Charismatic Dog

I get that this it’s mostly for fun at this point but I can still appreciate the good folks over at Codeweavers releasing a port of Google Chromium for the rest of us to enjoy.

Not to get all religious on my essentially non-existstant audience, but I sometimes find myself asking the Good Lord to point me where I belong. In the past I’ve then seen some sign or signs that help me decide what my choice will be.

This time around I thought I’d had two clear signs stacked on each other only to have one flip on me.

The question is: does a band getting its act together outweigh a dept coming apart at the seems?

Just for fun I’ve started checking out Google Chrome from their dev site. I’m not up on what the latest build size is for the WebKit nightlies but 254MB and climbing seems large to me. Again, not really my field so I’m just guessing. Also why is cygwin in there? You know what. Screw it. Nice work Google. My favorite quote reading down a bit on the page is:

Currently, the Mac group is focusing on the testing harness, TestShell. The browser UI layer is not yet being worked on. We plan to start after getting the harness fully operational and better understand how to adapt Chromium’s architectural requirements to Mac OS X.

I suppose I know a little how the khtml folks felt about Safari back in the day. Hopefully Google’s use of WebKit will eventually turn around the same way Apple’s use of khtml is looking to turn around now. In the meantime I have to say that Google is not really challenging Microsoft by making a browser that’s glued to Windows.

Can I just say that listening to John McCain’s intro to his vp pick, it sounds like he’s reading a screed against himself and his party. I’m glad he agrees it’s time for someone to start turning around the failed policies of the past. Too bad he doesn’t get the part that he’s not the person to do it. Also funny that his VP pick’s bio sounds like a democrat’s. There were also some funny bits in his relating her domestic priorities to women’s suffrage, but he is 72.

Tim Bray wrote a nice piece on allowing yourself time to rewrite your first crack at a program. I couldn’t agree more. Too bad it’s so hard for most of us to get in that mind set. His central quote is this little gem from Fred Brooks.

“Where a new system concept or new technology is used, one has to build a system to throw away, for even the best planning is not so omniscient as to get it right the first time. Hence plan to throw one away; you will, anyhow.”

- Fred Brooks in The Mythical Man Month

Looks like I may need to pick that one up now.

Alas a handle bar like this is too good to last…

Laptops are banned in the Senate, Twitter and YouTube are out in the House. It’s pretty well known that the only way politicians will understand new anything is if we elect new politicians to whom it’s not new.

This got me thinking about redesigning this.

Each disclosure would go to an editable list of favorites or the appropriate wheel for distance.

Tapping in the text field would the key board up for direct entry.

This is a mockup only. The Stephen’s Creek folks should feel free to use it if they like any elements of it.

I’ve learned important things. I’ve met some really nice and smart people. I’ve gotten tipsy with co-workers. Today is day one of the conference and it feels like every penny was worth it. I’m officially calling the rest of the conference gravy.

I always thought the main screen looked a little sparse. Hopefully this doesn’t become so dense as to be worthless Windows Mobile style…

Add email, calendar updates, RSS feeds, and more to your “Slide to unlock” home screen with IntelliScreen
[From IPhone: IntelliScreen Adds Widgets to iPhone’s “Slide to Unlock” Screen]