Google Chrome, what’s missing?

I’ve been playing with Google Chrome lately, and … after reading the rather lengthy comic that describes the ‘ins and outs’ of the browsers architecture and actually sitting down and surfing with it, I’m quite impressed.

However, as with all things that are new … the number one issue I had was with it’s lack of support for Plugins.  Firefox is an open-source browser, and to my knowledge, so is the API that powers plugins for Firefox.  With a little bit of crafting, I’m sure Google Chrome could support Firefox plugins in no time flat.

Just imagine, the full power of WebKit, with the extensibility of Firefox and the stability of Chrome’s architecture.  The web looks like it’s going to be getting quite a face lift in the near future, with the way that Chrome handles rendering and how it isolate’s javascript and to that affect, optimizes it as well… we’re looking at a whole new ‘big picture’ for the web in the near future.  I don’t think anyone will adopt the technology ‘right away’ and require it for ’stability’, but I do see it being looked at very seriously for all future web ventures … just picture, if Facebook was designed to work exclusively with Chrome’s architecture, how much more they could do with the ‘web app’ without affecting the user’s experience by slowing down other pages, etc?

One thumb up for Google so far … two if they integrate Firefox plugins, none if they go the route of developing their own Plugin API… cause we all know, we don’t need yet another browser plugin API…. geez, can’t we all just get along, and share the brilliant power of freely downloable browser plugins without needing to have Browser X or Y installed to utilize them?  We all know, Microsoft will never jump on that band wagon, but Google … they just might.

I also see a future release of Firefox taking advantage of the Chrome architecture as well … in the near future.

Website Experiment - Bartender’s Database

I’ve decided that I wanted to work on something rather simple, that had the potential to bring in some (not a lot, just some) Ad revenue.  I use the AdBrite ad system, as opposed to Google, largely because they pay per impression and not just clicks.  I don’t expect very many people to click the ads found on any of my sites — the adwords are poorly targetted due to the scattered content found on my sites, and the various topics I discuss.  So, I just go for the ‘pay by impression’ model of ad revenue.  If it helps pay for the hosting, thats good enough.

So, onto my experiment … I’ve decided to build a Recipe Database system using CakePHP 1.2, and am targetting Alcoholic beverages as my first set of targetted content.  The recipe database framework is built on CakePHP and is being built in such a way as to allow me to extend it or derive from it later to include things such as Foods, and even Arts and Crafts instructions (Arts and Crafts really are just recipes, with quite a bit of instruction — a list of ‘ingredients’ and amounts of each, followed by instructions).

So, without furher ado (did I really just type that?) … I would like to announce the creation of BartenderDB.com.  So far, it’s fairly simple and straight forward and has almost no recipes in it — I’ll get to that in a bit.  It does have the ability to list the recipes by Name, list ingredients and show recipes containing those ingredients and even includes the custom ‘color tag’ so you can search for your drinks based on the end resulting color of the liquid in the glass (Hrm, that sounds a lot like a uhm … oh, nevermind, it’s a holiday).

Scheduling Projects

I’m a geek at heart, I love my job (software engineer) and I take my work home with me from time to time.  I love creating ‘work’ for myself at home too, in the form of little projects here and there — most of which you can read about and explore through this blog.  However, my children (I have three) all started school this year, so now I have three children in school.  Kindergarten, First and Second grades - whoa.

Talk about a lot of work, I thought the whole point in school was for the kids to learn, they’ve only been in school for a couple weeks now and I’ve done more school work with my kids then I can remember ever having to do when I was in school myself.  Absolutely insane, but entirely enjoyable to watch them learning and bringing their newfound knowledge home at the end of the day.

Now, onto my topic …

How do you work on personal projects, homework, and still have time to wind down at night and relax with a little TV.  While, at the same time, trying to spend more then an adequate amount of time with your significant other.  It’s a serious juggling act, and I’ve not yet figured out how to solve the problem — I’m anxious and ready to get cranking on some of my newest projects, and a little disappointed at the state of some of my older projects.

I just don’t know where all the ‘extra’ time that I think I need is going to come from.  I will, however, continue to look for that ‘time door’ so I can walk through it and get back to my projects.

Inspiration and T-Shirts …

I was helping my mother setup a CafePress.com store and thought to myself, why not.  So, I decided to open my own store and explore the possibilities.  I downloaded a couple of there apparel templates and went at them with a little bit of PhotoShop magic.

I downloaded a couple of interesting fonts that were all listed as ‘free’ or ‘public domain’, thought of a few things I’ve heard or seen that made me laugh, chuckle or ponder ‘why …’ and threw them together on a few t-shirts, hats and mugs.  I opened the store with the basic ‘free’ account, and realized the limitations rather quickly and then opted to go for the paid premium account.  I figure I can run the premium store for a few months, and at the end of that time I’ll know whether or not it’s worth keeping online  — a store that can’t pay for itself, is useless, yes?

So, I’m going to try to keep making new designs and hopefully come up with something that is just so creative and/or entertaining … that hopefully, everyone wants to buy one.  Now, being as I’m a realist … I simply set the money I’m going to pay for the premium store aside and waved good bye to it, but … as with most things, you really never know until you try.

So, here’s to hoping my store pays for itself.

jQuery Javascript Library has Problems?

I was trying to load the jQuery Javascript Library docs today, and recieved this ridiculously amusing response from the server.

Now, I’m not a marketing wiz or anything… but I do believe, that’s just not a good error message.

I’m going to continue enjoying my usage of the jQuery Javascript Library, even though it’s developers think “it has a problem”.

SQL Server, Drop All Tables in Database Quickly

Just a quick and dirty way of dropping all the tables in a database, without dropping the database itself.  Useful for when your writing data migration scripts and staging data and need to wipe out your development environment real quick ... or, when you've found that uber cool sql-injection-able site and want to wreak some havoc (I don't condone the latter, but I do think its funny from time to time when it happens to the 'big companies').

Need a Data Model, take a Data Model.

I was speaking with a co-worker last night; he's working on a project that requires a sample database for a demo he's making, and as with most demo's he was planning to use either the Northwind or AdventureWorks databases from Microsoft.  I made the suggestion of 'googling' for 'sample database' and using something 'not so common' ... however, his requirement relies on 'standard', so he went with AdventureWorks.

I got curious this morning, and decided to run the query myself and came across this interesting website that has quite a large number of 'standard models' already laid out for you in UML Diagrams.

The website is maintained by Barry Williams and is simply called "Database Answers'.

It's not the prettiest site I've ever seen, in fact, it's quite ugly looking to be honest, but I'm not one to judge by looks ... I dug through and looked at a few of the Models presented and was quite impressed with the work put into them.  Everything from ACL (Access Control) to Video Rental and Wedding Management schema's are available ... for FREE!

If your working on a website, or a new application that requires a database schema and your not quite sure how to design it yourself ... give this great web resource a try and check it out.  The site even comes pack with Tutorials to show you how to work with the Models provided.

Can't beat that, eh?

iPhone… as a Desktop Workstation?

I just read over an interesting article from Hamid Shojaee, about a "thought experiement" that he and Angelo Coppola performed recently. The end result, a concept that is most likely not too 'far fetched' to actually become reality ... sooner then some people might think.

The idea is pretty simple, take an iPhone, 'dock it' to a 17" Monitor 'base station', toss a bluetooth keyboard and mouse into the picture ... and, Viola!

I don't believe I can say much about the idea that Hamid or Angelo haven't already, so, give their articles a read ... I'm pretty sure you'll be picking up your jaw and wiping the drool off your keyboard before you get to the end.

The original articles can be found here:
Hamid  -> iPhone Desktop: Unleash the Leopard in Your Pocket. $299.
Angelo -> Set the Leopard Free