Technology analysis of the latest gadgets, consoles, and computer architectures.

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Speaking of Google, I might as well applaud the company for refusing to submit search result statistics to the government. I hope the trial pans out well for Google...and the rest of us. We don't need the government gaining another method of evading privacy, such as finding out who is performing what searches. Other than reading about it on the news, I was surprised to hear my Professional Expression professor mention it; he also mentioned students he's known wrongfully questioned for a library book request and an email to a friend in Italy after the incident there not too long ago. I'm glad that these issues are getting the limelight...hopefully we'll hear good things next month when the Patriot Act extensions that are set to expire actually do expire...or are at least revised. I want to be able to communicate with my relatives in Egypt and Jordan and borrow a book about communism without having to be questioned why, or worse.
Here's an interesting Slashdot headline concerning the Google executives and their salary. Supposedly this will be the second year they will only be pulling in $1 per year...pretty cool, huh? Well, I guess one could associate wise business decisions to that...more money stays within the company while they sell of stock, taking advantage of the $400+ stock price. And, thanks to Bush's tax cuts "to the wealthy" in 2002, income resulting from stock sales are taxed a lot less than income tax. Ultimately, though, although I don't approve of the way he said it, Tackhead makes a good point: it would be nice to see the government spend a lot less on the Pentagon. Anyways, I think the Google executives are only accepting $1 in salary as a statement for the company, more than anything.

BTW, I thought the food stamp remark was funny.