life, liberty and the pursuit of geekiness

I have a week off work, first since Christmas. I'm just lying about in the sun, trying to make a dent in the reading and watching piles. The first day or two I thought I should have some kind of project, but actually it's probably better for me if I don't.

I've joined Google+, but so far it's all the professional crowd. It's more of an overlap with Twitter than Facebook for me at the moment, but it's a bit disappointing overall. The Stream is a complete FB ripoff, I'm never going to use the video chat, Sparks is mildly interesting but I can do a better job at the moment with Google Reader + Twitter, and the much-vaunted Circles....I'm getting tired of all the tech blogs falling over themselves to say how wonderful they are when 1) they are pretty much Facebook lists (in fact, FB lists are better in several ways; you can set a default (a la LJ/DW) so you don't have to keep choosing one for every update, you can create a new setting on the fly—show Birthday Fun update to "Friends, except $BIRTHDAY_PERSON", and FB lists also apply to chat, so you can be offline to Work People and online to everyone else)
2) LiveJournal had the basic idea back in 2000 or so (brad retweeted someone saying as much. It must be weird being a Web 1.0 social media dorm-room entrepreneur looking at the 2.0 lot, but on the bright side for Brad, it seems like he still gets to code, unlike the Zuck.)

I also got a bit freaked out, for the first time, about how much Google actually already knows about me. Yes, Facebook knows a lot too, but that's because I put it there. Google is more "Whoa. Where did you get that from?"

I'm re-reading Wyrd Sisters, thanks to this blog post about how Pratchett's writing of women developed. This is not helping reduce the to-read pile, which shamefully includes rj_anderson's Arrow, which I've owned for months and months.

I could be doing with some ice cream or ice lollies, but there seems to be sad lack of same in the freezer. Oh well, this can be my healthy diet week.

Hallelujah! Christ is risen!

Google have developed a self-driving car. We're living in the future!!

Oracle has just sued Google, claiming that Android infringes their Java patents.

Both as the owner of an Android phone and as a Java developer, this does not fill me with joy. Companies are less likely to build on Java if they think Oracle are going to turn around and sue them if they get too successful. Android won't suffer much in the short-term, but carriers and developers are going to be more wary in the long run, over the 5-8 years it's likely to take to settle the lawsuit. It does take a bit of the shine out of owning an Android device.

Software patents are a stupid idea anyway. You shouldn't be allowed to patent an idea, but I doubt anyone in the US Patent Office knows enough about software to tell what should and shouldn't be patented.

Those patents are vague enough that any implementation of a virtual machine or JIT compiling is probably violating them. Oracle could go after .NET with them as well if they weren't sitting cosily with Microsoft.

Google may be slightly evil these days, but I hope they win, because Oracle are so greedy - Ellison on Open Source "Oracle is free to take it for nothing, include it in our products and charge for support, and that's what we'll do." (Source) At least Google does give back to OSS.

Does anyone know of any tool or script that can download past Facebook statuses?

(Also, what's up with all the random comments on LiveJournal "Soon Jane Doe will rise from Pandora's Box, and thousands will cheer as the armies of justice drag the dead horse down Sesame Street!" in large red allcaps? It's obviously some kind of bot, but it seems a very useless one.

I'm going to see Doctor Who Live in November!

All that just to end up with Cameron as PM after all.

Last night was the coldest May night since 1996. Even the weather disapproves of the Tories.