There is a repeating trend that occurs among the internet population that I just don’t understand. Basically it goes like this: little known thing is seen as awesome by the few people that know about it, some big shot exec somewhere runs across it, shows it to the rest of the world which immediately loves it, and suddenly there’s a huge backlash among the original community against it. We can see this happening RIGHT now with Michael Cera. (And the execs are capitalizing on it even, below is a trailer for Scott Pilgrim that shows him getting punched, repeatedly. I guess this is what the people want now…)

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As a self-proclaimed Christian geek, technology is not the only part of the geek label. As a matter of fact, the technology aspect is more of a side-effect of my true interest: Gaming. I enjoy playing all sorts of games: video games, mind games (kidding!), card games, board games, table-top games, pen and paper games, etc. And I know that there are a LOT of games that I haven’t had a chance to try, and some that when I do play, I just don’t grokk them. But I’m not afraid to try new games to see what they’re like. The hardest part is the expense in buying a game just to try it.

That said, this post is really intended to discuss one of my favorite games that I currently play: Dungeons and Dragons.

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This is completely disappointing. Wave was an awesome system and the only reason it didn’t get user adoption was because it didn’t integrate fully into anything that was currently in use. If they’d made it work with email or had it replace the interface for gmail, they would’ve seen a greater adoption rate. Expecting people to abandon something simple that they already know for something complex that they’ll have to learn that only a few other people use is just a recipe for failure.

We have always pursued innovative projects because we want to drive breakthroughs in computer science that dramatically improve our users’ lives. Last year at Google I/O, when we launched our developer preview of Google Wave, a web app for real time communication and collaboration, it set a high bar for what was possible in a web browser. We showed character-by-character live typing, and the ability to drag-and-drop files from the desktop, even “playback” the history of changes—all within a browser. Developers in the audience stood and cheered. Some even waved their laptops.

We were equally jazzed about Google Wave internally, even though we weren’t quite sure how users would respond to this radically different kind of communication. The use cases we’ve seen show the power of this technology: sharing images and other media in real time; improving spell-checking by understanding not just an individual word, but also the context of each word; and enabling third-party developers to build new tools like consumer gadgets for travel, or robots to check code.

But despite these wins, and numerous loyal fans, Wave has not seen the user adoption we would have liked. We don’t plan to continue developing Wave as a standalone product, but we will maintain the site at least through the end of the year and extend the technology for use in other Google projects. The central parts of the code, as well as the protocols that have driven many of Wave’s innovations, like drag-and-drop and character-by-character live typing, are already available as open source, so customers and partners can continue the innovation we began. In addition, we will work on tools so that users can easily “liberate” their content from Wave.

Wave has taught us a lot, and we are proud of the team for the ways in which they have pushed the boundaries of computer science. We are excited about what they will develop next as we continue to create innovations with the potential to advance technology and the wider web.

:: Update on Google Wave ::

I married my wife.

I apologize to those of you that follow me on Facebook that have already seen this, but this is a pretty big deal to me and I’m of the type to brag when it’s warranted.

Thank you so much my dearest for making these past 5 years so wonderful. I look forward to the next 50+ years.

I love you!

Proverbs 31:10-31
Who can find a virtuous wife?
For her worth is far above rubies.
The heart of her husband safely trusts her;
So he will have no lack of gain.
She does him good and not evil
All the days of her life.
She seeks wool and flax,
And willingly works with her hands.
She is like the merchant ships,
She brings her food from afar.
She also rises while it is yet night,
And provides food for her household,
And a portion for her maidservants.
She considers a field and buys it;
From her profits she plants a vineyard.
She girds herself with strength,
And strengthens her arms.
She perceives that her merchandise is good,
And her lamp does not go out by night.
She stretches out her hands to the distaff,
And her hand holds the spindle.
She extends her hand to the poor,
Yes, she reaches out her hands to the needy.
She is not afraid of snow for her household,
For all her household is clothed with scarlet.
She makes tapestry for herself;
Her clothing is fine linen and purple.
Her husband is known in the gates,
When he sits among the elders of the land.
She makes linen garments and sells them,
And supplies sashes for the merchants.
Strength and honor are her clothing;
She shall rejoice in time to come.
She opens her mouth with wisdom,
And on her tongue is the law of kindness.
She watches over the ways of her household,
And does not eat the bread of idleness.
Her children rise up and call her blessed;
Her husband also, and he praises her:
“ Many daughters have done well,
But you excel them all.”
Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing,
But a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised.
Give her of the fruit of her hands,
And let her own works praise her in the gates.

The elders at our congregation are really great. They give the men of the church plenty of opportunities to preach the word in front of the assembly. Brother Vinson and his wife recently identified with our congregation and the elders eagerly put him to work Sunday night. He did an excellent job speaking, and one of his anecdotes really struck home with me. Here it is:

Two brothers, both in Christ and in the flesh died of the same genetic disease. One said that if he was diagnosed with the disease he didn’t want to know if he had it so he could die in blissful ignorance. The other said he wanted to know the second it was found out so he could get everything In order, because he knew it would take a lot of time to dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s. We’ve all been diagnosed with a deadly disease — sin. Which type of person are you? Do you want to know about your sins so you can do something about it, or would you rather stay ignorant and be lost?