According to RIAA mantra, we are all going to burn in hell being forced to engage in sodomy with the ghost of Saddam Hussein (South Park reference).

According to people like me, we are DOOMED because there are backroom dealings to get a three strike plan in action.  This is in place of lawsuits.  Oh, by the way - three strikes applies to suspicion of file sharing.  They certainly are dirty communist bastards!

Here is a link to the techdirt article [link].  So WTF?  These record companies really need to chill the hell out.  I work in tech, I know how easy it is to trace, sniff packets, do sh!t like that.

I accept the fact any employer who CAN sniff your email WILL shiff your email.  Man-in-the-middle attacks - normal upper management stuff (paranoid folks - true).  SSH tunneling - standard method to try and get some privacy (yeah, that is why we all use laptops, where you going to hide the key logger?).

Enough about that.  Here is the way to share files.  Back up all your music on a huge USB drive (as you should).  Now trade this with your friends.  Easy enough huh?

I don’t need to fish for torrent / etc to get music.  The library has tons of music to borrow FOR FREE!

That is assuming you leave the house.

Seriously, people, write about this stuff.  The only people who are suffering are the REAL artists (not Madonna) and the end user.  Remember this:

Copyright was NOT created as a means to sue and protect work forever.  It was implemented as a courtesy to provide a buffer for the artist or creator to create new works.

Our copyright laws are out of date and the execs are using this to sue and limit our rights.  This is seriusly bad stuff.  Please be vocal on the issue.

First - who is driving this ship?  HTC made the phone, Google wrote the OS.  Most of this is a Google spec’d project.  Why does the report lay claim that T-Mobile is picking up the tab?  I don’t consider this a service providers problem.

Bring me the dumb pipe!  Seriously - I only want the cell tower on ramp.  I will buy and manage my OWN phone.  This includes the purchasing and management of resources such as battery.

How about the fact that people (before launch) tested the G1 and did not come to the conclusion that the battery was crap.  I left a Blackberry Curve.  That unit had 2.5 days of use per charge the way I used the phone.  I get a G1 with 1/2 day out of the box.  I am now up to a full day on a charge and I can take a few calls - WOW!.

I could go on - but that is not way.  Much like my SubAnalog blog [link] my amazement grows.  I know that I am not the only voice of reason.  Now I may be more critical than others, but still - I am not an island of clear thinking or rational processes.

Let’s get some review!  This is not a code sweatshop where you push it out and fix it live when they complain.  These are fragile units costing hundreds of dollars that people carry with them 24 hours every day!  Don’t half ass it!

Again - like my main thing at SubAnalog - if a unit fails on stage it BETTER BE BECAUSE OF ME!  If the manufacturing is poor - there will me phone calls.

Decision is pending - but I have changed no settings, changed any habits, nothing.  But - if I have an empty folder and “create new file” using “index.php” as the name 500 errors received.  Sorry to vent.  But here is the truth - when I used KoMoDo to do the same action NO PROBLEM.

This is not the first time that CrAptana has done this, 2 months ago all file format was swapped.  That was hours to fix.  I eventually had to reload everything via FileZilla.

Now that is just plain sad.

Update:  Just spent $300 for the full IDE.  I am committed.  Aptana is just too weak.  I applaud some of the recent attention received, but the bottom line is that the application does not perform and is a great distance away from performing for me.

I just deleted all the Aptana icons from quick launch, it felt real niec.  Well… my MSI download should be complete.

• Open source
• Cheap / free apps
• Linux
• Hackable
• First to have Flash (rumor from T-Mobile for early 2009)
• Has not crashed

Weaknesses:

• T-Mobile G3 network:  Suxxor to the maximum!  I don’t know where the absolute fault is to lie, but it would seem that Google and T-Mobile are to blame.  Google because the phone slips off 3G 4+ times per day.  This will occur even if the phone does not move.  T-Mobile because the network sucks.  Spotty 3G access and ebb and flow performance is very annoying.  I live in metropolitan Denver, the network should not suck like the mountains.
• Crap for Mail client:  Very very bad.  Compared to the Blackberry a total disaster.  If you are in an occupation where e-mail connectivity on the go is crucial you will loose your job with this phone.  I force refresh all the time and still miss emails.  The “check every 5 minute” setting is more like “check if your PID matches my random number generator”. Very bad on POP and IMAP as well as the Gmail connections.  I am comparing, again, to the Curve.
• Crap email setting and management:  This is a point where I could be wrong, so correct me if you can.  Bottom line - where is the setting to “erase email from hand held after N days”?  I can not find it.  WEAK - ouch.
• Crap email handling: The whole email client available is like some AJAX on the web application that is nothing but super lag.  Slow and weak and hard to follow when the data finally comes to the front.
• Crap email editor:  Can not copy and paste from the emails - nothing.  This is supposedly getting fixed. Regardless, that is a huge oversight.
• Email orientation weakness:  In many applications, email in particular, the rotate aspect will rest your focus and sometimes the whole instance.  An example - if your cursor is positioned in the reply area on an email and then you open up the keyboard you reset focus to the top of the email.  Wow, that is annoying.  This happens on many applications where focus is required.  Easy fix.  Hope they do it.
• Calendar is slick looking, but I can not add my main Google calendar with out a long string of sharing.  I got it to work, but it is NOT how I want it. For the record - I use a specific email account for the phone and did not choose my main gmail account.
• Instant message for Gmail talk is NOT CONFIGURABLE.  My chat I have used for ever is NOT available on the phone.  ALL OTHER clients are configurable (user/password) - just not the Google one.
• Battery life:  Holy sh!t!  Very weak.  I conditioned my battery to last a full day now.  Out of the box you get one half day per charge with low use.  I now can go all day long if I only take 2 short calls and don’t use the phone.
• Touch screen:  Piece of sh!t.  Very insensitive.  Almost impossible for my larger fingers.  I used the IPhone for a few days to compare, the IPhone is much stronger of a touch screen.
• Notifier on the top panel is very lazy.  To see the settings you need to unlock the phone.  For example - if I have “jump on wireless” enabled the wireless icon will not show until I unlock the phone.  Locked it says 3G is active.
• Contacts import from sim card - forget it.  Hand type them in.  I have spent more time trying to patch in all the lost ones that if I did it one by one.  (I used a backup feature before I moved my data because I know…)
• No headphone jack.  This is still annoying.
• Contact manager was designed very poorly.  Unlike other phones that can deal with normal inconsistencies, the G1 can NOT.  The “1″ in front of a number can confuse or eliminate success.  Non-hyphenated numbers have failed.  Numbers placed in the “mobile” slot with no “home” have failed.  Phone numbers in phone number areas are recognized as emails only.  All these are failures I had from one number.  (I had the format 13031234567 in the mobile - fail, killed the “1″ in the front - fail, phone number action only completed by email, not until the number moved to the main field with hyphens did the dialer work).
• Dialing from web is flaky at best.  It will NOT work with no predictable pattern to predict failures.  Also, remember - you can NOT copy from the web yet.
• A few applications installed that use Internet connection for hourly refresh (Twitter) can not access the web most of the time.  These are a long list of dead apps.
• Many of the application destinations are not available as bookmarks or desktop links.  You MUST go through the menu system to access the controls.  The example worth mentioning is the “airplane mode” used to reset the 3G connection that frequently slips.
• Camera - no flash, no zoom.
• GPS - good luck!  Very low success rate.
• 3G vs Edge network / Curve vs G1 - The G1 looses every time.  My other half and I race on the google map application and web searches, etc.  I have not won any of the races.

Other things:

The USB is indeed a standard connection despite the look. Most any USB mini till work for connection to the computer.

The battery will charge from any of your existing mini-USB 5vdc chargers.

You can use headphones with the unit via a USB to 1/8″ conversion included.  This conversion also has a mic on it so you can go hands free with a dongle mic.

Bottom Line: Get one if you are tolerant or want to go there.   If you rely on your phone this is NOT one to rely on.

As for the Android OS - it reeks of unnecessary (traditional) Java overhead and waste.  The use of Java was not a good choice.  My suggestion would be to create a better layer between initial BIOS / Kernel and OS that is compiled more like a shell.  After the shell stack on the junk.  As for the junk, let the public do it (Gentoo style) picking what they need and want.

Viva la open source, but please do it right.  Hopefully with the many big names jumping on Android we will get pressure from the big boys to fix the OS. Right now - this system is still pre-alpha.

I will place better ads, connect proper content, shift marketing trends for my projects.  How much is this data worth?

Mucho!

This same data (source) can compromise our freedom (government action?) or provide necessary fuel for (unnecessary or unrealistic) legislation.  Think about it.  If the “masses” could look in the mirror you would be amazed.  That “Real data” is like UFO’s.

With the UFO phenomenon we are all generally** cool with them existing in some realm of possibility.  It becomes rather uncool when you face one.  At least I feel that way.  I think there is a distinct possibility of ET type life.  What and how and where and all those questions I doubt I will answer.  But - if those answers were forced on me I this could be bad as part of a small minority knowing this true beyond any reasonable doubt.

Also true is the fact that (supposing we got some aliens) we really don’t want to introduce such ideas  into society.  There are still holy wars and racist states, etc.  So all of a sudden you want everyone to know how doomed our searches and activities are?  Noooo, bad idea.

That type of “OMG” should be left quiet.  When our “names” (online at least) are attached to the results we would all flip the hell out.  Trust me - one big leak form Google on a months worth of searches, IP addresses, and other data you don’t want to know is tracked would scare the living hell out of the general population.

I could be over reacting.  But my opinion comes form understanding 2 ideas working inperfect harmony. First is the sheer crazy amount of data you can log and crunch on a typical server using some smart programming and inherent protocols.  Second if the cost of storage and CPU cycles.  I have video cards more powerful then my testing linux server in CPU speed and RAM.

(third - people don’t know about this really)

If you collect the search info and destination for a chunk of the population you hold very valuable data.  Read the Google privacy policy (no link provided), it is rather blunt.

*New commodity because all the others are 9 months+ to get to this stage.  Age makes the data rather stale.

** Generally cool means we have a certain percentage that wants to believe.  If this was not the case we would not see all of the alien movies and similar projects in mainstream media.

I am planning on releasing the source code soon.  As it stands I have a twitter option and Feed Puller (like my name?) works with Wordpress RSS and del.icio.us just fine.  Watch for something soon.

As for the source code that inspired me, well, there is not too much of that left.  It was not much more than a jumping off point to Magpie RSS.   Thomas at Command Line mentioned recently the date-time handling is weak and I agree.  I don’t think that is as much a Magpie issue as it is a high level of variance (or weak standard) for date-time.   I placed an empty function in the class to extend for date filtering as needed.

I need to review the RSS standard a little more before I pass any personal judgement.

Wordpress 2.7 is out and you are viewing it!  I made the upgrade and I really like the changes.  If you need a copy go get it now, well worth your investment.  Nice dashboard improvement as well as security enhancements.

Also note the removal of the default Wordpress theme.  I was really wanting this blog to be an information centric site and refused to invest any style until there was some text.  I am there.

I hope you like the theme.  I will be tweaking it a little over the next month.

Otherwise the holiday season was uneventful and very nice.  My sites are a little more up to date and ultimately I feel a little better about things.

Well, today I ran into a verifiable bad parse mixing JS / Ajax / PHP / HTML - the little red X for bad syntax DRIVES ME NUTS!!! I am casting my array value into a straight variable declaration just to kill the False Error in Craptana.So Here is the code, a div opening tag:

<div class="pro_image_wrapper center ui cursor floatLeft" onclick=ajaxCall('act=pro_edit_images&image_type=thumb&image_loc=<?php $row['thumb_1'];?>’, ‘/add/catcher.php’, ‘pro_image_edit’);”>


Yeah, so the second ‘ after thumb_1 is registering as the close and  Craptana is asking for a closing ).

mb_1‘]

Bull$hit!  The code works fine, syntax is correct.

This same crap happens ALL the time in PHP using comments.  Let’s get to the meat of it (sorry Java Kids) - unless there is a sh!tload of unnecessary overhead to create waste, lag, and errors Java don’t work.

Of course, all the unnecessary sh!t will also make Java not work.

Now I am not about to stand up to tall for PHP.  This clunky HTML freebasing on OOP is not a good standard.  Me, I like thems Python.  Just not had time to go and kill all the learning.

Oh, and before anyone from the .NET crowd stands up - lol - your “amazing web framework” was giving errors to the Google-Bot for YEARS before anyone caught it (nice job on the SEO!).

Yeah, so nothing is perfect - no biggie.  This time Craptana really p!ssed me off - I get something like this about once everyday where “that ain’t right”.  If KoMoDo / Active State could pull the head out for a bit I would GLADLY throw down $.  I was getting ready to spend when I noticed that things are getting worse.

A project pulled me to Eclipse - well - nothing is perfect!

Oh well, back to Dreamweaver…lol

Battery Life: Weak.  Pretty damn weak.  Tolerable however…

POP and IMAP support: Solid and configurable.

Calculator : Weak.

Importing yor contacts:  There is a function to import your SIM card contacts.  Don’t put too much faitin in that function, but it seem to ‘do the tirck’.  As for working with google - HAH!  Don’t waste your time.  The CSV format in and out of Gmail is fukt. No bueno / waste of time.

Listening to MP3 from the web (pulling link to player like you do with Winamp): Possible / works fine.  If you hiccup everything resets.  This behavior is much like Winamp.

Android store:  Nice - mostly free. So far impressed.  Found a Facebook app (real mice), FTP handler, a few streaming audio players (don’t get the Last FM, they can suck it).  There is a shoutcast one that provides support for dinamo - Very happy.  I don’t know if there is a non-G1 version of the store.  It would certainly help people know what is up.

Here is what I found: DriodFtp - not tested, prolly works fine. PAC-MAN by namco - nice! StreamFurious - pls player (shout cast player) - way cool, ran over 1 hour of music no problem on 3G.  System Monitor - shows the system hap’s. fBook - facebook client - nice. AntPlayer - nice streaming player using StreamFurious more however.

Pac-man:  Nice free version.

Sys ops: found  a sluggish but GOOD system monitor. See above for name.

Operation and ergonomics:  It takes about 4 hours to get the “feel” of how this works (if you are tech savvy).  Once you are there everything on the phone opens up.  Ultimately you start to sense that google (or who ever) really did a lot of UI design work.  It shows, very nice.

Selecting text: Not so much.  This is on the horizon.  Big fail.

Bluetooth:  Works.  No surprises or epic fails.

Wireless: Same as bluetooth.

Browser: Nice, good job.  Supports pop-ups, javascript, ajax, and as far as I can tell web 2.0 (no Flash yet). I dropped by the Jquery site and all the demos worked.  There are still some corners needing further play, but solid.

Opera browser: On the other hand, for G1, was a super piece of sh!t.  Ouch, embarrassing.  Don’t go there.

GPS: works.  No surprises.

Calendar: Uhh, can’t get another one added yet.  Suspecting operator error.

So for those of you you just got an Android / G1 this may help you kill those first 24 hours of waiting for the thing to work.  This is all about the initial T-Mobile Google Android G1 initial set up instructions not in the manual.

So here are a few things to know:

• 24-48 hours before you can do anything
• T-mobile Instructions have a gap, this is covered here
• Reminder - you will need a Gmail account

So, you get your G1 / Android / G-phone and T-Mobile politely pushes you out the door.  (Maybe your local T-Mobile store(s) don’t suck , but here in Denver they are mostly Jack-offs)

The big question I had was the order of things I needed to do.  Two hurdles - first get on the network and second get the Gmail account attached.  What is the order? This is the order:

1. Get on network
2. then you can get your Gmail account attached

That was the largest WTF for me.

I got my phone at 7pm Friday and was able to get online / on-network at 1pm Saturday.  It could be faster for you, probably not.

The big stumper was the network.  The “4 bars” is not enough.  You will see the 4 bars from initial turn on - my guess is that when your phone sees the network this lights up.

This is what the “bars” look like: - the white or brighter lines represent your quality of connection. The example image is 2 bars of a possible 4.  Hope that clarifies.

This really means nothing - providing you are on a 3G network.  You will need to see the 3G icon, it will appear to the left of the bars and look more or less like this: . Mine is a little different, not too much.

In order to register your Gmail / email account and get the whole thing started you will need a persistent 3G indicator to the left of the 4 bars.  This will NOT happen on its own.  I was warned that the G1s all drop 3G, more on that in a bit.  Until you get this thing working you will need to pop the battery in and out to reset your connection and seek out 3G.  The 3G-ness was NOT happening on it’s own and the phone does not find 3G on its own well (if at all).  I suspected this was an issue so I was following this ‘hard reset’ protocol of battery in and out.  It worked, there in the parking lot of the mall I get a solid and persistent 3G indicator.  From there I was FINALLY able to enter my Gmail address.

Now you can go on about your business like the instruction books says.  I have filled in the huge WTF gap.  Hope all of that helps!

Now for some day one tips:

• Yes - this thing drops off the network (3G) - I was warned by a T-Mobile manager.  The secret is to turn “airplane mode” on and off.  The will kill your tower connection and reset it.  I have already had to do this once for day one.  Watch for the 3G icon to vanish.
• Don’t go to the T-Mobile site for help.
• I was told that there is nothing “fancy” you need for screen protection (recommended).  As long as it is cool for touch screen you should be fine (don’t quote me on that stuff…, your own risk with and with out)
• Get a case and use it.

All I have from day one.  Good luck, now some bullets on BBerry:

• Blackberry software is SOOOOOO weak.  Took 6 hours for me to switch from one Blackberry to another.  This was the 5th time I have made this struggle.
• The RIM USB driver locked up ALL USB Drivers (never have ever seen this happen on a box, EVER!). Had to reboot, but that even failed so the laptop had to get a force quit holding the power button down (thx RIM)
• Exporting to ASCII took a while.  Yes - it is easy, but that easiness is only available after you go through the procedure.
• Several calls to “look in the help file” either linked wrong or turned up no results.
• Good: the RIM software can be downloaded English only at ~80mb instead of the usual 120+mb.  Wow - talk about thin-ware……lol
• Here’s a killer.  My wife get my Blackberry Curve as an upgrade from her Pearl.  So we had some moving to do.  The ‘transfer from one BB to another’ option SUCKS!  All my settings were left behind, my password keeper stayed untouched, all my PW protected applications were set up for me.  OMFG! Imagine if you are a boss upgrading and giving your phone to an employee - can you say security hole.  Now there probably is a place to nuke that stuff, I looked.  Nothing, don’t flame on where that is…just disappointed.
• Overall Blackberry experience is getting weaker every time I go there.  If you need Exchange your fukd.  If not, get far far away from Blackberry.

Enough ranting.  To summarize - G1 is fun toy, Blackberry is losing, and one day I will have GPS implanted in my ass.

Apple sucks.

[having] critical vulnerabilities in this software during its beta period, all of which were unfixed at release time

I think we have all been there.  That is what gets people fired, forces a leave, and begins new companies.  I like this quote also:

form a toxic soup of potential vulnerabilities that can coalesce into broad insecurity

As a reminder, chrome is built on (and sometimes I think abandoned on) the Apple (now open source) Webkit.  I stumbled upon this via Ars Technica here.