Google Chrome

Google just released a Beta version of their browser - Chrome. Never thought I'd drop Firefox so quickly. First day and it seems killer. 

The Google Format

Google recently released their proprietary storage format, Protocol Buffers, to the Open Source Community. It's a platform independent format to serialize (programmatically store/encode) data and objects. The big advantage is that it is fast and tight - at least an order of magnitude over XML (Extensible Markup Language), which often seems to be touted as the magic bullet. The truth is that, like everything else, there are strengths and weaknesses to each - it really depends on your application. Need to be human readable - go XML. Don't know who you'll be talking to on the distant end - XML. But if you want to use a small, fast format for large data transfers, Protocol Buffers may be for you!

I'm not sure how I feel about this one. On one hand new formats and technologies are beneficial, particularly open source ones like this. On the other, standardization is king. "Don't reinvent the wheel" seems particularly relevant here. Ultimately, it's unlikely that you'll ever deal with this directly. Hopefully you reap the benefits inside an application that you didn't even realize was using the technology!

http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2008/07/protocol-buffers-googles-data.html

http://www.betanews.com/article/Google_releases_its_data_encoding_format_to_compete_with_XML/1215530589

700Mhz to Freedom

In case you've been living in a cave, the FCC will be auctioning bands of the 700 Mhz spectrum by 2008 - television broadcasts will finally be exclusively digital. Google's pledged to meet the starting bid of $4.6B. The EM Spectrum is incredibly valuable, but the 700 band is particularly useful because of its range and penetration properties - think of where you've been able to get TV reception! In general, higher freqs are more directional and lower ones don't carry as much data. The ranges have their own properties in terms of the materials that make them scatter (foliage for example).
The real question will be in the spectrum usage and policy. Google's pushing for (read: I believe has successfully lobbied for) open standards for wireless Internet connectivity - the big telcos want to be able to lock in their own service and access devices - think Cingular and the iPhone. As far as I know nobody's saying this has to be used for 'net access.

My hopes - abundant cheap high speed Internet everywhere in the US to include portable and handheld devices. Oh yeah!

Lots of talk here - I'll post when something eventful comes out.