With iOS, Android, and other platforms, we see some sites creating a native applications. What’s interesting to me is that this idea of optimizing the end-user’s experience could have been done ages ago by creating applications that interact with the web on Windows and OSX. My guess is that it just wasn’t practical at the time.

However, I slowly see sites developing native apps (although having mobile versions of their sites coexist). For me, personally, if there is a site I go to often, I prefer to have the native app (presuming that it works well). In my imagination I see the web evolving in this way. HTML, JavaScript, PHP, RoR, among other programming languages are great for what they do. But without the current type of synergy with these tools that makes the web so unique and fresh over time, the environment for web development is pretty dull. Web standards are always being debated and there always seems to be issues with creating a new site that takes advantage of new web technologies.

If you take a look at the SDKs of other platforms, they can provide deep device integration along with tools that expand on possibilities of what you could develop solely on the web. However the web surfing environment on the computer has always felt like a separate space.

It’ll be interesting what type and form of web content will be considered as standard in the years to come.

For probably the first time in a VERY long time, I have decided to choose my next “main” desktop computer as a Windows machine. While most people update their computers every few years, I usually have bought a new computer every year.

My last computer was a 3.02GHz Intel Dual Core iMac 27″ which was bought about 2 years ago. Although the computer is still running okay, I cannot stand lag. Although I am a programmer at heart, I also all types of media development and editing (motion graphics, sound editing, etc). So while waiting for a redesign and spec bump in the iMac lineup, I ran into a gaming case, the Thermaltake Level 10 GT. For some strange reason, it just looked really geeky and attractive to my eyes.

Although I really love the way Apple delivers its products, I felt that I really wanted a machine that would let me do all the things I ever wanted to do on a computer with no hassle. And I also felt that I should start building my own things and upgrade things rather than buying and replacing (which has costed me many $$$$ along the years). This is when the idea to build a PC from scratch came about. The last PC I built was probably about 10 years ago, so I knew that there was a lot to learn IF I was going to take this approach. I looked into many forums (particularly Tom’s Hardware forum and Hardforum.com) and was shocked at the builds that PC enthusiasts are using. Although I had an initial budget of $2000 (including a new monitor), after putting all the parts I wanted together the price for my dream PC was around $6000.
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