So I looked back at why I switched away from Chrome the last time I was using it.

• Too much RAM usage on my netbook with Windows 7
• No bookmark syncing, Xmarks wasn’t working  at the time
• Missing many add-ons I loved in Firefox

And effectively all these problems have been solved. My netbook is now running Ubuntu, Xmarks works and google has their own built in syncing with google docs and there are many more add-ons (like ad-blocker) so I’m not missing any functionality. Not to mention that Chrome feels like a faster browser and uses less vertical space by default.

So I’m back with Chrome. I might look like a google fanboy but I think of it as the same as I think of Logitech. I didn’t decide to buy a Logitech mouse (or three), keyboard, speakers and headset because I’m in love with the company. I chose it because those were the best products at the time. Google makes some really nice products, so I will embrace them.

Removal of Consumer Rights

I absolutely understand not wanting to lose this control. If I want a friend to borrow a a game all I have to do is lend them the cd, they play, give it back when they are done.

Instead, if I want someone to play my game I’d have to give them access to my entire account and I won’t be able to play these game myself at the time. Not to mention I don’t think steam would take this nicely.

However, on used game sales, I have sold maybe two PC games over the last 10 or so years I’ve been playing them for. It is not a big loss to me at all.

Publisher Are In Control

Totally in control. I have never, ever seen a sale on a Call of Duty game because Activision likes their money so much. However, I disagree that I can get games for a better deal in a local store. Left4Dead 2 has been as low as $33 USD, I bought it at $37 USD, the pre-order price was $45 USD and it is currently $50 USD. By comparison, it is $60 CAD at Futureshop and that price will never go down.

But that is a Valve made game, how about Red Faction Guerrilla which was released about 4 months ago for PC. $10 USD, on sale during the holidays, $20 USD standard, or $40 CAD at Futureshop.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a game cheaper in a store than on Steam, but that might be a local issue.

The other side of this is that you don’t necessarily need a publisher apart from Steam. Osmos is done by Hemisphere Games which self-published the game. The link is then Hemisphere Games, Valve, then the customer where Valve replaces the normal publisher and retailer and the developer no doubt gets more money and easier access to the customer base.

DRM

DRM ontop of steam I find unacceptable. That would be games like Sacred 2 which list “3rd-party DRM: SecuROM™”. Absolutely unnecessary but not Steam’s fault.

One thing that is missed in the analysis is that steam is more than just DRM for games. It is an entire social network for gamers. I currently have 20 friends in-game with another 20 friends online. I want it to run in the background just like I want MSN and IRC to run in the background even if I’m not using them.

As for automatic patching, I greatly prefer this to the situation with Battlefield 1942. The game kept on being patched by DICE but several parts of the community split off at points. That means that in order to play with people X I had to have patch X and in order to play with people Y I had to have patch Y. The worst part? you can’t go down in order for patches so you have to completely uninstall and reinstall all these (hundreds of megs sometimes) patches to play with said lower version.

I do agree though that Valve shouldn’t have the problem of “we’re too popular” and servers start dying because they update something or put something on sale.

The other tiny bit in here is games that aren’t patched on Steam even though they are patched in retail. This is the fault mostly of publishers or archaic games. In the case of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – Shadow of Chernobyl, the publisher and developer have a terrible relationship so the publisher won’t push the patch to Steam. Developers usually aren’t hindered by publishers in this regard but Valve talks to the publisher here. Many of the unpatched games are out of date. Developers might not even be able to support it if they wanted to simply because of how old they are.

Ignorance & Inflation

Sucks, but they need to show support with their wallet. I’m pretty sure it’s a similar situation on the PS3 as well. That’s not an excuse, just another example.

No Live Support? Really?

Google is having the same problem with the Android phone. It’s terrible if you’re used to calling someone up for tech support.

Summary

The problem I have relating to many of these issues is that I haven’t had any. The worst thing I’ve had is waiting 20 minutes to play TF2 after an update. I’ve never needed support. I’ve never found a game cheaper in store than on steam (and several times have bought something in a store and then there was a steam sale the next week). I don’t frequently lend out PC games. I have never been affected by Steam DRM.

I also love steam when compared to things like Futureshop and EB Games because the primary purpose of Steam is to sell PC games whereas the primary purpose of those places is no such thing. EB Games is for used console game sales and new release console games with XYZ premium content. They have the worst PC game displays I’ve seen with tattered old boxes filing up a shelf so you can’t see anything . Futureshop sells many things and still forces PC games to the “other” section.

And it’s because of that behavior that developers and publishers like Steam.

Restroom: If anyone things their resting while in there, I have to wonder what I’ve been doing wrong. I think this word is much more appropriate for a bedroom where you can get some real resting done. This really isn’t appropriate in language today.

Bathroom: Does it have a bath in it? About 50% chance in a house, no chance in a restaurant. Are you going to use it? Maybe 20-25% of the time in a given day but I usually don’t need to actually say “I’m going to the bathroom to have a bath.” when it is much simpler to say “I’m going to have a bath.” and location is implied. (Note: I don’t take baths, but I don’t want to call it a showerroom either.)

Washroom: Yes, it is part of the process. A very important part I might add. And you can just do a wash by itself. But it does NOT represent the majority of the going ons in the “washroom”. But this does seem to be the best choice to describe the room while still avoiding all the actual subject.

Why do people do this? Protection. So that their gadget still looks good after a few months of use.

But what ends up happening is the case starts to look horrible. It scratches easier than what it is protecting in the first place. I’ve seen cell phones and ipods with screens you can’t even see anymore. So you end up with a terrible looking unusable device.

The only thing worse than this is leaving the plastic covers on that devices are shipped. This is most evident on HP Laptops. These are generally dirtier than the device because they’ve been through the factory. They have bubbles under them. They sometimes are half off and people still try to keep it on… Next time I see one of those I’m ripping it off.

Update Dec 2009: There are many new computers at work with that plastic film that I have been able to take off. It feels great!

The first season had a very nice overall plot, wrapped up at the end with a nice slightly unexpected ending. The overall arc completed and it wrapped up in the first few episodes of the next season.

The second season was a bit worse. They threw a large event in at the very beginning. And then they didn’t touch it for a while. And then they brought it up again. And then it disappeared. They used it for a few random smaller arcs within the season and then in the end it was someone who wasn’t even remotely related at the beginning. Before the end he was mostly a minor character. Not the even close to the best season of a TV show I’ve seen.

Season three? The ending was very abrupt and poorly done. They wrapped up in the last 10 minutes what should have been  done in another two or three episodes. I liked the season as a whole a bit better but the conclusion was simply terrible.

One thing that did get better throughout the show? Smart, cute, blonde girls really grow on me.

Nothing more to say, I just genuinely had fun with a group of people for the first time in a while.

For those of us really into the whole internet thing, we need our RSS feeds so we can get our information as fast as possible. You should have this blag on your RSS feed already! *shakes fist*

Let’s take a look at two big web based feed readers: Netvibes and Google Reader.

The Layout
Netvibes allows you to see the top 1-40 of any feed you have on a page at a time. As many feeds as you want on each page, pages being organized by tabs. 1-4 columns, variable width. It’s very nice to move everything around with AJAX. Click on a feed and it changes to have all the titles of that feed on the left side and as I click on them they come up.

Google Reader has all your feeds laid out on the left side, organized by category. You can then view each feed as a full page view or as a large list. It allows for as much backtracking as you need, grabbing older items the farther you scroll back.

The Customization
Netvibes allows various tweaks to each widget such as the inclusion of extra details, arrows to flip through elements, post date. Also you can change titles, keyboard shortcuts, themes, wallpapers and hide the search box. Enough stuff to make anyone satisfied.

Google Reader allows you to choose which page to start on, easy removal of the navigation pane and… well that’s about it.

The Extras
Netvibes has many extra widgets outside of the realm of RSS. From simple games to being able to check your email, gmail to hotmail to anything pop3. Facebook, myspace, notes, todo lists, embedding websites within netvibes. It also has ‘universes’ which allows any user to see whatever another user decided to make public from his/her universe.

Google Reader is inevitably tied in with everything google. Gmail, google calendar, google docs,  etc. It also has one nice button to refresh all of your feeds at once. You can share feeds with friends on google as well, easily found with google contacts.

Other Mentionables
Netvibes goes down. Recently it has done so a lot. It also sometimes marks all items of a feed unread. I usually know the last on I’ve read anyway but this can get annoying.

Google Reader is slow. You have to wait easily over a second to see the items in a feed after clicking on it. This might be acceptable except Netvibes is much faster on this.

Which one should you choose?
Play around with both. Find out what you like. One might be better for your specific needs.

I use Netvibes because I’m constantly getting updates throughout the day. The ability to see specifically what these are is very helpful for me. Take a look at my universe if you want.

I assume the setup of Google Reader allows for someone to accumulate a lot of news items and then read them all at once much faster which is better if you want to splurge feeds for a while then get back to whatever you were doing.