Even pc users will snicker at the name Bill Gates. Why is this man, who’s opened up many of the closed ‘windows’ we PC users rely on, deemed evil? Microsoft is more similar to the king evil tyrant of computers than the president of computers, and this king rules with a silicon fist. Microsoft this, Microsoft that, well wait… someone else is coming in from the horizon.

Google, who launched a chat/IM client today, is being accused of taking the spot that Microsoft has stood in for so many years. Is Google the next Microsoft? What about this Intel & Apple marriage? Where is the computer world that we know, love, and hate going?

Building on a Los Angeles Times article published today, the net’s heating up with rumors of Google announcing an instant messaging client, dubbed Google Talk, as early as tomorrow. This comes on the heels of the company’s Monday release of version 2.0 of Google Desktop, which is getting some good reviews. The Times cites several sources apparently familiar with the service, claiming it has been in a testing phase for at least a month.

With IM veterans AOL, Yahoo! and Microsoft entrenched, it’s not unlikely that Google will incorporate some type of voice service into their client as an added incentive for people contemplating switching. Given the constant stream of news about VOIP these days, I wouldn’t be too surprised. Then again, whatever Google touches seems to turn to gold. We’ll all just have to wait and see.

A bit more “trend” news tonight, interesting not because it’s overly surprising but because it confirms what many of us do every day: use our wireless phones. Use them a lot, in fact.

PC Magazine ran this article last week on the increase in cell phones replacing traditional landlines in homes. Here are some of the key facts from a Forrester Research report cited in the article:

•Five percent of U.S. homes have no landline service (I’ve been on that list for years).
•Nearly 1/3 of American households with cell phones make around 1/2 their long-distance calls from home with their cellies.

Besides using their phones to make a lot of calls (read: obvious), the majority of wireless users apparently prefer using the web sites of their service providers instead of visiting brick-and-mortar stores (again, me)…some 80 percent, in fact. According to RCRNews, a wireless news service, this info came from a survey of some 2,000 online consumers as they navigated cell-phone service provider (or related) sites. I know that when it comes to paying bills or looking at plans, phones, accessories, etc., I definitely hit up my carrier’s site long before I even think about visiting a store. When it comes to the latest news on new phones, I’m also a fan of Phone Scoop.

I celebrated Math awareness month (I’m an April baby), Breast Cancer Awareness month, AIDS awareness month, and Black awareness month… Maxtor has created an awareness month that really hits home however: Backup Awareness month. With 5 easy steps, and ”A photographer’s dream: pushing one button to protect his images”, how can we not all jump in and save our data?

They’re giving away a free hard drive each day just for those redundant copy impaired folks who just may lose all their precious data at any time. There’s only one problem with this, Backup Awareness month was June. I suppose I’m not such an avid fan of awareness months. Next year, things will be different.

Something of a home-grown story tonight (it’s tired and I wanted to get at least one post in today before bed). This has been around the net a bit, but I thought I’d mention it: San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom is getting some press about his plans to give WiFi to the masses.

Given that I may be moving to San Fran very soon, I’m personally quite pleased to read about this. WiFi hotspots continue to proliferate as companies realize an important thing: people want internet access in places other than their homes and offices. The linked article (San Jose Mercury News) gives some nice specifics about the plan, which will supposedly cost $10 to $18 million, according to Newsom’s figures. Citing the hurdles overcome by Philadelphia, a city currently reviewing final bids for installation of its citywide WiFi network, it will be interesting to see if these plans incite complaints from commercial internet providers hoping to prevent additional competition. Both cities are hoping to increase the prevalence of internet access in lower income areas, as well as provide additional resources for city employees, notably police and fire departments.

This is another one of those projects whose struggles have only begun. Capitalism has many advantages, innovation and choice being two of the best, but nowadays we see more and more proliferation followed by consolidation and ultimately the risk of inflation at the hands of a single service provider (let’s think…cable, phone and internet from a single provider…). I hope municipal control over a service like this one results in what they aim to provide: greater access AND affordability.

A little departure from the normal news of the day, albeit somewhat tech related: check out today’s episode of NPR’s Fresh Air (I confess, I’m a big fan), during which Terry interviews Dr. Neil Clark Warren, the founder of the online matchmaking site eHarmony.com

Despite the fact that Warren seems to be all over TV these days, pitching his site’s unique “personality profile,” I found the interview particularly interesting because it spends some time talking about the site’s history. I had no idea that much of its current popularity can be traced to time spent on conservative Christian programming run by Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family.

Warren tells Terry about the methodology behind the site’s questionnaires, which are apparently based on the interactions of some 2,000 couples he studied. She also asks him about his history with Dobson, the separation from Focus on the Family, the subject of homosexual relationships and some other stuff. Ultimately, I always find it interesting to hear from the people behind popular web sites and what they’re thinking.