Results tagged “google”

Exciting news for those who, like us, have known the pain of a four to six hour plane delay at Logan without the wireless access to bitch about it. Google will be sponsoring free WiFi at Logan and 46 other U.S. airports throughout the holiday season. [Via UHub}

We wouldn't be in this mess. In another case of "deleted" emails, a former Bear Sterns worker deleted his Google account, potentially to cover up emails that would reveal information about his alleged role in hedge fund fraud. Fortunately (and not surprisingly), Google has way better backups than the paper-happy mayor's office, and was able to turn in searchable information on CD-ROM to the government. Wow: companies cooperating with the government in a situation where government won't cooperate with itself. Maybe we should just turn everything over to Google. Or would that just lead to evil?

• Governor Deval Patrick says his plan to replace cops with civilian flaggers on major work sites would save Masachusetts $7.2 million per year. The city of Boston disagrees, and the City Council yesterday voted 12-1 to prove it. [Boston Herald]

• Several off-duty police officers protested the presence of a civilian flagger in a road crew on Route 6A in West Barnstable. [Cape Cod Times]

Independently owned Harvard Book Store just announced that it will be getting an Espresso Book Machine, the newfangled device that allows you to print your own public domain books straight from Google Books. According to the bookstore, Espresso "can produce library-quality, perfect bound paperback editions from a virtually limitless inventory of digital titles in multiple languages, including rare and out-of-print public domain titles." According to Wired, we lucked out: there is only a handful of Espresso Book Machines in operation across the world. (The closest? Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, Vermont.) Harvard's Espresso will go live September 29, right across the street from Widener Library, which might just have to lower its privilege fee to compete.

• Despite what appears to be a highly contested mayoral race in 2009, will the voter turnout be low? [The Boston Phoenix]

• Charles Baker is officially running for Governor, which means he can begin criticizing the incumbent and can start making empty promises that are really popular. [Boston Globe]

Hey, look! Boston.com is subtly wishing every father a happy Father's Day by sticking a tie around the "t" in "Boston." Is the icon a fun new twist on the age-old tie gift, a cheap and easy way to commemorate a holiday, or a reminder that children will strangle you financially and socially forever? We're not sure, but we are pretty sure that no one really wants to wear a tie, ever, or receive one as a gift, ever. Also, Google thinks dads do nothing but make sandcastles with their children. We'll see you on the beach later this rainy 60-degree June day.

• Governor Deval Patrick has called out MBTA "driver" Aiden Quinn and says he should talk to investigators about last week's crash he allegedly caused. [Boston Herald]

YouTube (slash Google) and Universal Music Group are teaming up to create a music video hub called Vevo for Universal artists. Vevo's main purpose, aside from having the most terrible name of all time, is to attract advertising revenue that YouTube has not been able to pull. Artist interviews will also be on the site, which may eventually offer viewers the chance to buy concert tickets and merchandise. Universal hopes the venture will help monetize its artists, while Google hopes to attract more advertisers to YouTube.

Well we were there and we couldn't really believe it happened. As part of a national press tour, evangelists from Google provided an informal meetup at Cambridge's Enormous Room. I was incredulous as I signed up for the event at Meetup.com - "hey wait a minute", I thought, as I entered my info, "this isn't a Google product or portal, WTF?"

Imagine this: your blog posts mysteriously disappear. You didn't delete them, and your ISP or blog host didn't tell you they deleted them. Who could be the culprit?

It's officially called Google Earth 5.0, but the new oceanographic additions to Google Earth are certainly remarkable enough to merit the Google Ocean moniker. That said, Google Ocean doesn't really begin to cover the extent of the recent Google Earth additions. In addition to a bathymetric map of the ocean floor, there's historical imagery (watch a place develop over time), a touring option (the ability to create your own "tour" of an area), and views of friggin' MARS, which is patchier than Earth but still pretty rad. Is there anything Google can't do? Powerful as it is, the internet giant had a lot of help in this endeavor. Parts of Google Ocean came from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's Dive and Discover feature, which allows you to, well, dive into the ocean and discover amazing things down there. Woods Hole contributed images and journal entries from various deep sea trips to Google Earth's expansion into "charted" waters.

12:30pm today

Wikipedia founder "Top" Jimmy Wales spoke at Suffolk University last night as part of the Ford Hall Forum. Bostonist was there to get the scoop on how open source will kill Google in the search battle, how Wikipedia is evolving differently in different cultures (did you know the French think they invented the airplane?), and how much Jimmy Wales friggin' loves Ayn Rand.

Comcast SportsNet ran an ad that says, "We can pronounce Worcester ... without sounding like an Athol."

What's going on here? Not only are students afraid to ride the bus to school, but they also might be afraid to eat lunch.

--Heating oil, which is already insanely expensive, costs less if you pay cash. Not that it will make you feel any better. [The Big Guy]

--Adam Gaffin of Universal Hub was on NPR this week to discuss Boston Crime, which tracks violent crime on a Google map and allows people to comment on cases. A must-listen. They describe him as a "computer guy by day, crime chronicler by night." [NPR]

Gary Vaynerchuk has a message for Bay Staters: Rise up against your oppressors.

Is it even an argument at this point? Boston's Mayor Menino caused the Patriots' loss by planning the city's victory party a little too early and much too transparently. Last Wednesday, well before the unthinkable happened, the Herald was already proclaiming, "Tommy, you might as well have suited up for the hated Giants."

A spring-loaded dress, a sun-lit fan, and a purse with a built-in alarm system were just a few of the futuristic fashions on display at the Seamless: Computational Couture fashion show at the Museum of Science on Wednesday. Over 1000 design and technology lovers packed three floors of the MoS's Blue Wing to admire clothes and accessories ranging from sublime (an air-filled dress that changes shape based on barometric pressure) to sci-fi (a burial suit that grows mushrooms to facilitate 'green' decomposition!).

The exhibit Rhythms of Modern Life: British Prints 1914–1939 shows the sharp, mechanical-feeling prints that set the artistic tone for the future. Museum of Fine Arts. Read Bostonist's preview of the show. Runs through June 1.

Somebody better check on Mitt Romney because he's not acting like himself. The campaign bus for Mr. I-Eat-My-Wife's-Granola-Every-Morning pulled into a Kentucky Fried Chicken.

In a sense, it's comforting. The Celtics went to battle against one of the other good Eastern teams without Kevin Garnett, and almost beat 'em. On the day of the C's' long-awaited return to national afternoon TV, the script ran eerily similar to the first game in Orlando; the Magic jumped out to a big lead, the Celtics clawed their way back, but ran out of gas at the end. Orlando's the only team to get a 14-point lead on the Green all year, and they've done it twice.

Boston, you did Kimya Dawson right on Thursday night. So right, in fact, that we can't even tell you about it.

You may have noticed that Bostonist underwent a few tweaks recently, including the ability to customize how you see the front page and to use tags to zip around the site.

On New Year's Eve, firefighters battled a seven-alarm fire at a condo complex in South Boston. One 47-year-old man, Peter Clancy, died of smoke inhalation at the scene.

In Dorchester early this morning, two children died in a fire that may have been caused by a space heater.

--A new company, FlexPetz, will let you rent a dog for a few hours so you can enjoy canine companionship without getting up in the cold to walk the critter. Wouldn't it be great if you could just rent human companionship for a few hours? Oh, wait. That's illegal. Nevermind. [Boston Globe]

In snowy weather like this, complaints about icy roads or snowpiles are normal. But you know the weather is bad when the snow is so heavy that it collapses the roof of a Rite-Aid.