Sixgun Productions: Fab on Google+

Some people have asked me to write down my thoughts on Google+ and explain why my post ratio on identi.ca has dropped off a cliff lately, so with this post I’m trying to make sense of what I think happened, for the benefit of everyone. Keep in mind that this is purely my personal view and largely born out of the simple fact that, unlike other people, I can only really deal with one social network in my life — I rather use one service a lot than split my posts up between two or three of them, I guess that’s just the way my particular brain works.

As most people will probably be aware, I have been extremely active on several microblogging and social networking  services for years now. I started on Jaiku after Leo Laporte had mentioned that service on one of his shows and that is also where I first met Dan. Linux Outlaws was basically born on Jaiku and we picked up many fans there; I used to love that site. Then Jaiku was bought by Google which basically sealed its fate and it was killed by neglect. The site was still awesome and the community held together for a while, but in the fast moving world of the web, not improving anything about the service for over a year basically killed it. I played around with Twitter a bit but somehow neither the site itself nor the community ever fully grabbed me. In fact I still feel that there is no community on Twitter at all, it seems more like a load of people just pushing out posts and shouting at each other to me. With Facebook it was even worse, the whole thing started to actively annoy me very fast to a point where I actually closed down my account because I couldn’t stand it anymore; what I want most out of a social network is intelligent and funny conversations and instead of that, Facebook constantly bombarded me with inane games, quizzes and lots of bullshit. As neither Twitter nor Facebook was doing it for me, it is no wonder that I jumped on identi.ca the moment the site opened to the public (and I mean that quite literally, as I am user #418 on the site). For the past three years, I have lived and breathed identi.ca and I loved every minute of it — I’m still the human with the most posts on that site ever. Linux Outlaws went from a mediocre podcast to one of the biggest in its field with the help of identi.ca and it’s community and we made many good friends on there. I’ve stayed at the houses of people I had only ever met through the service, in other countries, too. That is pretty amazing, if you think about it. So as you can clearly see, I still love identi.ca and the people in its community very much. So what happened? Why have I spend the last few weeks almost exclusively on Google+?

via sixgun.org

Fab on Google+.

A very interesting read. I think Google+ is a great thing (and could possibly take over Facebook) BUT, I still prefer status.net for my daily communication. Twitter is also loads of fun; I have met many people on twitter, and I don’t think I could leave.

Do read this and feel free to comment on the G+ thread linked at the bottom; I already have. I hope Fab stays on identi.ca.

We’ll see what happens with Google+. I like the federation with statusnet. Google+ seems very centralized, like Facebook, but that’s just me.

Google Chrome Follow-up

Several weeks ago, I worked with Google Chrome. I liked it, and since then, the plugin system has matured, and I’ve been using it more.

By “using it more” I actually mean, using the Google Chromium daily PPA. I decided to use the Chromium version because it’s open-source.

I’m using it on my netbook (1 gb ram, Atom processor, 1024×576, etc) and it’s very snappy. Load times are faster than Firefox and Flock, and the extensions that it has makes the whole thing even better.

I’m using Adthwart, ChromeMilk, Google Calendar Checker, One Number, RSS Subscription Extension, and Shareaholic. These extensions really help make the browser shine and work better for me. I like the way Chrome integrates tightly with Google services. It makes checking email easy and fast.

Chromium is now my default browser on my netbook. It’s a lightweight browser that has extensions and is very easy to use.

There are some slight differences between Chromium and Firefox, mainly the use of webkit and moving your tabs to the top of the screen. Once you get beyond this, it’s very well laid-out and has a very modern look.

I still give it my thumbs-up. If you need something light for a netbook, or even an aging computer, I recommend highly.

Google Chrome OS – My Thoughts

Google Chrome OS has gotten a ton of coverage in the “tech” media (not so much in the “mainstream” media) and I’ve been following it with some interest.

It seems that Google is proposing that all your data live on the web (and that’s fine, since many people do live on the web already) and you can have access to it via any machine, with a Google account.  This is very similar to the “old way” of doing things in the computer world; ie, the individual user has a terminal and hooks up to the mainframe to do their work.

This is great for everyone with a Google account and access to always-on internet connections.  I don’t always have an internet connection, so I wonder if the computer would even boot?  Anyway, as this idea comes closer to reality, people who use computers will have to think about what they’re doing with the computer.  They will have to look at what they’re storing on other servers and what they have control over.  I can see this as a new era in computing, but, it should be approached with some skepticism and caution.  Google will have all of your private documents, email contacts, IM contacts, financial information (if you store it in a spreadsheet in Google Docs), location information, interests, hobbies, and more.

I’m not really one to talk, because I do store a lot of stuff on the web (Dropbox, Google Docs, Picasa, WordPress.com, Posterous, etc), but I do believe that people should have the CHOICE of putting their stuff on the web.  I chose to upload my documents to Dropbox, my pictures to Picasa and my ideas to WordPress.com and Posterous.  With a Chrome laptop, you won’t.

I’m afraid that people will see these “cheap” Chrome computers and buy them, expecting that they will do everything that a “normal” computer does (popular games, programs, etc) and then be disappointed, much like people were disappointed with the netbook they bought to replace their desktop.  They will find that they can’t access any of their documents when the internet goes out or they go to a location with no internet.  They will find that they can’t install programs they want to use.  They will find it’s not what they want.

I think it’s a neat idea, don’t get me wrong, but if the user doesn’t know what it is, they won’t be able to use it effectively.