False(B)logic

Unless you use Google Chrome you probably haven’t.  Just like Google there weren’t any announcements either.  Last week I powered up my web browser and instead of being greeted by screencaps of my eight most visited sites I see this instead:

except the only icon up there was the web store one.  So I clicked on it and found myself here.  Every morning now I find myself poking around the store.  I’ve only found two or three apps worth installing and I refuse to pay for anything, but it has been fascinating just browsing through everything.  Some of the highlights:

Dreams 2 – A high resolution spot the difference game!  With the custom artwork of Stephanie Herrera.  All this for only $1.99!  I didn’t know people did these things still, or that they’d pay money to do them in a special tab on their browser.

Pandora – This app is just a link to the regular old Pandora website!  A website that was in desperate need of a re-design when it was originally released back in 2007 or so.  This is actually quite common it seems many of the ‘apps’ popping up in the store are just links to existing sites.  I guess apps are the bookmarks of the twenty-first century?

Autodesk Homestyler – Let your inner consumer whore out and do some interior designer all from the comfort of your browser using real products!  This is currently a featured app in the store.  Beyond helping interior designers in the field with wireless capabilities I don’t see what this does besides feed consumer lust and neighbor envy.

Tweetdeck:  The first app I installed.  This app is just like the installable version of Tweetdeck. It turns a tab of your browser into a tweetdeck client letting you manage your social networking (twitter, facebook, buzz, and foursqaure) from one window.

Write Space:  A distraction free text wrangler.  Click the app and you’re dropped into a simple black screen and a text prompt.  Get writing!  I also installed this.

The store is only a few weeks old and it looks like it already has thousands of apps. I’m sure most of which are useless and/or garbage.  I didn’t understand why Google even created the store at first, but with the announcement of ChromeOS and Google sending out Google laptops to testers…  The store’s existence becomes clear.

Have any readers poked around in the store?  Have you found and apps worth downloading and using?  Let me know down in the comments.

I made some resolutions last year.  I was sure I even talked about them on DMS.  Looking through the archives I can’t seem to find them.  It was a short list, no more than ten items in all.  I only managed to complete a third of the items though.  The remaining will roll-over into next year.  I suppose for most people this would be considered a failure.  They created a list of things to accomplish and at the end of the year if there are still items on the list they failed.

I don’t see it that way at all.

As good as crossing an item off my list felt.  The whole point of the list was to raise my awareness as to what I wanted to focus my time and efforts on throughout the year.  So, while I didn’t participate in NaNoWriMo or write a 50,000 word book on my own.  I have spent more time writing this year than in the past five.  I didn’t participate in a triathlon this year but I’ve got a exercise routine down and I haven’t been in this good of shape since I left High School.

So, what am I going to focus on in 2011?  I’ve got some ideas.  Again, I don’t see myself signing the Compact, if I did I don’t think I’d be able to succeed at it for more than a month or so.  But, having a written, public record of the fact that this is something I care about will help me spend the extra time to consciously think about my purchases.

Changing behavior starts with changing how we think and New Year Resolutions seems like the perfect vehicle for changing thought.

I’ll post my resolutions once they’re finalized.  I look forward the critique.

I graduated from college four years ago.  College is a mixed bag and it seems right now that the necessity of a degree in modern life is facing a backlash.  I’ve read in a few places how a degree is simply a waste of your time and money.  I’m not prepared to offer my thoughts on that subject.  I can vouch for the fact that college offers a lot more than just a piece of paper to hang on your wall.

One of the greatest is a group of people who share many of your own interests and have a decent head on their shoulders.  Not only will these people become life long friends they’re also fantastic sounding boards.  Many of my best ideas and thoughts were further improved by sharing them with others.

After working on a project for any lengths of time one is bound to attach some emotions to it.  Emotions that will prevent you from approaching it rationally and dispassionately at times.  Familiarity with a project can also mean that it isn’t being reviewed as carefully as it could be.  An excellent example is the spelling error in an essay you’ve reviewed multiple times.  Since you’ve seen the words thousands of times and you know what is supposed to be there you overlook the error.  Another pair of eyes and a mind fresh to the project can help you pick out the errors as well as help you approach it from a different light or direction.

Plato and his tutor Socrates realized the value of dialogue.  Through question and answer, the slow process of cutting an idea down into its constituent parts, understanding it, and then rebuilding it allowed for the discovery of the “best” way to live.  This is one of the reasons that our universities, colleges, and laboratories are communal.  Even the lone genius, say Einstein, works in an environment where their work is scrutinized by others.

The access to easy dialogue is one of the things I miss most from university.  I find that my ideas aren’t as clear or understandable because they haven’t had the benefit of others input.

Thankfully, the internet allows for even the most isolated person to engage in dialogue with others.  Regardless of what your field is you can find a group for it on-line where others meet, discuss, and move the field forward.  In addition mail service and the exchange of letters is another way to have a lasting , fulfilling dialogue.

I have been lucky enough to start up correspondences with people (on and off line) that have helped my shape my ideas as well as goals.  I encourage you to make the jump from lone practitioner, of whatever it is, into groupee.  You’ll find yourself challenged more often but you’ll often find the results more rewarding as well.