Review of Google Chrome

Just in case you’ve been living under a rock for the last few weeks, Google has finally released a browser of their own, and it’s called Chrome.  As is explained in the launch-accompanying 30 page comic, Chrome is a little bit new and different.  While on the surface, the primary changes are tabbed browsing as a part of the core user experience, under the hood (cars have chrome right?) it’s quite a bit cooler than that.   

The Good: You see, the tabs ARE the core!  Each tab runs in its own process instead of in it’s own thread off of amain process.  In addition to this, they keep track of all the little bits (literally) of a webpage in memory, so when you leave that page, they can clear it COMPLETELY.  My personal favorite thing about chrome is that it doesn’t run JavaScript as a part of the rendering thread, so if it hangs, no biggie. Ok, ok, ok, so what does this mean for you?  It means that webpages, secifically webapps (things like google docs, meebo, and facebook that offer some interactivity)  will run at a bareable if not downright snappy pace.  I have noticed a distinct speedup on facebook in particular which is great for me because I build facebook apps so I’m in there all day.    

The Bad: So few things, I’ll put them in bullets points:  

• It only runs on Windows.  Grrrrr… Why is it that every time I get ready to jump off the diving board of Windows into the deep-end of Linux something always drags me back?   Google wants to hit the most people the fastest, so they developed for Windows first.  It makes sense people.  
• It has no add-ons.  This is probably a combination of Google wanting to maintain very tight security, and it being still quite an early product.  As a web developer though, I miss certain things like colorpicker, view source chart, and ruler.  
• It doesn’t support live bookmarks.  I don’t get this at all.  Considering all that Chrome ripped off (in a good way) from Mozilla, Opera, and Internet Explorer, why not this simple and incredibly useful bit of functionality?  I am an avid Del.Icio.Us user, and I keep all my browsers in sync by live bookmarking my rss stream of bookmarks, with Chrome I have to actually hit the web page.  Lame, but not terrible.  

The Ugly: If you are an average computer user, (a non-developing windows user who loves webapps) jump in and get your feet wet!  If not, you might wanna wait for the second release.    

Encore

Over what are the geese political,

Their hairy religions meeting the omnipresent dragons,

What soaked, knee-hosed, many scored minotaur,

Could summon the meaning of music at last dilemmas end.

Epic lyrics hold the teller’s bread,

And god sends an ornery lilly,

That caterpillar, that pyrokinetic flag slugfest,

To best airbrush opposition.

To airbrush tragedy at best, and float that kind Sigmund,

 What a man accident. 

Oblique music licks convulsive music,

For ale kings, hobbling jaguars, and ingot hobbyist,

Shiver wherefore,

Have a brisk pass at scintillating retro.

Yeah, visual rocks,

Gutting watermelons, jaded and hinted,

Of jogging and soccer and a perfect clot forming,

Is it tragic that no listener gave ingots the constant air?

What soaker broker dug up that philosophy?

What are the wisecracker divots?

Job and Status

Getting close to the end of the summer, seems like a good time to drop a post on my status.  I’ve been working out on the peninsula for a company called Multiverse Networks.  Multiverse makes a virtual worlds platform; that is to say that they make tools and server systems for others to build their own virtual worlds and link them together.  Sort of like a 3d internet.

In other news, I am now perilously close to becoming a real adult (sort of).  That is; I’m graduating in just 1 more agonizing semester at Case Western.  WOO!  I will be taking no less than nine hours of art (Jewelry and Enameling II, Graphic Design I, and intro to Glass Blowing), three hours of Philosophy (Intro to Philosophy), and one religious class (Intro to Judaic Studies) which should be a real hard one for me.  All in all, shaping up to possibly be my only fun semester at Case!  The only real downer is the fact that my frat (BX DKE) lost our house as of the end of last semester due to arrangements made by the office of Greek Life.  As a result I will be living in dorms again.  Kinda lame, but I’ll make the best of it.

As far as what I’m going to do after graduation, that’s still pretty up in the air.  I would like to take several months to travel, seeing as this may be the only time in my life that I am this unnatatched to responsibility.  The list of places to visit includes but is snot limited to:

• Japan
• Korea
• Germany
• Australia
• Brasil
• South Africa

Traveling alone for six months doesn’t really seem like a great idea though, so I’m currently accepting applications for a traveling companion.  The plan is to go to a place, set up a base of operations (aka apartment or room or hut or whatever is available) spend half of my time working remotely, and the other half exploring.   When this all starts, the blog posts will start coming hard and fast as I discover neat new things about Spaceship Earth.  Wish me luck!

Illuminated Depths

Snow White Tree Sight

This photo was taken in front of the DKE house where I live at Case Western. Even though the snow is deep and very restrictive, and the cold can be a real bitch sometimes, I still find it beautiful on occasion. It was about 5 degrees F at the time of taking.

Sneakers on Carpet

Cubist Self Portrait Sketch