Gripe Line: As is often the case with large companies, Google has an “impervious, insular side,” reports Ed Foster. This particular instance involves a large Texas school district that is “getting a glimpse of just how hard it can be to get any human being at Google to actually listen to a human being who is not at Google.” Students and faculty, it appears, were transported directly to Google Canada after the district switched its outside IP block space. And contacting Google is never as easy it ought to be. Best of the blogs: Earlier in the week I linked to a piece about maintaining balance to keep those sparks of creativity alive. In today’s Leading from the trenches post John West continues that subject, turning the discussion toward family and failure — not such an odd couple — as they pertain to professional careers, of course. “If you are doing anything challenging, learning anything new, and in general making a difference you are going to have failures. You need a cushion to land on when you fall.” In short: seek balance is all aspects of your life. Notes from the field: What with Apple and Microsoft recommending that users don’t mix Vista with iTunes just yet, the ever-inquisitive Robert X. wonders aloud, err on paper, if perhaps Steve Jobs is not the long-lost fifth Beatle. Cringe reports that the fellow whose truck was burned courtesy of Dell’s exploding batteries still has yet to receive any retribution from the hardware giant. But the guy has a plan. Elsewhere in iTunes fans out of luck, Dell user shows off burned truck, keep an eye out for an Italian drag queen. Security: Attack traffic on the Web is growing even more aggressively than legitimate traffic to the tune of a 150-fold increase since 2000, Roger Grimes reports in DNA attack puts Web security in perspective. The recent barrage against DNS servers was “worse than I had been led to believe,” but still not as threatening as it could have been. And with more and more business apps residing on the ‘Net, the reality is that “if it goes down today, it’s going to affect far more than just your ability to check into MySpace or YouTube.” Technology Industry