Posted September 6th, 2008 by Chris Clarke
Filled under: Web
I’ve been using Google Chrome since Wednesday, and it’s been a pretty good experience.
The User Interface is aesthetically pleasing, I was unsure how I would adapt to the tabs being in place of the title bar but the change has been surprisingly seamless. I can see this browser being my default browser, but for the moment it’s missing a few key features that I liked within Firefox, Features which I didn’t realise I relied on so much.
- View Selection Source
- Fullscreen Browser Mode
- Speed Dial - yes, Chrome has a speed dial but I liked being able to choose whats on it like I can in Mozilla Firefox and Opera.
These are not deal breakers, I can certainly live without them and until recently actually did. Google’s Chrome is most undoubtedly better then even the latest beta of the Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, and generally on par with the others. It would be nice to be able to extend the browser but that’s not something which I require. It does fall short in a few areas, but makes up for them in others. So yeah, it works and it works well.
If your still using Internet Explorer upgrade, if not you won’t have much reason to upgrade or switch rather but it’s still worth a look. It’s great to have more competition within the browser market.
Posted September 4th, 2008 by Chris Clarke
Filled under: Web
Muse’s Success is joint project between myself and darkthorn to create a searchable database of fiction that has been published online as it’s primary medium. The site has been launched in an alpha-state, but its generally usable and thus we have proceeded with an unofficial launch.
I’d encourage you to take a look if original web fiction is your cup-of-tea or even if its not, you might just find something that you like. The address http://muses-success.sorrowfulunfounded.com. We’ll probably get a proper domain eventually.
Posted September 3rd, 2008 by Chris Clarke
Filled under: Web
Google announced Monday that it was going to release a beta of it’s Web Browser yesterday, or today once we account for the time zones. It’s not out yet, but do expect a quick review once it is. Perhaps one of the interesting things is that they actually used a comic book to introduce it which can be found here - Google Chrome Comic.
The web browser entitled Google Chrome will be open source and will take elements from Mozilla’s Gecko / Firefox, Apples Safari / Web Kit and even Internet Explorer. It will have the usual features such as tabs, and I think we can assume it will have the Google-powered phishing filter and such that come built into Mozilla Firefox, and I also expect a Google Search box. The browser is also promising faster speed, better stability and more powerful JavaScript. It will have Gears built in. It will also take a feature from Internet Explorer by utilising sandboxing for each tab which should help in the fight against malware by limiting its access to the Operating System. (although I think Internet Explorer just sandboxes the entire process, and not the individual tabs)
Now, I’m happy to see Google enter the browser space. Diversity and choice can only help the web and if done right, it won’t affect coding process for the web designers / developers with bug after bug (like IE, grr). I do however have a few concerns / comments / questions.
- Will Google’s AdSense ads target based on browsing history now? Since its open-source, I guess if this happens, someone can just strip it out and release it fairly easily. It would be a privacy policy nightmare I’m sure.
- What does this mean with the inclusion of WebKit / KHTML in Android? Will the Google Browser replace this?
- Why now? It has been rumored and denied for years now that this was / wasn’t coming. Why now suddenly? What has changed?
- Will I have the option of mapping functions to non-Google services? Since Google has products and services in several common spaces, its possible that things like the Mail button will be tied to Gmail, the search engine tied to Google, the bookmarks tied to Google notebook?, the RSS functions tied to Google Reader and so on. Can I change these? (lets disregard that I use Google for all that besides the bookmarks which I don’t use anyway, except to manage the link page in this blog where I use Delicious)
- The browser promises better memory management but is 31 processes for 30 tabs really that much better? Or, am I more likely to run out of memory? I mean a process - doesn’t that load into memory more then just the page data? I guess I don’t know what I’m talking about here - I code in PHP afterall - I don’t have to worry about this.
- Google’s pages are not exactly known for their conformance to standards, I hope the browser does a better job. Considering they are apparently using WebKit, we are probably safe there.
- Will this work under Linux? What about Mac OS X? — seems its going to be available on both platforms eventually.
I think Google is in a good position to make a dent in Internet Explorer’s market share (and any browser is a good alternative - well the main ones), due to a combination of brand recognition, that almost everyone uses Google Search at least, and resources. I’m also hoping that this doesn’t hurt Mozilla Firefox, Safari and Opera but I guess it’s inevitable that some users will switch.
Giood luck, Google! I think we’ll be holding you to the “Don’t be evil!” policy though.
Yeah, I guess that’s all I had to say. Good night!
Posted June 26th, 2008 by Chris Clarke
Filled under: Web
I received an add request on MSN early yesterday morning from a user who had an alias which defaulted to eBay. Suspecting spam, I went ahead and added the user anyway. I IMed her about an hour after the add but was ignored. I logged on for a bit about half an hour ago, and she IMed me. It starts off innocently enough until I ask her what she is at which time I’m informed she is a Chinese trader.
Yes, suspecions were correct but I decided to continue the conversation giving her advice on how to improve her business which she did not understand. Eventually, “Alice” (AIMLBot anyone?) finally seems to get that she is not going to get a sale out of me and leaves. To her credit, nicest and most literate spammer ever. A pleasure to deal with.
I copied the entire log below.
(1:29:01 AM) ebay: hello ‘
(1:29:30 AM) ebay has nudged you!
(1:29:40 AM) Chris Clarke: hello
(1:29:47 AM) Chris Clarke: may I ask whom this is?
01:30
(1:30:02 AM) ebay: alice from china
(1:30:07 AM) ebay: you ?
(1:30:23 AM) Chris Clarke: chris from aust
(1:30:36 AM) Chris Clarke: are you a student, random, spammer?
(1:32:24 AM) ebay: nice to meet you chris
(1:33:02 AM) Chris Clarke: yeah, you too
(1:33:13 AM) Chris Clarke: (I think)
(1:33:45 AM) Alice: we are a big wholesale trade company in china
(1:34:21 AM) Alice: i’m a trader
(1:34:26 AM) Chris Clarke: yes. if your looking for a sale, you’ve come to the wrong person.
01:35
(1:35:26 AM) Alice: what do you mean ?
(1:35:34 AM) Alice: ADDRESS REMOVED - NOT HELPING THEIR SEO
(1:35:41 AM) Chris Clarke: wouldn’t you do better with more traditional marketting? this method just annoys people.
(1:35:47 AM) Alice: if you have more time please to see
(1:36:42 AM) Alice: high quality and low price
(1:36:59 AM) Chris Clarke: spelling mistake on your website. Sunglass should be plural.
(1:38:57 AM) Chris Clarke: Actually a lot of yoru categories should be plural.
(1:39:01 AM) Chris Clarke: *your
(1:39:34 AM) Chris Clarke: am I talking to a bot?
01:40
(1:42:24 AM) Chris Clarke: OK. The make or break question. How did you come across my MSN?
(1:43:00 AM) Chris Clarke: I won’t penalise you for it. I’m just interested in the methods companies like yours use to acquire e-mail addresses.
(1:43:16 AM) Alice: i find it on ebay
(1:43:40 AM) Chris Clarke: OK.
(1:43:46 AM) Chris Clarke: 
(1:43:55 AM) Alice: what do you like ?
(1:44:16 AM) Chris Clarke: tech, law, and art.
01:45
(1:48:52 AM) Chris Clarke: That’s all outside your website’s audience though. It’s as out of place as your cigarette category is. Which btw, not giving a great corporate image.
01:50
(1:52:29 AM) Chris Clarke: The fact that you sell cigarettes would stop me from buying from you as would this marketting method your using.
(1:53:15 AM) Alice: ??
(1:54:03 AM) Chris Clarke: I’m refering to ADDRESS REMOVED and why I won’t be shopping with them. You seem to represent them.
(1:54:29 AM) Chris Clarke: How can you charge €0 for jeans?
01:55
(1:55:20 AM) Alice: beacouse different country the shipping cost is different
(1:55:31 AM) Alice: so we not write price on it
(1:57:06 AM) Chris Clarke: Standard method is to display the price your selling the item for in whatever currency your dealing with (PayPal will handle the conversion), and then add shipping cost when the user checkouts (based on whatever they set there delivery address to during registration).
(1:57:32 AM) Chris Clarke: What your currently doing is hurting the usabillity of the entire site which otherwise is pretty good.
(1:58:22 AM) Chris Clarke: This is just my input. You don’t have to take it into account.
(1:59:15 AM) Alice: ??
(1:59:21 AM) Alice: waht do you need today ?
(1:59:38 AM) Alice: shoes 0r t-shirt ?
(1:59:42 AM) Alice: i’m busy
(1:59:59 AM) Chris Clarke: I don’t need anything.
02:00
(2:00:11 AM) Alice: see you
(2:00:35 AM) Chris Clarke: yeah. nice speaking with you. see ya.
Fun
Posted June 18th, 2008 by Chris Clarke
Filled under: Web
Mozilla’s excellent web browser, Mozilla Firefox version 3.0 was released publicly to the world yesterday. New to this release includes platform specific themes, smaller memory footprint, the identity bar (replacing the old lock analogy for “secure sites”) and offline storage among others.
I’ve been using Firefox 3 since Beta 3 and thus didn’t immediently notice that it had been released. Wasn’t really expecting it soon.
I can say its much more stable then earlier releases which I can attribute to the lower memory footprint and various bug fixes. I am yet to encounter the bug that left me unable to change tabs in earlier versions which removes any complaints I had about the browser. However, its certainly not perfect. The UI could be a bit more native on each platform like utilising Aero Glass by default. I’m also disappointed that its difficult to display history in sidebar compared to earlier versions.
I’ve spruced up my installation of Firefox with various extensions such as Glassor and Hide Menu Bar which have made Firefox all prettiness.
So yeah I’m happy with the update and if you haven’t yet, I would encourage all of you to update to the latest version. Its well worth it.
Tags: 3.0, firefox, glass, mozilla, Web