Page 1 of Google Search Results (YAY!)

Yay - I've made page 1 of Google's search results page - twice! How cool is that. I'm number 8 and 10... see image below (not edited, just cropped):

Finally after all these years, I've made it. Aaaaaaah. Now if only I can be number 1 (like my wife). Sigh.

More Google news

Google Phone? In more google news (seems to be all I'm typing about these days), it looks like there's going to be a google phone. Will I use it? Hmmm. After some somewhat disturbing remarks by CEO Schmidt about Google and privacy (see quote below), I'm in two minds. I still use their products though- it seems that people (myself included) are willing to hand over our personal lives for a really useful (or somewhat useful) app. Case in point - I'm writing this blog using Google's Chrome browser for Mac (which really is a step back from the Win version) in Blogger (another google product) and I use Google seach religiously. Seriously - Bing? Nah.

Quote from Schmidt on PCWorld (http://www.pcworld.com/article/184446/googles_schmidt_roasted_for_privacy_comments.html) :
66

Lest anything be taken out of context, here's the full quote from Schmidt, uttered in an interview with CNBC:
"If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place, but if you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines including Google do retain this information for some time, and it's important, for example that we are all subject in the United States to the Patriot Act. It is possible that that information could be made available to the authorities."
       99


Thanks Schmidt for making me feel safer using your products - really (italics is used to show sarcasm).

Five Years of Firefox

Wow! Five years already!!! Who knew that time could go so fast.

Five years ago, Microsoft had killed off their major web browsing competitors and looked set to keep the throne for decades (mumble, grumble) to come. Then, like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Netscape reborn, rebadged and completely (pretty much) recoded, comes back on the scene as Mozilla Firefox.
With features that MS could only dream of and a user base which rapidly grew (and still is), Firefox reignited the Browser wars of yesteryear and warmed the hearts of so many who had been enslaved in the net pits of IE.
Now, after paving the way, and wounding the dragon, Firefox has allowed other browsers to also take up the fight to reclaim the Internet - welcome Chrome, hello on Win Safari, and Opera: just keep on singing.
So to say happy birthday, I've linked to the celebration page. Go there and rejoice for the reign of 'good enough' is almost at an end.

Five Years of Firefox

Posted using ShareThis

Why I trim my goatee

http://dilbert.com/fast/2009-11-28/

Ahh! Scott Adams, you've done it again. This is why I trim my goatee... so that I can move freely throughout this wonderful democracy where you don't have to feel threatened if you have facial hair... or something.

Well done Year 12s!

Last night I had the honour and pleasure of saying goodbye to the latest batch of Year 12 students from my school. I think this bunch of kids have done a great job of growing up - they're confident, driven and have rock-solid character.

To all those people who worry for the future when they look at Gen Y, don't. The future is in good hands - probably better than yours.

Do these guys want to have fun? Absolutely. But why not? Life is meant to be experienced (within boundaries) and these young adults (at least the ones from my school) are doing a great job of balancing fun and responsibility.

Thanks 2009 - I'll miss you ... a little :)
Have fun, take care, and stand firm in the faith God has given you.

Hang on - what is Google Operating System?

If you have no idea what it was that I was talking about in the last post, lucky for you that google has released a video for you:

Chrome Operating System - It's here!

Google has just released Chrome OS as Open Source and they've got bucketloads of videos out there.

I thought I'd post a very recent demo video (from Google's youtube channel) here - it's a live, working version.




What I find interesting is the absolute reliance upon the cloud. All documents etc are based "in the cloud" - or on a google server.

What I love is that it's not due for release for another year, but it's working and Google is mroe than willing to show it off.

There are more videos on the channel, but I thought I'd start with this one.

An IPT blog - finally.

I've finally bitten the bullet and created Teaching IPT - a blog of all things IPT related. Unlike one of my earlier blogs, this will actually be updated fairly regularly. I'm aiming to use it as an additional resource for my kiddies at school.
I'll have links to interesting things (like BumpTop OS, or GoogleOS) and extra lesson stuff for my classes (like revision sheets). In short, it will be a one stop shop. Plus - one day I might be able to update it and embed a Wave in it... Amanda, Michael et. al.

Sorry my peeps from Year 12. This is a little too late for you, but I hope you'll help contribute as time goes on. Please?

Speaking of Year 12s, there's only 1 week to go. I'm already tearing up and that's not from the stress of trying to make it an enjoyable and memorable last week for them. Hmmm. Maybe I need to drink more coffee. Yep. The answer to all ills. :)

IPT - revision available

Sorry - was at the SU support dinner. Great night!

Anyway, the pdf of the revision sheet is here: http://www.christlife.org.au/images/stories/IPT/2009_IPT OT2 Revision with asnwers.pdf

It's MY info, Google! .. Enter dashboard

We all know that Google can build up a lot of info about you, but most of it comes from yourself. You create a blogger account, set up a gmail, enter in the Wave playground, make your own profile, write some pages, create some documents online, have a calendar - you know, all the regular stuff. All this info, you give to Google because they run all those things. And, until now, it's been kind of hard to check what the world could and couldn't see about you because of it.
This is where the Dashboard comes in.
In short, it allows you to see what Google stuff you've got and what personal information is being given out as well as offering you the opportunity to change settings about what is public and/or private.

I like it. YAGGT! (Yet Another Good Google Tool).

For another view of it, see: http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2009/11/google-dashboard.html (google's own blog - so it's a bit biased)
or: http://blogs.computerworld.com/15054/google_dashboard_triva_tabulator_for_my_google_life?source=rss_blogs (has a more...'trivia centered'... view of it)

BTW: my twitter's going well... and I've hooked it up to my facebook too! Woot. I almost sound Gen Y!

Chirp...

Finally making use of my Twitter account (http://twitter.com/richardschwarz). Don't know that it'll be all that useful, but hey... Gen WhoCares person here.

One day I'll find a way to make it useful.

Chrome Dev Version rocks!

I've taken the plunge and been trying out the Google Chrome dev channel releases.

Chrome 1 gave us speed
Chrome 2 gave us more speed
Chrome 3 gave us themes (kind of like igoogle)
and why am I using Chrome 4?

One reason, and one reason only:
Extensions.

Yep - that's right, extensions. And you know what? While there aren't actually all that many out there, the extensions I'm using don't appear to have slowed Chrome down. Not at startup, not during page rendering and not during shutdown. While Chrome's memory usage is a dog - because it seperates each tab out into seperate processes (really good idea by the way - seriously), the extensions don't seem to add anything.

This is really important, because I'm now going to get rid of Firefox... gasp! I don't really need it anymore - except to play Quake Live. Okay - I'm going to keep Firefox. For now.

Security issues - I'm not sure, but it still appears to be quite secure. I'll let you know if my bank accounts suddenly empty.

Try it or not. Extensions are cool

Windows 7 is out!

I don't suppose that there is anything else to say - the press has said enough today. All day.

Windows 7, by all reviews, appears to be the best version of Windows since Windows XP... which means it's better than Vista.

I've read a range of reviews, all saying it's the OS that Vista should have been - but interestingly, a lot are saying that XP is still faster, and more reliable than the 7 Release Candidate (which is not the one you're purchasing - but should be almost identical).

So, the question I've been asked quite often is - should I upgrade? If you're using Vista and you want a bit more snap, and you can afford it, yes. If you're using XP and you've absolutely no wish to have all the beautiful effects of Windows 7, I'd say no. I'm not anyway. I've got better things to spend my money on, and better things to spend my time on - rather than hours trying to get from XP to 7 (not an easy venture I've been told).

Anyway - you want reviews? Do a google search (I've included one here).
And you can try Microsoft's own site: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/

Have fun!

Chrome 3 - lovin' it still

Yep - Google's chrome browser is up to version 3 already, and it's just getting better all the time. It's been out for a couple of days, and I've been playing with it, thus leading to this fantastic write up.

All the main points from when v.2 was released are still the same. I still don't like having personal information about me stored when all I want to do is browse. I still occasionally want to use some plugins, but I haven't seen any 'official' ones yet.

Some new features - speed (again) and themes. I like the themes that Google have offered, they're simple, quick and plain (ish). All this means that they don't slow the jolly browser down - unlike some of the themes on offer with Firefox.

When it comes to plugins, I'll just keep using FF.

Enjoy!

One way that Open Source will defeat the ogres of Closed software!

I was doing my daily digesting of comics (you really should try it, a bit of laughter is good for the soul... or is it chicken soup?), and laughed at this comic at dilbert.com:

http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2009-09-01/

This reminds me of the fight over XML document standards... OO.o V MS anyone? I'm not 100% sure which one is which at the moment though. Hmmm.

I'm also just a tad freaked out that the guy doing the Kung Fu looks a little like me, and his Kung Fu is at about my level. Sheer coincidence? Quite possibly, but can we be sure? Hmmm.

idontlikeapples #2

There's a new idontlikeapples post.

Go read it, subscribe and make me feel good about myself.

My own little ZJXS webcomic

I've started my own webcomic... don't ask why - I don't know.

But, I've been reading a fair bit of xkcd.org (which when it's not rude is funny, and when it's rude, it's quite rude) and laughing more than a little, so I decided to profile pic myself in the good 'ol xkcd way. That's right, in stick figures!

Some of my students saw it and suggested creating a webcomic (thanks AM and MS). So I did. The first strip was actually drawn on a whiteboard at school, but it quickly turned into black gunk on my hand. I might put it up one day... you never know.

The first strip starts where most teachers start with a new class - at the start.

Hope you like it... I wouldn't mind getting some google money one day. :)

Listed on the front page of Google - kind of

Hi all,

I wrote a long time ago about being on the 6th page of google's search results when searching for myself. Now, I can proudly state that I feature on the first (yes, friends and countrymen people - the FIRST) page of google's results.

I need to state, to remain at least partly honest, that it is not my content, nor my luminary intellectual wit and writings which has brought about this phenomenon, rather it is the fantastic profile picture which one of my fantastic students put together, featured on the Joomla! extension K2 community page. That was quite a ramble.

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, so:

Take a look for yourself... that's me!

enjoy my goatee!

Google Operating System... but not Android

Google has announced (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google-chrome-os.html) that it will be creating an Operating System specifically built for netbooks. It's not hard to see, though, Google expanding upon this over time to drive the OS onto the more traditionally bloated area of laptops and desktops. I'd be interested, for example, in putting it on (at least in a virtual machine) on my desktop for a look-see.

Some points of interest:

• It will be built around the linux kernel - I bolded that for a reason. They're not building it around a linux distribution (eg. gOS or ubuntu etc).
• From what I can gather, it will be a new windowed version of Chrome (the browser) running on top of that kernel - nice sandboxing of apps, just like in Chrome
• It will be aimed 100% at web-apps only. This is obviously good for google - master of the web app domain
• It will be open source. This means more security (read all about that here)
• They've already got some hardware support (link)
• Being made by google, and being based on chrome, you can bet that there will be a host of privacy concerns. Hmmmm. Better start watching for black 4WDs and people wearing sunglasses on cloudy days. :)

Obviously, there's a lot more points to note, but you can read about it in the google blog, or by doing a google search.

For those of you who are conspiracy freaks (like me), you could be forgiven for thinking that this is just one more step to google taking over the world!

But I love it.

Chrome 2

Love it. It's like version 1, but better, faster and more... just more.

It's fast, really fast. I know that I've said that about Firefox before, but Chrome is really speeding along. I'm currently posting this using Chrome. Nice.It loads faster than either Firefox or IE 7 0r 8, which is saying something. You'd think the people who make the OS would be able to make it move.

I've noticed a few issues, though. While it is built on the open source project Chromium, it still uses a lot of personal information hooks (which google assures us are not too damning and/or permanent) including a unique ID for the download of Chrome that you're using.

Another issue is that of plugins. Nowadays, there's a lot of stuff out there which is quite useful to view in a browser (like pdf files) and Chrome, or at least my Chrome, won't open them. Not surprisingly things like flash and flvs (they are the file of choice behind most video sharing sites like youtube) do play, and play well, but the other, less googled plugins just aren't there.... yet.

Google has said that they are planning on building in a plugin architecture, but I understand their hesitancy in doing so.

There are two main problems with browsers including plugins: security and speed.

Security becomes an issue when you allow someone else to add scripts (often with a great amount of power/priveledges) to an otherwise secure browser. This reduces the possibility of a browser vendor being able to assure users of the security of their program. They have no power to control what the programmers of the plugin add to the code. And at the moment, Google have scored on the security issue. Its a complete redesign from the other browsers out there. I like that.

Secondly a browser will slow down the more plugins are added - this is simply because it is more program code which has to be run and stored in memory. A plain vanilla installation of Firefox is blazingly fast. Add a few plugins (say 10 or so) and it becomes less weildly and more labourious.

Anyway, at the moment I've got three browsers going: IE, Firefox and Chrome. IE because I don't have much choice, Firefox for the plugins (I do need them from time to time) and Chrome, because I like its user interface and its speeeeeeeeed.

Make up your own mind. After all, it is yours.

New layout

Small post...

I've altered the layout a little and added a tag list. If you're at all interested in a segment of the blog, like say Open Source, now you can quickly isolate those posts having anything to do with it. You can also subscribe to it in your favourite feed reader too.

As a part of the tag list, I've stripped out a lot of superflous tags(labels) and tried to streamline the whole scenario. There really isn't any excuse for poor usability. Other than not caring. Hmmm.

Google Wave - A new (and better) form of communication

I thought I'd break my hiatus from blogging to bring this to you all. Firstly, because I'm really excited, and secondly because I'm really really excited.

Lars and Jens Rasmussen (the guys who basically created uber cool google maps) have gotten together, with a few other aussies in Sydney (yay!!!) and have come up with Google Wave.

"Uh huh?!" I hear you mutter at your screen(s). Well it is a really cool new communication form that kind-of melds email, IM, blogging, facebooking (or Orkuting for all you google freaks out there) and all those other types of messaging together.

Look, I really can't explain it enough, except to make one of my fatefull pronouncements (like the one I made back when google was next to unknown) and state simply - this will redefine the way you communicate online, and it will be the next big thing. Oops. That's done it.

No seriously, this isn't like "this is the year of Linux", or like "Duke Nukem Forever will come out, sometime"... this is for real. Even if no-one else reading this ever takes it up (silly people) I will.

Find out why by going to the google wave page (http://wave.google.com/) and watch the video and read all about it. Really - it's 1 hour 20 minutes in length, but if you're anything like me, you'll be sold after the first 10. And it actually makes sense.

BTW: this is the same video below.

Not blogging for a while.... AGAIN!!!!

Struggling to make stuff work at the moment. Stupid internets [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internets]. What a silly bunch of tubes![http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Series_of_tubes]

Anyway, lots of plans to update this again - and more often... YAY!

But not right now.

Human fail of the Turing Test

Perfect proof that the Turing test doesn't really test machine intelligence... it simply tests the ability to hold a decent conversation. This means that some humans will fail. Epically.

I'm not usually one to hold Dilbert (http://www.dilbert.com) up as a noteworthy soothsayer of Artificial Intelligence, however, Scott Adams summed up my bemusement (there are plenty of other less savoury words which could be used instead... but I won't use them here - it'll hurt the Nets) at what some people will say.

(http://dilbert.com/fast/2009-03-16/)

Chickens.

More User Interface Issues... when affordance goes wrong...

One of my fellow teachers reminded me of this pearler of a video... tracked it down on youtube...

Interesting take on help desk support and affordance. Sometimes, while your user isn't you, they're just plain stupid.

Medieval Help Desk:

The Turing Test - Whaaaat???

For all you AI peeps out there.

Taken from: http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/turing_test.png

Sometimes I wonder...

New profile picture

Thanks Ben!!!

Your sneaky snapping of snaps has netted me a great new profile picture. Now, not only do I look cool, I also look more than a little deranged... Hmmm.

But, as Ben said, the old one (red and yellow life jacket) was getting... well, old.

Nuff said.

Back to the real world. Oh. Snap.

PointUI 2 Home is out!

I appear to be a little late (must have missed my email warning) but PointUI 2 Home is out for download. Its a little app that remakes your old dodgy looking Windows Mobile interface into something you can actually show your friends.

Just downloaded it - about to try it. Give it ago yourself:

http://www.pointui.com/

GodTube is dead: Long live Tangle!!!

You may have noticed recently (particularly if you're a subscriber) that the Christian Video streaming place GodTube (http://www.godtube.com) is gone. Like the mythical phoenix, it has been reborn (perhaps I should use a more christian analogy along the lines of 'like Lazarus from the dead', but it's not quite the same image, really) and recast as Tangle (www.tangle.com).

Underneath all the new jazz, it is still essentially the same video sharing site (like youTube - www.youtube.com) as it was, with the same underlying technologies (as far as I can tell). It has simply been rebadged and a new domain was registered.

What does this mean to all of us? Well, the word of tangle:

Our goal is to touch more people than ever, to provide them with not just the place but also the means to connect with others online, to share their faith and lives, and to ultimately portray a Christian angle in everything they do.

(http://www.tangle.com/promo/godtubeisnowtangle)

If you haven't checked it out yet, you will want to. There's a fantastic plethora of Christian goodies, and the first email themed message I've got is all about valentines:

http://info.tangle.com/loveandsex

Back to work

Well, I'm back from Couran Point Island Beach Resort (South Stradbroke Island) after a delightful 5 days of not thinking or doing anything with regards to work. I have a bit of a tan and a bit of a gut and am looking forward to going back to work on Monday (read that with a level of forced happiness).

My plans for this year are to be a bit more organised (am going to spend up to 3 hours today cleaning my desk so that this has even a remote possibility of happening) and to go further to fulfilling my vision of 'creating leaders of character'. This last might be a bit more difficult now that I will only be looking after Year 12, rather than all of 10 -12 as per the last three years. Maybe I'll have a bit more success with that year level after all. Yes Amanda, that includes you.

Oh well. 2009 - I hope you're ready