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Wednesday, 08:34 pm, 31 March 2004 Let's Google Arrogance! I was watching Channel 4 news tonight. It is one of my little luxuries. Sometimes when my wife is working late, I turn it on and watch a few segments. It is very good news and it makes the BBC look like a White House press release. The recent interview of Microsoft Exes after the EU ruling shows it is one to watch. They did a piece on Google. I went to the doctor today and I was talking with him about how search engines are changing and damaging the medical profession. Anyone with a point to make, factual or false can put it online and google will pick it up. I regularly find the wrong information through Google. I don't think it works on a number of levels and it is a monopoly currently. There is nothing commercially in the space and nothing can touch it. That doesn't make it good. I watched the interview with the co-founder. I am jaded with Silicon Valley types. The hype is rubbish. The egos are unfettered and basically it is the worst excesses of the capitalist lie. Just because these people have made money in the short term, they aren't gurus and the sad thing is the market will typically turn on them. Does anyone remember Netscape? I suspect Google will go the same way. Too many employees. Too much cost. Egocentric founders. When will the bubble burst. Killer Apps Two pieces of software I want to see or create. (1) A good web browser, (2) A good email client. I don't have these. I haven't seen them. Everything I touch or use is slow and really poorly written. Buggy. It would be nice to get a Lynx-like browser. Remove internet advertising and just go back to the text. Download the images if needed. But basically cruise the text. The email client issue is really chronic for me. I have thought about the simplest possible interface with an email client. Smaller scope than a browser. But still, I haven't released the latest version of Noble Ape. A browser or email client will be stretching the development time. Mailout... Every month with the Mailout. This month, I made the point at the end of the Mailout to write about the event model versus the time slice model for the Mailout. Basically put a Mailout out when something happened. Not every month, but every release. Every article etc. The problem is the 'Drop everything' end of the month. Must write the mailout mentality. Slow. Breaks down the development process and at the end of the day requires more keyboard time than is needed... or probably taken up in... Logs... say. Good night. Tuesday, 10:17 pm, 30 March 2004 So What Does Fred Reed Look Like? A night from my previous log entry, I was thumbing through a Citadel Journal when I found the following image of Fred Reed;  This image is included in the Log with full rights granted to Games Workshop for its removal, if so desired. It is presented to show one of the best, and least credited, miniature painters. Hats off to Fred's work! Wilmslow, Cheshire, United Kingdom... And also relating to the last log entry, the intro and outro thanks to Thomas Barbalet from WeFunk. Feel the love! Good night. Monday, 07:18 pm, 29 March 2004 Sorry for the lack of log entries. For a large part of last week, in the evenings, I was working on the Noble Ape Simulation release... and it still isn't out. The final holding point was the suicidal apes that would drown within the first couple of days. Something has gone wrong with the code. But I thought I would take a break before continuing the investigation. After all, a log entry was required. Donation to WeFunk I woke up early on Saturday to tune into the first funding drive show for 2004. The funding drive shows are big events and typically feature freestylers. This year, I donated CAD200 to CKUT for WeFunk and was thanked twice on air. Thanks to the digital camera donation, I can present two shots from the studio. Butta Beats (on the left) and Olaf.  Readers of the Log will be familiar with the Butta Beats collaboration project. I have been writing about this for about four months now. The conclusion of the show was the only opportunity I could see being able to talk to Butta, so I called after the last talking bit and spoke to Prof Groove initially. Thanked him for the shout outs and then chatted to Butta for about five-ten minutes. Things seem to still be on track on the Montreal end. They are getting DJ Static involved for some scratched and really the tracks appear to be writing themselves. Butta mentioned a political Spanish track, and an English one. More on this when I hear more! Mridul Unmasked I got an email today from Mridul P. He has been hiking in the mountains in the north of India. I asked if he had any photos and he volunteered some shots of him from when he was in the US last year. Drum roll please...  I have been working with Mridul for probably about nine months now. Never known what he looked like. Now all I have to do is get a picture of Fred Reed, and I will know all the faces of those I correspond with. More in the next few days. Good night. [ Previous Log ]
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