I’m a big fan of Google Maps.

When I see people using MapQuest to get directions to places, I cringe. I ask them - “Have you ever used Google Maps” to which most of the time they reply - “Google has maps?“. I then show them the awesomeness that is Google Maps. The responses range from “Cool” to “That is unbelievable”.

This week, Google Maps came out with a new enhancement - something they are calling StreetView. Basically, they’ve taken a van, equipped with a 360° camera, and drove on streets, taking a full panoramic picture every few feet. They then added these pictures into Google Maps to allow you to view actual pictures of streets as if you were there with them.

For example, I looked up “Late Show with David Letterman, New York” and it shows me the view below.

You can then “stroll” down the street by clicking on the arrows inside the map.

So how is this actually useful? Well for starters it allows you to see landmarks in real pictures. Say for example your going to visit New York, but don’t know how to get to a restaurant or a hotel. Street View can show you what building down the street, next door, etc look like. By allowing people to see what actual buildings look like from your view point (instead of the top of the building from satellites images, you can more easily find your destination. Like Miami Ink for example!

Currently this is just in a few US cities. There’s been some concerns about privacy, catching people “at the wrong time”, but hey it’s a public street.

Disclaimer: I’m not affiliated nor work for Google (I wish I did), I just like their products

-Kiazyk

So I’ve been tagged by Shane.

Now it’s not one of those shit chain letter type deals, where you give one word answers to questions like “Favourite Ice cream“, this one is more of a challenge brought on by fellow developers. The basic goal is to better yourself as a programmer, by challenging you spend the time to learn new philosophy’s, new techniques, languages, or API’s. It’s something we need to constantly do, but don’t as life (or in most cases laziness) gets in the way.

Well Shane, I accept your challenge. Here’s my starting list:

1. Learn ASP.NET AJAX

OK, I’ll admit it, I’m a little behind the times when it comes to the whole AJAX - Web 2.0 thing. Ever since Dr Dueck’s Web Technology Class, I have enjoyed building scripted webpages. So I figure it’s time to get moving in that direction. I’ve heard nothing but praises for Microsoft’s AJAX libraries.

2. Blackberry Programming using the JDE

MNP (work) has over 200 Blackberries in use across Canada. Our firm has turned into a mobile environment where users are constantly requesting to have data at their fingertips at all times, no matter where they are.

To start with I programmed the Blackberry using their Mobile Data Services. It is basically a thin programming environment where it uses web services to push data down to itself. They could not make it simpler. In a matter of hours I had a working example, connecting to our Lotus Notes 7 web service (created using Lotusscript). My hat is off to them. The only downside using it, is you are limited to what you can do. Hence the JDE. Blackberry has it’s own library that will allow you to do anything using their libraries. It uses Java (or a lite version of it). This ones is going to be a challenge for me as I haven’t dabbled in Java since the days of George McMaster Brandon University Days *shiver*.

3. Eclipse, Lotus Notes, and Composite Applications

We use Lotus Notes at work for email, calendar, etc. Some people hate it and some people love it. Personally, I absolutely love it. My only gripe with it, they have not changed their basic UI in 10 years. They still use the same look and feel as they did when they first came out with R4 (back in 1999).

But things are about to change with Version 8.

The next version of Lotus Notes FINALLY has a new User Interface. Based upon the Eclipse open source framework, IBM is moving in a whole new direction. I won’t go into too much detail, but by moving to an Eclipse Framework, they are now allowing you to create your own Eclipse applications, which can just plug right into the Lotus Notes application. Again this is based on Java, so the challenge is a little tougher with this one.

4. Books to read

Sorry to disappoint, but I’m not a reader. I’d rather get my hands dirty in code then to read about it in a book. Plus that’s what the magic of Google is for!

I think that’s a good list for now. I may add on it to it later if a new technology grabs my attention.

How much SPAM do you get in your email in one month? Think about it, over the course of one month, how much SPAM do you delete from your inbox?

Personally, I deleted maybe one SPAM message a month - if that.

As you can see from the screenshot to the right, I currently have 1,000 SPAM emails in my gmail account. Now that’s just not 1,000 messages over all time, that is 1,000 SPAM emails over a one month period. Gmail automatically deletes the SPAM after 30 days. My ratio for SPAM hitting my inbox is approx 1:1,000. Well done Google. Now mattkiazyk@gmail.com is everywhere - I use it constantly whenever I sign up for anything, so I’m sure that email is on a few lists.

For those of you who get constant SPAM emails in your inbox, stop now and sign up for a free gmail account. Remember the days when you had to have a separate hotmail account just for sign-ups as you didn’t want to get all that spam in your main email account? I don’t know how hotmail is now, but I’m sure they are better then what they were 5+ years ago.

Anybody have the 1,000 mark beat?

Disclaimer: I’m not affiliated nor work for Google (I wish I did), I just like their products

-Kaiser Buns

There’s been alot of talk around the internet about Joost and how it could possibly be the future of television. With the addition of Turner Broadcasting and CBS on board when the site launches, it is becoming more and more mainstream and not just a place where people can post their home videos (see YouTube).

Joost works by using P2P technology when the application is running. As you are watching a show, you are also sharing the data you have download with thousands of other people at the same time. Using the same technology as BitTorrent is significant as it allows you to quickly download shows. The more people watching the show, the faster it will download. Think of watching Survivor instantaneously without having to wait the hour to download it. Just be careful though as leaving the program running, allows people to download from you. Some ISP’s might get a little ornery if you use too much of their precious bandwidth!

After getting a beta invite a couple of days ago and playing around with it, I’m pretty impressed. It’s super easy to navigate around and shows start playing in a matter of seconds without skipping a beat as your watching it. The downside is that currently there aren’t too many decent networks and shows on. Although I watched a show called the Conventioneers and it was damn funny…Canadian too. Once major networks get on and people can watch mainstream shows, Joost is going to take off.

I’ve got some Beta invites if anybody is interested.

Do as the Romans do.

So that was my thought this weekend, when I went to go buy a backpack for my adventures in the upcoming months. I didn’t cheap out on the backpack either. I went to the norm for all Canadian Travelers. Mountain Equipment Co-op. I only spend $45 (instead of the normal $9.87 at Walmart), but could of easily spent a lot more. Is $100 a little too much for just a normal sized backpack?

As you can see to the right, I did as many Canadian travelers do and sewed a Canadian Flag on their backpack (an extra 45 cents I might add).

Yes that is my sewing job, shut up.

If anybody has never been to MEC (especially on a weekend), it’s ridiculous. First of all the store is downtown on 11th Ave. which means parking is stupid. Oh sure, they have a parking lot for the store, but you have to pay $1 to park for 2 hours. Secondly, you have to pay $5 for a membership if you want to buy something there. Nickel and diming you to death. Granted they have very high quality merchandise, but in all honesty don’t make me buy a membership. Actually I didn’t have to buy a membership as I borrowed a membership card from a guy at work - thus saving me $5!

I also purchased a new mp3 player this weekend. It’s the new iPod shuffle. As you can see to the right, it’s ridiculously small. I put the quarter there so you could get a perspective of how small it actually is. I needed a new one as my old said hello to a little pavement a couple of months ago. Plus I have some long plane rides coming up. Dallas is a good 4 hours. Taiwan, well, lets just say the battery will probably run out on the player before I get to my destination on that trip, so I’ll have to entertain myself in other ways.

And here’s an extended outlook to the weather in Calgary while I’ll be in sunny and warm Texas.

Should be craptastic to come back to on Thursday night!