New Google Browser — Tomorrow

I recently ran across a post that talks about Google launching a new browser coe-named Chrome.  Interestingly, Google had this strategy to launch the browser by sending on comic books highlighting the new product.  Ironically, the comic book was physically mailed out early resulting in recipients receiving it before the product launch.  Regardless, the new browser looks good although I am not sure if I am going to install it and am going to wait for reviews before proceeding.  Here are a couple of links:

Original blog post discussing the comic book

Google blog post on the launch

Sarah Palin as VP?

It was very interesting to see that McCain chose Sarah Palin as his running mate.  That choice came out of the blue and none of the pundits had seen it in advance.  Everyone had the standard people identified and non one seemed to recognize the possibility of McCain going this direction.  IMO, the situation is interesting.  Here is what I see for pros and cons. Continue reading Sarah Palin as VP?

Democratic National Convention

I had the good fortune of attending the DNC a few years back when John Kerry was the Democratic nominee.  You probably remember it, John Kerry walked on stage and said "John Kerry, reporting for duty!"  I watched it live and the current DNC made me think of it.

The interesting thing about the convention is that it brings out the true believers.  All of my readers, I am sure, have their political perspectives and if you are like me then your views are not tied to party lines.  That said, the attendees at the convention (and this applies to either Democratic or Republican conventions) are the true believers.  These are people who hang on every word and truly believe in the candidate and the party.

Drawing an analogy, the DNC reminded me of one of those Beatles concerts from many years ago.  At the time, the fans swooned and were completely enthralled by the band.  It didn’t matter they sang because it was the Beatles and you loved them.  The convention struck me as eerily similar.  These are people who truly believe and are enthralled by politics.  I am not sure if anyone really listened to what was being or if it even mattered.  Everyone was just so hyped that they probably would have cheered if Kerry had said that he was going to get a sex change and marry himself!  It truly felt like they were brainwashed and in some ways, perhaps they were.  Everyone fed off of everyone’s else excitement resulting every increasing excitement and group think.  I viewed this all as a political outsider and as more of a sociology experiment rather than a coming to God moment.

In short, regardless of your political leanings, the DNC or RNC is well worth attending.  I feel fortunate to have been there and owe a debt of gratitude to my friend Jamie who included me.

More on the original dancing video

I posted in the past about the amazing video with the guy dancing all over the world.  I still love that video to this day and find it very uplifting and enjoyable to watch.  I recently stumbled across another video by him.  Evidently, the folks at Yahoo were so enamored by the video, they asked him to come over and record a video with them.  You can find the result in this blog post.  The video is also very good, but does not have the power of the international video linked above.

On a side note, the blog post above from Yahoo includes some links to articles discussing the videos.  The song that is in the background was composed just for the video and the singer is an 17 year-old girl from Minnepolis!  I had not idea; I thought that it was recorded by some professional artist.  Not so. The words are actually from a poem called "Stream of Life" by Rabindranath Tagore and here is the translation:

The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day
runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.

It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth
in numberless blades of grass
and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.

It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth
and of death, in ebb and in flow.

I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life.
And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment.

Here are a couple of additional links related to this topic.

Theme song from video (on amazon.com)

Article on Minnpost.com

Second article on Minnpost.com

Useful Application

If you are like me, you may periodically find yourself struggling with disk space.  It is one of those realities like tax and death that no matter how much disk space you think you have, you find a way to fill it.  I have the biggest problem with my laptop which does not have a very big drive to begin with and then I fill it with all sorts of applications.

The problem is that when I run out of space, I can never figure out what to delete to free up space.  Finding things to delete is easy,but findings the things that matter can be difficult.  This is where this application comes in.  TreeSize Free will scan your hard drive and show you a granular view of capacity utilization.  You can see how much disk capacity each folder uses.

This tiny utility has provided tremendous value.  It allows me manage the disk capacity more effectively in my laptop.  I periodically run it to see where I am using excessive disk space thus where I need to archive files.  It is highly recommended!