textiplication.com

I’ve been using Safari a lot the last couple of months. on Mac that would be a sign of uniformity, on Windows it’s a sign that I Think Different. Safari’s Javascript performance is an order of magnitude - or two - faster than IE’s or Firefox’s, so the Ajax-heavy web apps I use a lot - GMail and Reader - perform way better.
Now I just noticed these Developer Tools baked into Safari:

and this one:

Samir wants to know what I think of the Google barcode idea, forever hereafter known as the GooCat.

My first reaction was much the same as Joel’s:

“The number of dumb things going on here exceeds my limited ability to grok all at once. I’m a bit overwhelmed with what a feeble business idea this is.”

Quoting himself, yet - tell it like it is, Joel.

Richard MacManus feels much the same way:

Dear Google: 2000 Called, It Wants Its Ad Format Back

I have a few thoughts to add, pro, con, or unable to suppress giggling about the whole thing:

1. The cellphone thing.  Both Joel and Richard concede that it’s at least somewhat more likely that people will use their cellphone cameras to scan barcodes than that they would use the ungainly devices promulgated by Digital Convergence oh, so long ago.  Both also point out that the major difficulty will be getting Verizon et al. to preinstall the barcode scanner application on people’s phones.  Given that Verizon et al. hate Google with the blood-dimmed passion of people who can’t figure out why anybody should ever get paid besides them, relying on them to preinstall the app that helps Google bridge the gap to print ads seems chancier than chocolate skateboards.
2. Well, Google’s kind of announced its own phone, and its intention to buy some sweet spectrum, and its plan to build its own cell network where you can use any phone you want, including its own.  Might help with the preinstallation concern.  Although the timing’s terrible - if they’re planning to put this into their own phone on their own network, might be a good idea to have the phone and the network first.  Could avoid years of GooCat mockery that way.  I’m just sayin’.
3. Now I’m back on the it’s-a-dumb-idea track.  Isn’t print advertising slowly augering in already? Isn’t internet advertising’s share of the ad pie expected to increase dramatically over the next five years?  Is Google trying to slow the rate at which ad spend displaces print spend?  (If so, then I expect they’ll soon start selling Encyclopedia Britannica door-to-door.) I guess the print pie is still pretty damn big, so Google could get a few years of growth out of filleting whatever parts of that business Craigslist leaves intact.
4. You know what would be a really good idea?  See if eBay’s new CEO feels like selling Craigslist and its 24 employees, who are destroying eBay’s local business (and everyone else’s) out of the belief that advertising wants to be free.  Google could sell the ass off ads on Craigslist pages.  Eric, Sergei, and Larry could offer the post-Meg some of those chocolate skateboards that Verizon’s going to give them instead of preinstalling the barcode scanning apps.  Although those would be hard to give up.
5. Still, if you could stipulate success, you could foresee some totally fun non-ad applications of this.  Geocaching-style barcode-finding games.  Stick one on the side of your new ink-cartridge-refilling shop, give ink-cartridge-refilling prizes to the first ten people to upload their scans.  The Amazing Race to the next barcode, the excitement of reality TV meets the real reality of the supermarket checkout line. 
6. Actually, if I could stipulate success, I’d go after the Craigslist thing first, then buy Nokia.
7. Hey, you could actually wander the grocery store buying things with your phone — the flip side of the as yet unrealized dream of browsing the web on your refrigerator.  Could this be what Google really has in mind - 2D-barcodes + Google Checkout?  That’s thinking big - I’m sure that the retail supply chain is dying to redo their barcodes, right after they finish putting in Wal-Mart’s RFID tags.

That’s all I’ve got for now - who else has a great GooCat story?

UPDATED 1 MINUTE LATER: FIRST! I officially claim ownership of the idea of calling this wacky scheme the GooCat.   Nothing else out there but some baby pictures, a Chinese cartoon logo, and some WoW stuff that’s totally under my head.

human shark hybrids walking the earth

Whoever you were, I hope you found what you were looking for.

Dennis Howlett’s filling in for Dan Farber over at ZdNet, and he’s waxing enthusiastic and interesting on the utility of Facebook in the enterprise. I buy it, for the most part. Facebook has a lot going for it compared to MySpace, for instance; much better look and feel, no creepy dating/escort service ads.

But in a real enterprise tool, this wouldn’t be the page where you enter your profile:

When you’re first registering with Facebook just to see if it has any use for you in the business world, it’s offputting to be asked for your relationship status. [As hard as I laughed at the last option: "It's complicated!"] I think the site will have to do some persona analysis to support users who graduate, who are joining decades after college, and so on. You should be able to flag yourself as a student, a professional, and so on, with the site UI changing to accommodate your needs.

I think HR folks might find it pretty problematic for a manager to ask his/her team to use this offering, even with an appropriate disclaimer.

It’s not a game breaker, but it’s always jarring to find out how badly a piece of software misunderstands what you want.

There’s probably an app to write in there, a business to start…for someone.

Look, no one could possibly be more excited than I about the promise of Google Gears, when Techmeme lit up with stories about it my pulse actually beat faster, and all, but damn!

I want Google Reader to start working again!

I’m so touched, I mean tetched - I have finally been memed!  Oh, I know that it’s de rigeur these days to deplore the institution of meming on ontological grounds, or just ’cause you’re bored with it, but I couldn’t be more tickled. Thanks, Nick!

Five things about me that most people don’t know:

1.  I lived in northern Virginia until I was 14;  in Annapolis, MD, for ages 14 through 20;  and in the Boston area from 20 through 39, and probably will remain somewheres here abouts for the rest of my life.  For some reason, though, I still think of myself as “coming from” Maryland.

2.  We moved to Annapolis so I could go to St. John’s College after 10th grade.  It worked out, I guess.

3.  The first e-commerce gig I had as a software architect did a grand total of $.50 in sales in its first week of business.  I still have half a dollar bill taped to my office door in memory of that momentous occasion. 

4.  I can whistle a tune while smiling.

5.  It’s pronounced KLEE-bee.  Not KLEEB, not KREE-ger, KLEE-vee, or any other mad contortion.

I tag Chris, Jeff, Constantine, Jeff, and Craig!

Or small section thereof.

Wordpress is going to make me learn some PHP, I can just feel it.

Since I’m starting from scratch, yet again, I thought I’d try out the new MSFT blogging tool, Windows Live Writer.  Its configuration is by far the simplest I’ve ever seen - you tell it the address, user ID and password, and it figures out for itself which interface to use.  It shows you a progress meter while it goes through a series of steps, something like these:

Connecting…

Determining format…

Determining editing style…

Editing style? What th’heck does that mean?  writes short posts, revises each one six or seven times… What else could it do?

Determining writing style…

That would be good. 

Microsoft has classified your blog as Trivial Quotidian Modern, and created the following sample posts for you:

Statue of Britney Spears Giving Birth…

on bearskin rug! Yuck. Check it out!

That guy playing Pachelbel’s Canon on an Electric Guitar!

and twenty other guys who did the same thing!  YouTube! Check it out!

….

Press OK to accept these blog posts, or Cancel to switch to LiveSpaces.

Well, actually, this thing seems to work pretty well.  No real complaints, so far, which means it beats th’heck out of everything else I’ve ever tried.