On monetizing services, Google, why I love Python, and a thank you to Jakob Nielsen for reminding me to name my posts so that anyone can find 'em

Writing papers for grades has taken precedence over writing caustic commentary for the you, my infinitely esteemed readers. I do wonder about you, however, and what this weblog means to you. Would you feel like something was missing if I suddenly stopped posting? As if that has ever happened.

I suppose the reason this came up was that earlier today I was thinking today about what Eric Lippert and Dare Obasanjo mean to me, and what I would do if they ever stopped posting. I think that I would be sad, because I feel like they have been virtual mentors in my development as a geek squad commando. Of course, instead of a mentor, I am something of the wisecracking jackass that sometimes mutters an interesting tidbit, such as any one of the four comments below. So do not be sad as I would be sad. I’m back again... umm, again :)

Google is wrong to monetize the work of authors and publishing houses with their new online library service. The only way that Google library is morally correct in digitizing and republishing the copyright protected work of others is if the service is opt-in on the behalf of copyright owners, not opt-out as it currently stands. Another way might be if they do not place and receive money for ads in the library when serving data from protected sources.

Everyone, including Ray Ozzie of Microsoft, wants to capitalize on the path that Google blazed in using advertising as a way of funding services available for the web. But what is your attention worth? I would shudder to think about what would happen to my work if my version of Microsoft office spouted an ad at me, and in the broader picture, I am concerned about our ability to think slowly and deeply in the digital world, rather than forming quick associations between existing knowledge. Both modes of thinking are valid, but both are also necessary. In a world where media and advertising in particular can drain your attention and focus so easily, where can the mind sit still?

People should not be shocked and awed by Google Base. It’s definitely interesting, but it is not an eBay killer or a way of turning databases into an online service. It is just a way for Google to have proprietary access its content but avoid creating it themselves. I resolve to get interested in Google base when the community adopts it as a platform.

Perl is a giant wooly beast of a language and I think that Python is svelte and agile in comparison. I also think that I am going to turn my back on Perl just as I turned my back on C++, although for different reasons. Perl is too unmanageable for me as a primary language and C++ feels too low level to be an efficient use of my time. Compilers get better every day and hardware does too. My mental agility, however, is not going to follow Moore’s Law, so I don't see myself spending valuable brainpower using a language without a garbage collector, one in which I also have to manually assign memory and worry about buffer overflows crashing the computer. Or one in which I can’t understand what another programmer wrote. Stupid Perl!