Google turns 9

10 years ago if you heard the term 'Google' you would think of a large number (actually spelled googol), but of course now the term is the Kleenex of search engines. As a computer guy I ran across it shortly after it was 'released' and was an early adopter. For me it was so much better than the others at the time (AltaVista etc), that it became my home page on every browser on every computer I use (still is, although technically it is now iGoogle). There was a short period of time, before it became ubiquitous, that using it made me feel slightly superior.

Of course I was alerted to the importance of the day by the "birthday motif" icon on Google's page on 9/27/2007, but unlike some of their altered icons, clicking it gave you nothing: I had to google 'google 9 years old' to discover that there are multiple birthdates -- although 9/27/1998 is the officially google-sanctioned date.

By the way if you google "Bob Dixon flatpick" you'll find me in 4 of the top spots (as of 9/27/2007 about 1:30 pm).

Definitions

The dictionary defines curmudgeon as "a crusty, ill-tempered, and usually old man"; however this excerpt from a quote by Jon Winokur is how I think of the term:

A curmudgeon's reputation for malevolence is undeserved. They're neither warped nor evil at heart. They don't hate mankind, just mankind's absurdities. They're just as sensitive and soft-hearted as the next guy, but they hide their vulnerability beneath a crust of misanthropy. They ease the pain by turning hurt into humor. . . . . . They attack maudlinism because it devalues genuine sentiment. . . . . . Nature, having failed to equip them with a servicable denial mechanism, has endowed them with astute perception and sly wit.

Cudgel is defined as 'a short heavy club' - as a verb it is used in the phrase 'to cudgel one's brains' with the definition of "to think hard (as for a solution to a problem)".

If you run a Google search of "Cudgels of the Curmudgeon" the top entries are words containing "dg", "ud" or "dge".

Thus a post in this blog is something an old, crusty guy hurls at the world with a short heavy club that may or may not make you think hard and may or may not have some alliteration or other play on the sounds of words.

I've created this blog to discuss mostly non-music items that don't fit in my main blog: Geezer Guitar Blog.

Time will tell how often I actually do a posting here.