Time is an interesting creature of change…  The more things change the more they stay same??  To a certain degree I find that to be correct.  Internet Explorer always seems to be a few revs behind its competition i.e. Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera and Safari.  I find it interesting how Opera and Firefox are leveraging the Internet to enhance the browsing experience.  It makes a lot of sense.  This could also be attributed to the general nature of improvement – things evolve over time.

Opera’s Unite, the web server in a browser,  is a good example of a web browser that is much more than a web browser.  It is an application that uses Opera servers (or personal servers) to share content.  That is a very vague overview, but it makes a point; web browsers today are much different than web browsers of yesterday.

I think this is a trend started by Firefox.  Firefox plug-ins that integrate delicious, flickr, facebook, or any kind of social media that is web based – is a change from the norm.  Even Mozilla is graying the line between desktop and webapp.  The introduction of Weave lets users sync up their browsers across many PCs and mobile devices.  Allowing for a more constant web experience – such a great idea.

Google Chrome lacks the plug-in features, but what it lacks in that area it more than makes up with speed.  The Javascript engine is a beast.   I’m certainly surprised by the lack of plug-ins for Chrome, but I do find myself using it more and more.  It just starts up so fast; maybe that’s why there are no plug-ins.  It renders things great and is just an overall great browsing experience.  Sometimes I think Firefox lost sight of that over the development of the application.

Who would of thought that browsers would come back with such innovation?  I remember back to the days of Netscape Navigator… Communicator…  Whatever it was called!  Internet Explorer was once a leader in this field surprisingly.  The most exciting thing is that there is more to come!  We are only beginning to touch the surface of the capabilities of browsers.  HTML 5 will be revolutionary for the web.  Google Wave is in the distance.  Windows 7 is on getting ready for deployment.

This is an exciting time for the IT world.  For the non IT world too because things renew so quickly.  Innovation is not hampered by centuries of corruption.  We are truly in the Wild West of Web Development.  We are learning as we go and innovating on-the-fly.  Treads come and go, but innovation is the key to what makes technology so appealing and productive.

I really feel MSM is currently experiencing a slow painful death. I don’t think it will go away, but it needs to change and it will change (radio hasn’t died, yet). This post is really inspired by the death of Tim Russert. He was alright to watch on Sundays and his death was unfortunate for everyone; it was a great loss.

For those who are not familiar with MSM, it stands for Main Stream Media. I had to look it up, because I was quite confused; it happens.

I found out about Russert’s death via leo laporte on twitter; I think that alone is somewhat significant. There is a big problem in MSM right now. All the fear mongering, bias garbage, that they pass off as the news misses the mark of what’s happening in the world. There was a time when reporting was liberating and really made a difference in this country (USA) and the world. Blogging has really stepped up around the world to have a voice for people and to spread the truth (most of the time). A report out of Arstechnica shows that arrests of bloggers are up significantly. I think this is also somewhat significant and related. Blogging or just new media should be comparable to the printing press. It is revolutionary.

Welcome to the revolution.

A Blog About Nothing has posed this question and challenge to all! So I would recommend getting in on this – $50 dollars cold hard cash (or check).. maybe in all ones… at least it’s not quarters..

So I’ll bite. This is what I would do with $50 dollars for my blog.

1) Upgrade my Basic Flickr Account to Pro Account – $24.95

All my pictures and so forth are hosted on Flickr, but you only get a 200 picture limit with the basic account. I definitely need to upgrade this. Flickr is great and if you are hosting your own blog having some place to store photos is nice; saves bandwidth.

2) Start a Blog Challenge -> “The $50 Blog Challenge! Reborn”

Share the love! This may be a product of diminishing returns, but I think passing it along and helping other bloggers would be a great idea.We are all a community of bloggers i.e. the blogosphere – this seems to be a great network tool. Many kudos to A Blog About Nothing.

So that is what I would do with the $50 dollars. Nothing too crazy or exciting. Here are a list to some other responses they all have good ideas.

Zybron Thoughts
Homelife
RotusBlog

Amazon dubs the Kindle the “Wireless Reading Device”.

Reviews on this puppy are mixed. Robert Scoble of the wonderful scobleizer.com blog calls this device crap about 20 times, so it must be a dud; watch his review here.

Here is my quick review:

GOOD
1) Small portable device
2) Wireless anywhere – truly groundbreaking
3) E-paper is a good idea, let’s save some trees

BAD
1) $399 – way too much money for a simple device that is somewhat crippled
2) Not backlit – has a light dongle WTF?
3) Oddly shaped with no touch screen – The 90s called they want their PDA back.
4) First Gen – don’t be a beta tester

UGLY
Yes it is.

I love shopping on Amazon and I buy a lot of things there, but this device is an immature product. I think it is great conceptual and hopefully they will fix all the things that are just not kosher with it. So I think this is a WAIT WAIT WAIT product. I hope they don’t shelf it because I think it has potential, but this is a TURKEY, gobble gobble.

You are now entering a place where only the truth matters. No more bullshit, no more lies, and no more corruption.

Okay, there is still bullshit, lies, and corruption, but the Internet is redefining how we become informed about things. There was a time when the news at 10 was how everyone got their information. Now you can get the information anytime you want or need it. This is a turning point in history. Never before has there been a global information network this robust. There were teletypes, MORRIS code, radio, satellite phones. The Internet is truly remarkable in the way it connects people and ideas.

I really don’t think governments around the world are ready for this fundamental change in how people become informed. It’s hard to believe there are corrupt governments in this day and age. Militaristic governments shooting monks, journalists, etc in “Burma” or Myanmar. Let this not be a smoke screen. There are problems elsewhere in the world. Let’s not forget Darfur.

The time it takes to become aware of problems is instantaneous, thanks to bloggers, news services, and satellite imagery systems. Awareness is key to solving problems. I don’t think the problems of the world will be easily solved, but awareness, I feel, moves things in the right direction. I’m glad that blogging has ushered in the return of the FREE PRESS. People talking about society, life, struggles, achievements, and oh yes TECHNOLOGY.

To really bring this point home I’m adding a link to the Nirvana Musing blog. The blogger, Amit, posted screen shots of a banned commercial, a truly remarkable ad by MTV.

This is why the Free Internet Press is so important. I don’t think you’re going to see this any newspaper, magazine, or TV show.

We, as humans, cannot directly communicate with electronics, unless fluent in binary, even then it is nearly impossible. Our electronic devices have interfaces for us to manipulate technology to do our bidding. We are the technology overlords and these interfaces are our only path to total domination. When a poor user interface is encountered it can be a very frustrating and angering experience for an end-user. It can also be extremely detrimental to our fragile psyche.

Why does such a popular device as the Apple iPod, which commands 75% market share, have such a terrible user interface? To each their own they will say or probably a lot of people like the click wheel design. In the opinion of this student the click wheel is a tool for mass destruction.

The iPod isn’t all bad, syncing music files or videos files is an easy task. ITunes is a great program that really brings the iPod to life. I understand why the iPod has been such a great success, because it’s all about the music and ease of use. What I don’t understand is how people have liked the click wheel design. All the menus on the iPod are vertical scrolling menus: they go up and down, they are not circular. How does using a circle even come close to simulating a vertical menu system?

The problem that I frequently run into is spinning the wheel the wrong way. I want to go up the menu and end up going down; it makes me sad. Also due to the sensitive nature of the click wheel I end up moving off the selected file I want, when I go to press the middle button. I go spinning and spinning my finger around, searching and searching for the one song I want. When I find the song I want, I go to play it, and end up playing the song underneath it.

The click wheel will slowly break you down, day by day, hour by hour, and you have to use it because it is the best option out there. To navigate through the massive folder structure you have to basically use the “menu” button as a multi-use key. When you want to bring the menu up you use the “menu” key; makes sense. When you want to go back a menu or drop down one folder you have to use the “menu” key again; what were they thinking?

I think the overall design appeal of the iPod would be damaged if it had tons of buttons over it, but a multi-use catch-all key can be confusing to the end-user. These are the drawbacks that I have found with iPod, but I will continue to use it because it must be controlling me.

In conclusion, the Apple iPod isn’t a bad device; in fact, it is the best mp3 player currently on the market. The usability of the user interface will probably vary greatly form user to user. Overall, this is probably one of the best designed “one size fits all” user interfaces. The new version of the Apple iPod should be coming out soon; the holiday season is on its way.

UPDATE

I wrote this on the day of Apple’s big press release, September 5th. They are still keeping the click wheel design; iPod Classic. I think with the release of the iPhone/iPod Touch Apple will revolutionize the User Interface.

This will be a future article. Stay tuned.

I guess they just want to monitor what he is doing on his computer. Still I think there is probably a hardware/software neutral device that could work here. How can the government force something to use a certain software product? It makes no sense.

This is the guy who is responsible for leaking Star Wars III onto the net before it opened. Yes all by himself, he was responsible. Again, I don’t think so. But he faced charges and is paying his dues. Torrentfreak has a great article on the entire ordeal.

I really feel this is a case of our government just not getting it. To punish a person, IMO cruelly, for doing something that the movie industry refuses to do. If you don’t adjust your business model to changing technology you will be left behind. The technology is there, people want to use it, they are using it, but the movie/music industry refuses to change.

Rant done.