Infinite Changeability

I use browser-based email applications because they look better than Apple Mail, Outlook, Eudora, and every other conventional email app that I've seen.

Customizing one's computer experience should be at least as easy and have as many options as one's MySpace page.

I'm not saying Gmail's appearance is as changeable as a MySpace profile page but with the introduction of themes, it's showing itself to be on the right path. Maybe when I check my email I like to see a little anime raccoon raking sand in its Zen garden. I can do that with Gmail, but Apple Mail has no such option, that I know of.

Chrome Your Windows

Yesterday I downloaded Google's new web browser, Chrome.  I went so far as to bring my old Windows laptop out of its bag in the closet, slog through the Service Pack 3 install, and a slew of other updates in order to test drive Chrome.  I've gone back and forth from Chrome to Internet Explorer (7) to Safari.  Chrome seems to be faster than IE.  The Safari comparison isn't fair because it's on my iBook G4 which has 4x as much RAM as my Windows computer, a Toshiba Satellite which I've had for like 6-7 years.  Also, I'm not familiar with Windows shortcut keys so I can't switch through different windows as quickly as I can on my Mac.  I like to work with multiple browser windows as opposed to multiple tabs.  I like the expose feature (or whatever it's called) on OS X which lets me view all my open windows at once.  Yeah, with XP, I can just look down at the taskbar and see what's open but it gets crowded quickly and isn't as easy for me to find what I'm looking for.

Anyhoo, this is supposed to be about Chrome.  Like I said, it appears to be faster than IE and so far every page I've looked at has come up looking good and proper.  I LOVE how Chrome allows you to pull tabs out into separate windows and put them back into one window by simply dragging and dropping.  That's cool.  I also like how it allows you to easily convert something like Blogger to a sort of standalone widget.  In Google's words:

Many websites, such as email services, operate like actual programs, similar to those on your computer desktop. Google Chrome supports these web applications by providing a special window designed specifically for web applications.

Microsoft might be annoyed by the emergence of a Google web browser but there's an upside: Chrome encouraged me to step away from my Apple for a bit and get reacquainted with my Windows-based machine.

Google Becoming the World's Computer

Oh what a wonderful web article I've found, Google and the Wisdom of Clouds.

What is Google's cloud? It's a network made of hundreds of thousands, or by some estimates 1 million, cheap servers, each not much more powerful than the PCs we have in our homes. It stores staggering amounts of data, including numerous copies of the World Wide Web. This makes search faster, helping ferret out answers to billions of queries in a fraction of a second. Unlike many traditional supercomputers, Google's system never ages. When its individual pieces die, usually after about three years, engineers pluck them out and replace them with new, faster boxes. This means the cloud regenerates as it grows, almost like a living thing.

The Machine Is Coming To Life!!!

It gets even better!

In the process Google could become, in a sense, the world's primary computer.

See, more and more people and companies and any other number of legal fictions are turning to Google to process the brunt of their data. Whether you're simply a Gmail user or the administrator of a large university's network who turns to Google for help crunching numbers for the Physics Dept's mad nuclear experiments, you're entrusting important digital data on computer(s) other than your own. People trust Google. So do companies. So do universities. Kinda scary, doncha think? Kinda awe-inspiring, too...IMHO.

I could quote all sorts of lines from that BusinessWeek Google article. The article is cyberpunk-come-true.

YouTube's Bubbly Video Discovery Device

Genocide ringtone? That was one of the AdSense ads which appeared last time I looked at my blog. For all I know it'll be there when you view this. Anyway, that cracks me up bigtime. It just seems so shameless and almost offensive. How'd it get there? Well, there are/were a bunch of Darfur-related ads popping up because of my Sudan reference:

Iraq gettin to be old news? Afghanistan and Pakistan are played out? Iran's repetitive? North Korea not all that interesting? Want to branch out from the only African country you care about, Sudan? How about Chad as your next Big Cause?

As you can see, mention Sudan and AdSense will serve up an ad for Genocide Ringtones. Amazing.

My original intent when creating this post was to share this awesome video of Mad Season playing November Hotel:

As I was sitting here soaking in the greatness of their performance, I decided to expand the video to a full screen. Then I could soak it in even more. While floating on the waves of the glorious music and watching the musicians as if they were angels come to transport me to a holy place, I noticed a button along the bottom-left of the screen.

I clicked it.

The music stopped and the video-still shrunk to a little bubble in the center of a black screen. When I hovered the mouse over the bubble, a window popped up giving the title and band. OK. Then a bubble appeared above it. I couldn't quite tell who was in it so I hovered over it and found that it was a link to a video for Kiss's Detroit Rock City. As I hovered over it, a bazillion more bubbles popped up linking to other videos.

It's an interesting interface and discovery device. I'd never seen it before. Anyone know more about YouTube's bubbly video discovery device?

the computer knows who I am

This is what trips me out about the whole internet experience, experiences like the one I just had.  I was going through my semi regular regimen of reading various rss feeds when I came across this article on Wired: Two AI Pioneers. Two Bizarre Suicides. What Really Happened?

What's interesting is the not only the content of the article, which is excellently written, but also the form of the article.  Look at the way it uses links and what I'll call insets, those windows within the browser window, which are in fact mini browser windows.  Weird.  I know I'm in the Googleverse when I just happen to be on an article on Wired and when I look at the insets it has for quoted Google based sites I see a "Hi, ________".  That inset knows who I am!

I read an article about artificial intelligence.  My computer and the internet know who I am.