Whatever's Interesting has a new home!
Find us at http://whateversinteresting.com/
We've enjoyed Blogger (easy and cheap - free!) but we've decided to take a little more control over our experiment here. Come join us at our new home.
Monday, October 16, 2006
Friday, October 13, 2006
Google and Corporate Protectionism
I've been struggling to make sense of the Google/YouTube merger that was announced earlier this week, mentioned here in this blog. I'm not seeing the point of it, and my concerns seem to be somewhat vindicated given how quickly legal action has been threatened against the newly acquired provider of loads of copyrighted and illegally shared media.
Then it occurred to me that perhaps this story isn't about any of the potential technology or synergy or cultural issues that people are talking about. This story is about a shift in Google's corporate culture.
Google has done quite a bit of innovative and interesting work. Their search is their bread and butter but they deserve to be respected for so much more. Gmail, Google Maps, Earth and News either redefined the playing field that they entered or opened up whole new arenas of competition.
And then there was Google Video. There's nothing to love about Google Video. It works, but since it was late to the game and brought nothing really new or exciting to suggest it, nobody really got enthused about it. Google themselves never really seemed all that excited about Video - though Google is known for their spartan design aesthetic, they did an even worse job than usual slapping together the Video interface. And their commercial section has been a laughable competitor in the face of iTunes dominance.
Now, I understand that you don't always hit the ball out of the park every time you come to the plate. But Google just gave up, didn't even try to compete - this is why they bought YouTube. Google wants to be #1 in every area they engage, and they weren't getting there with their homegrown Video. Rather than persist, build a better product, make innovations and compelling improvements, they went with the established player.
And payed $1.65 billion for it.
This is standard corporate behavior. Let somebody else take the risk and snap up whatever rises to the top. Google, in their ever so brief time on top, has already undergone the transformation from tech innovator to corporate leviathan.
That didn't take long.
Then it occurred to me that perhaps this story isn't about any of the potential technology or synergy or cultural issues that people are talking about. This story is about a shift in Google's corporate culture.
Google has done quite a bit of innovative and interesting work. Their search is their bread and butter but they deserve to be respected for so much more. Gmail, Google Maps, Earth and News either redefined the playing field that they entered or opened up whole new arenas of competition.
And then there was Google Video. There's nothing to love about Google Video. It works, but since it was late to the game and brought nothing really new or exciting to suggest it, nobody really got enthused about it. Google themselves never really seemed all that excited about Video - though Google is known for their spartan design aesthetic, they did an even worse job than usual slapping together the Video interface. And their commercial section has been a laughable competitor in the face of iTunes dominance.
Now, I understand that you don't always hit the ball out of the park every time you come to the plate. But Google just gave up, didn't even try to compete - this is why they bought YouTube. Google wants to be #1 in every area they engage, and they weren't getting there with their homegrown Video. Rather than persist, build a better product, make innovations and compelling improvements, they went with the established player.
And payed $1.65 billion for it.
This is standard corporate behavior. Let somebody else take the risk and snap up whatever rises to the top. Google, in their ever so brief time on top, has already undergone the transformation from tech innovator to corporate leviathan.
That didn't take long.
Migrating from Blogger Beta to Wordpress
We will shortly be upgrading our blogging to be a little more legit. So we will be migrating from Blogger (which has been great, but is a little limiting) to an installation of Wordpress on our own domain.
/* begin shameless plug */
After all, with unlimited domains and ridiculous bandwidth with Dreamhost, why shouldn't we, right?
/* end shameless plug */
Anyway, loe and behold I found that the handy import feature that can migrate your Blogger blog to Wordpress doesn't work on Blogger Beta. We're on Blogger Beta. Lame.
Wordpress does have the ability to populate a blog from an RSS 2.0 feed though. So I checked out the Blogger Beta default and it's Atom. Lame. Then I found a post that gave an idea of how to change the feed type to RSS. This is how:
yourblog.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/full?alt=rss
Try it for yourself. The link above just points to this blog. There's one problem with this though, and that's the fact that the standard Blogger feed length is 25. Looking through the settings in the control panel didn't reveal a way to change the default. But it turns out that's not necessary - you can specify from the URL similar to above:
yourblog.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/full?alt=rss&max-results=1000
If you've got more than 1000 posts just grow the number to whatever the size of your blog is. This worked for me, but didn't bring any comments along. Luckily that's not a big deal for us. I'm sure there's a way to fix this problem for those who care, but I've not found it yet. I'll update if I do.
/* begin shameless plug */
After all, with unlimited domains and ridiculous bandwidth with Dreamhost, why shouldn't we, right?
/* end shameless plug */
Anyway, loe and behold I found that the handy import feature that can migrate your Blogger blog to Wordpress doesn't work on Blogger Beta. We're on Blogger Beta. Lame.
Wordpress does have the ability to populate a blog from an RSS 2.0 feed though. So I checked out the Blogger Beta default and it's Atom. Lame. Then I found a post that gave an idea of how to change the feed type to RSS. This is how:
yourblog.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/full?alt=rss
Try it for yourself. The link above just points to this blog. There's one problem with this though, and that's the fact that the standard Blogger feed length is 25. Looking through the settings in the control panel didn't reveal a way to change the default. But it turns out that's not necessary - you can specify from the URL similar to above:
yourblog.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/full?alt=rss&max-results=1000
If you've got more than 1000 posts just grow the number to whatever the size of your blog is. This worked for me, but didn't bring any comments along. Luckily that's not a big deal for us. I'm sure there's a way to fix this problem for those who care, but I've not found it yet. I'll update if I do.
My Latest Batch of Beer
My latest batch of beer is now carbonated. I really enjoy brewing so I thought I'd take and share some pictures of my achievement.
The first picture is of the beer right after the pour. I sent the beer right down the middle of the glass in order to get the fullest head possible. The glass is a 20oz glass, and you can see that the beer and head from the 12oz bottle nearly fill it up. Click the pictures for the full sized version.
The next picture shows the beer after it had set for a few minutes. The beer had spent the night in the refrigerator and while I had found the beer to have clarified well while aging in the basement, the beer turned cloudy when it reached the refrigerator. This is a common problem with home-brewed beers called chill haze. The simple explanation of the problem is that proteins in the beer that are clear at room temperature become cloudy at cold temperatures. Here is a more in depth explanation.
I fermented the beer for 6 days before bottling. I didn't do any secondary fermentation for clarification. The bottles have been aging for one week so the beer is very immature. Tasting the beer confirms this. My beer is not a true pilsner, but has the characteristics of one - in other words it has a very pronounced Saaz hops aroma and strong hoppy flavor. While I love hops in general, the raw-ness of the hops in this very young brew was a little too much for me to suggest to just any random beer drinker. The hops will become more moderate as the beer ages. I'm looking forward to enjoying this beer as it gets better and better.
The first picture is of the beer right after the pour. I sent the beer right down the middle of the glass in order to get the fullest head possible. The glass is a 20oz glass, and you can see that the beer and head from the 12oz bottle nearly fill it up. Click the pictures for the full sized version.
The next picture shows the beer after it had set for a few minutes. The beer had spent the night in the refrigerator and while I had found the beer to have clarified well while aging in the basement, the beer turned cloudy when it reached the refrigerator. This is a common problem with home-brewed beers called chill haze. The simple explanation of the problem is that proteins in the beer that are clear at room temperature become cloudy at cold temperatures. Here is a more in depth explanation.
I fermented the beer for 6 days before bottling. I didn't do any secondary fermentation for clarification. The bottles have been aging for one week so the beer is very immature. Tasting the beer confirms this. My beer is not a true pilsner, but has the characteristics of one - in other words it has a very pronounced Saaz hops aroma and strong hoppy flavor. While I love hops in general, the raw-ness of the hops in this very young brew was a little too much for me to suggest to just any random beer drinker. The hops will become more moderate as the beer ages. I'm looking forward to enjoying this beer as it gets better and better.
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Interesting Inhterestings - 10-12-06 PM
Google Using Certified Teachers to Reach K-12 Students
School Official Sues Over MySpace Page
North Korea might now have The Bomb, but it doesn't have much electricity
Japan Takes Lead in Sanctioning N. Korea
Russia, China Oppose N. Korea Sanctions
Taking Heat for North Korea Errors, GOP Says: Probe Clinton Official!
Play Go!
This is a game I've always wanted to learn & well here's a link!
How to Fall in Love with Your iSight, Again
Apple’s new iTV universal remote control patent is revealed
School Official Sues Over MySpace Page
North Korea might now have The Bomb, but it doesn't have much electricity
Japan Takes Lead in Sanctioning N. Korea
Russia, China Oppose N. Korea Sanctions
Taking Heat for North Korea Errors, GOP Says: Probe Clinton Official!
Play Go!
This is a game I've always wanted to learn & well here's a link!
How to Fall in Love with Your iSight, Again
Apple’s new iTV universal remote control patent is revealed
Speak It, Brit Hume!
Terrorists, despots and other variously-branded thugs would like us to think that they are induced to do the evil that they do. For example, the Palestinians have no choice but to blow themselves up - after all, Israel is withdrawing from Gaza and the West Bank. Wait...
Kim Jung Il, similarly, wants the world to believe that he had no choice but to blow up nuclear bombs - after all, America is trying to invade North Korea so they've got to put in place the means to defend themselves.
Brit Hume put it bluntly:
More people should be calling it like this - Juan Williams didn't do himself or his side any favors by springing to the defense of the terrorists this time.
So here's the question - even given oppression and hardship, how do the Palestinians justify their acts of violence and murder? The answer is simple, but not something that Westerners seem to want to get their brains to comprehend - Muslims don't think there is anything wrong with killing Jews, Americans or anybody else. Getting infidels to convert is fine, but killing them works too. The Koran backs this up:
When you meet the unbelievers, strike off their heads; then when you have made wide slaughter among them, carefully tie up the remaining captives.
-- Qu'ran, Sura xlvii.4
Kill those who join other gods with God wherever you may find them.
-- Qu'ran, Sura ix, 5-6
Say to the Infidels: if they desist from their unbelief, what is now past shall be forgiven; but if they return to it, they have already before them the doom of the ancients! Fight then against them till strife be at an end, and the religion be all of it God's.
-- Qu'ran, Sura viii, 39-42
There is more like this but there is no need to belabor the point. Nothing prohibits Muslims from killing anybody who is not Muslim - in fact, Muslims are commanded to kill anybody who refuses to convert. Anybody who says differently is hiding the truth.
Kim Jung Il, similarly, wants the world to believe that he had no choice but to blow up nuclear bombs - after all, America is trying to invade North Korea so they've got to put in place the means to defend themselves.
Brit Hume put it bluntly:
More people should be calling it like this - Juan Williams didn't do himself or his side any favors by springing to the defense of the terrorists this time.
So here's the question - even given oppression and hardship, how do the Palestinians justify their acts of violence and murder? The answer is simple, but not something that Westerners seem to want to get their brains to comprehend - Muslims don't think there is anything wrong with killing Jews, Americans or anybody else. Getting infidels to convert is fine, but killing them works too. The Koran backs this up:
When you meet the unbelievers, strike off their heads; then when you have made wide slaughter among them, carefully tie up the remaining captives.
-- Qu'ran, Sura xlvii.4
Kill those who join other gods with God wherever you may find them.
-- Qu'ran, Sura ix, 5-6
Say to the Infidels: if they desist from their unbelief, what is now past shall be forgiven; but if they return to it, they have already before them the doom of the ancients! Fight then against them till strife be at an end, and the religion be all of it God's.
-- Qu'ran, Sura viii, 39-42
There is more like this but there is no need to belabor the point. Nothing prohibits Muslims from killing anybody who is not Muslim - in fact, Muslims are commanded to kill anybody who refuses to convert. Anybody who says differently is hiding the truth.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)