The Roving Eye: Not-So-Open Socialness, About That SUV We Rented, The Bus That Never Comes

Reality Check Time. While I admire some of the technologies being proposed as part of the project, the portability of social data espoused by its evangelists is starting to run into issues. It's not clear how many users, beyond the evangelists, think they have a problem. What's clear is that this information and its use is regarded as an asset by companies providing social networking capability, and will be treated as such: See Facebook's cutting off live access from Google Friends. For that matter, a social graph without identity information attached to its leaves is pretty worthless. And if you haven't noticed that Web companies tend to regard identities and their authenticators as valuable assets, you just haven't been paying attention for the last decade or so. Good luck with that, as they say.

We just went for a ride in the desert and look what happened! It's hard to believe anyone survived this. I'm guessing the first pass missed and gave the occupants time to "rapidly exit". Hanging out near live firing ranges is maybe not a good idea.

Smart, but poignant. A bus stop where none ever does, and those waiting forget why they're there. A subtle use of the persistence of past long term memories in Alzheimer's patients. It hits home - my wife and I each have a parent who is afflicted.

Too bad they couldn't both win. I've been an off-and-on watcher of professional golf through the years - a little more 'on' while I've been recuperating. But I've never seen anything to match the US Open battle between Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate for high drama. The wounded master up against a veteran journeyman playing the game of his life. Tiger's string of unreal eagle and birdie shots on Saturday. And the gentlemanly rivalry between two players who showed their respect and friendship throughout. Well played!