Category: Personal Reflections

Lessons learned about life; pearls of wisdom I’ve gleaned through pain, failure and honest reflection

Thoughts on Chrome, Firefox and Open Platforms

Carl Setzer

I’ve noticed over the past few days that Chrome became boggy and SLOOOOW. There are things I love about Chrome, but it’s propensity to hogging resources and, thus, degrading my machine’s performance have long bugged me. Being deeply enmeshed within the Google ecosystem might play a big part in that. But, the more I think about things, the more I’m concerned about my personal trend towards the Chrome/Google system.

I highly value the Open Source community and what they bring to the table. Even though I’ve worked for several large corporations, I really appreciate all that this community brings to the world. It’s more than simply free software, but also open standards. To me, it’s critical that corporations cannot lock out access to our data. So, utilizing open standards is critical.

With that, though, I look at tools such as Gimp, Open Office, and Scibus and see so much potential. For, say, image editing, wouldn’t it prove better to the world that the default image system wasn’t Photoshop, or desktop publishing InDesign? Dependence on one company causes me great concern. I really want to start pushing towards the adoption of open standards as the default for most industries. I don’t mean to disparage Adobe, Microsoft, or any one else. It should just scare the crap out of us to have only one real player in an industry.

So, going forward, I shall find open alternatives for my work (see the links above to start with). First, today, FireFox for browsing. I know this will also improve my system performance. And will I really notice any of the missing features. Heck, other than drag & drop attachments from Gmail to Windows Explorer, is there anything that is in Chrome but not available in Firefox? I’m not too concerned.

Digital Legacies

Carl Setzer

I just received an recruiting email, where the writer found me via my long neglected Indeed.com resume. It got me thinking about all the sites I’ve used over the years, that I’ve eventually abandoned, or at least dropped into neglect. Profiles on Monster, Indeed, NWJobs, MySpace…what do these say about me? To the recruiter emailing me about positions at Microsoft, what is there expectation of who I am, and would any elements of my current reality match?

On a somewhat related note, Om Malik recently posted You’ve Go (No) Mail. He talks about the sense of loss accompanying the ending of his Gigaom email. I’ve felt these twinges in the past, with the suspending of my Starbucks and Microsoft emails. But those were different at an elemental level. Regardless of my emotional connections to those institutions, I didn’t found them. They didn’t hold my name, they never represented me at the same level. The closest I could imagine is with this site, and the email associated with it.

carlsetzer.com is mine, it is me. If this were to become part of a larger institution, which subsequently failed, I expect that would hurt at a deeper level than the losses I’ve felt.

These footprints we leave across the web, and that the web leaves upon us. Intertwining, weaving with all those others, those we love, those we don’t, and the masses we’re unaware of, the active and neglected, loved and forgotten, all blend into this thing: the internet.

Here I stand

Carl Setzer

And so I stand
Upon this green hill
Watching the rage filled
Banter below. Unable
To comprehend, to
Descend, swinging
Into the mass melee
Of standard life.
I must stand aside
Playfully exploring
Within the forgotten
Grasses on this hill-top
Field, lost within the
Echoing glory of the
Neglected and unseen.

Thinking on Migraines

Carl Setzer

“Thought not found, neural pathway non-existent and/or corrupt. Rebooting to last known safe condition.” One way I look at my migraines.

It’s not the pain that’s the worst. For me, that would be the “grey fuzzies”, the unfocused blurring of my mind. That blends with the ringing/hum that fills my senses. This inability to think is what distresses me the most.

Fortunately, my life only dives into this realm on rare occasions. And this trip is about done. Time to drift of to sleep.

Spring Forward I Guess

Carl Setzer

Is it spring back/fall forward? Something like that I guess. Anyway, it’s time again for one of our great wastes of time: the semi-annual changing of the clocks around daylight savings time. So, my chums, do remember to adjust your clocks appropriately so that you’re in sync (not the band) with everyone else. And think about the lost hour while your whiling away your Saturday evening. The wee hours of the morn are a bit more wee than last weekend.

Transportation and Accessibility To Opportunity

Carl Setzer

Later today I’ll be giving a lift to one of the teens at my taekwondo studio, and tomorrow to one of my son’s friends for a rugby game. I’m often pinged for last minute rides, sometimes that involve a fair amount of driving. A few friends question why I make myself that accessible for such, “am I just being a sucker”? The short answer is “no”.

One of the things that I deeply value is helping people connect with their passions. The thought of someone not being able to participate in a passion out of a simple transportation issue bothers me greatly. Well, sometimes the easiest way to assist with that is simply facilitating presence. If my gift of a few minutes of driving helps connect someone to their passion, then it’s a glorious investment in the communities that I love.