Found a cool app that fills a need that’s been around forever. Quassel is a distributed IRC client– it consists of both a core running on some server somewhere that actually connects to IRC servers and clients that connect to the core. The core is connected even when no clients are, so you can toss a core on a shell somewhere and connect to it at will, but your client looks connected all the time.
Quassel does a few things right– it’s a “cloud” service, but without the need to put all your eggs in one basket. It works well, it’s light-weight, and does just one thing. The fact that you control both the cloud component and the local component means it will keep Stallman happy when he says “keep your data at home”.
It sucks at a few things, too, though. The worst thing is that is an application, not a platform. You are stuck using the Quassel client, which blows. It’s not much worse than any other horrible OS X IRC client, but it is bad. It is open source so maybe one could improve the client, but it should be useable with any local IRC client instead. There’s no reason to reinvent the wheel.
This is one direction I would love to see “cloud computing” go. Connected components, some in the cloud and some at home, but all of them under your control. I’m willing to give my data to Google when it is the most convenient thing to do, but I would sure as hell prefer not to given any alternative.
p.s. Can we call it anything but “cloud computing”? Talking about technology in the “cloud” makes me feel like this guy:
It occurred to me this morning that I love Facebook’s “Like” feature. It’s neat enough to actually make me login to Facebook (usually I just rely on my mobile for FB notifications). Saying you “Like” a newsfeed item is supercheap in every way, but still gets the point across that a friend was in your thoughts at that moment and that you care about what they had to say. It’s enough to start a conversation with, but it’s also fine to just leave it as it is. It’s stress-free. And it’s much, much less sketchy than a Poke.
The lack of hassle required to Like something made me think of other low-cost yet worthwhile interactions. When I was hollerin’ at the Media Lab I saw Blossom, a minimal interaction by Sajid Sadi. Two electronic flowers are linked over IP and can communicate at any distance; when a user picks one up, the other glows wherever it is. There’s no content to the message– just the fact of a thought.
On a related noted, the most common romantic-type txt is “just thinking of you”.
These are all ways we are working towards the much FUDded End of Alone.
Now it’s catching on, according to an article on TechCrunch.
Typical voicemail messages today include things like “Please don’t leave me a voicemail, I rarely listen to them. Please just email me at xxxx@xxxx.com” Many people don’t bother setting up their voicemail accounts at all. Then there’s my favorite method, the one I use personally – let the message box get full and then don’t empty it. Caller ID still tells me who called, and I can simply call them back.
How many times have you called someone back and said “I saw that you called but didn’t listen to the voicemail yet, Is it anything urgent?”
If you’ve called me in the past 4 years you know I hate voicemail and my box is usually full. I’m really glad this is becoming normal and is not just a product of my communication related neuroses, which will probably get a post of their own in the future.