Google In The Sky With Diamonds

So Chrome OS is just around the corner, Chrome is a very nice browser and GDrive seems to be near a launch alongside the OS. Net result? Soon I will be living in the Google Clouds and possibly have a much less “OMG MY HARDRIVE BROKE AND EVERYTHING I HAVE EVER DONE ON MY PC IS GONE!” moments. The future is trusting your data vendor people.

“Living is easy with in-the-cloud backup AND eyes closed to privacy issues”

Minor Major Rants and stuff

Just some stuff that’s been on my mind:

Office Live

So Microsoft has launched Office Live which is supposedly their answer to Google Docs. I have tested it for about 5 minutes and I conclude that it is worthless. You need a plugin to be able to edit documents, wich 1) I don’t want and 2) defeats the purpose of online documents in the first place. With Google Docs I just need a browser and the net and I’m all good. If I have to download plugins everytime then I’m back a square one, a online webfolder would be just as much “office live” as that.

Suddenly I remember why I don’t use Office anymore

HTC Hero Update

You need Windows to update you’r Android phone. This is fail in so many many ways. I will someday update my HTC Hero, I have no idea when this will be.

Google Wave IE Quickfix

I’m really looking forward to Google Wave, in the meantime I was delighted to read that Google has fixed the “IE problem” for hopefully everyone by making a plugin that gives IE the power of HTML 5. Check out the blogpost and kudos to Google for fixing IE (hopefully).

Quake Live For Mac

Finally Quake Live is available for Mac. It works very very well and I’m sitting on a crappy 2.0 Ghz Macbook with intel GMA 95 integrated graphics (I do have 4 gigs of RAM tough). It is nice to se a gaming company that pushes the envelope on what is possible with a “web-browser” game (it requires a custom plug-in). Also with more and more nice web-based games like Heroes of Might and Magic Kingdoms (cooming soon I hope) and Battlefield Heroes I can add games to my list of “it lives in the cloud” systems.

Digital Music Library + Last.fm + Boffin

So I just found this thing called Boffin. It’s a program made by the guys at last.fm that lets you play you’r music library based on tags, a feature I have been missing since I started to use library based players like iTunes. Check it out if you like cool new experimental tech. Also below is a image made from my music collection tags, that I made using Boffin and Wordle.

I like rock it seems

Technologies That Converge

So now I’m apparantly tweeting about stuff, just like the american congress! What I find more interesting then telling the world (wich as of writing is about 3 people by the way) what I’m doing, thinking or saying in 160 character updates, is how technologies are converging at a very rapid pace.

More connections in the palm of your hand

Spotify and some thoughts

So a lot of my posts have included Spotify links when I’m talking about bands and artists, think it’s time to talk a little about this brilliant streaming feature that I hope brings a taste of the future of music in regards to the internet and digital distribution.

I want a 24 hour society

As I’m writing this post I’m stuck at school waiting for the return of a assignment that is either pass or fail. I need to know if it’s pass or fail today because the return deadline is in thre days. This return is physical, you get the assignment at a office at the faculty, this office has hours from 9 to 11.30, then a whoping hour long lunch to 12.30. Today my class at the Dragvoll campus ended at 12.00 meaning that I have to wait 30 minutes to get the assignment and then rush back to Gløshaugen campus to continue work on another assignment for another course. It’s not the end of the world, but living in 2008 it’s really dissapointing that we still use and depend on physical delivieries that don’t really require them.

I dream of a work future that makes virtually all services (that are practical for internet off course) to be open 24 hours 365 days a year, that way I can do my tax returns while watching night time tv sales shows and my homework assignments don’t require me to be anywhere specific in this world, I could study at NTNU and be living in Puerto Rico is what I’m saying. Or in the case of KUH1012 (From Renaissance to Neoclassism) I’d much rather be living in Rome.

For those non-metric people out there this should explain it (but not really)

Now Google knows where I am (I think they already knew)

So today Google launched yeat another cool service called Google Latitude that can track where you and you’r friends are so that you can find/spy on you friends/enemies (always remember to keep the close). Should I ever aquire my dream phone I shall immediately start using also this service, bringin my usage of Google services/applications up to about, eh, well lets see what we have:

1. Gmail – They know who I mail and get mail from
2. Picasa Web Albums – They have my family photos
3. Google Maps – They know where I have been and where I want to go
4. Google Earth – Same as above
5. Google Reader – They know what news I read
6. Google Talk – They know my chattings
7. Webmaster Tools – They know about this blog
8. Google Docs – They know my private and not so private writings
9. Google Book Search – They know what books I have been searching and reading
10. Google.com – They know what I search for at 2 am on a saturday
11. Youtube – They know what makes me laugh
12. iGoogle – They know what my homepage is and what it looks like

So there I have it, 12 services that I use on a day to day basis. I now see that this is recording my every move, action, thought and communication. All in all I think even Stasi would have been impressed on what Google is managing to intercept, at the user’s own agreement.  From now on I see that it’s easier to categorize what Google doesn’t know about me instead of what they do know. Thank God they’r not some supersized global american corporation that wants to make money……….

But they don’t know what colour my underwear is right know! Ha! Take that mr. Google