Johannes Lindenbaum

A preview under SOPA

2011-12-27T09:26:00.001-06:00

I understand the necessity that companies would like to protect their brand from piracy and knock-offs, but SOPA is not the right approach to this. Allowing companies and individuals to shut down entire websites on a whim is worse than the DMCA takedown policies.

This blog post outlines what SOPA would be like, should the bill become law.

Digital Content Retention Policy

2011-12-06T09:00:00.000-06:00

Last week I finally lived the nightmare that I've dreamt too many times. My single-drive, no-backup media drive bit the dust. Movies, TV-Shows, past music and photos... gone. Going past that, and having replaced that single-drive, no-backup solution with a Drobo, an interesting question stemmed from this story in the office: What's your digital content retention policy?

Previously, the only policy I've had on this is to keep everything I've digitalized. No matter how old, or how seldom I used it. I kept it.

With the crash of the media drive I've lost music that I've archived dating back to 2000, 370+ movies, several hundre episodes of TV shows. TV episodes and movies I watched once, and then archived. Why didn't I delete them? Was I waiting for that rare situation where someone visiting would actually have enough interest to go through the archive and find a movie they enjoyed? Is it a pride thing? I'm pissed I lost all my Battlestar Galactica, because I could state that I owned the series.

Now I'm faced with reestablishing said TV shows and movies. But, is it worth it? How long does one keep a TV season, a blockbuster movie?

With the music acquired over the years, I'd always imagined I'd form a sort of time line of my tastes. But movies and shows somehow don't bring forward the same emotion in me as music.

My point - what's your digital content retention policy?

Usage Based Billing. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

2011-01-31T15:45:00.000-06:00

Usage Based Billing (UBB) is a new pricing regulation that was passed by the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission. There's a lot of anger regarding this new bill and I'm going to try and break down the arguments of all three parties (CRTC, ISPs, Consumers) into the good, the bad and the ugly.

Before the Bill
Canada's Internet Service Providers are broken up into Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers (ILEC) and Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (CLEC). Essentially an ILEC is the monopoly telecommunications company that built the infrastructure in an area, say, Bell, Rogers, Shaw and SaskTel; on the other hand you have a CLEC that will buy access to an ILEC's network, without having to worry about installing any expensive hardware, such as lines directly to a home, or trenching fibre, because all of that infrastructure is provided by the ILEC - this is called Gateway Access System (GAS). Thanks to the CRTC ILECs are forced to provide CLECs with access to the infrastructure to encourage competition.

What the Bill Wants
The UBB bill gives the ILECs the right to charge their customers, including CLECs, for the amount of data used, instead of giving unlimited access to the ILEC's infrastructure. The bill also dictates that an ILEC must give a 15% discount to CLEC for the per GB overage rate.

The Good
ILECs have a massive infrastructure they need to manage and pay for. CLECs on the other hand have a minor subset of said infrastructure and have a lot less cost. They paid a flatrate to their ILEC per customer they served. In turn that customer got unlimited access at a given speed. UBB changes that agreement so that the ILEC can charge a customer for the bandwidth they use. There seems to be a lot of problems regarding this, but this charge makes perfect sense. An infrastructure, that obviously has been oversold, needs to be maintained (hopefully expanded), which costs a lot of money. Charging people for the amount they use is only fair. Nobody expects to buy a car and expect the manufacturer to pay for gas.

The Bad
UBB is expensive. The "normal" overage rate on a 60GB/m transfer is $2.50/GB. So, a customer that pays $39.99/m for 60GB may transfer 70GB - their bill will show the base cost of the connection plus 10GB at $2.50/GB, so an additional $25. That's a bit steep. I strongly believe that if UBB was a reasonable rate, lower than $0.50/GB, nobody would be complaining.

The Ugly
What is really disgusting is that, especially, Bell is lowering these caps to such low, low figures that it's almost impossible to not go over - only solution: buy a bigger package... for more money. These low figures are an obvious money grab. Interestingly UBB become a big issue for ILECs that offer TV services as well (Shaw, Rogers, Bell, Telus) shortly after new streaming services were introduced to Canada. These services include Netflix, Apple's TV/Movie Rentals, Sony's PSNetwork movies and more. Considering that a Netflix movie of 1.5 hours in length probably streams around 800MB in standard definition one can see that bandwidth usage will rise with increased consumption of unlimited movie services.

By introducing low bandwidth caps, ILECs are essentially eliminating rich media (video, music) from a user's browsing habits and ensuring that customers continue to subscribe to their TV package. Think of it as a really messed up customer retention strategy. (Messed up for the consumer, brilliant for the company)

Conclusion
The UBB ruling by the CRTC is only fair. Wholesale customers on ILECs should be paying for usage of an expensive infrastructure. Sadly, passing that cost off to the customer, and stifling usage by ridiculously low caps will hurt Canadian Internet use (and wallets) in the long run. I would have no problem with an overage rate on my ISP if the rate were set at a reasonable rate.

John's Phone - Followup

2011-01-05T10:25:00.004-06:00

This is a follow up to the John's Phone post a few months back, after I'd found the perfect phone for my grandmother that was advertised to work on any "3G GSM" network (exceptions didn't include Canada).

Now that I have my hands on the device and had my grandmother play with it, I can assert that it is the perfect senior phone. It's large enough and uncomplicated to work with arthritic fingers and doesn't require many instructions to work. Most actions can be completed in less than 3 steps.

The only problem? It doesn't work on most carriers in Canada. John's ~~advertises~~ advertised the phone as a "3G GSM" phone and even after some correspondance with a representative, questioning whether the phone would work on a pure HSPA/UMTS network (such as SaskTel or Telus), I was told that the phone would work without problems. The phone will connect to Rogers (that has a full GSM stack) but not to SaskTel (pure HSPA).

Update: Their site has been corrected and no longer mentions "3G GSM" it is listed as a quad-band GSM phone, which correctly identifies the requirement of a GSM stack.

John's Phone

2010-11-15T12:53:00.001-06:00

My grandma is a techno-grandma. She knows how to use "the Google", how to check and compose email, do puzzles online and even owns a cellphone. The cellphone part got problematic when SaskTel rolled out their HSPA+ network a few months ago. My grandma got a letter from SaskTel asking kindly to upgrade her phone - if she did so before the new year she'd get a credit. The problem isn't the fact that she will inevitably have to upgrade her phone to one that is compatible with the HSPA+ network, it's the fact that all these new phones are not senior friendly at all.

My grandmother only needs a cell phone in emergencies, when travelling on the highway. She always has her address book with her, so the phone only needs to be able to accept a number and place a call. Incoming calls shouldn't be more difficult than opening the phone or hitting a button. Simple, right? Any of the $0 phones should do the trick. Not quite - while the $0 phones offered from carriers meet all the functionality requirements of a "grandma-phone" they are not senior accessible. My grandma's severe arthritis in her fingers limits her use of plastic buttons that her fingers can slip off. This means if she's trying to tap a key, she'll end up sliding off of it hitting a different number, which is then cumbersome to correct. This means that keys have to be large, which none of the $0 phones are. They're all tiny.

Interestingly enough she has no problems typing on a touch screen - but we agreed that a $600 cellphone on a Pay-As-You-Go is a bit steep.

Enter John's phone. I saw this phone show up on reddit the other day. The video portrayed the phone as a very good back up for someone roaming, as the phone runs on quad-band 3G (UMTS/HSPA) and is unlocked. It's design is perfectly minimal. It features the usual keypad and a LCD screen that displays the number that's incoming or outgoing. Perfect for grandma. The buttons are massive. The fantastic part is the integrated address book that is literally pen and paper. There are also minimal controls for mute, quiet, loud, lock and a volume slider.

A phone has been ordered for my grandmother, I'll update this article once I have the device in hands.

Squarespace

2010-10-27T17:10:00.001-06:00

Over the summer my mother decided she needed a website for her vocal pedagogy and teaching practises. She wanted something simple and something she could maintain herself.

The candidates that we chose from were Blogspot, Wordpress.com and Squarespace. We decided on Squarespace for it's affordability, and fantastic theme customization. It was decided that the focus of the site was not to be a blog, so the other two services had trouble keeping up in features that allowed the level of customization that Squarespace does.

Within a few hours I managed to setup pages, customize the style and setup a custom domain. What I did find a lack in, was support for one site in multiple languages - without setting up a separate site. So I had to come up with a layout that would support two languages without ruining the flow of information - I hope to have accomplished that on my mom's site.

If anyone knows of a way to be able to create a site in two languages in Squarespace I'd be glad to listen to your solution.

And for anyone still reading, here's the link to the site.

SaskTel's 3G+ Network and the State of Canada's GSM.

2010-08-17T14:09:00.005-06:00

Edit Nov 15, 2010 / Dec 19: I just realized I forgot to mention that phones that are Quad Band, may not necessarily be 3G data capable - voice should work without an issue. The modems in the phone may not support UMTS/HSPA, but only support 2G networks - this means that phones without UMTS/HSPA connectivity - but are Quad Band - will not support on SaskTel's data network, as there is no underlying 2G network for this phone to connect to. Please check the manufacturer's specifications to identify if the phone will work on a 3G data network. Again, quad band phones should have no issues connecting to voice services on SaskTel, but if the phone does not support HSPA/UMTS, only EDGE or GRPS data, then the phone will have no data capabilities on SaskTel's network. Thanks to a co-worker we tested this on SaskTel's network with an iPhone 1 (EDGE only) - the phone will not tie into the network at all. This means you need a 3G capable phone to place voice calls and transfer data on 3G only GSM networks (Telus, Bell, SaskTel).

Introduction

By now you've heard that Canada's big three now all use the same technology for their third generation wireless. You hear buzzwords like, HSPA, 3G+, UMTS, GSM, MVNO and various others. What do these terms mean? Why is this important for you? I'm going to attempt to explain this to the best of my knowledge, but please realize I am no specialist in the cellphone field. I merely have an interest and natural curiosity for it.

Saskatchewan's Situation

SaskTel launched its new network yesterday. What does this mean for our future in mobility? In short, more freedom, better phones and a wider carrier selection with better roaming options (more so for us GSM lovin' folks). The Big Three are now all running 3G+ (UMTS/HSPA) networks on the same frequency bands with new carriers emerging on newer, uncommon frequency bands (AWS-1), i.e. Wind Mobile and Mobilicity.

Telus and Bell have their roaming agreements in place with SaskTel - I assume the same goes for their MVNOs, Virgin, Koodo, etc. Rogers is not part of the new roaming agreement and seems to have been shafted completely. They continue to run their own infrastructure and will probably not expand their coverage to compete with SaskTel's new network. Tony and I were discussing this morning that a wise step for Rogers would be to sell off their remaining towers in SK to SaskTel and enter a similar roaming agreement with SaskTel. We assume that Rogers is going to be bleeding customers to SaskTel and Telus (Bell does not sell phones in SK) due to coverage.

The biggest let-down today is still the fact that GSM carriers are allowed to SIM Lock devices. There is no way for consumers to acquire the unlock from the carrier directly at no charge. It is possible to purchase unlocked phones and use them a network of choice (watch for frequencies!), but a phone purchased through a carrier can not be taken to a different carrier without SIM unlocking the device.

The carrier frequencies (Big Three + SaskTel) in Canada are:

Rogers Wireless

GSM - 850/1900
UMTS/HSPA - 850/1900

Telus Mobility

GSM - N/A
UMTS/HSPA - 850/1900

Bell Mobility

GSM - N/A
UMTS/HSPA - 850/1900

SaskTel

GSM - N/A
UMTS/HSPA - 850/1900

There a difference to be noted. See how Rogers has GSM bands and UMTS bands, and the other carriers don't? Rogers has had a GSM network since 2001. As there was no 3G tech in 2001 the best they installed were GPRS/EDGE towers. When 3G became available, Saskatchewan towers located in Saskatoon and Regina got the upgrade, the rest of the infrastructure is 2G to this day. This means, when your 3G phone leaves the city, it will degrade to GPRS/EDGE before it shows "No Service". This will not happen with SaskTel towers, as every tower is getting 3G without underlying 2G. So, either you phone as UMTS/HSPA coverage, or no service. It won't be a big deal once the SaskTel network is fully expanded to it's current CDMA footprint. What you do have to watch out for, when you purchase a phone, are the tech specs about its connectivity. Most phones will ship with quadband GSM connectivity (850, 900, 1800, 1900) and a certain UMTS/HSPA connectivity (The edit from above applies here!). You want to make sure, for Canada, that your phone is 850/1900 UMTS to work on all three major carriers. If you only want it to work with Wind Mobile, go with AWS-1 (1700). If you're going to Europe, your Canadian carrier will have a roaming agreement (if possible) with a carrier in Europe that runs on UMTS 850/1900. Otherwise, you can make sure that your phone supports UMTS 2100, like the iPhone or Google's Nexus.

Here's a list of carriers and an incomplete list of frequencies (and if they're an MVNO, who they piggy back off).

If you have any questions, let me know in the comments and I'll do my best to answer them.

The massive Glossary

The Big Three

Describes Canada's largest mobile carriers. Rogers, Telus, Bell

Groupe Spécial Mobile is a worldwide consortium that defines the world's most predominant mobile telephony standard. Estimates assume 80% of the world's mobile traffic (voice, data) runs over the GSM stack.

GSM Stack

Over the years the standard has evolved into a stack of graceful degradation that allows full-fledged mobile carriers (I'll talk about this more later) to gracefully degrade service before showing "No Service" on devices.
Today, the lowest on the stack is GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) which allows voice and very, very basic data transfer from device to towers.
On top of GPRS is the EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution)
On top of EDGE is now, what's commonly referred to as 3G. A term I loath, as it defines absolutely nothing. This 3G spec allows "clearer" voice transfers and faster data packages.
So, graceful degradation: When I'm in Saskatoon, on Rogers, I have "3G". Should I leave the city, 3G is unavailable and my phone reverts to EDGE - an even weaker signal will show GPRS and finally "No Service". All the while I can still make phone calls, but my data speeds degrade to worse-than-dial-up. It's a three-stage "fail over" until you reach "No Service"

Full-fledged Carrier

What I mean by this is a carrier that has a full CDMA or GSM stack.
The new networks setup by Telus and Bell (subsequently SaskTel etc.) are not a full-fledged GSM stack. They are pure UMTS/HSPA (see below) implementations. Meaning, you either have 3G or "No Service". This compares to Rogers, a full-fledged GSM carrier, that will first degrade you to EDGE, then GPRS and finally "No Service"

CDMA

Code Division Multiple Access is a spec owned by Qualcomm that defines a different method over GSM to talk to each other. It is/was very predominant in North America.

CDMA Stack

Similar to GSM a full-fledged CDMA carrier will have a stack that degrades from 1X/EVDO (high speed stuff) to cdmaOne (low speed stuff) to "No Service"

HSPA

High Speed Packet Access is an enhancement to UMTS (see below) that improves the speeds. Commonly referred to as 3G+
HSUPA, HSDPA describes the two specs in place for Upload and Download, respectively - part of HSPA spec.

UMTS

Universal Mobile Telecommunications Systems is a 3G technology based on the GSM stack. It is the basis for HSPA and LTE (4G, more later)
Europe commonly refers to its 3G as UMTS, while in North America we simply say 3G or HSPA.

In Canada there (were?) two competing 3G standards. UMTS/HSPA and CDMA2000 (aka. 1X/EVDO)
So, what SaskTel/Telus/Bell used to advertise as "3G" was their CDMA2000 network, Rogers was UMTS/HSPA - completely different specs, incompatible devices.

MVNO

Mobile Virtual Network Operator describes a network operator that does not own any infrastructure and purely exists by piggy-backing off of other networks. Canadian examples include Koodo (Telus), Virgin (Bell) and Fido (Rogers).

Subscriber Identity Module is an integral part of GSM. It's the little chip card that defines your account. It tells the network who you are and what your phone number is.
This chip is magical. It allows you to take the chip out, put it into a different phone* and without having to tell your carrier, use that phone with the same number. Most phones even store the address book on the SIM so your numbers come with you from phone to phone.
* - This implies that phones you're using are SIM unlocked. At some point in time someone decided it would be a great idea to allow carriers to lock GSM phones. Meaning: If you purchase a phone from Rogers that phone will only accept SIM cards from Rogers. If an Orange, Vodafone or T-Mobile SIM is inserted the phone will not register with the network. This is now mostly outlawed in Europe and carriers have to provide the ability to unlock phones after a contract is due, or immediately unlock it when purchased at full-price. Bill C560 is proposing the same happen here in Canada.

Another umbrella term
The CDMA stack describes 4G as WiMax, currently implemented by Sprint in the US
The GSM stack describes 4G as LTE, being rolled out after 2011 in Canada.
The awesome difference? WiMax is boasting speeds comparable to GSM's 3G+. LTE has been tested (on an unsaturated network, obviously) at 100km/h with throughput of 60-100MBit/s.

GSM Frequencies / Bands

Frequencies are the Achilles of GSM. Every continent (heck, even country) is different. A lack of coordination, frequency availability has lead to confusion amongst consumers. If you've understood everything until now, here's where your head may start hurting.
GSM currently has 14 different bands defined.
The most common for GPRS/EDGE are GSM-900 (900MHz) and GSM-1800 (1800MHz)

In North America our common GRPS/EDGE frequencies are different, we run on GSM-850 (850MHz) and GSM-1900 (1900MHz)

So, the core four bands of GSM are the 900/1800 pair, and the 850/1900 pair. Does the term Quadband Phone ring a bell? A Quadband phone is a device that can understand communicate over all four major bands. So no matter if it's in Europe or North America - it will register with the network and work.

UMTS/HSPA Frequencies / Bands

This is going to hurt even more!
There are 14 defined frequency bands defined for the UMTS/HSPA spec - given, most of them are defined in the same range as the GSM frequencies, but the cellphone towers' equipment differs from GSM to UMTS.
The common UMTS/HSPA (3G) in Canada is 850MHz/1900MHz - the same that GSM runs on.

In Europe the common UMTS band is 1800MHz/2100Mhz (T-Mobile USA uses 2100MHz as well)
The new carriers (Videotron, Wind Mobile, Mobilicity) use a band commonly referred to as AWS or AWS-1 which, technically, is UMTS band 4 - 1700MHz.

This causes fantastic problems when you get a 3G device from Wind and try to use it on Rogers as you will not have any HSPA access on Rogers, unless that device supports multiple-band UMTS, meaning communication over different types of UMTS bands (similar to quadband GSM phones I mentioned earlier)
Example: iPhone. Its modem is quadband UMTS and quadband GSM.
Example: Nexus One. There are/were multiple versions of this phone. HTC/Google/T-Mobile made a conscious decision to cripple the modem on the Nexus One and instead release multiple versions of the phone. There were two versions of the phone, one that explicitly ran on quadband GSM and UMTS 2100 (T-Mobile USA and most of Europe) and one with quadband GSM and UMTS 850/1900 (AT&T USA, Canada, some of Europe)
Example: RIM (anything, really) - the have dual-modem "World Edition" phones that run natively CDMA but can also communicate over the GSM stack. When travelling to Europe the phone will convert the GSM "commands" to CDMA for the phone to process. RIM's GSM phones are not dual-modem and roam internationally by default.

San Francisco 2010

2010-06-30T08:27:00.000-06:00

Few weeks ago I returned from San Francisco, a vacation in the planning since Google I/O registration opened in January. I wrapped a few days of down time around I/O to get away from a lot of University stress that had been accumulating by that time.

IO 2010 Rant

2010-05-20T17:28:00.000-06:00

Before I blog about how much I like San Francisco and the Bay Area and how much I really loved Google IO as a whole, I need to get rid of this rant.

I complained about Adobe and Apple being children last week; now it seems that Google and Sony are joining in. The Keynote this morning turned turned into a bash fest. The first few stabs were funny, then they got downright malicious.

I undertand Google's in a power struggle to get Android going, but this way? What happened to "Don't be evil?".

Sony's CEO, Sir Howard, even went to say that "when you beat Apple, you're dominating". During the CEO "wankfest" (best description via @ryanbaldwin) Eric Schmidt went on to say "Why do we have to defend Flash?"

What is it with these major corporations making themselves look like idiots - in my eyes? Where's the professional courtesy gone when dealing with competitors? Do none of these guys realize that, in the end, it's the dev community and the consumer that decide; and judging by some of the questions asked and points made at the Fireside Chat with Handset Manufacturers (Samsung, Sony Ericsson, LG and Motorola) there's a few very frustrated developers on the Android platform, for valid reasons: uncoordinated APIs and proprietary SDKs per handset manufacturer and a slow upgrade process (that in some cases is still carrier dependant).

Adobe, Apple, Google and Sony stop being whiny fucking children in these power struggles for mobile, ad platforms and web technologies.

Apple vs. Adobe

2010-05-14T16:10:00.001-06:00

I am embarrassed. Are you embarrassed? Why are Apple and Adobe acting like twelve year old children on a play ground running popularity campaigns?

Both are claiming to be the more open, community-friendly company. Both are wrong, in my eyes. If you buy an Apple product you're know what you're getting into: difficult to modify hardware specs and a mobile OS that's so up-tight and locked down I'm surprised it lets you make phone calls. Every time you compile Flash you know you're giving the power to a closed-source, power-sucking browser plugin.

Can't both of them just shut up? First it's Jobs' open letter bashing Flash, then it's Adobe's ridiculous advertising campaign telling everyone how they hate dictating how content is created.

My 2 (biased) cents. Flash is slowly dying. With YouTube and vimeo announcing HTML5 betas, what's left for Flash. @FeXd suggests, that Flash still has a market share in browser games - maybe - but with JavaScript speeds increasing vastly in every major browser, what's to say there won't be an XNA-like framework for Java to make kick-ass games in JavaScript?

In the end, both companies are pushing proprietary closed-source systems, the question is, which one suits the consumer's needs the most.

Video Game Generation + Parenting

2010-04-26T12:00:00.000-06:00

My parents, I will assume yours as well, never grew up with video games. In fact, it's shocking how terrible my mother's hand eye coordination is possibly due to lack of video games ;). It was difficult to play catch with her, she prefered a good game of drop - or I threw terribly bad. Give her a PS3 controller and Gran Turismo and instead of using the sticks to steer she will lean sideways. It's hilarious!

I digress... It's because of my parents' lack of video games, that they have no idea that you can not only play online with other people, but in fact talk and communicate with other players - be it PSN, Xbox Live or Ventrillo. In my past when I was an avid gamer of Battlefield 1942 / BF 2 on PC she'd regularly question my intense talking "to myself" during matches or clan practise.

I'm going to assume, that the whiny, angry, yelling kids on PSN, Xbox Live and Ventrillo are also children of non-gaming parents - this does not include games like Pong, I only concerned about in-game voice chat.

Now, enter my generation a real video game generation, growing up with affordable, modular video game systems. Ignore the scary fact that I could have children one day, consider: I've grown up with online games and know certain etiquette for chat rooms. Is it because of this that I would possible slap my children silly if they made a fuss in a chat room? I'd be able to explain to them how big of an idiot they're making of themselves being a selfish, annoying, little brat to complete strangers all for the simple fact... I grew up with it and I've done that.

My generation is in a unique position to teach their kids not be idiots online, because we know what it's like to be idiots online without parental guidance.

Moving On

2010-04-23T10:42:00.002-06:00

October 2008 was a fantastic time. I had just started my "year off" - turned into 16 months ;) - from University, quit my Sales job at AirSource and was looking for a job in the industry to give me some real world experience. My lack of Python lead to an unsuccessful application at VendAsta. It was very kind of VA to refer to me zu. A week later I was through the interview process and was accepted as a full-time developer.

I was psyched. A real job.

Since I started zu I was part of the PotashCorp team. Started with maintenance and was part of the reprogramming team. The redesign was a fun project with lots of ups, downs and learning. It was exciting and nerve wracking at the same time.

January 2010 I went part-time to continue with my University. My original year off had turned into a fantastic 16 months of full-time employment.

Last week I resigned and am done zu April 29th. It was a tough decision, but one I had to make for myself. I have a new opportunity doing contract work for SaskTel Labs.

I learned a lot at zu. How to better manage my time, better communicate my ideas to people that don't have my thought process, design patterns I'd never heard of before, writing more efficient code and teamwork.

Why am I leaving zu? The main reason is change. I've been doing some kind of LAMP work since I've been 16/17. Either playing around myself or working. I need an opportunity that will help me learn new things, and at SaskTel Labs I have that opportunity. It sounds like I'll be working on BlackBerry, Android and SproutCore related things. I'm psyched, again.

I will dearly miss a lot of things at zu, especially the atmosphere. It's been an amazing (just under) two years, thanks for the opportunity and I'm sure our paths will keep crossing.

Companion Bot

2010-03-23T14:34:00.002-06:00

Here's the video I've been involved in over the past few weeks. There was a great deal of effort put in to the robot costume; even more effort was to get the darn thing on an off Albert!

Please watch, rate and comment on the video to help our group win the Doritos® Viralocity competition.

Mac OS X and the 24hr time struggle

2010-03-09T17:50:00.000-06:00

I grew up on 24 hour time, so I always customize my Operating Systems to show me times in 24 hour time. I recently got confused when iCal tried to convince me that hours between midnight and 1am should be shown as 24:xx. So an event in my iCal ending at 00:15 would in fact show up as 24:15.

If you have encountered this problem with iCal, there's a quick fix in settings for you:

Open System Preferences
Language & Text
Under the 'Times' segment click 'Customize'

You'll be presented with a slide-down of short, medium, long times with text fields looking something like this:

Click on the hour, await the drop down and pick 00-23. Apparently the default is set to 01-24

It'll look something like this:

Voila! Proper 24hr time in a customized Canadian Region going from 00-23. Finally!

MobileMe is gone. Long live Google Sync.

2010-03-08T15:00:00.001-06:00

About a month ago I wrote a post on quitting MobileMe. My end of service came, with many emails from Apple reminding me that my access might be, will be, has been - renew now! - cut off, and I'm still using Google Sync. I can only recommend this service to anyone looking for a cheaper - read free - alternative to MobileMe. Only talking sync capabilities of contacts, calendars, mail - there is no iDisk or Find My iPhone equivalent on Google Sync, but there's always DropBox.

I did find a few glitches with syncing long recurring events (University Schedule, work - with a never ending end date) that would not properly delete from iCal iPhone / Mac when I remove one occurrence from Google Calendar. These glitches were fixed when I un-synced my iPhone and let Google overwrite and re-sync the calendar events. I have not run into the problem again.

Thoughts on optimizing traffic flow at lights

2010-03-04T18:31:00.001-06:00

We've all been there. You're at a red light, the light changes to green, and, what feels like eons, pass before the car in front actually starts moving. This effect gets worse the further back in the queue you are. You can see the light is green, but why is nobody moving? You're gripping your steering wheel harder, circulation to your fingers is being cut off and you want to gnaw on your air freshener out of sheer frustration that you're not going to make this set of green lights, from a distance you blankly stare at the 6 cars that made it through the intersection*.

What if the problem isn't people's attention span, but reaction time. Here's what I assume is the train of thought cascading from car to car:

The light changes from red to green
Car #1 in queue realizes "Awe, snap, it's green" and starts moving
Car #2 has already realized it's green, but is waiting for car #1 to move
Car #3 knows it's green and is worried why Car #2 hasn't started moving yet and is patiently waiting for Car #2's break lights to dim so he can move
Car #4 (probably me) is going through aforementioned effect of sheer insanity of slow moving traffic.

I know I check the crossing lanes' lights for changes when I'm first in line at a light. Either by looking at the pedestrian hand or catching a glimpse of red / yellow hue from the actual light. This way I can ensure I'm rolling by the time I get the green. There are three problems with this, first is I'm taking my eyes off what's going on right in front of me. Second is I'm confident not many check the crossing lanes' lights. Three, the car behind me and behind it probably can't see that hue of the crossing lane's light and while I might be able to move that split second earlier anticipating the change of the light, the car behind me will essentially be the new Car #1 in the above scenario - shifting the effectiveness of my over-attentiveness by only one car.

I would propose a slight change in the way our traffic lights work. Add a red/yellow phase before going to green. Everyone knows lights switch from green to yellow to red when bringing your lane(s) to a stop and switch from red to green to start traffic. This red/yellow phase would be inserted to get traffic moving. While sitting at an intersection the light would be red. It would then switch to having both red and yellow on, before switching completely to green.

Benefits of this system (which is in place in many countries, especially those with mostly manual shift cars) is that everyone in all lanes, and many cars back in the queue, can see that the intersection is about to switch to green and can prepare to move. Cars can start inching forward during this phase and the entire intersection can get moving faster.

One might argue that adding the extra red/yellow phase may slow the intersection down - but considering most intersections in Canada are red in all directions for a full second before switching one direction to green this red/yellow phase is inserted in the second the crossing lane has been switched to red. Others might say there's no need for the extra yellow phase, as manual transmissions are going the way of the dodo in North America. I can only rebuttal with reaction time. It still takes enough time to realize the light has changed to green, and ones foot to move from brake to accelerator.

Perhaps, as always, I'm biased the EU has had four phase lights since I can remember and North American lights still catch me off guard. I always peak at the crossing lanes' lights to ensure I'm rolling by the time my light goes green.

Anyone want to crunch some numbers to figure out how much time / gas could be saved in a life time cutting idle time at traffic lights?

* - I exaggerate, of course, but it sure doesn't feel like many cars get through on green (turning arrows).

Update: Apparently I'm not alone on this. Noel Schutt has a nice post on this, too.

Have you tried flavors.me yet?

2010-02-08T15:00:00.001-06:00

Flavors.me is a nice little aggregator of services - or a quick simple way to make a personal website that requires zero maintenance.

My invite code for you is: heat.

Use it wisely, while you're over there, check out my flavors.me page. :)

I just quit MobileMe (I think...)

2010-02-05T15:00:00.006-06:00

My MobileMe subscription is up in 14 days from today. So I asked myself if I really wanted to spend $109 Canadian to perfectly sync my Calendars, Contacts and Email to my iPhone, MacBook and Apple's (very pretty) me.com site.

Enter Google Sync. I heard about Google Sync earlier in 2009 and ignored it as another Google Labs experiment that wouldn't get much attention. Boy, was I wrong.

Today I made the time to backup my contacts, calendars from my Mac and import them all into Google Mail and Google Calendar.

Following Google's simple instructions within an hour I was finished and running again. I now have Push Gmail, which I didn't have before, push contacts / calendar (previously done by MobileMe).

I'm going to give this a trial run for the next 13 days and see if I like it enough to not renew my MobileMe subscription.

Google Sync Setup Process

I can't complain, it was simple and uneventful except for one hiccup during the calendar sync that was quickly remedied. I followed the steps on the Google Sync site for iPhone.

First I removed MobileMe from my iPhone and signed out of MobileMe on my Mac (Do this in System Preferences) after already having backed up Contacts and Calendars on my Mac (I can't stress that enough: File > iCal Archive and File > Address Book Archive)
I followed the setup instructions here to get Gmail and Google Calendars working (I left my contacts for now in fear of some extreme merging conflicts on Google Contacts)

Here's the only hiccup with Google Calendar syncing. When it came to choosing which Calendars were meant to be synced with my iPhone the instructions say to "use Safari" and visit m.google.com/sync and check the Calendars you want to sync. This didn't work on desktop Safari - use iPhone to do this step

Now that Gmail and Google Calendars were syncing on my iPhone, I followed these instructions to get Calendars syncing on desktop iCal.
Finally, the most dreaded, Contacts. Fear crept up in me, my palms started sweating (then I remembered I backed up!) I setup my Apple Address Book to sync with Google Contacts following these Lifehacker instructions. Note: There's a change in 10.6 Address Book and it's layout of the preferences tab. To sync with Google just go File > Preferences. In that pane chose the "Account" tab and check "Synchronize with Google"

There were only 26 merge conflicts that were quickly solved in Address Book.
Once I'd finished my changes, I exported the "All Contacts" group as vCards, deleted my Google Contacts (all of them) and imported the vCards file with all my contacts again.

We'll see how my 13 day experiment goes, finally I'll list some pro's and con's I've discovered sofar:

Pros (of Google Sync)

Adds Push GMail
Everything's in one place now, Gmail, Google Contacts, Google Calendar, synced across my devices
No errors or flakiness during setup gives me a lot of confidence this might actually work

Cons (of Google Sync over Mobile Me)

Loss of the "Find My iPhone" functionality may be worth $109 by itself, I use it frequently when I "lose" my phone in my condo - since I have no land line, I have no means of calling it.
I'm not 100% sure if the Address Book correctly syncs back to Google Contacts when I make changes on my desktop or iPhone - further investigation will (dis)prove this.

Google Analytics are you listening?

2010-02-01T14:00:00.001-06:00

In mid-2006 when I finally managed to snag a Google Analytics account I was working with an internet acquaintance on some upgrades to their site. One of these upgrades included stat tracking with GA. The acquaintance and I both had an account, so we thought: "Hey, why not, invite me to your stats!"

Now, four-ish years later, I am no longer in contact with that acquaintance and am not affiliated with the project at all, and yet - I can still see their GA stats. All due to a simple flaw in the GA system: You can't remove shared GA accounts from one another.

I now have two "Accounts" listed when I first visit the Dashboard. One "private" the other of the acquaintance. I can still see their stats for all their accounts (apparently the entire account was shared with me, not only a single site).

There's an ongoing discussion the Google Support forums, but no reaction from Google whatsoever.

Check out the discussion here.

Updated: My thoughts on Apple's iPad

2010-01-28T16:36:00.003-06:00

As you know Apple's iPad was publicized yesterday. In the past months, especially yesterday, it received a lot of media attention - during launch it crashed twitter.

I have a few likes and dislikes about this product. It's not the product I expected and sadly I'm quite underwhelmed by the device.

My likes

iBook Store - this is a perfect strategy for Apple. They changed the music industry with iTunes Music Store, they changed the mobile application market with the AppStore, and I have great confidence that the iBook Store is going to turn the e-book world upside-down. The device, with a beautiful 9.7" screen, is meant to read books, the iBook app seems to add a certain depth to the screen, that gives you the feeling of reading a real book - looking a lot different than an e-ink screen. Literally flipping a page, gives your eyes the short break they deserve after reading a page (or two, depending on your iBook configuration).
News papers - What NYT showed off during the keynote, is what I expect the print industry to adopt to get them out of their crisis. Give me a newspaper - for a fee - daily, to a small-ish reading device. The content is dynamic (embedded videos), social (quickly share newspaper articles to twitter, facebook), crisp and always up to date (updates could/should be pushed directly to the device when the events progress). I'd gladly pay a dollar a day for a newspaper like that, I think NYT is on to something with this - despite it (still) being free. This device is going to be a game changer for the print media industry.
Portable Gaming - Obviously this device isn't going to be able to compete with Ninentdo's DS or Sony's PSP Platforms, but in an abstract way I think Apple's defining a new niche market for portable gaming. It's not your phone, it's not your DS, it's not your gaming laptop / computer or your console. It's a beautiful portable gaming device, lie on your couch and play a game on a light, comfortable device without having to strain your wrists on your laptop, hold a tiny controller (including PSP) or screw around with a bloody stylus.
Custom Silicone - This is a fantastic strategy for their mobile devices. By keeping this production and design in-house, they can lower the cost of production, keep margins high, and will have a lot faster turn around times from design to production on a chip than they would if they stuck with Samsung chips. First reports are saying the 1GHz Apple A4 System On A Chip is blazing fast and perfect for this kind of device.
iPhone OS - Millions of people already know how to use this platform, and have all these applications associated with their Apple ID. All these apps work on iPad? Amazing if you ask me. I can do what I do with my iPhone on a 3" screen on a 9.7" screen on the couch and have a more ergonomic, fun way to do that.
Unlimited Data - This. Is. Fantastic. $30 unlimited data without a contract? Beats the hell out of the $30/m - 6GB - 3 years I'm on right now. We'll see how this launches in Canada.
GSM Unlocked - Take this thing anywhere, to any network - your choice.

My dislikes

iPhone OS - A device this size (and its potential), for my needs, requires multitasking. I want the ability to sit on my couch, chat with friends, read Wikipedia and work on my Assignment(s) at the same time. Why is there no multitasking? I can't see this product destroying the netbook sector anytime soon with missing multitasking. On a device this size Push Notifications can't make up for this lack. If ChromeOS can do multitasking, why can't this?
3G pricing - Come one. $130 for 3G? Enough said.
iBook launch - Quickly compare the Apple Canada iPad and the Apple USA iPad page. What's missing on the Canadian one? iBook. The only thing that's inclining me to purchase this device is missing for non-US devices.
Camera - Personally I think device is literally screaming for at least one camera, be it front or back. "Steeeeeveeee! Give me a camera!" - The opportunity for ridiculous augmented reality apps just went up in smoke with the lack of the camera. What about iChat?

Updated

Additional dislike

Resolution: 1024x768 is a nice resolution, but what about 16:9? During the keynote Apple was showing off Star Trek - what looked like an iTunes purchase / rental. It had the top / bottom black bar - there seems to be a lot wasted real estate. I assume 1024x768 was chosen to keep the same aspect ratio for existing applications.

We'll see what the second generation brings. Perhaps the actual launch will bring the iBook store to all launch countries?

Time will tell, for now - no iPad for this kid.

MySQL - Using SELECT to UPDATE records.

2009-12-27T01:53:00.002-06:00

I've been experimenting with MySQL over the holidays, specifically evolution of a db schema and how to roll out changes effectively. I setup a scenario where I had a mapping table with two ids. One id from table 1 and one id from table 2. Now, let's assume table 1 and table 2 no longer need a many to many mapping relation, and we can get away with table 2 having a direct foreign key relation to table 1 on a per-record basis. (We also assume there is no many to many information in the mapping table, so, table 1 and table 2 only have on occurence)

So our scenario is, we're moving from a table structure like this:
Table 1: id, value 1, value 2
Mapping: table 1 id, table 2 id
Table 2: id, value 1, value 2

to this:

Table 1: id, value 1, value 2
Table 2: id, table 1 id (FK), value 1, value 2

So I went ahead and altered table 2, but kept the mapping table intact as it still had all the information in it. I thought at first, I could write a script that just took the values from the mapping and ran the updates on table 2 so that the table 1 id from the mapping table was inserted into table 2. What would be the fun in that, if I can't learn to flex my SQL muscles...

I know that MySQL supports nested SELECTs on INSERT statements, but found out that p to and including MySQL 5.5 you can not use a nested SELECT for use in an UPDATE. So, I figured this was a simple work around:

SELECT @TABLE1_ID:=table_1_id, @TABLE2_ID:=table_2_id FROM mapping_table FOR UPDATE;
UPDATE table_2 SET table_1_id = @TABLE1_ID WHERE id = @TABLE2_ID;

This didn't quite work as I expected it would... Result:

SELECT @TABLE1_ID:=table_1_id, @TABLE2_ID:=table_2_id FROM mapping_table FOR UPDATE;# Rows: 3
UPDATE table_2 SET table_1_id = @TABLE1_ID WHERE id = @TABLE2_ID;# 1 row(s) affected.

Looks like it used the highest @TABLE2_ID from the mapping table and ran the update on that id. Once.

What started as something "simple" had now turned into re-learning SQL procedures and cursors.

This cursor takes care of the limitation encountered above where only the first row in the result set was being updated. Please note this is meant for command line mysql as the creation of this procedure relies on the 'delimiter ' instruction.

DROP PROCEDURE IF EXISTS fix_mapping;
delimiter //
CREATE PROCEDURE fix_mapping()
BEGIN
DECLARE finished INT DEFAULT 0;
DECLARE table1_id, table2_id INT;
DECLARE select_cursor CURSOR FOR SELECT mapping_one, mapping_two FROM mapping_table;
DECLARE CONTINUE HANDLER FOR NOT FOUND SET finished = 1;

OPEN select_cursor;

FETCH select_cursor INTO table1_id, table2_id;
WHILE
 finished <> 1
DO
 UPDATE table2 SET value_from_mapping_two = table2_id WHERE id = table1_id;
 FETCH select_cursor INTO table1_id, table2_id;
END WHILE;

CLOSE select_cursor;
END//
delimiter ;
CALL fix_mapping;

Note: If you encounter 'ERROR 1436 (HY000): Thread stack overrun:' go increase the thread_stack value in your my.cnf file. Mine was set to 64K, the increase to 256K worked for me.

You can validate that your procedure has been created by running: SHOW PROCEDURE STATUS;

When the procedure ran, all the values in the table2.value_from_mapping_two were correct and I could remove the mapping table. Also, don't forget to remove your procedure, as it won't work with the now deleted mapping table, accomplish this by running DROP PROCEDURE `table`.`procedure_name`

Flash and JavaScript

2009-12-23T23:10:00.000-06:00

I've been doing some experiments on having a small SWF communicate with JavaScript (and vice versa). Essentially it's a little pop sound that gets triggered on a certain event completion by JavaScript. (Think GTalk in GMail or Facebook chat pop notifications).

I first attempted to have a single frame with an AudioLayer and simply rewind and play the movie each time I needed the notification to sound. Easier said than done. The Flash file would play immediately when it was loaded and (for whatever reason) was not listening to {play: 'false'} that SWFObject was sending it as a parameter. Also, the JavaScript event listener in my ActionScript was not letting me call gotoAndPlay(1); - go to the first frame and play it.

I should mention I know very, very little about ActionScript and Flash in general.

Regardless, I finally changed my approach and started googling referencing a sound file directly in the library, rather than importing it into the frame and replaying the frame.

I found a great page detailing which steps to follow to reference and play a sound directly from a library (the sound is exported when you publish your fla to SWF).

The solution is to "link" the audio file and give it a class identifier. This way, in my ActionScript, I can simply create a new instance of the sound using its identifier and call play() on the class.

Here's my ActionScript - it's all in a AS3 fla, first (and only) frame - that sets up the external interface listener:

import flash.external.ExternalInterface;

function playNotification():void {
 var sound = new NotificationPop();
 sound.play();
}

ExternalInterface.addCallback("playNotification", playNotification);

Here's my JavaScript that I call to trigger the SWF's external interface function declared above. The #notification id in XHTML refers to the tag that SWFObject generates. You simply call your declared external interface callback directly on .

function playNotification()
{
 $('#notification').playNotification();
}

Thanks to republicofcode.com for the tutorial. Check out the full article here.

Xbox Live: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

2009-12-12T12:50:00.000-06:00

I've had my Xbox for just over a 6 weeks now. My trial of Xbox Live Gold went without a glitch. I was gaming merrily with friends on a network I perceived to be superior to PlayStation Network (PSN). Overlooking the fact that the hardware is "terrible" – I can't over look that... rant:

Since the dawn of PS3 (before Slim) and 360 there's been discussion on technical blogs about how "fat" the PS3 is. It's not a small console, but come one people, the Xbox has an external power supply brick that's half the size of the PS3 - and still the 360 is barely smaller. Also, I thought people were exaggerating the fact that the Xbox is loud. They're not. The disc drive is ridiculously loud and when the fans kick in it's like someone plugged in a vacuum cleaner. /rant.

This gives the consoles a draw for me. Sony's hardware is superior to Microsoft's, but Microsoft's strong point is the software. While I find the New Xbox Experience user interface unintuitive and harder to navigate than Sony's XMB, the Live experience is amazing, well worth the $60 / year.

Back to my point, my Gold trial membership went without a glitch - all of this changed in a second when it was time to turn my trial membership into a real membership and pay up. I signed on to xbox.com and attempted to add my credit card information. Long story short - turns out I left my Live Account in the US when I signed up, instead of switching over to Canada. Microsoft has a "limitation" in their billing system that won't let a person change country once the gamer tag was started. DRM anyone? So, I had to "cancel" (more to that later) my account and restart a new gamer tag in Canada so I could add my Canadian credit card on the account - without the option of migrating anything over to the new account. Luckily I've only been playing for a month...

Xbox Live: The Good

Provides a fantastic online gaming experience
Servers are filled and fast
Parties are awesome
Better than PSN

The Bad

Don't ever think about moving to another country, you'll lose anything

Unless, you buy your country's Xbox redeem vouchers online

The Ugly

Xbox Live customer support - shockingly terrible

I was told by two reps that I could in fact change my country, but they couldn't seem to do it at the moment
A supervisor finally told me that I couldn't due to the "limiation" in the billing system
You can't cancel your account. Ever.
You can "close" your profile, but they will keep your gamer tag active

The reason for this, according to the rep "closing" my account, is that I am located in Canada trying to close a US gamer tag.

While I was lucky that I didn't lose much of my achievements and gamer points moving to my new account, it will be quite terrible should I ever move back to Germany.

Random Fact

2009-11-21T17:16:00.004-06:00

Scenario: You've borrowed someone's car, and you have the courtesy to fill up their tank. You pull up to the station and "Hmm, which side is the cap on?"

Solution 1: Assume it's on the left/right, pull up to the pump, get out, swear under your breath, move car to a different pump with cap facing the right direction.

Solution 2: Find the gas gauge on the dash. Find the arrow / triangle. Whichever direction the arrow / triangle points is the side of the gas cap.

Genius, isn't it? I learnt this about a year ago. It's nice not having to do guess work in a rental when it's -40 out.

Mine's on the right. Where's yours? :P

Use RemoteDisc with XP and MacBookPro

2009-10-05T10:31:00.003-06:00

I bought a 15" MacBookPro the other month. 2 weeks in my disc drive was shredding CD's - I'm still waiting on a replacement part.

In the mean time I need to install things from disc, like Office:mac, iWork, iLive etc. So I set out to find a way to use Apple's RemoteDisc with my MacBookPro. Why isn't this enabled for MacBooks and MacBookPros by default, because it's only "designed" to work with the MacBookAir. Sheesh...

Anyways, Jason Evangelho has a quick tutorial on how to enable RemoteDisc for all macs using Apple's oh-so-powerful defaults write. I can confirm it's working, as I'm using my work Dell to install iWork on my MacBookPro as we speak.

Extended Warranties

2009-10-01T12:47:00.004-06:00

I'm not the guy to buy extended warranties for most things. An iPod? No thanks, when it dies I'll get a new one. A TV? I have faith in the manufacturer to make a unit that'll last 3+ years before it dies.

Now here's my predicament: My Car. I drive an '07 Focus bought in Winter '06. It's been three years this fall and it's at 57,000 km. My 3yr/60,000 km "Bumper to Bumper" warranty is practically up. That warranty covers things like: electrical, A/C, gadgets (heated seats, audio unit) etc. - an accessories warranty so to speak.

Jubilee Ford is offering me an in-house warranty that will extend my Bumper to Bumper for another 3 years / 150,000 km for $1900 (CDN).

I know nothing about extended warranties, is it worth not investing said amount and potentially being stuck with a broken A/C next summer that will cost me more to fix?

Any input would be greatly appreciated!

Note: I should mention I have two warranties. Powertrain (5yr / 150k) and Bumper To Bumper (3yr / 60k) In 2 years, I'll have a chance to extend my Powertrain should I choose to. I'm only talking about the Bumper To Bumper right now :P

A Cold Day at the Office

2009-09-28T14:00:00.003-06:00

We've had troubles at zu's new building with the A/C before today, but today was an especially interesting occurrence. For the first time this fall/winter season our temperature in Saskatoon dipped below the freezing point somehow this persuaded the building's A/C to turn on full blow. The result: A Cold Day at the Office. Temperatures on the third floor, where we house production, ranged from 9 - 14 C until the A/C was fixed.

Here's some pics of what zuStaff did to stay warm today:

How To Re-enable Group Headings in iTunes 9

2009-09-10T08:07:00.003-06:00

I installed iTunes 9 last night, and was a bit baffled by the interface overhaul. Mostly I was confused where my "Albums", "Artists", "Genres" and "Composers" headings when in the grid view.

To re-enable these headings simply click "View" -> "Grid View" -> "Show Header" and you'll have the usual headings back as you did in iTunes 8.

Canada isn't the only country with bad mobile carriers / ISPs, promise.

2009-07-03T08:37:00.006-06:00

Man oh man!

I'm currently enjoying the last few days of my vacation in Germany at my mother's house. It's been a fun 2 weeks and has been a welcome, relaxing change to the daily hussle of the past 6 months.

Of course my mother wouldn't be my mother with a "Johannes' To-Do" when I arrive. The two main items on the list were/are:

Switch Internet from 1&1 back to Deutsche Telekom
Change cell contract to cheaper rate and upgrade phone

Easy, right?

I've got one word to describe both of the seemingly easy tasks: WayTooMuchFail.

Switching ISPs in Germany

When I switched my TV/Internet bundle from Sasktel to Shaw a few years ago it was surprisingly simple. A Shaw tech came over, hooked up the new boxes, did some fiddling around, and that was that. A call later I had cancelled SaskTel and dropped off their equipment. Within a day everything was done. (Sure, I got stuck with a bit of pro-ration between switching providers, but meh)

A bit of history. The Deutsche Telekom was privatized in 1996 and has now expanded to a huge international communications company offering both consumer and business services spanning internet (T-Online), home phone / IPTV (T-Home), mobile (T-Mobile) and various other non-consumer services (T-Systems).

When the Telekom was slow on the ball offering DSL in our area many neighbours went with 1&1. The Telekom finally has a presence here now and is fighting to get customers back with cheaper phone/internet bundles. So we're switching back to bundle our fax/homephone with DSL to make things about 50% cheaper. Now here's the ridiculous part:

If we switch to the Telekom, 1&1 reserves the right to keep the DSL port blocked for up to 7 days while we switch. 7 days of no connectivity during the period that Telekom is trying to reconnect our house to the internet. There was no valid explanation about this from any reps either 1&1 or Telekom's side.

It's a 7 day blackout for my mom, but in the end bundling her homephone and internet with only the Telekom instead of Telekom and 1&1 is going to save her alot of money per month.

Dealing with Wireless Carriers in Germany

I've heard a few gems about dealing with Rogers Wireless, my favourite by Saskatoon local Jeff Read. While the following wireless woes can not compete with Jeff's customer service troubles I would like to lay upon you the following idea.

What if your wireless carrier's phone hotline was useless. Litereally in the sense of the word: useless. The people are friendly, know their material, but literally, are useless. They answer your questions and that's all they can do. (e-plus)

I've called 5 times today explaining that the online portal is down and I can not change my mother's contract nor can I upgrade her phone and was wondering if I could quickly do this over the phone as I am leaving for Canada on Monday.

All 5 times I was told that no rep can no longer change contracts and hardware over the phone. The "Online Kundencenter", or customer portal, was the sole place to do that. Even if the portal has now been for close to 36 hours, they can't help me with contract ugprades or hardware upgrades, they can only assist me in changing account details, solving billing problems, checking the status of my hardware upgrade or contract upgrade or telling me about the newest promotions.

For a guy that usually likes the idea of everything being online I am quite appalled that I literally can't get anything done with this company until someone fixes the customer service portal and this magical "Change Contract Details" button reappears in the control panel.

iPhone OS 3 Tethering, Rogers Canada

2009-06-18T20:57:00.003-06:00

Finally, tethering on the iPhone.

After my woes with Rogers Customer Service earlier this week, asking about prices and availability, it seems that Rogers has cleared things up regarding the pricing for iPhone tethering. I quote:

Tethering is the use of your phone as a wireless modem to connect to the Internet from your computer. For a limited time, if you subscribe to a data plan which includes at least 1GB of data transmission between June 8, 2009 and December 31, 2009, and if you have a compatible device, you may use tethering as part of the volume of data included in your plan at no additional charge. Tethering cannot be used with data plans of less than 1GB

I am not looking forward to the end of that promotion as I'm sure Rogers will somehow figure out a way to gouge me out of more money.

OK. How to tether.

Connect iPhone to Computer (I'm doing this for mac)
If you haven't already, install OS 3 on your iPhone
After the sync, on iPhone tap Settings -> General -> Network -> Internet Tethering
Switch ON
On your mac wait for the notice of new ethernet adaptor being found
Open network preferences
This may not apply to you, but to get the tethering to work I had to choose Advanced and then manually Renew my DHCP lease to contact the Rogers DNS and get on their network.
Your iPhone will switch to the blue bar telling you you're online
Don't forget to disable iPhone's tethering option when you're done so you don't burn through your data like crazy

From Johannes Lindenbaum

iPhone 3G is limited to a 3.6 MBit/s downstream as it doesn't support HSDPA. (iPhone 3G S has HSDPA support and Rogers also supports the 7.6 MBit/s downstream)

The speed I got using Shaw's speedtest was 2.5 MBit/s down and 200 kbps up at ~8.30 pm.

If these speeds are consistent across Canada in 3G, I'm more than happy with this for emergency internet use.

Searching for Music

2009-06-16T14:03:00.003-06:00

I'm flying home on Monday and have a total of 12 hours in the air and a good 6 in airports. That's alot of waiting and downtime.

I need some new music to keep me entertained during the trip.

On my list for the flight of new music for sure are:

Street Sweeper Social Club - Album released today, I'm twice through and I'm liking it alot sofar. It's Tom Morello's new project - thanks to that there's a lot of RATM influence on the album. Love it.
Mulatu Astatke - A recommendation by Ryan - Ethiopian Jazz, something I know nothing about, but really.. how bad can Jazz be? I'll find out :)

If you have any other recommendations for me, please leave them in the comments!

Oh Rogers, You're So Silly

2009-06-10T22:00:00.001-06:00

As you may have heard Apple announced a few things during Monday's keynote at WWDC.

The most interesting for me is Snow Leopard, but that's for another post.

The announcement that also sparked my interest is the announcement that Rogers is on board for the OS 3.0 launch and ready to handle tethering and MMS, unlike AT&T.

So, my curiosity sparked and I called Rogers.

My first call was pleasant. I mentioned I had gotten a prerelease Gold Master for OS 3.0 and was wondering about tethering prices before I got dinged with a bill. The Rep, Dave, pleasantly told me that because I had a data plan that was over 1GB (6GB / $30 / m) my tethering wouldn't cost anything extra. As long as I stay under my 6GB limit.

Perfect! Makes sense - the answer I wanted. Boom - we're done.

Later that day I had some time and wanted to setup tethering. I tapped (in OS 3 GM) Settings -> General -> Network. Third option from the top: Set Up Internet Tethering. (Oddly enough this wasn't showing up for Cory on his 3G despite also being on the OS 3 GM). I got a popup advising me that tethering was not activated and I should contact Rogers.

Call 2 - this one threw me off completely. A rep who's name I didn't catch (but marked down the conversation reference number - they give those out now instead of agent codes it seems) told me a completely different story. I wanted to confirm what the first rep had told me about tethering being included in my plan.

This rep was unaware of tethering on iPhone at all and hadn't heard of OS 3. He also told me, without confirming any details with his senior, that tethering would be a promotion of 6 months and then I would be charged per tether detected. I was skeptical, but asked to be put through to the Technical Department to see if I could get my tethering activated. That rep told me that tethering on iPhone accounts was not to be activated until June 17th, when OS 3 officially launches. The rep honestly admitted he knew nothing about price plans and didn't want to speculate, but offered to transfer me back to Sales. I declined and hung up.

So started the emails. I wrote an email to Rogers customer service explaining I had gotten mixed results from two reps and wanted to clear up the simple question: Is tethering included in my 6GB / $30 / month data plan or if I would be charged if I tethered my phone.

The first email I got, confused me. Besides the usual "thanks for being our customer"-cheese here's the guts of the message:

At Rogers, we are offering 6 months of free tethering for any customer
with compatible Smart phone who has subscribed to 1GB or more data plan.
This is limited time offer of no additional fee for tethering this
promotion will end December 31 2009, at which point you will have the
option to subscribe to tethering plans.

Tethering data usage will come out of your existing data bucket.
Overage charges may apply if data usage exceeds amount included in your
data bucket.

The way I understand the above email is that there will be a 6 month promotion on tethering for customers that have a 1GB+ data plan. Ding - I qualify for that. It also reads that during this time no additional cost for tethering will be incurred. Once the promotion is over I have the option to subscribe to a tethering plan. *sigh* "That sounds like what the second guy was talking about", I thought.

I wrote back asking for clarification on the topic of "option" of tethering plans. I got the following response and am now back at square 1.

After reviewing the documentation concerning the $30 for 6GB data access plan, tethering is allowed (and will always be allowed on this plan) as it is not the same as our $10 Unlimited On-device Mobile Browsing plan which tethering is a pay per use charge. When you are tethering it will deduct the usage from the 6GB data pool. If you go over the 6GB per month allotment there is a charge of $0.05 for the first 60MB and $0.03 per MB thereafter up to a maximum of $100 minus your monthly data service plan cost therefore the maximum overage charge you could possibly incur would be $70.

This explanation makes sense and matches what the first rep was getting at.

My results are now 2 for "tethering is included in your data plan" and 2 for "it may/could/will be extra after 6 months".

What have your results been?

Music of the Week #2 & #3

2009-06-03T22:23:00.001-06:00

Work, work, work - all I do is work lately. I've gotta slow down before I burnout (thanks Cory).

So here's (a bit late) Music of the Week #2 (ending May 24th) and #3 (ending May 31st)

#2 (ending May 24th)

Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse
Les Miserablés (Original London Cast)
Foo Fighters
Daft Punk
Thornley

It was quite the listening week. Marli pointed me to an article on NPR about Danger Mouse "releasing" and album with Sparklehorse. Little did I know that this album would have such an effect on me. First off - this album is never going to be released due to a legal struggle with Danger Mouse and the record label EMI, which really is a shame, due to the intense energy this album brings across. The sheer effort put into the songs and the very well done collaborations on the album (include artists such as Julian Casablancas [The Strokes], James Mercer [The Shins] and, believe it or not, Iggy Pop and many, many more). Fav's include "Revenge (Flaming Lips)", "Star Eyes (I Can't Catch It)" and "The Man Who Played God". Hit up the NPR article for a listen in the standalone player.

I really have no idea why I suddenly started listening to Les Miserablés. The soundtrack is great for a musical and the story is a beautiful one. I believe the main cause for this impulse purchase and listen was listening to Susan Boyle.

Ah, the Foo Fighters, my roots. I think the Foo Fighters have been the the one band I've constantly listened to for the past 8 years! I can identify myself with so many songs and I have pin pointing which songs are my favourites. But I can definately tell you the songs that start many, many Genius playlists are "Best Of You" (In Your Honor - 2005), "Low" (One By One - 2002), "Generator" (There Is Nothing Left To Lose - 1999). Bah, who am I kidding my favourite Foo's song of all times is and will always be "Everlong" (The Colour and the Shape - 1997).

Daft Punk - this one's a doozey again. The album artist is in fact Daft Punk, but the album I am listening to is in fact a bootlegged remix album titled "Remix After All" and is a remix album of, you guessed it, "Human After All". For a bootlegged album the execution of the songs are amazing. The engineering is great, the songs keep their Daft Punk feel with some of great synth flares. Check out the blog entry for more info.

I talked about Thornley in Music of the Week #0 a few weeks ago :).

#3 (ending May 31st)

Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse
Daft Punk
Peter Fox
Incubus
Led Zeppelin

For more about the Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse collaberation album, read above in Music of the Week #2.

The same applies to Daft Punk. I am still quite attached to the "Remix After All" album - read above for more info.

Peter Fox. Still with the addicting album - gosh! I spoke about his "Stadtaffe" album in Music of the Week #0 and yes - it's still haunting me :).

Incubus - Spoke about them in Music of the Week #1.

Led Zeppelin. Really - what's left to say. Classic Rock. Robert Plant. Jimmy Page. What's not to love - really?!

Comments, suggestions?

Music of the Week #1

2009-05-18T13:44:00.002-06:00

OK, OK, so I failed for last Sunday. I'm making up for this week. :)

Music of the week ending Sunday May 17th, 2009.

Does It Offend You, Yeah?
Bloc Party
Danger
Nine Inch Nails
Incubus

Does It Offend You, Yeah? is a great band referred to me by Marli. I'm very late on picking up on these guys, their album hast been out since March 2008 and contains a number of tracks that have made some intense appearances in other media, such as Fast & Furious 4, American Teen (movie) and more. I am quite addicted to the album "You Have No Idea What You're Getting Yourself Into". Favourite tracks include: "Being Bad Feels Pretty Good", "With a Heavy Heart" and "Weird Science".

Bloc Party - I can't stop listening to the Intimacy album. I haven't gotten around to listening to the Intimacy Remix album... yet. Top tracks for Bloc Party this week are (still) "Halo" and "Biko".

Danger wins this week's top track with the new single I found on his MySpace named "07h46". His mix of 80's style synth with today's flare of electronica is mind gobbling and oh-so addicting. Other great tracks include "11h30 (DatA Remix)" and "Revolte at 22h10".

Nine Inch Nails - This stat may be a little flawed as I was listening to the NIN|JA EP released to promote the tour NIN is on with Jane's Addiction and Street Sweeper Social Club. And mostly I've been listening to the Street Sweeper Social Club singles on the EP named "Clap for the Killers" and "The Oath".

Incubus - My golden oldie and one of the highest ranking artists on my last.fm account. My favourites of their entire discography include "Echo", "Here in my Room", "Dig", "Southern Girl" and "Wish You Were Here".

What were your top artists of the week?

Star Trek

2009-05-10T20:00:00.001-06:00

Got around to watching Star Trek last night and I hope to summarize the movie by saying "Pew Pew". That is all.

Seriously, the movie is a must see. It's got the plot, the acting and the action. On that note I should probably mention that I've never been a trekkie, I've never seen anything Star Trek before. And even without the previous knowledge of anything regarding the Star Trek universe the movie was easy to understand. There were a few moments where people laughed / sighed at what I assume to be references for the trekkies in the audience. But those were few and didn't change much in regards to the plot.

The entire art of the movie is amazing and the space battles grandios (pew, pew!) I am excited to re-enjoy this movie on Blu-Ray when the time comes.

Music of the Week #0

2009-05-09T12:47:00.005-06:00

New regular for the blog (I hope I can keep it regular): What music I've found and listened to each week. Since I've started my musical quest in February I've been exposed to many new bands and new music.

To Do this I'm using two tools, an iTunes Smart Playlist and my last.fm account. The Smart Playlist is setup to limit me to 25 tracks I've played most in the past week. My last.fm account will help me actually get real play counts and let me have a second data set to compare to.

If anyone has suggestions about getting more accurate data, don't hesitate to leave them in a comment.

So, to get things started I've titled this post #0 as an introduction and to post some data up until May 3rd. Tomorrow is Sunday and I'll have a chance to review everything for the first actual "Music of the Week #1" post.

Music of the Week ending on May 3rd.

The Lonely Island
Thornley
Peter Fox
Gorillaz
Justice
Danger

I'm a big fan of The Lonely Island album "Incredibad". This seems a bit out of my usual listening pattern, but I listen to it for the absolute hilarity of the lyrics. I smile and giggle every time I listen to it.

Thornley to me is Canada's undiscovered gem for music. Ian Thornley's band has great live shows and albums. Songs from "Tiny Pictures" and their debut album "Come Again" were embedded somewhere, somehow into my playlists.

Peter Fox is a stranger to most located outside of German-speaking Europe. He is one of the frontment of band "Seeed" and has recently launched his solo career. His debut album "Stadtaffe" (translated 'city monkey') is a very interesting venture into the quickly popularizing genre of Dancehall. What I like about this album is the stronger focus on the merger between Dance and Hip Hop. The outcome is an album that doesn't get boring and interesting beats.

Gorillaz 'nuff said.

If you haven't listened to the french electro band Justice you need to - now. (No really, go do it now) Their main album "Cross" is so perfectly engineered that I use it as a benchmark for other electro albums. Justice has set the bar quite high with that album, too. The live album "A Cross the Universe" and their most recent EP "Planisphère" are a great addition to "Cross".

Danger is a new addition to my library. Until his site is done there's very little actual information about the artist on the MySpace page. I currently only own the "09/14/2007" EP with a great track naming convention of "11h30", "14h54" and "19h11". The single "Revolte at 22h10" was an instant hit in my book. Good beat, distorted singing, original melody - I'm sold.

More tomorrow when last.fm has generated last week's stats.

Bloc Party @ Odeon, Saskatoon

2009-05-03T12:20:00.000-06:00

Last night was the Bloc Party concert at the Odeon in Saskatoon. I was very excited for this concert as this was the second time I got to see the band perform live.

The first concert was in at the '2005 Einslive Königstreffen' (German wikipedia entry) in Herzogenrath, Germany - Here's a flickr set I found. It was my first real festival with bands like Tocotronic, Max Herre, Gentlemen, Mando Diao and the final huge act of the evening Franz Ferdinand.

Anyhow, 2005 was the year Bloc Party's Silent Alarm album was release, and just months after the release was the show at the Königstreffen. The only single I'd heard at the time was Helicopter, so I didn't know what to expect. They put on a great show and the next day I had purchased Bloc Party, Mando Diao and Franz Ferdinand Albums.

When I heard on Rock102 that Bloc Party was coming to Saskatoon in January I bought tickets asap. I was excited. Bloc Party! Again! It's been 4 years!

In the mean time the band had released two new 'main' albums and various remix albums. The main albums 'A Weekend in the City' and 'Intimacy' were released in 2007 and 2008 respectively. The changes the band had gone through in influences and musicianship have been very apparent throughout the two albums.

Fast forward to today (well, last night, really). The night had finally come, Bloc Party time. Bloc Party recognized it was there first time in Saskatoon and promised they would rock us - if we rocked them too. Through out the show we were ordered to let out our inner cheekiness.

The show was a perfect mixture of songs from all three albums and crowd interaction. The highlight of crowd interaction was Kele, lead singer, crowd surfing a good 30 metres to the Odeon's little sound booth, whilst singing!

The Odeon should look into a new A/C, I'd say it was a good 40 degrees or more in the entire building, before the show had even started! Even the band commented a few times that it was very warm, also resulting in Matt, drummer, to play in his boxers.

Musical highlights for me included live sampling and manipulation by Kele and Russell, lead guitar. Very apparent in songs like 'Mercury', 'Ares' and 'Halo'.

So, despite the blistering heat, the show was absolutely fantastic and I hope to see Bloc Party again in the near future!

Finally, my flickr set from last night.

After the show I heard that some of the band were at my favourite local pub O'Shaes and went to check it out. I met a few friends and talked for a while up on the patio, and finally saw Matt. I apologized for interrupting and we talked a little, about that night's show and the 2005 festival. It was a nice little chat and I left with a signed show ticket. :)

Crank: High Voltage (2009)

2009-05-01T00:08:00.003-06:00

I just watched Crank: High Voltage with my friend Marli and her boyfriend.

My first impression: awesome.

A bit of a deeper drill down:

I was a huge fan of Crank (2006), which is probably grounds for my liking of Crank 2. The easiest way to describe Crank 2, for me, is to say "It's like Crank all over again, but more excessive, trashy and inventive".

The plot of Crank: High Voltage picks up where Crank left off 3 years ago. Chev Chelios (Jason Statham), poisoned by a chinese synthetic by Ricky Verona (Jose Pablo Cantillo) after an intriguing plot to kill Triad leader Don Kim. After a day long chase through Los Angeles, Chev finally tracks down Ricky and the two nemesis face off in a mile high fall to the ground. With both main characters seemingly dead Crank: High Voltage takes off.

Mere seconds after the crash landing of Chev on an elderly woman's car, violently rebounding to the pavement, our hero is, literally, scraped off the street by a group of Triad grunts and tossed into the back of a van. In a series of blurred visions we realize Chev's heart is being taken out and replaced by an artificial unit. Without wanting to spoil the movie I'll digress:

Chev chases his heart through Los Angeles all day. During the chase he's reunited with his "Doc" and his girlfriend.

Excessive, hilarious action sequences make the movie what it is. A no-brain-required movie for Statham and action fans alike.

I'll conclude by recommending this movie. I've never laughed so hard during an action movie in my life.

Transition period

2009-04-30T12:00:00.001-06:00

Hey, welcome to the new spot.

Bear with me as I move over posts (I'm censoring myself during this move) from my old blog.

I will be keeping the domain as more of a portal for all services I subscribe to: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook (private), flickr, Google etc. etc. etc.

I'll be using this blogspot to focus more on things I really want to talk about in depth, such as movies, music I 'review' and technologies, innovations I wish to share / comment on.

Guns N' Roses - Chinese Democracy

2008-11-27T00:14:00.002-06:00

I've had a couple days to listen to the new Guns N' Roses album titled "Chinese Democracy" and I have to say: "It's one of the best albums I've heard to date". There is not a single song on that album that I skip through.

My friend Peter, kept me up to date on the boot legged versions of the album as they popped up on the internet. I liked the songs then, but the final tracks have such a high quality of engineering, little subtle changes to the bootlegs that make all of these songs hits! The album is riddled with complex themed songs such as "Catcher In The Rye" or "Street of Dreams" and hard riffed songs such as the first single "Chinese Democracy", "Shackler's Revenge" and "Riad N' The Bedouins".

Within in all this the two songs I can identify myself with on a musical level are "Madagascar" - for its strong melody and absolute epic quote mashup and "This I Love" for its emotion and a show off that Axl still has his amazing vocal range.

I'm worried that this album may become the next Octavarium for me. Close friends of mine were confronted with a Dream Theater phase of mine a few years back. I was (and still am) absolutely addicted to their Octavarium album. A pinnacle of musicianship in the progressive metal scene!

2008-10-25T13:16:00.001-06:00

I've always been an advocate for equality. Especially human rights. When I woke up this morning and casually started reading my RSS feeds I came across the following gems:

http://www.apple.com/startpage/

Gizmodo

Mac Rumors

TUAW

For those who don't know what Proposition 8 is, here's a brief summary:

Proposition 8 is an initiative measure on the 2008 California General Election ballot titled Eliminates Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry. If passed, the proposition would "change the California Constitution to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry in California." A new section would be added stating "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California. (Wikipedia)

Of course Apple isn't the only Silicon Valley corporation taking an official stance on California's Proposition 8. Last month Google announced its support "No on Prop 8" by issuing a post on its official blog.

I find it a bold move of both corporations to take an official stance on this issue as both companies could lose customers that feel strongly about "Yes on Prop 8".

Here's my official stance: Anything that takes away any kind of right from a human being is wrong. This includes the "issue" of gay marriage. What issue? There is no issue here. Two adults are consenting in marriage. So what if they're of the same sex? How does a matrimony between two loved ones affect your day to day life. Homosexuality is not a choice! You can't choose to be gay.

Mobile Platform Ramble

2008-10-12T11:59:00.001-06:00

My interest for mobile platforms is increasing exponentially. The more I read and learn about them the more I realize how important and what a huge impact a well designed, well executed mobile platform can do for my own living quality. I don't know what I'd do anymore without having the internet in my pocket, or not having my email with me at all times. I can't list the times I've been bored at an airport, waiting for someone or riding the bus where the fastest time passer is reading my favourite content on the net, or answering an email!

BlackBerry

Let's start with the good ol' rock solid BlackBerry platform. It's established, has a vast market share and is loved by millions. The only downside, that's well known, is the BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS). In recent years I have been tired of BlackBerry. The 8800 (apparently RIM's flagship) is a piece for users that want more than just calls and email. The 8300 "Curve" series is a very appealing phone on hardware side - sadly BlackBerry's too basic Operating System is a huge turn off for me (this has changed, but I'll get to that in a bit) for that series. The 8100 "Pearl" series is a huge hit with consumers. The newest revisions have all the features as its big "brother" the Curve and even has UMA. The same applies to the Pearl as it does to the Curve: Nice hardware - crap User Interface. The biggest drawback for me on all of these phones? The buttons. I have large thumbs and I can't type fast on the Curve or Pearl. Using iPhone on the other hand I can type fast and securely, because there is no physical typing just sleek finger flying.

Moving on to the most exciting line in BlackBerries in a long time. The Storm, Bold and Javelin. The Storm is RIM's response to Apple's iPhone released in 2007. From what I've seen sofar the Storm is the only serious iPhone competitor (when talking on a level of pure touch screen smart phones). I don't consider the Samsung Instinct a threat, simply because of my horrible track record with Samsung products. The quality of Samsung's products are poor, poor, poor. LG you say? Have you actually touched the LG Vu? The screen has a response time of an earth worm.

Anyhow, my friend Arlin just bought himself a BlackBerry Bold - while I find the front of the phone visually appealing, the back pleather stuff is - tacky? RIM has really stepped up their game, the operating system looks and feels like real people can use it. It's not dumbed down and over simplified anymore. It's visually appealing things make sense! Sadly the same applies, buttons. They're spaced too close for my thumbs to type efficiently! 3G is heaven, despite Rogers' wonky 3G coverage in Saskatoon - not enough tower density. Too many 3G users at once and you'll switch to EDGE. :(

I'll finish off the BlackBerry phone talk with the up coming Javelin. T-Mobile Germany briefly had a splash / info page for the Javelin on their site, but it seems to have been pulled. Gizmodo has the article! While find this phone visually appealing, the same goes for all the other buttoned phones. My fat thumbs. Or my laziness to hit buttons instead of just tapping a screen.

Finishing off BlackBerry software talk with RIM's announcement of an AppStore. I've not heard many details about it, though I'm surprised it's taken RIM this long to get their act together on this issue. Their official App Store already has a contender: BerryStore. We'll see what happens. :) I'm intrigued to see if there will be App screen as there is in Apple's AppStore. What prices and revenue sharing will be like? If there will be such a system at all, that is!

To conclude my BlackBerry portion I will say that I'm glad to see RIM jumping on the ball again and not riding on their success, ignoring new technologies completely. Once I know more about, especially, the Storm I'll write about it. Maybe the Storm will get me off my iPhone addiction. Don't hold your breath though. Storm, Bold, Javelin are very bold (no pun intended) responses of RIM to show its competitors where it's at. RIM has raised the bar once again!

Android

Let's move on to Android. Ah yes, the Open Handset Alliance. Google's operating system that garantuees phone freedom and strengthens Google's stance of Big Brother. Gizmodo featured a sarcastic, yet true, article on how Android is just another piece in Google's world domination puzzle.

Back on topic, I have to admit I'm not a huge fan of open platforms (open software yes, open computing platforms, no) - Having to optimize an Operating System to run on phones from different vendors just doesn't seem so great. Windows Mobile is a good example of that. Yuck. I would assume to make this job easier on Google developers the phones would share alot of hardware. Why the different vendors then?

In addition to the above Android's launch was tainted to me when their first release was on an HTC. Really? C'mon the phone is missing a headphone jack. Headphones! I didn't know they made phones without a jack anymore! The hardware in my eyes is this piece of crap phones with huge software gaps like "I don't have a media player, but let's wait and see what the community releases!"

Which brings me to Android's App Store. Freedom is nice and all, but no screening process on a store? Can't wait to see what some 14 year old is going to push into the store that's badly designed, doesn't conform to any visual standards.

Sorry to all you Android fans, but sofar I have nothing good to say about Android!

iPhone

Call me fanboy all you like, but this mobile platform is rock solid. Despite some serious bugs in the 2.0 software that have been addressed in 2.1 and more to be fixed in 2.2, I find this mobile platform most appealing of all. It's easy to use, the hardware is great, the User Interface is an absolute dream and no, I don't miss buttons. In fact in direct comparison to my old BlackBerry Curve or Sony Ericsson K790i my typing speed has gone up drastically!

Apple's App Store, though hated in the developer's community, is the perfect strategy for Apple. The revenue sharing plan is fair with a 30% / 70% split for each App sold. (30% to Apple, 70% to the developer). The screen process, though mysterious, garantuees only well designed and conforming Apps are on the store. Sadly Apple is not allowing "iPhone feature duplicating" Apps in the store like Podcaster.

My only problem with this mobile platform, currently, is: Where to next? After Apple releases the 2.2 software (and hopefully PUSH notification) what's left? The phone's hardware has everything I desire, BlueTooth, AGPS, a camera that's half decent, head phone jack (take that G1) and 3G.

The only things I'd like is BlueTooth stereo headphone support, maybe a better camera and possibly GPS, not AGPS.

I'm very excited to see the above three mobile platforms evolve, and hopefully Android can catch up to be a worthy contender to RIM and Apple's mobile platforms.

Thoughts, Feelings, Rants? Leave them in the comments.

Sun to acquire MySQL

2008-01-15T18:44:00.001-06:00

Sun has announced today that they are starting a definitive bargain to acquire MySQL AB. We all know MySQL AB as the company driving the Database Management System MySQL. Up to a billion dollars are in consideration for the transaction and as Jonathan Schwartz puts it "We're putting a billion dollars behind the M in LAMP".

I really don't know what to think of this other than this might be Sun's time to start moving into the spotlight again and start competing directly with software companies like Oracle and Microsoft. Let's see if Sun can bring the funding and structure to MySQL that's needed to push MySQL over the limit into the corporate / enterprise branch.What do you think?[Via PhotoMatt and Jonathan Schwartz]

300 (2007)

2007-03-11T15:13:00.002-06:00

Considering all tickets for the Premiere show were sold out (and I was working) I decided to go watch the movie on Saturday morning.

I've got two word for you: Absolutely brilliant.

I'm the kind of guy that watches a movie and remembers good quotes from the movie. In 300 on the other hand.. there are so many good quotes I can only list a couple that (some only make sense in context) really affected me during the movie.

Leonidas: "This is where we fight. This is where they die!"

In context: The first attack wave of Xerxes army is rushing towards the 300 brave men standing in the hot gate passage. These are Leonidas last motivational words before the wave arrives.

-

Xserxes: "Imagine what our two cultures could share. All you need to do is kneel"
Leonidas: "It seems we've been sharing your culture all morning. [...] All that fighting... I think I have a cramp in my leg that does not permit me to kneel."

In context: The two kings meet. Xerxes tries to convince Leonidas to join ranks with him, as Xserxes has noticed that Leonidas is putting up quite the fight. Leonidas, cocky throughout the movie, mocks Xerxses offer.

There are so many amazing lines in this movie. The movie in general is amazing. There is little character development (better for me, more action) but the plot is well developed. The narrator is a nice additive.

I am really anticipating the DVD release of this movie.