Thursday, December 20, 2007

Why I love Google #496

A significant proportion of geeks like to knock the big boys like Google and Microsoft as evil, faceless, corporate giants who are only interested in taking over the world through invidious, creeping technologies.

For example its hard now to go on the web and not use a Google product. Their latest version of the very convenient toolbar offers a great new feature for dopey web designers like me. If a user cannot access a page on your website, the causes of which can vary widely, the toolbar throws up a helpful menu page giving you options rather than the usual 404 error page. Clever. Helpful.


Just another example of Google's engineers producing something that is so convenient it will start to become another everyday part of the web. The road to world domination is not evil genius, but ingenious design.

Google explain it in full on their blog.

Etch a Sketch


Nostalgia time! Remember the frustration this thing used to cause?

I think I eventually smashed mine open to see what the "magic" was all about.

Anyway for those of you who want to relive that annoying 2D world: http://www.etchy.org/

Or if you want to see a pro at work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYM__s3R5q0

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Viva Estates Closes?

A pre-Christmas flurry of real estate office closures appears to have taken place on the Costa del Sol with the most high profile fall being that of Viva Estates. The once ubiquitous agent has now apparently closed all its offices apart from its large Expo hall.

Perhaps Viva in some sleeker, lightweight new clothes, will make a re-appearance in the near future? Dynamic management and a cracking website count in their favour if nothing else.

Also rumoured to have closed large offices are Andalucian Dream Homes and high-end Marbella agent Kristina Szeckley.

Efficient rationalisation or death rattle?

Either way a large number of sales staff are now knocking on the doors of Wemploy and co. Not the best start to the festive season.

Saturday, December 08, 2007

Lists

I think I mentioned previously that I'm a fan of those list shows you see on Channel 4. Here, an American chap raves on about why he likes lists, and why we all should.



My favourite quote?

"If William Shakespeare used PowerPoint, he could have saved a lotta time."