Google Chrome Changes the Game: The Browser as Platform

Google announced their new browser named “Chrome” today. Check out the blog post and, better yet, the Google Chrome comic book.

The platform wars just moved from the OS to the browser and Google took a commanding lead.

Rather than re-write everything, allow me the luxury of re-purposing my Tweets:

• Chrome is all open source. They have made the world their R&D department. Brilliant.
• Chrome just increased the importance of Javascript dramatically. They launched a platform where Javascript is the dominant language.
• Google just moved the development platform to the browser. The OS just took a backseat
• If MS was afraid that Google had them in the Search Engine Market, they should be shitting themselves about now about the browser market.
• Chrome will set the bar for what people will expect in a web browser.
• Google didn’t have to reinvent the OS; they just had to build the best browser that could run on any OS.
• Automated testing against google’s vast index of web pages is a stroke of brilliance for stability testing a browser.
• Chrome should solve the biggest annoyance I have with my browser: better memory management so I don’t have to restart my broswer 3X daily.
• Chrome is privacy-oriented. That’s a good thing.
• The name is very toungue-in-cheek: chome is a refernece to the UI for an application, Google wants Chrome to be the UI for the user’s web experience.
• This is the biggest architectural leap in computing in a long time.

Google has just moved to the forefront of the Browser wars and will force the competition to keep up. They have the brand recognition, industry leverage and exposure to get their browser installed in a LOT of computers.

Oh–an it’s also built on the same engine that the Android mobile browser will run on.

Mark my words: Google just changed the game on the web. Chrome is the lever they use to move the world.

Quick Video on Building Flex Apps

I just saw this brief video on how to build a Flex app on the Adobe website. It’s pretty impressive!

Thai Open Source Initiative Uses… .NET?

From the The Nation:

Soon, a factory will lead the push for development of open-source code software for Thai industries, locally.

The Association of Thai Software Industry (ATSI), the Industrial Promotion Department, the Software Industry Promotion Agency (Sipa), Microsoft (Thailand), Rangsit University and 20 local software companies have joined hands to set up the country’s first software factory.

ATSI president Somkiat Ungaree said the software factory is expected to open in the next two months. It will be housed at Rangsit University. The factory will receive Bt3 million in funding from the Industrial Promotion Department and Bt2 million from Sipa.

The factory’s first project will be developing a prototype of small-size manufacturing resource planning (MRP) software used in small and medium manufacturing plants.

Excellent! Home-grown, open source software so small Thai manufacturing plants won’t have to shell out big-bucks and be locked into proprietary software. GREAT IDEA!

But wait…

He said 100 programmers from the 20 local software companies, would be trained in Microsoft’s .Net platform at the factory. They will then develop open-source code software two days a week at the factory.

Huh? They are developing it in .NET! OK–so application will be open source and the application will be free… you are just locked into an expensive, closed-source, insecure PLATFORM.

I don’t know who dreams this stuff up…

English Font, Thai Look: AW Siam

What’s not to love about this font?

AW Siam is a free font for Mac and PC that give you English characters with REAL Thai flair.

It even uses a few actual Thai characters. (For example, “a” is “lor ling”, “T” is “sara o” and “n” is “tor ta-haan.”)

The funny thing is, when I showed it to some of my Thai friends that read English, they had a hard time reading it–the “Thainess” of the characters threw them!

Stuff Your Eyes With Wonder

Image by guppiecat

“Stuff your eyes with wonder … live as if you’d drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories. Ask no guarantees, ask for no security, there never was such an animal. And if there were, it would be related to the great sloth which hangs upside down in a tree all day every day, sleeping its life away. To hell with that … shake the tree and knock the great sloth down on his ass!”

Ray Bradbury – Fahrenheit 451

Thai MICT: If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Hack ‘Em!

The folks over at the Ministry of Information and Computer Technology here in Thailand just keep up the great work.

What can they do to top their random and ridiculous website block lists?

Well, they can hack websites they deem offensive to the Thai character:

The Information and Communications Technology Ministry is to ‘hack and crack’ foreign websites deemed offensive to Thailand’s revered institutions. A March 15 report in Krungthep Turakij newspaper (www.bangkokbiznews.com) quoted a source at the ICT that the ministry could pursue legal proceedings only with websites registered in Thailand, and is now planning a ‘hack and crack’ programme to hack offensive websites hosted abroad and delete their contents, because the legal process would take too long.

Wow. What a twisted mindset.

Via the good folks at Freedom Against Internet Censorship Thailand.

The Nation (English Language Newspaper in Thailand) Needs to Learn English

Uggh!

I was reading an article in The Nation today and I was mortified by the grammar and style.

Thailand-us ties: 175 years and building

The title of the article “Thailand-us ties: 175 years and building:” what does that title even mean? I only clicked to the article because the title was so cryptic I had to see what they were trying to say.

First off, “Thailand-us” should be “Thailand-US;” proper noun and all that. “Thailand-us” means “Thailand you and I.”

“175 years and building” means what? Most obviously it would mean it’s been 175 years and they are throwing an edifice in for good measure. If they are trying to convey that, after 175 years, the ties are still strong, there are far better words. “175 years and going strong” perhaps.

The punctuation is atrocious. Long, run-on sentences with excessive use of parenthetical elements that are not set off by commas. Or, worse, there is a comma on one side of the phrase and, as if Alzheimer’s has set in, the closing comma is forgotten.

The readability is terrible. It’s laborious to follow. It’s flat and dull. It holds all the flair and style of a 3rd grade “what I did on my summer vacation” essay. OK–the subject matter is not that exciting, but boring becomes painful in the hands of a bad writer with a weak editor.

Maybe circulation is down, maybe they can’t afford qualified writers or editors anymore. Maybe it’s time to throw in the towel and close the doors. (I hope not–the paper is generally pretty good and has noticeably less bias then the competition.)

However, if they are not desperate enough as to close shop, then they should do a little house cleaning and find some more qualified writers and editors.

Coworking in Bangkok; Jelly in Bangkok

Coworking is an extension of the social network into the the real world.

You have a pool of people, ideally somewhat like minded (or at least creative spirits that are inspiring in some way) and you share a casual workspace.

I think coworking would be very energizing.

Working from home, well it’s easy to get into a rut staring at the same four walls all day long, every day, week after week.

I venture out to a coffee house every now and then to work–but not as frequently as I did back in the US. Bangkok just does not have that many casual public spaces where you can sit with a laptop all day long.

Ever since I ran across the concept of coworking spaces I have been thinking “man, it would be great to have a coworking space in Bangkok!” Something like a coffee house–but with more of a regular crowd of people that are working and on the same wavelength.

But alas, I have yet to find a coworking space. I have thought about creating one, but I still have not found the critical mass of people to make it viable.

I just ran across a concept that might be the next best thing–or even a stepping stone to starting a co-working space: A Jelly.

What is a Jelly? It’s “casual coworking” (Which is “awesome,” according the the website tagline.)

It’s a floating co-working space set up in some space (public or private). In my minds eye, I see getting a bunch of other geeks together to meet at different coffee houses on a regular basis. If this gets to be popular enough, we might reach the critical mass we need to open up a coworking space.

Let’s see if I can make this happen. If anybody runs across this post and is interested, drop me a line at jberns-at-johnberns-dot-com.

Critical Mass Bike Ride in Bangkok

I would love to see more people using bikes as a way to get around, it’s ecologically friendly and it’s good exercise. We need more attention from politicians who can help make biking a safe transportation alternative.

Glad to see other people are working for this as well.

Check out the Bangkok Critical Mass Bike Ride.

Google Maps Now Has Thailand Street Maps in English

Google Maps now has Thailand street maps in English. COOL! Check it out: http://tinyurl.com/27vlo6