Astrochimp

When Google Page Creator came out a few days ago, I wondered out loud
weather this is a small piece of a grander plan to compete with such companies as eBay and/or Paypal.

Googe Page Creator allows users to create simple sites. What if they tied this in with Google Base and allowed users to create simple database driven sites that would list product catalogs? All they would need is a way to process payments and they would have a tool that would offer more sophistication than eBay or Yahoo! Store.

Last Friday the Google Base Blog announced that Google is expanding the Google Account allowing sellers to use Google Account to get money from customers.

Now, the details are starting to come together with Tech Crunch
showing a few screen shots of Google Base with purchasing functionality.

http://google-blog.dirson.com/post.new/0382/

Came across this link on Delicious. The link is to a video that shows how one German with Photoshop and a Video iPod fooled many Apple prognosticators with an image of a full screen video iPod. The latest Mac Rumor sites are abuzz with news that Steve Jobs will release a new video iPod with a screen that take the full side. The scroll wheel is rumred to be part of the video display, it will be a small touch sensative LCD screen. You can see how anyone could get excited by this idea. Anyway, check out the video below and see if you can pick up any photoshop tips the next time you feel the need to make a fake.

VW is introducing the new Golf and it’s variations with a vengence. The “Make friends with your Fast” commercials are all over the Olympics. Now, the next wave includes a spoof in “Pimp My Ride” with a German Engineer and his lovely, but dominatrix like assistant. Thanks to Left Lane News

Representin’ Deutschland…

What does this thing do? It sucks in air. It sure sucks allright.

It looks like it could fly.

The Top Gear guys have created their own version of the Winter Olympics. The Biathlon is much more fun to watch in this version that pits an Audi Q7 vs a Volvo V70. The choice of guns is also interesting.

Google keeps churning out new apps that have people wondering just what purpose does this fill. Google Base was released many months ago as a way to keep a general database on the web. You can basically load anything to the site and structure it as you like. Does it function like a database such as MySQL? Not really, but kinda.

Now the plan is starting to come together in bits as Google launched their newest head scratcher in Google Page Creator. It is not a replacement for Blogger, but a simple way for users to create basic web pages. It doesn’t quite compete with MySpace…yet. It is not being billed as a community based application. Google does borrow a feature from Flickr, which is their cute error messeges seen below.

Now for some speculation…Is Google Page Creator a way to allow folks to post photos from Picasa to the web?
Google does not have a tool that directly competes with Flickr. They do not offer much in the way of photo sharing sites. Picasa lets you publish photos to your Blogger account or other areas, but it does not provide you a webspace to store your photos and let others view them.Could this be a way to allow folks to have a simple photo site?

It will be interesting to see if there are any tools that tie Google Base and Google Page Creator together. This would allow users easy ways to create database driven applications for just about any purpose including possibly ecommerce. Would this be a dip of the toe for Google to compete with features such as Yahoo Store or even eBay?

I will have to wait for Google Page Creator’s hiccups to go away. Maybe I could do a quick refresh to scare it…

PHP has had a great deal of momentum behind it for many years. The language and environment make it easy for beginner programmers to get going. With native support for MySQL, many systems already written in PHP, plus a plethora of web hosts that provide both PHP and MySQL at a cheap price it is easy to see why it has such wide usage.

Of all of the PHP advantages, there are many drawbacks. While PHP is a great tool to get many jobs done, does it truly extend to enterprise level usage? Not Really. Jonas Marus has a rant on why PHP sucks, but is still a good tool to get certain jobs done.

http://maurus.net/work/php-sucks/

Any developer has to be flexible and willing to learn new languages. Programming language arguments should be more like Marus’ examples where he points out the limitations of the language. Knowing these limits helps you choose what language you should you for your next project.

Meanwhile, PHP gets more support as Yahoo launched their new PHP Developer Network. Yahoo has recently been busy giving developers some tools to take advantage of their web services and their Javascript libraries. Today they opened up the PHP Developer Network that will make it easier for developer to create mashups based on their tools. Yahoo has been playing catchup with Google on releasing tools such as Maps to the general public. The aquisition of Flickr and Delicious helps them in the Search Engine/ Feature wars. Now with the release of the Yahoo PHP Developer network and their Javascript API, they are actively encouraging the next wave of Web 2.0 startups. Hmm, if I use their tools and make a cool app they are bound to buy me out quick!

The most impressive feature that Yahoo is providing is all sorts of levels of APIs. It seems like they are begging folks to use their maps over Google’s.

* Yahoo! Maps Simple API -Lets you easily overlay your map data using the Yahoo! Maps web site to display your maps. No programming is necessary.
* Yahoo! Maps Flash APIs – Embed maps in your web site or application using the free Macromedia Flash player for a rich user experience.

AS-Flash API – Create a Flash application that displays Yahoo! Maps using ActionScript®.

JS-Flash API – Create great applications quickly with our scriptable Flash maps and JavaScriptâ„¢. No Flash programming is required!

Flexâ„¢ API – Flex developers can use the Flex API with Macromedia’s Presentation Server Technology to create powerful applications.
* Yahoo! Maps AJAX API

Use the power of DHTML and JavaScript to host your own maps. We provide the JavaScript functions to make map-making a breeze.

http://developer.yahoo.net/

Giancarlo Fisichella looked like he was about to win the Japanese Grand Prix. With one lap to go, alll he had to do was fend off the hard charging McLaren Driver Kimi Raikkonen. Unfortunately Kimi Raikkonen was driving unbelieveable quick in the last half of the 2005 season. Starting far down the grid, the Finn worked his was up to second place with one lap to go. The resulting pass was very dramatic racing as Raikkonen got past Fisi in the next to last lap of the Grand Prix. It was heartbreak for me as I was hoping for a win by Fisi.

The Maserati name is a legendary marquee from the early days of Formula 1 when the cars where shaped like cigars and drivers wore leather helmets. The name never acheived the glory of Ferrari since the company went belly up in the 1970s. In 1997 Ferrari revived the name by purchasing the company. Ferrari helped to bolster the names cache by creating a top-of-the-line racer by taking a race ready Ferrari Enzo with a fatter body and slapped the Maserati name on it. The MC 12 is basically a racing car trimmed out for the road. The result is a tough to drive, but extremely fast exotci car that beats Ferrari Enzo on the Top Gear track.

My VW Passat and the Lamborghini Gallardo are made by the same company. The Gallardo still keeps much of it’s Italian flare with the addition of some German engineering. Yeah, stereotypes of both countries, but the car is really cool.

The Pagani Zonda is the newest supercar to beat the track record at Top Gear. The Zonda also boast the highest top speed of any car tested.