the ryan king

It seems Google has released a new product called Google Desktop Search.

First some great insight courtesy of Googleblog:

Considering how important the information on your own computer is, it’s always been a bit strange that you could find what you were looking for more easily if it were hidden on a website in Irkutsk than in a corner of the hard drive sitting right in front of you….

Once again, great insight, but not new. I heard this exact same idea expressed by Steve Jobs at WWDC 2004. I’m not saying that Google is copying from Apple, but they wouldn’t be the first. More from Googleblog:

Google Desktop Search will retrieve your email in Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express; files in Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, and text; your website history in Internet Explorer; and your instant message chats in AOL Instant Messenger. In other words, if you’ve seen it on your computer screen, Google Desktop Search can likely help you find it. Simply put, it’s like a photographic memory for your computer.

This implementation sounds very familiar to Spotlight, Apple’s new search technology in Tiger.

While doing a little ego-Googling, I ran across a mention of ‘the ryan king’ in a british magazine.

I’ve been hacking at this site a bit this evening. I’ve added a little block on the right side of the page that displays whatever music I’m currently playing. I use KungTunes to upload the current status of iTunes to my web server. Then, when request is made for this page on the server, I parse the date from KungTunes and display it. I also create a URL to Amazon and iTunes, just for fun. :-)

I’m hoping to add some more to this later. Also, I may convert it into a WordPress plugin, so that I can be shared. For right now, I just hacked it into the template file. Also, as I was hacking about within Word Press, I was really not impressed by its setup….makes me want to write my own weblog software or start using Seredipity.

Just posted some pics from my visit to San Francisco.

The Relationship Between Software Aesthetics and Quality

This is a great article about the relation of aesthics to quality in software. I wholeheartedly agree that beautiful software is better software.