Web Log

Compiled by JOHN COLLINS

Google's employees relaxing on a Friday

WATCH:Since the foundation of Google, all of 13 years ago, staff have gathered on Friday afternoon's for TGIF (Thank Google It's Friday?). It's an informal get together with food and beer where staff can ask questions of management. Now a video has emerged of one such meeting from 1999. Posted by Google's original marketing director Doug Edwards, it features youthful founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page addressing beer-drinking staff before cutting cakes and generally having some nerdy fun. And to think most of the people in this video are now probably millionaires.

xooglers.blogspot.com

Use people power for Weddar reports

INSTALL: A people-powered weather app sounds like it could be a big hit in Ireland – after all, we love talking about the weather.

Weddar is deceptively clever. You simply click an icon on your iPhone to give your impression of the weather, and the app automatically places your report on a map for others to see.

Weddar will need to build a large user community to prove useful but, if it does, it could prove invaluable for local weather forecasts.

weddar.com

Cloud computing explained

WATCH: Still not sure what all this cloud computing malarkey is about?

Check out this simple but effective YouTube video from the consultants at Baker Security Network, which explains cloud computing in layman's terms. Baker have some form in this area – they deployed cloud technology from Google to 12,000 members of the GAA up and down the country.

If you want to dig further, Baker has another 20 videos on the site explaining cloud issues.

http://is.gd/3GieGN

The 'Atlantic' tribute to the typewriter

READ: The last typewriter factory in the world has finally shut its doors. As recently as 2009, Godrej Boyce was producing 10,000 to 12,000 typewriters a year from its factory in Mumbai, India, until recently the last significant market for the machines. In this blog post, complete with a gallery of typewriters of old, Nicholas Jackson, an associate editor with the Atlantic, marks the passing of a technology that made writers feel closer to their work.

is.gd/Twwr5q