Chaotic & Harmonized

Chrome is out there, of course in its beta clothes. Running Chrome from Iran should not be possible as it is banned by Google (those nonsense sanctions….). But anyway I found my way through. Well some might think who really needs another new browser and I should say, probably Google.
Let’s discuss some different aspects:
First Story: Google is envisioning a new form and definition of operating systems where Internet is a major underlying component with the same importance of let’s say CPUs in traditional OSs. Google has enjoyed a history of success in internet realm but don’t forget that this entire wide horizon anyway is being seen from a window and of course that is a web browser on people’s computers. Still yet Google had to borrow that last part of the puzzle but probably no more it is needed.
Widely available high speed internet connections when combined with modern web browsers and the Ajax types of transparency in the client-server connections then there would be less and less shine from the traditional OS side as web applications would be more realistic. Traditional OS’s are finding their new positions right beside device drivers, hardworking but less favored servants.
Chrome when it is closely coupled with Google applications can be the one who realize this vision. But here I want to say that I prefer Firefox to be the one who realize that first as it is not, at least officially, connected to any of Web OS providers and competitors, i.e. a UN type of troops. Also I think that as a side effect, Google would seek new roles in W3C (or vice versa!) as it has to define new protocols in this regard, this may also damp consolidation and coax disputes over standards inside W3C.
Second Story: The first blog to watch after the news was of course Mitchell Baker’s of Mozilla foundation. Google is a major supporter of Mozilla Firefox, and the reason in my opinion is at least just for that default page which is a combination of Google and Firefox. It lets Google to be remembered not only by need or fame but also by habit. By a widely used Chrome, Google can balance its relation with Mozilla foundation in Google’s favor. Firefox motto when first was introduced was “Take the internet back” and I think someday Firefox may complement it with “But from whom?”. If Mozilla is still committed to her first motto, then probably she should reconsider the players of the game again.
Third story: I think I have enough of Google’s stuffs in my information realms. Google can read my emails, track my search behaviors and what else does Google need to know more about me? Rhythms of my typing or patterns of my web browsing? Actually an open source browser can make things easier but not completely clear. There is still danger for privacy (as it is at the moment even without Chrome).   Don’t think of hidden codes which send information to some unknown destination, I am not talking about conspiracy, but think of information which is provided to Google naturally and the data integration and mining methods which could give new meanings to separated data islands which is collected via those channels. None of the current players in the internet yard has the same size and number of those data islands. Google as the Indonesia of the internet map can have more opportunity to heighten our concerns on privacy. (with no suggestion, just remembered the 1983 act on former AT&T and the outcome of baby Bells ….).

That is a tragic end for the celebrity of all digital ages to be killed by software! Yes! Steve Jobs was killed by Bloomberg content management systems! (read hear) Actually a financial content provider company such as Bloomberg produces its obituary articles beforehand so they could tackle the unexpectedness of death incidents in the news world (and making this provision is considered quite insulting in my Iranian culture). Last day while an employee was updating this obituary, it then accidentally got published on the web and as there was previous records of Steve Jobs pancreas cancer issues it became a strong rumor wave which could be only refuted by a same size wave of denial.

Bloomberg probably uses an integrated content management system so all contents have easy path to the scene. That is what I advertise when I want to persuade my customers to have a CMS contract with me, but I also give them a switch to avoid unexpected incidents like this and that is staging mechanism. Each content should be approved in a mechanism (a workflow or something like that) so there would be enough confidence on suitability of the content. Of course I think the CMSs being used by Bloomberg surely have these mechanisms embedded and probably well sophisticated ones but that is what makes me think about more robust ensuring but not annoying mechanisms on double-checks.

Anyway I hope besides Apple’s stocks’ price fluctuation (if any) there would be enough reasons for managers to invest more on well structured content approaches and systems also as in the age of ultra-fast news propagation, mistakes might cost too much.

Which of them is the Steve to be remembered in the history? That was always a question for me about all people.

I am not a twitter user but I know there are lots of fans around. These days Twitter is not working smoothly and some friends such as Bamdadi has blamed Ruby on Rails as an inappropriate and too inexpensive choice for a such heavy duty site. My first suspected person is a weak business plan that does not plans for enough funds when the expansion (both in software and hardware) is needed. Also from a technical point of view I shall say that I cannot agree so easily with this as:

1. PHP is also free and inexpensive but it serves lots of internet websites and I remember years ago when Yahoo! Changed from Yahoo Pages language to PHP as sign for me that the real requirement has higher priority than the fame. Also don’t forget that Wikipedia is also all in PHP (actually Mediawiki is on PHP). Java might fight better the complexity in large scales but that does not mean inexpensive (and fast) solutions such as PHP and RoR are less appropriate for heavy processing (not necessarily complex) or large scale (again not necessarily complex) projects.
2. Database has more degree of importance here (besides the hardware and algorithms). What kind of database and database structure or load balancing strategies is being used?
3. A good design allows us to change some heavy duty and critical mission parts of the software to a more appropriate platform, so in a good business vision one can begin with a low-cost, fast to market platform such as RoR and then switch totally or partially to a more robust platform when the funds are available.

I should express my surprise of the record of Iranians who downloaded Firefox 3.0 on the download day (more than 500K) ( http://www.spreadfirefox.com/en-US/worldrecord ). Being suspected on bot manipulation is no more easy to insist on without any valid reason for this suspicion , actually I think we may think more seriously about a crawling but effective population of enthusiastic and tech-savvy internet users in Iran. This is what we should consider as an important business and social fact.

At last I found it! Yes! Since when I was a student I had this thought that some people around the world should have considered this idea that “information” is the most basic unit of the universe. I tried to find it whether anyone has made such suggestion or is there any published paper or not. Asking some people around involved in physics was not helpful and when searching the internet I always got conducted to Shanon’s “Information Theory”. I had even some guess that “Set Theory” might be also an implication of what I want to know. Also I tried to find and set some basic rules for my lost “Information Physics Theory” mostly mapping space and dimensions into world.

But then today I came across the exact phrase which I wanted to hear. And of course I found it in Wikipedia! And the key word is “Digital Physics” nor “Information Theory” or my “Information Physics Theory”:

“Wheeler (1990) has suggested that information is fundamental to the physics of the universe. According to this “it from bit” doctrine, the laws of physics can be cast in terms of information, postulating different states that give rise to different effects without actually saying what those states are. It is only their position in an information space that counts. If so, then information is a natural candidate to also play a role in a fundamental theory of consciousness. We are led to a conception of the world on which information is truly fundamental, and on which it has two basic aspects, corresponding to the physical and the phenomenal features of the world”.

When I was at high school I had good enthusiasm for reading Science things especially Physics. Here again I feel that I need to add it again to my hubby list.

Just was browsing O’Reilly Ruby Programming Language where noticed the first thing to be introduced in this book is commenting! Reading this I thought that probably because commenting symbols are the black holes of a software and quite important. We usually consider them as non-existing parts of a running software but as we usually do not consider black holes as non-existing ones , the same should be considered for commenting symbols. They have one dimension, no meaning and occupy zero space and of course nothing even the light ray can escape from their field of gravity.