I think the commentators who authored this piece are confused about the purpose of Google. They say "Google envisions a world in which all content is free" -ie, Google's purpose is to make all the world's content free.
Google's mission statement says "Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."
The goal is not to make all content free- the goal is to make all content able to be found.
I couldn't manage to wade through enough of the comments to see if this had been mentioned yet, but speaking from my own experience (which, admittedly, might not be the "norm" for a geek, since i'm a girl), i gained instant coolness in high school by playing guitar.
it's not even really necessary to have talent; i didn't pick up guitar until i was already 16, so back then i wasn't even a very good player at that point. honestly though, just HAVING a guitar (especially an electric) gives you instant cred. you can be sitting in class and someone makes a comment about led zeppelin or something, and you casually drop a remark like "oh yeah, i was just working on the intro to 'Heartbreaker' the other day..." and people are immediately impressed.
Since this kid is intelligent he probably already has some music skills. He might even want to try joining/starting a rock band. Artistic integrity aside, it's undeniably a great way to gain popularity across multiple social groups whether in high school or college.
just my $0.02
seems like in a smallish town where most/all customers are regular you aren't going to see people in there bogging down the network w/ KaZaA. am i hopelessly optimistic? if this is pro bono work, too, you probably could get folks to donate parts if you really want a PC to be part of the package.
i've been considering the PTT thing as well- many of my friends have Nextel (i have Verizon) and they use the Direct Connect constantly to talk to each other. but i think they do it more because they have unlimited dc minutes than because it really makes sense to use it (like it does for people who work on construction sites and such).
my question is will phones on different networks ever be able to talk to each other? i'd be a lot more apt to get PTT if i could use it to talk to my Nextel friends. but as of right now, if i'm calling someone else who has verizon, it just makes more sense to make a regular call, since i have a bunch of mobile-to-mobile minutes anyways.
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I think the commentators who authored this piece are confused about the purpose of Google. They say "Google envisions a world in which all content is free" -ie, Google's purpose is to make all the world's content free.
Google's mission statement says "Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."
The goal is not to make all content free- the goal is to make all content able to be found.
I couldn't manage to wade through enough of the comments to see if this had been mentioned yet, but speaking from my own experience (which, admittedly, might not be the "norm" for a geek, since i'm a girl), i gained instant coolness in high school by playing guitar.
it's not even really necessary to have talent; i didn't pick up guitar until i was already 16, so back then i wasn't even a very good player at that point. honestly though, just HAVING a guitar (especially an electric) gives you instant cred. you can be sitting in class and someone makes a comment about led zeppelin or something, and you casually drop a remark like "oh yeah, i was just working on the intro to 'Heartbreaker' the other day..." and people are immediately impressed.
Since this kid is intelligent he probably already has some music skills. He might even want to try joining/starting a rock band. Artistic integrity aside, it's undeniably a great way to gain popularity across multiple social groups whether in high school or college.
just my $0.02
seems like in a smallish town where most/all customers are regular you aren't going to see people in there bogging down the network w/ KaZaA. am i hopelessly optimistic? if this is pro bono work, too, you probably could get folks to donate parts if you really want a PC to be part of the package.
i've been considering the PTT thing as well- many of my friends have Nextel (i have Verizon) and they use the Direct Connect constantly to talk to each other. but i think they do it more because they have unlimited dc minutes than because it really makes sense to use it (like it does for people who work on construction sites and such). my question is will phones on different networks ever be able to talk to each other? i'd be a lot more apt to get PTT if i could use it to talk to my Nextel friends. but as of right now, if i'm calling someone else who has verizon, it just makes more sense to make a regular call, since i have a bunch of mobile-to-mobile minutes anyways.