More Google Chrome Musings
In this interview, the Mozilla Europe president states that he doesn't think Google Chrome is competing with Firefox, rather it is competing with Internet Explorer, citing reasons of competing on search/advertising etc.
Just one question: Why do most Internet Explorer users use Internet Explorer? I'm tempted to set up a web survey, but I'm fairly sure the most popular reason will be "there's an alternative? (confused look)". Agree or no?
OK, so having established that, now I'd like to compare the demographic who will install, try and then continue to use Google Chrome with the demographic who know there are possible alternatives to IE and so use Firefox. Once again I'll forego the web survey, but I think you'll see a similarity in those two groups nonetheless.
Soooo. Taking these things into account, which browser do you think will lose more users to Chrome? At this point Firefox's main defence is it's massive and massively useful library of addons (even if Chrome comes complete with a cut-down replacement for my favourite FF addon, Firebug), but if Google adds a plugin capacity to Chrome, all bets are off.
Google Chrome – Promising, Needs Work
I read the comic, liked the idea. Downloading and installing was painless, and it looks good when it starts.
Unfortunately, you then have to try browsing some sites...
OK, so judging it badly because a plug-in doesn't work so well (the flash video on the front page of this site stuffs it, for instance - YouTube takes ages, and throws up a "script unresponsive" type error), but try going to Google Maps. You'd think they'd make sure their own browser was the mutt's nuts at displaying their own sites, but no. It's slow and jerky, and nowhere near as good as Firefox. Not sure why though - my first guess would be Javascript performance, but that seems really fast on other sites - check this Javascript test from Quirksmode. It keeps freezing on random pages as well, for no particular reason that I can see.
Shame really - usually Google's "beta" products are more polished than many a production release (witness Gmail - I swear they only leave the "beta" there for a laugh). Either this really is just an early beta, or ZDNet are right and they just want to give Microsoft and Mozilla a few ideas to chew on.
<edit> (03/09/2008) - Of course, having now tried it on several other PCs, and rebooted the one I originally tested it on, I can say that most of the problems I came across earlier were actually rubbish. It plays flash just fine, google maps is quick and smooth. </edit>
On the plus side, it does work well on most sites. Wikipedia is really quick, it passes the Acid2 test, more than you can say for IE, and does quite well on Acid3 (compared to many others). That's probably down to Webkit more than Google though. The Chrome-specific task manager is useful when you find a site that crashes it, too - it just crashes a single tab rather than the whole browser.
Anyway, checkitout: http://www.google.com/chrome
Hours ‘Til Autumn
Ever heard of them? Me neither, probably because they are an unknown band from Eastleigh whose largest gig to date that I can find was at the Joiners. However, they won an Ocean FM competition to be the support act for Bon Jovi tonight at St Mary's Stadium, so I'll shortly be finding out what they sound like. Only info I can find on them is on bebo: Hours 'Til Autumn.
Beer Festivals – UR DOIN IT RONG!
Now I have your attention with that totally unjustified outburst of LOLspeak, I need to clear something up. It was mentioned in a recent email that working at a beer festival "sounds a little sober".
How very wrong you are...
You see, during the local Beer Festival, volunteers are allowed, nay, encouraged, to try the beer on offer. It's all about being able to offer meaningful advice, you understand. Since not every volunteer will be able to make the pre-festival tasting, and since the average volunteer is really quite into the whole beer-drinking thing, drinking the offerings is de rigueur during breaks in serving. A few moments stolen away from your bar area is usually spent exploring the other bars, and flashing the staff badge in order to get another cup full and a friendly smile, maybe a request for your views on the taste and a recommendation for later. The only request is that you stay sober enough to serve the punters. Anyone else tried serving on a bar drunk? This wasn't my first experience in that area - it was as easy as I recalled, and more fun than the sober alternative.
Oh, and that's just during the open hours.
Once the doors close there are a couple of hours of proper drinking to be done. Once doors close on the final night there is invariably a quantity of beer remaining, and the organisers would rather not have move and dispose of this, so that's another duty down to the volunteers.
Over the Friday and Saturday nights I worked, I'm ashamed to say I only tried 50 of the 94 on offer (that I remember). Most of those were on the first night. On the second night many beers had already finished, so I didn't add too many to my tally, and ended up drinking the same ones over again. Nonetheless, I think it was a much better showing than the many years I've been a punter with a ticket.
Beer Festival Volunteers. Unpaid, but not sober.
My Beer of the Festival? Dark Star Summer Meltdown. Ginger flavoured and great.
Monaco GP 2008
That was an excellent race. It's races like this that keep me watching F1, even if it did have to rain to make it interesting. Hamilton was untouchable, with McLaren taking full advantage of the opportunity afforded to him by the lucky coincidence of a small mistake just before a safety car.
Driver of the race was rightly awarded to the great performance from Adrian Sutil before a schoolboy error from none other than the reigning World Champion took him out of the race, and cheated him out of what would have been an amazing fourth place.
Still, it was an entirely enjoyable race to watch, possibly aided by the princely sum of £2 I had riding Lewis.
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