This is perhaps (certainly) off-topic with regard to today's readings, but I found this article about Google too interesting to pass up.

Apparently, a new variety of gas pumps (Pump 2.0?) will come equipped with an internet connection. Straying motorists will be able to pull into the gas station and use Google Maps to get back on course. Google claims that they won't be providing ad content, and I find that particularly interesting. It seems that this would be a perfect opportunity for Google's trademark ad-based form of income generation; who better to benefit from some well-placed suggestions regarding, say, where to stop for lunch in Iowa City than some guy on his way from Chicago to Des Moines who got off the highway, mixed up Muscatine and Lower Muscatine, and is now pulling into the service station after spending half an hour driving discombobulated-ly up and down the Coralville strip? Google claims that they're eschewing the profit motive out of pure altruism; simply because they want to provide services wherever and whenever people need them. I'm skeptical, of course, although I haven't yet settled on a solid conspiracy theory to explain why Google might be doing this. Is it just another way of ensuring that people are entirely dependent on Google's products and services - the way a dealer might give an aspiring junkie his first few hits for free? Or is there more to it?

Mark, if this post doesn't suffice to eradicate the specter of a black mark beside my name, I promise to post something more on-topic later today.