Cool Free Webapps

A coworker was kind enough to loan me Joel on Software, a collection of writings by the guy who keeps a blog by the same name. If you're a developer, it makes for very interesting reading... if not, it makes for a very nice paperweight.

In one of the articles, Joel worries over the influx of web applications, since it means a departure from locally installed, rich client applications. He worries that too many developers are trying to webify everything, and it is going to lead to lower quality applications.

I'm of the opinion that the rich client app isn't really going anywhere anytime soon (and Microsoft is banking on this).. the tools the average joe uses to connect to the net are simply not secure enough or fast enough to do things like word processing with any degree of reliability, and people are always going to want certain things kept locally on their desktops. Joel may be correct in his generalization about developer mentality, but the market tends to weed out those things which just don't work very well.

But that doesn't mean there isn't a lot of really cool stuff that is freely available completely over the web (Blogger is one of them). Clever developers are finding new and interesting ways to get tricky with their Javascript and fake the speed of rich client applications.

My top 3 favorite free web tools (not counting Blogger):

1) Gmail - If you're a business owner and need to have complex control over inbound and outbound email, this isn't going to work for you. But if you're the average email user, you absolutely cannot beat Gmail. The interface is exceedingly slick (like you'd expect from the clever folks at Google), and it completely changed the way I read and keep track of email. Gmail doesn't really do anything new: conversation threads, labels instead of folders... these are all things that have been done before. But they are all implemented so well that I abandoned by Yahoo account mere minutes after fooling with Gmail.

2) del.icio.us - At first glance, this may seem sort of pointless... why would I want to put all my bookmarks on the web? You obviously have not experienced the joy of del.icio.us. Now, all your bookmarks are in a centralized, always accessible place. You can get to the same bookmarks no matter where you go. "Great", you think, "that's the entire point of a webapp." Yes, but del.icio.us does more than this... by associating labels with your bookmarks, it is easy to organize them by categories. The app is smart... it suggests appropriate labels based on the page AND labels you have already used before! The Javascript alone is an exercise in user friendliness.

3) Tada - This is a free part of a larger application called "Basecamp" (from the makers of Backpack). Basically this thing is a todo list programmed in nifty Javascript. I was only recently introduced to this by a coworker, and it's so ridiculously simple that it's brilliant.. I am currently using it to organize my work tasks in a way that is much more intuitive than Outlook's horrific Task List.

The common thread in all these apps is that they're simple. An application doesn't have to be fancy to be good... in fact, the best ones do one thing and do it exceedingly well. Gmail is by far the most complex and robust (every now and again I still learn a new keyboard shortcut), but in the end they're all cool because they're so darned simple.

Family Matters

I had a whirlwind overnight trip last weekend to Nashville for my cousin Kathleen's wedding (congratulations to her and Derek). It was really nice of her to invite me, especially since I haven't seen anybody on that side of the family in close to a decade.

Close to a decade... that's a long time. I've been sorting through my thoughts on the experience since I got home. It was great to see everyone (including some new cousins I hadn't ever met), but it was also a little odd. How do you approach a family member you haven't seen in ten years? "Hey, how've you been holding up the last decade?"

I've gotten a little better at large social functions the last several years, but I'm not sure anything could've prepared me for this. There's just so much I don't know about my extended family, and the task of getting to know them again seems incredibly daunting.

At any rate, the reception featured these little cocktail burgers I hadn't ever seen before. Neat.

Batman At Last

There are two types of Batman: there's Batman in blue, running around with Robin, making silly quips and fighting cartoony villains. Then there's the Dark Knight, Batman in black, a vigilante who often comes close to crossing the line between himself and the criminals he fights.

Batman Begins is, finally, Batman in black.

This movie gets everything right. The screenplay is based on Frank Miller's Batman: Year One, so right away you know it's going to be dark and edgy (Miller also wrote Sin City). It's directed by Christopher Nolan, responsible for Memento and Insomnia, so you know it will be trippy and a little strange. And it stars Christian Bale, a guy that is not afraid to make bold decisions even when he is in BAD films.

The movie flat out rocks. The movie is also a bit scary at points: there are a few scenes when we see Batman from the perspective of the criminals, and it doesn't look like a lot of fun. In addition, one of the villains featured in this movie is the Scarecrow, and he is a perfect outlet for Nolan's trippy tendencies.

Wimpy little kids will get scared by this movie... but everybody else will enjoy it.

The Championship

At least 20,103 Philadelphia hockey fans saw a Philadelphia team win a championship on Friday night.

The Philadelphia Phantoms beat the Chicago Wolves 5-2 in game four of the AHL Calder Cup championship to complete a four game sweep and win the title.

I sure hope somebody outside of the Wachovia Center noticed.

Another One Bites the Dust

One year and three plot rewrites later, another successful D&D campaign is laid to rest.

I just finished up my weekly D&D game with my friends, and with the last session of another long game (this one set in Eberron) come the familiar mixed feelings.

On the one hand, I'm glad I'll have some time off from the work and writing/plotting required to host a weekly D&D session. It'll be nice to PLAY again for awhile, since two of my friends will be picking up the mantle of DM and alternating turns in the seat. No more will I have to handle the curveballs and plot rewrites that happen when a character does something completely unexpected and blows up everything I had planned.

On the other hand, I know that in a couple of months I'll get the itch again. I love playing D&D, don't get me wrong... but I like being behind the DM screen even better. D&D is collaborative storytelling at its best: the players help you make the story as good as it is, and I'm lucky to play with so many friends that I know well (this was the fourth campaign I've run in the last several years, and I've been playing with these guys since college). But in the end, it is the DM's show... and the game will either be great, or totally suck based on the work and thought the DM puts into it.

All good stories have to end, and this one was no exception. But just as reaching the last page of a book or the final scene of a film can leave you with a little sense of loss, so can ending a campaign that has been running as long as this one.

Song of Ice and Fire

In very exciting news, I just discovered on George R. R. Martin's website that the fourth book in his Song of Ice and Fire series has, at long last, been completed.

It's been a few years since I read A Storm of Swords (book 3 for the uninitiated) for the first time, and a lot of folks were starting to wonder if Martin would ever get Feast for Crows (book 4) finished. He explains some of his decisions for this book on the website, and I'll be very interested to see how it all pans out.

The first three books (Game of Thrones, Clash of Kings, and Storm of Swords respectively) are, for my money, the best written fantasy novels since Tolkien basically invented the genre with The Lord of the Rings. If you haven't read them yet, you're really missing out on some of the best writing last decade has to offer.

Livin' Large

Since my last post, I've done the following:

- Eaten a pile of sushi I made for myself
- Won $150 by finishing 19th out of 470 in an online poker tournament
- Went to the racetrack and had a grand old time with Julie and a bunch of old men
- Watched the Arena Football playoffs and thought about upgrading my Soul season tickets
- Gone to a BBQ

That adds up to pretty good times.

I just passed my one year anniversary at my place of employment, and I almost can't believe how much my life has changed since then. I still play D&D on a weekly basis and I still am lucky enough to date a great girl, but beyond that almost EVERYTHING about my life has changed.

The source of changes pretty consistently came back to one thing: money. Money can't buy happiness, that's for sure... but it can certainly PREVENT you from happiness. Ever since I got this particular job, I haven't ever had to worry about picking up extra shifts at the end of the month or whether or not the bills are going to get paid. I'm still really really careful with my money... mostly through force of habit because things were tight for so long... but I don't need to do any advanced math anymore to see if I can afford to go to the movies on the weekend. I'm not going to be buying a yacht anytime soon, but it is absolutely incredible how much less stress there is in my life just because I don't need to worry about rent money.

What's next for me? I don't know. But if I'm even half as lucky over the next year as I've been this last year, I should be in pretty good shape.