Google’s Chrome Enters the Web Browser Race

Posted on September 6, 2008 by Sid

I’m sure by now that everybody has heard of Google’s sudden entry into the browser market. This has raised many new questions for Google’s competitors. Will Chrome be able to eat into the marketshare of IE? Will Google continue to support Mozilla? Only time will be able to answer some of these questions.

Chrome has made a good start and has already made an impact in the browser market. I’m sure placing the download link for Chrome at google.com has definately helped boost that number. Things can only go up from here as more and more people hear about this new application and are willing to try it. Offcourse, it also depends what people actually hear. If the consensus is positive more people are likely to adopt it. Unfortunately, Chrome’s reputation has already taken a slight hit with security vulnerabilities already being detected. On the other hand Chrome’s design and features must have caught the eye of many.

One thing that is definately certain with the release of Chrome is that the era of isolated desktop applications is coming to an end. Some of the best programs these days are web based and they work perfectly fine while providing the added functionality of the Internet. Google has designed Chrome to work efficiently with these web applications, taking full advantage of technologies such as Ajax. It will be interesting to see the results when developers start to optimize their applications for Chrome. In fact NetSuite has already done so and the results are apparently very positive.

As many of you must be aware Chrome is an open source browser. This can only have positive implications for the open source culture. When such a well known and respected company like Google releases an application like a web browse and makes it open source it really sends a message to everyone. It is ok for things to be open source. Applications can be open source and still thrive and compete with proprietary software. Firefox has already proven that to us and hopefully Chrome will take it one step further.

I want to leave you with this video titled “The Story Behind Google Chrome”…

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My Gym Adventure – Day 2

Posted on September 6, 2008 by Sid

Well, I’m finally back at the gym for the 2nd time this week. I was supposed to go on Friday but my gym buddy picked up some kind of foot strain so we delayed our trip to today. Unfortunately, I had to end up going by myself because he wasn’t able to pull himself out of bed. The following are my results for the day…

squats 5×5 Completed with moderate difficulty.
overhead press 5×5 Completed with great difficulty
Deadlift 1×5 Added 4.5kg on both sides. Completed with ease
Pull-ups/Chin-ups 3xFail Too advanced. Did not attempt

Good progress so far. I feel that I can add a bit of weight onto the squats now. On the other hand the overhead press is too advanced for me even without any weights at this point so I will go another week and see how it goes. The deadlift was quite easy and I think I can up the weight on that definately. The pull ups and chin ups are beyond me right now and I will have to wait and see if I can do them or not.

Excellent start too my training. I want to get in 3 days of this every week, unfortunately I could only get in 2 this week. All in all I am satisfied with the start.

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My Gym Adventure – Day 1

Posted on September 4, 2008 by Sid

After years of procrastinating I’ve finally decided its time to get my body in shape. I want to rid myself of my “healthy”, cough overweight appearance. So yesterday I made my first trip to the gym with my house buddy. He and I are are on opposite sides of the spectrum when it comes to physical appearance. He’s as skinny as someone can be while I’m definitely not. Nonetheless both our goals are the same, to sculpt a better body and develop a healthier life style. Now I know that things will change slowly and miracles will not happen overnight. I’m hoping for steady progress. I think I am mentally prepared for this journey. We shall see…

I intend to write my experiences on here, good or bad. Here goes…

We dragged ourselves out of bed this morning, the most difficult task of all in my opinion. I’ll share a little secret with you, I am surely not a morning person. I hate it getting up early to the core! But if I am to improve things I have to bite the bullet and get my rear end out of bed at 6:45 in morning as I did yesterday. We took the long walk to the University gym, a giant structure with any sporting facility that you might desire.

I am trying to follow the stronglifts beginners strength training guide. I hope that it is a good guide. The site looks popular but as a beginner to strength training I am not really sure if it is adequate or not. We shall see I suppose…

So on the first day I tried Workout A involving squats, bench press, barbell rows and dips. I did almost all of the exercises without any weights. As the site suggests it is first important to get your form correct and then add weight later on. Even without any extra weights I found the exercises daunting

Squats 5×5 Completed without any extra weights (intermediate)
Bench Press 5×5 Completed without any extra weights (advanced)
Barbell Row Did not complete. I didn’t know what the exercise entailed
Dips 3xF Did not try. Too advanced

All in all not a bad start. I need to make improvements though. For example what actually I need to do for the exercises. I had looked up what a barbell row entailed but unfortunately I had forgotten it by the time I made my way to the gym. As far as dips go they are too far advanced for me right now so I will not even try them at this point. I will have to find another exercise as a substitute for now.

Tomorrow is my 2nd trip to the gym. Hopefully things will go smoother.

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Open Source (Bazaar) vs Proprietary (Cathedral)

Posted on September 3, 2008 by Sid

As part of the open source course I’m taking at Seneca our professor, David Humphery asked the students to read an article, watch a video and listen to an audio file as the very first assignment for the course.

I found all of them to be quite interesting and informative, although I had already watched the aforementioned video in the past. Nonetheless they sculpt an intriguing perspective concerning the rivlary between the open source and proprietary ideologies.  At the forefront of this war are the two Operating Systems, Linux and Windows.

The author of the previously mentioned article talks about how linux development is like a bazaar with different parties who have differing priorities and agendas fighting with eachother. I have to agree with him when he says that it is simply a miracle that a coherent and stable OS can result from such a mess. Here in lies the weakness and, in my opinion, the strength of open source development. Open source is meant to be chaotic and unorganized. When many people are working together from different locations with the internet as their only communication it is only normal for problems to develop. Many times there is no collective vision for open source projects which leads to arguments. However, this can also be considered a strength because this openess allows everyone to contribute their ideas and suggestions. The whole concept of open source software is that anyone that wants to, can add their contribution to the project in anyway possible. This is what makes open source development different and in a way, better than proprietary development methods.

The video takes an in depth look into the early years of open source development. I have to say that, like others I am quite disappointed in how Linux has failed to scale the Microsoft wall. In the early years there was so much promise but so far Microsoft seems to be indestructible even after considering the relative failures of Vista. In fact I would that think the people disillusioned by Vista have made the Jump to Mac instead of going over to Linux. Now why is this happening? There are many answers to this question. It could be because the average user doesn’t know much about Linux or how the abundance of Linux flavors confuses non-techies. Fact is that what we are doing is not working. Something needs to change for Linux to enter the main stream. I am sad to report that even I don’t use Linux at the moment.

Overall, this course is looking very promising. It is different and more realistic. I think I am going to enjoy it very much. I know its going to take a lot of hard work and dedication, hopefully I am up to the task.

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