Review: A Year in the Merde by Stephen Clarke
A Year in the Merde by Stephen Clarke
rating: 5 of 5 stars
If you are on your way to Paris, or on the way from Paris, or in Paris, or … nevermind… just read this book if you are associated, in any way, with Paris. You’ll love it.
(If you are French, read this too, get angry, rebel and then revel in the glory! 
)
View all my reviews at goodreads.
09.2.08In the browser lies the power – Wave 2 of the Google takeover
Finally it’s out in the open. The ultimate weapon in Google’s powerchest to combat desktop applications, render the need for a specific platform meaningless – the browser. I guess this has been in the making for the last decade, and here it is. A browser by a company that downloads pretty much most of the internet every day.
If you are still reading this, you shouldn’t be. Get outta here and read this. (Actually just open in a new window, and continue reading this).
I guess it makes a lot of sense for a company like Google to have an install base of their own, and what better way than, what has become the primary application on most computers, the browser. With Google’s data processing and storage capabilities, I can’t begin to imagine the things that could be done with a browser like this.
Some unique things about (I stand corrected, David) Key features of Google Chrome (such a lame name .. come on guys you can be a bit more creative than that — too many Mozilla hackers @ Google?!), as mentioned in their cartoon booklet (if you care to read thru 40 pages), include:
- Tabs to the top (ignore that – such a cosmetic change) – Aparently this has been around for a while in Opera – thanks David Sheen
- Tabs as separate processes (that’s good in a way, but I’m not so sure about older machines)
- New garbage collection engine.
- New javascript virtual machine, that supports compiled javascript – I want to see the performance on that.
- Apparently, they have a huge testbed, that can test each browser build automatically using a hundred monkeys. (I don’t care too much about this, I just think this is over-engineering, but hey, this is me).
- Uses Webkit for page-rendering.
- Persistant tab state, and the tab can be detached as well, into a new window.
- Standard auto-completing address bar (Firefox 3)
- Personalised start page with your browsing history, google info etc.
As a write this, a huge array of ideas come to mind, that will surely come to be common-place in next few years. I’m throwing out some general ideas here, and maybe I’ll come back a few years and tick some of them down.
- Personalised homepages with per-user google content (this is already present in their beta vision)
- Single sign-on using open id and o-auth using google account information (read as identity management)
- Social networking (submit to orkut etc), location aware
- Voice calls from the browser (gtalk, jaiku etc)
- Content tagging services, using collective intelligence (this could make google searches much better than they already are – something like mahalo + google, just that every click could potentially give google data, thereby bettering the result match for you.)
That’s my five things google could do. What do you think? What could Google add to their browser, that willl change the way we use it in the next 5 years?
07.21.08Movie Review: The Dark Knight (spoiler alert)
In a moment of mild insanity (actually more like boredom), I decided to watch the last show last night. I was plesantly surprised to find that the movie was playing in 2 theatres @ Silvercity, Coquitlam. With all the hype, and the huge revenue generation in the first week, the movie does deliver most of what it promises.
Before you start reading the rest of the post, there are few items, that could give away the plot. I wonder if one needs to worry about the plot in Batman. Here’s the short version of the review – watch it if you haven’t done so as yet. NOW!
Some things I liked:
1. The movie is a lot more serious than previous renderings of Batman. Finally, a Batman movie, where you don’t have to laugh at Batman.
2. The Joker (Heath Ledger) was truly amazing. I liked that he retained the southern sounding voice. Heath shines like diamond, and really stands out in terms of his performance. It is such a pity that the world has lost such a wonderful actor. He could have been this generation’s Brando or Pacino. He has set new heights for the Batman villian (Traditionally, the villians have been better actors anyway)
3. Batman is real, he gets hurt and has his flaws, and I don’t hear “kapow” or “zing” during the action sequences.
4. Makeup was wonderful – both the Joker and Two-Face, are more believable and frightening in their own ways.
5. This movie has one of the best casts in all Batman movies (For a franchise, that has always had a star cast, this one really get the right people for the roles – remember George Clooney and Arnold Schwarzenegger anyone?!)
6. Thankfully, no robin – nuff said.
Now for some things that could have been better
1. 2:35 mins – the show started at 10:00 PM and ended at 1:00 AM! 3 hours is way too long (even for Indians – we get an intermission for our 3 hour movies).
2. Two villians too big for this movie. I thought the villians didn’t get enough screen time.
3. Two-Face’s plot is quite unconvincing, and it’s a pity he’s killed with such little damage. Aaron Eckhart is no match for Tommy Lee Jones.
4. I hate the new Batman’s voice. What’s with the constant growling. I think that’s the only flaw with the new Batman. Christian Bale, should learn to show some emotion through his eyes (wrath, anger, hatred etc). I liked him much better in the first movie. He has shown good promise, and if he does a couple more, I can see him as one of the better Batmans. I must say, the best one (my opinion) was Michael Keaton. I always liked the quirky Batman. This more dark Batman, closer to the comic, impresses as well, but yet to prove himself. I think he needs a villian who really pushes him hard.
All in all, a very enjoyable 3 hours, if you have the penchant for Batman, and can hold the large Combo in your bladder long enough. Must see movie. Don’t miss it! Now, check out the trailer. (Kudos to Warner Bros. for providing an embeddable version).
| Posted in Reviews | Comments
A web based writer for writing to a blog?!
WriteToMyBlog.com, is a web-based editor (with a lot of formatting options), that allows you to write to your blog (from another website?!).
First thoughts go like,
“wtf?!”, … “hmmm.. interesting”… “I am a web 2.0 junkie?!
The likes
1. Simplicity of the UI interface – neat, allows lots of space for text
2. Integration of Flickr and Youtube (although I would love to see more such services)
3. Zero account creation overhead. (I wrote this post, before I created the account to publish it, and is a 1-click process.)
The dislikes
1. No keyboard shortcuts.
2. Too many formatting options. I would rather have more external services (quote pownce or twitter conversations, facebook, vimeo and other photo and video sites)
3. popups (need I say more.. in this day and age.. popups for functionality is a sin … almost).
4. A few irksome bugs. (undo doesn’t work in-order, flickr requires login name, cursor disappears after including a picture.. etc)
Conclusion
The service offers what should be part of any good bloggingsoftware. With recent improvements in Wordpress Dashboard and Editor, I doubt if this tool will be able to keep my attention for long. The whole concept of logging into one site for writing to another, seems a little weird. I don’t really understand the use-case.
Update: I found a few more bugs
- Editing an existing post, ignore all previous indentation (white-space).
- Tags set are technocrati tags, and not wordpress tags (I guess this is more like a feature request than a bug)
I couldn’t find a getsatifaction account for this tool, and hence have sent a traceback to their blog. Mark, if you come this way, do create and account for your product/company at getsatisfaction.com, and do set up some form of bug tracking system, so that your users can be your testers . Btw, you are welcome for the bugs mentioned here. Ohh.. btw.. I’m using Firefox on Mac OSX.
| Posted in Reviews | Comments