Fridaygram: faster web, stronger machines, prettier planet
By Scott Knaster, Google Code Blog EditorEverybody likes a faster web, and that theme has been evident this week here
on Google Code Blog. On Monday, Yuchung Cheng wrote about Google’s research into
making TCP
faster through various proposals and experiments. Yesterday, Roberto Peon and Will
Chan
blogged
about SPDY (pronounced
speedy), Google’s protocol for speeding up
the web’s application layer historically handled by HTTP. In related news this week, the
chairman of the
HTTPbis
Working Group announced
support for
SPDY in a public post.
At Google, these projects are part of
our Make the Web Faster initiative, although TCP improvements and SPDY are efforts of the
whole community. Even if you’re not working on TCP or SPDY, you can find lots of useful
resources at our
Make the Web Faster
site. For example, there are
articles on compression, caching, metrics,
and more, a set of
tools for
measuring and optimizing pages, and several
discussion forums for communicating with
other interested folks.
Sometimes stronger is more important
than faster. Scientists looking to improve the durability of machinery have been
studying the yellow
fattail scorpion, which uses bumps on its back to resist damage from sandstorms.
Researchers hope to use the scorpion’s design to create erosion-resistant surfaces for blades,
pipes, and similar parts. Or maybe they’ll make machines that look like giant yellow
scorpions.
Finally, take a step back from everything on Earth and have
a look at
NASA’s
latest "Blue Marble" images of our planet. We have a beautiful home.
Let’s say this fast: Fridaygram posts are just for fun.
Fridaygrams are designed for your Friday afternoon and weekend enjoyment. Each Fridaygram item
must pass only one test: it has to be interesting to us nerds. That definitely includes speed,
space, and scorpions.
