protect their search traffic from snooping Internet service providers, Google’s spokesperson directed me to the company’s much ridiculed YouTube Privacy channel.

Careful wording
My original question to Google was, “Is Google sharing ‘huge volumes’ of
search records with the government?” I never asked about the NSA’s
Terrorist Surveillance Program specifically.

“According to current and former intelligence
officials, the spy agency now monitors huge volumes of records of
domestic e-mails and Internet searches.”

Is that enough to reassure you?

However, the biggest problem is search. Google offers no way for its customers to search the Internet without an evil ISP (such as AT&T) from snooping in on the traffic. Google could very easily enable SSL search sessions, but has not taken any steps to do so.

Google is now the first of the major search engines and e-mail providers to make a firm statement on the issue of the National Security Agency’s wholesale surveillance of Internet content.

Google has stated it didn’t help the NSA search your e-mails. More
specifically the company denies participating in the NSA’s Terrorist
Surveillance Program. But the company’s carefully worded denial might not be enough to reassure savvy readers.

Continued concerns

This builds on what we learned the previous week, when The Washington Post revealed that the primary motivation for the White House’s wiretapping immunity demands is to protect those firms that assisted with illegal, mass-scale surveillance of e-mail traffic.

If Google was obligated to give up search/e-mail records, it is likely
that this request would be made via a Patriot Act authorized National Security Letter. A recent Journalarticle confirmed as much, stating that
the information gained from National Security letters ended up in the
gigantic NSA databases. But recipients of those letters may not be
allowed to tell anyone about it, and may in fact be forced to lie.

As Salon’s Glenn Greenwald has explained, the Bush administration has been very careful with its use of the term “Terrorist Surveillance Program.” Many snooping activities, some of which were clearly illegal, do not come under this definition. Simply put, Google could have handed over a copy of every search request and every e-mail sent by a Gmail user to the U.S. government and it would still be able to quite correctly deny participating in the Terrorist Surveillance Program.

What if Google’s PR people are telling the truth? What if Google really didn’t help the NSA, and that the spooks are collecting millions of search records via wiretaps placed on the Internet backbone?

“Google was not part of the NSA’s Terrorist Surveillance Program.”

The owner of an ISP who received one of these secret orders explained the significant restrictions placed upon him in a letter to The Washington Post back in 2007.

The Wall Street Journal recently revealed the true extent of the NSA’s surveillance system:

What do you think: Would you like to see a home video product with Hulu compatibility built-in? Does the service’s selections remain too limited for it to be truly valuable? Or do you just record your favorite shows to your DVR?

The Roku Netflix Player debuted last week to largely positive accolades. And why not? The $100 Netflix box delivers on-demand video to your TV for a flat monthly fee that’s as low as $9 a month–the same price that would rent you just two to three movies on Apple TV or Vudu. But if the Roku box (and subsequent Netflix-compatible players) has an Achilles heel, it’s the dearth of content: only about 10 percent of Netflix’s 100,000-plus DVD library is available for streaming, thanks to Hollywood’s byzantine licensing systems. The Roku box could stand to have another content source–and I think Hulu would be a perfect candidate.

I’m not suggesting we’d need another, separate Hulu-only box, either. The
Xbox 360 and
PlayStation 3 should be able to support a Hulu viewer, for instance. Apple TV certainly could. And–apparently–so could the Netflix Player: The Netflix vids use the VC-1 codec, but the box can handle H.264 as well. Of course, because all of these players–Apple, Microsoft, Netflix, and Sony–are already trying to sell you videos, it’s unclear why they’d want to provide a free competitor that’s just a click away. So even if a Hulu option is technically feasible, business considerations may keep it relegated to the drawing board. But hey, we can dream, can’t we?

(Credit:
CNET)

Hulu, of course, is the joint venture of NBC and Fox that provides free (advertising supported) Flash-based video on its Web site. (Disclosure: CNET TV is also a Hulu content provider.) Yes, there are commercials, but the content is 100 percent free to view, and it encompasses a wide variety of TV shows (and even a few movies). More importantly, in addition to “classic” programming, it features brand-new episodes of most current shows on NBC, Fox, their affiliate networks (including FX, Sci Fi Channel, USA, and Bravo), and additional content partners as well. While some shows are randomly incomplete–some offer full seasons, some don’t–it’s free, easy to navigate, and delivers good quality video. The biggest problem is that you’re stuck watching it on your computer’s browser.

Yes, I know that you can already get Hulu on your bigscreen by using the TV output on your computer. Or investing in a dedicated home theater PC. There are also “screen mirroring” devices on deck–the SlingCatcher and the ZeeVee, for instance–that will effectively put your desktop viewing on your TV screen. But the point here is for a solution that doesn’t require a PC at all.

Of course, the previously browser-only YouTube has been popping up on more and more non-PC home devices–most notably, Apple TV, HP MediaSmart TVs, and the newest high-end Panasonic plasmas. Yes, perhaps Hulu would need to recode its videos to the H.264 format (which is how YouTube made its videos compatible with a growing number of home and mobile devices), and maybe it needs a good API for potential partners. But if YouTube can do it, it’s certainly in the realm of possibility for Hulu.

Hulu’s great. Now, how can I get it on my TV?

Cisco jumped to $18.31 a share, closing the day up 13.9 percent, while Dell also posted strong gains of 12.1 percent to close at $13.15 per share. Qualcomm, another hardware company, increased by 14.9 percent to $38.91 a share.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 143.57 points, or 9.5 percent, to close at 1,649.47, while the S&P 500 soared 91.6 points to 940.51, or 10.8 percent.

And the CNET Tech Index rose to even higher levels, posting an 11.3 percent gain, up 120.98 points to 1193.35.

Amazon pulled in a strong performance, climbing 13 percent to $56.04 a share, while Google rose 11.9 percent to $368.75 a share.

But by far Comcast posted the largest gain among the most actively traded stocks on the Nasdaq, rising a whopping 25.8 percent to close at $16.96 a share.

A wide swath of technology stocks posted double-digit gains Tuesday, as the broader markets surged to exceptionally high levels as investors anticipated an interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve.

Cisco Systems, Amazon.com, Dell, and Comcast were just some of the tech players whose shares crested above 10 percent gains at the market’s close, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped a whopping 889.35 points to 9,065.12, up 10.9 percent.

(Credit:
Google) (Credit:
Google) (Credit:
Google)

However, the real meat is in the screen shots. Marked “confidential” and “proprietary,” they are so detailed I feel like I’m seeing something I shouldn’t. (In a comment on Google Blogoscoped, which posted some screenshots and other information from the presentation, Ussery explains: “This isn’t a leaked document, the webcast encouraged sharing and provided the pdf.”)

Here are some screen shots:

(Credit:
Google)
Naveen Viswanatha, lead sales engineer for Google Enterprise, gave a presentation on Tuesday as part of a webinar entitled “Innovation @ Google: a Day in the Life” hosted by KMWorld.

The gist of the presentation is that Google’s flat management structure fosters innovation and good ideas get percolating faster with Web-based apps that allow engineers to find information and collaborate.

Naveen Viswanatha, lead sales engineer for Google Enterprise

Brian Ussery, a technologist at an interactive marketing agency who moderates a Google forum on SearchEngineWatch.com, wrote a recap of the talk on his blog and has made the presentation available in PDF form.

There are screen shots of e-mails dubbed “Product Snippets,” in which engineers tell each other about their weekly activities. The e-mails are then compiled into a searchable database. There’s a “Google Ideas” application where Googlers can read about what other people are working on and offer comments and ratings.

Another important tool is Google’s intranet search engine, “Moma,” which lets employees search for everything from available conference rooms and lunch recommendations to the employee handbook and time cards. The application is integrated with Gmail, Google Talk, Calendar and Docs.

A new Googler has offered a rare glimpse into the process by which the search giant turns ideas into products.

Those are some reliable sources, because the tiny laptops just kept coming this week. For example, we learned the OLPC XO laptop may switch from Linux to Windows XP. The Asus Eee PC 900, the 9-inch version of everyone’s favorite super cheap portable, got an official launch date (May 12) and an official price ($549). Little-known U.S. manufacturer 3K Computers launched the 7-inch Longitude 400. And PC World learned that this June’s Computex trade show in Taipei will reportedly see the debut of another version of the Asus Eee PC and a new ultralight laptop from Acer, both running on Intel’s Atom platform.

In reviews, we mostly dug the 13.3-inch Toshiba Satellite U405 and got a kick out of the 12.1-inch Asus Lamborghini VX3. We also thought the Gateway P-172X FX would make a good choice for gamers who fall just short of hardcore.

Finally, we honored Earth Day by measuring the power consumption of a number of desktops and laptops. The conclusion? Leaving your gaming system running idle at all hours could be costing you almost $200 per year. So shut down that computer before you head out to play this weekend, mmmkay?

If you’re overwhelmed by all the low-cost laptop options, Engadget points to a comprehensive list of low-cost laptops, assembled by Liliputing.

However, the week didn’t belong completely to the little guys: Toshiba released five new Satellite Pros; Averatec announced two semirugged systems, the Voya 4473 and Voya 6494; Acer debuted the Aspire 5920 laptop with WiMax support; and reports circulated with more details about the official release of Asus’ bamboo computers.

As this week drew to a close I whipped out my trusty Magic 8 Ball and asked it: “Will there ever be an end to the little-laptop news?” And the Magic 8 Ball replied: “My sources say no.”

Meanwhile cable operators managed to sign up around 85 percent as many subscribers as they had during the second quarter of 2007. In the past, cable and phone companies have evenly split the number of new broadband additions. But during the second quarter, cable pulled ahead with a whopping 76 percent of the new business.

Twenty of the largest cable operators and phone companies in the U.S. only signed up about 887,000 new subscribers during the quarter, the Leichtman Research Group reported Monday. This was the lowest level of new subscribers the research group has seen in the seven years it’s been reporting on the broadband market.

Of course, there is still a good proportion of the population that has no Internet connectivity at all, which could provide future growth for the broadband industry. But these customers are likely more price sensitive and some may actually live in areas where broadband service isn’t currently available.

Cable companies now have 35.3 million broadband customers. And phone companies have 29.7 million subscribers. AT'T has the largest number of subscribers with 14.7 million customers. Comcast, the largest cable operator, has 14.4 million.

This change in strategy appears to be an attempt to sign up more valuable customers who won’t drop their service when the one-year promotion ends.

“While the relative number of quarterly broadband adds has certainly peaked, the decline in additions this quarter compared to the same period last year was exacerbated by Verizon and AT&T’s emphasis on selling higher speed Fios and U-verse bundled services, often at the expense of the traditional DSL service,” he said in a press release.

Phone companies appeared to be the hardest hit by the slowdown, only adding about 23 percent of the customers they added during the same quarter a year ago. Bruce Leichtman, president of the firm, said AT&T and Verizon Communications have been emphasizing higher speed and more expensive services to customers over their entry-level DSL services.

I also predict that the phone companies and cable operators will be forced to extend their promotional offers. Consumers have gotten savvy enough to know that they can cancel their service (or at least threaten to leave) when the promotion is over and move to another provider.

What’s this mean for broadband providers? I think it means that phone companies and cable operators will have to compete even more on price and value. I doubt the phone companies will drop the pricing of their ultra high-speed services much. Instead, I think they will price their bundled services more aggressively to encourage consumers to sign up for broadband services as well as their phone and TV services. They may even try to link their wireless services in with these packages, creating a quadruple play value package that the cable companies won’t be able to compete with.

While the phone companies’ change in strategy could play a role in the lopsided breakdown of new broadband additions, I think it’s also worth noting that the market is more saturated. Roughly 90 percent of active Internet users today already subscribe to broadband service. This means that there is a smaller pool of people using dial-up who may switch to broadband services.

Cable operators and phone companies signed up about half the number of subscribers in the second quarter of 2008 that they signed up during the same quarter in 2007.

Second Life creator Linden Lab has selected digital-strategy veteran Mark Kingdon as its new CEO, following Philip Rosedale’s resignation from the post last month. Rosedale will remain chairman of the company’s board.

Hiring a “business guy” to helm Linden Lab, rather than someone with a background in social networking or gaming, may be a sign that the company wants to achieve some corporate momentum and eventually go public.

Kingdon will take over the CEO post on May 15.

But before that, the company needs to get its act together. Second Life hasn’t lived up to the breathless marketing hype of a year or two ago, and its chief technology officer left in December amid reported disputes.

“His management style, unwavering leadership in the face of great challenges, and approach to team-building exactly matches Linden’s needs,” Rosedale said in the release. “He is a passionate believer in the potential of virtual worlds to change the world, and I look forward to working by his side while we watch it happen.”

“Our search for the leader of Linden Lab demanded both tremendous business skills and a deep understanding and passion for Second Life and where it is going. Mark is the perfect choice,” Rosedale said in a statement, acknowledging that Linden Lab’s new chief needed to know how to run a business, not just come up with cool ideas.

Kingdon comes equipped with an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, as well as more than a half decade’s worth of experience running digital-ad agency Organic.

Linden Lab’s management is likely counting on Kingdon to sort things out.

The SP-570 UZ is slated to ship in March for $499.99

From its inception, Olympus’ Ultra Zoom series–simply referred to as “UZ” in recent years–has always led the telephoto field for sheer reach. Once again, the company jumps ahead of the paused-at-18x pack with its 20x lens-equipped SP-570 UZ.

(Credit:
Olympus America)

f/2.8-4.5 26mm-520mm-equivalent (20X) lens
10-megapixel CCD (1/2.33-inch)
ISO 50 - ISO 6400
Mechanical stabilization (sensor shift)
TruePic III image processor
1.2 fps/7-frame continuous shooting (full resolution, best quality available)
LCD size: 2.7 inches/230,000 pixels, 140-degree viewing angle

Olympus SP-570 UZ (top)

Key features:

Olympus SP-570 UZ (back)

(Credit:
Olympus America)

The following product is available:

On Sale Now: $529.95
View the latest prices for Olympus SP-570 UZ

Size matters most in this update to the SP-560 UZ: it’s got a higher-resolution CCD, longer (and slightly wider-angle) lens, and slightly larger LCD display. In a nice design tweak, the lens now has a manual zoom ring; on the preproduction unit we toyed with briefly, it still had that odd servo feel that similar controls on camcorders have, but it did give a bit more control than with the zoom switches common on digital point-and-shoot cameras. The new model also supplies a hot shoe for use with external flashes and a built-in wireless flash controller (a capability that was enabled in the SP-560 UZ via a firmware upgrade).

Olympus SP-570 UZ

(Credit:
Olympus America)