Google’s Assault on Windows

Google launched today its latest attack on the evil empire that is Microsoft. Google Chrome is a web browser up against IE, Firefox and Safari. Chrome is the much talked about Google Operating System, utilizing Google Gears.

The main idea for this browser is speed and offline integration with Google’s cloud, allowing offline access to Google Reader or Gmail. From a memory hog standpoint, Chrome seems to hold up better against Firefox 3. Memory issues and leaks are one of my biggest issues with FF. One of the best examples of Chrome/Google Gears is the Myspace power messaging using Gears, allowing for sorting and searching of your Myspace messages using your computer, instead of always requesting the server. The end result are response times that are more like a computer application instead of a webpage. From a web surfing perspective, Chrome is very very fast.

Some other features of Chrome (from CrunchBase):

• Tabbed browsing where each tab gets its own process, leading to faster and more stable browsing. If one tab crashes, the whole browser doesn’t go down with it
• A distinct user interface that places tabs on top of the browser window instead of right below the address bar
• An “incognito” mode that lets you browse the web in complete privacy because it doesn’t record any of your activity
• A new JavaScript engine built from the ground up for speed
• Malware and phishing lists that automatically update themselves and warn you of bad websites
• A default homepage that displays your most commonly used sites and other personalized information

I’m looking forward to testing it out, but will be hard pressed to give up Firefox with its ad blocking, mouse gestures and other handy add-ons.

Obama’s Acceptance Speech

These word mash-ups are getting very popular these days, like the one above on Obama’s Acceptance Speech in Denver. It would look great on a tee-shirt though.

Thanks to Wired and Wordle.

Plaxo on a Mac Mini Causes Screen Freeze

The short answer is… don’t install it. Spent the last couple of days trying to figure out why my Mac Mini looked to be freezing / crashing. Finally figured it out when I killed Plaxo and my machine lag disappeared. I have an older Mac Mini running an Intel Core Duo, and even the max 2 Gb ram was no match for the system+network hog.

So if your system seems to be frozen, but your mouse still moves, it might just be Plaxo 3. Plaxo used to be a much better app, but it seems so useless and annoying now. Good luck Comcast.

Monitor110: A Post Mortem

A very frank and detailed post mortem of the demise of a technology start-up, Monitor110 (or on SAI), from one of its leaders, Roger Ehrenberg.

He talks about the Seven Deadly Sins they had:

1. The lack of a single, “the buck stops here” leader until too late in the game
2. No separation between the technology organization and the product organization
3. Too much PR, too early
4. Too much money
5. Not close enough to the customer
6. Slow to adapt to market reality
7. Disagreement on strategy both within the Company and with the Board

The second one caught my eye, and I find it personally relevant since a company I used to work for laid off the Product Department (which I worked for) and folded it into the overseas Development technology department. It was a misguided attempt to correct their own dysfunction, which they still have not solved.

Roger goes on to say:

Another problem: technology and product management were effectively bundled together, with the same decision-makers for both. This was another crucial error, #2 again. Instead of having product management as the advocate for the customer and the product evangelist, we had technology running the show in a vacuum. Huge mistake. This allowed us to perpetuate the science project for much, much longer than we should have. There were no checks-and-balances built into the system. This was a recipe for failure.

Thanks to Fred.

Buckminster Fuller

I’ve always been fascinated with architecture and design, especially Frank Lloyd Wright and Buckminster Fuller. Fuller especially caught my interest with his novel approach for his Fuller Projection map, shown above, which has the Earth on a polyhedron and unwrapped. It doesn’t show the distortion as the typical northern hemisphere weighted ones still used today. It also helps I’m a map whore.

But something I am interested in seeing it a new exhibit at the Whitney: Buckminster Fuller: Starting With the Universe, on view till September 21, 2008.

One of the great American visionaries of the twentieth century, R. Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) endeavored to see what he, a single individual, might do to benefit the largest segment of humanity while consuming the minimum of the earth’s resources. Doing “more with less” was Fuller’s credo. He described himself as a “comprehensive anticipatory design scientist,” setting forth to solve the escalating challenges that faced humanity before they became insurmountable.

The NYTimes has an article on the show also, Fixing Earth One Dome at a Time.

The Ting Tings

Another great show on the 18th was The Ting Tings. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect since I really only knew their most popular song, Shut Up and Let Me Go, but I was pleasantly surprised they put on a really good show. This is impressive since there are only two of them in the band, but they both had tons of energy and worked the crowd well. The Fratellis still put on a better show (they also have more material), but both shows were packed with a good crowd, and I look forward to see how both bands develop.

They are another band catapulted from an iTunes commerical.

Live Music Photos.

The Fratellis

A little late in reporting on this one, but went to see The Fratellis on the 13th, and as of this moment they hold the record for putting on the most lively show I have seen in NYC. These Scots really know how to jam. I’m also a fan of the “Rosie the Riveter” WWII type design on their Costello Music album, and you can now buy a t-shirt.

It has to be a pretty good show when you feel the floor bounce to the music. The Fretellis have a very upbeat and unique sound, and I especially like what I will describe as Skat since I can’t think of a better comparison at the moment.

There was also added flavor that a Certic rugby team was having a great time near us.

Band web site and Myspace. As always, more photos in my Live Music Set.

Their most popular song, Chelsea Dagger:

Ikariam

So evil Joe has introduced me to another time sink, but one right up my alley. Ikariam is a free web-based empire building game, I just started and it looks like a lot of fun. The best part is that it doesn’t look like it takes a ton of time, just a few minutes to catchup and you can ignore it for a few days without much going wrong.

TGISource did a good review of the game:

Essentially, the game is empire-building. You register an account, choose a world (server) to play on, and then you’re plopped down on a random island. A big part of the game involves building up your town, doing research, and managing resources. Which, of course, ends up being pretty fun. Harvesting of materials and research is automatic, and the only decision to be made is how many citizens to devote to each (citizens without specific tasks will generate gold).

The big test will be time and if my interests keep up with the game. Of course, the first time my butt gets kicked might also have an impact.

The Sons & Heirs

On May 22 (Morrissey’s birthday), I got to see The Sons & Heirs in Brooklyn’s Union Hall. It was totally random that MSV and I even saw they were going to be playing there. We had not heard of this Smiths & Morrissey tribute band, but since we both are huge fans we gave it a shot.

I was not expecting much for a Smiths cover band, but wow was I impressed with them. They really put on a great show and are an excellent Smiths band. The lead singer, Ronnissey (taking it all the way!), has a great Morrissey voice and has the mannerisms down. Totally a great show and worth the price of dealing with drunks and girls and guys jumping on the stage. Photos didn’t turn out great given the bands lack of standing still.

Thankfully no injuries occurred from the violent flower throwing!

ThePlanet Pain

Boom went the DNS hosting facility. Looks like my email and site were caught in the current ongoing drama over at ThePlanet.com. I only had my DNS routed through them but that was enough to take it all down. I’m not as concerned since DNS has a nice way to catching up once the NS server is back up, which as of a few minutes ago it was for me. Pretty scary to think of a explosion taking out a few walls though.

Status updates here.