AnyLetter

You know, the more I look at the tracking model for Wilma, the more I remember that I will never live in Florida. Bit too risky, if you ask me. Bad enough living in Louisiana, where if the hurricanes don't kill you, the chemical plants will.

But I digress. I'm sick of this hurricane season. Always am by now. It's a paradox, but why are these things such big news, and why aren't they even bigger in the news? Wilma, could you head over to Beaumont again? You can still worry about Tampa, but I want to see a certain person have to deal with another hurricane this year. And I'm banking on Wilma to do it. Ah, wishful thinking, I know. And if you live in Beaumont and you aren't a special someone, then forgive me for wishing bad weather on your town.

Oh, and after whoring myself to Technorati all day, I have to ask. What the fuck is a babyshamble? Geez.

Technorati Tags: hurricane, wilma, babyshamble, oral, david brooks, flock, bob herbert, aperture, cheney, ipod, astros, fuck, apple

Wilma was a babyshamble. You see, "David Brooks" had a Flock of "Bob Herbert". Apple's Aperture iPod was Cheney Astros. Microsoft today announced a war on mountain biking, economics, and itself.

Technorati Tags: Wilma, babyshamble, david brooks, flock, bob herbert, aperture, cheney, ipod, astros, apple, war, mountain biking, economics, microsoft

If so, check it out.

user: caveat

pass: emptor

Looks like after re-submitting my blogger account to the flock options page, everything is working as it should be. Now I at least know how to fix the problem if and when it happens again.

Technorati Tags: flock, blogger, problem

Very interesting so far. I can't say it's horrible, seeing how it's much more functional than Firefox is out of the box. But it is a tad bit buggy. No matter, I've worked with Opera, and I know all about seeing bugs in previews.

The biggest problem I have right now is the lack of extensions. I'll be eagerly awaiting mouse gestures, among a few other things. The GUI is ok, reminds me of an amalgamation of the AOL browser, Netscape and Firefox.

Check this space throughout the day for more on Flock

Technorati Tags: Flock, Opera , Preview, AOL browser, Firefox, Netscape

This is how it's going to go. I miss talking about business/economics/finance. And I never intended on making this a personal journal, nor a tech blog (don't have the qualifications). So, I'm back to doing what I used to do...I've subscribed to PR Newswire's RSS feed. That'll get me back on track.

See, I used to talk about whatever I had coming down the wire that caught my eye, as well as discussing things that interested me when I was doing homework. I'm still doing homework, but nothing has interested me like before (it's a boring semester, the next promises to be better). Look forward to more economics posts.

You can't live with them, and you can't get them to dress up in a skimpy little Nazi costume and beat you with a warm squash or something (Emo Phillips). Yeah, things are weird with my social life. Oh well, that's what I think. I'm dating this one girl, but haven't seen her in a few days, and we seem to be missing eachother (as in like phone tag). But that's no big deal, better than last week. However, come on, can't I ever find a woman who's normal.

Normal being, of course, that Emo quote I've got above.

This week's Carnival is really short. It has been an unexpectedly busy week here at Anyletter's, so I only had time to do what you see here. Yes, it's a shame and a crime, but it is what it is. Importantly, if you want to see this Carnival grow, go ahead and submit a blog post at Conservative Cat's Submission Form. Take care everyone, and hope to see you next week (with many more links. Oh, and I've got a post, I got an interview with Writely's Co Founder

Alex Bendig's Not Just Code has an excellent post that reminds us: Google's interface is difficult, though it is perceived as simple. You ever try to use one of their excellent features from the main page? Simple? Hah.

Robert Scoble's Scobeleizer reviews "The Search", an explanation of what has happened to the search industry in general. A good review from a good writer. He gives the "phantom" 13th Chapter...Search in Context. The amount of noise we all get in any of our search engines can be annoying and counter efficient.

Though this doesn't fall under the computing category, I'll leave no link unposted, especially if you used Conservative Cat's submission form. So without further ado, Satire let's us know that with the recent news that psychopaths make the best stock brokers, investment firms are now partnering with mental hospitals. In fact, after the news, stock prices of the mental hospitals up an insane 942%. Ha! Satire, people, we all need a laugh (especially if you're stuck at work right now).

Josh Cohen of Multiple Mentality gives us some quick trackback tips. Sure, many of us already know most of this, but look, up until last week, I'd have been trackwha? Usefull advice. Besides, who can't help to smile at the phrase "well praise the Lord and suck no more!"

Coyote explains his reasons for leaving Microsoft Office to use Open Office. Sounds like he's going all the way open source, using Thunderbird for email and browsing with Firefox. More power to him. Coyote is a Carnival of the Capitalists staple, and I welcome him to the Carnival of Computing, may we see more of him in the coming weeks.

Barbara wants to let us know that Sarbanes-Oxley sucks. Really. "I work in IT (Information Technology). I used to have an exciting, creative job, I created system solutions to solve business problems and increase productivity. Thanks to the new Sarbanes-Oxley laws, my job is now mired in so much bureaucracy that motor vehicle personnel are green with envy." IT may only get worse.

Bruce Eisner's Vision Thing wants to tell you about IP Democracy, which focuses on "the interaction of IP media and democratic systems and principles." Go check out his post.

Michael Abraham, a contributor for Killer Tech, compares Windows Media Player against iTunes. Is this just a sneak at what's to come in the "media player" wars? God, I hope not, we've got too many tech "wars" as it is.

Andrew Hughes of Anyletter scored an interview with Writely co-founder Sam Schillace earlier this week. It's fairly insightful, if I must say so, especially if you're looking for an alternative to MS Office or Open Office.

Chris Mclean's Randomly Geek reports that eDonkey is down. Good or bad, the news is definitely noteworthy.

Michael Arrington of Tech Crunch, explains PubSub and it's list of the 1,000 most influential blogs. Is it reliable? Who knows, are any of it's competitors reliable?

Gavin of Codesnipers, details five mistakes that startup companies - in technology or not - regularly make early on.

Keith Casey, who writes for Casey Software Blog, gives us a recap of how a set of technology skills change in value over time

You know, I wasn't sure the whole "two links into the Carnival draft for every post" would work. Surely it has! It's actually making the Carnival less of a pain in the ass that I need done every Thursday and more of a force of habit. Now why can't I have more good ideas?

Oh, and if you think this is a poor excuse to add to the Carnival, then you, my friend, would be correct.

A few weeks ago, I'd have said the jury was still out on this one. Google is now in prime position to topple Microsoft's miniopoly (yes, we coin words here at Anyletter). Take into consideration Forbes' article on Microsoft weakening. It looks as though MS is becoming less a business and more a bureaucracy. You know, I don't mind Microsoft all that much, it typically comes out with quality products (though a bit less affordable than they ought to be). But the prospects of Google ruling the field quite frankly scares me. See, Microsoft has no qualms about being an eeeevil corporation (be they or not), however Google wants you to believe that it's just this benevolent little search engine. Right. I use Google services, as well as Microsoft services, and though you're getting screwed with both companies, at least Microsoft is upfront about it, Google doesn't even bend you over to screw you, it's sort of a sneak attack (sorry about the graphic description there).

But we can only wait and see where Google is going with all of this. Bidding for San Fransisco's wi-fi is an interesting move, and threw me off (I sure as hell didn't see that one coming). But maybe Google will get too bloated before it can realistically compete with Microsoft. That wouldn't surprise me at all.

Earlier today I decided I'd try my hand at an interview, and who better than Sam Schillace, the Co-Founder of Writely, an AJAX based word processor (oh, but it's so much more). I've taken quite a liking to the program, as it's fast, efficient, and does exactly what it ought to do. I'd advise all of you to try it. Sam also maintains a blog, giving details and insight on Writely.

Anyletter: Five years ago, I would have never imagined writing a document online using a tool with as much functionality Writely gives me. How long has this been in development, from idea to development?

Sam Schillace: About 4 months. Plus some time to develop the toolkit it's based on.

Anyletter: I see that the number of members increases over 200% every six days, does Writely rely on word of mouth, or any other forms of PR/advertising? And after the Slashdoting on Friday, did Writely see an even larger increase in registration?

Sam: Just word of mouth - we're very viral. We doubled pretty fast from the slashdotting. Today's pretty busy too.

Anyletter: Yesterday, in between blog posts (which I write and post through Writely), I noticed that the UI had changed slightly. Does the use of an AJAX environment ease the introduction of updates?

Sam: Not particularly. We just like to iterate the application a lot. Our philosophy is to listen very hard to our users, run as fast as we can, and iterate at least once a week if possible.

Anyletter: I understand that your security is top-notch, but are there still concerns about the security of documents residing on a remote server as opposed to a personal computer?

Sam: A few folks have issues. We expected this, because the application category is so new. But plenty of folks are comfortable using webmail - we think the same will ultimately be true here.

Anyletter: Google, recognizing that some people use browsers that don't include AJAX support, included an HTML version of their email service Gmail. Are there any plans of including an HTML version of Writely (though with limited functionality)?

Sam: We've talked about it, but it's not a high priority. We think WYSIWYG is important, we need JavaScript to do some important things like collision resolution, and we currently support something like 85% of the installed browser base already.

Anyletter: Do you see Microsoft Office and Open Office as competitors, or does Writely intend on being much more than just an "online word processor"?

Sam: We see ourselves as a complimentary application. We feel that web word processing will ultimately be a separate category. Even though we stayed very close to what folks are comfortable with for the first release, we expect to look pretty different eventually.

Anyletter: As far as statistics go, do you see more than the average 15% Firefox users, or do most of your members use IE?

Sam: Lots and lots of FireFox. I don't know the percentage. They're all early adopters.

Anyletter: After moving to the final product, does Upstartle, Inc. intend on keeping Writely free, or will there be a premium service?

Sam: There will be a paid premium service that goes up from whatever is there now. Eventually...it's not costing us much to run the servers so we're not in a rush.

Anyletter: For me, the ability to post to my blog was the key selling point for using Writely, has this aided in "word of mouth" advertising?

Sam: Yes, tremendously.

Anyletter: Does Upstartle have plans beyond Writely? Has the advent of AJAX opened new doors to see ideas come into fruition?

Sam: Yes, but we're not telling! :)

Seriously, I think what's going on with Ajax and Web 2.0 will remake the software industry eventually. What it will look like is up for grabs. We just try to focus on making things that real users find valuable.

Anyletter: Excellent work so far, and I'm happy to use this product. I feel slightly guilty being a beta tester and not finding any bugs, but I'm sure there are people more qualified than I are. Are you open to suggestions for improvements, and where can we submit them?

Sam: There's a feedback form on the site, or you can mail feedback at writely dot com.

Anyletter: Thanks for your time, and I hope to see many more using Writely in the future.

Sam: Thanks!

*Warning: Strong Language Rant Ahead*

It's that wonderful time of the year. The air is crisp, the leaves are changing, and the wind is blowing all around. Fall is here. And in Louisiana, that means this place isn't so hellish.

Oh, how wrong I am. It's football season, and that means the idiots are full force these days. You know, you can go ahead and like any sport you please, any team (me, I like Baseball and Soccer), but there's something about Football that strikes me as a bit off. It could be that I've played soccer since I could walk. Though it could also be because Football reminds me of a traffic jam. Stop. Start. Stop. Start. RUN! Oh, no, stop again. Geez.

Now I'm a big fan of soccer riots (shit does look fun), and I'm rather partial to a baseball fan's heckling (batteries come to mind), but these football fans that only drink and occasionally stand up (though always shouting), well, I can't have that.

I chose the wrong school. I go to LSU and I'll be damned if you can do anything on a Saturday. Everything on campus closes (the library?! What the fuck?). The places that I usually go to get some studying are now filled with rowdy fucks who couldn't get tickets. Hell, I don't know what's more pathetic, the rowdy fucks or me for bitching about them.

Why can't we like soccer (or real "football") here in the states like the rest of the world does? I promise you that drinking and then getting into a riot is much more fun than drinking and sitting around watching a bloody mindless sport. And we wonder how everyone in the world is skinnier than we are...they get as much as a workout at the games as the players themselves.

I'm so going to hell for this post, aren't I? Well Flame on!

I had a revelation the other night.  Instead of using Firefoxto use Writely, why not Maxthon.  Besides, I think the Maxthon guys are nicer than the Firefox boys.  Just my opinion.  Granted, they ain't got nothing on the Opera folks, but that's because gotten to know them all much better (hell, the Opera CEO emailed me asking if I made it through Hurricane Katrina all right). 

So that's what I'm doing write now (groan, terrible pun).  I downloaded the new version of Maxthon (much better, guys), and It works.  It isn't Firefox.  It isn't Opera, but as far as working with Writely "my new toy", it does the job well enough. 

However, I've got a fairly slow system...600 mz, 256 megs of RAM.  Slow.  And as far as old systems go, Opera puts everyone out to shame.  I can't really afford the extra memory of having two browsers running, but it's much better than having a browser plus MS Office.  And a whole hell of a lot better than a browser plus Open Office.  Great program, but it's too much of a memory hog for me. 

But I think I'm drifting, so I better close this meme.  Not turning out the way it should have :) .

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