The Official CASE Blog

A fascinating story involving British villagers (the rich kind, not the poor kind) preventing Google from taking photos of their houses over security concerns. I guess it’d make it harder for a burglar to plan from the comfort of their own home. But blocking Google’s doesn’t stop the criminals  from driving their own cars up and down the streets!

“The Google Street View car was blocked from filming last week by angry residents, led by Paul Jacobs, who alerted neighbours after spotting the car from his window.”I don’t have a problem with Google wanting to promote villages. What I have a problem with is the invasion of privacy, taking pictures directly into the home,” Mr Jacobs told the BBC.”

Villagers block Google mobile – Technology – theage.com.au

The One Laptop per Child project, due to the financial crisis, has had to reduce its operating costs like so many other companies. From the official Wiki:

“Like many other nonprofits that are facing tough economic times, One Laptop per Child must downsize in order to keep costs in line with fewer financial resources. Today we are reducing our team by approximately 50% and there will be salary reductions for the remaining 32 people. While we are saddened by this development, we remain firmly committed to our mission of getting laptops to children in developing countries. We thank team members who are departing for their contributions to this important mission.” (Source)

Google (a main contributor of money to OLPC Inc.) has also cut costs this week demonstrating the big and the small are all subject to this global financial crisis. However, the cuts shouldn’t have any impact on the day-to-day lives of those involved with the OLPC project.

Every year Google publishes some very interesting statistics. The results are derived from billions of searches over the 12 month period. For Australia the general search stats are as follows:

Fastest Rising (For 2008)

1. iphone
2. facebook
3. google maps
4. youtube
5. wiki
6. anz
7. wow
8. maps
9. sarah palin
10. underbelly

For more specific search categories, other countries top lists and other fasticaning stats, check the Google 2008 Year-End Zeitgeist.