Chris Meller

Why is it that we (by that I mean society on the internet as a whole) see Google as being a company filled with “The Good Guys”? Why do we always see them as so much kinder, gentler, and better than Yahoo! and Microsoft, their two main competitors?

Honestly, it?s not like they?re really any different. All three entities are corporations designed to make money, and all three (albeit more-so Google and Microsoft) are industry leaders in their fields.

So really, what makes Google the hippie-friendly, world peace-loving, three-hugging good guys and at the same time makes Microsoft the evil, unholy, satanic pig of a corporation that represents the physical embodiment of all that is evil in the world?

Is it simply that Microsoft is better known for their incredibly highly priced monopolistic software and related security attitudes and policies? What if you just disregard all that? Google doesn?t compete with Microsoft in the desktop operating system or client-side software markets, so you?re really comparing apples and oranges if that?s involved in your argument.

SO if we just compare the internet services divisions of Microsoft to Google, what other arguments do we have in favor of Google?

Well, there?s GMail, the largest offering for web-based mail offered by any mainstream provider, and all for free.

So Hotmail doesn?t give you that much space for free? so what? Honestly, find someone who has even used 1/3 of the 2gb they?re allotted for their GMail account and I?ll concede the point, but the fact of the matter is, no one (certainly not the average user) is going to use that much space for just their email… ever.

Alright, well, Hotmail also has lots of advertisements on all their pages, but GMail is nice and clean. Well, how else do you expect Microsoft to have provided this service for free for so long (10 years) totally for free? How is Google doing it without all the ads then? Well, let?s just say there is definitely something in it for them…

SO now we?ve covered GMail… What else is there? The only other product Microsoft has of any size or importance that is in direct competition with Google is their MSN search engine itself. I know hundreds of people personally who swear by Google?s search and despise MSN, but is there really any valid reason? Even if you did say that Google returned “better” results, your arguments would be purely subjective, because there?s no real way to objectively measure or compare search engines and their results.

Can anyone really come up with a reason Microsoft is hated and Google is loved? I mean, Google seems to be looking a little shadier to me lately… But maybe that really is just me…

Personally, I?d really love to get an opinion from Mark Jen on the matter, since he?s worked for both companies in the past year.

Anyone have any compelling arguments for / against one company or another? I could come up with some more on my own, but it?d turn into a 10 page rant, and that?s not what I want out of this entry.

Comments? Rebuttals? Drop me an email, or leave me a comment here for the world to see…

After reading everything on grc.com about the 2001 DoS and DDoS attacks against them, it?s renewed my interest in programming. While I really love writing code in PHP that is accessible to everyone with a web browser, there are many limitations to web-based coding. It simply wasn?t designed to do some of the things I want it to do.

One of the big projects I?ve been working on, and which I?ve probably mentioned before, is my IRC chat bot. I?ve written several bots in mIRC using their proprietary scripting language, which was very simple, since they handle all of the IRC connection issues, and simply provide functions to send / receive messages and other commands. Unfortunately, since this is based on a Windows application, it must be left running on a desktop, connected to my DSL at home. Not only is this far less stable than I?d like, but it also subjects the bot to incredible lag at times, particularly when I?m uploading something else. To fix both, I really need to write a bot in something that can run directly on my server.

In this situation, learning something like Perl would seem to be the most appropriate, but I really have no desire at all (absolutely zero) to learn it. I?m not really sure why, but I just have this odd bias against Perl. I guess I?ve just never given it a chance, but it always seems to find some way to annoy me and not work.

That still leaves some of the more popular languages. I still hate C++, but oddly don?t mind C#. I have no experience with Java, but I?ve heard that it is very similar to C#. Java also has the added benefit of being cross-platform, so I have the potential ability to continue to run my IRC bot on my Linux server, while still having the ability to run client-side applications, just as in all the other major languages (C++, C#, Visual Basic, Delphi, you name it).

The only problem with that scenario is that I have to use Java. It?s always had a reputation as a horrible resource hog (which I think is well deserved and earned), so I have a justified hatred towards it, as opposed to Perl, which I just hate because it?s different and strange.

So what do you guys recommend? What?s your favorite language? Are there any you know of that would meet all my requirements? Are there any that are similar enough to PHP to reduce the learning curve? Other suggestions?

As much as I love Star Trek, and Deep Space Nine in particular, there are always some inconsistencies and other oddities that don?t seem to make sense or add up, when you?re and avid watcher. Now, I?m not going to bore you with some random technical inconsistency here. NO, I want to take a look at a much larger problem in the inner-workings of the universe of Star Trek.

Of course there are other instances where this problem pokes its head, but as I said, Deep Space Nine is one of the primary offenders. Alright, you?re probably wondering what the hell I?m talking about, so I?ll let you in on the secret. This inconsistency is: currency. That?s right, money.

As is frequently mentioned in all of Star Trek, the human race has finally been able to better itself. It has eliminated war, hunger, poverty, need, and currency (and the desire to acquire material goods in general). Instead, they all work to better themselves and the rest of mankind (and the universe as a whole).

So how then, I ask you, does the Federation do business with all the other races that still revolve around the acquisition of wealth? In Deep Space Nine, one of the primary characters on the station is Quark, a Ferengi (a species whose only reason for living is to get rich, any way they can). There?s no way they could do business on a daily basis using a simple barter system. At some point, you have to use some form of currency. That?s why it evolved in the first place. Barter works just fine until you really want to start investing or saving for the proverbial “rainy day.”

Now, I guess I really shouldn?t get too much into this, lest my infidel knowledge get me humiliated when someone out there turns out to have a PhD in some form of economics.

My point is, there are a lot of inconsistencies that people probably wouldn?t otherwise notice in the show. Then again, maybe I?m just a freak that over analyzes everything and needs o have his head examined… erm, again…

Earlier this week, it was announced that Newsgator, which provides one of (if not THE) best online RSS news readers on the net, was purchasing FeedDemon, also arguably one of (if not THE) best desktop RSS readers.

Now, historically, I?ve been ardently anti-desktop readers. My main complaint against them really involved my laptop-less period (which was also the period I really got into blogging and reading feeds), when I was trying to keep my feeds synched on my desktop at home and my desktop at work. Even if the feeds were the same, I never knew what I?d read and what I hadn?t read.

Logically, the easiest way to fix this problem was to use a web-based reader. I started at the top, and worked my way down.

There are all sorts of online RSS readers available, but they?re all somehow lacking (perhaps they don?t display nicely, or they won?t let you manually refresh, etc.). Unfortunately, desktop-based readers are much more robust and feature-rich in today?s Internet world. I thought the best solution was to compromise. I wanted a web-based service that would synch with my desktop reader (kinda like IMAP or POP3 email combined with a webmail client). This really seemed like a simple request. I definitely thought it would have been brought up and developed by someone out there before I came along looking for it.

Much to my surprise, there was no such service anywhere to be found. At one point, I even set out to create my own service offering in this market. Ironically, the night before the NewsGator announcement, I?d actually sat in bed and outlined the service requirements and structure that I would need to setup to meet immediate needs. The next morning I was absolutely shocked that NewsGator had beaten me to the punch, and answered my dreams at the same time.

With any luck, as soon as NewsGator launches their first integrated version of FeedDemon, they?ll earn a new loyal client… me!

Remember those long summers in elementary school where all you had to do every day was lay around and watch TV for hours on end? What about those in middle and early high school when you were just starting to get the ability to go out and do things on your own?

Well, I?ve worked and gone to school at the same time for? 5 years now. At times, it?s been a bit rough, and I?ve had to make some hard choices along the way (ones that I hope I won?t come to regret in the future). Since all the schools around here (public, private, high er ed, you name it) are out in the summer months, summer time has always been a time of relaxation, in which I was free to focus solely on work, just like everyone else in the world. After high school, it was also a nice time to kick back and relax with my friends, who were home from schools near and far.

Unfortunately, this was obviously too good a thing, and heaven forbid anything good or positive should go on in my life too long unchecked?

My summer “vacation” has utterly fallen apart this year. Not only is there a big project at work right now, but I also have the pleasure of taking a course this summer to help pick up some extra credits towards an earlier graduation.

It?s bad enough that I have to think about school during the summer, but to add insult to injury; it?s also a “real” course, requiring that I take time out of my already busy day to attend a largely useless and boring class (2 hours every Tuesday and Thursday). Fortunately, I took the morning class, so it just takes time away form work. This helps keep me from being in class until 10:00 one night a week. Since my boss was the one that told me I had to go to school, I figured it was only fair that I take the class on his time.

Now, to top everything else off, I don?t even get to see my best friend all summer. Maggie left earlier this week for California. She is going to be staying with her aunt and babysitting for the next three months, and I?ll be back here all alone.

Now I knew deep inside that this day would eventually come. I know several people who are already rooming with friends during the summer months, just so they don?t have to go back home and can go ahead and start setting up their own lies. I guess I just never wanted to think about my closest friends doing something like that. I really don?t like change, and having to adjust my daily life to varying circumstances, and for years now I?ve had these friends to hang out with multiple nights a week. Now that they?re starting to disappear, I?m just not sure what to do with myself or my time?

I guess it?s just time to totally throw myself into my code again and try to get some things accomplished before school starts back up full swing in the fall. It?s not like I?ve got a shortage of personal (or work, for that matter) projects to complete, it just seems so sad to come home every night and sit in front of a computer endlessly writing lines and lines of code.

Oh well, I guess it?s time for me to get some sleep. If anyone has any brilliant suggestions on how to improve my life right now, please let me know!

Who knows? I guess I could meet some hot geeky chick in my nerd Networking class this summer and be working towards a wedding by this time next year. Boy I hate that disgusting “bright side” optimism crap?