On Tuesday, Google announced another new product, Google Gears (of course, only in early Beta version). Gears is Google's new framework for developing applications that will work offline. They're making it an entirely open-source thing, as well as giving a detailed API sometime in the near future, so expect this thing to go far.

Many have been talking about the future of computing being something you can easily touch. Tom Cruise did it in Minority Report. There's been demos of people playing Warcraft or manipulating maps and stuff only using very intuitive commands via their fingers.

Via WordPress' Matt Mullenweg I found this interesting post about building online communities. There were some interesting points. None of them really surprised me, but they are good points to keep in mind when endeavoring to build an online community.

Yesterday a press release issued from Amazon.com announced that they will be opening an online music download store. There are many players in this still-emerging market, but having another big player is definitely a good thing.

My life has always been close to the east side of Bloomington, MN. For the last 15 years or so, the People of Praise has had their headquarters there. I went to middle and high school at Trinity Schools in the same building. And now, I work just a mile away from there.

One of the major pet peeves of myself and many others who strive to use open-source software on a regular basis is the lack of documentation. Sure, installing it out of the box is well-documented, but modifying it besides downloading plug-ins/modules is rarely documented. Sometimes there's a nice API, but how does one get from not knowing anything about the system to just needing to know the exact syntax for a certain function?

Joel on Software said he recently visited the new 7 World Trade Center building, which includes new computer dispatched elevators. Here's how he describes it:

Instead of having up and down buttons outside the elevators, there's a numeric keypad, where you key in the floor number you're going to. Then an LED display tells you which elevator to wait for. Once you get in the elevator, you don't have to press any buttons (and there are none to press).

OK, that's not exactly true. Google has announced the acquisition of DoubleClick, which has been the leader in Internet advertising as long as I can remember. Although most had valued the company at $1 billion, the $3.1 billion cash purchase will make Google, by far, the biggest player in the online ad game. Not surprisingly, other players in the Internet advertising market such as Microsoft and Yahoo!

The folks at ThinkGeek.com, of course, have done it again. Not only are they providing useful things like the RFID Blocking Passport Billfold, but they also have a large remote control go kart with Mario sitting on top of it. And, if that wasn't cool enough, the zany minds at ThinkGeek have even provided us a snappy video of it in action, complete with plenty of Nintendo sound effects and drama.

I wrote a post on inReview.net about this summer's movies. Check it out:

Summer is fast approaching as the last couple days have been in the 70s even here in Minnesota. No doubt, as there is every summer, there will be lots of fluff to keep us entertained, not the least of which is the end of the movie hat trick. With new episodes of Pirate of the Carribean, Shrek, and Spider-Man, Hollywood hopes to bring everybody (and their friends) back for another million or so. Plus, I'll outline the others not to miss this summer. Here's my thoughts on this summer's movies.