smog uck
*[This image was lost to time in my blog transition]*
I thought NYC smog could be bad but this is crazy. Smog so thick you can taste it in Beijing.
*[This image was lost to time in my blog transition]*
I thought NYC smog could be bad but this is crazy. Smog so thick you can taste it in Beijing.
Today, apparently trying to one up the MS Spaces launch or at least get some air time, Google launched a new Groups. I'm finding it very interesting how since Google went public they feel this need to compete with MS so strongly and launch all these new services. But they only do it half way because now 4 of 6 Google services are Beta.
And for a quick reality check let's look at the numbers through Sept 2004:
Google
Revenue: 2 Billion
Net Income: 195 Million
MS
Revenue: 27 Billion
Net Income: 7.7 Billion
Still a little ways off. It seems to me they should be spending a little less time on beta's they're not really committed to and start improving their core product. Nobody's heard squat about them actually improving search results in years and if they're not careful MS will sneak up behind them and take over the core product. Google isn't going to bring on the next wave of internet wonder with blogging services or groups. They need to stay focused on search. These other things are just distractions. What ever happened to the Google API for instance? It comes out one day then nothing. Not one improvement, no more features, not even the launch of a commercial version just nothing. And now that MS has gotten their act together and is starting to turn the PR around a bit watch out (yes I think the bloggers at MS like Scoble are having a big impact. See the sneezers reference below. People like Scoble understand who the sneezers are. If the rest of MS figures it out, Google and alot of other companies are in trouble).
What would Seth Godin do? (or BzzAgents still doesn't get it) (from: Jason Calacanis): "Now, we don’t just say ‘What would Seth Godin think of this?’ —we ask what would Seth Godin *DO* in this situation.That is key to the exercise."
<p>
(Via <a href="http://www.kunal.org/scoble/">Scoble</a>.)
</p> - I love Seth Godin! Just had to get that out, and yes I ask myself the same question at every turn. My all time favorite Godin quote is from his book "purple cow", page 68. "The opposite of remarkable is very good" and "Are you making very good stuff? How fast can you stop" !!!! It's very true. People think the opposite is "bad stuff" but that's not really true. It's the "very good" products that are actually common if you look around. And common products aren't worth talking about, which in turn means your product doesn't get talked about. If you work in product development or marketing you need to run out an get
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/159184021X/ref%3Dnosim/002-3565192-6072825">Purple Cow</a> if you don't already have it. It's the best $13 you'll ever spend.
An Architect's View: "Don't get me wrong: competition is a very good thing but I have a background in international standards where compatibility is king. An alternative isn't 'free' if it isn't compatible..."
(Via cornfield.org.) - Interesting discussion going on over on corfield.org about BlueDragon (a product which lets you run ColdFusion code without having ColdFusion app server from Macromedia). They have to keep compatible with Macromedia so they're constantly catching up. None of these types of problems in the PHP world (yet).
Dare Obasanjo (who works at MSN now): MSN Spaces Launched.
I'll have more on this later tonight. Basically it won't be up totally until 9 p.m. tonight. There's a bunch of things that will come up tonight sometime. I interviewed the MSN Spaces team for Channel 9. I think you'll like that interview a lot.
In fact, I got permission to post the links. So, here they are. This is a conversation I had with Michael Connolly and Jim Horne of the MSN Spaces Team.
Interview with the MSN Spaces Team (Channel 9 video).
Demo of MSN Spaces (Channel 9 video).
I am posting from a Starbucks. Gotta go back to work now to get these up on Channel 9. I'll link to the ugly, bad, and good reactions from the blogosphere too.
The main posting URL won't be live until tonight. The URL is: http://spaces.msn.com
“ <p>
(Via <a href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/">The Scobleizer Weblog</a>.)
</p>
microISV :: a community for independent software developers
"I?ve wanted to work for myself for as long as I can remember, but I really just lucked into shareware. My original plan was to become a cartoonist, but HomeSite - which I created to help maintain my cartoon site - became far more popular than my comic strip, so I followed it into a career as a software developer."
(via Micro ISV)
Great point from Anil Dash about a site called New York Changing, which has wonderful then and now photos of locations throughout the city. Amazing how much is the same actually. Check out the bakery on Bleeker St.
-----
Which PHP libraries do you use? - SitePoint PHP Blog: "For interest, wondering what PHP libraries people use? By use I mean libraries you actually trust and are willing to use / have used on a live website."
Joseph Scott's Blog » The Metadata Problem With Databases:
"CREATE FUNCTION metadata_regex(varchar)
RETURNS varchar AS '
SELECT regex
FROM metadata
WHERE column_name = $1;
' LANGUAGE SQL;
ALTER TABLE users ADD CONSTRAINT
username_ck CHECK (
username ~ metadata_regex('username')
);
"
<p>
(Via <a href="http://joseph.randomnetworks.com/">Joseph Scott's Blog</a>.)
</p> - Intersting DB field metadata post
What rock have I been under? I don't know how I missed ever seeing the Savant template engine. I found it in the list I linked to yesterday. This looks like the thing I've been looking for. For the client pages/front pages of HelpSpot I've been looking for a good lgpl solution for templating, because I really don't have the time or energy to write my own.
It wasn't looking too good since most are extremely complex and would probably require alot of customer support as well as just being tricky to develop in. What I wanted was something straight forward that our customers would be able to pickup quick AND that used PHP as the template language (this is what knocked most of them out).
PHP is a template language so I don' t really see the value in things like Smarty that abstract the logic. What's the difference if somebody needs to learn:
<? if($name == 'Fred'){ ?>
Welcome Sir.
<? } ?>
<br /> OR<br /> <pre><br />
{if $name eq 'Fred'}
Welcome Sir.
{/if}
<br /> Anyway, Savant appears to be perfect for us. I'll keep you updated on how it works out.