The story of Google that matters for most people is how it affects their daily lives (searching, web browsing, mobile phones, mapping/navigation, email, calendaring, YouTube, news, etc.) but I appreciate that Levy’s book focuses on the personalities and processes driving the evolution of what is arguably one of the most transformative corporate and technological entities of our time.

It can be easy to forget that behind some of the game-changing products and services produced by the company, there were real people thinking through issues of privacy, dealing with cross-cultural considerations and navigating interpersonal dynamics all while trying to make a living and find a sustainable business model.  They had/have desks, meetings, slide shows to give, families to care for, water-cooler conversations to have, and Levy does a great job capturing and re-telling those stories from the days of “two guys in a garage” all the way through the present days of life as an international corporation.  This is not always done with the most critical eye – those with concerns about Google’s operations or policies may be put off by the extent to which this book is an homage – but on the whole I think Levy is fair in calling out the moments when individual Google employees or the company as a whole screws up, and placing those in the context of Google’s good intentions.

A few themes in what Levy’s book revealed about “the Google way”:

1. “Ready, fire, aim” – Google does the bold, innovative or creative thing first, then (for better or worse) readjusts, re-calibrates, rethinks it later
2. When it comes to figuring out “what works,” studying data and using a scientific approach is more important than intuition or speculation.  Despite their many successes with this strategy, Google experienced failures when a data set wasn’t complete, e.g. when it doesn’t include the preferences, fears, doubts and hopes that are trapped in people’s heads or hearts.
3. Especially in its startup years, Google tried to only hire “A” people; engineers, researchers and thinkers who were either the best in a field of study (or headed that direction), who were driven by the excitement of discovery instead of money, and who could internalize the big picture goals of a project and then go make it a reality.  In their hiring they screened for intelligence, applicable knowledge, experience and adaptability, and as a result, they operate more like a research university than a traditional corporation.  Bureaucracy, office politics and administrative overhead seemingly emerged only with reluctant concessions to what was absolutely necessary to function at a larger scale.
4. If you want innovation in your organization, it’s important to create an environment where challenging accepted ways of doing things is not only permissible, but normal at all levels of authority and leadership.
5. It’s good to introduce questions of morality into the day-to-day operations of your organization.  At the same time, the more people you have, the harder it is to maintain integrity around living out a given set of moral values.

Google’s history is particularly of interest to me in that the company was started within a year or so of the company I co-founded, Summersault.  We were in a dorm room instead of a garage, and our goal was making great websites, not letting others search them more effectively.  There are not just a few differences between Summersault and Google today – billions and billions of dollars more in annual revenue, tens of thousands more employees, a private jet here, a self-driving car there, etc. – but I don’t think its too conceited to say that we started our company in the same spirit Google did, trying to help people make the most of the web…they just did it on a much bigger scale.

I was recruited by Google several years ago, to be a part of the team that keeps the company’s software application infrastructure up and running.  I really enjoyed my conversations with their staff about what it would mean to work there, and it was exciting to think about being a part of something so technically interesting and so global in scope.  In the end I knew that my passion and focus remained with what I’d started here in Richmond and so I declined to continue in the interview process, but In The Plex only reinforces what a great adventure that alternate path through life could have been.

It seems safe to say that most people underestimate the significance of what Google is and does.  Steven Levy’s book is a great read, and a great insight into how this one company has transformed the Internet age.

There are a lot of different strategies out there and each person has to find what works best for them.  Here are a few queries that might help you think about how well your strategy is working for you:

1. Are you able to work through your e-mail inbox in a reasonable amount of time every day, respond to or delegate time-sensitive questions/comments, convert messages into to-do items, or otherwise file them away on the first pass through?
2. Do you make good use of e-mail filters available in your mail reading program to highlight/tag/sort messages in ways that make you more productive?
3. Are there mailing lists or other regular notifications that you could unsubscribe from or have re-routed, to minimize the e-mail that you just delete or file on a regular basis?
4. Do you have a system for filing email that allows you to quickly and intuitively retrieve messages (sent and received) that you need to review without a lot of searching or jumping around to different folders?
5. Are you purging or archiving old messages in a way that makes sense for your role and your use of email?
6. Are your auto-”check for new mail” settings calibrated to (or turned off for) being productive? (i.e. Do you really need to know about a new message the instant it comes in, or would it be okay to review new messages once an hour?  A few times per day?!?)

If you’re not employing any particular email management strategy, may I recommend the “Inbox Zero” series of articles from 43 Folders?  There’s a great video of a presentation about this approach to get you started.

What other tips or strategies do you use to keep email useful to you as a tool, instead of getting overwhelmed by it?

Prior to using CrashPlan, I have to admit that my backup strategy for home computers left much to be desired.  Over the years I had tried various combinations of home-grown scripts and syncing tools that broke too easily or didn’t offer enough flexibility in recovery, crusty third-party software that seemed to take hours to configure and then never quite did what I expected or didn’t work with all the different devices I used, and even elegant tools like Apple’s Time Machine backup system that still didn’t offer me the off-site redundancy I wanted in case of physical catastrophe.

The end result was that my backups were happening infrequently, and in ways that did not necessarily guarantee the ability to restore what I would need in the event of a system failure or worse.  For someone who preaches the importance of backups to my friends, family and clients all day long, this was an embarrassing state of affairs. Then, one day a friend’s laptop was stolen from his house, and as I listened to the stories of what was lost because of an incomplete backup and imagined what I would possibly lose if the same happened to me, I knew I needed to look for a better system.

That’s when I found CrashPlan.

Minneapolis-based Code 42 Software has really hit the ball out of the park with this tool, which I’ve been using the “Plus” version of.  They can do a better job of selling you on their features than I can (and I’m not affiliated with them or receiving any remuneration from them for this review), but let me list out a few of the things I love about CrashPlan:

• It works seamlessly with Linux, Mac and Windows systems.  This may seem like a simple thing, but it’s something many backup tools could not offer until recently.  Thanks, Java!
• Multi-destination backup.  I can (and do) backup simultaneously to a combination of attached external hard drives, other systems on my home network, and the CrashPlan Central data center. This gives me maximum survivability for any number of disaster scenarios – theft, natural disaster, accidental file deletion, upgrading to new hardware, etc.
• Easy setup with finely tunable settings.  I had the first backup running on CrashPlan within 20 minutes of deciding to use the tool – it was very easy to get setup.  I’ve since added other systems with the same level of ease, made possible in part by the fact that CrashPlan ties your systems together with a single user account.  But I have also since tweaked settings related to when CrashPlan backs up, how much processing power and bandwidth it takes up, when it notifies me about failed or past-due backups, etc.
• Strong pre-copy encryption.  I resisted using online backup services for a long time because I didn’t like the idea that a third-party would have so much access to my personal files.  CrashPlan addresses this as well as anyone can, I think, by encrypting your data while it’s still on your machine and then sends it off to their data centers.  What’s more, they use an encryption protocol called Blowfish, which because of its open-source, unpatented and royalty-free nature, has been analyzed and accepted by industry experts as very strong.
• Great tools, great interface, regular innovation.  Another thing that may seem trivial, but the CrashPlan folks clearly took the time to think through what a great user interface for managing backups should look like.  From their website to their desktop tools even to their mobile device apps, they care about the user experience in a way I haven’t seen elsewhere in this category.  They also seem to listen to their growing user base to find new features and updates they can implement to make the product even better.

There are a lot of other features to consider, but I won’t try to go into all of them here.  The bottom line is that, at least at the moment, there’s nothing I would change or improve about CrashPlan.

Let’s not forget about price.  I’m paying $120/year for backing up up to 10 devices with unlimited disk usage in the CrashPlan Central data center.  If you want to get started with CrashPlan for FREE, you can, and this allows you to setup a backup configuration using unlimited devices on your own network; the fees (starting at $25/year) kick in when you want to use their online storage CrashPlan Central or to get direct support from their staff for any questions you might have.

I’ve had computers fail on me before, I’ve been a part of trying to handle stolen laptops, and I know that the hassle, stress and potential lost productivity can quickly add up to more than $120 no matter how you measure it.  For the enterprise backup systems we use at Summersault, the hardware and personnel costs we incur to keep them running are measured in thousands and tens of thousands of dollars over time.  CrashPlan has already helped me restore some lost files and was invaluable in recovering from a laptop crash a few months ago.  Paying CrashPlan $120/year for reliable backups is now a no-brainer.

Are you just hoping nothing bad happens to your computer and its data?  Are you still struggling with backup solutions?  Please consider CrashPlan as a backup tool that could save you a lot of pain.

Them: “Please fill out our online form and we’ll get back to you right away!”

You in online form: “Hi.  I’m trying to find the button that does the thing I want, and your documentation says it should be there but it’s not – can you tell me how to do the thing I want?”

Them: “Thank you for opening your tech support case – your question is very important to us.  We will get back to you very soon now.”

Them: “Hi there, my name is Tech Support Rep#2342 and I’m going to be assisting you with your question.”

Them: “It’s me, Rep#2342 again, and I wanted to let you know that you can find out everything you’d ever want to know about the button you’re looking for on our online knowledgebase, which is at http:….  I hope you enjoy all the information that will be at your fingertips there.”

You: “Acutally, I’m writing you because your online documentation doesn’t match up with what I’m seeing in reality.  Can you tell me how to do the thing I want?”

Them: “According to our records, your support case was successfully resolved.  Please take this online survey telling us how great we did at helping you.”

You: “No, it’s not resolved, I still don’t know how to do the thing I want.  Please answer my question.”

Them: “Hi there, my name is Tech Support Rep#5324 and I’m going to be assisting you with your question.”

Them: “Have you tried clicking on the button that does the thing you want? You can learn more about it in our online knowledgebase, which is at http:…”

You: “The button is not there.”

Them: “That’s strange, according to our online documentation, the button should be there.  Are you sure that it’s not there?”

You: “The button is not there.”

Them: “You haven’t paid for Gold Level Tech Support which includes the ability to contact us by phone or email, so I’m afraid I will have to refer you to our online knowledgebase.  I hope you enjoy all the information that will be at your fingertips there.”

You: “It’s not a matter of knowledge.  Your system is broken.  The button is not where it should be.”

Them: “I understand that you are saying the button is not there.  I am going to consult with our software engineers to try to understand what might be causing this issue.”

Them: “According to our records, your support case was successfully resolved.  Please take this online survey telling us how great we did at helping you.”

You: “My eyes are bleeding all over me and they won’t stop until you tell me how to do the thing I want.  Please re-open this case.”

Them: “Hi there, my name is Tech Support Rep#1434 and I’m going to be assisting you with your question.”

Them: “I see that you are having trouble with a missing button in our system.  This is a known issue that we are all already aware of here.  It’s so widely known and talked about in our office that we have fliers up on the wall about it.  Internal movies have been made about this issue.  There are inside jokes going back months.  But so far, we haven’t published any information about it for our customers to see, so each time someone asks about it, they think they’re the only one having that problem.  Only the really persistent ones make it this far – congratulations.”

You: <speechless>

First of all, kudos to Google for “going for it” in the Facebook era.  They’re one of few players who actually has the resources and skill to make a serious go at a viable alternative to Facebook, and you’ve got to admire the effort.  If the success of the movie The Social Network tells us anything, it’s that Facebook has become mainstream and popular, and as generations of younger people look for ways to establish their identity in the digital age, they’ll be looking for alternatives to the place where their parents and now grandparents also hang out online.  By the same token, people of all ages and professions are trying to figure out just how to effectively and safely use Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social media tools in a world where we’re being encouraged to blend our personal and professional lives together more publicly.

Is Google+ just the right thing at just the right time?

People are already writing about the high bar that Google+ will have to jump in order to see any significant migration of Facebook users, not the least of which is all the time people have invested in curating their lists of “friends” there.  Facebook is going to make it as difficult as possible for its users to do any kind of exporting of account information from their system, and I don’t think Google is devious enough to launch an unauthorized workaround.  So people will be left to recreate their online identity on Google+, where the number of people you are connected to still largely drives your user experience.

On the other hand, despite Facebook’s 750 million users, I suspect Google actually knows about at least as many people, if not more.  Between its large and growing population of GMail users, the information they have about web users through tracking searches and Google Analytics data, and their ability to gather and index huge amounts of data from other sources, Google is perhaps positioned better than any other digital media organization to say “hey, we already know so much about you, why don’t you make yourself at home here!?“

One of the main selling points of Google+ is the ability to organize your list of contacts into Circles, containers (or, for those who want a more widely used descriptor, “tags”) that help you figure out who to share what with and how you want to slice and dice the information being shared with you.  I’ve heard a number of people clamoring for this kind of thing on Twitter for a while now, and though Facebook lets you do a version of it, it’s clumsy to use.

But as Joel Spolsky suggests, this might be asking a lot of us to exert the mental energy to determine which circle(s) each person belongs in, and to keep up with that over time.  Life is messier than “Friends”, “Family” and “Co-workers” (especially if you live in a smaller city like I do), and many people have adapted to the “Friend label fits all” approach on Facebook, limiting as it might be.  We may not know for sure anyway until a lot more people are using the system.

From an interface design perspective, Google+ has all the hallmarks of a well thought out, well-engineered web application by a company that’s been doing this for a while now.   I think Google+ has a ways to go to reach the level of simplicity that Facebook has enjoyed when it comes to its primary transaction, the display of a status update from a connection and subsequent comments/likes/etc.   On a single post by a connection on Google+, I counted no less than 9 different actions I could take in response (compared to 7 for a comparable post on Facebook, presented with fewer links/clickable widgets).

From a nit picky technical perspective, let me just say that the use of a “+” character as a prominent part of an online service’s name is pretty cringe-worthy.  The character isn’t allowed in a domain name, so they had to use “plus.google.com” for the actual web address. “+” is often used as a joining character in URL query strings or a special modifier in web searches, making its use here conflict a bit now that they’re using it in a site name. Google’s own search engine is confused by it – try searching for “Google” and “+” as search terms and their new offering doesn’t even come up on page one of the results (at least for me).  I even feel slightly uncomfortable using the “+” in the title of this blog post.

Until Google makes available an API that will allow other applications to integrate with Google+, there will be a lot of finger drumming going on in the world of web app developers.  Basic things like “let me post to Google+ from an app on my desktop or from Twitter” aren’t possible yet, and won’t be until that kind of access is allowed.  Google says it’s coming soon.

That’s my initial take on Google+.  Surely they’ll making a number of refinements to the system in the coming weeks and months, and it will be a different ballgame when it’s open for anyone to sign up.  Until then, I don’t think I’ll be spending much time there as a user, but it will be very interesting to watch the evolution of what could be a significant milestone in the very short history of social media.

What do you think about Google+?

If you don’t already know about push notifications, a brief primer: they’re basically just like text messages, except they can be routed/categorized in ways that make them useful to individual applications on your phone.  Instead of getting a generic SMS text message when someone DMs you on Twitter, you can instead use push notifications to have the Twitter app on your phone realize a new DM has come in and alert you according to your personal settings.   When you “view” a push notification, you can be taken to a web page or app that’s relevant to its content.  Best part: the messages don’t count against any text messaging limit (for now).

I started using Prowl about 9 months ago.  My three main uses were:

• Notifying me when certain types of e-mail messages are received (using a combination of Procmail and prowl.pl)
• Notifying me when I’m addressed or mentioned in certain IRC channels (using the prowlnotify.pl script with irssi)
• Notifying me when I’m mentioned on Twitter (using Preyfetcher)

Prowl worked great, and I was very happy with it for these uses.

Recently, I had an itch to scratch with push notifications, and when I looked for someone else who might have already scratched that itch, I noticed that Prowl was last updated in August 2009.  Some of the things I wanted to be able to do with Prowl would need to be custom built.

But wait! There was this hot new app/service called Notifo that seemed to have a much more active user community developing cool new uses for its platform (including a solution for the itch I wanted to scratch).  With plans to launch an Android and Blackberry app soon, releasing their iPhone app (last updated in September 2010) for free, and a well thought out API infrastructure, Notifo is clearly positioning themselves to be THE realtime mobile notifications service.

And it turned out to be a drop-in replacement for Prowl.  The most recent version of the Twitter app for iPhone now includes push notifications, so I’m down to two uses for Notifo:

• Notifying me when certain types of e-mail messages are received (using a combination of Procmail and a custom notifo.pl script using WWW::Notifo)
• Notifying me when I’m addressed or mentioned in certain IRC channels (using the notifonotify script with irssi)

I’m also playing with some other uses:

• Notifications when new items appear in certain RSS feeds
• Notifications from our Nagios-based server monitoring infrastructure
• Notifications when certain activities happen on blogs that I maintain
• Re-routing my real SMS notifications through Notifo so I don’t need to pay for an SMS messaging add-on to my phone plan

Prowl remains a usable and time-tested solution, but the app isn’t free and the community around it seems stagnant.  Notifo is newer and shinier and will probably have some growing pains, but they’re doing it right as far as I can tell, their app is free, and their interface is more flexible.

If you’ve tried one or both out, what do you think?

Regardless of what you think of it, the “realtime web” is here, and I’m enjoying playing around with what it has to offer.  (Beyond the scope of this blog post is addressing the fundamental question about whether or not it’s a good thing to be increasing the number of disruptive, “look at me now” events I have in my daily life, but your smug comments on this matter are still welcome.)

I was only scheduled to give one presentation (“How to talk, or not talk, to your clients about Perl”) but after hearing some of the opening remarks at the conference that spent too much time and energy, IMHO, declaring that “Perl is not dead!” I signed up to give a new talk about possibilities for re-framing that sentiment.

You can view a video of the talk, or you can view my slides [PDF].

Ever since I upgraded my iPhone to IOS4 (the latest version of the phone’s operating system), the Mail application has been flaky when it comes to syncing mail messages via IMAP. Duplicate messages, empty/blank messages, messages dated 12/31/1969, messages that are deleted and then re-appear, and so on.

At first I thought it might be my phone hardware, which had been cursed from the beginning (a story for another time), but after that phone died and Apple replaced it with a brand new one with fresh firmware and settings, and it STILL happened, I was convinced it’s the software on the phone.  Other people are having the same issue all over the place.  But it can be hard to make Apple believe this – said the Apple Genius Bar worker at the Apple Store in Chicago, “they’re probably all just using the phone wrong.”  Wha?

So I decided to look at the source code of the iPhone mail program to see if I could find the problem, but Apple doesn’t make that source code available.

So I decided to turn on the Mail program’s debugging options to have it output the results of the IMAP sync sessions, but it turns out the Mail program doesn’t have any debugging options.

So I decided to look at the log files on the phone’s operating system to see if they reported any software issues I could address, but actually I can’t look at those log files even if they exist because Apple doesn’t let you look behind the scenes.

So I decided to report the issue on the project mailing list that all of the iOS4 developers monitor, and it turns out that no such mailing list exists.

So I decided to go report the issue to Apple to see if they can help.

After submitting a case online, I was called back in 27 seconds (FAST!) and talked to Chris from Apple, who works in iPhone support.  He was very good at gauging my level of tech savvy and talking to me at an appropriate level, so he quickly confirmed that I’d already done all of the normal troubleshooting steps they recommend.  I asked him if this was a known bug, and he said not as far as he could tell.

Chris then connected me with Shawn who is a senior adviser on the iPhone tech support team.  Shawn told me that in fact I had identified a known bug with the iOS4 firmware.  VINDICATION!  He said that they’ve mostly been seeing it in gMail syncing issues, but that they’re aware of it as a wider IMAP issue.

I asked Shawn for the unique identifier number for the bug so that I could go follow the progress of a fix on their public bug tracking system, but it turns out that Apple doesn’t publish information about known bugs until they’re fixed.

I asked Shawn how I could learn more information about when this would be addressed or other recommended fixes in the meantime, and he said I would just have to wait and see.

(Chris and Shawn at Apple were excellent tech support reps within the confines of what they’re allowed to do and say.)

Bottom line: these are the horrors of using a closed-source, proprietary product for a key piece of tech functionality in my life.

What Apple can do better:

• Test its Mail software’s IMAP syncing functionality more thoroughly before releasing it to production.
• Publish information about known software/hardware issues BEFORE they’re resolved so that people having those issues can see what’s up and possibly even contribute to the resolution.
• Train its store Genius Bar workers so that they don’t dismiss a legitimate complaint about functionality problems with smiling condescension.
• I’m pushing it here, but hey, it’s my blog: release the source code for iOS and related applications.

If you’ve had this issue with your iPhone, or similar software/hardware troubleshooting experiences with other vendors, feel free to share in the comments.

Update 9/17/2010: After installing iOS 4.1 a week or so ago, all of the IMAP syncing issues seem to have gone away.  I’ve seen a few reports that problems remain for others, but it’s clear that this release included some fixes for the mail application that weren’t described in the release notes.

Unfortunately, most of the responses (and the ones favored by the Obama administration) are focused on paying insanely large amounts of money to private contractors to create and deploy complex technological solutions in hopes of addressing the threat.

What advocates of this approach fail to appreciate is that (A) most of the actual threat comes from uneducated human operators of the technology in question, and (B) deploying homogeneous, technologically complex solutions often makes us more vulnerable, not less.

Once you get past the flashy headlines and attention-grabbing introductory stories in these articles, meant to scare us into believing how real the threat is (basically, bloodthirsty hacker terrorists are trying to kill us all), each of them seems to come back to one of two recurring themes behind these threats.   Either a human being messed something up, or a piece of technology wasn’t secure enough and is now being exploited.

For the first case, it’s usually things like “so and so unknowingly downloaded a virus onto their USB flash drive and then plugged into a secure government network – things exploded!” or “an e-mail user clicked on a phishing scam link and had their password stolen.”  For the second case, it’s usually “Windows machines are insecure, and so they get taken over and absorbed into botnets, which can then wreak havoc through denial of service attacks” or “a security hole is found in a product made by a brand that everyone was supposed to trust, and so it’s running EVERYWHERE and OMG we’re all going to die.”

But in throwing hundreds of millions of dollars at cyberwarfare defense we will most likely see only minimal resources devoted to end-user education and training to defend against social engineering, poor personal security practices, and the related actual vulnerabilities.  The funding will also not include programs to hold hardware and software vendors more accountable for selling more secure products and services to end users.  Instead, it will go toward funding secret surveillance and the further shifting control of the Internet into military hands.

With this approach, in the end we’ll be back to where we are right now.  End-users will continue the insecure personal practices that lead to security breaches, and the continued homogenization of hardware and software will amplify the potential impact of every security hole discovered.   This is not helpful.

1. Visit public Twitter feeds in a web browser. This may seem fairly obvious, but you can view anything that anyone posts to Twitter just by visiting their Twitter profile page (as long as they haven’t marked their updates as “private”).  So, to view all of my Tweets, just visit http://twitter.com/ChrisHardie – no account required.
2. Subscribe to Twitter feed updates via RSS. Even if you don’t have a Twitter account, you can subscribe to receive new status updates from any Twitter user (again, assuming their updates are public) via RSS.  By putting the feed in a feed reader like Google Reader, you can be aware of new status updates without even visiting the site in a web browser.  So, on my twitter.com/ChrisHardie page, just look for the link that says “RSS Feed of ChrisHardie’s tweets”
3. Use Twitter’s real-time search. You can visit http://search.twitter.com/ and enter a few keywords to see recent Tweets that relate to those words.  This can be useful to find mentions of you, your product/service/company, or just news and events in the world.  It’s also a fun way to see what conversations are happening right now.  (If you like that, you might enjoy TweetGrid or Twistori.)  You might also consider using the Greasemonkey plug-in that will show you relevant tweets as a part of a Google search on any topic.
4. Find people in your community using Twitter. Using Google, you can look for people in your geographical area who are using Twitter, and see if there are any individuals or organizations you want to follow.  For example, I can use the search terms ‘site:twitter.com location (“richmond, indiana” OR “richmond, in”)‘ to find Twitter users in Richmond, IN (as long as they’ve identified themselves as such in their Twitter profiles).  Services like NearbyTweets.com make this search even more fun and interesting, and if you want to expand beyond your local area, TwitterVision shows a neat visualization of Tweets coming in from all over the world.
5. Monitor Twitter for mentions of topics of interest. If you’d like to be notified when someone on Twitter mentions you or your organization, you can set up a Google Alert.  For example, I can decide to be e-mailed by Google Alerts every time they index a tweet mentioning Richmond, using this search: ‘site:twitter.com Richmond, IN’.  Services like TweetBeep.com also provide this kind of feature with additional options.

I hope that’s helpful.  If you have other ways to use Twitter without being a Twitter user, please post them in the comments.  You can also follow along with my Twitter-related bookmarks on Delicious.com.