As my readers may know, I use the Opera web browser as my primary browser. In addition to having the usability features that I desire (and have grown used to), it also winds up seldom being the target of malware writers due to its low market share. But as much as I love it, I do have to complain about one issue. Opera insists on putting its big red ‘O’ icon in my system tray. Continue reading
So, I first wrote about cloud computing a while back. It’s all the rage these days. But I’m skeptical, as are a number of others. I’ve been bitten by cloud computing before, way before cloud computing was a buzz word.
I’ve been a long time user of My.Yahoo.com. It’s a nice way to organize things that I use most, into one page full of widgets with various data, such as my stock portfolio, weather forecast, news headlines from various RSS readers, movie releases, and bookmarks, etc. And it is with bookmarks that I got my first lesson in the downside of cloud computing. One day, without warning, Yahoo broke their bookmark widget. I still had access, but it was awkward, as I had to go to a different page. Then, they ‘upgraded’ the bookmarks into a bloated, slow mess, that I found unusable. Fortunately, I was able to export my bookmarks, but then I had to scramble to find a replacement cloud tool to use. I decided I wanted control, so I installed open source software called Online Bookmarks onto my web host and have been using it ever since. While the author has stopped actively supporting the product, the fact is, it works, it does what I need, it ain’t broke, so I really don’t need support. It’s a tool that does one thing, it stores my bookmarks on the web, so I can get to them from any browser.
Following this philosophy, I have installed several cloud apps, such as eyeos, openGoo (aka FengOffice), and an RSS feed reader called FeedOnFeeds. FoF is a different story for me, as compared to the Online Bookmarks (OB). Like OB, FoF was mostly the work of one person. However, he did you a couple of libraries or classes if you will. Feed on Feeds is an RSS reader. It uses a feed reading class called SimplePie, which is maintained by others, and prototype, with is a javascript library, maintained by others. However, FoF itself is no longer maintained. It wasn’t long after I started using it that I noticed it was having problems with some of the feed subscriptions I added. So, I figured I’d see if I could update the SimplePie class and fix the problems. Unfortunately, that broke as many feeds as it fixed. It also broke some other features of FoF, but I partially fixed it, at least enough to make it workable.
However, as I continued to add new feed subscriptions, the problems continued. Granted, some of the problems related to corrupt feed sources, but the thing is, the built in feed reader on Opera Browser was able to work through these problems, and still show me the articles, and FoF was not. You might ask, well, if Opera was working, why bother with FoF? Just like with bookmarks, I wanted a central location, so I could get to the data from any of the four machines I regularly use. So, since Opera sync doesn’t sync feed data, I needed another solution. For now, I’ve gone to Google Reader. I had played with it before, but didn’t like it. Now, it is a bit nicer, but I’ve still got the cloud worries. I no longer have control. At least with FoF, I had source code and was able to play around with it. I did change the CSS and was going to make some other improvements, but it just isn’t in the cards.
I think the lesson here is, controlling your own cloud is nice, but it’s really much more workable if the open source software you use has a strong community behind it. An example is WordPress (the software that runs this blog and others that I maintain) which has massive support. I used to host this blog on a blogging site. But I imported it into my own site, where I have control.
Just as I don’t want Microsoft to own the world, I don’t want Google to either. Both companies play an important role is my professional and personal life, but it’s strategic to limit the number of eggs I put into each basket.
The Russian’s did it first. We did it second. Then the Chinese, and if all goes to plan, next it will be India’s turn. What is it? Manned space flight. But, in what could be a sign of ‘things to come’, the U.S. is getting out of the business of launching humans into space. To me, this is another sign that we are on our way out the door of the super power house. Russia, with their vast energy reserves, China and India, with burgeoning industry (fueled by cheap labor) are definitely rising. And the U.S. is on the decline.
We have so much debt it’s unfathomable. Our unemployment rate is high and I doubt it will go down any time soon, if ever. One of the few things that could have reduced our labor costs would have been health care reform, but it’s clear now that anything that gets passed in that area won’t really provide an alternative to our employers having to pay for health insurance. So, our labor costs will remain high, and China and India, without the burden of health insurance on their employers will always have that advantage over us.
And don’t think that we will eventually be able to reform our broken problems. Our short sighted, eyes on the next election politicians will steer us down an irreversible path and only reform as a reaction, when it’s too late. And you thought global warming would be the end of us. No, for Americans, the end will come much sooner than that.
I’m upset about the space program. But I’m not surprised. Our lifestyle cannot be maintained, and this is just another sign. The end is just coming sooner than I thought.
I’m a big fan of GMail, but I have experienced some bugs with it. For awhile, it was being very forgetful of my display images settings. (This is a feature that allows me to essentially, whitelist particular senders so that images embedded in the mail messages are automatically displayed.) The problem seems to have been fixed, but there’s another problem that is driving me nuts.
I just read an article about water shortages. I really think this is something we need to be worried about. Continue reading
Almost three years ago, I dropped service on my land line phone. Most of that time, I have been happy with the decision. And I’ve saved about $1800 off what I had been paying. But… Continue reading
