Official Google Docs Blog: Google Docs in burning marshmallows

"I'll make this quick, but I have to share. The Google Docs team recently returned from a team-building offsite at Seascape Resort just south of Santa Cruz, CA (hint: many very cool things coming!). After a long day of hiking, eating and thinking big about the future of Docs, we gathered around fire pits on the beach -- drinking hot cocoa, making s'mores, and enjoying the full moon. Ben Margolin, one of our tech. leads, took these photos: Google Docs spelled with burning marshmallows! (For the record, the circle at the end of 'Docs' is an artistic rendition of a trademark symbol :)"

This group sounds too wholesome for our times.

But maybe that's why they are getting things done.

Official Google Blog: Investing in the future of the open Internet

"As you may have read, Google, Comcast, Intel Capital, Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks and Trilogy Equity Partners have entered into an agreement to invest $3.2 billion in a new wireless broadband company. The new company will combine Clearwire's existing consumer WiMAX business with Sprint's broadband infrastructure and 2.5 GHz spectrum to create a new nationwide wireless broadband network."

Time for Clinton To Quit? - dot.comments

"mcdcl2 discovered a 'news flash' that said '...Hillary's Second Grade Report Card was leaked from White House documents... The report shows that she failed Math...Finally, the report recommends that Hillary be given a psychological evaluation noting an insistence on being treated as a princess...'"

Tee Hee.

Why many MCSEs won’t learn Linux | Paul Murphy | ZDNet.com

"What he’s doing here is striking out as a way of expressing the frustration he feels at being unable to understand what we’re all talking about - and while that’s fully understandable because he’s the victim of a social community confusing training with education, I think it’s also completely illustrative of the great divide blocking widespread Linux acceptance within the MCSE community."

Crimeware server exposes breadth of data theft

"Finjan analysts needed a week to process the 1.4 gigabytes and determine what was there. The log files were traced to 5,878 distinct IP addresses. The number of compromised PCs the data was lifted from has not been determined, but Ben-Itzhak said it could be as high as double the number of IP addresses. Files on the server included 571 log files from the United States, 621 from Germany, 322 from France, 308 from India, 232 from Great Britain, 150 from Spain, 86 from Canada, 58 from Italy, 46 from the Netherlands and 1,037 from Turkey."

From Win32 to Cocoa: a Windows user's conversion to Mac OS X—Part II

"The .NET library is simple to the point of being totally dumbed down; it's probably okay for the first and second groups, not least because they don't know any better, but for the rest it's an exercise in frustration. This frustration is exacerbated when it's compared to .NET's big competitor, Java. Java is no panacea; it too is aiming roughly at the middle kind of developer, which is understandable, as they're the most numerous. But Java's much more high-minded. It's much stronger on concepts, making it easier to learn. Sun doesn't get it right the whole time, but the people behind Java have clearly made something of an effort."

Google Online Security Blog: Contributing To Open Source Software Security

"While distilling anything down to three steps makes it seem easy, this isn't necessarily the case. Given how important open source software is to Google, we've attempted to contribute to this bottom line. As Chris said before, our engineers are encouraged to contribute both software and time to open source efforts. We regularly submit the results of our automated and manual security analysis of open source software back to the community, including related software engineering time. In addition, our engineering teams frequently release software under open source licenses. This software was written either with security in mind, such as with security testing tools, or by engineers well-versed in the security challenges of their project."

Ask a Question | AllThingsD

D6 is now sold out–but you can still participate in the conference.

May I take your order?

"I was so stunned by the English blunders herein, I had to buy the menu from them. Can you imagine the scene when that happened? I’ll never forget it. They couldn’t decide whether to be flattered or confused."

Found at All Things D. More translation errors here than I've ever seen in one place. This is from 2006 but worth it. Who can pass up "Fragrant spring onion sauce explodes cow son"?

FriendFeed: Why Silicon Valley just won't shut up about FriendFeed

"Has it ever occurred to Arrington that he is, in the argot of product managers, an 'edge case'? Entrepreneurs desperate for coverage, and aware that he never reads email, are trying a new way to reach him — and Arrington, in his compulsive neophilia, actually tries out the new medium, for a while. He then quickly tires of it, and throws a tantrum. Catering to such a person's whims is no way to run a company."

Yahoo Execs’ Reaction: “I Need Some Prozac” | Kara Swisher | BoomTown | AllThingsD

"Be careful what you wish for, Jerry Yang.

Because after talking to a dozen Yahoo (YHOO) execs over the weekend after the Microsoft (MSFT) takeover deal cratered, most of whom are vice presidents or above, I have to say that your stock drop isn’t the worst thing you will have to deal with this morning when you pull up at work."

Yahoo's Microsoft Bid Rejection Raises Larger Corporate Governance Questions - Seeking Alpha

"The problem is that there is little recourse for shareholders when a company’s management behaves poorly. What if Chuck Prince had a clause in his contract that he would have to pay back Citigroup all his past and present compensation in the event of shareholder wealth destruction? Would he have managed the company in the same way? Most boards of directors have insurance whereby they are not personally liable to the shareholders."

Windfall Profits for Dummies - WSJ.com

"This tiff over gas and oil taxes only highlights the intellectual policy confusion – or perhaps we should say cynicism – of our politicians. They want lower prices but don't want more production to increase supply. They want oil 'independence' but they've declared off limits most of the big sources of domestic oil that could replace foreign imports. They want Americans to use less oil to reduce greenhouse gases but they protest higher oil prices that reduce demand. They want more oil company investment but they want to confiscate the profits from that investment. And these folks want to be President?"

Acquisitions: The radical transparency of Microsoft's Yahoo buyout

"Microsoft, last year, declared that it was embracing 'radical transparency,' a tactic of divulging every detail of its every move to gain wide support. Yahoo has more recently pursued a strategy of 'openness.' But at this key moment, which will surely shape both companies' fates for years, neither company is practicing what it preaches."

Web attacks spike; e-mail attacks down

"Web attacks surged to an all-time high in the first quarter of this year, with no signs of abating, according to a recent study by anti-virus software maker Sophos.

For the first three months of 2008, Sophos identified about 15,000 newly infected Web pages daily. To put that figure in perspective, consider this: In 2007, Sophos discovered and blocked an infected Web page about once every 14 seconds; this year, according to the company, it's doing so about once every five seconds."