Tech Week in Review
It has been such an interesting week in technology that even the mainstream media is taking notice of what we all do. Here's the rundown on the major doings:
Of course FaceBook, Twitter and Google still get all the credit for the Egyptian revolution. Wow, I'm not sure how the American Minutemen, the French in 1789, the Bolsheviks or the Indians (in India) did it without social media!
On a sad note, reports surfaced that one Steve Jobs is likely facing another bout of cancer, something I think we all assumed. This is his second round, so it is a tough slog. We just lost Ken Olsen, I'd really hate for Mr. Jobs to not be driving technology the way he has done so well his whole life. Proprietary? Yes? Elegant and stable? Double yes. Good luck, Mr. Jobs.
From time to time I make references to politics and self-important political pundits. I poke both sides. To be frank, my politics are scattered in a million directions. I am radical on both the left and the right. I'd put together Ayn Rand, Karl Marx, Ronald Reagan, JFK and Ron Paul to create my ideal politician.
So that's why I happened to be watching Glen Beck the other day -- a man who has miraculously stopped crying every episonde. Glen seems to know everything, and now knows everything about Google. I agreed with a lot of what he said this week about the company being evil -- although he seems to think its motivations are political, whereas I believe they are economic.
Beck (with the help of a research staff that can obviously Google -- I mean search -- for Google misdeeds) laid out the exact same argument that I and others have for many a moon. Here's what I wrote a scant month ago.
Beck was not pleased with Google, as he put it, taking credit for the Mubarak overthrow. I think he said something like, "Do I want my search engine overthrowing governments? No, I want my search engine giving me search results."
I'm not sure Google really took more credit than what was due -- I think the press is responsible for blowing it out of proportion. But Beck, perhaps late to the party, attacked Google's problems with privacy invasion and highlighted former CEO Eric Schmidt's creepiest quotes, including a couple winners I had never heard before.
Love him or hate him, this is the first time I've heard a major network pundit make such an aggressive anti-Google argument.
Is Beck in the right (not politically but factually)? And who is your favorite and least favorite pundit? Even those that believe Ann Coulter was right, I mean correct, when she wanted more journalists jailed in Egypt are free to write [email protected].
Oh, and let's not forget, President Obama dined with tech heavyweights Mark Zuckerberg, Eric Schmidt, Larry Ellison, Cisco's John Chambers and the ailing (but hopefully on the mend) Steve Jobs. The pics make it look like it was fun.
Posted by Doug Barney on 02/18/2011 at 1:18 PM