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My ratings (R) are from 1 to 9. My Dates are also permalinks. Click on the column headers to sort Jots. Feel free to use the address bar like a command line interface by setting the optional query string parameters: Dtm1 (10, 20, 30, YYYYMMDDhhmmss), Dtm2 (YYYYMMDDhhmmss), IsJot (Jot or Not), Tag (zero+ times), NotTag (zero+ times), OrderBy (PostForDate, PostTitle, PostLink, PostText, PostSource, PostRating, PostSize) & Desc(Desc), and Limit(integer).

1. Windows Media Player, iTunes, and Picasa TAGS: Apple. Audio. Cyber Life. Cyber Tech. Google. Images. Microsoft. TECH. Text. Videos.
2. Windows Photo Gallery uses XMP for tagging TAGS: Cyber Life. Google. Images. Microsoft. Photography. Software. Standards. TECH.
3. Google to allow free downloads of public domain books TAGS: Books. Education. Free Gratis. Google. Photos. TECH. Text.
4. Google buys a binary googol of IPs TAGS: Cyber Life. Cyber Tech. Google. TECH.
5. GDrive TAGS: Cyber Life. Cyber Tech. Google. TECH.
6. Creativity: Solo v Group TAGS: Chicago Swordplay Guild. Cyber Life. Cyber Tech. Google. My Stuff. Self Improvement. TECH.
7. Buying my convenience knife TAGS: Beauty. Cool. Cyber Life. Gear. Google. Hardware. Knives. MARTIAL. My Stuff. Shopping. TECH.
8. Google storm coming TAGS: Cyber Life. Cyber Tech. Google. Music. TECH.
9. Chicago-sized chunk of ice has fallen TAGS: Chicago. Geology. Google. Images. Nature. News. Photography. Space. Sustainability. TECH.
10. Very simple Row Level Versioning TAGS: Cyber Tech. Databases. Google. Programming. SQL. TECH. Wikipedia.
11. Intel feeds Google solid state disks TAGS: Engineering. Gadget. Google. Hardware. Photography. TECH. Videos.
12. Time for templates! TAGS: Cool. Cyber Life. Cyber Tech. Google. Office. TECH.
13. Knol TAGS: Cyber Life. Google. Wikipedia.
14. 10gen TAGS: Cloud. Computers. Databases. Free Libre. Google. JavaScript. Open Source. Programming. TECH.
15. Ex-Google engineers debut 'Cuil' way to search TAGS: Cyber Life. Google.
16. Google Maps for walking TAGS: Conditioning. Cyber Life. Google. Health. Maps.
17. Cyber Rules TAGS: Cyber Life. Family. Google. Kids. My Stuff. Security. Shopping. TECH. Wikipedia.
18. Google Chrome TAGS: Browser. Cyber Life. Cyber Tech. Google. Open Source. TECH.
19. Chrome keyboard shortcuts TAGS: Browser. Chrome. Google. TECH.
20. Issues with Spreadsheets right-click menu in Google Chrome: fixed in new Google Chrome version TAGS: Browser. Flash. Google. Office. TECH. Videos.
21. Kindle 2.0 by Amazon TAGS: Amazon. Books. Cyber Life. Cyber Tech. Engineering. Gadget. Google. Hardware. TECH. Text.
22. Specify your canonical TAGS: Browser. Cyber Tech. Google. HTML. Microsoft. Standards. TECH. Yahoo!.
23. One Number to Rule Them All TAGS: Audio. Communications. Cyber Life. Google. TECH.
24. Gmail Sidesteps the App Store TAGS: Cyber Life. Google. Programming. TECH.
25. Looking at the HTC Dream (aka T-Mobile G1) TAGS: Apple. Cyber Tech. Gadget. Google. Hardware. My Stuff. TECH.
26. A New Breed of Netbook? TAGS: Computers. Cyber Life. Cyber Tech. Gadget. Google. Hardware. Open Source. Software. TECH.
27. A Speedier Google Chrome for all users TAGS: Browser. Cyber Life. Cyber Tech. Google. News. TECH.
28. Google Bookmarks Extension for Chrome TAGS: Browser. Cyber Tech. Google. TECH.
29. Free is not a business model TAGS: Cyber Life. Cyber Tech. Economy. Google. Money. TECH.
30. Rich Internet Apps TAGS: Animation. Apple. Browser. Cyber Tech. Firefox. Google. Microsoft. Programming. Standards. Sun Microsystems. TECH. Videos.
31. Head in the clouds TAGS: Amazon. Books. Cyber Life. Gadget. Google. Hardware. Images. Photos. Reading. Software. TECH. Videos.
32. Digital Media and e-Books TAGS: Amazon. Apple. Audio. Books. Computers. Cyber Life. Cyber Tech. Family. Gadget. Google. Hardware. Inspiring. Kids. Music. My Stuff. Reading. Software. Standards. TECH. Text. Videos.
33. Chrome versus Firefox 2010-02 TAGS: Browser. Cyber Life. Cyber Tech. Firefox. Google. TECH.

Date	Text	Link	Source	Tags	Note
20070123 042230 Z	from: 19020 to 1579 US-1 (S), North Brunswick, NJ 08902	maps.google. … .643236,1.275787	digg.com/tec … k_for_Directions	Computers, Funny, Geography, Google, Images, TECH	Ha ha! For the particular to & from given, Google Maps gets lost. It makes a gazillion U-turns but eventually does get to the destination.
20070125 050150 Z	The Horrible Truth - The Moon...	www.metacafe … _truth_the_moon/		Activity, Chill, Cute, Cyber Life, Funny, Google, Videos	I immediately checked it out on Google and it's true!
20070207 164907 Z	Google Docs to support PowerPoint presentations soon	blogs.zdnet. … om/Google/?p=465	slashdot.org … 07/1323239.shtml	Cyber Life, Cyber Tech, Google	I don't use PowerPoint much but I do use Google Docs quite a bit. I wonder if they'll do a lot more as far a graphics and looks too.
20070606 160937 Z				Cyber Life, Cyber Tech, Google, My Stuff, TECH	A quick tip for Google Spreadsheet users who want their dates and times formatted like 2007-06-06 (ISO 8601): For the spreadsheet settings, set the Locale to Poland!
20070828 151449 Z	Explore the sky with Google Earth	http://earth.google.com/sky/		Activity, Cool, Free Gratis, Google, Software, Space, TECH	The Google Earth app v4.2 (released 2007-08-22) now incorporate Google Sky that lets you view the heavens. It includes Hubble shots too! Way cool!
20080123 155627 Z	trendite.com	http://www.trendite.com/		Cool, Cyber Life, Cyber Tech, Google, Images, Links, News, TECH, Videos	I just stumbled upon trendite.com a few minutes ago. It basically lets you see what people are searching for the most on a given date. It list keywords, blogs, news, photos, videos, and Google Books. I noticed that Yahoo tends to have general searches, while Google has searches more specific to each day. The other thing I noticed is that if you look at the pictures and videos, then it gives the appearance that only one big thing happened on a given day.
20080514 173542 Z	Google Maps now integrates with Wikipedia	www.metafilt … s-with-Wikipedia		Cyber Life, Geography, Google, Wikipedia	Google Maps [maps.google.com] now has Wikipedia integrated into it. Just move your mouse over the "More" button on the upper right. An simple way of making Google Maps more like Google Earth.
20080521 144051 Z	Google Health	/www.google. … /tour/index.html	tech.slashdo … 1841243&from=rss	Cyber Life, Google, Health, TECH	The pilot test of Google Health [google.com/health/] is over, so Google Health is now open to the public. You can manage multiple profiles. EG: A mom could manage profiles for her entire family. Track things like ages, sex, conditions, medications, allergies, procedures, test results, immunizations, medical contacts, etc. Offers integration with medical records and online health services. Has a doctor finder.
20080616 160219 Z	Upload your PDFs!	googledocs.b … d-your-pdfs.html	Vivek	Cyber Life, Google, TECH	You can read, share, and re-download your PDFs but you can't edit them via Google Docs. From Google Docs Help: "You can store up to 10MB per PDF from your computer and 2MB from the web in your Docs list, up to 100 PDFs.". More of Google's scheme to move your stuff to their servers!
20080906 134859 Z	Update to Google Chrome's terms of service	googleblog.b … es-terms-of.html		Browser, Chrome, Cyber Tech, Google, Legal, TECH	Ha ha! Like I told my Sys Admin on the day that Chrome was released: The Chrome EULA was a non-issue. They updated it to a not evil version: "11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services."
20080906 140432 Z	Mozilla Releases Firefox 3.1 Alpha 2	tech.slashdo … 0256207&from=rss		Browser, Cyber Life, Cyber Tech, Firefox, Google, TECH	So they'll be incorporating some of Chrome's features like the ability to drag and drop tabs between windows. Sweet. And the JavaScript engine might even be faster than Chromes? Hooray!: The public benefits from browser wars!
20080907 132335 Z	Little things that matter	gmailblog.bl … that-matter.html		Cyber Life, Google, TECH	The problem was that an event in Google Calendar would occupy the entire horizontal space and you couldn't click on the same time slot if you wanted to add a new event. But now there will always be a few pixels of gutter space on the right that's clickable. A simple, elegant, and useful solution!
20090305 161753 Z	New in Labs: Multiple Inboxes	gmailblog.bl … ple-inboxes.html	news.zdnet.c … html?tag=nl.e550	Cyber Life, Email, Google, TECH	One of the nicer things to come out of Google Labs for Gmail lately. It will save me a few clicks.
20090305 201226 Z	Four changes to Gmail contacts	gmailblog.bl … il-contacts.html		Email, Google, TECH	Sweet little upgrades. All worthy.
20090505 144612 Z	Wolfram Alpha and Google Face Off	www.technolo … 22585/?nlid=2001		Computers, Cyber Life, Cyber Tech, Google, Science, TECH	I saw the various stuff on Wolfram Alpha yesterday, including the video Stephen Wolfram discusses Wolfram|Alpha: Computational Knowledge Engine [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TIOH80Qg7Q]. It looks cool, but there was a feeling of a stacked deck, i.e. the questions were coached so as to get good results. This Technology Review article asks other sorts of questions. Google of course has to deal with a broader user base that asks a broad range of questions.
20090506 175726 Z	Patent reveals Google's book-scanning advantage	news.cnet.co … 10232931-76.html		Books, Google, Reading, TECH, Text	For those of you who, like me, worried about Google roughly handling thousands of books while they try to speedily scan them in: Apparently they don't have to mash any of these books onto scanners. It's a hands-off process that can also adjust for the curvature of the paper.
20090617 204843 Z	Firefox 3.5 RC good so far			Browser, Cyber Tech, Firefox, Google, Standards, TECH	Firefox 3.5 RC good so far. A jump from 3.0.11 to 3.5 sounds nice! Improvements include: Private browsing mode, TraceMonkey JavaScript, location aware browsing, native JSON, web worker threads, Gecko layout upgrades, HTML 5 support. A lot of this sounds like Google Chrome.
20090625 014038 Z	Let's make the web faster	code.google. … /speed/articles/	www.reddit.c … _the_web_faster/	Cyber Tech, Google, TECH	Some of the tips are good, but from the reddit thread, you'd think the whole thing sucked.
20090707 165414 Z	Google Apps is out of beta (yes, really)	googleblog.b … -yes-really.html		Cyber Life, Cyber Tech, Google, News	About time!
20090708 203726 Z	Firefox stability to get a boost with multiprocess browsing	arstechnica. … ess-browsing.ars	news.slashdo … owsing?art_pos=6	Browser, Cyber Tech, Firefox, Google	A nice benefit from competing with Google Chrome.
20090729 161712 Z	Yahoo Gives In to Microsoft, Gives Up on Search	www.business … 90728_826397.htm	digg.com/mic … ves_Up_on_Search	Cyber Life, Google, Microsoft, Money, News, Yahoo!	So Yahoo search (~20% share) will effectively become Microsoft Bing search (~10%), and will become the clear 2nd place search engine following Google with 65%. This smells of the death of Yahoo. Yahoo stock went down 11% after this news came out: "Stocks slump on Yahoo, durables" [http://money.cnn.com/2009/07/29/markets/markets_newyork/?postversion=2009072911]
20090806 122838 Z	Google Chrome Theme Gallery	/tools.googl … hemes/index.html		Browser, Chill, Cool, Cyber Tech, Google	Fun stuff. I like to apply a theme or skin now and then for a change, but I usually revert to "standard" after a while.
20090810 150842 Z	An Operating System for the Cloud	www.technolo … 23140/?nlid=2255		Apple, Cyber Life, Google, Microsoft, Operating System, TECH	A review of the operating system (OS), from where it's been with the mainframes and Microsoft, to where it is with Microsoft, Apple, and Linux, to where might go with Google. The review could have been more in depth but the potential of the article is nice.
20091112 003351 Z	The Go Programming Language	www.youtube. … ch?v=rKnDgT73v8s		Google, Programming, TECH	Ooh. One of the most exciting new programming languages in years. They had me at no parentheses for if statements!
20100104 192618 Z				Apple, Cyber Life, Cyber Tech, Google, Hardware, Reading, Software, TECH	We need more tablets! Apple, Google, Freescale, etc. Not just eBook readers, but cheap expandable touchable Internet tablets.
20100225 035022 Z	Exclusive: How Google's Algorithm Rules the Web	www.wired.co … +Stories+2%29%29		Cyber Life, Cyber Tech, Google	I thought they didn't let anybody look behind the curtains.
20100310 200158 Z	The Beast File- Google (HUNGRY BEAST)	www.youtube. … ch?v=dv4j4bguYYk		Cyber Life, Google, Videos	It's not too bad, here in the belly of the beast. This is so well done that you think Google made it themselves!
20100502 153258 Z	Top 10 Things You Didn't Know Google Maps Could Do	lifehacker.c … nt=Google+Reader		Cyber Life, Cyber Tech, Geography, Google	Making an convenient tool even more so.
20100505 022026 Z	Google acquires BumpTop: Will Android get a 3D facelift?	deals.ventur … bumptop-android/		Cyber Life, Google, Operating System, TECH	I had read that Google acquired BumpTop earlier, but this article has the TED Talk video where BumpTop CEO Anand Agarawala demos it. I'm itching for that Google tablet!
20100625 161154 Z	SVG Flowchart Shapes via Google Docs			Chart, Cyber Tech, Free Gratis, Free Libre, Google, Images, TECH	I've been playing with Google Drawings (in Google Docs). You can save a Google Drawing as .svg. This also means that you can use save their shapes (especially flowchart shapes) and use them in stuff like Inkscape. You can also go to openclipart.org to get other shapes. I'm trying to avoid stuff Microsoft Visio and OpenOffice Draw.
20100630 164224 Z	Ctrl+; working for Google Spreadsheets in Chrome			Browser, Cyber Life, Google	I just noticed that the Chrome got the keyboard shortcut to enter the date (Ctrl+;) to work for Google Spreadsheets in Chrome. Maybe they'll eventually get the date shortcut (Ctrl+:) to work too. The only other big request would be for vertical tree-style tabs (although I can weakly fake the latter with a vertical task bar in the OS).
20100818 172603 Z	Google launching a Chrome OS tablet on Verizon, goes on sale November 26	www.download … ovember-26-2010/		Cyber Life, Gadget, Google, TECH	And my birthday is in October too!

Version 11 of Windows Media Player (WMP) by Microsoft just came 2006-10-30. I've been fiddling with it and here are some of my notes on WMP, especially in comparison to Google's Picasa and Apple's iTunes. I think it's their best yet and it has some innovative modifications.

WMP 11 also places new emphasis on ripping (from audio CDs), burning (to discs), syncing (with portable devices like Zune by Microsoft or dozens more. playsforsure.com/FindPortableDevices.aspx), and media shopping (with Urge.com or over a dozen other online media stores.). However I'm not going to focus on those features in this post. I could also compare WMP against other software media/audio/video/picture/text players/viewers such as Winamp, etc. but that's a whole other post.

There are of course other review out there like this one: Windows Media Player 11 Review [winsupersite.com/reviews/wmp11.asp].

Media Types

The media players divide their top level "directories" by media types. iTunes has Music, Movies, TV Shows, Podcasts, Audiobooks, and Radio. Picasa's top level "directories" are revealed by looking at its search where the big options are Starred, Movies, and Uploaded, i.e. pictures are the default and there is no audio. WMP used to do Audio, Video, and Radio (streamed content), but now Radio seems to have vanished (but has actually moved to online stores; bye-bye free online radio :P) and in its place are (gasp!) Pictures, Recorded TV, and Other Media (which seems to only find minor audio file types like .au and .mid).

Interestingly, a year ago I was wishing for a media player that covered more media types:

Picasa [Picasa.Google.com], Google's free image manager, can manage graphics and video but not audio. This makes me think that Google must have some plans for audio and music, since this is such a hole in Picasa. Why not have a single app to manage your graphics, video, and audio?

-Google blip [georgehernandez.com/h/aaBlog/post.asp?ts=2005-12-15t19:55:35Z]

Since then, Google hasn't done much with Picasa except for adding Picasa Web Albums [picasaweb.google.com] (where Google can host and display some of your images; You can tag them, make albums, etc., all online). Google has been focusing more on video instead of audio with their Google Video [Video.Google.com] and their purchase of youtube.com. It's interesting to see them try different ways of monetizing it. Perhaps Google is also waiting for everything to coalesce when they come out with GDrive: a practically infinite online hard drive. GDrive is the big thing from Google that I've been salivating over and waiting for the most. I'm so antsy for GDrive that I find all the little leaks annoying: Don't show me the Playtpus interface for GDrive or whatever until I can actually use it. Anticipation is good but I can't let it have too much mind share.

Media file types matter because of issues like media stores, file sharing, Digital Rights Management (DRM), etc.. It's a large can of worms worth a whole other post, but briefly the arena is still working itself out. I personally believe in fewer restrictions (like in DRM) while allowing artists to make money. I also believe that file quality should trump file size, i.e. lossless should trump lossy compression, especially as storage space gets cheaper. I would prefer a general reduction in file types because no one want Betamax AND VHS, but it does make sense to have .jpg and .raw.

The four "great" medias are audio, video, pictures, and text.

• Videos: WMP has richer play options than Picasa (since Picasa can only play/pause) and can open a greater variety of file types. WMP does not have the mini-player in the library view that iTunes does. iTunes and QuickTime don't have the problems of multiple file types (like missing codecs) but on the other hand they can't play those other video files. As far as play goes, with iTunes you can open multiple videos at a time, pause one at a specific spot, and watch another from another spot.
• Audio: Picasa has no audio playing at all. iTunes has comparable play options to WMP. WMP and iTunes both play .mp3, .aiff, and .wav, but after that they play different files.
• Pictures:
  • Picasa is prettier than WMP and can open a greater variety of file types. I wish Picasa had a shuffle or random picture capability.
  • iTunes has no picture viewing at all.
  • WMP
    • WMP gives you 4 sec per image whereas Picasa lets you decide the display time when running a slideshow.
    • WMP has no edit functions but then again it's a player not an editor.
    • Having all the metadata to play with in WMP however makes it quite useful. Picasa needs more of this.
    • WMP can see .bmp, .gif, and .png, but only adds .jpg to the library. While the majority of people probably have .jpg, I wish they could have added the others, especially .gif, .png, and .raw. WMP may influence many people to just use .jpg.
• Text: No major media player does it: But why not? Organizing .doc, .pdf, .rtf, .html, etc. files would just get too hairy too fast, but a simple organizer and viewer for plain text files (.txt) would be nice. Many physical portable media players don't do text (like Zune) but iPod does and others probably will too. A very simple text editing feature would be sweet but then it would seem to be moving beyond the realm of media player. I'm not even going to start wishing for a reader that could read text out loud.

Here are the "official" media types for Picasa, WMP, and iTunes. ^^ = WMP can open it too. // = WMP can open it but does not add it to libraries. ## = WMP cannot open it.

• WMP. Where's my .ogg!!
  • Windows Media files, including: .asf, .asx, .wpl, .wm, .wmx, .wmd, and .wmz.
  • Windows Media Audio files, including: .wma and .wax
  • Windows Media Video files, including: .wmv and .wvx.
  • CDs, including: .cda.
  • Windows video files, including: .avi.
  • Windows audio files, including: .wav.
  • Movie files, including: .mpeg, .mpg, .mpe, m1v, .m2v, .mod, .mp2, .mpv2, .mp2v, and .mpa.
  • MP3 audio files, including: mp3 and .m3u.
  • MIDI files, including: .mid, .midi, and .rmi.
  • AIFF audio files, including: .aif, .aifc, and .aiff
  • AU audio files, including: .au and .snd.
• Picasa.
  • .jpg, .jpeg. ^^
  • .tif, .tiff. ##
  • .bmp. //
  • .gif. // WMP actually animates the image in Now Playing view, whereas Picasa only shows the first image.
  • .psd.  ##
  • .png. //
  • .raw formats, including: .crw and .nef. ##
  • movies, including: .avi, .mpg, .asf, and .wmv. ^^
  • Quicktime movies, including: .mov. ##
• iTunes.
  • .mp3. ^^
  • .aiff. ^^
  • .wav. ^^
  • MPEG-4, i.e. .mp4. ##
  • Apple Lossy = Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) and Apple Lossless = Apple Lossless Encoder (ALE) = Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC). Both of which are .m4a. ##

Zune supports .mp3, .wma, AAC (.mp4, .m4a, .m4b, .mov), .jpg, .wmv, MPEG-4 (.mp4, .m4v, .mov) and H.264 (.mp4, .m4v, .mov), so my hope is that in the future there will be greater cross platform file types if only everyone could somehow ensure the monetization.

Interface

One of the most exciting developments in this version of WMP is the new breadcrumb navigation with dropdowns. It's like a condensed version of the Mac OS horizontal hierarchy navigation instead of the usual largely vertical Microsoft Windows Explorer tree.

(This image was borrowed from http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304723.)

It's "condensed" because each little arrow on the right of each "directory" opens a drop down menu with the child "directories" of that "directory". The "ancestor" information is visible but the "aunt and uncle" info is hidden and yet accessible. While all the extra hierarchical info is useful in Windows Explorer and Mac OS, sometimes it cumbersome and takes up too much real estate. Once I got used to the Windows Media Player breadcrumb navigator with dropdowns, I have since kept the "Navigation Pane" on the left hidden and gained my self more horizontal real estate.

Here are other points on Windows Media Player 11, especially in comparison to Picasa and iTunes:

• File detection.
  • The WMP process of "watching" directories is unobtrusive. I'm not very confident in its immediacy because you can pop a file in a directory but WMP won't know it's there right away. I appreciate how WMP can do a forced find (F3).  What would have been nice is if you had the opportunity to refresh/force find when you're in a "folder" in the library view.
  • Picasa watches the directories with fairly good immediacy but it has that annoying pop up every time it finds something. Picasa does not give you the option for a forced find.
  • iTunes has detects files decently by pretty much insisting that you put your files in its directory.
• Performance.
  • WMP had significant pauses on some of the larger directories but that's not surprising.
  • Picasa did too but I think has Picasa tended to not unfreeze while so far WMP has fairly consistently unfroze itself eventually.
  • iTunes doesn't seem to pause, but then again I have far fewer files for iTunes so it's not a fair comparison.
• Keyboard shortcuts.

  Action	WMP	iTunes	QuickTime	Picasa
  Mute	F7 (was F8) HW	CTRL+ALT+DOWN	CTRL+DOWN	--
  Volume-	F8 (was F9) HW	CTRL+DOWN	DOWN	--
  Volume+	F9 (was F10) HW	CTRL+UP	UP	--
  Volume Max	##	##	CTRL+UP	--
  Play/Pause	CTRL+P HW (fix!)	SPACE	SPACE	SPACE (for Slideshow) / (for video)
  Last File	CTRL+B HW (fix!)	CTRL+LEFT	##	LEFT
  Next File	CTRL+F HW (fix!)	CTRL+RIGHT	##	RIGHT
  Stop	CTRL+S HW	##	##	##
  Stop and Back Frame	## * (fix!)	## (fix!)	LEFT	,
  Stop and Forward Frame	## * (fix!)	## (fix!)	RIGHT	.
  Go to File Start	## (fix!)	## (fix!)	CTRL+LEFT	##
  Go to File End	## (fix!)	## (fix!)	CTRL+RIGHT	##
  Zoom 50%	ALT+1	CTRL+0	ALT+0 $$	##
  Zoom 100%	ALT+2	CTRL+1	ALT+1 $$	##
  Zoom 200%	ALT+3	CTRL+2	ALT+2 $$	##
  Zoom Fit to screen	##	CTRL+3	ALT+3 $$	##
  Zoom Full screen	ALT+ENTER	CTRL+F	ALT+F $$	CTRL+ALT (not ALT+CTRL)
  Zoom In	##	##	##	UP
  Zoom Out	##	##	##	DOWN
  Resize to player	//	//	//	//
  Shuffle	CTRL+H	//	##	##
  Repeat List	CTRL+T	//	##	##
  Repeat One	##	//	##	##
  Switch between Library and Playing views	// (fix!)	ALT+TAB (in PCs)	##	ENTER/ESC
  // = Capability exists but no shortcut. ## = Capability does not exist or NA. $$ = For QuickTime Pro. HW = Works with physical buttons if exists. * = WMP has a feature similar to this that works inconsistently (probably because of the different file types): LEFT or RIGHT will jump back or front a few seconds within a file.

  • What a mess. It's like having the brakes and accelerator in different locations depending on make and model of the car.
• Views.
  • Picasa only has Small Thumbnails and Normal Thumbnails.
  • WMP has Icon, Extended Tile, and Detail views.
    • It is annoying that not all three options are available for all "directories", especially since the metadata should still be available in all directories.
    • Extended Tile does not show enough metadata.
    • I wish that Microsoft and other folks would follow the Mac thing of shrinking the date and time format when the space given to it is shrunk.
    • I love how in WMP, the column headers are still available for sorting --even when in the Icon or Tile views. I also love how the column sorting has not only the usual ascending and descending, but also a third click of default sort.
    • I like the new thing when in the Now Playing view where if the List pane on the right is wide enough, then it can show ratings and other meta data like run time.
  • iTunes has List, Grouped with Artwork, and with Cover Flow views.
    • I like how all three views give you full metadata access.
    • Pity that iTunes has no column option for File Path.
    • I like how a right-click instantly gives you access to the available columns list. In WMP you have a few extra clicks.
  • I like how you can rearrange columns in WMP or iTunes, but I wish they would also gave you the ability to drag off unwanted columns.
• Playlists.
  • WMP and iTunes have playlist and are equivalent to Picasa's albums.
  • The WMP Auto Lists are equivalent to iTunes Smart Lists, but Picasa has no such thing.
  • WMP, iTunes, and Picasa all allow you to make playlists of mixed media types.
  • Once you get used to labels and tags (a la Picasa and Gmail), then old folders, virtual folders, and playlists else seem to be lacking. Come on people! Embedding metadata within the media files is the way to go! Picasa does both.
• Search.
  • WMP search works on a "directory" level. You can also search "official" media information. EG: Search for "genre:rock".
  • iTunes search works on a "directory" level.
  • Picasa search works on entire collection.
  • I would like it if you could have the option select the scope of your search.
• Ratings.
  • WMP and iTunes allows you to rate 1 to 5 stars.
  • Picasa allows you to mark items as starred or not.
  • I'd like the 1-5 stars option plus the option to flag files.

I'm sure I'll have other comments as I go along but overall this upgrade was an improvement on WMP. WMP is good as an audio (depending on you audio source) and video player (except for .mov and animated .gif). WMP is good as a picture viewer (if you're only viewing .jpg). I wish WMP could be a plain text organizer and reader too. WMP needs more tagging capabilities.

It is interesting to see the new Windows Photo Gallery (WPG) [http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/features/details/photogallery.mspx] in Vista, in light of my recent post comparing the media players of Picasa, Windows Media Player, and iTunes. While the latter three focus on multiple media types (photo, video, audio), WPG focuses entirely on photos. What really catches my eye about WPG is that it seems to genuinely use tagging via Adobe's Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) [W]. Of these previous 3 media players, only Picasa implemented tags (not just lists), WPG may do it better than Picasa since the tag XMP metadata is stored in the media files themselves instead of externally the way Picasa does.

Windows Photo Gallery. Ho-hum, right? Just another lightweight program to import photos from a digital camera? What most reviewers miss is Photo Gallery's support for the Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP), developed by Adobe and used in a variety of professional-strength photo-editing applications. When you tag a JPEG or TIFF photo with keywords in Windows Vista, those tags are stored directly in the file as metadata, which you can use to search, sort, and filter images in Photo Gallery. That's a great leap forward from Apple's iPhoto and Google's Picasa, both of which store metadata in sidecar files rather than in the image itself.

It is funny to see the Digg folks so concerned about bashing Microsoft that they no one has even mentioned this. But then again the Digg thread on WPG [digg.com/....] was from 2006-05.

This sort of thing is powerful. People just need access to it and knowledge of it.

Google Inc. on Wednesday plans to begin letting consumers download and print free of charge classic novels and many other, more obscure books that are in the public domain. Using Google's Book Search service, Web surfers hunting titles like Dante's ''Inferno'' and Aesop's ''Fables'' will be able to download PDF files of the books for later reading, to run keyword searches or to print them on paper. Up to now, the service only allowed people to read the out-of-copyright books online.

Google's Book Search service is the product of its Books Library Project, which is digitizing books from major libraries around the world in order to make them searchable online. Its partners include the University of Michigan, Harvard University, Stanford University, Oxford University, the University of California and the New York Public Library. Google is also conducting a pilot project with the Library of Congress.

For kicks, I looked up "eve mark twain" at Google Book Search [books.google.com] and I did find a full copy of Eve's Diary: Translated from the Original Ms., a short story by Mark Twain. I was able to download a PDF copy of a 1906 copy of the book illustrated by Lester Ralph, published in New York by Harper & Brothers Publishers, and scanned from the Harvard University Library.

• I like how they scanned everything from the front cover to the back.
• There were a few bad scans, especially on the pages with just illustrations.
• The website has the page numbering right, but the PDF I downloaded has the page numbering off by one. Hence if I view the document in Acrobat in "facing" page, the odd pages are on the left hand side instead of the right hand side. This is more annoying than usual because this is a book where each odd page has text matched with an illustration on the even numbered page.

I've checked several other books (like Aesop's Fables and Plato's Republic) and their PDFs both had the odd/even problem.

It's funny but if you look you can see scans of the fingers of some of the scanners!

http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC02133295&id=EtkMAAAAIAAJ&pg=PT6&dq=Inazo+Nitobe

Of course free texts are also online at Gutenburg.net, but text typed in is different from scans of original books.

Now if only Google could archive public domain music and video too!

Not quite a googol (10 ¹⁰⁰) but 2 ⁹⁶ is close enough. So Google becoming the next  AOL? (I can barely say that without snorting). IPv6 is closer than I thought!

Garett Rogers had this blog about "Google's secret IPv6 plans".  It appears that Google owns a block of IPv6 addresses numbering approximately 7.9 x 10²⁸ (79 billion billion billion addresses) or 2⁹⁶.  Basically Google owns any IPv6 address from:

2001:4860:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000
	
to
	
2001:4860:FFFF:FFFF:FFFF:FFFF:FFFF:FFFF

ARIN (the organization that allocates IP addresses on the Internet) only gives IP blocks of this size to ISP for the purpose of reselling to end users and companies.  Put this in the context of Google's continued purchase of dark fiber (unused fiber optic cabling, much of it left from the dotcom era) and the construction of a massive data center, it's clear that Google is trying to position itself in the heart of the Internet.

Others have tried it but it takes a big name like Google to popularize it.

In a Windows environment, most users know how to use the typical C: in "My Computer".  Network drives work exactly the same but are given a different letter and the files within are not stored on the computer.  If my suspicions are correct and GDrive is simply a network share, most applications could take advantage of this service without modification.

The question of course is how Google will monetize a service like this.  I cannot see how file storage using a network share could be used to serve up advertisements — so maybe they won't.  In some screenshots of Gmail for domains, it appears there are different "account plans" that I assume provide additional email addresses.  Could a similar system work for online storage?  For example, 1GB free and pay $5 for each additional.

Two links I'm relating:

• Meetings make us dumber, study shows [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17279961/] [via http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/23/1757227&from=rss]
• Living with Google Apps--at Google [http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,129321-c,software/article.html]

If the power of individual creativity can be mollified at meetings, then it seems that individuals working asynchronously via collaborative apps would make better use of that power.

My company has effectively been using the Google Apps for months now (Gmail, calendar, talk, docs, and spreadsheets). It's been good but I haven't been able to convince any of my weenie co-workers at ICLOPS [iclops.com] (and yes I know they read my blog sometimes!) to collaborate on docs, but so far there has only been collaboration on spreadsheets. Oh well. At least it's been easier than trying to get the Chicago Swordplay Guild [chicagoswordplayguild.com] to use the WYSIWYG CMS system I created for them to make posts online. Oh well. I love both of you groups anyway!

On the other hand a meeting that is both managed and somewhat combative is productive. I've had that with ICLOPS in person and with the CSG mailing list.

I was testing out Google Checkout [https://checkout.google.com/], which essentially stores your shopping info (payment method and shipping address) so you can reuse that info at a large number of shopping sites, which are searchable at Google Product Search [google.com/products]. Google also has a wish list/shopping list at http://froogle.google.com/shoppinglist, but I think they are trying migrating from Froogle to Google Product Search. This Google Checkout/Product Search combo seems like an attempt to move in on Amazon (shopping portal) and PayPal (money pipe) territory but where Google itself is not a vendor and where all the vendors have much more autonomy. In any case, I signed up and got a nifty $10 bonus to use on a purchase in a limited time frame.

And that's my lame main excuse for buying this knife.

There is a huge variety of choices in knives. Essentially, I wanted a convenience knife that could have combat applications. Brands like Spyderco [spyderco.com] have a largely "combat" image, so I wanted a manufacturer with a more "domesticated" image. There is of course Victorinox [victorinox.com]. I still have my Victorinox Swiss Army knife but it doesn't have a locking blade and the Swiss Army knives with locking blades are too long since in Illinois a concealed knife can't be longer than 3 inches = 7.62 cm.

In the end, the manufacturer I chose was Leatherman [leatherman.com]. Leather has quite a utilitarian image and yet makes good knives. I went to site and looked over the choices and I narrowed it down to these:

• e302/e303. 2.8", lock, flat/Phillips screwdriver.
• c304/c305. 2.8", no lock, flat/Phillips screwdriver.
• e306x/e307x. 2.8", lock, bit driver.
• k502x/k503x 3.1", lock, bit driver, CM.
• h502/h503 3.1", lock, bit driver, stainless.

In the end, the model I chose was the e303. (The e302 has no serrated forte.) I didn't want to have the annoyance of losing bits and the flat and Phillips screwdriver's all I'd really need. The e303.

The next step was to find a reputable seller at a decent price (too low might be an indicator of bad customer service). I tried looking via the regular Google, Google Product Search/Froogle, and Yahoo.

In the end, the seller I chose was the Dick's Sporting Goods [dickssportinggoods.com]. I ordered it online (using the Google $10 bonus) on 2007-04-11 and I received it 2007-04-20, yesterday. I love the knife. It has a nice solid feel. The blade launcher feature (with or without the thumb stud) can make the blade pop out as fast as a switch blade knife. This is a knife I can wear and use every day.

s

Some people get sneezy when a storm is coming because of the change in air pressure. I'm getting a sense that a storm from Google is coming. I've been innocently waiting forever for the Google Drive (simple online storage) to come but, as usual, Google wants to do much more. Change can be good.

• "The Future is Cloudy". The MySQL hooks are fascinating.
• "Google's Cloud"
• "Is Google's 'free' cloud an illusion?". Thanks for the excuse to listen to Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now"!
• "Google's Cloud Looms Large"

A city-size chunk of the Wilkins Ice Shelf has actively and visibly collapsed in just a few days.

• By 02-28, a piece of the shelf 100 sq. Km = 39 sq. miles broke off.
• By 03-08, an additional 570 sq. Km = 102 sq. miles is visibly distenegrating.
• Roughly another 8000 sq. Km = 3000 sq. miles is expected to distengrate as well.

For reference, I took a screenshot of Google Maps of the Wilkins Shelf (70°15'S, 73°W) and of Chicago on the same scale:

For reference, Chicago is 606 sq. Km = 237 sq. miles, so roughly a Chicago-sized chunk of ice has fallen into the ocean. All together an area around the size of Rhode Island (4002 sq. Km = 1545 sq. miles) is expected to fall in.

I've sort of gotten used to the ability to see previous versions as well as have the ability to revert to previous versions. EG: Previous verions of any document in Wikipedia or Google Documents can be seen (and reverted to) by checking the history. This is sort of similar to Revision control [W] in engineering and software development. The concept can be applied on the row level for tables in databases. Here is a brief presentation of very simple row-level versioning (RLV) that can be implemented cross-platform.

The versioning concept can be implemented on different scales —from the document level (like Wikipedia or Googe Documents) to the row-level. For reference, here are some articles on RLV for Microsoft SQL Server:

• "Database Concurrency and Row Level Versioning in SQL Server 2005" (2005-04-30) [http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/2005/cncrrncy.mspx]. By Kalen Delaney and Fernando Guerrero.
• "The Hidden Costs of Row-Level Versioning" (2006-11) [http://www.sqlmag.com/Articles/ArticleID/93465/93465.html?Ad=1]. By Kalen Delaney.
• "Advanced Concepts in SQL Server 2005" (2007-11-15) [http://aspalliance.com/1489_Advanced_Concepts_in_SQL_Server_2005.all]. By Joydip Kanjilal.
• "Row Level Versioning" (2008-04-07) [http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/SQL+Server+2005/62464/#]. By Roy Ernest.

The cool thing about very simple RLV, is that I can explain it without having to show any SQL code!

First I'll show what happens to a table without RLV:

-- INSERT a row:
ID  Name
----------------
1   Fred

-- UPDATE a row:
ID  Name
----------------
1   Freddy

-- DELETE a row:
ID  Name
----------------

A table without RLV is fine for most situations. However sometimes you want a log or record of actions on a row, when, who did it, and perhaps a comment of any actions to a row. Plus you may also want to restore a deleted row. Here's whant happens to a table with very simple RLV:

-- INSERT a row:
ID  ObjID   Wizard              Current Action  ActionDate  ActionUserID    ActionNote
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1   1       Mithrandir          1       ins     20080201    1               Sindarin

-- UPDATE a row:
ID  ObjID   Wizard              Current Action  ActionDate  ActionUserID    ActionNote
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1   1       Mithrandir          0       ins     20080201    1               Sindarin
2   1       Gandalf the Grey    1       upd     20080202    2               Easier

-- DELETE a row:
ID  ObjID   Wizard              Current Action  ActionDate  ActionUserID    ActionNote
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1   1       Mithrandir          0       ins     20080201    1               Sindarin
2   1       Gandalf the Grey    0       upd     20080202    2               North name
3   1       Gandalf the Grey    1       del     20080203    3               Balrog

-- RESTORE a row (not restore a database):
ID  ObjID   Wizard              Current Action  ActionDate  ActionUserID    ActionNote
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1   1       Mithrandir          0       ins     20080201    1               Sindarin
2   1       Gandalf the Grey    0       upd     20080202    2               North name
3   1       Gandalf the Grey    0       del     20080203    3               Balrog
4   1       Gandalf the Grey    1       res     20080204    4               Reborn

-- UPDATE a row:
ID  ObjID   Wizard              Current Action  ActionDate  ActionUserID    ActionNote
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1   1       Mithrandir          0       ins     20080201    1               Sindarin
2   1       Gandalf the Grey    0       upd     20080202    2               North name
3   1       Gandalf the Grey    0       del     20080203    3               Balrog
4   1       Gandalf the Grey    0       res     20080204    1               Reborn
5   1       Gandalf the White   1       upd     20080205    2               Renamed

(OK, OK, I admit that part of the joy of this post was the chance to personally resurrect Gandalf!)

Mind you this is an implementation of very simple row level versioning. You could capture all sort of other goodies (like the User's IP). The above example could be an example of an actual table or an example of a log table for an actual table. I recommend the latter as a unique log table for each actual table with RLV so that you capture an exact snapshot of the state of a row at the time of a given action. A seperate log table also keeps the actual table small. You could also wrap stuff in a transaction.

Google is going to start using Solid-state drives (SSD) [W] on a data center scale. It makes sense since the disadvantages of SSD/flash drives (EM vulnerability, slower write speed, etc.) are going away. SSDs are clearly phasing in.

EG: Just this weekend we got a digital video camera. The choices in media storage include cassettes, optical disks, magnetic drives, and SSD. SSD was the obvious choice: No moving parts, lighter, smaller, quieter, and more energy efficient. We got the top-rated Canon Vixia HF100 instead of the HF10. The difference between the two is that the HF10 has a built in 16 GB SSD, but the price difference was much more than the cost of 16 GB worth of flash.

Google just announced that they now have templates for Google Documents [https://docs.google.com/templates] and they already have hundreds of templates! Since it's by Google the templates are searchable and rated. It's also a creativity showcase for what you can do with Google documents.

Google just launched Knol, a Wikipedia alternative that is closer to About.com, Suidoo, or HubPages. The Knol site defines a knol as "an authoritative article about a specific topic". Basically an author can write a knol alone or in collaboration with specific authors or any other registered author. Knol authors can have their name verified via phone or credit card. Knol authors also get a share of Google AdSense revenue on their knols.

The value of Knol to the average user is not so much the searchability but that the articles are rated (in theory the best article on a topic will rise to the top), the authors are verified to a small degree, and the authors have tighter control over their content. What Knol lacks that Wikipedia has is the hyperlinking between articles. Also because of the limited authoring per knol, knols will probably tend to create echo rooms where everyone who likes one view of a topic will favor one knol, while those who favor another view will favor another knol; By contrast since Wikipedia have unlimited authorship, they authors fight back and forth until they come to a more neutral and balanced presentation of the topic.

10gen [10gen.com] has just arrived as an open-source alternative in the cloud computing arena (apps and data hosted on a hundreds of servers knitted together to form a cloud or grid or virtual super computer). There are of course the big players like Google App Engine (GAE) [http://code.google.com/appengine/], Amazon Web Services, Yahoo, and IBM, as well as smaller players like KickApps [kickapps.com].

As an example of its open-source nature, 10gen has an open-source, scalable, object database instead of a relational database. Contrast this with GAE's proprietary BigTable that uses GQL and no joins. One of the cooler things about 10gen is that it uses JavaScript! Lately I've been loving using JavaScript for both client-side and server-side coding. Contrast this with GAE's use of Python with Django. Both 10gen and Google say that they'll support other languages later.

Personally I'm torn because while 10gen just got $1.5 million in venture capital, Google is more of a sure thing.

cuil.com just came out today. It's a search engine (pronounced "cool") made by former Google employees that claims to be better: A larger index (186 billion Web pages crawled but 120 included); Uses fewer servers; Better user privacy [http://www.cuil.com/info/privacy/]; Larger entries for search results; More pictures in search results; Greater use of horizontal space; etc.

Looks good so far. A bit laggy but it is their first day. Oddly enough, it couldn't find anything for "JavaScript null".

The article quoted US search engine marketshare (via comScore as of 2007-05): Google 62%, Yahoo 21%, and Microsoft 8.5%, totaling 91.5%. This article (comScore Media Metrix Search Engine Ratings [http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2156431]), shows these ratings for 2007-07: Google 43.7%, Yahoo (including AltaVista, AllTheWeb, and Overture) 28.8%, MSN 12.8%, AOL 5.9%, and Ask 5.4%, totaling 96.6%.

I stumbled upon this new feature of Google Maps entirely fortuitously. I was wondering what the walking/running distance was between home and work, so I looked up the directions in Google Maps, lo and behold!, there in addition for directions by car and public transportation, there was one for walking directions! Apparently Google was sneaking this feature out to the public around a month ago (http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/07/google-maps-tests-walking-directions.html). I poked around and apparently there are various sites like Google Map Pedometer [http://www.webwalking.com/googlemap.htm] that use Google Maps as a pedometer for walking/running routes.

I just made a page called Cyber Rules. It will probably change over time so this post will contain the original version.

Simple rules and guidelines for safety, etiquette, and excellence online (the Web, cyberspace, online shopping, IM, chat rooms, email, messageboards, etc.).

Kids, Teens, and Parents Online

I'm a programmer but I'm also a parent.

• For kids: Have a few simple rules that are easy to remember. Rules, not long-winded speeches.
• For teens: The same rules apply, but once you're 18 you're responsible for yourself.
• For parents:
  • Rules are not a replacement for relating with your offspring, checking on them, and educating them.
  • Minors are human beings and have an increasing need for privacy and trust as they get older.

Safety

• Don't give out personal information like your real name, age, phone number, address, or your photo.
• Don't buy anything online without a guardian.
• Don't download stuff besides pictures and PDFs.
• Don't click on a link in an email.
• Beware of links that take you off site.

Etiqette

• Try to behave online as you would in real life.
• Don't type in ALL CAPS. IT CAN BE VERY TIRING.
• In casual online communications, don't correct someone else's spelling, grammar, or punctuation.

Excellence

• Learn and practice touch typing until it is intuitive.
• Use a mouse or equivalent until it is intuitive.
• Use Wikipedia [wikipedia.org], the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.
• Use Google [google.com].
• If you have to choose between real life or cyber life, choose real life.

Safety Online

• Assume that anything you say (type, do, post, access, etc.) online (the Web, cyberspace, online shopping, IM, chat rooms, email, messageboards, etc.) is permanenently recorded and may turn up for the whole world to see soon or anytime in the future.
• Online shopping:
  • Use a separate email for online shopping.
  • Use a separate credit card for online shopping.
  • Ensure the site is who they say they are. A Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) padlock in the browser helps.
  • Ensure that your info is encrypted during transmission. A SSL prefix for the address (https://) helps.
• Don't download stuff besides pictures and PDFs. Executables (.exe) in particular are high risk.
• Don't click on a link in an email. Especially not from a supposed bank or porn site.
• Beware of links that take you off site. The text may say one thing but the link may differ.

Etiqette Online

• Try to behave online as you would in real life.
• Don't type in ALL CAPS. IT CAN BE VERY TIRING.
• In casual online communications, don't correct someone else's spelling, grammar, or punctuation.
• If you are new to a message board, then read the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).
• If you are going to radically change the subject, then don't hijack, but rather start a new subject.
• Use a meaningful title on your email/post/comment. "IMPORTANT!!!!" or "Please read" aren't useful -- they just look like spam.
• Keep communications between as few people as possible. For example, don't send to the group when you can send to one person.
• Cyber shorthand can be convenient but mind your audience. Only the most common ones (like FYI for "for your information") will be known by broader audiences.

Excellence Online

• Learn and practice touch typing until it is intuitive.
• Use a mouse or equivalent until it is intuitive.
• Use Wikipedia [wikipedia.org], the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. Share your knowledge with the world!
• Use Google [google.com]. Share calendars and documents with your family that you can access from any browser.
• If you have to choose between real life or cyber life, choose real life.
• Twitter is for ninnies.

A brand new browser by Google called Chrome [google.com/chrome] came out yesterday. I've tried it out at work on Windows XP and at home on Windows Vista Ultimate.

On the front end, the best thing about it is that it's fast. Not just a bit faster but 2 to 20 times faster. The interface is very clean and minimalist. There are a lot of little front end niceties like all textarea controls on forms are now resizable. The "Omnibox" combines the URL address bar (ALT+D) and search bar (CTRL+E) into one as is done Opera. The root of each URL is highlighted in the Omnibox (IE8 does this too). The Omnibox provides unobtrusive suggestions (for stuff you've visited, likely searches, popular sites, etc.) as you type instead of nasty auto-completing. Chrome also gives the user more real estate by hiding the status bar (which shows as you type) or hiding the bookmarks bar (CTRL+B).

Chrome is built upon the open source WebKit, hence it has ties to Konqueror and Safari. However they also have developers from Firefox too. FYI: The major browser rendering engines are Gecko (EG Firefox), Trident (EG Internet Explorer), and Presto (EG Opera), and WebKit. The speed gain has a large contribution from the JavaScript virtual machine by V8. Chrome increases security and stability by sandboxing just about everything. Multiprocessing within a browser is a great idea for which Google will get a lot of credit for (evne though it was done by Opera since 1994 and will be in the Internet Explorer 8). I like how having the tabs on top provide a visual reminder that each tab is a separate process. I like how you can access Chrome's Task Manager (via a menu or SHIFT+ESC), much like you can access Window's Task Manager.

Chrome is missing add ons or extensions, which users of Firefox become dependent upon. Chrome will almost certainly have add ons as time goes on. This is a good time to review the Firefox extensions I use.

• Add ons that Chrome does not or may not need:
  • Tree Style Tab. This is my favorite extension. I can live without it with Chrome if I use different windows for major sets of tabs. It also helps that tabs can be moved between windows or made into a new window.
  • Tabs Open Relative. This is good for vertical tabs but isn't that important for horizontal tabs.
  • Ctrl-Tab. CTRL+TAB and CTRL+SHIFT+TAB. Already works with Chrome.
  • FirefoxView, IE View Lite, and something like Chrome View. Screw the overhead. It's not too hard to copy and paste a URL.
• Add ons that I'd like for Chrome:
  • FireGestures. Gestures should be built into browsers.
  • Flashblock. This can free up a lot of resources.
  • Google Toolbar. The absence of this in Chrome should almost guarantee that Chrome will allow add ons. The main reason I need it is for Google Bookmarks [google.com/bookmarks], but I suppose I can go to the page for a while.
  • GooglePreview
  • PicLens
  • CoolIris Previews
  • JSView
  • Firebug. Chrome does however have some very interesting features developer. The addition of line numbers when viewing source is a nice touch.
  • Source Viewer Tab
  • StumbleUpon
  • Flagfox
  • AdBlocker. Many people use this but I personally don't use an adblocker. I don't mind ads in space, but ads in time (like TV or radio commercials) I do. As Napoleon said: "Space I can recover. Time, never.".

The things I don't like about Chrome:

• I like the Omnibar but I want an easier on-the-fly method to change which search engine I'm using.
• I was going to complain about bookmark management, but I guess it's OK to manage pages and folders right there with drag and drop.
• I was going to complain about a lack of a progress bar (to note status of page load), but I guess you usually can tell even without a progress bar.
• Chrome seems stricter about some instances of code. EG: Bad coding like <h2>test</h3> will be automatically corrected by most other browsers, but not in Chrome. Many sites will have to adjust. EG: A few hours ago the home page for Google Docs was fine on the free version but broken for the paid version. I checked just now and they've fixed it.

Here are some of the better links to Chrom right now:

• http://www.google.com/chrome. The official source. The comic on Chrome by Scott McCloud is wonderful! I recognized his style before I read that he did it.
  
• "First Test of Google's New Browser" [http://ptech.allthingsd.com/20080902/first-test-of-googles-new-browser/]. Walter S. Mossberg was able to use it a week before yesterday's release.
• http://digg.com/tech_news/BREAKING_Google_Chrome_Just_Launched. Just to hear the masses.
• Slashdot (of course) has a bunch of related posts:
  • "Google Chrome, the Google Browser"
  • "Google Chrome, Day 2"
  • "Reading Google Chrome's Fine Print". No one ever reads the EULA. My Sys Admin won't use Chrome because of the EULA, but I don't think it's that big a deal
  • "Mozilla's Thoughts On Google's Chrome"
• Browser detect [http://www.quirksmode.org/js/detect.html]. I love how quickly Peter-Paul Koch tweaked his browser detector.

BOTTOM LINE: I love it! I want a few things that only Firefox has right now, but I think they're coming to Chrome.

Yesterday I made a post on Google Chrome. Today I bothered to look into its Help and discovered that some of my complaints are actually already dealt with. (Silly me but apparently all three of these shortcut are already in Firefox but I've lost track of which features are via add ons.)

Yesterday I said "I like the Omnibar but I want an easier on-the-fly method to change which search engine I'm using.". Apparently there is a way! If you go to Options then manage the search engines, you can set a key word for each search engine. EG: I've set the key word for Wikipedia as "wiki"; To use search Wikipedia from the Omnibar, I just type in "wiki" and then whatever I'm searching for. Easy!

Yesterday I said "Gestures should be built into browsers." However the main reason I use gestures for is to go back or forward in the tab's browsing history. I've always thought that ALT+ARROW was too much in comparison to a mouse gesture, but Chrome has BS or SHIFT+BS. Sweet!

I did not mention the ability to undo a close tab, but I use it all the time. Apparently CTRL+SHIFT+T can un-close the last 10 tabs. This is supposed to compliment CTRL+T (which opens a new tab). I wonder if they experimented with an alternate shortcut for un-close by complimenting it with the close tab shortcut: CTRL+SHIFT+W compliments CTRL+W?

So really I'm just waiting for Add Ons!

Ah! It's about time that Google fixed their own app running on their own browser.

Note 1: I used Chrome as my primary browser for a week after it came out, but as much as I love the implementation of tabs on Chrome, I can't live without the Tree Style Tab add on for Firefox and the Google Bookmarks via the Google Toolbar in Firefox.

Note 2: I love how Google docs finally implemented an automated table of contents feature (Inserting items: Table of contents [http://documents.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=106342&hl=en]) just like they have with Google Sites.

Note 3: Since Chrome came out, youtube has been working inconsistently. Right now youtube videos play on Chrome but not on Firefox for my machine Windows XP, but on my Windows Vista machine youtube videos play on Firefox but not on Chrome.

Sweet! I think this version of electronic books will burst the dam, and we will finally see a shift away from paper books. This is different from the fading of paper newspapers because that was due to the Web. The Kindle 2.0 will succeed because of the confluence of wireless 3G technology, cloud data technology, Web integration in a light and natural way, paper-like rendition, the right physical size and weight, longer battery life (4 days to 2 weeks), Apple-like design, and, most importantly, commitment by a big player with big bucks, and a core strong interest in seeing this thing through.

At Amazon, we've always been obsessed with having every book ever printed, and we know that even the best reading device would be useless without a massive selection of books. Today, the Kindle Store has more than 230,000 books available, plus top newspapers, magazines, and blogs. This is just the beginning. Our vision is to have every book ever printed, in any language, all available in under 60 seconds on Kindle. We won't stop until we get there.

Google has been working on scanning in millions of public domain books, and they are working on getting those and other books available for mobile devices ("How Google Is Making Books Mobile" [http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/22665/?a=f]), but the cell phone form factor is too small.

Amazon is the right company for e-books. Kindle accounts for 10% of what Amazon sells --I had no idea that Kindle was that big! I also like how they understand the reading experience of the "disappearing book":

The most elegant feature of a physical book is that it disappears while you're reading. Immersed in the author's world and ideas, you don't notice a book's glue, the stitching, or ink. Our top design objective was to make Kindle disappear--just like a physical book--so you can get lost in your reading, not the technology.

This is a new link to include in HTML headers for the purpose of URL normalization [W]. It's supported by big players such as Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft.

Here are a few other related links:

• Understanding the New Canonical Link Element [http://www.clickz.com/3632819]
• Canonical Link Element [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm9onOGTgeM]

It's so easy to implement, that I just tweaked my site to have it on almost all pages in just a few minutes.

The best explanation of Google Voice that I've seen so far.

Users will soon be able to register, sign up for a phone number in a local area code, and add multiple landline and cell-phone numbers to an account. When someone calls a Google Voice phone number, all the registered phones ring at the same time.

It's the voice equivalent of an e-mail address. Once you register a number, the idea is that you never have to worry about which phone you are using, even if you switch offices, homes, or cell phones.

Google Voice is also largely about unification. No matter which phone you use, there is one portal for all voice-mail messages. You can play them on the Web, save them as MP3 files, and even post a voice-mail message on a website using an HTML embed feature. Conference calls are also easy: just answer an incoming call to add it to the current one.

When a caller leaves a voice mail, Google Voice automatically records and transcribes the message, then sends the transcription to you via e-mail.

Google Voice lets you send and receive text messages--again, by routing them between existing carriers. You can view a list of every SMS message you have ever sent, which is a highly useful feature. It's easy to review a history of placed, missed, and recorded calls. You can also import contacts from various address books. And you can easily disable one or more phones using a feature called Do Not Disturb.

The article is about mobile apps and the blurring distinction apps on mobile devices and web apps on mobile devices. I can see my company, ICLOPS [iclops.com], making mobile web apps in the near future.

This paragraph summarizes the technologies involved:

These features include a graphics tool called Canvas, "persistent storage," and an "application cache," explains Shyam Sheth, product manager on Google's mobile team. Canvas is something of an alternative to the popular Adobe Flash software that's commonly used to create graphics and animation on the Web. Persistent storage provides a way for data, originally on a remote server (such as Google's e-mail servers), to be stored locally, on the device. The HTML 5 application cache keeps important information about an application on the device that allows it to open quickly, as if it were running directly on the hardware instead of remotely. The iPhone version of Gmail uses only HTML 5, whereas Android uses a combination of HTML 5 and Gears (a Google software add-on that enables its Web apps to run offline).

This paragraph explains a major reason of why to do it. Cross platform programming is annoying!

Sheth says that there are a number of advantages for developers who build mobile applications via the Web. While there are only three major operating systems for desktops that developers need to learn, there are tens of mobile-device platforms with various different requirements. Applications can be built on the Web and need to be modified only slightly for different mobile devices. "Given the number of platforms we have in the mobile space," says Sheth, "we really need a unifying platform . . . That's why Google is so heavily investing in the Web becoming the common platform."

My phone contract is up for renewal this May. I'm either going with a minimal phone that can phone, text, and takes pictures, or I'll go with a full smart phone.Here's the most in-depth look at the T-Mobile G1 phone: THE DEFINITIVE IN-DEPTH REVIEW: Optus HTC Dream with Google Android [http://apcmag.com/australian-review-htc-dream-optus.htm].

I've also gathered basic stats to compare the G1 against the Apple iPhone:

Feature	iPhone	G1
Price	200	180
Height	4.5"	4.6"
Width	2.4"	2.16"
Depth	0.48"	0.62"
Weight	133 g	158 g
Display	3.5" 480x320	3.2" 480x320
Camera	2 Mpix	3.2 Mpix
Keyboard	SW	HW
Trackball	no	yes
CPU	620 MHz ARM 1176	528 MHz ARM 11
RAM	128 DRAM	192 DDR SDRAM + 256 MB Flash
Storage	8 or 16 GB built in	1-8 GB microSD
Data Port	30 pin dock connector	USB
Audio Port	3.5 mm	USB or USB with 3.5 mm dongle
Recharge	Dock to USB	USB
Battery Talk	5 h	5 h
Battery Standby	300 h	130 h
Battery Replacement	dealer only	you or dealer

The G1 is appealing because I make heavy use of Google for email and calendar. Since my name is George, having a phone called "G1" has some ego appeal. It is also a pleasing coincidence that the G1 was released on my birthday in 2008.

It's a netbook running on a cell phone chip thus it's cheap, energy efficient, and it runs on Google's free (libre and gratis) Android operating system.

Currently, many netbooks use Intel's Atom processor, which is built using the x86 architecture found in most of the company's desktop, laptop, and server chips. Most netbooks get about an hour of power per battery cell. On an ARM-based notebook, Solis says, it could be possible to get eight hours from a three-cell battery. Of course, while long battery life is appealing, there is a definite trade-off. "If you're looking for a powerful speedy laptop, then these netbooks aren't for you," Solis says. "But if you're looking for something that can last you all day without recharging, and that's at an even lower cost than most netbooks, then these might work."

Google doesn't like versions (Gmail is still beta) so they're not making a big deal of upgrading the browser from Chrome 1 to Chrome 2. The upgrades seem trivial: Improved Tab Page? Please, I hardly use that. Full Screen Mode and Form Autofill? Umm, features that most browsers already have? The upgrades in speed and stability are less sexy but more important. I noticed right away that Chrome can finally play Youtube.

However Chrome still needs just three things:

• Extensions. AdBlock, Firebug, Tree Style Tabs, and Gestures at the very least.
• Google Toolbar. Why can't Chrome install this common Google product? At the very least have the option to use Google Bookmarks over the browser's bookmarks.
• Linux version. Not for me but it should be done.

People like me are eager to switch because as much as we love Firefox, it's still a memory hog.

PS: Google: The keyboard shortcuts to enter date (CTRL+;) and time (CTRL+:) in Google Spreadsheets are still broken for Chrome.

Apparently you can play with extensions for the Google Chrome browser. The only extension I really wanted for Chrome is access to Google Bookmarks. So here's what I did:

• I got the dev-channel version of Chrome at http://dev.chromium.org/getting-involved/dev-channel.
• Through Chrome I clicked on http://sites.google.com/site/uniformedopinion/GoogleBookmarks/googlebookmarks.crx?attredirects=0, which installed the Google Bookmarks extension.
• I right-clicked on my Windows shortcut to Chrome and changed the target from "pathchrome.exe" to "pathchrome.exe" --enable-extensions.
• I restarted Chrome.

It puts your Google Bookmarks in Chrome's "Other bookmarks". Chrome updates syncs its bookmarks with Google Bookmarks every time open up Chrome. It's not perfect: Changes to your Chrome bookmarks do not sync your Google bookmarks, and are forgotten each time you open Chrome because it resyncs with Google Bookmarks. Instead use the star for Google Bookmarks on the bottom left.

A renewal of the old saw: "There's no such thing as a free lunch". The article lists three ways that seemingly free things make money.

Advertising. As we've seen from Google Apps, non-intrusive advertising does seem to be accepted even for business use when it's perceived as funding free use of the application. SaaS vendors should be cautious, however, as we have no confirmed evidence even that Google (let alone anyone else offering ad-funded apps) makes enough from advertising to cover its costs.

Freemium. Distributing a free version in order to reach a wider market, among which some customers will decide to pay for premium services, is well established. It's worked for some open source vendors and for SaaS vendors with mass-market appeal as 37signals and Box.net. As I've discussed previously, the trick is to target the right free users to yield a sufficiently lucrative conversion rate.

Syndication. I’m not sure about the name — it may end up being called something else — it’s the least developed of the three, but I think it holds the greatest potential. What I mean by syndication is delivering third-party services within an application and taking a commission on the sale.

The article doesn't cover other sites that are free because they are running on other people's money. For example: Twitter has no ads, freemium, or syndication, because right now they're living off of venture capitalist money. Also there's gold in the data they collect. The same applies to Quicken which provides free online personal finance software. The same would apply to whoever comes out with a popular Web-based personal health record [W].

Other organizations that provide free stuff via other people's money include not-for-profit organizations (like Wikipedia) that run on donations and public works (think roads, police, NASA, school lunches, etc.) that run on tax dollars or are subsidized.

Just a quickie tech review:

• Web apps are becoming rich internet apps (RIA) that can show video and do animation via: Adobe Flash, Apple Quicktime, Microsoft Silverlight, Sun JavaFX, and W3C/WHATWG HTML 5.
• Web apps are transitioning to desktop/device apps: Adobe AIR, Curl, Google Gears and Chrome OS, Microsoft Silverlight, Mozilla Prism, and UniPaas.

I've always been a "head in the clouds" sort of fellow. I'm forgetful and my mind wanders off and follows threads that catch my eye. So it's no wonder that when it comes to technology, I'm ready for the cloud.

Google already has a lot of my personal data in Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Documents, Google Notebooks.

Surprisingly Google is not generous with storage space at Picasa, because then I might dump all my photos there. Perhaps they're still working on that GDrive or they're worried about the massive amounts of porn pictures people would upload. Perhaps Flickr is the way to go. I don't make many videos, but we need something similar for that.

Intuit or Quicken handles my personal finances. I already pay most of my bills automatically online.

I'd like to Amazon (or Barnes and Noble) to sell and store digital media like ebooks, videos, and music. There are some books that are so beautiful or big or both that I'd prefer a print copy, but for most books, an ebook would do. I don't want physical media disks at my house getting scratched and broken. I don't mind them using some consumer-mindful form of Digital Rights Management (DRM) to ensure that I'm not stealing. I'd like to supplement the DRM digital media with DRM-free media from other sources like Google Books and the Gutenberg Project, PDFs, MP3s, etc. Perhaps I'd store it at GDrive. In any case, I should be able to stream digital media (if I'm online) or download them (at least temporarily) for access either on or offline.

I'd like to have my Personal Health Record (PHR) at some place like Google Health or Microsoft Health Vault. I'd like to be able to manage my family's PHRs too. I'd like to be able to import/export my PHR and import/export data from any health provider's Electronic Health Records (EHRs).

Journals or blogs already exist. I'm not so much into the social aspect of blogs but others are. For social two-way "journaling", I think short and fast via Facebook works fine, or a group mailing list. Twitter works for even lighter talks with the masses. RSS readers are OK, but they don't rank like Digg or Reddit.

Apps that are on or offline, smart phone, netbook, or desktop are in the flux and sort of annoying. Phones need bigger and better lenses: We don't need SLR lens but something bigger than a pinhole.

Yada, yada, yada. All this computer cloud stuff still doesn't compare to following the clouds that float by in my own head.

In my post Head in the clouds, I stated the following:

I'd like to Amazon (or Barnes and Noble) to sell and store digital media like ebooks, videos, and music. There are some books that are so beautiful or big or both that I'd prefer a print copy, but for most books, an ebook would do. I don't want physical media disks at my house getting scratched and broken. I don't mind them using some consumer-mindful form of Digital Rights Management (DRM) to ensure that I'm not stealing. I'd like to supplement the DRM digital media with DRM-free media from other sources like Google Books and the Gutenberg Project, PDFs, MP3s, etc. Perhaps I'd store it at GDrive. In any case, I should be able to stream digital media (if I'm online) or download them (at least temporarily) for access either on or offline.

The whole topic of digital media is a big topic. These days I'm focused on digital books but they're all related.

Before I continue, let me just quickly jot down the sub-topics:

• Media types.
• Physical size.
• Device features.
• Content and Money: Creator, seller, and buyer.
• Social media.

Media types

Media types is a seemingly easy sub-topic. The media types are essentially text, pictures, audio, video, and apps. Simple enough. That's the media that the user receives (and the device outputs). The user however also sends "media" (and the device inputs). This includes text, voice, movements, and selections. There are other nuances such as the streaming aspect (EG: radio), the asynchronous aspect (EG: email), and combinations (EG: comics). A lot of sight, sound, motion, and time sensing, but not much in the way taste, touch, or smell. Things like the Wii do some motion and momentum input/output too.

Physical size

This is actually seemingly simple too.

• Media that is predominantly audio hardly needs a physical format. That's why phones and audio players can be and should be small. Anything visual however, needs a larger physical manifestation. Smart phones that try to work display photos, videos, or large amounts of text just don't cut it for me. Phones are fine for generating small amounts of text or for capturing photos and video (but they still need bigger and better lenses!).
• For pictures and video, a small to medium size is needed for portability, otherwise usually bigger is better.
• For text, a small to medium-large size is needed, while bigger has no particular advantage; A paperback-sized format is good for just-text reading, but for anything with particular layours, pictures or graphs, a paper-sized format (8.5"x11", A4, or A3) is needed. Note that the larger size can also be used for just-text reading. (Yay Kindle DX!)
• For apps, the size depends on the app. A calculator can be small, but I prefer a medium to larger format for maps.

Device features

Device features will vary greatly between makers and models initially, but as the technology matures, the differences between makers and models of the same class will become more subtle.

• Color and video. None of the current dedicated e-book readers have color or video. The Apple tablet will. On the other hand e-book readers have no need for color ~80% of the time and no need for video ~98% of the time.
• Light-emitting or light-reflecting screens. Monitors (EG: LCD in many flat monitors, laptops, netbooks, and probably the Apple tablet) emit light, while paper and most electronic papers (like the E Ink in the Amazon Kindle, the Sony Reader, the Barnes & Noble Plastic Logic) reflect ligt. Light-emitting screens are good for viewing in low-light scenarios, while light-reflecting screens are good for high-light scenarios. In spite of the ubiquity of light-emitting screens, most of us work in high-light scenarios. Note also that light-emitting requires more energy and thus eats into battery life: Netbooks last for hours/days but e-book readers last for days/weeks. A backlit screen or an external light source for a light-reflecting screen should be trivial.
• User input. The ability to take in user input is more important for app platforms than media players. For most apps this means a keyboard and either a pointing device (like a mouse) or a touch screen. Most e-book readers have minimal note-taking capabilities, but this is wrong! An e-reader should have basic pen-and-paper capabilities too!
  • Physical or Virtual keyboards. Given the frequency of use, I prefer a physical keyboard as found in the Amazon Kindle or the HTC Dream/T-Mobile G1. In contrast the Apple iPhone/iPod/tablet and the HTC Dream/T-Mobile myTouch 3G/G2 have virtual keyboards.
  • Pointing devices. Most of the current e-book readers have adequat arrow-like pointing devices.
  • The touch screen is only now coming into play. Of the major e-book readers the Amazon Kindle 1/2/DX and the Sony Reader PRS 500/505 do not have touch screen, while the Sony Reader 700 (no longer available!) did, and the Barnes & Noble Plastic Logic and the Apple tablet will. The iRex/Philips iLiad e-book reader has a built in WACOM tablet.
• Operating-system (OS). Most media players and e-book readers need and have minimal OSes. The Apple tablet will probably have a more robust OS behind it than the iPhone/iPod, but not quite as robust as a netbook (a browser-centric laptop).
• Portability. The issue here is that most media is for recreational use not business use, and thus easier, lighter, and more portable is better. Business stuff also usually demands a more robust OS and more apps beyond a browser. Besides the physical size factor in portability, there is the issue of connectivity. Connectivity does not have to mean access to the usual World Wide Web. Amazon and Barnes & Noble want to at least give you access to their store everywhere you go --you can also access all the e-books that they store for you. What a lot of people don't appreciate with Amazon is that this connectivity is FREE, as in there is no monthly charge like you have with your phone or Internet connection. I doubt that the Apple tablet will do that. Most portable media players (besides smart phones) lacked omnipresent connectivity, i.e. you downloading what you need to your device before you hit the road.

Content and Money: Creator, seller, and buyer.

This is the real heart of the issue. The users/buyers are most concerned about the content, but these days the content is tied to the money.

Users have three kinds of content:

• In-house content. The users' own pictures, own videos, own documents.
• Main-stream content. For most users a big name like Apple, Amazon, or Barnes & Noble is all they need. The big names should implement the long-tail method and sell even the obscure stuff.
• Other content. They didn't make the content and it wasn't sold at the big names places. Probably from some odd user, place, shop, newsgroup, site, etc.

There have been three stages of content:

• Pre-Media. Creators made a living making live music or poetry. Attribution was a matter of honor and glory.
• Physical Media. The written word was the first media. The development of printing allowed creators and printers/promoters/distributors (sellers) to share in the profits from selling the media. Thus developed the first copyright laws in the 1700s. Media for music and video occurred in the 20th century.
• Digital Media. Compared to physical media, digital is cheap and easy to copy and distribute. However in general, the sellers still have the infrastructure and relationships needed to promote and sell media.

How do the creators and sellers control the copying of the media? And how can they ensure that they get their fair share of the buyer's money? In the digital media industry, the first medium to face this problem head on has been the music industry. Pirating (or illegal copying) of music still occurs. For a while it seemed that the answer was digital rights managment (DRM), but this seemed to hamper on the buyers right to legally copy media for which they had paid for. So far it seems that the answer is not DRM, but to trust that people will honor copyright laws and pay the seller (and hence the creator) their money. A comparison of online music stores [W] shows that the most successful don't use DRM. The available formats (such as mp3, aac, m4a, aiff, wav, ogg) are trivial given all the available converters.

Copyrighted digital text is in the news lately because e-book readers started becoming good enough and popular enough that major books are being sold in digital format. The different e-book readers are using DRM and different files.

Here's a quick review of different e-book formats. See also Comparison of e-book formats [W]. Some of them can implement DRM.

• .txt. Simple text. Preferably UTF-8, but Unicode, windows-1252, iso-latin-1, or even ASCII will do.
• .htm. Simple HTML. Variants include .chm, .lit, and plucker.
• .pdf. Portable Document Format. Practically universal. Many things can be exported or printed to PDF.
• .rtf. Rich Text Format.
• XML based:
  • .opf. Open eBook
  • .epub. Supercedes .opf
  • .mobi, .prc. Mobipocket. Based on .opf. Available to the iRex/Philips iLiad e-book reader.
  • .azw. Amazon Kindle e-book. Based on .mobi.
  • .arg. Arghos Diffusion.
  • Digital Accessible Information System (DAISY)
  • .fb2. FictionBook.
  • Text Encoding Initiative.
• .tr2, .tr3. TomeRaider.
• .ps. PostScript.
• .djvu. DjVu. Especially for images.
• .pdb. eReader (formerly Palm Digital Media/Peanut Press). For ereader.com. Also used by the Barnes & Noble Plastic Logic e-reader.
• .lrf, .lrx. Broadband eBooks. For the Sony Reader.

Here are the major e-book readers (see more at List of e-book readers [W] and their primary formats:

• Amazon Kindle: .txt, (.mobi, .prc, .azw), .pdf (Kindle DX), (.jpg, .gif, .png, .bmp), (.mp3, .aax). By conversion: .htm, .rtf, .doc.
• Barnes & Noble Plastic Logic: .epub, .pdb, .pdf, Microsoft Office documents.
• Sony Reader: .txt, .rtf, .pdf, .epub, (.lrx, .lrf), (.mp3, .aac), (.jpg, .gif, .png, .bmp).
• iRex/Philips iLiad: .txt, .htm, .pdf, .mobi, (.jpg, .png, .bmp).

Just to make it explicit, one of the issues is that with DRM and no standard format, if you buy stuff from one store, then you have to use their reader. If you want to buy stuff from two stores, then you need two readers, and so on. In contrast, you can buy a CD from any store and play it on any CD player.

The digital music industry went through this DRM issue, i.e. it was a real world experiment done with real creators, sellers, and buyers. The result is that overwhelming majority of buyers are honest folk who will respect copyright laws and will pay the sellers and the creators their money. DRM tried to control illegal copying, but actually it was a stumbling block for buying and fair buyer use of media that they legally paid for. I guess that the print media has a years of physical media experience that it has to over come in this digital media world. Copyright laws still apply. Just because it is easier to copy, doesn't make it legal, and the numbers show that the greater sales without DRM are worth the losses due to piracy. The print media probably also has a psychological issue of going without DRM because digital songs are $0.99 while digital books are $9.99. In any case, print media will experiment with using digital print, and, like digital music, may drop DRM after they run through the same experiment but with text instead of audio, and with different prices and different uses.

Social media

Let me gripe a bit about some of the hoops I, as a buyer, have to go through:

My wife bought a Kindle 2 and then the price dropped. Learning from her experience, I want to get a Kindle DX --as soon as the price drops. We each have our own accounts at Amazon. A DRM protected Kindle book must be associated with an Amazon account and can be accessed on up to 6 Kindle-compatible devices, where each device is registered to the same Amazon account. A Kindle-compatible account can only be registered with one Amazon account at a time. This gives us several options:

1. Buy Kindle books via both of our separate Amazon accounts. If I wanted to share a Kindle book with her (or any one else), then I'd have to lend someone my Kindle DX, or have an extra Kindle registered to my account that I could lend. Neither option sounds very good. She could also just buy the same book on her own account but that's not sharing something I own --it's buying it again. Separate accounts does have the advantage of privacy in that we could each purchase Kindle books that we don't want the other to know about.
2. Buy Kindle books via just her Amazon account. My Kindle DX would be registered to her account. We would be able to share books, but we would have the same Kindle book list, plus I would also be able to see her non-Kindle book purchases and info at Amazon.If we got a 3rd Kindle for the family in general, then we could put particular books on that Kindle, but they could also connect to Amazon with the Kindle and see all our other books.
3. Create a new family Amazon account and use that for buying Kindle books. Our Kindles would then be registered to the family Amazon account. This scenario is exactly the same as the previous scenario except that we could continue to use our separate Amazon accounts for non-Kindle purchases and thus have privacy for that stuff from each other.

FYI: The scenario is roughly the same for Barnes & Noble, where the e-books are tied to an account. There is the added difference that Barnes & Noble uses .pdb, whose DRM scheme is also tied to a credit card.

In actuality, my wife, my kids, and I are pretty open and we don't care who sees whose books or Amazon purchases so we're going with option #2. With non-DRM e-books the scenario becomes much easier. We can share copies of e-books that we bought within our family. We know that it would be illegal to copy it and give it to others. Perhaps we should be allowed to lend copies to friends that expire in a week. That should whet their appetites so they might buy the book for themselves. On the other hand wouldn't all those broke college students find some way to get free copies of the books they need? People have to realize that if the sellers and creators don't make money, then how can they continue to give us good content?

In one sense digital print has been around for a while: The Web has lots of text! Social digital print has also been around for a while: Email! Blogs! Groups! Facebook! The "social" aspect of digital media as in songs and books however, is only just starting. It's not just a matter of finding out what's hot as in Pandora, Spotify, etc., but of discussing, note taking, excerpting. Of the e-book readers, only the iRex/Philips iLiad has serious note taking features. Each e-book should have at least one site that's a jumping point for discussions centered around the book.

Closing

Anyhow this post is getting a little long. What I do with books is find them, buy them, read them, bookmark my place, take notes, look things up, share them with folks, and reference the books. I'd like to be able to do the same thing with e-books, but with the advantage of portability, some connectivity, and digital notes. I'm tempted by the Apple tablet because it has color, video, and can take notes, but it would also need a big book store, free connectivity, and better battery life. Amazon and Barnes & Noble should continue to compete against each other for a cheaper e-book reader that can take better notes and can read e-books from more sources. The big thing is that more and more books should be digitized. The World Wide Web is amazing, Google is amazing, Wikipedia is amazing. The ability to access all the books, old or new, from anywhere would be amazing too!

I periodically compare Firefox (FF) and Chrome (C). Here's how I compare them now:

• Pro C: Resizable textareas.
• Pro C: Easier to edit search engines options for the address bar.
• Pro C: Faster startup and JavaScript handling.
• Con C: Some keyboard shortcuts for Google Docs don't work: CTRL+: CTRL+;. You have to use AltGr+: and AltGr+; instead.
• Pro FF: TreeStyle Tabs. Perhaps it tempts me to open too many tabs?
• Pro FF: Better options for startup (blank) and home page (multiple tabs).
• Close: C has Google bookmarks extension. FF has Google toolbar.
• Close: FF has Firebug add on. C has Firebug Lite extension and built-in developer tools.
• Close: C has separate memory spaces for tabs, but I haven't had crash issues with FF.

The improved Google bookmarks extension was probably the single most important difference for me. But since that's fixed, this may be the month that I switch to Chrome. May the browser wars continue!

Page Modified: (Hand noted: 2007-07-19 21:41:10Z) (Auto noted: 2010-02-18 19:45:32Z)