Although my PVR catches most of the shows my family and I want to watch, once in a while it messes up. Case in point: a couple weeks, we missed the last half of the Amazing Race, so I tried to find it online. My first stop was YouTube. In the past, just about everything could be found there, including full TV episodes and excerpts. Thanks to all the lawsuits, it's not there anymore. No more Stargate, Survivor, Colbert Report, Saturday Night Live, nothing. I could possibly have found it on a pirate site, but ended up settling for a text synopsis. It's just not the same.

To Viacom and others suing YouTube: You claim that YouTube is depriving you of revenue from your content. I would argue, how is YouTube broadcasting the shows any different from my local affiliate broadcasting the shows? Isn't brand and show loyalty something that you and your advertisers crave? And finally, what about all that content that can't be found any other place? What good is reserving the right to distribute the content, and then not distributing it at all, or making it incredibly hard to find and use (try finding an arbitrary Survivor episode for example).

YouTube has a great set-up. They have oodles of servers and bandwidth, the quality is good enough for casual watching, and they have all that community and viral marketing and recommendations and so forth. And it's free. Free for you, and free for the viewers. It would cost you millions to set up something like that, and each network or content provider would have to do the same. It makes no sense.

If you want to make the shows available on your own site, that's fine too. Just use an embedded YouTube player. That way you get people from your site, people blogging about the shows, and people seeing it on YouTube all watching and talking about your content. If I were you, I'd upload the episodes to YouTube myself to ensure good quality and maybe include some ads.

We, the consumers, just want to watch the darned shows, so please make it easy for us.

Note: The opinions expressed on this blog are mine alone and do not necessarily represent those of my employer.

I was surfing the web tonight looking for interesting news, and found an article that mentioned a certain Silicon Valley executive. The site was running one of those 'Ads by Google' strips on the side which looks at words in the text to pick what ads to show. For this article it came up with the following little gem:

So are we trying to find Mr. Jobs himself, or perhaps start a new career in "Steve"-ness, whatever that is? Or is this a message to Steve, in case that options thing turns out badly?

Do you have a favorite AdSense non-sequitur you want to share? Extra credit for anyone who can identify the article I was reading from the picture.

Two months after it was announced, the first fully open source version of the Google Web Toolkit (GWT) has gone production. Tech Lead Bruce Johnson writes:

As we had hoped, GWT 1.3 RC 2 has proved stable and is ready to graduate today, making build 1.3.3 the official GWT 1.3 distribution. If you've been waiting to upgrade to 1.3, it's ready when you are.

In case you missed the news, GWT 1.3 is the first fully open source version of GWT. Our open source charter, "Making GWT Better," explained that GWT development would take place in the open, and that we'd even publish our engineering meeting notes. We're happy to report that it's working out really well. We've had many fruitful discussions on the contributors forum, and we've already received and accepted some patches that will make it into the next version of GWT.

This version contains a number of bug fixes and code cleanup, but no major new features. If you'd like to learn more about GWT, engineers Miguel Mendez and Kelly Norton will be leading a GWT tutorial at EclipseCon 2007 in March. Also a several books have either been released or are in the works now.

A few weeks ago, Google opened up development of their Google Web Toolkit and released the whole system under the Apache license. Now they've taken the next logical step, by accepting their first outside contributor to the project: Sandy McArthur. I caught up with Sandy after the announcement to ask him about the pros and cons of GWT, why a web developer should consider it, and how they can get started.

[ZDNet] What drew you to GWT in the first place?

[Sandy] Java is my favorite language because I prefer it's structure and rigidness. It protects me from myself and I believe I write better code the first time when I write in Java than if I'm using a loosely typed language or less defensive ones such as C/C++. Also, anyone who has used IntelliJ IDEA (and to a lesser extent Eclipse & NetBeans) will be able to tell you that the claimed weaknesses of a strict, strongly-typed language are actually strengths because of how the tools can assist you.

A significant portion of my programming at work is web related and pressure to provide AJAX-esque features in webapps eventually got me to make time to prototype some crude user interfaces with GWT. Previously, I'd try a different AJAX toolkit about every month looking for one that fit me. I only wish I'd given GWT a try a few months earlier.

[ZDNet] So it was love at first sight?

[Sandy] Actually, when I first read about GWT I was not impressed. I didn't believe that the Java to JavaScript indirection GWT provides was really a good thing. (See Joel's Law of Leaky Abstractions for more on that.)

But then after using GWT for a while I realized GWT is not strictly Java and that GWT works well. This is a bit confusing since GWT feels at lot like Java and is sold as a Java platform so people can better wrap their brains around it. That isn't a negative for GWT, its similarity to Java is what lets you use many of the programmer's existing Java skills and allows them to use many of the powerful tools Java already has. 

[ZDNet] What do you use it for now?

[Sandy] Mostly work related projects, and since Google open sourced the compiler I've enjoyed learning about it and trying to improve it.

[ZDNet] Fill in the blank: GWT is the greatest thing since ____?

[Sandy] … since XmlHttpRequest became available in all common browsers.

There are many things better than GWT. (Sex, drugs, and rock and roll to name a few. :-) ) It's just DHTML and XmlHttpRequest are the foundation of AJAX and GWT is the next best thing in that context. [continued on page 2…]

Sometimes, the truth can be wilder than the rumors. Such was the case today at MacWorld 2007, where Steve Jobs unveiled the long awaited iPhone:

Every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything. One is very fortunate if you get to work on just one of these in your career. Apple has been very fortunate that it's been able to introduce a few of these into the world. In 1984 we introduced the Macintosh. It didn't just change Apple, it changed the whole industry. In 2001 we introduced the first iPod, and it didn't just change the way we all listened to music, it changed the entire music industry.

Well today, we're introducing THREE revolutionary new products. The first one is a widescreen iPod with touch controls. The second is a revolutionary new mobile phone. And the third is a breakthrough internet communications device.

An iPod, a phone, an internet mobile communicator. An iPod, a phone, an internet mobile communicator…. these are NOT three separate devices! And we are calling it iPhone! 

The new device runs Mac OSX and features one button ("home"). The rest of its surface is taken up by a huge 3.5inch color touch screen.

Jobs: Let's not use a stylus, we're going to use the best pointing device in the world — our fingers. We have invented a new technology called multi-touch. It works like magic, you don't need a stylus. It's far more accurate than any interface ever shipped, it ignores unintended touches, supports multi-finger gestures, and BOY have we patented it!

(more on page 2…)

With 2007 around the corner it's traditional to reflect on the past year and pick out the topics that were the most important, most read, or generated the most comments. Before I do that, though, I want to thank all my readers for making this one of the top blogs on ZDNet, and the folks at ZDNet like David Grober for providing me this opportunity.

One of my first posts for ZDNet was a controversial piece called "I want my job to go to India". It reflected some frustrations that developers have expressed to me when they see some of the newer projects go to teams in India and China while they're stuck back in the States doing maintenance work as their departments are held to zero growth (or negative, due to attrition). If you liked this article you might also like "U.S. vs. China vs. India in engineering".

I spent a lot of time this year talking about Firefox, the scrappy browser that scared Microsoft into restarting development on Internet Explorer. For example, "Browser wars 3: IE7 beta no match for Firefox", "Firefox is slow and buggy (but I'm hooked anyway)", "Six tips for Firefox 2",  and "Firefox 2 is no dud".

Software patents were on everyone's mind this year, with stories like "Patent terrorists ruin an industry" and "Good news for Linux: Microsoft, Novell pact in trouble" generating a lot of interest.

The launch of the Sony Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii was good news for gaming enthusiasts such as myself, but not so good news for moms and dads trying to get one under the tree. See "Nintendo Wii pulls out ahead", "Nintendo to gamers: 'Do not let go of Wii Remote'", and "Nintendo recalls wrist strap, Amazon starts a lottery".

Despite (or maybe, because of) an underdog market share, not many companies attract the kind of devotion as Apple. "Apple sics lawyers on hot and bothered MacBook Pro users" showed that the company doesn't always return the favor, but "Apple vs. Dell price war" and "Apple vs. Dell part deux" demonstrated they are becoming more competitive in the medium and high end ranges than most people give them credit for.

What do you do when the 98 pound weakling turns into the 800 pound gorilla? In 2006 Google continued to  grow beyond everyone's expectations. It reminds me of Microsoft in 90's, but at an accelerated rate. It's hard to excape their reach - check out the Google category for continuing coverage.

The most important story of 2006 has to be Sun's decision to (finally) open source Java. See "As Stallman looks on, Sun frees Java under the GPL" and "Q&A with Tim Bray". This is one story that will continue to unfold in 2007. One thing is for sure, Java as a platform and a language is not done evolving, and will be with us for many years go come. See also "Ten coolest Eclipse 3.2 features", and "Die, C, die! 5 reasons to UN-learn C".

Jeremy Allison, a lead developer on the Samba project, has been critical of the MS/Novell deal from the beginning. Only one problem - since April 2005 he's been a Novell employee.

At first he tried to fight the pact from the inside, by sending a letter to Novell executives. In the letter he attempted to convey the huge problems it was causing to relations with the free and open source community:

The Microsoft patent agreement has put us outside the community, and there is no positive aspect to that fact, and no way to make it so. Until the patent provision is revoked, we are pariahs.

Unfortunately this tactic didn't work (does it ever?) so Jeremy finally decided this week that he no longer wanted to be paid with Microsoft's money. In an email posted to "several Novell email lists", he wrote:

Unfortunately the time I am willing to wait for this agreement to be changed to remedy the GPL violation has passed, and so I must say goodbye.

According to Mary Jo, Allison has taken a job with Google, but he declined to comment on what his plans were there. What about Samba?

Pushed forward, harder :-) . Google don't hire no slackers :-) :-)

Kudos to folks like Jeremy Allison who stand up for their principles, even to the point of leaving a job they like. Of course, it doesn't hurt to already have another offer in your pocket. Apparently, 'Google don't hire no' fools, either.

Google's Greg Stein has announced a couple of long-awaited features for Google Code's project hosting: File Downloads and Wikis. An example of both can be found on Greg's Serf library project.

Projects begin with a 100MB disk quota for downloads (separate from the 100MB quota for source), but requests for more are usually granted. Uploads can be done manually from the web, or in an automated script such as googlecode-upload.py. Once uploaded, files cannot be renamed or deleted, but they can be marked as Deprecated in order to hide them.

Google Code Wikis use a syntax "inspired by" MoinMoin, but the wiki engine is proprietary to Google. All wiki pages are stored in the /wiki/ directory in your project's Subversion repository as files ending in .wiki. So if you don't like the web-based editor you can just use a Subversion client and treat wiki pages like source files in your favorite IDE or text editor.

So what does this have to do with reindeer? The python uploading script mentioned above uses a boundary tag containing the text "Googlecode_boundary_reindeer_flotilla". Apparently Rudolph has secretly been working at the Googleplex for the past few months under the assumed name of "David Anderson".

You've heard the Ivory soap slogan, "99 44/100 percent pure". Until today you could say much the same about the Google Web Toolkit (GWT). While most of GWT was open source, a few important pieces were binary-only. Today that all changed as Google made the entire GWT 1.3 Release Candidate available, with source, under the Apache 2.0 license.

GWT was introduced 7 months ago as a radical new way to develop Ajax applications using an old familiar language - Java. It enables developers to use all their great Java tools and expertise to create "no-compromise" web applications. According to Google's Making GWT Better page,

We definitely do not view development in GWT as a form of compromise. We firmly believe that GWT should generate better JavaScript code than you would write by hand, and will generally choose to avoid making concessions to convenience if they hurt the performance of the resulting AJAX code.

One reason Google created GWT was so they could use it for their own applications. Programs like GMail are incredibly hard to write because of subtle (and not-so-subtle) differences between browsers. While they're not intending to rewrite GMail any time soon, GWT developers have been dropping hints about new public-facing Google applications in the works now that will be leveraging the toolkit. With GWT itself being open source, those applications can benefit from the resources of an entire community, and the community can benefit from the resources of Google.

So why wasn't GWT completely open source to begin with? According to Google,

We weren't quite ready to open source the whole thing immediately because we knew we had plans for major infrastructure work (like Mac OS X hosted mode), and we really wanted to encourage everyone to focus on the idea of the product itself and how to write apps instead of creating distractions having to do with GWT's open sourceness. GWT took off much faster than we expected, and it quickly became clear that the most sensible way to advance GWT quickly would be to open it sooner rather than later.

Bruce Johnson, GWT tech lead, says that Google is committed to "doing this the Right Way". From now on, he says, all GWT development will be done in the open, directly from the GWT project on Google Code. From the web site:

While we've never actually felt particularly stingy about keeping the source closed, now all code for the GWT Java to JavaScript compiler, the hosted mode browser, and so on can progress before your eyes. We're very much looking forward to contributions of ideas, bug reports, and patches.

Resources:

• Announcement on the GWT blog
• GWT home page
• Making GWT Better
• Official GWT issue tracker and source code
• Greg Stein interview
• Google joins Eclipse Foundation
• Google Web Toolkit: Taking the Pain out of Ajax

Ending months of speculation, Google has officially joined the Eclipse Foundation as an add-in provider, according to officials at both organizations. In an interview with ZDNet, Eclipse Director Mike Milinkovich said:

We are, of course, thrilled that Google decided to join the Eclipse Foundation. It was a nice gesture of support for the Eclipse community and it is appreciated. But what I am really excited about is the way that Google is using Eclipse as the development tools platform for the Google Web Toolkit. It is yet another demonstration of how Eclipse can be used as the tools platform for so many different languages and environments.

The move was announced at this week's members teleconference. Google's Scott Blum gave a presentation on the Google Web Toolkit (GWT), which is built on Eclipse RCP and JDT technology. Scott also showed off the GWT Designer, a commercial WYSIWYG editor for GWT applications created by Instantiations, the makers of WindowBuilder Pro. Milinkovich:

The intersection between GWT and Instantiations WindowBuilder is also very interesting. Ajax developers are looking for ways to become more productive, and that seems like a winning combination.

[According to Instantiation's Brian MacDonald, a package that includes a year's subscription to GWT Designer plus the 70-page GWT e-book (written by yours truly) is available through the end of the year at a discounted price.]

Google's Open Source Program Office (including Greg Stein, Chris DiBona, and Zaheda Bhorat) pulled the deal together between Google and the Eclipse Foundation in October. Although there was no official word on whether or not Google's endorsement of Eclipse will mean the company would devote any additional resources towards the popular open source community, Milinkovich was hopeful:

It will be interesting to see if Google gets involved in some of the Eclipse projects related to Ajax such as ATF and RAP.

For more information see:

• Slides from Eclipse member's meeting (pdf)
• Google Web Toolkit home page
• Eclipse Foundation members
• Instantiations GWT Designer
• GWT Powered community resources