Month: August 2005

The Key to Violet's Apartment

I went to see another Fringe show on Friday night after the birthday party. Sharon wanted us to get there early so that we’d get good seats unless the show sold out. Unfortunately, we ended up having a lot of time to kill for nothing as the show was almost empty! We went to see a solo act entitled, “The Key to Violet’s Apartment“.

It was written and performed by Paul Matwychuk – a huge guy! He was extremely tall, which I suppose is good because he definitely commands your attention. In the show he tells the story of his friend Violet, and the mystery surrounding the key to her apartment (hence the title). I don’t think Dickson, or Chu or the others enjoyed the show as much as I did. I thought Paul was an excellent story teller.

At the beginning, he explains how he was talking with his friend Max one afternoon about what it would be like to be a woman for a day, just to try it out. Eventually the two men ended up describing exactly the type of woman they would be. Paul then launched into the story of Violet, describing the way she looked. The thing is, I didn’t picture Violet the way he described as the story went on – I pictured her like the woman he described he would be. He saw himself in Violet? Or maybe that’s a little too deep 🙂

In any case, I thought it was pretty entertaining! The lighting was done really well too, as was the stage. Paul sat on a stool in front of a curtain of keys that glimmered red or blue depending on how the lighting changed. It made for a great story telling environment.

Read: Edmonton Fringe Festival

Weekend Parties

Post ImageIt’s been a busy weekend as far as parties go! It started on Friday night as Chu (or Steven) and Michelle had a dinner to celebrate their birthdays, both of which are in September. It was a relatively small gathering, but it was really good! Michelle made almost all of the food, which was very good. May brought an ice cream cake from DQ that was delicious. Good times! You can see some pictures here.

Last night was Yi-Li’s summer BBQ. It was also a “going away” party for Ylz, who left for a four month job in Rainbow Lake today. We had hamburgers, hot dogs, and some amazing steak. We also played Bingo and Cranium, and somehow figured out a game of paper-rock-scissors challenges to finish off the melted green tea ice cream cake (that was a disgusting green goop). Dickson played piano for a while as everyone just kinda relaxed. Here are the pictures. Have fun “up north” Ylz!

MSN Messenger 7.5

Post ImageThere’s a new version of MSN Messenger out, with a bunch of cool features! This latest release, version 7.5, is part of the new strategy to release three versions a year. Here are some of the new features:

  • The UI has been updated again. The login screen now “matches” the rest of the program, showing your display picture, and a better view of your login options.
  • Voice Clips! Basically you can record short 15 second clips of audio that get sent to your contact and automatically played.
  • Apparently the audio has been drastically improved, though I haven’t tested it yet.
  • Patching! In the future, you’ll only have to download small patches to update the client, instead of a complete new program. Very cool!

Go ahead and download it now. There’s also a much more comprehensive list of features here.

I’m looking forward to testing out the new voice improvements. Microsoft has an enormous installed base for MSN Messenger, an installed base which seems to download new versions extremely fast, so they could create a viable Skype competitor almost over-night. Certainly MSN Messenger is a better VOIP platform than Google Talk, at least in terms of the user experience.

Read: MSN Messenger

Nighthawk Rules at the Fringe!

Post ImageLast night I went to a late show at the Fringe with Sharon and Dickson. This was my second year attending the annual festival, the first for Dickson, and the millionth for Sharon (she’s such a pro she knows the code-speak the volunteers use!). Parking was non-existent as usual, and there was a lot of people. It was fun though! Oh and for the record, I really don’t like this year’s name, “Fringe A-Go-Go”. Doesn’t appeal to me at all, I don’t know why.

We waited in line to buy tickets, and then had time to kill before the show started so we walked around a bit. To my surprise, they were selling mini-donuts! I love those things, I just can’t help myself when I see them. After I bought a bag, we went to Starbucks. I really wish they had made that one on Whyte Ave and Calgary Trail bigger – it was so crammed last night.

The show we went to see was called “Nighthawk Rules“, from the company 40 Foot Theatre, directed by Jeff Page. It was written by James Hamilton and Colin Doyle, who also starred as the two main characters. The only other character in the show was played by Lora Brovold. Here’s the description:

It’s hard to stay friends. Barry and Dick have been friends since grade 7. The problem is, Barry wants to settle down with his girlfriend Pam, but Dick still wants to drink all night and steal street-signs for kicks. While Dick pulls from one direction, Pam pulls from the other. Dick and Barry embark on a drinking game to end all drinking games-the object of which is the destruction of their friendship or the destruction of Barry’s future with Pam.

If you’re planning to go see the show, skip this paragraph. The description is okay, but it doesn’t really tell you what happens, which I guess is the point, but still. It turns out that Barry and Dick fall in love, and end up starting a relationship. Totally unexpected, but brilliantly portrayed in the show! The guy who played Dick was especially convincing, and delivered his lines perfectly. Lora who played Pam only had a very small on-stage role, and unfortunately for her, it was meant to be completely over the top, so you’re left not liking her character at all. There was a lot of laughing, a lot of swearing, and some good “shock value” moments too, such as when Barry and Dick share their first kiss.

It was a really great show! I enjoyed it, though I could have done without Sharon’s comments afterward. But don’t worry, I will exact my revenge one way or another. I’m planning to go see at least one more show, so watch for another review!

Read: Edmonton Fringe Festival

One Ugly Car!

On Wednesday evening I was driving with Ada to volunteering, and on the way we saw one of the dumbest, ugliest cars ever! It was a Cavalier, circa late 90s, and this is what the guy had done to it:

  • Attempted to put a body kit on the car, but it really only covered the sides and front.
  • Attached what appeared to be chicken wire to the front grill.
  • Painted the entire car an ugly, matte grey-blue.
  • Added a “dual” exhaust.
  • Took off the door handles!

That’s right! We stared at the car, because there were no door handles. We couldn’t figure out how the doors were supposed to open. Anyway, it was a really ugly car. If you’re going to pimp out your ride, at least start with something good, and don’t do a half-assed job.

I should invest in a small camera to keep in my car so that I always have one ready. Would have made an excellent “your caption here” photo!

When should you release software?

Post ImageWhen Dickson and I saw Google Talk the other day, an old discussion about when software should be released was renewed. The application was so basic and underwhelming that we couldn’t help but think they should have waited longer to release it. Usually Dickson thinks that software should be released when it’s more complete, whereas I think it’s okay to release sooner. So how do you determine when software is ready to release? Should you release very early, or just wait until the software is almost ready? What does the word “beta” really mean, anyway? Lots of good questions, and I don’t have answers for all of them. I do have some opinions though, and hopefully you’ll share yours too. Keep in mind that when I talk about “software” in this post, I don’t mean only things like Microsoft Outlook. Websites are software too.

It seems to me that the word “beta” has taken on new meaning in the world of software. In the past, releasing software as beta meant that you wanted it to have some real world use, to iron out the bugs that all software has. Lately though, I think that has changed, thanks in large part to Google. Take Google Talk, for example. The software “just works”. So why release it as beta? Well, for one thing, it has almost no features. And look at the discussion the release has generated in the blogosphere. It’s almost as if Google deliberately released software into the wild as “beta” to get some feedback on where to take it, feature-wise.

The meaning has changed in another way too. In the past, releasing something as “beta” meant essentially, “this is free because in exchange for you using the software, we’re going to get valuable feedback to improve it for eventual sale.” Now however, again thanks in large part to Google, that has changed to “we have no idea how to make money from this, so we’re calling it a beta.” Hence, why Google News has never gotten past it’s beta state. Lots of focus on Google, I know, but they are the new villain after all.

So what does “beta” really mean then? And more importantly, when has your software reached “beta”? Well, I think it depends in large part on what kind of software you have. Consider Microsoft Windows, for example. As we all found out the hard way with Longhorn, releasing an operating system too soon can be extremely detrimental. An operating system is too important a piece of software to release before most of the features are set in place. The Windows Vista beta that was released a couple weeks ago is a much better release – pretty stable, and very much focused on ironing out the bugs. Software like Google Talk however, is probably okay to release very early on, whether or not you call it “beta”, because at the end of the day it doesn’t affect nearly as many people.

Maybe what we have is not a question of what makes a release “beta” but instead, what kind of beta release is it? Consider tip #12 from Joel Spolsky’s Top Twelve Tips for Running a Beta Test:

Don’t confuse a technical beta with a marketing beta. I’ve been talking about technical betas, here, in which the goal is to find bugs and get last-minute feedback. Marketing betas are prerelease versions of the software given to the press, to big customers, and to the guy who is going to write the Dummies book that has to appear on the same day as the product.

Armed with that knowledge, maybe Google Talk and other applications like it are just different types of beta releases. Perhaps we should called Google Talk a “feature beta”, where the goal is to gather information on what sort of features the software should eventually have. I think that’s an interesting way of looking at software, as a series of different types of beta releases. Indeed a software application is never really finished, so maybe a “final release” is more like a “money beta”, where you start charging for the software. Of course, I could go on forever, creating endless types of betas. And there will always be anomolies, like Google News or even Flickr, which is in “beta” but costs money.

So let me try to answer the question, when should you release software? I think part of the answer is a question; what do you want to accomplish by releasing the software? If you want to gather information on what sort of features the application should have, release it early! The danger though is that you may create a negative image for yourself by releasing software that doesn’t really do anything, or which doesn’t meet expectations. If you want to iron out bugs, release the software later in what I would consider a “traditional beta”. And if you have software that you don’t know how to make money from, just release it as “free”. No need to confuse things by calling it a “beta”.

I also think releasing software is a very situational decision, in that no two pieces of software have the same set of circumstances surrounding them. While it may be okay to release one early, it might not be a good idea to release another so early. Deciding when to release software then, requires careful consideration of a number of variables, including what the goal of the release is, does the software work, who is it being released to, what other applications like this exist, etc. Once you’ve come up with a clear idea of all the variables, you can then decide to whether or not the time is right to release your software.

Happy Birthday Windows 95

Post ImageToday is a special day in the world of technology. It was ten years ago today that Microsoft released Windows 95 to the world, and what a launch it was, as Joe Wilcox remembers:

Windows 95 was an event. People lined up for blocks outside computer stores (like Egghead) at midnight to get their copy of Microsoft’s newest operating system. Rolling Stones’ song “Start Me Up” set the tone for the launch (Colleague David Card reminded that the band is on tour again. What timing!).

Funny that at the time, Bill Gates hadn’t yet issued his infamous “we get the Internet” memo. Many of the large companies we interact with on a daily basis were still in basements and garages in 1995, like eBay and Amazon. And who could have forseen the incredible path Microsoft and Windows would take following the release, sometimes bumpy, others smooth.

Some interesting things to note about Windows 95:

  • There were actually five different versions of Windows 95 released. One release added USB support, another added IE 4.0, for example.
  • The codename for Windows 95 was “Chicago”.
  • Windows 95 was billed as a 32-bit operating system, but portions of the code remained 16-bit.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about Windows 95 is that it remains, essentially, the interface for computing today. Windows XP is far superior, but the look hasn’t really changed that much, nor the way you interact with the operating system. I mean, lots of things have been improved and simplified, but at the end of the day, you still click Start, switch applications on the task bar, look for files in Explorer, etc. Let’s hope Windows Vista makes some progress in those departments!

Read: Microsoft Monitor

Google Talk

Post ImageGoogle has certainly been busy as of late. They launched another new program recently, this one called Google Talk:

They say talk is cheap. Google thinks it should be free. Google Talk enables you to call or send instant messages to your friends for free-anytime, anywhere in the world. Google Talk is in beta and requires a Gmail username and password.

Another instant messaging client? Last thing I need, let me tell you. But curious as I am, I downloaded it tonight and tried it out (Dickson did too, so I’d have someone to chat with). Interesting enough, and simple to install, but largely a waste of my time. Here’s why:

  • This has got to be the most basic IM client in the world! Dickson created a better one for his class project last year.
  • You can’t change anything. Not your display name, not your font, not your font color, nothing.
  • No emoticons! Just colored text instead.
  • The application looks and feels like a web page – no doubt by design.

The program also has voice chat, and that feature appeared to work quite well. Essentially what it boils down to though is that it’s not good enough for me to replace my main IM client. I use MSN Messenger (feel free to add me, mastermaq@hotmail.com, just don’t email me there). Google Talk is an interesting experiment, but it doesn’t come close to being good enough to replace MSN, nor does it look like it will anytime soon. Heck, Skype and Yahoo Messenger are both light years beyond Google Talk. And that’s to say nothing of the fact that all of my contacts would need to have Google Talk too.

I suspect the only reason this program was created is so that Google staff can talk to one another using their own network, nothing more. Unless the second beta looks amazing, you won’t find me on Google Talk anytime soon.

Read: Google Talk

Google Desktop 2

Post ImageLooks like Google isn’t slowing down their efforts to become a software company! Today the company released Google Desktop 2:

Google has rolled out a beta version of its desktop software, adding such features as “Sidebar,” which offers a personalized panel of information such as e-mail, stock quotes and news.

The software, unveiled on Monday, also includes a scratch pad style tool for taking notes and tools for searching one’s desktop and Microsoft Outlook inbox.

Looks pretty interesting, though I haven’t downloaded it yet. The sidebar is a very thought-provoking feature. Longhorn once included a sidebar, but it is no where to be found in Vista Beta 1. Perhaps the Google Desktop release will force Microsoft to rethink the sidebar feature?

Read: CNET News.com

Pinging with Pingoat

Post ImageSpeaking of web feeds, how about spreading the word about your web feed? One of the best ways is to use a pinging service. I came across a new one tonight called Pingoat (hat tip to Mark Evans) and I quite like it – it’s so fast! What in the world is Pingoat?

Pingoat is a service that pings or notifies a number of services that keep track of weblogs and publish them. By pinging, you let the services know that your blog has been updated and hence, they crawl and index your site, publishing your blog contents, thus increasing your blog’s popularity.

The other cool thing about Pingoat is that it supports a huge list of pinging services – far larger than Pingomatic. Check it out!

Read: Pingoat