Internet Privacy Policy With Goggles

On August 24, 2010, the L.A. Times published a photo of a man who had just stolen a  $9,200 Rolex gold watch from Classic Design, a store in the California, Glendale Galleria mall. The Glendale police department requested help in identifying the man in the photo. As this photo circulates the Internet and reaches more and more people, it will likely reach someone who can identify this person and help apprehend him.

Technology probably could in the near future identify this man with the use of Goggles by Google. Although David Petrou, a project lead of Google Goggles, claims that for privacy reasons, Google does not do facial recognition, one could see that it would certainly be helpful in catching criminals.

Currently, the new Goggles software allows cell phone users to snap photos and send them to  Google’s cloud services. Computer vision algorithms organize search results and provide you with  information about what you are seeing. In order for Google to identify the correct information in the picture, it has to compare it with an existing database. They already have 150,000 images for landmarks which give correct results only 50% to 60% of the time. Goggles can also be used with  logos, contact info, artwork, businesses, products, barcodes, or text.

The primary use for Goggles is in language translation,  helping people traveling in foreign countries. The user can photograph signs, menus, and other text related items and the output will be in the users native language. Goggles can translate English, French, Italian, German and Spanish.

Given the rapid development of technology in the last fifteen years, one wonders what life will look like in 2030. Will someone have developed the Goggle technology to be accurate 99% of the time?  Will society agree to allow law enforcement officials to  use a perfected facial recognition software in their pursuit of criminals? Will people be able to snap a photo of you and find out instantly where you are from? What does the future hold for us?  What do you think?

Control What You Can To Improve Your Life

I have been to my local gym to exercise, swim and use their public steam bath many times. One of my favorite things about this experience is to enjoy ten minutes of sitting in the steam bath. The heat and moisture make me feel good and more energetic during the rest of my day.

One of the things I hate about the steam bath is that many many times I’ve sat in the steam bath when there is barely any steam at all. I’ve watched people use various methods of trying to get the steam regulator to cool down, thus triggering the release of more steam. The small regulating device is strategically placed at a height of 6 1/2 feet and must be all of about 3/4 of an inch wide. Some people are successful at getting it to restart the steam. They were either taller than I was or had a better water bottle.

If you have ever tried to actually squirt water out of a drinking container, you’ll know that the water doesn’t go very far and accuracy is difficult to obtain. I have thought many times in the past as I was sitting in the steam bath that I should buy a cheap water gun and see if that would work. I had the idea months ago, but today I actually went to buy the water gun  and make it part of the necessary piece of equipment for my exercise routine.

I walked into the steam room. There were about six people sitting there and the steam looked like it was on its way to fizzling out. I sat down and inquired about the steam. I was told that it had just stopped but had previously been fine. I took my little water gun, filled with tap water and proceeded to take aim at the regulator. My first few attempts seemed to miss the bulls eye, but I continued until I could see that it was hitting it and felt that it had been sufficiently soaked. I walked to the seating area and within ten seconds the steam started coming forth with vigor. It provided the group with the best steam bath. In fact it got so hot in there that several people left.

What I learned from this experience is that if there is something that you can control to improve your life, do it. Don’t just think about it. Do it. The next time I go to the gym, I feel confident that I will be able to enjoy the best steam bath possible at the time that I want it to and it cost me 99 cents. That is really sweet.

When you work on the Internet and devote your days to building your business, many things that you choose to do can grow your business. However there are a slew of things that you can do that will not help you in the least. You have most likely already spent hours and hours getting distracted from your main Internet goals in the past.  Choose to do something that you know will help. Are you offering people better information? Are you offering them a reason to link to your site? Are you improving anything about your services and letting people know?

Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her. But once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game. ~ Voltaire