Endless Digital Waltz

The major software and computer companies always seem to be going at it, in some way or another. Maybe its just me, someone who’s been become fairly apathetic about the political process; in some way, I think I’ve become fairly apathetic about politics in the digital realm. Windows asserts smug dominance whilst its foundation is eroding. Mac blasts PC with baseless claims and smug elitism. Slashdot condemns everything but Linux and FOSS. Google continues to dominante, slips in certain places, gains in others.

Oh, why can’t we all just get along?

In any case, there are a few things that have been on my mind.

Google Chrome

Despite its initial success, Chrome is starting to lose some of its shine. The way I see the problem is that Google really isn’t trying to promote Chrome in any way. Being a beta product, it’s been noted there are still quite a few things that it can work on. Yes, they fixed some bug. Yes, they changed their EULA. And that’s about it.

Unfortunately for Google, not even commenting much on its new browser offering, let alone releasing more beta builds, is pretty much sentencing the software to obscurity. The browser market is very cutthroat; IE still dominates the market, Firefox is determined to keep its hard-earned user base, Safari… is just Safari, and Opera still struggles with desktop significance (though apparently it does well in the mobile market, and I guess the Wii as well).

My pitiful recommendation to Google? Keep it a hot topic. Have a blog where you keep us updated on what you’re working on, or highlighting upcoming features. Give us more builds of Chrome (it’s a beta, of course it’ll still have bugs and crashes).

In other words, don’t leave your user base hanging.

And fix things up so that I can view streaming video on Flash-heavy sites without it wanting my computer to explode. Venturing into Nico Nico Douga is always a trial with Chrome, even with such a simple action as scrolling the webpage whilst the video is loading.

Search – Google Desktop Search vs. Windows Desktop Search

Back in the day, I was a very avid fan of Google Desktop Search. The ability to harness the power of Google to search your own information was just incredible. Incredible enough that even Microsoft decided to release its own desktop engine, and have it embedded into Windows Vista (as simply Windows Search).

Unfortunately, I’ve had a love-hate relationship with GDS. The key to it for me was the quick aggregation of information whilst not utterly destroying my modest computer (a 2.00 GHz Intel P4 Northwood, 512MB DDR, Windows XP, 80GB HDD at 5400 RPM). While it doesn’t quite destroy it, GDS does interfere with normal day-to-day operations.

One of my greatest complaints about it was the fact that I couldn’t control the times when to index, and when not to. I’m all for automation, because the vast majority of users could benefit from it. I am most definitely a power user, though, so I have the know-how and drive to tweak my settings to best suit my needs. Microsoft is easily able to have a “Index Now” button ALONGSIDE the normal automated approach. Why can’t Google? A little more user empowerment for those who want to tinker, and nothing else changes for the non-technical users.

The other great complaint I had about it is the general slowing of performance that GDS had. For me, first and foremost, GDS is a digital search appliance. It must fulfill that function, and it must do it well. Performance is key to search. Yet, Google has this mind-boggling philosophy that GDS should be Widget Central. Oh, my, Lord. Aside from aggregation of multiple data sources, why should resource-using widgets become such a huge focus by Google? Not to be presumptuous, but let developers develop for it, while you (Google) work on improving the information platform itself.

For the time being, I’ve been using Windows Desktop Search, as the performance and indexing issues for GDS were just too aggravating. WDS does what it does: it searches and indexes, it tells me about its progress without trying to open a whole browser window, and it lets me retrieve information fast and easily. In some ways, I find it better (right-click context is better, better indexing controls, less intusiveness and lag). In some ways, not as good (no CTRL, CTRL combination to start a search like GDS, searches take a little longer), but it gets the job done without messing with my computer much. Which is exactly what I’m looking for.

Of course, after I say all this, I realize there’s a relatively new GDS version that focuses on performance.

I hate my timing.

Terramaria Woes

My Mac likes and doesn’t like me. Well, I guess it’s mainly Safari. And iPhoto. iTunes is a bit tsundere to me. But whatever.

I’m inclined to think that the horrid crashes I’ve been getting on the Mac has to do with the graphics card, which is this old 32MB AGP artifact. I do have a 64MB nVidia GeForce4 MX440 sitting in a closet that I’ve been meaning to swap in.

The thing that bothers me is that the crashes only happen whenever I’m using Safari. Not only am I using the most updated version of it, but I’m also exclusively reading text when I’m using it: Wikipedia, some simple webpages of mine, and some PBwikis that I add content to. I would be reading several blocks of text on the screen only to find I can’t scroll the page or move the mouse cursor. Bleh.

I’d love to install Firefox or Opera as a replacement, but that defeats the purpose of learning tips and tricks with Safari. Moo.

Also, according to arai, he owns the patent on saying “moo.” I guess I owe him ten bucks now… damn.

Victoria Comeback

I’ve been itching to reinstall Windows Vista again, because I’m at least open-minded enough to actually use it effectively. With more and more people forced to use it, though, it’s been kinda’ lonely. Yet, I’m still apprehensive about putting it back on my machine.

It’s not so much that I hate Vista or hate using it (I don’t). It’s just going to be a real pain in the rear creating a quad-boot rig. XP Professional, Server 2003, Solaris 10, and Vista.

Not fun, for completely different reasons.

Unneeded Paranoia

The initial spurt of Google Chrome enthusiasm seems to be wearing down. Of course, even with this, the moment anything is released onto the Internet, rapid dogs continually descend upon it from every corner of the world.

One thing that has certain people uppity are automatic updates. That is, Chrome will automatically update itself with security patches without user intervention, checking in every few hours to do so.

And, in all honesty, I think these people need to get smacked in the face with a shovel.

Power Users’ Perception of the User Population

There are quite a few people (outside of IT) who want complete dominion over their computer, making and authorizing each and every decision about it. Well, that’s just awesome for you. But 99% of all users don’t care about that. They just want their computer to work, get things done, and keep their identity safe.

And, you know why I’m pretty sure that most people don’t care? Because I watch them use computers. Because I listen to what they say whenever the subject comes up. Because I have to fix their computers whenever something breaks down far beyond what they can comprehend. Because they talk to me about what they feel is important about computers, and don’t talk about what’s not important.

Let me tell it flat out.

People don’t read messages on the screen. A pop-up message comes up. They scan it a bit to see if it’s a virus or spyware or adware. If it isn’t and they have a good feeling about the message, they hit OK. If they don’t feel comfortable with it, they hit Cancel. They never really understand the message, which vanishes from their memory within fifteen seconds.

You think people really want to know about each and every thing? Look at Vista’s User Account Control and the reaction to that.

Normal people don’t like having to maintain their computer. In this day and age, you have to be wary of all sorts of things. Viruses. Hackers. Adware. Spyware. Trojans. Security flaws. The solution? Anti-virus scanners. Firewalls. Adware cleaners. Popup blockers. Spyware sweepers. Security patches.

That’s quite a lot of things for someone who just wanted to read their e-mail, look at stocks, read the news, and do an Internet search on something. And a lot of it could be automated to give people back their time, money, and peace of mind.

Normal people just want the thing to work. Surprise, surprise! For many people, computers are a means to something, not an end in itself. They use it at work so they can get their job done and get paid. They don’t need it to work exactly like they want it (their expectations tend to be rather low), but if it does its job with the minimal amount of hassle, that’s fine.

Getting things done quickly gives people more time to do more entertaining things. Like watching a movie, getting drunk, and/or going to sleep.

And so…

Normal people don’t want to worry about manually updating all of their programs. They don’t want to be bothered with messages they don’t understand, but they just want the thing to work. Those are their priorities. Not “user control.” So, a company working with those two interests in mind would want to implement updates that don’t requires a user intervention. Hell, you could argue complete automation because if the user could just end up cancelling the update because they “don’t feel like it.” And this creates a worse problem: a program with proven security flaws.

The problem that a lot of people have is that they try to impose their own rules of their hobby onto the day-to-day lives of normal people. This rule by the computer elite dictating the workflow of “normal users” just sickens me. Lives shouldn’t be forced around it. Computers were made as enablers to human life, allowing us to do things that were impossible or impractical without this digital revolution.

Oh, and for the people who don’t agree with my view of the user population…

Normal people are too busy to comment on blogs and articles about computer minutia. They’re too busy doing their jobs, playing games, socializing with friends (in REAL LIFE), doing chores, and getting sleep to go comment on some random thing they might see on the Internet.

Yeah, I’m not one of those normal computer people. But I want to make the computing world a better and easier place for them. Not like the out-of-touch digital elite.

Browser Wars, Part II

So, it seems like Google Chrome caused quite a stir from all sorts of people. The anti-IE8, taking market away from Firefox, paving the way for the Internet as a Google platform, privacy advocates scared of the EULA, speed tests, compliance tests.

Me? I’m just glad I’ve got a WebKit engine to test my stuff against, since I wouldn’t be caught dead with Safari again.

Through some quick and informal tests, this is what I’ve found out.

Loading Speed

Chrome is clearly a speed demon now; it loads up faster than Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2, Firefox 3.0.1, and Opera 9.52. Page rendering seems a lot faster, but I didn’t bother to test that part. For that, you’ve got five million more technical tests that do things far better than I can.

Next up in loading speed is IE, though I’m sure part of it is because IE integrates itself with Windows a bit. Not that I really mind or care, because I don’t really care if a browser is standalone or not.

Just behind IE is Opera, which has always been a fast loader and well-featured. Honestly, why don’t more people use Opera?

And, of course, dead-last is Firefox, which has a several second startup for me. And that’s with all my add-ons disabled.

(Initial) Memory Usage

For this test, I loaded up a Google search and two advertisement-heavy blogs into separate tabs.

Opera seems to have the smallest memory footprint of the two. It kept to around 64 megs of memory and just a little less than Firefox. I was a bit surprised. After a period of non-use, it would drop to 43 megs or so, though it seemed to go up again after a page loaded.

Firefox was about the same as Opera, and even exhibited the same behavior. It had slightly larger footprint than Opera, but this was on the order of a few kilobytes: not significant. Of course, Firefox is notorious for memory leak problems, and I didn’t want to sit around for it to build up problems.

Chrome came in next at about 71 megs. This probably has to do with the whole “separate process” thing that is touted around.

IE came in last at 79 megs. Again, this probably has to do with the whole “separate process” thing, but it seems like it’s just a bit heavier than it should, as IE integrates partly with Windows.

Acid3 Tests

Acid Tests are some accepted web standards test to see if a browser renders things as it should. It seems a bit arbitrary, but at least it’s a quick test.

Coming in dead last was IE8, which flopped with a horrible score of 12/100. As a browser thats being held up as a model of standards-compliance, I’m rather disappointed.

Next was Firefox 3, which scored an impressive 71/100 when compared to IE8. Of course, when the top two browsers in the world don’t at least score a “B,” I get a little worried.

Chrome ranks in at 79/100. Not bad for a version 1.0 browser, but there’s definitely more work to be done, especially since several sites I go to have very weird and awkward formatting errors that make some tasks impossible.

Coming in first place is Opera, at 84/100. Not that I’m too surprised; Opera has always been very standards-compliant, and I constantly use it in tests for my own web development.

Conclusion

And that’s that. Opera seems to have aged rather well, Firefox still has problems with memory and loading speed, IE still fails at rendering, and Chrome is… well… Chrome. A mixed bag here and there, but I think it’s a welcome addition to the browser ecosystem.

A New Challenger Has Appeared

Yes, from the guy who rarely ever posts anything in his blog.

Google Chrome beta was released today. This is the day after Google accidentally published a “comic book” outlining how it works, and decided to just let it go ahead and let the beta get released. I, being an enthusiastic Google supporter, anxiously downloaded it and fired it up.

For a beta product, I’m actually quite pleased with it. It has problems here and there, but overall, I think they captured the spirit of the modern web browser while removing (or tucking away) most of the bloat that most users don’t use. Heck, some people don’t even know what it does.

On the Plus Side

Using the WebKit rendering engine, Chrome renders pages fairly well. I’m probably alone in this, but the Safari browser (which also uses WebKit) just looks plain horrible to look at, not meshing in with windows at all. (Brushed metal, I feel, is way overrated and overused.) Chrome, despite having a more metallic name, greets me with a soothing set of soft blues and whites while clearly dilineating the different functional areas. If I recall correctly, studies shown that blue is a good color to use, as it helps keep a user more alert and attentive. (Green, on the other hand, was considered the most soothing of the colors.) Too, Chrome features a rather large default viewing space for webpages, having only three rows right now: tabs, address bar/controls, and bookmarks. Everything I need.

You’ve got the web domain highlighting that Internet Explorer 8 Beta has (which I’m also having fun testing). A nice touch, even if it really doesn’t matter to me as I’m smart enough to read the whole URL. On the other hand, if people are like me (bahahahahaha), they tend to put bookmarks on a toolbar, as it’s a daunting task to go through a whole list of bookmarks from a menu, most of which you’ve forgotten about. So, Chrome automatically places bookmarks (CTRL+D) on the bar. Simple, but rather useful (and less likely for people to forget).

Tab support is something I dreamed about back when I first used Firefox 1 (I started using it during the period it was called Firebird). Like most browsers now, you can rearrange tabs by dragging them. Thankfully, Chrome animates this, so its easier and more intuitive on my eyes. The thing that takes the cake, though is being able to grab a tab and pretty much rip it out of the tab bar. This will actually create a new window for just that tab (which is probably pretty easy given the architecture of the browser). I find this incredibly useful when I have to look at two different webpages at the same time, but don’t want to go hotkey crazy to get the same effect relatively fast. (ALT+D, CTRL+C, CTRL+F4, CTRL+N, ALT+D, CTRL+V, ENTER). Plus, you can easily snap it back into the tab bar by just dragging it back. God, thank you for object-oriented methodologies.

Speaking of snapping, the browser itself is pretty snappy. I wouldn’t call it a speed demon, but it loads up simple webpages pretty darn fast. It’s better than some versions of other browsers that I remember.

IE8’s been getting me to use the address bar more as the so-called “omnibar,” which incorporates search into it. I remember using this sort of thing a long time ago, and I wasn’t too impressed when it kept searching for things I didn’t want to search for, or looking for a website when I wanted a search term. IE8 renewed my faith in the system, and Chrome surprised me by doing the same. It works well, and is arguably a little quicker/snappier at it than IE. Which is good, because there’s no search bar in Chrome, freeing up more space.

I’ve used the word “snappy” to describe Chrome a lot. I saw some people on slashdot saying the same thing. Is it just me, or is “snappy” the one word that best describes reactions to Chrome?

For the more tech-savvy people, Chrome comes with its own freakin’ Task Manager. Its nice to know where that memory is going to. Especially when you want to pinpoint that one tab that’s basically screwing your computer over with some ill-prepared Flash advertisement that cycled through. It also includes “Stats for nerds,” a more detailed memory comparison that even goes so far as to show how Chrome stacks up against other browsers that are open. Really nice.

On the Other Hand

Chrome is nice. However, it is a beta product of a 1.0 version. There are still things that it lacks in, and some quirks and bugs that need to be worked out.

The much-touted V8 JavaScript engine that Chrome uses has some bugs that breaks a few pages I use. I work with a few PBwikis for various projects, and the JavaScript-heavy PBwiki 2.0 seems to break on it. At least, when trying to edit a page, which is one of its essential functions. According to the rather prompt and excellent customer support, the fault probably lies with V8, though they’re still looking into it. I’m inclined to agree as Safari (which also uses the WebKit renderer) had the same problem but was fixed months ago.

Too, as a budding web developer, I took some painstakingly difficult times to make some JavaScript that was really bad (AJAX with innerHTML) into a best practice (AJAX with DOM manipulation). IE8 ran the code fine under its Standards Mode, as did Opera and Firefox 3, but Chrome meant with only partial success, rendering it fine initially but unable to update the page via JavaScript to reflect choices the user made. I’ll probably try to debug some more, but with three out of four browsers working fine, and WebKit proving to be generally reliable, I’m probably going to say V8 is to blame.

I started using OpenID a while ago for easy PBwiki access, and using certificates was a great way to do things; no passwords! Chrome seemed to import my certificates correctly, but myOpenID couldn’t seem to find them. Meh, rather annoying.

It reminds me of a Dark Heresy RP I was playing where some door refused to budge for some acolyte. As well as our friendly Tech-Priest buddy, who ended up activating the security system and nearly getting us all killed.

All in All

All in all, Chrome is a very nice start to a browser from Google. For trivial things, it seems to work pretty well. Heck, I’m even writing this post from Chrome. Unfortunately, it interferes with some of my daily activities, which is basically signing into OpenID and using PBwiki. Hopefully, this matter will be resolved, as I see a lot of promise in this browser.

Regarding AX day summaries, does anyone really care? I have a few of them written in Notepad, but…

Update: According to my research and analyzing my code, it looks like V8 handles event listeners slightly differently. Some of my code involves setting the onchange attribute to a particular value, and using that value as an argument for a new function when using addEventListener(). While other browsers will replace this element, V8 won’t allow it, and onchange will remain null, further making addEventListener() useless. So, meh. Well, at least that’s ONE quirk out of the way…