Let's look at Chrome first. Introduced in the form of a mailed-out comic book (by Scott McCloud, no less! Reminds me of Sir Richard Attenborough in Jurassic Park, "We spared no expense!"), Chrome is Google's upcoming take on what a web-browser should be. Citing webapps and increased use of the browser by end-uses, Google claims that we need them to step in and show us what a browser should be like. They're working on some cool stuff, like process management, javascript interpretation, and task management. They're also doing some stuff that they claim will be amazing, but sounds kinda "meh" to me, like putting the tabs above browser navigation. They're a wacky bunch at Google.

What I'm really excited (and, consequently, frustrated) about, though, is Ubiquity. The potential usefulness is huge, and the potential is absolutely there to change how people interact with the internet. I won't recap it for you, as the best option would be to install it and play with it yourself. I have, and it's cool. The trouble is, until it reaches a point where implementation of Ubiquity on websites matches its name, it'll be kind of a waste for most people.

For example, I don't use Google Calendar or Gmail, though I have an account of each for sharing, synching, and spam-filtering purposes. And, because of that, anything I create with Ubiquity can't actually be used. There's no way, at the moment, for me to tell Ubiquity to create mail in Mail.app, using my Address Book contacts. There's not even a way for me to tell it to use the MobileMe service, instead of Gmail/Google Calendar. So I'm kind of out of luck. Granted, I'm 100% positive that Gmail has way more users than MobileMe does, plus it's being developed by Aza at Google - it makes sense that they'd integrate first with Google products.

My point is kind of different, though. Aza's goal is to make a framework that allows for use of the internet like you'd talk to a secretary. "Joe, I need you to book me a flight tomorrow to Denver, then email my contacts at work, in Denver with my itinerary, and add the event to my calendar." And it gets done. This is the internet for people who are either a) afraid of the internet, or b) don't want to spend the time to figure out how multiple web-apps should best be used together. Ubiquity should take care of that.

But these people aren't hip to Google, necessarily. My Dad would love this, but he's a Mail.app guy. I doubt he even knows about the MobileMe web apps. It's perfect for those people, but they aren't going to get anything out of it, unless Google can do some crazy-magic.

I'll quote John Gruber, as I often do. "That’d be incredible. I’m not holding my breath."

A spectacularly written article, by David Denby at the New Yorker, covering the Cohen Brothers' body of work, but focusing on what he feels went wrong in their telling of No Country for Old Men. I disagree with his take on the movie, finding it to require more searching than he seems willing to put into the movie. Specifically, I loved that the death scene which he craves, was entirely non-existent. That vacancy gives the me a feeling of pointlessness that sums up the whole story better than any synopsis.

Needless to say, it's pretty different from the National Post article.

(Via http://www.macworld.co.uk/macsoftware/news/index.cfm?RSS&NewsID=20501.)MacWorld UK

(Via Wired.)

So I looked to developers of software I liked. After trying out a couple others, I fell into Ecto. Developed by Adriaan Tijsseling, I was a big fan of his RSS reader, "Endo." Also, the names kick ass.

At first, it was great. The feature set was awesome, and once I got it configured, it rocked. At first. With each update came a couple fixes for outstanding issues, but it seemed each one had a host of quirks and problems that went with it. Most recently, I couldn't reliably attach categories or images, which meant that for every post I was logging back into the web interface to set a tag, or to fix the image. That got old, and quick.

As a result, I abandoned the blog for a good long while. I had other things to tend to, so it fell to the back of my mind. If you've tried to start a regular blog, you can relate, I'm sure. Months passed.

Last week, I wiped my comp. Reinstalled apps, and when I went to install an RSS reader, I defaulted to my old standby: endo. Except it was different. It was suckier. Didn't have the features I was used to. So I checked the website. I guess it's free, now. Which is good. But, I am a little blown that while I bought a full license, the new, free, ecto feels crippled compared to what I've used in the past. So I threw it in the trash, and decided to replace it with NetNewsWire.

NetNewsWire expects MarsEdit as a desktop blogging client, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Here we are, all caught up. And over the next couple days, you'll see more activity over here, and a full writeup of the differences between Ecto and MarsEdit will be forthcoming.

It requires Internet Explorer, the NBC Direct Player (Windows only) and the latest .Net framework. Videos are available for only 7 days after they initially air, and disappear from your computer 48 hours after you begin watching them (unless you remember to renew your license before then). Also, videos will only play on the computer used for the initial download.

Mac users cannot use the service, though NBC says a Mac version is "...planned for 2008." Finally, downloads cannot be transferred to portable devices.

Awesome.

Also, her website is here, but it looks like she's been pretty swamped. Check it out when you can.


"Do not drop litter on the train. Please use the tramps provided."
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"Warning, this is an emergency. I've chipped a nail."
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"Would the passenger in the red shirt pretending to read a paper, but is actually staring at that woman's chest, please stop. You are not fooling anyone. You filthy pervert."
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"We'd like to remind our American tourist friends that you are almost certainly talking too loud."
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"Passengers should note that the bearded gentleman's rucksack contains the following items only: Some sandwiches, a library card and a picture of a bare ankle and is no cause for concern."
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"Passengers are reminded that a smile is actually a friendship signal - not a sign of weakness."
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"Would the gentleman in the pinstripe suit and £1000 glasses who obviously works in the media, please take one step forward on to the track as the train arrives. Thank you."
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"Residents of London are reminded that there are other places in Britain outside your stinking shithole of a city, and if you removed your heads from your arses for just a couple of minutes, you may realise that the M25 is not the edge of the Earth."
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"Passengers are reminded that, like all voiceover artists, I probably look nothing like you imagine and may turn out to be somewhat of a disappointment."
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"Would passengers filling in answers on their Sudokus please accept that they're just crosswords for the unimaginative and are not in any way more impressive just because they contain numbers."
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"Here we are again, crammed into a sweaty tube carriage. And today's Wednesday - only two more days before you can binge drink yourself into a state of denial about the mediocrity of your life. Oh, for Goodness sake, if you're female, smile at the bloke next to you and make his day. He's probably not had sex for months."
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Emma Clarke [From The Wally World Front Page]

[From Apple Mail in Leopard with the same old error - heise Security ]

[From The Future of Reading (A Play in Six Acts) [dive into mark]]

+1

So the Kindle proposition is this: You pay for downloadable books that can’t be printed, can’t be shared, and can’t be displayed on any device other than Amazon’s own $400 reader — and whether they’re readable at all in the future is solely at Amazon’s discretion. That’s no way to build a library. [From Daring Fireball]

Essentially, Amazon is asking you to give them four hundred bones to have the privilege of buying files from them can't be shared, and may not be any good in the future. Oh, and you get an ugly-ass reader, too. Seriously, that thing looks like ass. The screen might be awesome, sure, but those keys? Thick white border? It looks like it was designed in 1994. Actually, it looks like the Simpson's Newton.

[From Amazon.com: Kindle]