Google Talk and AIM "integration"

Google announced earlier this month that you can now use AIM within Gmail along with your Google Talk account. While this is quite handy, it isn't any different then using Trillian or Meebo. You still need an AIM account AND a Google account. Google isn't integrating the two services, they are running them side by side.

This isn't Google's fault though. Google's chat service is based on the open source Jabber protocol allowing it work with any other Jabber chat service. Now if the rest of the major instant messaging providers adopted the Jabber protocol users could pick their favorite instant message client [program] instead of running four or five different ones to stay connected.

Standards are a huge part of technology. Sometimes there are multiple standards to meet various applications like batteries or memory cards, but usually having multiple standards only hurts the consumer. Look at havoc HD-DVD and BluRay are causing. Standards are especially important with communication tools. Imagine how awful it would be if Hotmail and Gmail users couldn't send email to each other because they were on different email providers. If AT&T customers couldn't call Verizon since they are on different networks. Why should instant messaging be any different?

-Jesse

Free Money!

Check this out, you buy an American Express Gift Card from Vons (almost as good as cash ) then you get $5 off your next grocery shopping. Basically free money!
PayPal, not known for being the cheapest credit card processor, only charges 2.9% plus 30 cents so American Express is only making about $1.75 on the gift card. Vons is probably taking the $5 hit since they are hoping you'll use your $5 off on a bigger purchase with a greater than $5 profit. Maybe American Express is doing it to promote their cards since American Express isn't taking as often and Visa and Mastercard. I am not sure who is getting ripped off here, but it sure isn't the consumer.

-Jesse

Flying Express Jet

This past weekend I went up North to visit some good friends that were in town and I flew. That's right, Express Jet is now offering direct flights between Santa Barbara and Sacramento. It isn't even that expensive. If traveling alone, you would have to pay about $100 in gas, then add in stopping for two or three meals and you're paying $120. I would happily pay $40 more to not have to drive six and a half hours each way, by myself.

The flight itself was great too. It's only an hour long and has great service. ExpressJet's two big selling points are, no layovers and no middle seats. In addition they have leather seats, XM radio on every seat, complimentary headphones, a drink, snack and mint. Maybe it isn't a big deal for some but I love orange juice and they serve Minute Maid 100% real orange juice, not that generic "orange drink" crap full of sugar.

Sorry for sounding like an ExpressJet ad, but that Santa Barbara/Sacramento drive sucks. I am excited :-)

-Jesse

CompUSuck

All of CompUSA is shutting down! I used to work at PC Club in Goleta and CompUSA was our rival (hence the title). Unfortunately PC Club didn't make it in Santa Barbara/Goleta and CompUSA is our only computer store around. We have Circuit City still but they have even less computer stuff. Hopefully some other computer store will move in but in the meantime there is a Fry's Electronics in Oxnard and PC Club in Thousand Oaks.

-Jesse

Hats Tournament

I played in the annual UCSB Ultimate Hats Tournament this last Saturday. It's put on by the UCSB ultimate teams as a fundraiser to support their season. A hats tournament is when the players all put their names in a hat to draw random teams from. In our case, there wasn't a hat but we handed them back to organizers who sorted them by skill level and made pseudo random teams. Pseudo random because there were definitely a few stacked teams, but overall they were fair. I was on the orange team which we called Caltrans. We placed sixth out of six but it was still a lot of fun. As you can see from the picture, I had some good layout bids (dives) :-)

Luckily it didn't rain and the fields weren't too muddy. It was very cold and the wind caused some long hell points and lots of turnovers. The wind in Santa Barbara is a blessing and a curse. It's not an easy way to learn to throw but it forces your throws to be very strong and accurate. With the addition of being able to play year round, this is what makes Santa Barbara Ultimate so great. All of our club and college teams have been national champions multiple years.

I hurt my shoulder a little playing but once it heals I am going to start playing pick up again. I need new cleats...

-Jesse

Happy /c?han{1,2}uk{1,2}ah?/i

If you understand the title, you are a nerd! The title is a regular expression representing all common spellings of the Jewish holiday "Chanukah". The reason there are so many spellings of the holiday is because it's a Hebrew word. There is no standard way of transliterating Hebrew to English so the only true spelling of the word is: חנוכה

Some other חנוכה trivia about the candle lighting. A menorah isn't actually used. A menorah is a seven branched candle holder while a hanukiah is the nine candle version used for חנוכה

So have a happy winter holiday, if you celebrate one, and a happy new year!

-Jesse

My new blog

I've been using Google Reader to keep up with news sites, my friend's blogs and a bunch of tech blogs (like my favorite Coding Horror). So I've decided to start a blog. This may surprise some people (like my parents) since I never really enjoyed writing, but sometimes I do want to write about things I discover. Often these things are about programming, the internet or some other tech subject but once in a while they aren't; hence the title "Tech Tangent".

I hope to come up with a logo and a custom template eventually but this will do for now.

-Jesse