Is it really necessary?

Everyone. And i mean, everyone feels the need to hate the big guy. It's even more apparent in the tech world. Microsoft. Huge. Hated (although that might be for a different reason, something to do with their products being, i don't know, can't remember, maybe someone can help me in comments...). And the latest casualty to the We Hate the Big Guy Syndrome (WHTBGS) is Google. Everyone was just fine, using Google every day, it had become one of the most used verbs in the English language, and then, BANG, everyone hates it, and everyone should use Bing, because, well, it's not Google.

To the first of Google's new rivals (and probably the worst): Microsoft's Bing.

(That name could only have come from a Google wannabe, hoping to have a new verb entered into the dictionary: "to Bing". No chance, mate. Sorry about that.)

Microsoft's first disastrous attempt at a search engine Live Search, failed. No doubt about it. It Failed. The only traffic it received was from people who accidentally typed something in the IE search box, forgetting that they hadn't changed the default yet. That, and people living under a rock for the last 10 years, and/or those who live in the suburbs, have huge armchairs, are over the age of 75, and do crochet for a hobby. They don't know what that Internet thing is, but it scares them.

Anyway, the point is that while for Microsoft they couldn't just abandon the huge search sector of their business, but i think their usage stats are going to be a bit misleading, since everyone will use Bing, just cos they don't want to use Google. It's just not that good...

And now to Wolfram Alpha. I am no huge fan of Wolfram Alpha. There has been no secret hates, or shady commenting. I admit. I don't like Wolfram Alpha. I have near to zero use for a computational engine like this. I like Google. I like Google Squared. There is very little i would use Wolfram for, that i couldn't do in my head, have no use for, or want to know more about (i.e. Google it). When in want to know how fast 5mph is in m/s, Google tells me, followed by links to tell me exactly why. When i enter it into Wolfram Alpha, it accompanies it with 5mph in kilometres travelled per year, and a small series of increasingly useless data. I will admit that Alpha has its uses, but all those idiots claiming it is some kind of Google-slayer are just idiots. Alpha is for a different audience, and a different kind of search, where being limited to a small database, rather than a huge index doesn't matter. It may be good, but it's no Google beater, as much cos it's not even taking Google on (you'd be mad to! *cough* Microsoft *cough*)

There is also no getting around the fact tha Wolfram Alpha was made by some dude in his basement with too much time on his hands.

To the bigger issue here: The need to demolish Google. Google is incredibly useful, and it has transformed the Internet. There is no getting around it, and there probably never will be, just like there probably never will be an engine quite like Google. Do we need to fight it so harshly? Can't we all just get along?!!

To my devoted followers: This (suitably attitude-ridden) post also happens to be my blog's 50th post! Right from the start , through the shaky start , then the 10th post , the 25th , the 40th , and now the 50th.

I hope to continue well into the next 50 and beyond, with similarly high-quality, highly-objectionable, and highly-attitude-filled posts, to maintain my standards of awesomeness (unlike a certain other blog , which turned into absolute drivel, and was suitably rejected). Happy Birthday FerretTech!

The future of Computing?

I've been having a bit of a think, which is always dangerous, and as i see it, the current model of computing can't last the next decade. My vision: Distributed cloud computing.

to the first part of my divine epiphany: Distributed computing. I think this is definitely going to happen, for two reasons. One, PS3's have got it. PS3's know everything before it happens. Reason Two, Quad-core processors. As most of my readership would probably know, quad-core processors are everywhere. On a more technical side, quad-core processors have no real increase in actual CPU speed. But, can they multi-task or what? They can do everything,at once. They can run multiple different games of Unreal Tournament. They can be editing twenty-five PowerPoints at once. They can even run mutiple OS's (Macintosh, yay!). And yet, nobody actually uses four processors worth of power at any one time. So what are the other three cores doing. Jack all. Why not, in this ultra-connected world, let the freakin huge network that is the rest of the world, have a bit of your processor. This way, if any computer slows down for a little bit, it nicks a bit of power off someone else who's not using it and KA-BOOM everyone's computer goes way faster.

And if everyone's connected up anyway, why store anything locally? Or on a USB disk. Or on a Portable HDD, or even on an iPod (i've seen it happen waaay too many times). Why not just store it on the biggest cloud in the entire blue sky (i'm pretty sure it's the biggest): the InterWeb. What a great place to store it. Drop it off at one place, pick it up again three continents later and it's still good. You don't need software, there aren't any file types. Everything, just, works. So my opinion might be a little skewed by the fact that 80% of the computers i use won't remember me or anything i save on them after i log out, and the other 20% have no veritable means of connecting with the 80% except for a tired old USB key that tends to randomly disconnect and connect again. Not fun. Whereas, the internet can hold anything, anywhere. There is already a bit of work on this front, especially with online documents. Some are brilliant (Google Docs), some nothing short of dismal (Windows Live Workspaces), but there is still a lot of untapped potential there.

I think if tech keeps advancing at the veritably rapid pace it is at the moment, it can only go closer toward the internet...

It's not that my guess is any better than yours, but i've got the blog...

A little Off-topic...

This vid is not very technological. Okay, it's not at all, but it is brilliant video anyway.




Truly amazing!

Yeah okay, so it was only a publicity stunt for some reality TV show, but nobody cares, everyone just loves the video, and i'm one of them...

Now for a bit more off-topic rant on that most favoured of philosophical conversations. Internet sociology. And as an example, so-called viral videos are an amazing concept alone. Not only do they implicate that humans are in fact connected to a lot more people than it seems, but they must be, in all honesty, the fastest spreading anything. Like, i'm talking living, or otherwise. Take the 'Rick Roll' phenomenon, one of the longest-lasting, most widespread, and best remembered of the virals. It lasted for many months upon months, caught god-knows-how-many people and introduced a whole new phrase into the lexicon.
This particular one is likely to join some of the other virals, as a short-lived, quickly-forgotten, but much-loved memory. But look at the speeds involved. The actual incident was on the 23 March, less than a month ago, in Antwerp. It is going to take some time for all the various footage to come together and be released, so now we are talking weeks, but coming out of the editing room (which is just as likely to be some guys room in the basement of his mum's house), it would simply be a file floating around the Net. Another couple of days for it to be discovered, it catches on, and then FOOOOOM!! It explodes across every popular channel on the Net and otherwise, and becomes part of the illustrious "viral league".

Quick word on the first issue, which ties into this incredible speed, is the breadth of its expansion. Sure, it takes a lot for a video to make the jump from Internet sensation to cross-media phenomenon, but some have done it. Even if we deal with these Internet-only vids, there is still an incredible amount of people involved. Just looking at the first 6 or so videos, just off YouTube, I have come up with a juicy 2,525,214 views. Yes, 2 and a half million. Admittedly, some will be repeat views, but they would only make a small amount, and on the larger scale, that's a lot of people. More than 10% (12.02% to be vaguely accurate) of the population of Australia, for example...

And that's just the first page of one video host. I would put my guess at the larger side of 5 million, once you have all the main video sites rounded up. And, as such, it deserves the title of viral...

Come on Aussie!

Australia has now slipped to a lowly 4th on visitor rankings for this month! (Mar 17-Apr 17)
We only have 8 more visitors than Romania. Yes, Romania. We are lagging behind the USA, UK, and Canada.

Returning to the full history (since about December last year), Australia maintains its second position, but we are falling behind rapidly.

Yes, my Aussie friends, the Americans are demolishing us by a solid 50%, and Canada is breathing down our collective necks with a miniscule 1.89% buffer.

At least we still have 11.36% on Mexico....

For now...

Ha!

I have finally managed the over 18 on Red Square

19.695 seconds, baby! Yeah!

See if you can beat that!, post times in comments, and i'll be wanting proof

WuW, Teleportation, and Invisbility Cloaks

Now not many of you will have heard of this, but WuW is a new technology from some geeky dudes in a basement who need to get themselves a girlfriend, or a hobby...

Yep, those freaks at MIT have come up with Wear Ur World (hence WuW) in a freaky sci-fi move towards the future. It enables you to project a screen similar to Microsoft's Surface, but onto anything and then allows you to manipulate it, with your hands. but unlike the Surface, you don't have to carry around a 3 metre wide table, a large projector and some special paint. They have made it with simple stuff like a webcam, a mobile projector and a mobile phone. How cool is that? You can draw a circle on your wrist and it projects a clock. Bugger watches, i thought the belt-driven Tag Watch was geeky...

Second in our future-themed post is teleportation. This one i'm not so sure what actually happened cos it was all a bit too scientific for me. You should see these formulae. But i think they managed to like move an alpha particle in one piece or something without it looking like a charcoal-grilled turnip. Yay, i guess???

Last up, invisibility. No, i am not getting all Harry Potter on you. Someone rather actually manged to make a mirror with a lump in the middle, and then blast it with all kinds of freaky lights and rays, and it looked like it was flat. Awesome, now the world will be so much better now that we can make all those bloody bumpy mirrors look flat again. Hmmmmm...

Now wouldn't that be a new level of geekdom. Drawing pictures of bumpy mirrors on thin air, then teleporting them to the Bahamas...

If you are wondering why i used the Bahamas, its because i have just found out that i have visitors from the Bahamas!

We're being invaded!

There are now more visits coming to this site from the USA than from Australia. OMG!!

There are now 10 different countries sending me visits, including Bulgaria, and , South Korea... Right...

There are even 18 different cities in the USA alone. Worrying...

WTF?!!! Linux!

Somebody in Brisbane is viewing my blog using Firefox (hey, we're the minority), but stranger than that they are using Firefox on Linux. WTF?!! Hugh? Jackson? It's one of you, and you viewed the site on the 27th December, and only looked at the one page...

Linux? What were you thinking?!!

UPDATE: And now someone in Guangzhou, China has looked me up through Google searching for the Kogan Agora. WTF?!!

BTW, even the chinese dude uses Firefox. Ha! Even though he was viewing the page with the language set to zh-tw... Right...

The wonder of abbreviations, and asterisks...

I've seen this "What's my blog rated?" thing before a couple of times, finally bit the bullet and put in FerretTech for evaluation, and was surprised when it gave me a PG Rating!

I finally worked out why: Whenever i swear, it is usually abbreviated (fuckin') or asterisked (f***), so the only things i got cited for were using 'hell' twice and 'ass' once...

Ferretloads of Crazy managed the same rating, but used hell twice and 'shoot' once?...

UPDATE: Oops: I've used cr** once now as well, so i've moved up to a PG-13+ (see sidebar). Hee Hee!!

Hmmmmmm...

I have begun using Google Analytics after the disastrous lack of usability from my last Traffic Analysis Host, and so i have discovered a couple of useless but nonetheless interesting things about the traffic to my site, in particular about my readers browsers habits:

1. Chrome is the most used browser

Chrome holds the lead with an impressive 63% of my traffic, Firefox holds 25%, and IE a lone 12%.

2. Chrome users tend to stay longer, Firefox users return more often

Chrome users make up most of the new visits, whereas Firefox kicks ass at the returning visitors. Chrome users have 73.68% of the time spent on my site, Firefox 26.32%, and IE somehow has 0.00% of the average time on the site (?). Just 28% of my readers bothered to dig through my old posts (i.e. continue away from the landing page), the other 71-odd percent only reading the one page.

3. You are not all in Australia

In fact, all but one of you are in Brisbane, but someone visited my site from, wait for it, Ireland. That's right,a Paddy in Dublin actually looked me up. They were (funnily enough) a new visitor, but they were actually following me up after i commented on his blog, Oscar and Friends.

4. You guys spend more time on here than Average Joe

But you don't go as far into the site!

5.You all speak English

Kind of a given, but not all the same language. All but one of you are using en-us, but one of the Brisbanites has changed to en-gb. Odd...

6. Only 15% of you have widescreens

Just 14.29% of my traffic was running at 1280x800, the other 85.71% was using 1280x1024. Primitive.

7. You are spread across four different ISPs

42% use powertel limited, almost 30% use telstra, 14.2% use optus, and our resident Irishman uses ntl communications (Ireland) ltd

8. You come from all over the place

14% of you came from my other blog, the rest came from Google, Blogger, directly, or in the case of our favourite Irishman Oscar, from his own blog.

9. Connection speeds

43% of you use the speed referred to as T1, the other 57% weren't recognised. Probably too slow for our high standards.

10. You're an odd bunch.

No scientific backing here, just my instinct.

UPDATE: My blog is becoming truly international! I now have visitors from Hoboken, New Jersey, as well as from Orange Park, Florida (both came from google searches), and also from Danderyd, Sweden (this is actually our very own Irishman Oscar, but now hes in Sveden, probably driving a volvo, and listening to Abba CD's).

UPDATE II: We now also have a visitor from Singapore. Again from a google search using the keywords:

how to change to snipe in socom navy seals tactical strike in psp

Not going to find that here!

Another Youtube Vid

When it comes to technology these days, this guy has got it so right, its freaky

This was featured on the US's Conan talk show

Technology taken for granted

How true, How true! :)

Semi-Random Youtube Vid

If any of you are even vaguely interested in American Warfare history, you will absolutely love Food Fight. Whichever genius decided to re-enact world History with Burgers and Kebabs deserves to be knighted.
There's a cheat sheet, that tells you what foods are what countries but that ruins the fun.

Food Fight

This is just classic.

P.S. For those of you using Firefox (you bloody well better be!), should consider downloading the extension "Better YouTube", it gives you some great stuff like a "Download this video" link which has unfortunately been blocked by the school, and the Holy Grail of youTube surfing : FlowPlayer. I swear it should be standard on YouTube, (but without the full-screen watermark).