Even shooting the photos seemed out-this-world: Silently and slowly walking the station with another photographer (we did not even exchange a word), while the people around us were waiting for their train trying not to notice the flash lights. It could not have been a more troubling experience, going from an unstuck paper to a poor paint job or a hasty writing between dirty white tiles.
How could we ignore the launch of Chrome, the new browser from Google? Every is babbling about it, everybody tried it (it can be downloaded here).
But after one test run, I believe that I should explain something. Yes, this is a marvellous browser because it takes most of the good things from FireFox, Opera or Safari (all IE competition). I immediately noticed:
No space is lost in useless graphical waste, everything is concentrating on user display,
The good tab management,
The impressive performance,
The name-completion in the address bar.
Some will also have noticed the more technical features like:
The separation of applications running in different tabs,
The very small footprint (including for the Javascript).
But, all this is hiding a very critical reality: Google did not even try to make a mere browser (it even lacks a simple RSS feed manager). They are more interested in doing more than Internet Explorer competiton. Much more.
Chrome (tasks)
The impressive advantage of this browser is elsewhere: it will fight against Microsoft applications allowing to work online in the best possible conditions. Chrome is nearly an Operating System competing with Windows. Yes, because where Windows offered a vehicle to sell Microsoft Office, Chrome will allow Google to develop a wider range of online tools in the path opened by the Desktop applications and GMail.
It will hurt Microsoft real bad. Chrome is obviously the best browser to support this approach. Rock solide, fast (very), reliable and able to support application crashes.
This is right that many people feel obliged to use Photoshop to manage their photo images. But in most cases, nearly any other tool would be as good. I think first about the excellent IrfanView which is free and does a lot of digital photo management.
But it is also true that if you really want to use all of the xtensive feature set of Photoshop or if you appreaciate its rich interface (defintely well-thought with the user in mind), The Gimp will not be enough for your photographer needs. Here comes the a really surprising software program: Pixlr.
It essentially took the Photoshop interface ideas (really VERY similar to Photoshop), it is a software application written by Ola Sevandersson to be used online (but still in beta status). Nothing to download, free (as in free beer), legal, operating damn well.
Burj Dubai is the name of a Dubai construction zone current being modelled. It will host the most surprising series of buildings of astonishing proportions. The most obvious one is the Burj Dubai tower aiming for world record in the middle of 2009.
But there will be also this huge fountain which will be dwarfing the water jets of the Bellagio in Las Vegas. I saw them perosnnaly, they are impressive, but the idea is to lead the way to a wholly different scale. I guess the noise will be impressive, too.
Even knowing that those are machines created to kill people, you will not be able to keep yourself from laughing or smiling at some of absurdly extreme designs generated by the brains of some military engineers.
On August 6th, 1945, Hiroshima was bombed with the first atomic weapon. U.S. serviceman Robert L. Capp, who was attached to the occupation forces, found undevelopped films with many pictures that are available only this year. They are disturbing to say the less (I wanted to use one photo to illustrate this post, then decided against it). But they stand witness to the horror of war in general and atom bombs in particular.
The newest fad about search engines is Cuil (say “cool”). It’s been created by people from Google and is set to replace Google (or is it?)
I tried it and I could not think of a reason to use it. The biggest problem is that it does not find anything useful. I may be a little egocentric, but I tried my name and I could not even find the roumazeilles.net web site in the first results. I know that a search engine is not supposed to replace typing correctly addresses, but I did not expect to find page after page of results pointing to ***old*** pages relating to my software development of 5 years ago. All these pages where not updated in the last half-decade… They are pretty much redundant and contain a lot of crap around download links.
The most regular web sites I work for, the papers I signed where really difficult to find in the stack of results while they are supposed to be the most pertinent information concerning my (not-so) important little person.
Furthermore, I learned that the servers crashed several times during the first day of operation.
I’d say: wait for the next implementation and stick to Google.
A martial arts adept knows how much you have to repeat the same basic exercise (a kata) before mastering free fight. This is the same with most pianists who need to practice long and often to get reflexes, natural grace.
So, why not the same for programmers?
Dave Thomas decided to create basic exercises for the software developer. To be practiced continuously with not constraint of environment or language. He called it the Code Kata.
I no longer write a lot about software programming (I no longer code by myself nowadays) but it was such a great idea, a flash of light so obvious and elegant that I needed to share with you. No programmer should avoid the regular exercise of Code Kata. Many companies should also force their own software developers to apply it.
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