Technology
Google Chrome - Just Another Browser?
I hadn’t really heard of Googles entry into the browser market until today, and frankly, when I heard about it I was probably more annoyed than anything else. Firefox has been great. I’ve really become addicted to a lot of the plugins (especially Firebug). But over the last few years, Firefox has become a little bulkier, and perhaps my plugin addiction has taken away from my browsing experience.
I still am not sold on the world needing another browser. At least, not unless it’s awesome. Well, the good news is I think that Chrome has a fairly solid chance at being something pretty close to awesome. The UI is very minimalist, and the rendering is lightning fast. Start up is fast. I like the bookmark system, and search. And some great developer tools are already integrated. I think a lot of this is thanks to Apples WebKit rendering engine. And that kind of sucks, but only because Apple didn’t make a good browser with what is obviously superior technology.
I guess it sort of frustrates that Google made the browser that Apple should have made. Apple made a great Web Rendering API in WebKit, but just because the API is doing all the hard work, doesn’t mean the Browser should be boring. Yeah, I’ve liked Safari, but it never really did anything for me. It seemed like a good browser, but nothing about it really stood out. Chrome on the other hand is just different enough to actually stand out, and shows enough promise for me to really keep an eye on new developments.
So overall, Chrome is just another browser for web developers to keep in mind, although Safari/WebKit is pretty standards based, so it should be all good. And, at the very least I’m glad that Google made something different enough to be a welcome addition to the market, even though it’s probably not a Firefox killer (yet).
New theme, and update.
Posting from my iPod! Just updated wordpress to make use of the touch app for wordpress. Seems pretty slick so far.
Learning Cocoa. Again.
It’s been a long time since I did any Cocoa programming, and even what I have done in the past hasn’t gone much beyond a few tutorials here and there. The interface builder always intrigued me though, but I think what always was the killer for me was some of the subtle, and not so subtle differences between Obj-C, and C, and the insane differences between Obj-C, and C++. I sort of got the bug after downloading the iPhone SDK (Cocoa Touch), and seeing just how close it was to Cocoa. Also, the iPhone Simulator is fun to play with.
I’ve just finished building a few “Hello World” type apps though, and the difference between making those, and trying to do anything in Win32 is just insane. It honestly even feels easier than web development. At least the prototyping side of it, and getting the interface all plugged together. I just feels like such a a natural way to build an application. I kinda wish I could build websites in that way. Anyway, I really shouldn’t be learning Cocoa since I actually have a freaking website to finish (ack). But it’s sorta fun learning for now. If I make anything cool, I’ll try posting it along with the source code.
Some Nice Cheat Sheets
I just found this site while looking for phpDocs cheat sheet. Though this particular one lacks a phpDocs cheat sheet (I did find one), there is some interesting ones here, and all pretty high quality. Enjoy!
Post Demo Camp
I was very impressed. Thanks to all the people, and sponsors that were part of this great day. It was such a great environment to share, and I really got the sense that there was a community vibe. There was a great energy, and anticipation when we showed up, and I was not let down. The sessions I took part in were as follows:
- Angel investors presenting what they are about, and what they look for. This was really cool, as these were some of the group that funded nexopia.com.
- U of A Aerial Robotics Club.
- Fundamental Programming Skills vs Framework Knowledge.
- Accessibility & Usability For Disabled.
- How to ‘be’ a Contractor.
- Emerging Mobile Platforms.
- Zero Budget Marketing.
- Analytics: How it can help.
Probably some of the highlights for me were the angel investor group, the zero budget marketing, and of course the endless supply of beer, and wi-fi.
DemoCamp Edmonton 3
I can hardly wait. I missed the last one, and I’ve been really hoping there will be something there to inspire me. I think I would be equally inspired if the place was filled with balding middle aged internet marketers that are impressed by the latest CMS, because it will totally make their Web 2.0 internet millions a reality </sarcasm>. Ugh… because I know there is always a handful of those types that go to anything where they can… “network”.
Maybe I’m just not super convinced yet that anyone who is actually innovating are super excited to share what they are working on. I guess we’ll see though. I have hopes that it will be a very productive day. I’ll post again Tomorrow if there is anything worth sharing.
New Hosting, and Catching Up With BSG
Finally found a new host after keeping my eyes open for the last few months. GoDaddy served me well for the cheapness, and reliability, but things like the lack of control, and scalability, and not being able to use Zend Frameworks at all was really starting to get to me. I’ll be gradually moving my sites over to the new Media Temple server over the next week or so.
Also been catching up with season 4 of BSG, and it feels great. Oh, Baltar & 6, how I’ve missed you. So far I’m pretty happy, although all the new cylons is almost a bit too much to handle. You almost start to wonder who isn’t a cylon. Well, they do have a plan.
Coding All Nighter
I’m about to do something I haven’t done in years. I’m planning on building something tonight, and I’ll be staying up all night, because that is when my focus and drive is at its best. I have a thermos of herbal tea, some snacks, good music, and my MacBook.
I maybe haven’t had this much excitement for building a site since, maybe HighDriving.com (I still can’t believe I let that domain slide). What I’m working on is pretty much just a proof of concept at this point, but if things go well tonight I’ll be posting some more info by the weekend. I’ve done most of the night all nighters before, but have never before planned to do it. If this is a success, I hope it will become part of a fairly common practice of planning through the week, and pulling an all-nighter on the weekend to get as much off a TODO list as possible.
Also, I’m starting a new job next week, and I haven’t really done as much skill sharpening as I had hoped to have done this week. This will maybe serve to make up for some lost time.