This article is for people who are passionate about the web.
If you haven't been living under a rock you've probably heard about the whole -webkit- scandal that's going about. I won't link to anything because I really don't know where to start, but here's my take on how this will play out.
Browser vendors will have to weigh "backwards compatibility" against standards. How this might end is badly. Remember the first browser to reach version 10? It was not Chrome, it was Opera.
When Opera changed their UserAgent string to Opera/10.00 half the internet started breaking becuase of a bad sniffing technique. The developers only had to make a few keystrokes' worth of changes to their codebase to adjust the new version 10.
What happened in reality was Opera had to change its UserAgent string to Opera/9.80 and add a separate Version/10.00 pair at the end. This is still in there today, and will probably remain there for quite a while.
Think this is a horrible hack? Now imagine -webkit-transform being interpreted by Firefox.
I hope it won't come to that, but I really think it might.
Nothing I can say will make you feel any better; it's just going to suck for a while and then it will be fine.
This line sums up the knowledge I also came up with after years of people crying on my shoulder. It's just a simple way to cut through the bullshit, but it makes you sound like a ruthless jerk.
I came across an interesting article this morning. It's about software that analyzes social media updates to isolate statuses that are actually sales leads. Or anything else, for that matter. They call it human intent.
If a relatively unknown company, Viralheat, can do this why can't we expect something similar being done at a higher, conspiracy-prone, level? Read the article and give me you two cents.
And that's the case with most things. See this video, for instance. It's about the jetpack and its inventor, Justin Capră.
Toward the end of the clip, he mentions that an American told him new cars or new energy cannot be implemented, although technology allows, because that would mean millions of people losing their jobs. Tomorrow. Obviously, that's not such a great idea, but what that actally translates to is:
Some people invested a lot of money in today's -- or, rather, yesterday's -- technologies and they want to maximize on their investment. So change is hard, if not impossible, in this case. I'm sure you know the whole PCI versus PCIe and PCI Express. Even though PCI Express is better than PCI by leaps and bounds, it could not be implemented right away because big players had invested money in PCI -- the legacy system. This is also the case for electric cars. Well, that and the fact that they're damn expensive and have low autonomy. Still, we could work on their autonomy and find a way to drive manfacturing costs down -- but nobody's interested in doing that because there's still plenty of money in the oil business. Only when that pot boils dry will we have an urge to improve the alternative energy sources.
The coding-world example would be Python 3 versus Python 2.x. No backwards compatibility! A rewrite. Because things got out of hand. The API became a mess. And with great cost, they brought forth a great change. A New Age. And yes, if other new ideas -- in other idustries, I mean -- would get implemented like this it would cost a lot of people a lot of jobs. Jobs that would be replaced by new ones, yet nobody's talking about that. And yes, the filthy rich that invested in the current technology would be a bit less rich. So why don't they invest in the new one side-by-side? Like a pet project. Or like a common fund investment.
To go back to Justin Capră, his merit for inventing the jetpack is finally being awarded to him. And that's good. What I loved most about his discourse, was how he sees automobiles, as shameful devices. They burn 980ml of fuel to move themselves forward, and only 20ml(!) to move the 1 person they bare. That's not a good ratio, by any means.
Screw the MPG fad. Focus on Gallon Per Ton Per Mile for a while, eh?
About a year ago, Romanian Railways decided to do something about the massive delays in their train schedule. They chose to go about it in a unique way: INCLUDE the current delays in the schedule.
And faster than you could say "damn trains are always late" they were now always on time. Sometimes a little early.
I am traveling right now, by train. And talking to Oana, I realized that, since CFR (Romanian Railways) charge by the kilometer + speed supplement, the price of the tickets should have gone down.
Guess what, the price stayed the same. And actually went up a bit. So CFR not only shagged us in the behind with their creative delay strategy, they got us to pay more for train rides that take longer.
How many times have you liked a page on facebook and then never posted on their wall?
When was the last time you wrote something? I mean something of value.
Can you say that you post a photo for 2 that you see or like. Or every 3? 10?!
This may be the age of hyperconsumerism, but please don't be just a leacher or a peon or a simple follower.
Go. Create!
Rather than telling others what you think of them, you now resort to twitter and blogs to channel negative feelings.
Rather than thinking about how to help salvage your sittuation, you're thinking "I am sooo blogging this!"
Rather than drinking her away, you run off to change your facebook status to single and hope some people notice.
Rather than a strong slap across the face, you shout out "I'm forever taking you off my blogroll!"
Rather than taking pride in standing straight, you feel comfort in your comfy chair.
Rather than trying to make a difference, you just decide to turn away, because there's a lot to choose from.
Well, not you, but maybe you have a friend...
The Internet killed being frank!
All we're left with is a mass of cosy, harmless sheep, some goats and a handful of people that will tell you what they really think. And, of course, you have a new term for that: "offensive."
Well, not you, but maybe you have a friend...
