Catch the Wave! (Attempt Number One) – Free Line 12/01/09
“I am not familiar with the thing I’m seeing.” – Calculon; Futurama
It took me a week, but I finally got my invitation for Google Wave. For those unaware, Google Wave is a new protocol that allows users to do … um … something. This is where the problems come in. I have been using this program for a little over three hours now, but I still have no idea what I should be doing. So in order to keep this blog post moving, I will be quoting the Wave’s Wikipedia page verbatim.
“[Google Wave] is a web-based service, computing platform, and communications protocol designed to merge e-mail, instant messaging, wikis, and social networking. It has a strong collaborative and real-time focus supported by extensions that can provide, for example, spelling/grammar checking, automated translation among 40 languages, and numerous other extensions.”
There. Doesn’t that clean things up? [Pause] No, it didn’t help me in the least either.To put things in another way, here is how a friend of mine described our “mystery program:”
“[Google Wave is] Google trying to make their own instant messaging program. Yes, I know that Google already one of those [Google Talk], but that isn’t enough. This is Google, after all. It has to be all “hip” and “cool.” So they threw in all of this trendy stuff [wiki, social network, microblogging] along with the instant messenger program to appeal to … someone, I guess. What you’re left with is a pile of confusing buttons and windows that really don’t make any sense at all.”
Okay … that made a little more sense, but still not much. Still, it shouldn’t stop me from trying this thing out, right? So without further adieu, let’s see what Google Wave is really all about.
Two hours later…
As many of you know, we here at the Free Line pride ourselves on conquering the impossible. In the past twenty-one months, we have done everything from run a ten year old copy of Netscape Navigator on Windows Vista to compare an animated television program about a talking dog and kickboxing chickens to professional wrestling. Still, there are some things that even I cannot wrap my head around. This, sadly, is one of those unfortunate moments. That is not to say that I am completely giving up on trying to make this thing work, mind you. Come tomorrow, I will have a post full of my experiences … I hope.











