There’s been a lot of talk of web applications overtaking and replacing traditional client-side applications and in some respects it’s already happened. I spend approximately 80% of my computing time in Firefox and to me a computer without an internet connection is a bit of a blunt tool these days. The main upside to moving online is that you can access your data/services anywhere regardless of what operating system you’re using and there is no need to worry about backups. Some paranoid types worry about privacy and security but at the end of the day it’s in the best interests of the service provider to protect your content and respect your privacy if they want to retain the trust and custom of its users.
With all this in mind you’ve got to wonder what the market is for a bloated operating system like Windows Vista where users will only ever use 20% of it’s functionality (mainly because the rest of it’s utterly incomprehensible/broken). I’d love to see someone develop a bare-bones operating system based on Linux (kernel, core GNU services & X11) which provides simply the browser as the user interface with common plugins & codecs, necessary networking facilities and nothing else. With a bit of polishing you’d have a potentially powerful system which wouldn’t require high-end hardware to run. For those who need an even more integrated experience there are plenty of plugins available for browsers such as Firefox which enrich the experience even further.
If you’re not already familiar with the world of online applications here are my top-10 favourite web apps:
Meebo - Instant messaging with multiple protocol support
To my mind this is all a precursor to something much bigger - clearly the likes of Google have already seen this coming and are quietly ramping up in preparation as well as leading the way. I still like my idea of the E-brain Construct but it needs more refinement with some practical examples… we live in exciting times
N.B. I installed Mac OS X Leopard (10.5) last weekend - now there’s an OS to write home about!
Somehow today’s Dilbert seems worryingly close to the truth… how did anyone survive before the Internet? Are we all becoming information addicts? Lets look at the positive and negative effects of this:
Pros - Know lots about stuff, approximately 20% of it is useful, 80% completely inane. 24/7 instant access to more information than is comfortably conceivable.
Cons - Every free waking moment is taken up cramming more of it leading to a restless hunger and thirst for more. Slow death of the physical library and the dewey index.
Q) Is there such a thing as being too well read? Discuss.
If you like the work of Scott Adams you might want to check out his blog - it’s a good read.
It’s been a long time since I posted anything under the “University” category since I graduated over two years ago and whilst I may be a little older and wiser the learning never ends! Since visiting Korea twice this year I felt it was about time I learned a bit of the language so signed up for the Beginners Korean course at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. Three lessons later and it’s not going to badly but I think I’m going to have to put a fair bit of effort in to be able to keep up with the work - somewhat reminiscent of when I studied Japanese!
Korean is significantly easier to learn than Chinese or Japanese as the alphabet (called Hangul) contains only 40 characters, compared with tens of thousands in the others! If it’s of any help to anyone I’ve put together a quick reference chart which contains the consonants (19) and vowels (21) along with English sounds to help with pronunciations.
You can download the chart in a variety of formats on Scribd. Please remember that I’m in no way a language expert so can’t guarantee the accuracy of the chart (although it’s been fairly thoroughly checked by native speakers)!
Update (29/12): I’ve also updated a Korean Numbers Chart (Pure Korean & Sino-Korean).
If you liked Sony’s rather creative Bravia adverts (remember the bouncing balls and exploding paint?) then you’re probably going to enjoy their latest “colour like no other” commercial, coming to screen near you very soon:
Featuring hundreds of bunny rabbits animated in play-doh directly on the streets of New York the commercial has the same sense of playful surrealism like its predecessors. To achieve the effect in a very short space of time separate bunny models were made for each frame of each sequence which were meticulously rehearsed before shooting on the streets of NYC, a particularly cool backdrop! To create the high volume of bunnies in each sequence the same models were reused in different positions thus getting more for less. Here’s the final ad:
Check out the equally innovative official site for a higher-res video and more behind the scenes information [via].
Elsewhere… I’m having an exceedingly busy week consisting mainly of working, eating and sleeping. Lots going on but hopefully I should have a chance to update more soon
If you have international roaming on your phone enabled (most people do) you should be able to send SMS text messages to people abroad, right? Not if you’re with O2 it turns out.
Having switched to O2 at the beginning of the month, because they’ll be the sole iPhone carrier in the UK, I found out to my great annoyance this week that you can’t SMS people in South Korea and visa versa… if you’re on O2 anyway (Orange works fine). Several missed text messages later, which mysteriously vanished into a black hole somewhere, I called and emailed customer services who eventually came back with this:
“Thanks for emailing us about not being able to send text messages to a South Korean mobile number. I understand it’s important for you to send text messages to your friends in South Korea. We don’t have an agreement with SK Telecom, so we can’t guarantee that you’ll be able to send text messages to any mobile numbers of this network”
What?!!! “Can’t guarantee” - it simply doesn’t work!
On their website O2 boldly proclaim “our international coverage is unsurpassed” - clearly not if they don’t have an agreement with the biggest provider in South Korea, the most digitally connected country on the planet. This is a pretty annoying state of affairs and I can only imagine how many other gaping holes there are in their international coverage.
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