CODElabZ

Posted on: September 4th, 2008 Google Chrome - First Impressions

Yesterday saw the release of the beta version of Google’s much anticipated Chrome browser. It can be downloaded from Google’s website, but is currently only available for Windows XP/Vista, although a Linux and OS X version will also be released soon.

At first glance, the interface is very minimalistic. The blueish tones and general layout are reminiscent of Internet Explorer 7, while the new Home Page is similar to Opera’s Speed Dial. This lists thumbnails of your most frequently visited sites and provides access to your browser history. The URL box is similar to that of Firefox, and is dubbed the Omnibar by Google. It automatically completes the URL you are typing by suggesting sites from your history and commonly accessed sites, even if you have never visted them before.

Chrome is a tabbed browser, developed to provide fast performance when browsing websites with modern web applications. To this end, Google has based it on a renderer called Webkit, which also powers Apple’s Safari. Javascript performance is however not Apple’s SquirrelFish, but rather a newly developed Javascript engine called V8, developed in Denmark. It is claimed to provide excellent garbage collection, ensuring that the browser does not become resource hungry, like Internet Explorer. Geeks can easily check the browser’s memory usage with the new Task Manager and about:memory page.

As far as usability is concerned, Google has incorporated some smooth graphic effect, so one can reshuffle tabs and even drag them between different browser windows. As more tabs are added, the width of the tabs shrinks, so the names can become illegible. The browser currently has no RSS support.

For the security conscious, tabs may be opened in Incognito mode, indicated by a cloaked man at the top of the browser window, allowing for anonymous browsing.

Having used it as my default browser for the past day, I have been very impressed by its speed, the URL suggestions and the dynamic way in which the most frequently visited sites are displayed on the Home Page. On the downside, it needs to get some Firefox-style add-ons.

All in all, my first impression is good, and I expect Google will deliver a solid product as soon as the release version becomes available.

Posted on: May 30th, 2008 Finally! Things are taking shape…

After much playing around behind the scenes with Wordpress 2.5, I have finally come up with a workable theme and layout for the blog. I would say it is “minimalist”, but that is my aim, so that it does not detract from the content and yet is easy on the eye.

Why so dark? Yes, I know most blogging guides say that one should have a clean white theme to create a professional look, but I decided against it for a number of reasons:

• Living in South Africa, there has been a lot of emphasis on power conservation lately. I recently came across a search engine called Darkle, based on Google, but claiming to conserve energy through the use of dark colours. The reason is that a monitor uses less power to display a black screen than it does to display a white screen. How much impact this will have on the world, I’m not sure, but it can’t do any harm to try and save power, right?
• I am hoping to put together a portfolio soon, of both past and present web and photographic work. I think the dark background will contrast better with the colours of the images. Let me know if you disagree.

As far as content goes, that will be my next hurdle. I am interested in a number of fields, most of which I try to incorporate into my daily work, and some of which I reserve for “unwinding”. Why bother creating a commentary on things that interest me? Why not? I think the more people put their ideas out into the realm of public scrutiny, the better we will all be able to deal with the world we live in. A quote by Linus Pauling springs to mind:

The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.

With that in mind, let the ideas flow…

Posted on: May 9th, 2008 Hello world!

This domain went live on 9 May 2008, and is therefore still under development. Keep a look out for the finished product in a few days.