Dullroar

Kottke predicts that the future will be about delivering web apps that can work even when the user's computer is disconnected from the network. The major building block he sees for this is the presence of a local web server on the user's computer that somehow holds application state and syncs up with the real world when there's a net connection present. For instance, imagine using Gmail on your laptop even when your net connection is down.

I got really riled up over this post because I've thought along these lines (pdf, sorry) in the past. Yesterday I almost broke out the J2EE and started building the infrastructure, except I had a few concerns. First, I'm lazy. Second, the number of locations where you can't get net access is dwindling rapidly. I'm not just talking about wifi (which is already being rolled out on airliners), but also the big cellular providers, who are offering ubiquitous, moderate speed (100's of Kbps) data service on top of their phone networks. So where are we going to need disconnected operation?

But the major challenge in converting an app to work in this world is supporting disconnected operation, and that's going to require an application rewrite. It's a huge leap for a programmer to go from today's fully-connected model of all data being available to a world where, during disconnected operation, most data is unavailable. And then there's the complexity of syncing up with the server when the client becomes connected again. For a multi-user application (or even an app that allows a single user to log in multiple times), synchronization is going to involve sorting out snafus where two clients have altered the same data. It's an old problem, and the best solution we have today is for the application to throw up its hands and ask the user to sort out the mess. "I'm sorry," says the application, "but something's gone horribly wrong. Would you mind telling me which of these 5 versions of your dissertation is the most recent?" (And the system isn't even prepared to cope with the truth, which is that you want chapter 2 from one version and chapter 3 from another.) Universal net access seems a lot easier than trying to get hairy distributed systems issues right, even if we'll still have to buy our net access from the phone company.

I think Google's purpose in creating Desktop, chat, Picassa, etc. is pretty straightforward: it gives Google more places to put advertisements in the future, and more detailed user behavior data to build better ad placement algorithms. Pretty mundane, but it seems to make a lot of sense. Especially when you think about how many ads Google needs to sell to maintain their revenue growth.

Posted by Andy at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I hate to admit it, but I've been watching AMC's James Bond marathon ("A new Bond film every weeknight in August!"). Go James! Go basic cable! Anyhow. As August has passed we've moved through a few different Bonds. Sadly, at some point we're going to hit Timothy Dalton and I'll know it's time for the fall semester to start at school.

Posted by Andy at 12:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last weekend I was trying to get a good picture of a mural in the Strip District. It was a Sprout Fund special: Bright colors, painted way up high, and very literal. Since much of the mural was devoted to an almost photographic representation of the bridge it's located next to, I wanted a shot of the mural and the bridge together. I was running all over downtown and the strip trying to find the right angle, but I couldn't quite pull it off. It's all good, because in the process, I found a terrific mural I hadn't seen before.

On the north side, between River Road and the Allegheny River, is a rails to trails bike path. Next to the trail, on the base of a huge overpass (for 279), there's a Pittsburgh-themed mural painted by students from Oliver High. The panels of the mural cover a huge range, from a picture of people in line for peanuts, to the history of the region, to a panel featuring a water-nymph. And hey, right there in the middle of the middle panel? The very same bridge that was in that other mural. I guess it's hard to have a mural without it in this neighborhood.

Click on any of the images for a larger version. Because I was standing about 5 feet below the bottom of the mural, the pics came out of the camera with a lot of skew due to the angle. Aggressive photoshopping made the images square again and I think the results are ok, but then I'm not a serious photographer.

Posted by Andy at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Remember how monitor glare was like the worst thing ever and we all hated it? When was that, like 1996 or so? It's now 10 years later, and we're adding fake glare to icons/buttons/etc. to make them look "cool."

Posted by Andy at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"You end up saying, 'Gee, if we can't go into low Earth orbit, how can we beat Al Qaeda?'" Well, I suppose we could send the space shuttle on a mission to look for Osama. Couldn't hurt, could it?

Posted by Andy at 05:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Just tweaked the blog's color scheme to be a little less boring. Then there's the new logo that showed up recently - that was originally from a Swiss fire exit sign. And I dumped my blogroll, due to general crankiness over how hackneyed and useless it had become.

What do all these changes mean? Will I start spell-checking my posts? Will I sell out and start running Google ads? Nah. People with my page rank who run ads on their blogs are either paying too much for their hosting or are too self-important.

Finally, some random links: this, and this, which is the best blog post I've read in a week.

Posted by Andy at 05:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In Paris' 3e arrondissement (at the corner of Rue des Haudriettes and Rue des Archives), there's an awesome mural featuring Don Quixote tilting at windmills, a naked chick, and well, a couple random guys. I'm guessing the middle guy is Cervantes and the bottom guy is Picasso, making this a Spanish-artists-themed work, but it's hard to tell for sure. By the way, this is only a few blocks away from the Picasso Museum.

I tried to find an angle that would eliminate the tree from the pic, but it was pretty much impossible. Plus, as insecure as I am about taking pictures in Pittsburgh, it's even worse when I'm traveling and trying not to be such a blatant tourist. (Click on the pic for a larger version.)

Update, August 16: Someone else just took a good picture of this mural.

Posted by Andy at 07:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)