Reading about and anticipating with glee "Antroid" -- the open-source mobile phone operating platform that is backed by Google. A mobile phone platform designed by the users and usable across carrier boundaries. Wonderful. If it works it will mean that the users will have, in effect, required the mobile phone industry to accept a standard -- pretty much against its wishes.

Of course the idea of "the users" forcing the entire "mobile phone industry" to do anything is pretty ludicrous. The only reason that Android has any chance of being accepted by the industry is because Google is behind it.

It's like Apple or Microsoft said, "we're going to use all of our skills to do everything that the user market wants and then we're going to give it away. Your choice, Mr. Phone Company, to use it or not but the users will be going where they can get Android."

Yeah; like that would ever happen. LOL. But that is what it's like. Actually, it's better that Google is doing it because there is no doubt that they will follow through on both the "do it" and on the "give it away".

OK; this is a great model from the users point of view and it would be swell to project it onto other technical problems that need standards fixing. And I have just the problem. (I sure hope Mr. Brin is listening.)

A Google-backed open-source platform DVR system. Linux based, like Android so it can be fit into any equipped box that any user wants to designate as "DVR". It could be PCs, it could be game boxes, it could even be TiVos, but mainly it could be the now nearly ubiquitous Motorola 6400 series HD DVRs employed by the hundreds of thousands by cable companies, satellite companies and even FIOS.

The Motorola boxes themselves are pretty cool. Not super great, but pretty cool. But the software that is run on those boxes is, generally, horrendous. Worse; there is no standardization. No user comfort. No reliability that it is going to do what the user wants or needs it to do.

So, Mr. Brin, et al: please take on the DVR problem. A new user-designed DVR platform. Google gets to provide video listings. Tempting; yes? The users get a working DVR. The cable companies get put in their place and even Motorola will get something that works out of it.

We'll call it the "GVR" to hint at a hardware device that Google can deny; but Google and the development team can call it "Android-V" or "Vandroid". Or they can call it "Bob" -- I don't care what they call it, I just want it. Really, really, really bad.