Notes for September 5, 2008

I’ve been keeping myself busy lately by preparing for three different fantasy football leagues.  Now that the season is finally here, I’m in team-maintenance mode, which is far less time-consuming.  As a result, I actually am going to post something on the blog, even if it’s just a few notes.

• This week, Google pretty much shocked the tech world (or at least me) by releasing a beta version of their own web browser, Google Chrome.  The fact that it’s a beta isn’t shocking (heck, Gmail is still in beta, and I’ve been using it for over 3 years now), but what is shocking to me is that Google was even working on such a project.  Google has been subsidizing Firefox’s development for some time, and it didn’t seem like there were any apparent ways to improve greatly on that open-source project.  Sure, Firefox has always been kind of a memory hog (though not as bad as IE), but its security and extension library still make it the killer desktop application.  That is now in serious question after the release of Chrome, which is remarkably robust in its beta version.
• Chrome’s best features: blazing-fast speed, an “omnibar” that virtually eliminates the need for a separate search box, an exceedingly minimalist look and feel, support for many browsing features that have become necessary in recent years (tabs, download management, etc.), JavaScript support that was good enough out of the box for me to feel comfortable using it in my live fantasy draft on Tuesday night (webapps run great already), and tabs as separate “processes” (if one tab crashes, only that tab is affected, which is great if you use multiple webapps at once).
• Of course, there are also a lot of necessary improvements to Chrome: bookmarking is extremely basic and nearly worthless at this point (it doesn’t even integrate with Google Bookmarks yet), and it’s not as open source as Google would have you believe.  If you’re attached to any particular Firefox extension or regularly use a large number of bookmarks, it’s not going to be good enough for you yet.  For me, I only use a handful of bookmarks and search for most everything else.  I recommend trying it out, at least.
• In non-Chrome news, I’ll be playing in a 5-on-5 flag football league this fall with the same guys I played basketball with in the spring.  Being height-challenged won’t be as big a disadvantage for us in football, and hopefully we’ll be well-enough organized to actually win a few games.  For me, this kind of thing is all about getting regular exercise, which is something I have trouble doing if I don’t have a specific goal in front of me.  The league starts tonight, and I’ll try to provide periodic updates on our progress.
• I don’t have much other news to share.  I’ve been watching both parties’ conventions over the last two weeks.  I think the result of the conventions will be a net plus for Obama, because Republican attempts to “rally the base” simultaneously rallied Democrats and probably turned off a lot of independent voters.  Sarah Palin will probably amplify that effect, and it seems like we learn something new and kooky about her on a daily basis.