Don’t Miss The Wave [Google Wave]

Google Wave is the one piece of technology I’ve been anxiously waiting for since it was first announced earlier this year. Thanks to my buddy Nils I got an invite for the “Preview”??…not even “Beta”…so what’s Preview supposed to be? somewhere between Alpha and Beta?

Anyhow, I’m not going to even try to explain what it is, for that you’ll have to sit through the looooong video Google created, go to Google Wave to check it out, I think it’s totally worth it.

But I’ll post a comment I made on Paul’s Blog which I think clearly defines how I feel about it:

For the average user Google Wave will be Gmail on steroids, nothing else, it will make it really fun to send attachments, videos, pictures and links among friends and to chat, etc…

However, I think this tool will be most useful in a setting where a group of people do collaborative work with each other, think music band, programmers, designers, brainstorming, planning…that kind of situations. It is definitely meant to be for an organizational setting like churches, non-profits, business, etc. If you are in a situation where you are sending lots of emails with attachments among a bunch of people back and forth then Google Wave should be your dreams come true. But let’s not stop there…the bots, gadgets and extensions is what’s going to take GW to the next level, basically the sky is the limit, I know that sounds like cliche, but once we start having good bots, gadgets and extensions you could basically be able to do absolutely anything on GW.

On the other hand before we get too quick on the judgment here I think we need to remember that right now it’s in its “Preview” stage, they didn’t even slap the Beta label on it, so of course is going to be half-baked and with lots of bugs and kind of crappy. I’m pretty sure in a year it won’t even look the way it does now.

I must say though I was kinda’ disappointed it doesn’t work quite like it was shown in the video…we also need to take into consideration ALL what’s doing in REAL TIME…there is nothing out there like it…definitely ahead of its time…

Will it catch on? Big, big paradigm switch from good ol’ email to something like Google Wave…I don’t expect anything drastic to happen overtime, after all, they are re-inventing the email and even the email technology took a while to fully catch on…What I think will happen is that other players in the industry will come up with similar technology and then everyone (users) will eventually adopt the new way of communicating (Wave) and then it won’t be a matter of using Google Wave or not but which service/app do you like better…

So there you have it, my impressions on Google Wave…

Mess Of Me [Switchfoot]

I can’t get enough of Switchfoot’s new single…check it out

WHAT I HAVE LIVED FOR [Bertrand Russell]

While reading about Bertrand Russell I read this self-assessment he wrote for his autobiography, it resonated so much with me that I truly hope I can say the same thing about myself when I reach old age:

Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.
I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy—ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness—that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what—at last—I have found.
With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.
Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.
This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.

What kind of self-assessment would you like to be able to write at then end of your days?

Oh Snap!

This gave me a good chuckle today!

[Via: Passive Aggressive Notes]

Sunrise Thoughts

I woke up this morning and these were the three first things than ran through my mind:

1. Is it me or for every quiz result I hide in Facebook ten more new ones show  up?

2. I love coming home at the end of the day and hold my baby…to find out she has a poopy diaper

3. What’s the point of ‘hiding’ people on Facebook if they still show up on the ‘Highlights’

Very sad when two out of your first three morning thoughts are about Facebook…and I don’t even like it. 

Is It Over Yet?

It has been a great summer riding Triumph up and down…I’m planning to ride as late into the fall as possible, maybe winter? Is it even possible? I see bicyclists riding their bikes all through winter, why couldn’t I do the same in my motorcycle? We’ll see, I want to be alive and in one piece next spring.

Killer Lights

Traffic light…you think it is as simple as red=stop green=go but no…that dreadful monster likes to mix things up a bit and add to your daily stress and chiropractor bill, for the first time we unveil its tactics…

Suicidal Yellow: A suicidal yellow is when you are approaching a traffic light that is green and the light changes to yellow at a precise distance that’s just suicidal because you are too far away to make it through the yellow yet too close for a smooth full stop. Very stressful situation my friends, very stressful. If you decide to go through you will be that idiot who goes through the intersection an almost gets hit by other cars. If you instead decide to stop, which pretty much involves slamming on your brakes (unless you want to come to a full stop in the middle of the intersection) you will be the reason why the insurance of the driver behind you will go up or you will be the recipient of many profanities due to his coffee being spilled because his intentions are to squeeze through the light behind you. I hate Suicidal Yellows.

Neck Breaker Green: Neck Breaker Green is a mean one…you are approaching a red light and you start slowing down your ride to eventually come to a full stop. As you are about to come to a full stop, at about two and half inches from accomplishing such maneuver, the light switches to green forcing you to quickly go from slowing down to acceleration in a split second. This causes a neck jerk that if repeated multiple time your nickname will soon be ‘Joe bobblehead’. The effects of this light are increased by 87.2% if you are the driver on front, all the pressure is on you to quickly get the traffic going again. I believe Chiropractors love this one.

3-2-1 Pedestrian: This one is a a developing trend, you might have noticed that some lights, not all of them, have a countdown for the pedestrian light. This feature is received with mixed feelings among fellow drivers, I’ve heard some drivers get stressed when they see the evil countdown decreasing its numbers. Others like me love it, because I know whether I have a chance at beating the evil light or not. What’s the other option? the orange hand flashing? How do you know if it’s going to flash ten more times or just two…believe me, once it stops flashing you better be ready to halt your horse.

How do you counterattack?