Lumpy's Corner

A good while back I tossed a post up here about the fact that I thought Google would be releasing a browser. It ended up on the front page of lockergnome and then link swarm picked it up as well. In a matter of a few hours, my server went up in a plum of smoke. Fortunately, It was down only briefly as my host was nice enough to reset my bandwidth for the month.

At the time I was actually pretty much certain the the browser was just the first step. Others, even Scoble, thought the idea that Google would release a browser was ridiculous, yet alone an OS!... I guess the reserving of gbrowser.com was just to thwart the domain squatters or maybe a smoke screen.

Hmmm. Seems hindsight truely is the only perfect vision. Seriously though, I think it is kinda kewl that we are going to get a sneak peak at Google Chrome OS today. Least that is what this Tech Crunch Article says. Personally, I am pretty hooked on Chrome as my browser at the moment.

Previous to Chrome, I was a die hard FF fan, and I still use FF on my Linux machines, especially on my Atom CPU and my dual Core machine. I do, still use FF.

FF, for me, was always about the extensions. Then there were more and more extensions... Then it ran like bloatware... Now, I have not gotten around to playing with any Google Chrome extensions as of yet but the large browser area, combined search and address bar and super clean look have serious appeal to the minimalist in me. Google Reader, is better for me in Chrome, not that that should shock us.

The rumor mill is buzzing about it being geared for netbooks (like this little Eee1000 I have?) and a lotta hoopla about "speed and efficiency"... Now why the heck is there now hoopla about exactly where to go today for this sneak peak.. Come on someone clue me in on where to see just a little snippet And Google don't wait till 2010, be a good Santa and release it before Christmas!!

In my last post, I wrote about the passing of someone I would consider a friend. As an update, I would like to tell you others have also been crushed by it and have set up Remembering Cory.

Also check out this special episode of The Half-Eaten Hat Show in which his friend plays music that Gimpi liked.

I awoke this morning and happened to notice some text in an IRC Channel I idle in often. I have known most of the people in that channel for years. Although we don't chat as much as we used to "back in the day", it is still nice to hear how they are doing and good news does brighten my day.

With the passing of Cory "Gimpi" Carrier, our world has just become a darker place and heaven just gained an angel with a great sense of humor and outlook on life.

With his passing, even my normal wordy nature, fails. I am in a state of wishing I could have known him even better. He certainly was high on my wish list of IRC friends to meet, I spent today regreting not making that list a higher priority. I am not Alice Cooper. I DO cry. I have been doing so off and on all day.

Today, as I am sure many other long time IRC friends have. spent most of my day fighting tears. No, I did not know him as well as others. Most of us, like here and here are not saying much. I suspect, like myself, we just don't know what to say.

Thanks to laaatech.com for tweeting this list of Top Ten YouTube Fail Videos. I really thought ski jump fail was rigged but funny as Hades.

I think many of the videos should come with a "don't try this at home" warning but, ironically, that is exactly what we are watching. Also check out "How not to wash a car" and tell me the parking fail is real...

Nonetheless, a good 15 minute funny distraction.

Hey does anyone remember what the heck Parakey was and it's fate? Yeah, that is right, Facebook bought em before they even officially launched. Now it seems that they MAY be about to create a browser of exclusivity, a Facebook only browser. According to the Download Squad article, the rumors are;

The browser dubbed RockMelt, which is still very much in the design phase, is supposedly being worked on by all-stars in the development world like Facebook for iPhone developer Joe Hewitt, Firefox creator Blake Ross among others. The project is being headed up by the engineer behind Netscape Navigator, Robert John Churchill.

FYI, Blake Ross was the one behind Parakey. It seems that all of this is going on pretty much in the shadows of all the Google-Yahoo-Microsoft talk. I rather have to agree with the John Burke and it seems to be something from the department of redundancy department. I also find it rather ironic that it is rumored to be headed by the engineer of an alternative browser.

It makes absolutely no sense for them to release browser, or does it? Granted Flock seems to be more like flop, a social browser that is geared for a massive social network may not be such a bad idea. I am one of many people who uses the Facebook Toolbar for Firefox. I like having that type of integration. I like it enough where I would try a FaceBook browser tweaked for that... that is as long as it were not ONLY for FaceBook. If it could be aware of your preferences based on your profile, it could suggest sites, people you might know, and products you might like... hmmm.

Also go back to Parakey for a second, it was intended to be a nice all integrating solution for managing all your stuff all scattered about the web. An integration that was supposed to be so easy your grandma could use it. If they can get that into a browser, they have something on top of what they already have. What they already have is a huge group of users who will likely, either out of desire or curiosity, at least try it. Four years ago, only nutcases were talking about a browser from Google. After all they are only a search engine company, right?

Google is no longer a search engine company and, likely never was. They are an advertising and marketing mega-giga-monster. To Make more money from advertising, they have indexed the entire web with our search queries. We find what we want, and advertisers find the targets they want. Privacy issues aside, it is a symbiotic thing. Keep in mind that aphids herded by ants is also considered symbiotic.

Microsoft is no longer a software company. They haven't been for a really, really long time. Microsoft knew this way back in the browser war days. The browser is not the important part. It is the knowledge of what the people browse and what they can be sold.

If above is incorrect, then why all the talk of MicroYaSoftHoo being formed so that M$ could compete with Google? FaceBook is a social network site with 200 million users. As far as what a browser may do for them, I don't know. But if History repeats itself, FaceBook is already more than just a social network site.

Now, I am not going to say that I expect to be surfing with "Rockmelt", for it doesn't make any sense for a social network site to release a browser. Then again, I can remember about three years ago when a very intelligent and respected tech-guru had a somewhat snarky outlook on the thought of an OS from Google. I also know people who said for years that they would never sell their GM, AT&T, Compu-Serve or AOL stock because "they are so big they will always recover". Now most of em, unfortunately, are wishing they dumped it when they could have.

All I am going to say is that I would not be surprised by much of anything on web these days. The only thing that is constant is change and the only thing guaranteed to perpetually increase is the rate of it. Seriously, how many of us ever expected to see another Commodore Computer? Heck, maybe we can get one with CompuServe on it. (It will come with some Commodore games.)

You can read more about it here but the long and the short is that my little podcast at geeksradio.fm seemed to be received well enough.

This Yahoo Odd News Article is pretty good. Seems at first the cashier didn't take the robber seriously. He did fork over his empty wallet when confronted with a box cutter.