ndmckinney|net

After a couple hours of playing with the latest Firefox on my Mac, I’ve come to a conclusion: Mozilla has Google on the brain. The browser is certainly quick, but I’m not sure I’m going back to it. Safari and Google have stolen my heart.

The Good: Loads pages quickly; provides me a way to render 1s and 0s as useful pictures on my computer screen.

The Bad: Slow to load; new layout doesn’t make me think of Google Chrome at all; extensions do not work (does Mozilla need to force us through this “incompatible extensions” nonsense every time there’s a browser update, big or small?); Unattractive UI layout

The Ugly: Firefox became a powerhouse against IE because it was small, fast, and customizable. Now, like all things American, it’s starting to suffer from “fat ass” syndrome.

Longer than anyone thought, but still a poor showing nevertheless.

[From Microsoft kills Windows 7E, puts IE back in upcoming OS - Network World]

TechCrunch is reporting that the FCC has sent letters of inquiry to Apple, AT&T and Google regarding the rejection of Google Voice related apps from Apple’s app store. In the letters, the FCC is asking both Apple and AT&T about their levels of decision making in approving/rejecting apps.

AT&T has maintained that it has no involvement in the approval process, although their loosely-written press release gives a wide latitude for interpretation.

I suspect that the FTC and DoJ may get involved next, given the administration’s strong antitrust policy.

[From FCC Takes On Apple And AT&T Over Google Voice Rejection]

Quick disclaimer: I love cryptography. I don’t fully understand the math that goes into it, but I love it all the same.

Something that has baffled me for quite some time is why we don’t see more cryptography in consumer computing. Passwords, simple authentication tokens, are ubiquitous, even on single-user Windows computers. Real encryption, on the other hand, in virtually non-existant.

Why?

Read the rest of this entry »

When I was much, much younger, I was online. Every summer, I would spend a couple weeks with my grandparents. My uncle, a professor of computer science at a nearby college, secured for me a spare computer, a modem, and user account. A handshake later and I was connected to the network. A further authentication and I was online.

Looking back, the early internet didn’t really do much. I had access to a wealth of information, and I would spend hours crawling through Gopherspace, soaking up information like a sponge. Years later, and Gopher is a figment of the past, lost forever to the ever-evolving digital landscape.

What kills old technology?

Read the rest of this entry »

Sun Microsystems, one of the stalwarts of the computing industry, has a simple motto: “the network is the computer.” Yesterday, Google took that motto to an entirely new level with the announcement of it’s Chrome OS.

Details on Chrome are sparse (which has not stopped technology writers from writing ad nauseum about all the features it will have). What it appears from Google’s press release, however, is that Chrome will be an incarnation of the old “network computer” (NC) concept, where the bulk of the computing will be conducted on centralized servers. Rebranded “cloud computing”, this server-centric model is the latest fad.

NCs have a significant limitation not found in personal computers: to fully function, an NC requires a constant, reliable network connection. Chrome will likely utilize Google’s “Gears” framework. Even so, the dramatic push of an entire operating environment to the web seems both radical and unwise. When Gmail went down for several hours earlier this year, the world panicked. The harm caused by a Gmail outage will be miniscule compared to an outage of thousands of computers.

It is far too early to tell if Chrome will be a mere dumb terminal or something far more sophisticated. A number of important questions also remain to be answered, such as how open the Chrome platform will be, the willingness of people to adopt a new operating platform, and the response of the existing operating system developers.

I love that flickr is so friendly.

According to a number of news sources, the FTC stated today that it will not oppose the proposed acquisition of DoubleClick by Google. The proposed deal, at US$ 3.1 billion deal would make Google the largest internet advertising company in the world.

However, the European Commission has not yet ruled on whether or not Google’s proposed purchase of DoubleClick violates Article 139/2004 [rules on merger control]. A ruling on this is due by April 2008.