* * * * *
                                        
                 Large scale engineering in the computer world
                                        
Google [1] is more than just a web search engine:

> Rob Pike [2] has gone to Google. Yes, that Rob Pike [3]—the OS (Operating
> System) researcher, the member of the original Unix team from Bell Labs.
> This guy isn't just some labs hood ornament; he writes code, lots of it.
> Big chunks of whole new operating systems like Plan 9 [4].
> 
> Look at the depth of the research background [5] of the Google employees in
> OS, networking, and distributed systems. Compiler Optimization. Thread
> migration. Distributed shared memory.
> 
> I'm a sucker for cool OS research. Browsing papers from Google employees
> about distributed systems, thread migration, network shared memory, GFS
> (Google FileSystem), makes me feel like a kid in Tomorrowland wondering
> when we're going to Mars. Wouldn't it be great, as an engineer, to have
> production versions of all this great research.
> 
> Google engineers do!
> 

“The Secret Source of Google's Power [6]”

And how Google can offer 1 gigabyte of storage per email user:

> A pack of 20 300GB (Gigabyte) drives can probably be driven down to around
> US (United States)$5000, so, even accounting for minimal expense on RAID
> (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Discs) [7], we're looking at roughly US$200
> million in hardware costs. Yeah, it's a gross exaggeration, since I've not
> factored in oversubscribing (which probably shrinks the required disk
> capacity to 30%) or made a real attempt at estimating other costs rather
> than the disks themselves - let's say things even themselves out and it can
> be done at half that (US$100million).
> 
> Looks cheap, even for Bill. Expect Hotmail [8] to try to outflank Google
> [9].
> 

“Gmail [10]”

And this is pure speculation, but something to keep in mind:

> This page is not meant to be an analysis of Gmail, but while you are at it,
> please read the privacy page [11] and the terms-of-use page [12] for Gmail.
> Note that if you delete an email, Google may mark it so that it is
> invisible to you, but might not really delete it. And if you terminate your
> account, Google does not guarantee that they will erase your emails. Google
> decides what to delete and when, not you. It's none of your business.
> 
> While Google brags that no humans will read your emails, the entire Gmail
> program will involve extensive automated profiling of you as an individual.
> Google will be sharing the non-identifiable portions of your profile with
> anyone they choose. If the ownership of Google changes, or there is a
> merger, the entire personally-identifiable profile will be available to the
> new owners or partners.
> 
> Finally, it's all available to government officials all over the world,
> under whatever legal procedures are used in any particular jurisdiction. It
> is also available to civil litigants under discovery procedures authorized
> by a court. When you look at it this way, the one-gigabyte allowance for
> your email account becomes much less attractive.
> 
> Google never deletes anything they collect, as far as we can tell. Think
> twice before typing in your email address on a Google form.
> 

“Google covets your email address [13]”

[1] http://www.google.com/
[2] http://www.cs.bell-labs.com/who/rob/
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Pike
[4] http://plan9.bell-/
[5] http://labs.google.com/papers.html#os
[6] http://blog.topix.net/archives/000016.html
[7] http://the.taoofmac.com/space/RAID
[8] http://hotmail.com/
[9] http://the.taoofmac.com/space/Google
[10] http://the.taoofmac.com/space/blog/2004-04-02
[11] http://gmail.google.com/gmail/help/privacy.html
[12] http://gmail.google.com/gmail/help/terms_of_use.html
[13] http://www.google-/

Email Sean Conner at sean@conman.org

.